# New Laptop - Which to buy?



## BSDUser (Mar 2, 2019)

Hi guys. After four years of use, my Dell xps 13 9333 left me. Assistance has diagnosed breaking the motherboard. The cost is around 800 euros to repair it. Better to buy another model. The new Dell xps 13 Wiskey Lake is beautiful, I like it but I think that for a person who writes a lot, he needs a better keyboard and track pad.
My choice is between Dell Latitude 7490 and Lenovo x1 Carbon (sixth generation). Advice? Are both models compatible with FreeBSD? I love BSD but hardware support is annoying.
Thank you all


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## longimanus (Mar 2, 2019)

Can't speak for the X1 carbon but a T480 just worked out of the box using 12-RELEASE-p3


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## trev (Mar 2, 2019)

There's a laptop support matrix on the FreeBSD Wiki - see https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops/


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## linux->bsd (Mar 3, 2019)

Recently bought an X1 Carbon sixth edition. Works great (WiFi included) running 11.2-RELEASE. Takes a bit of hacking to get everything working, but that's part of the charm of FreeBSD.


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## BSDUser (Mar 3, 2019)

trev said:


> There's a laptop support matrix on the FreeBSD Wiki - see https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops/


I know it exists but not for all models. The dell latitude 7490 is not there. In addition to the table of compability I was also hoping for a review of people who own these laptops. However, I see more compatibility for Lenovo.


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## jrm@ (Mar 3, 2019)

I am not a X1 Carbon (6th generation) owner, but I recall during a video meeting that an owner said it was well supported out of the box. I don't remember whether he said he was running 13-CURRENT, 12.0, or a FreeBSD-derivative. I will try to get confirmation and report back.


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## jrm@ (Mar 3, 2019)

The user said everything worked fine, but if you have an NVME disk, then you have to UEFI boot. He was running 12-CURRENT before the 12.0 release, so 12.0 should be fine.


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## BSDUser (Mar 3, 2019)

jrm@ said:


> The user said everything worked fine, but if you have an NVME disk, then you have to UEFI boot. He was running 12-CURRENT before the 12.0 release, so 12.0 should be fine.


Thank you jrm for answers. I was reading on the web that the 1920x1080 display of x1 carbon is not very bright compared to dell. They recommend taking the display wqhd hdr. It's true? Jrm can you  ask the owner of x1? Tomorrow I should make the order and I'm still undecided .... uffff !!!


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## jrm@ (Mar 4, 2019)

Some more information from a different X1 user.

"I have an X1 and it is generally well supported by 12.0.  If you use ZFS, then suspend and resume over nvme is ok. The one issue I’ve noticed is that you can’t control the volume of the keyboard beep with ‘mixer’ and after suspend/resume, sound seems to not work and the keyboard beep turns into a bit of static. The only other issue on my X1 is I have one with a 4K-type screen, so the text mode is hard to read. But in general I’m happy with my x1 in terms of being a FreeBSD laptop."


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## scottro (Mar 4, 2019)

As for text mode, I don't have experience with that model, but on my yoga2 which has a hires screen, I was able to fix text mode by adding 
	
	



```
kld_list="/boot/modules/i915kms.ko"
```
  to /etc/rc.conf and then adding 
	
	



```
kern.vt.fb.default_mode="800x600"
```
 to /boot/loader.conf


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## longimanus (Mar 4, 2019)

That last bit of code puts the default output to 800x600, rather than targeting the laptop screen itself. My 2560x1440 on a T480 screen left the writing too small as well but having loaded the drm-next I used dmesg | grep drm to find the relevant device and 
	
	



```
kern.vt.fb.modes.eDP-1="1920x1080"
```
 to loader.conf


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## BSDUser (Mar 5, 2019)

Hi guys, 
Dell gave me a very good offer for the new Dell xps 13 9380. I've been a great customer for years. Looking at the details have improved the keyboard and the trackpad. Compared to 9333 it is better. The problem is the wireless card that is not replaceable and it seems that the driver for the Killer 1435 802.11ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.1 card is not available. You can confirm? If I buy a usb-c to ethernet adapter, could I fix it or am I saying nonsense? I like Freebsd so much, I'm a programmer, I would like to develop some port or other


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## scottro (Mar 5, 2019)

USB to ethernet adapters have always worked for me on FreeBSD. The one thing to be careful of is the very cheap ones. They sometimes don't work, or they will give a very slow speed.  A lot of times, in my experience (In the US, getting from 3rd party vendors on Amazon) they come from Asia and if you email and say, this isn't working well, they'll send you a replacement without asking you to return the defective one, so I'm guessing they cost them very little to make. 

Again, my personal experience, talking about buying 2 or 3 of these, I found I was better off getting a moderately expensive one, say over $20.00.  Even if a wireless card is detected, I don't think FreeBSD can get 802.11ac speed on any of them, (though it will work with the card, the speed will be slower than it is on Linux) but my experience is only with one Intel card. You can also get USB to wireless adapters, but the speed will usually be slow, and if you can use the USB to ethernet, you're better off in my opinion.


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## trev (Mar 5, 2019)

scottro said:


> You can also get USB to wireless adapters



For Apple Mac minis with incompatible wireless chipsets, I've been using wireless "pocket routers" powered via USB, but data transfer via ethernet. See eg https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/B-LINK-...lient-WiFi-Repeater-150Mbps-I7D2/113520883264 (wireless N) and https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TP-Link...reless-Travel-Mini-Pocket-Router/253613536269 (wireless AC).


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## BSDUser (Mar 6, 2019)

Thank you all again for answers!
yesterday I made the order, the new dell xps 13 9380 should arrive next week .... I hope so!
However, I will have to buy a USB-C -> Ethernet adapter because there is not always a good wifi in the offices.
I'll take this from Dell





						Dell Adapter- USB-C to Ethernet (PXE Boot) | Dell USA
					

The Dell Adapter- USB-C to Ethernet (PXE Boot) enables you to add an Ethernet port using an existing USB-C input on your computer or desktop.



					www.dell.com
				



I hope that the network can work with this adapter in FreeBsd, with a device I solve two problems.
What do you think about it?


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## intothemild (Jul 1, 2019)

BSDUser said:


> yesterday I made the order, the new dell xps 13 9380 should arrive next week .... I hope so!


So how did it go?


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## BSDUser (Mar 16, 2020)

Hi guys, sorry if I answer after a long time ... In the end I bought the dell xps 9380 4k. 
I'll try it and let you know


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## balanga (Mar 16, 2020)

A couple of people here mentioned the X1  Carbon... can anyone tell if whether touchscreen can be enabled under FreeBSD?


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## BSDUser (Mar 16, 2020)

unfortunately the wifi, the touchscreen and the web cam do not work. I will wait until they are supported.


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## balanga (Mar 16, 2020)

BSDUser said:


> unfortunately the wifi,



I have 1st generation X1 and found getting wifi working was very easy.

`pciconf -lv` shows:-


> iwn0@pci0:3:0:0:    class=0x028000 card=0xc2208086 chip=0x00858086 rev=0x96 hdr=0x00
> vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
> device     = 'Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak]'
> class      = network



Have you checked https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html ?


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## Minbari (Mar 16, 2020)

balanga said:


> I have 1st generation X1 and found getting wifi working was very easy.
> 
> `pciconf -lv` shows:-
> 
> ...


That wifi adaptor is on Thinkpad T430 also but it's only working on 2.4 GHz. 5GHz is not working or has bad performances on FreeBSD, at least the wifi cards I tried.


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## georges (Mar 23, 2020)

longimanus said:


> Can't speak for the X1 carbon but a T480 just worked out of the box using 12-RELEASE-p3



I second this ... I also have T430 work out of the box running 12.1


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