# PC-BSD: issue installing SCFB driver



## pwdr (Oct 20, 2016)

Note: thread created at request of dch to better reflect the nature of the issue.

MacBook Pro 13" Retina (Intel Iris Graphics 6100) trying to boot into PC-BSD Live USB key. The boot goes fine except that xorg won't launch (as expected, given this thread).

It seems dch is having luck using scfb but I can't get it to work. I followed directions the FreeBSD Wiki directions at https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/SCFB but can't install pkg as no active repositories are configured. The Answer at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40080493/no-active-remote-repositories-configured suggests configuring /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf, which I have done. The last line was 
	
	



```
enabled: no
```
 so I amended it to read 
	
	



```
enabled: yes
```
mkdir goes fine but wget can't resolve http://geocoding.io/images/2016/02/pkg.freebsd.org.2013102301

I've tried installing scfb as per the Wiki but again, repos can't be found (pkgs can't be updated).

First question: is this a wild goose chase I'm on or is this going to get scfb working?
Second question: how do I resolve the geocoding link?
Third question: I assume when I shutdown these settings will be lost? If so, how can I make them stick so I can reuse the Live USB?

Thanks!


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## SirDice (Oct 20, 2016)

PC-BSD, FreeNAS, NAS4Free, and all other FreeBSD Derivatives


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## tingo (Oct 20, 2016)

For the "can't resolve" issue; does it help if you ping the host first? Ie.

```
ping geocoding.io
wget http://geo...
```


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## pwdr (Oct 21, 2016)

tingo said:


> For the "can't resolve" issue; does it help if you ping the host first? Ie.
> 
> ```
> ping geocoding.io
> ...



Unfortunately not. At first I realised I hadn't initiated wifi so I rebooted, connected to wifi, then booted to the PC-BSD USB. Same issue.

```
ping geocoding.io
```
returns:

```
ping: cannot resolve geocoding.io: Host name lookup failure
```
while

```
wget http://geo...
```
returns:

```
Resolving geocoding.io (geocoding.io)... failed: Non-recoverable failure in name resolution
wget: unable to resolve host address 'geocoding.io'
```


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## tingo (Oct 21, 2016)

Ok. Can you ping IP addresses at all? For example the ip address of your router, or another machine on your LAN?


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## pwdr (Oct 21, 2016)

tingo said:


> Ok. Can you ping IP addresses at all? For example the ip address of your router, or another machine on your LAN?


Thanks for the help, but I've decided to kill the PC-BSD Live USB idea (I only wanted to try it to get a Desktop BSD going with minimal hassle, that clearly isn't working).

I've installed FreeBSD11 to another USB key (proper install, not Live) and I may have found the problem. I've got the basic installation done and created a new user but, during setup, I couldn't set any ipv4 interfaces (none were presented as an option). It looks like it's a wireless adapter driver issue? I have a Broadcom BCM43xx and I understand that there are problems with these as Broadcom don't release the source.

As I'm booting from the USB key and can't get onto a network I can't download any further packages/ports!

I'll pick up a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter when I can and try again, but it looks like it's on hold until then.

Edit: following on from another thread in which dch mentions the Edimax wireless adapter, I looked up the Edimax EW-7711MAC for compatibility. I noticed this on the FreeBSD 11 Hardware Information page:



> The bwi(4) driver supports Broadcom BCM43xx based wireless devices, including:
> 
> 
> Apple Airport Extreme
> ...



So I wonder why the driver doesn't run when FreeBSD explicitly states it should?

(Before I reboot AGAIN!  do you think it would be successful if I edit /boot/loader.rc to include `if_bwn_load="YES"` as suggested at man bwn4()?


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## tingo (Oct 22, 2016)

What does `# kldstat` say? Is if_bwn loaded?
If not, you can try to load it with `# kldload if_bwn` and see if that changes anything.


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## pwdr (Oct 22, 2016)

I'll try it some time but not right now. I still have the USB but actually decided to try a VirtualBox first then transfer it to the USB key.


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## dch (Oct 25, 2016)

IMO this is all network related. Get the standard Apple thunderbolt -> GB Ethernet dongle, plug it in & then boot up, and try the install or packages again. It should just work. The broadcom NIC stuff is very likely hit & miss -- my MBP here doesn't work with the built in one, nor does one of the 2 USB thumb ones I picked up.

What has worked is https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY but *not* the AC450 model. Good luck!


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