# Macbook pro 11,3 hardware info



## bcomputerguy (Sep 15, 2016)

I wanted to create this thread as someone with a Macbook Pro 11,3 and try to get everything working as far as a laptop is concerned. 

That means; suspend and wake up, internal wifi, keyboard backlight, function keys, power management to get decent battery life and on this device the internal speakers, hdmi sound etc.


So far I have with the help of shepper gotten the headphone jack to work, so now my audio is playing via some external speakers. I have a wifi dongle TP-Link TL-WDN3200 that just works.

I took the broadcomm wifi chip out of this machine because their support is pretty lame. I do not know what type of connect that chip uses to connect to the MBP motherboard. I can upload some pictures, I would like help figuring out what type of mobile wifi chips that I can use internally to avoid having this dongle.

Here is a pastebin of the command running 
	
	



```
sysctl dev.
```
 http://paste2.org/mWmFjjsF

here's the current pciconf -lv

```
hostb0@pci0:0:0:0: class=0x060000 card=0x012f106b chip=0x0d048086 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'Crystal Well DRAM Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
pcib1@pci0:0:1:0: class=0x060400 card=0x012f106b chip=0x0d018086 rev=0x08 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'Crystal Well PCI Express x16 Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib2@pci0:0:1:1: class=0x060400 card=0x012f106b chip=0x0d058086 rev=0x08 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'Crystal Well PCI Express x8 Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
xhci0@pci0:0:20:0: class=0x0c0330 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c318086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
none0@pci0:0:22:0: class=0x078000 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c3a8086 rev=0x04 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller'
class = simple comms
hdac1@pci0:0:27:0: class=0x040300 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c208086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller'
class = multimedia
subclass = HDA
pcib3@pci0:0:28:0: class=0x060400 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c108086 rev=0xd5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib4@pci0:0:28:3: class=0x060400 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c168086 rev=0xd5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib5@pci0:0:28:4: class=0x060400 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c188086 rev=0xd5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
isab0@pci0:0:31:0: class=0x060100 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c4b8086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'HM87 Express LPC Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-ISA
none1@pci0:0:31:3: class=0x0c0500 card=0x72708086 chip=0x8c228086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller'
class = serial bus
subclass = SMBus
vgapci0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x030000 card=0x0130106b chip=0x0fe910de rev=0xa1 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
device = 'GK107M [GeForce GT 750M Mac Edition]'
class = display
subclass = VGA
hdac0@pci0:1:0:1: class=0x040300 card=0x0130106b chip=0x0e1b10de rev=0xa1 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
device = 'GK107 HDMI Audio Controller'
class = multimedia
subclass = HDA
none2@pci0:3:0:0: class=0x048000 card=0x157014e4 chip=0x157014e4 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = '720p FaceTime HD Camera'
class = multimedia
ahci0@pci0:4:0:0: class=0x010601 card=0x00000000 chip=0x1600144d rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Samsung Electronics Co Ltd'
device = 'Apple PCIe SSD'
class = mass storage
subclass = SATA
```


I'll go through the steps of trying to get everything configured correctly and update this post.

If anyone have any experience, tips, anything that could help getting any of these devices to work properly or need any more information about this system just make a post here.


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 15, 2016)

With this current setup after a full charge and disconnecting from the charger I am getting an estimate 1:45 charge.






There's a lot of optimizations to be made.


----------



## SirDice (Sep 15, 2016)

bcomputerguy said:


> I took the broadcomm wifi chip out of this machine because their support is pretty lame. I do not know what type of connect that chip uses to connect to the MBP motherboard.


These are typically PCIe mini cards and are fairly good exchangeable for some other brand/type of card (It's really just a miniature version of the PCIe bus). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_Mini_Card



> I would like help figuring out what type of mobile wifi chips that I can use internally to avoid having this dongle.


I don't have much experience with these cards but Atheros based Wifi cards in general work pretty good. Although you may have some problems with the very latest chipsets, support for them may not have been added yet. Cards that are slightly older and have been sold for a while will have a higher likelyhood of being supported.


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 15, 2016)

SirDice said:


> These are typically PCIe mini cards and are fairly good exchangeable for some other brand/type of card (It's really just a miniature version of the PCIe bus).
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_Mini_Card
> 
> ...



I think you are right about this wifi card being a mini pcie chip. These have three spots for antenna lines. Now I can start looking for a replacement chip.


----------



## shepper (Sep 15, 2016)

I would look for an ralink mini-pci card for the following reason:  ralink released their card specifications as open source while the atheros hal component is a binary blob.  In FreeBSD, both cards work well but the ralink card will function better if you decide to use an OS that is fully Open Source.


----------



## shepper (Sep 15, 2016)

Another caution:  Some laptop manufacturer's have placed hardware restrictions in the BIOS.  Only certain types of hardware, usually purchased from the laptop manufacturer at 2 to 3 times retail, will be recognized.  Levono and HP are now doing this - I would not be surprised if Apple also restricts the hardware that you can use on their platforms.


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 15, 2016)

shepper said:


> Another caution:  Some laptop manufacturer's have placed hardware restrictions in the BIOS.  Only certain types of hardware, usually purchased from the laptop manufacturer at 2 to 3 times retail, will be recognized.  Levono and HP are now doing this - I would not be surprised if Apple also restricts the hardware that you can use on their platforms.



This is crazy, I had no idea they'd do something like that but thank you for the heads up. I will keep that in mind. 



shepper said:


> Another caution:  Some laptop manufacturer's have placed hardware restrictions in the BIOS.  Only certain types of hardware, usually purchased from the laptop manufacturer at 2 to 3 times retail, will be recognized.  Levono and HP are now doing this - I would not be surprised if Apple also restricts the hardware that you can use on their platforms.



This is also insane news considering I was planning on either getting the Lenovo p50 or the new hp with similar specs but since I already decided to rip this macbook apart and make something usable I decided to stick with it. Especially since there's nothing that much more powerful than this on the market now.

If I run into those bios with restrictions; something that I came across recently was the idea of open source bios. Something like libreboot, coreboot or openbios. Could those be another option to flash on the bios to totally open up the hardware?


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 15, 2016)

Doing some more research I am trying to see how to lower power consumption among other things. Here is an output of my 
	
	



```
sysctl hw.
```


```
hw.machine: amd64
hw.model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4850HQ CPU @ 2.30GHz
hw.ncpu: 8
hw.byteorder: 1234
hw.physmem: 17046851584
hw.usermem: 16152162304
hw.pagesize: 4096
hw.floatingpoint: 1
hw.machine_arch: amd64
hw.realmem: 17179869184
hw.nvidia.gpus.0.type: PCIe
hw.nvidia.gpus.0.uuid: GPU-aad19074-b4ca-4f68-64d5-fea8bf55162d
hw.nvidia.gpus.0.vbios: 80.07.c7.04.01
hw.nvidia.gpus.0.irq: 270
hw.nvidia.gpus.0.model: GeForce GT 750M
hw.nvidia.registry.dwords:
hw.nvidia.registry.UseThreadedInterrupts: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.TCEBypassMode: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.MemoryPoolSize: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.EnablePCIeGen3: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.CheckPCIConfigSpace: 4294967295
hw.nvidia.registry.RegisterForACPIEvents: 1
hw.nvidia.registry.MapRegistersEarly: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.EnableMSI: 1
hw.nvidia.registry.UsePageAttributeTable: 4294967295
hw.nvidia.registry.InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations: 1
hw.nvidia.registry.UpdateMemoryTypes: 4294967295
hw.nvidia.registry.DeviceFileMode: 438
hw.nvidia.registry.DeviceFileGID: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.DeviceFileUID: 0
hw.nvidia.registry.ModifyDeviceFiles: 1
hw.nvidia.registry.RmLogonRC: 1
hw.nvidia.registry.ResmanDebugLevel: 4294967295
hw.nvidia.registry.Mobile: 4294967295
hw.nvidia.version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  367.44  Wed Aug 17 22:24:07 PDT 2016
hw.acpi.acline: 0
hw.acpi.battery.info_expire: 5
hw.acpi.battery.units: 1
hw.acpi.battery.state: 1
hw.acpi.battery.time: 443
hw.acpi.battery.life: 94
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: C8
hw.acpi.reset_video: 0
hw.acpi.handle_reboot: 1
hw.acpi.disable_on_reboot: 0
hw.acpi.verbose: 0
hw.acpi.s4bios: 0
hw.acpi.sleep_delay: 1
hw.acpi.suspend_state: S3
hw.acpi.standby_state: NONE
hw.acpi.lid_switch_state: NONE
hw.acpi.sleep_button_state: S3
hw.acpi.power_button_state: S5
hw.acpi.supported_sleep_state: S3 S4 S5
hw.mca.cmc_throttle: 60
hw.mca.force_scan: 0
hw.mca.interval: 3600
hw.mca.count: 0
hw.mca.erratum383: 0
hw.mca.intel6h_HSD131: 0
hw.mca.amd10h_L1TP: 1
hw.mca.enabled: 1
hw.apic.timer_tsc_deadline: 1
hw.apic.eoi_suppression: 1
hw.apic.x2apic_mode: 1
hw.apic.enable_extint: 0
hw.hv_vendor:
hw.clockrate: 2294
hw.via_feature_xcrypt: 0
hw.via_feature_rng: 0
hw.busdma.zone0.alignment: 4096
hw.busdma.zone0.lowaddr: 0xfffffffffffffff
hw.busdma.zone0.total_deferred: 0
hw.busdma.zone0.total_bounced: 0
hw.busdma.zone0.active_bpages: 0
hw.busdma.zone0.reserved_bpages: 0
hw.busdma.zone0.free_bpages: 8192
hw.busdma.zone0.total_bpages: 8192
hw.busdma.total_bpages: 8192
hw.dmar.batch_coalesce: 100
hw.dmar.match_verbose: 0
hw.dmar.tbl_pagecnt: 0
hw.nvd.delete_max: 1073741824
hw.hn.tx_swq_depth: 0
hw.hn.tx_ring_cnt: 0
hw.hn.chan_cnt: 0
hw.hn.use_if_start: 0
hw.hn.bind_tx_taskq: -1
hw.hn.use_txdesc_bufring: 1
hw.hn.share_tx_taskq: 0
hw.hn.lro_entry_count: 128
hw.hn.direct_tx_size: 128
hw.hn.tx_chimney_size: 0
hw.hn.tso_maxlen: 0
hw.hn.trust_hostip: 1
hw.hn.trust_hostudp: 1
hw.hn.trust_hosttcp: 1
hw.ixlv.tx_itr: 122
hw.ixlv.rx_itr: 62
hw.ixlv.dynamic_tx_itr: 0
hw.ixlv.dynamic_rx_itr: 0
hw.ixlv.txbr_size: 4096
hw.ixlv.max_queues: 0
hw.ixlv.ring_size: 1024
hw.ixl.tx_itr: 122
hw.ixl.rx_itr: 62
hw.ixl.dynamic_tx_itr: 1
hw.ixl.dynamic_rx_itr: 1
hw.ixl.shared_debug_mask: 0
hw.ixl.core_debug_mask: 0
hw.ixl.enable_tx_fc_filter: 1
hw.ixl.max_queues: 0
hw.ixl.ring_size: 1024
hw.ixl.enable_msix: 1
hw.bxe.udp_rss: 0
hw.bxe.autogreeen: 0
hw.bxe.mrrs: -1
hw.bxe.max_aggregation_size: 0
hw.bxe.rx_budget: -1
hw.bxe.hc_tx_ticks: 50
hw.bxe.hc_rx_ticks: 25
hw.bxe.max_rx_bufs: 0
hw.bxe.queue_count: 4
hw.bxe.interrupt_mode: 2
hw.bxe.debug: 0
hw.psm.tap_timeout: 125000
hw.psm.tap_threshold: 25
hw.psm.tap_enabled: -1
hw.instruction_sse: 1
hw.bus.devctl_queue: 1000
hw.bus.devctl_disable: 0
hw.pagesizes: 4096 2097152 0
hw.availpages: 4161829
hw.intr_storm_threshold: 1000
hw.xbd.xbd_enable_indirect: 1
hw.wi.debug: 0
hw.wi.txerate: 0
hw.watchdog.wd_last_u_secs: 0
hw.watchdog.wd_last_u: 0
hw.vtnet.rx_process_limit: 512
hw.vtnet.mq_max_pairs: 8
hw.vtnet.mq_disable: 0
hw.vtnet.lro_disable: 0
hw.vtnet.tso_disable: 0
hw.vtnet.csum_disable: 0
hw.usb.run.debug: 0
hw.usb.wsp.scr_hor_threshold: 20
hw.usb.wsp.pressure_tap_threshold: 120
hw.usb.wsp.pressure_untouch_threshold: 10
hw.usb.wsp.pressure_touch_threshold: 50
hw.usb.wsp.z_factor: 5
hw.usb.wsp.scale_factor: 12
hw.usb.wsp.debug: 1
hw.usb.ukbd.pollrate: 0
hw.usb.ukbd.no_leds: 0
hw.usb.ukbd.debug: 0
hw.usb.full_ddesc: 0
hw.usb.no_cs_fail: 0
hw.usb.proc.debug: 0
hw.usb.disable_port_power: 0
hw.usb.disable_enumeration: 0
hw.usb.power_timeout: 30
hw.usb.uhub.debug: 0
hw.usb.ugen.debug: 0
hw.usb.usb_lang_mask: 255
hw.usb.usb_lang_id: 9
hw.usb.template: 0
hw.usb.dev.debug: 0
hw.usb.timings.extra_power_up_time: 20
hw.usb.timings.resume_recovery: 50
hw.usb.timings.resume_wait: 50
hw.usb.timings.resume_delay: 250
hw.usb.timings.set_address_settle: 10
hw.usb.timings.port_resume_delay: 40
hw.usb.timings.port_powerup_delay: 300
hw.usb.timings.port_reset_recovery: 250
hw.usb.timings.port_root_reset_delay: 200
hw.usb.timings.port_reset_delay: 50
hw.usb.debug: 0
hw.usb.umass.throttle: 0
hw.usb.umass.debug: 0
hw.usb.no_shutdown_wait: 0
hw.usb.no_suspend_wait: 0
hw.usb.no_boot_wait: 0
hw.usb.ctrl.debug: 0
hw.usb.xhci.dma32: 0
hw.usb.xhci.use_polling: 0
hw.usb.xhci.xhci_port_route: 0
hw.usb.xhci.debug: 0
hw.usb.xhci.streams: 0
hw.usb.uhci.loop: 0
hw.usb.uhci.debug: 0
hw.usb.ohci.debug: 0
hw.usb.ehci.lostintrbug: 0
hw.usb.ehci.iaadbug: 0
hw.usb.ehci.no_hs: 0
hw.usb.ehci.debug: 0
hw.broken_txfifo: 0
hw.syscons.sc_no_suspend_vtswitch: 0
hw.syscons.kbd_debug: 1
hw.syscons.kbd_reboot: 1
hw.syscons.bell: 1
hw.syscons.saver.keybonly: 1
hw.midi.seq.debug: 0
hw.midi.instroff: 0
hw.midi.dumpraw: 0
hw.midi.debug: 0
hw.midi.stat.verbose: 0
hw.snd.maxautovchans: 16
hw.snd.default_unit: 4
hw.snd.version: 2009061500/amd64
hw.snd.default_auto: 0
hw.snd.verbose: 0
hw.snd.vpc_mixer_bypass: 1
hw.snd.feeder_rate_quality: 1
hw.snd.feeder_rate_round: 25
hw.snd.feeder_rate_max: 2016000
hw.snd.feeder_rate_min: 1
hw.snd.feeder_rate_polyphase_max: 183040
hw.snd.feeder_rate_presets: 100:8:0.85 100:36:0.92 100:164:0.97
hw.snd.feeder_eq_exact_rate: 0
hw.snd.feeder_eq_presets: PEQ:16000,0.2500,62,0.2500:-9,9,1.0:44100,48000,88200,96000,176400,192000
hw.snd.basename_clone: 1
hw.snd.compat_linux_mmap: 0
hw.snd.syncdelay: -1
hw.snd.usefrags: 0
hw.snd.vpc_reset: 0
hw.snd.vpc_0db: 45
hw.snd.vpc_autoreset: 1
hw.snd.timeout: 5
hw.snd.latency_profile: 1
hw.snd.latency: 5
hw.snd.report_soft_matrix: 1
hw.snd.report_soft_formats: 1
hw.sdhci.enable_msi: 1
hw.sdhci.debug: 0
hw.puc.msi_disable: 0
hw.pci.host_mem_start: 2147483648
hw.pci.mcfg: 1
hw.pci.default_vgapci_unit: -1
hw.pci.enable_pcie_hp: 1
hw.pci.clear_pcib: 0
hw.pci.iov_max_config: 1048576
hw.pci.enable_ari: 1
hw.pci.clear_buses: 0
hw.pci.clear_bars: 0
hw.pci.usb_early_takeover: 1
hw.pci.honor_msi_blacklist: 1
hw.pci.enable_msix: 1
hw.pci.enable_msi: 1
hw.pci.do_power_suspend: 1
hw.pci.do_power_resume: 1
hw.pci.do_power_nodriver: 0
hw.pci.realloc_bars: 0
hw.pci.enable_io_modes: 1
hw.pcic.pd6722_vsense: 1
hw.pcic.intr_mask: 57016
hw.cbb.debug: 0
hw.cbb.start_32_io: 4096
hw.cbb.start_16_io: 256
hw.cbb.start_memory: 2281701376
hw.pccard.cis_debug: 0
hw.pccard.debug: 0
hw.mwl.rxdmalow: 3
hw.mwl.rxquota: 640
hw.mwl.txcoalesce: 8
hw.mwl.txbuf: 256
hw.mwl.rxbuf: 640
hw.mwl.rxdesc: 256
hw.mmc.debug: 0
hw.mfi.mrsas_enable: 0
hw.mfi.msi: 1
hw.mfi.cmd_timeout: 30
hw.mfi.polled_cmd_timeout: 60
hw.mfi.detect_jbod_change: 1
hw.mfi.max_cmds: 128
hw.mfi.event_class: 0
hw.mfi.event_locale: 65535
hw.malo.pci.msi_disable: 0
hw.malo.txbuf: 256
hw.malo.rxquota: 256
hw.malo.rxbuf: 256
hw.malo.txcoalesce: 8
hw.kbd.keymap_restrict_change: 0
hw.ix.rxd: 2048
hw.ix.txd: 2048
hw.ix.num_queues: 0
hw.ix.enable_msix: 1
hw.ix.advertise_speed: 0
hw.ix.flow_control: 3
hw.ix.tx_process_limit: 256
hw.ix.rx_process_limit: 256
hw.ix.max_interrupt_rate: 31250
hw.ix.enable_aim: 1
hw.igb.tx_process_limit: -1
hw.igb.rx_process_limit: 100
hw.igb.num_queues: 0
hw.igb.header_split: 0
hw.igb.buf_ring_size: 4096
hw.igb.max_interrupt_rate: 8000
hw.igb.enable_msix: 1
hw.igb.enable_aim: 1
hw.igb.txd: 1024
hw.igb.rxd: 1024
hw.em.eee_setting: 1
hw.em.rx_process_limit: 100
hw.em.enable_msix: 1
hw.em.sbp: 0
hw.em.smart_pwr_down: 0
hw.em.txd: 1024
hw.em.rxd: 1024
hw.em.rx_abs_int_delay: 66
hw.em.tx_abs_int_delay: 66
hw.em.rx_int_delay: 0
hw.em.tx_int_delay: 66
hw.em.disable_crc_stripping: 0
hw.cardbus.cis_debug: 0
hw.cardbus.debug: 0
hw.bge.allow_asf: 1
hw.bce.rx_ticks: 18
hw.bce.rx_ticks_int: 18
hw.bce.rx_quick_cons_trip: 6
hw.bce.rx_quick_cons_trip_int: 6
hw.bce.tx_ticks: 80
hw.bce.tx_ticks_int: 80
hw.bce.tx_quick_cons_trip: 20
hw.bce.tx_quick_cons_trip_int: 20
hw.bce.strict_rx_mtu: 0
hw.bce.hdr_split: 1
hw.bce.tx_pages: 2
hw.bce.rx_pages: 2
hw.bce.msi_enable: 1
hw.bce.tso_enable: 1
hw.bce.verbose: 1
hw.ath.bstuck: 4
hw.ath.txbuf_mgmt: 32
hw.ath.txbuf: 512
hw.ath.rxbuf: 512
hw.ath.anical: 100
hw.ath.resetcal: 1200
hw.ath.shortcal: 100
hw.ath.longcal: 30
hw.ata.ata_dma_check_80pin: 1
hw.an.an_cache_iponly: 1
hw.an.an_cache_mcastonly: 0
hw.an.an_cache_mode: dbm
hw.an.an_dump: off
hw.amr.force_sg32: 0
hw.aac.enable_msi: 1
```

I was looking for the video settings from hw.acpi to handle the brightness but I didn't see it.


```
hw.acpi.acline: 0
hw.acpi.battery.info_expire: 5
hw.acpi.battery.units: 1
hw.acpi.battery.state: 1
hw.acpi.battery.time: 410
hw.acpi.battery.life: 93
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: C8
hw.acpi.reset_video: 0
hw.acpi.handle_reboot: 1
hw.acpi.disable_on_reboot: 0
hw.acpi.verbose: 0
hw.acpi.s4bios: 0
hw.acpi.sleep_delay: 1
hw.acpi.suspend_state: S3
hw.acpi.standby_state: NONE
hw.acpi.lid_switch_state: NONE
hw.acpi.sleep_button_state: S3
hw.acpi.power_button_state: S5
hw.acpi.supported_sleep_state: S3 S4 S5
```

I am also unplugged atm and it was initially showing 8 hour battery time left but it dropped down to 5:31 I will just play a video and see how long the battery will last.


----------



## shepper (Sep 16, 2016)

bcomputerguy said:


> If I run into those bios with restrictions; something that I came across recently was the idea of open source bios. Something like libreboot, coreboot or openbios.



For a desktop, if you build your own, you will get a more friendly bios and be able to pick your components so that they are well supported by the Operating System you choose.  Given the sound configuration problems you are facing in another thread, it should be obvious why this would make your life easier.

For laptops it is a little more challenging.  The intel and amd based Levono's are popular with the OpenBSD developers. (they eat what they kill)  Even though the BIOS is picky the hardware itself is Open Source Friendly.  Asus, MSI and Acer laptops, at this time and as far as I know, do not have the bios restrictions.


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 16, 2016)

shepper said:


> For a desktop, if you build your own, you will get a more friendly bios and be able to pick your components so that they are well supported by the Operating System you choose.  Given the sound configuration problems you are facing in another thread, it should be obvious why this would make your life easier.
> 
> For laptops it is a little more challenging.  The intel and amd based Levono's are popular with the OpenBSD developers. (they eat what they kill)  Even though the BIOS is picky the hardware itself is Open Source Friendly.  Asus, MSI and Acer laptops, at this time and as far as I know, do not have the bios restrictions.



I was seriously looking at the MSI G63VR it has a mobile 1060 in there. I would prefer an AMD Polaris GPU but for now I'll hold off and see.

Right now I am learning a lot about the system both hardware and software and how they work together.


----------



## bcomputerguy (Sep 29, 2016)

Moving onto my keyboard setup.

my xorg.conf in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf looks like this:


```
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 367.35

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Layout0"
    Screen 0 "Screen0"
    InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
    Identifier "Mouse0"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "auto"
    Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "Unknown"
    HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
    Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection
```

I tried writing a keyboard.conf and putting it inside my 
	
	



```
/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/keyboard.conf
```
with contents like this:


when my computer restarts running
setxkbmap -v outputs this


```
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes: xfree86+aliases(qwerty)
types: complete
compat: complete
symbols: pc+us+inet(pc105)
geometry: pc(pc105)
```

but I setup my keyboard.conf to look like this


```
Section "InputDevice"
     Identifier "Keyboard0"
     Driver "kbd"
     Option "XkbModel" "mackbook79"
     Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
     Option "XkbLayout" "us, tw"
     Option "XkbOptions" "grp:lalt_toggle"
EndSection
```

My keyboard looks like this




The keyboard.conf settings doesn't seem to be sticking when the machine restarts but if I use setxkbmap at runtime the settings stick.

Also, since I started messing around with these keyboard layouts and things; now copy paste doesn't work in the terminal.

If you look at the image of the keyboard above, I was able to use the control + option keys with c or v to copy and paste. Now those key bindings no longer work.


----------



## Atsuri (Oct 28, 2016)

That's a nice keyboard! Never saw one with Kana symbols . Did you maybe check my post in your other thread regarding sound through the speakers? I and another FreeBSD user managed to address the problem successfully on some legacy Apple hardware. Maybe it's worth a try and you can then link it here or re-post .


----------



## bcomputerguy (Nov 2, 2016)

Atsuri said:


> That's a nice keyboard! Never saw one with Kana symbols . Did you maybe check my post in your other thread regarding sound through the speakers? I and another FreeBSD user managed to address the problem successfully on some legacy Apple hardware. Maybe it's worth a try and you can then link it here or re-post .



It's not Kana but something called 注音字母 and 倉頡輸入法.


----------



## QdK (Nov 18, 2016)

To get brightness working and to disable the dGPU - which should help a lot wrt battery life -, perhaps this thread might help: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/58518/


----------

