# Installing a Graphics Drivers



## Kernan Mzelikahle (Jul 4, 2017)

Greetings
I have noticed that on my laptops when I install FreeBSD, almost always, I run using the VESA driver. The graphics is not so good. I have read threads that talk about using the xf86-video-intel driver, and at some point mention loading i915kms.ko module. But all this does not seem to work, largely because the instructions therein are broken and leave me hanging at the very least. Long story short, I think I do not quite understand the way these drivers are being handled. Can someone point me to some literature, web-site, book, etc that I can go through and get my head around this matter. The literature I am looking for may be summarized by asking the question this way: "How can I install and configure a graphics driver on FreeBSD 11.0?"

I am running on FreeBSD 11.0. Everything else is great.


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## SirDice (Jul 5, 2017)

Kernan Mzelikahle said:


> Can someone point me to some literature, web-site, book, etc that I can go through and get my head around this matter. The literature I am looking for may be summarized by asking the question this way: "How can I install and configure a graphics driver on FreeBSD 11.0?"


Handbook: 5.4. Xorg Configuration


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## scottro (Jul 5, 2017)

There is work being done on getting the Intel driver to work well, but so far, the only way to do it is to use CURRENT, then use the drm-next stuff.  I have a page on it at http://srobb.net/freebsdintel.html
There is also the possibility of using scfb.  https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/SCFB, but I think that only works if you are using uefi mode.


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## SirDice (Jul 5, 2017)

The Intel driver should work fine, it's only the newer GPU types (Broadwell and above) that aren't supported yet. 

Kernan Mzelikahle what kind of hardware do you have?


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## scottro (Jul 5, 2017)

Are you saying that Haswell should be supported?  Because it doesn't seem to be, though I haven't tried with 11.1-RC.  Definitely wasn't working on 11.0 on a yoga 2.

I'll have to try when I get home and can then update.  (Or maybe I just have odd hardware--it's a high resolution touchscreen which might add to the problems, though Linux handles it without much issue.)


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## SirDice (Jul 5, 2017)

scottro said:


> Are you saying that Haswell should be supported?  Because it doesn't seem to be, though I haven't tried with 11.1-RC.  Definitely wasn't working on 11.0 on a yoga 2.


According to the Wiki, yes.

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics#Intel_Graphics

Although I haven't tested it myself, I don't have the equipment. All my machines either run console only or have an NVidia card.


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## scottro (Jul 5, 2017)

I believe it's incorrect, then, but I only have one machine with a Haswell or later, the aforementioned yoga2.  These days (no insult to anyone, there simply isn't enough manpower) much of the FreeBSD documentation gets scattered between wiki and handbook and often seems out of date.  That mention of Haswell gives a link to another page, about an older drm-next, (from around March of last year) that never worked for me.
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/Update i915 GPU driver to Linux 3.8
To the OP, you can try that link, but the last listing of status I see is that it was in HEAD (CURRENT).   If you do try it, please put the results here, I'd be curious.

I do suspect that Haswell is not going to work with a standard FreeBSD-11 install, but can only say that it doesn't work with FreeBSD-11 on a Yoga2 Pro using a Haswell card.

Also at the bottom of the page they list known issues with Haswell, and that some have had my results, nothing but a blank screen.


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