# 2+1 questions



## symmetria.gop (Sep 24, 2020)

Hello to all.

I just install FreeBSD 13-Current and I am very happy for that. I would like to ask, if anyone knows, a couple of questions:

a) My (elan) touchpad does not work... is there any solution?
b) using the Fn keys I can increase/decrease volume but NOT the screen brightness. Any idea?

and a naive question (please, excuse me I am a newcomer)

c) is there any way to update the base system? I tried 

# freebsd-update fetch/install

with no luck.

Thank you all in advance!


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## Sevendogsbsd (Sep 24, 2020)

If you are a newcomer to FreeBSD, suggest you use a release branch, which is meant for production: 12.1-RELEASE. You can then easily do binary upgrades using the `freebsd-update` command.


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## scottro (Sep 24, 2020)

If using src  to do buildworld, I'm going to recommend Warren Block's quick guide to updating with source.  As has been said, in a case like this you're much better off using 12.1-RELEASE at present.  CURRENT, while it is a good way to see what will be coming is not supported on these forums, unless you can disguise your question as an I hate Linux thread, somehow. 
It also, as you've found, doesn't work with freebsd-update so takes more time to update.  Anyway, Mr. Block's guide is at 

http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/buildworld.html


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## T-Daemon (Sep 24, 2020)

Sevendogsbsd said:


> If you are a newcomer to FreeBSD, suggest you use a release branch, which is meant for production: 12.1-RELEASE. You can then easily do binary upgrades using the `freebsd-update` command.



The reason why *symmetria.gop* is using 13.0-CURRENT is because of his Ryzen 7 3700U Vega 10 GPU. That device runs for the time being only on that development branch.


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## T-Daemon (Sep 24, 2020)

@* symmetria.gop, *to update CURRENT is not so much a big deal, just follow the handbook:









						Chapter 25. Updating and Upgrading FreeBSD
					

Information about how to keep a FreeBSD system up-to-date with freebsd-update or Git, how to rebuild and reinstall the entire base system, etc




					www.freebsd.org
				




To reduce the build time for repedatly buildings apply the meta mode incremental build option:



			MetaMode - FreeBSD Wiki


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## Sevendogsbsd (Sep 24, 2020)

That wasn’t relayed in OPs post so I had no idea. Makes sense.


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## symmetria.gop (Sep 24, 2020)

@ T-Daemon:
You are amazing! Many thanks


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## Mjölnir (Sep 25, 2020)

I'd like to note that none of the moderators interfered because it's reasonable to ask about CURRENT in this case as an exeption.  Thank you!  This thread is _solved_? symmetria.gop: on 1st post: click "..."->edit thread->prefix: _solved_.


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## symmetria.gop (Sep 26, 2020)

mjollnir said:


> I'd like to note that none of the moderators interfered because it's reasonable to ask about CURRENT in this case as an exeption.  Thank you!  This thread is _solved_? symmetria.gop: on 1st post: click "..."->edit thread->prefix: _solved_.



Hello. Well, it is partially solved. The 2 first questions have not been answered.


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## T-Daemon (Sep 26, 2020)

Under normal circumstances FreeBSD CURRENT is unsupported here on Forums, Forum rules - Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions, and what is expected from users Tracking a Development Branch.

This thread is to give you a start, but don't be surprised when future threads regarding CURRENT are closed by a moderator. You can get help on freebsd-current@freebsd.org and/or freebsd-questions@freebsd.org lists.



symmetria.gop said:


> a) My (elan) touchpad does not work... is there any solution?


Try one of the search results for "elan elantech touchpad":








						Solved - Synaptics driver not loading (Elantech touchpad)
					

Hello!  I have been desperately trying to get two-finger scrolling working on my fresh FreeBSD installation.   Synaptics did the job for me back on GNU/Linux, so I went straight for synaptics on FreeBSD, except it does not seem to load no matter what I do and all the documentation I find on it...




					forums.freebsd.org
				



Other search results:





						elan elantech touchpad site:freebsd.org at DuckDuckGo
					






					html.duckduckgo.com
				





symmetria.gop said:


> b) using the Fn keys I can increase/decrease volume but NOT the screen brightness. Any idea?


Try acpi_video(4).  backlight(9) hasn't been committed yet to the CURRENT source tree, if you like you can follow the svn-src-head@freebsd.org mailing list to be informed when it is:





						⚙ D26250 Add backlight subsystem
					






					reviews.freebsd.org
				




Be advised, sometimes updating CURRENT may break the system, and it's expected from the user to know how to revert to a previous working state. Don't worry, if it's the case, it's not complicated.


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## Mjölnir (Sep 26, 2020)

Prelimininary: _Elan_ & _ElanTech_ are the same.  I don't know, I never had such.  I can only point you to

TouchPad: `echo hw.psm.elantech_support=\"1\" >>/boot/loader.conf` (or loader.conf.local)
`sysctl -d hw.psm` to see related sysctl(8) knobs (`hw.psm.tap_*`).
Very likely you need to run moused(8) with the `-l 2` flag: `sysrc moused_flags+=" -l 2"`.  RTFM psm(4) & moused(8) on that.
To activate the brightness keys, I have created a file /usr/local/etc/devd/acpi-video-intel-backlight.conf

```
notify 100 {
match "system" "ACPI";
match "subsystem" "Video";
match "type" "brightness";
action "/usr/local/bin/intel_backlight $notify";
};
```
Obviously, this only works if you can use an external utility like graphics/intel-backlight for your system.  IIRC this is not the only method.  You could ask on the mailing list <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>.  You have to subscribe before you can post (see @top of the forum page).
Maybe install the acpi_<vendor> kernel module for your system: e.g. `sysrc kld_list+=" acpi_ibm"` for IBM or Lenovo laptops. `ls /boot/kernel/acpi*`
Good luck & happy BSD'ing.


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## symmetria.gop (Sep 27, 2020)

T-Daemon said:


> Under normal circumstances FreeBSD CURRENT is unsupported here on Forums, Forum rules - Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions, and what is expected from users Tracking a Development Branch.
> 
> This thread is to give you a start, but don't be surprised when future threads regarding CURRENT are closed by a moderator. You can get help on freebsd-current@freebsd.org and/or freebsd-questions@freebsd.org lists.
> 
> ...



You are very kind and helpful. Most obliged.


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