# Installing FreeBSD in Asus F3Jr Laptop



## AlexVader (Sep 11, 2009)

Hi Forum

This is my first post here... so pardon me if i am not posting in the right section, of if my questions are overly noobish for FreBSD's standards... so, here it goes...  :

I come from the Linux world, where i am a power user of Debian 5.0 stable, been already through several distros:

Started several years ago, while still in University with RHEL 4.0, shifted to FC 4, went through the Fedoras, the Suses, the Ubuntus, and finally to the Debians, first with Etch, and now with Lenny.

I use Lenny with heavy number crunching applications, mainly for control analysis/synthesis/design, with Scilab/Octave/Freemat, Computational Fluid Dynamics with Code-Saturne/OpenFoam, as well as Finite Elements Analysis with Calculix/Code-Aster.

I also do DACE ( design and Analysis of computer experiments ) and Genetic/Evolutionary optimization of mechanical/Thermal systems.

I DO NOT USE PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE, for one practical, and one less practical, more "philosophical" reason, please correct me if i am wrong in my first statement...     :

1. proprietary software is by necessity less efficient than software compiled from free source code, because the compiling and linking ptions in proprietary software have all the emphasis in making all binaries less prone to reverse engineering, regardless of the quality/efficiency of the numerics algorithmics involved, while non-commercial/ research codes can be built with the sole objective of pure performance gains in thought... this issue is not critical when you run Ex=(&&%#$rer from Mi##$$@/ft Wi==Â¬Â½@ws to google for something...  but sure is critical when you perform the aeroelastic ( Fluid + Structural ) coupled optimization of a supersonic reconaissance drone in a given flight envelope using a genetic/evolutionary optimization technique...  

Without entering into much "esoteric" details, i think you grasp the picture...   

2. I do believe that Scientific Knowledge should be free, as well as Scientific development tools, therefore, I use, contribute, and subscribe the use of Open Source Software, either GNU or BSD license compliant...   There are no patents on pi, or e or the Theorem of Pithagoras, are they...  ?!  

This are the reasons why i left microStupidity world of ignorance in first place, and tried Linux in the first place.


I am willing to try FreeBSD for its purported stability/efficiency/robustness over linux systems... 

I installed FreeBSD 7.2 amd64 in my laptop, but i verified two things :

When it boots, it does so in a shell, typing startx as root takes me to twm, this wm does not support the applications i intend to use, ( which exist in ports or may have to be compiled )...

1. How do I boot directly in a login screen that takes me to Gnome or ( my favourites ) fluxbox or GNUstep/WindowMaker...?

2. My wireless nic is an intel ipw3945 abg,  is this supported in fBSD 7.2...?

3. When I tried to shutdown the laptop, POWEROFF in root shell, the shutdown process did not turn the energy down, I had to manually turn power down in power button...  is this normal...? i mean, in Laptops...

4. I would like to try fBSD 7.2 in a HP Dv5 pavillion Laptop, but it is out of the question to remove Debian Lenny from its HDD, I would like to install it in an external USB HDD w/ 250 Gb... when installing GRUB, can I be assured that it will be written in external HDD master boot record...  ? are usbcore ehci and uhci kernel modules loaded in fBSD 7.2 initrd to allow a USB Boot... or must a custom initrd be built to allow for this...?

Thank you for reading this long, noobish post...  

Hope somebody out there can help me with those doubts...  


Once again, thanks in advance

BRGDS

Alex


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## DutchDaemon (Sep 11, 2009)

You get to choose which graphical environment you get to run. They're all in ports. You choose, FreeBSD doesn't choose for you. You will find a link to The Handbook in my signature. Read it. 

Everything relating to installing X and associated managers is in one of its chapters. There are also separate sub-forums for X, and for most of the desktop environments and window managers.

Check your hardware in the supported hardware list. This is the one for 7.2: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.2R/hardware.html

If your laptop has an NVIDIA card, don't use 64 bits. There are no 64-bit NVIDIA drivers yet. Also, if you have less than 4 GB of RAM, not much is gained by using a 64-bit platform, as it may prevent certain ports from being installed or run.

I'm sure there are lots of questions, but The Handbook and the excellent manuals (which are also available on the web thru man.freebsd.org) should be your first point of reference. After that, unanswered questions can be posted here, after searching the forums, because they've covered almost everything you can come up with. 

Lastly, we prefer separate questions to be asked in applicable sub-forums, not lumping them together, because it produces the kind of clutter that FreeBSD users like to avoid.

P.S.: FreeBSD is not Linux. The sooner you realise that, the more quickly you'll get on with it


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## AlexVader (Sep 11, 2009)

Hi DucthDaemon

Thank you for your replies.

Greetz

Alex


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## fronclynne (Sep 15, 2009)

AlexVader said:
			
		

> 1. How do I boot directly in a login screen that takes me to Gnome or ( my favourites ) fluxbox or GNUstep/WindowMaker...?
> 
> 2. My wireless nic is an intel ipw3945 abg,  is this supported in fBSD 7.2...?
> 
> ...



4:  Yes, ehci and uhci are part of the GENERIC kernel.

3:  Sounds like an acpi problem (assuming `# shutdown -p now` doesn't actually power off the machine) which might require a lot of google-fu to figure out.

2:  http://blog.zelut.org/2008/10/19/dell-latitude-d630-freebsd-wireless-ipw3945/ (maybe?  HTH, cos I dunno)

1:  Use gdm() in /etc/ttys (NB I am an ignorant hater of gnome & KDE & xfce, please understand that I do not know much else) after installing the relevant ports in a way that makes you happiest.

0:  Mailing lists ( http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL ) and the various subforums here should provide you with much help.


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## AlexVader (Sep 15, 2009)

Hi Frontclynne

Thkz for your replies, I have installed fBSD in an external USB HDD, and I am now lerning to pay with it...

One thing puzzles me though...  the boot time...  it is slow... even considering that I am booting from a USB HDD...

I have installed an ArchLinux system in another USB HDD and hell it boots fast...  7 seconds to terminal..

Is there any way to control which daemons are loaded at boot....? 

BRGDS

Alex


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