# freebsd on Mac Book Pro



## lasizoillo (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi!

I was recently installed a FreeBsd on my MacBook Pro 3,1.

I have find a great post that explain a lot of tips to configure it, but I can't suspend/hibernate the systems. I only obtain a line in dmesg:

acpi0: device_suspend failed

Anyone know how configure acpi in MacBookPro or at least show more debug info?

Any help is wellcome ;-)

Thanks in advance,

Javi


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## oliverh (Nov 16, 2008)

Maybe this is of some help: http://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacbook


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## mmccaskill (Nov 19, 2008)

MacBook Pro 3,1 is the newer model (which I just bought!). These have NVidia chipsets instead of the usual Intel chipsets. So that might cause a problem with hibernate/sleep.


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## Weinter (Nov 19, 2008)

Gee... I thought Mac OS X comes with 4.4BSD userland why is there a need to Install FreeBSD?
Also I heard a FreeBSD developer said that Hibernate Suspend are not supported on SMP kernels ....


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## oliverh (Nov 19, 2008)

>I thought Mac OS X comes with 4.4BSD userland why is there a need to Install FreeBSD?

Actually it's a mixture of something FreeBSD, even some parts NetBSD and Gnu. Some things compared to FreeBSD are rather old, some things aren't even there and you have to cope with the differences between console and desktop environment. The latter doesn't follow every single step you do in the console - you have to think in layers. Mac OS X is made for some peoples desktop experience and does a rather good job for them. Apple itself was never a company affine to the console and will certainly never be. That's no rant just some clarification of some myths circulating in the web.


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## ninjaslim (Nov 19, 2008)

oliverh said:
			
		

> >I thought Mac OS X comes with 4.4BSD userland why is there a need to Install FreeBSD?
> 
> Actually it's a mixture of something FreeBSD, even some parts NetBSD and Gnu. Some things compared to FreeBSD are rather old, some things aren't even there and you have to cope with the differences between console and desktop environment. The latter doesn't follow every single step you do in the console - you have to think in layers. Mac OS X is made for some peoples desktop experience and does a rather good job for them. Apple itself was never a company affine to the console and will certainly never be. That's no rant just some clarification of some myths circulating in the web.



Mac OS X is essentially a FreeBSD userland ported to the Mach kernel.  When it was ported, certain elements of NetBSD were used as well as GNU.  Though, FreeBSD contains very little GNU.  

Mac OS X is a very good system, and aptly described as layers.  The Unix layer is most important underlying one though.  I don't necessarily agree with the idea that Apple doesn't affine to the console.  The way that the OS is marketed makes that seem true, but since the BSD command line is there, you can use it to its full potential.  So, I guess saying that it absolutely doesn't is sort of like leap.  I spend most of my time in the Terminal on my MacBook Pro as I do on FreeBSD on my desktop at home.


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## oliverh (Nov 20, 2008)

ninjaslim said:
			
		

> Mac OS X is essentially a FreeBSD userland ported to the Mach kernel.  When it was ported, certain elements of NetBSD were used as well as GNU.  Though, FreeBSD contains very little GNU.
> 
> Mac OS X is a very good system, and aptly described as layers.  The Unix layer is most important underlying one though.  I don't necessarily agree with the idea that Apple doesn't affine to the console.  The way that the OS is marketed makes that seem true, but since the BSD command line is there, you can use it to its full potential.  So, I guess saying that it absolutely doesn't is sort of like leap.  I spend most of my time in the Terminal on my MacBook Pro as I do on FreeBSD on my desktop at home.



I'm using Apples since the so-called student Macs, some 68020/68030 CPU, I was in love with my Quadra etc. Nice hardware, really ahead compared to the PCs at that time - but that's history. Today I have to use Apple, so I didn't stop using Apple devices. My first contact to UNIX was Irix in the 90s and some NetBSD even earlier. I'm comfortable using anything UNIX, I even got my fingers on some ancient Next machine - but if I want to have the real UNIX-esprit then I don't talk Apple. Apple is made for some peoples desktop experience and if I say the console it's not on their agenda, then because of their very own statements since the beginning. There is more than meets the eye than just ls, cp, etc. pp. But as I said it's my experience and if you do have a different experience and it's sufficient for your work - well, there you go 

>Mac OS X is essentially a FreeBSD userland ported to the Mach kernel.

Just for the records: it's partly FreeBSD userland (well of course _most_ of it) and the Mach kernel is the base with essential parts of the FreeBSD kernel too. NextStep had a true Mach kernel. NextStep was BSD4.x userland plus Mach kernel, but that's also history. And a so-so rant too: NextStep was a real wow  however Mac OS X ... okay no rant as I said. The couple of sentences were about myths only ;-)


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## ninjaslim (Nov 21, 2008)

oliverh said:
			
		

> I'm using Apples since the so-called student Macs, some 68020/68030 CPU, I was in love with my Quadra etc. Nice hardware, really ahead compared to the PCs at that time - but that's history. Today I have to use Apple, so I didn't stop using Apple devices. My first contact to UNIX was Irix in the 90s and some NetBSD even earlier. I'm comfortable using anything UNIX, I even got my fingers on some ancient Next machine - but if I want to have the real UNIX-esprit then I don't talk Apple. Apple is made for some peoples desktop experience and if I say the console it's not on their agenda, then because of their very own statements since the beginning. There is more than meets the eye than just ls, cp, etc. pp. But as I said it's my experience and if you do have a different experience and it's sufficient for your work - well, there you go
> 
> >Mac OS X is essentially a FreeBSD userland ported to the Mach kernel.
> 
> Just for the records: it's partly FreeBSD userland (well of course _most_ of it) and the Mach kernel is the base with essential parts of the FreeBSD kernel too. NextStep had a true Mach kernel. NextStep was BSD4.x userland plus Mach kernel, but that's also history. And a so-so rant too: NextStep was a real wow  however Mac OS X ... okay no rant as I said. The couple of sentences were about myths only ;-)



What say you to Solaris's current direction?  I've used Solaris on and off, and in recent years, have never had to touch a console.  I don't believe that reliance on console is the defining element of Unix.  I believe that a fully functional command line is a defining element of Unix, solely its existence.  It's up to the user whether he or she wants to use it.  Unix is about choice; you can work anyway you want.


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## macbookprolivier (Dec 27, 2008)

*refit bootcamp - first freeBSD install*

Hey lasizoillo,
I'm also about to install freeBSD on a MBP 3,1 (september 2007 -- OSX 10.4.11) and I also found the post you're talking about. Looks very helpful and I think I'm gonna use that as a reference. Nonetheless, 2 points I don't understand and maybe you can tell me about.

First, Do I really need bootcamp? So far I've been using GNU/Linux (G/L) distributions and refit was the only tool used to boot on one of my OSs (I keep OSX for firmware updates). Actually, I don't even know what is really bootcamp.


Do you use refit? I've been using refit since my first G/L install on this computer and except for Debian, that has always worked great.

Finally, if I may, how smooth (or rough) was the install process. I'm of course talking about the base install without MBP special tweaks.

Help from anyone else is, of course, also very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Olivier


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## plamaiziere (Jan 27, 2009)

lasizoillo said:
			
		

> Hi!
> 
> I was recently installed a FreeBsd on my MacBook Pro 3,1.
> 
> ...



I have nerver seen the suspend/resume stuff working on FreeBSD. IMHO forget this...

I've just installed yesterday FreeBSD 7.1 on my MacBook pro (Model 3,1). 

There are few issues:
- the sysinstall fdisk on 7.1 breaks all the disk if installed via bootcamp. You need to use 7.0 to install and after update the system.

- The video backlight is very very high, I've made a quick and dirty driver to set it. See: http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/hackers/2009-01/msg00288.html

- The sound does not work, the driver is attached but there is no sound at all. If you know how to tune the snd_hda driver please tell me.

- The wifi does not work too, but it worked on 7.0 with the ndis wrapper.

I hope we will be able to solve these problems.

For the question "why using FreeBSD instead MacOs X?" That is just because FreeBSD rocks


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## plamaiziere (Jan 31, 2009)

*Macbook pro sound*



			
				plamaiziere said:
			
		

> (Macbook pro model 3,1)
> 
> - The sound does not work, the driver is attached but there is no sound at all. If you know how to tune the snd_hda driver please tell me.



With the help of the FreeBSD multimedia mailing list, the sound works fine (speaker and headphone, microphones are not tested)

You need the snd_hda driver from current (today) and you must add quirks in /boot/device.hints:
hint.hdac.0.config="gpio0 ovref"
hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid21.config="as=4 seq=15"

See:
http://www.nabble.com/-snd_hda--Sound-problem-on-Macbook-pro-model-3.1-tt21757824.html

HTH.


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## plamaiziere (Feb 16, 2009)

*FreeBSD on Macbook Pro*

Hi,

I've made a small page about the MacbookPro (model 3,1) under FreeBSD (7.1).

http://www.lamaiziere.net/mbp_freebsd.html. 
My english is quite approximative, you are warned.

HTH.


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