Laptops running FreeBSD

To improve FreeBSD support for various laptops, please share your experience with a particular laptop model you use daily or have occasional access to. This information can help users to decide if some model they want is worth buying to install FreeBSD and help interested developers to improve hardware support.

Testing and collecting technical information

If you see a nice laptop in some electronic shop or at your friend's, try to boot a -CURRENT image to perform some simple tests and collect basic technical information. Assuming you're booting from a USB flash drive, enter LiveCD mode and do the following at least: 

# mount -u -o rw /
# dmesg > /dmesg.out.txt
# pciconf -lv > /pciconf.out.txt
# devinfo -v > /devinfo.out.txt
# acpidump -dt > /acpidump.out.txt
# mount -u -o ro / ; sync
# zzz

The last command will send the laptop to sleep (suspend, S3). Try to resume it and see what happens. Don't forget to report it here and attach those gathered files. ;-)

Other things worth looking into: LCD brightness and multimedia keys, various LED indicators behavior, expected battery life per acpiconf -i0, CPU frequency scaling and fan control, correct reaction to shutdown -p now, to name a few.

NYC*BUG dmesgd

You may also consider sending a copy of /var/run/dmesg.boot to NYC*BUG dmesgd, which is a user-submitted repository of searchable BSD dmesgs.

Laptop support

The table below lists the most popular laptops we have at least some support for and describes what does and does not work; see below this table for the legend that explains the icons and columns.

Laptop

Graphics

External DP/HDMI/VGA

Sound

WiFi

Ethernet

USB

Suspend / Resume

Needs config

Year introduced

/ASUS_FM200

(./)

/!\

{X}

{X}

(./)

(./)

{X}

no

/ASUS_UX31E

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

/ASUS_UX32VD

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

/Acer_AspireOne_D250

(./)

{i}

/!\

/!\

/!\

/!\

/!\

?

/Acer_AspireOne_ZG5

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

/Acer_Aspire_4730Z

(./)

/!\

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

2009?

/Acer_Aspire_E5_773G_78RN

i915km: (./)

i915kms: (./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X} (screen fails resume)

yes (Xorg)

2015Q4

/Acer_Aspire_V3_771G

(./)

(./)

{i}

(./)

(./)

(./)

?

2012

/Acer_Aspire_V5_171

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

{X}

/Apple_MacBookAir4,2

(./)

/!\

(./)

(./)

none

(./)

{X}

?

2011

/Apple_MacBookProRetina

(./)

/!\

(./)

{X}

{X}

(./)

{X}

?

Early 2015

/Dell_Inspiron_15-3521

{X}

{X}

/!\

{X}

(./)

/!\

{X}

?

/Dell_Inspiron_7537

/!\

/!\

(./)

{X}

(./)

/!\

/!\

?

/Dell_Inspiron_N4050

/!\

/!\

(./)

{X}

(./)

/!\

/!\

?

/Dell_Inspiron_N4120

/Dell_Latitude_3550

vesa: (./)

/!\

/!\

(./)

(./)

(./)

/!\

?

2015

/Dell_Latitude_D630

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

/Dell_Latitude_E5420

/Dell_Latitude_E6420

/Dell_Latitude_E6520

/Dell_Latitude_E7240

2013

/Dell_Latitude_E7240_i5-4310U

(./) on 11.x

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

2013

/Dell_Latitude_E7440

(./) on 11.x

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

2014

/Dell_Latitude_E7470

(./) drm-next

(./) drm-next

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

/!\

yes

2016

/Dell_Precision_M4800

2007

/Dell_Vostro_1014

2009

/Dell_Vostro_1450

/Dell_XPS13_9360

(./) vt & scfb work in console & X

(./) drm-next

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

2017 wifi is ATH10K but field replaceable, using intel drm-next drivers, suspend/resume, HDMI all works. ethernet + HDMI require additional adapter. wifi support is coming in 12.x

/Gigabyte_Aero_15X

(./) drm-next

/!\

{i}

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

2017

/Hasee_Q540S

(./)

/!\

/!\

none

/!\

(./)

{X}

yes

2008

/HP_EliteBook_840_G2

/HP_EliteBook_8570p

/HP_Envy_6Z-1100

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

yes

2012

/HP_Envy_TouchSmart_m6

{X}

{X}

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

{X}

yes

/HP_ProBook_430_G1

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

2013Q3 // sound workaround after resume

/HP_ProBook_5310m

(./)

/!\

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

no

2009Q3

/HP_550

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

no

2009, NOTE: FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p17

/Ideapad_S300

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2012

/Ideapad_Y580

/Lenovo_Flex_10

/Lenovo_G480

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2013

/Lenovo_G500s

/Lenovo_R61

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

/Lenovo_Yoga_3_14

(./)

/!\

(./)

(./)

none

(./)

(./)

no

2015

/Microsoft_Surface_Pro_3

/MSI_GE62VR_7RF_Apache_Pro

(./) drm-next

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X} (no screen)

2017

/MSI_U100

/!\

/!\

/!\

(./)

/!\

/!\

{X}

no

2008

/Purism_Librem

/RazerStealth

scfb: (./)

DOES NOT SUPPORT OPEN SOURCE AVOID!

/Sony_Vaio_VPCCB

/System76 Galago Pro

scfb: (./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

2017

/Thinkpad_E540

/Thinkpad_L440

/Thinkpad_L450

/Thinkpad_L470

/ThinkPad_S440

(./)

{i}

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

yes

2013Q3

/Thinkpad_T400

/Thinkpad_T420

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

?

/Thinkpad_T420s

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

2011

/Thinkpad_T430s

/Thinkpad_T440p

/Thinkpad_T450s

vesa: (./)

(./)

(./)

2015

/Thinkpad_T470s

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

yes

2017

/Thinkpad_T530

/Thinkpad_T540p

/!\

/!\

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

/!\

yes

/Thinkpad_T550

/!\

/!\

(./)

/!\

(./)

(./)

/!\

/Thinkpad_T60

/Thinkpad_T61

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

?

/Thinkpad_W530

/Thinkpad_X1_Carbon 3rd Gen

(./)

{X}

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

2015

/Thinkpad_X200

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

/Thinkpad_X201

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2010Q2

/Thinkpad_X201i

(./)

/!\

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2017, FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p9

/Thinkpad_X220

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

/Thinkpad_X230

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2012 FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE

/Thinkpad_X240

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

no

2013

/Thinkpad_X250

scfb: (./)

(./)

(./)

/Thinkpad_X260

(./) drm-next

/!\

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

no

2016Q1

/Thinkpad_X270

(./) drm-next

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

no

2017Q1

/Thinkpad_X61s

Laptop

Graphics

External DP/HDMI/VGA

Sound

WiFi

Ethernet

USB

Suspend / Resume

Needs config

Year introduced

Legend

Symbol

Meaning

(./)

Works out of the box

{i}

Needs special configuration

/!\

Untested/unknown

{X}

Does not work

Column

Meaning

Graphics

X11 server works

External DP/HDMI/VGA

Plugging in an external VGA/HDMI/DisplayPort works (you can do presentations)

Sound

Bleep boop blop (you can play audio files)

WiFi

Onboard wireless works

Ethernet

Onboard Ethernet (if available) works

USB

USB works

Suspend / Resume

Power saving and suspend/resume work

Needs config

May need changes to boot loader scripts or other startup scripts to work

Year introduced

Helpful to know when a laptop was originally released so that old entries can be skipped

CategoryLaptop

Laptops (last edited 2018-03-15 06:27:29 by JasonHale)