Installing FreeBSD 7 (i386) on a ThinkPad T43
Contents
Features
FreeBSD is an UNIX operating system for x86 and others compatible architectures. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by a team of individuals.
FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features which are still missing in some of the best commercial operating systems.
FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server. It provides robust network services under the heaviest loads and uses memory efficiently to maintain good response times for thousands of simultaneous user processes. But on notebooks it is a very usable and a great operating system with many features for power management.
With over 17,000 ported libraries and applications for desktop, server, appliance, and embedded environments. There are many applications which were designed for the use with notebooks.
The best is that FreeBSDis free. On the one side the licence model guaranties that (BSD or BSDL licence) and on the other hand it costs nothing. It is certainly possible to buy CDs or DVDs.
Installation
The best to install FreeBSD on a ThinkPad T43 is to download the ISO files and burn them. You can find the ISOs right here FTP Server of FreeBSD. Choose the version you want to install.
Known Issues
Everythings works like a charme except one thing: Suspend und Resume.
Post-Installation Setup
After installation of FreeBSD you have to do some additional setup. Most things work out of the box, but some parts need additional configuration.
First of all type dmesg on a console and you will see which hardware is detected from GENERIC kernel:
# dmesg | more
You get an output like the following:
Copyright (c) 1992-2008 The FreeBSD Project. Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD 7.1-PRERELEASE #0: Fri Sep 19 07:11:52 CEST 2008 juergen@t43.juergendankoweit.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/T43 Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz (1862.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x6d8 Stepping = 8 Features=0xafe9fbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,TM,PBE> Features2=0x180<EST,TM2> AMD Features=0x100000<NX> real memory = 1072562176 (1022 MB) avail memory = 1040035840 (991 MB) ACPI APIC Table: <IBM TP-1Y > ACPI Warning (tbfadt-0505): Optional field "Gpe1Block" has zero address or length: 0 102C/0 [20070320] ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 1 ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard kbd1 at kbdmux0 ath_hal: 0.9.20.3 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413) acpi0: <IBM TP-1Y> on motherboard acpi0: [ITHREAD] acpi_ec0: <Embedded Controller: GPE 0x1c, ECDT> port 0x62,0x66 on acpi0 acpi0: Power Button (fixed) acpi0: reservation of 0, a0000 (3) failed acpi0: reservation of 100000, 3ff00000 (3) failed Timecounter "ACPI-safe" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 850 acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x1008-0x100b on acpi0 pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0 pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0 pcib1: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 1.0 on pci0 pci1: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib1 vgapci0: <VGA-compatible display> port 0x2000-0x20ff mem 0xc0000000-0xc7ffffff,0xb0100000-0xb010ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1 drm0: <ATI Radeon Mobility X300 M22> on vgapci0 info: [drm] Initialized radeon 1.25.0 20060524 pcib2: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 20 at device 28.0 on pci0 pci2: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib2 bge0: <Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller, ASIC rev. 0x4101> mem 0xb0200000-0xb020ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci2 miibus0: <MII bus> on bge0 brgphy0: <BCM5750 10/100/1000baseTX PHY> PHY 1 on miibus0 brgphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-FDX, auto bge0: Ethernet address: 00:15:58:30:2a:a3 bge0: [ITHREAD] pcib3: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 22 at device 28.2 on pci0 pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib3 uhci0: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-A> port 0x1800-0x181f irq 16 at device 29.0 on pci0 uhci0: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci0: [ITHREAD] usb0: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-A> on uhci0 usb0: USB revision 1.0 uhub0: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb0 uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered uhci1: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-B> port 0x1820-0x183f irq 17 at device 29.1 on pci0 uhci1: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci1: [ITHREAD] usb1: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-B> on uhci1 usb1: USB revision 1.0 uhub1: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb1 uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered uhci2: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-C> port 0x1840-0x185f irq 18 at device 29.2 on pci0 uhci2: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci2: [ITHREAD] usb2: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-C> on uhci2 usb2: USB revision 1.0 uhub2: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb2 uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered uhci3: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-D> port 0x1860-0x187f irq 19 at device 29.3 on pci0 uhci3: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci3: [ITHREAD] usb3: <Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-D> on uhci3 usb3: USB revision 1.0 uhub3: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb3 uhub3: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered ehci0: <Intel 82801FB (ICH6) USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xb0000000-0xb00003ff irq 19 at device 29.7 on pci0 ehci0: [GIANT-LOCKED] ehci0: [ITHREAD] usb4: EHCI version 1.0 usb4: companion controllers, 2 ports each: usb0 usb1 usb2 usb3 usb4: <Intel 82801FB (ICH6) USB 2.0 controller> on ehci0 usb4: USB revision 2.0 uhub4: <Intel EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb4 uhub4: 8 ports with 8 removable, self powered pcib4: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 30.0 on pci0 pci11: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib4 cbb0: <RF5C476 PCI-CardBus Bridge> mem 0xb4010000-0xb4010fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci11 cardbus0: <CardBus bus> on cbb0 pccard0: <16-bit PCCard bus> on cbb0 cbb0: [ITHREAD] ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xb4000000-0xb400ffff irq 21 at device 2.0 on pci11 ath0: [ITHREAD] ath0: WARNING: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface ath0: Ethernet address: 00:14:a4:5c:86:b4 ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 radio 3.6 pcm0: <Intel ICH6 (82801FB)> port 0x1c00-0x1cff,0x1880-0x18bf mem 0xb0000800-0xb00009ff,0xb0000400-0xb00004ff irq 22 at device 30.2 on pci0 pcm0: [ITHREAD] pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1981B AC97 Codec> isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 31.0 on pci0 isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0 atapci0: <Intel ICH6M SATA150 controller> port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0x18c0-0x18cf at device 31.2 on pci0 ata0: <ATA channel 0> on atapci0 ata0: [ITHREAD] ata1: <ATA channel 1> on atapci0 ata1: [ITHREAD] pci0: <serial bus, SMBus> at device 31.3 (no driver attached) cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0 est0: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu0 p4tcc0: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu0 acpi_lid0: <Control Method Lid Switch> on acpi0 acpi_button0: <Sleep Button> on acpi0 acpi_tz0: <Thermal Zone> on acpi0 atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> port 0x60,0x64 irq 1 on acpi0 atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> irq 1 on atkbdc0 kbd0 at atkbd0 atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED] atkbd0: [ITHREAD] psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> flags 0x2000 irq 12 on atkbdc0 psm0: [GIANT-LOCKED] psm0: [ITHREAD] psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0 sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0 sio0: type 8250 or not responding sio0: [FILTER] sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled battery0: <ACPI Control Method Battery> on acpi0 acpi_acad0: <AC Adapter> on acpi0 acpi_ibm0: <IBM ThinkPad ACPI Extras> on acpi0 sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled pmtimer0 on isa0 orm0: <ISA Option ROMs> at iomem 0xc0000-0xcffff,0xd1800-0xd27ff,0xdc000-0xdffff,0xe0000-0xeffff pnpid ORM0000 on isa0 ppc0: parallel port not found. sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0 sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300> sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0 ubt0: <Broadcom IBM Bluetooth Module, class 224/1, rev 1.10/0.09, addr 2> on uhub2 ubt0: Interface 0 endpoints: interrupt=0x81, bulk-in=0x82, bulk-out=0x2 ubt0: Interface 1 (alt.config 4) endpoints: isoc-in=0x83, isoc-out=0x3; wMaxPacketSize=64; nframes=5, buffer size=320 Timecounter "TSC" frequency 1862012116 Hz quality 800 Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec ad0: 38154MB <HTS541040G9AT00 MB2IA5BJ> at ata0-master UDMA100 acd0: DVDROM <HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8083N/0K04> at ata1-master UDMA33 Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a acd0: FAILURE - INQUIRY ILLEGAL REQUEST asc=0x24 ascq=0x00 cd0 at ata1 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 cd0: <HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8083N 0K04> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-0 device cd0: 33.000MB/s transfers cd0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present WARNING: attempt to net_add_domain(bluetooth) after domainfinalize() WARNING: attempt to net_add_domain(netgraph) after domainfinalize()
As easily can be seen the following for additional setup important components are detected:
Device Type | Device Driver | Device Name |
---|---|---|
CPU | CPU | Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz (1862.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x6d8 Stepping = 8 |
Memory | RAM | real memory = 1072562176 (1022 MB), avail memory = 1040035840 (991 MB) |
LAN controller | bge0 | Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller BCM5750 10/100/1000baseTX |
WLAN controller | ath0 | Atheros 5212 |
(S)ATA controller | atapci0 | Intel ICH6M SATA150 controller |
sound device | pcm0 | Intel ICH6 (82801FB): Analog Devices AD1981B AC97 Codec |
USB controller | uhcin | Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6) USB controller USB-N (n: 1...4, N: A...D) |
CardBus controller | cbb0 | RF5C476 PCI-CardBus Bridge |
Bluetooth device | ubt0 | Broadcom IBM Bluetooth Module, class 224/1, rev 1.10/0.09, addr 2 on uhub2 |
video controller | drm0 | ATI Radeon Mobility X300 M22 |
harddrive | ad0 | 38154MB <HTS541040G9AT00 MB2IA5BJ> at ata0 master UDMA100 |
optical drive | acd0 | DVDROM <HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8083N/0K04> at ata1 master UDMA33 |
General System Settings
The general system settings are done in my case in the following files:
- /boot/loader.conf
- In this file you enter modules and settings which must be loaded or set before the kernel is loaded.
- /boot/device.hints
- Here you can modify device settings and turn on or off devices
- /etc/rc.conf
- This file is called by the FreeBSD init subsystem. All daemons which should be started and additional settings for these daemons are done done in this file
- /etc/sysctl.conf
- In this file all settings are done which manipulate deverse kernel parameters
- /etc/devd.conf
- This file configurates the behavior of the devd device state change daemon
The following sections describe the parameters for each component.
ACPI
This section is the most difficult part of the description.
ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface which defines common interfaces for hardware recognition, motherboard and device configuration and power management. FreeBSD and ACPI is difficult relationship: either it works or it works not. But it is on the way getting better.
It costs a lot of time to get ACPI to work. Therefore a small hint if you want to do it on your own: When you are doing some configuration and testing on your ACPI settings then you will soon recognize that the notebook will be inaccessable and have to press the Power button. The system does not have any chance to shutdown the filesystem and this will result that at every boot the filesystem must be checked and corrected. Therefore it is a good idea to manipulate the mount table /etc/fstab like the following example:
# Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# /dev/ad0s1b none swap sw 0 0 /dev/ad0s1a / ufs rw 1 1 # /dev/ad0s1g /home ufs rw 2 2 /dev/ad0s1d /tmp ufs ro 2 2 /dev/ad0s1f /usr ufs ro 2 2 /dev/ad0s1e /var ufs ro 2 2 # /dev/acd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0 proc /proc procfs rw 0 0 linprocfs /compat/linux/proc linprocfs rw 0 0
The readonly option for the mount command prevents the corruption of the filesystem. If there are important files on your home partition then it is better not to mount it. When everthing works for your satifaction then you can restore the old state of the mount table.
To make ACPI work under FreeBSD the following files have to be edited:
- /boot/loader.conf
- Add the following line for loading the module acpi_ibm.mo to enable the Thinkpad specific functions like Thinkpad keys:
acpi_ibm_load="YES"
- This module can also be loaded directly from the console. For this use the command
# kldload acpi_ibm
- /boot/device.hints
- Search for the lines which sets the parameters for the mouse driver. They look like these:
hint.psm.0.at="atkbdc" hint.psm.0.irq="12"
- Add or change the flags to this value:
hint.psm.0.flags="0x2000"
- This enables the mouse daemon after resume.
- /etc/sysctl.conf
- In this file the diverse ACPI states have to connected to several events:
hw.acpi.reset_video=1 hw.acpi.lid_switch_state=S3 hw.acpi.sleep_button_state=S3 hw.acpi.power_button_state=S5 hw.acpi.sleep_delay=3 hw.acpi.verbose=1
- You also have to enable the Thinkpad buttons with
dev.acpi_ibm.0.events=1
- When the notebook resumes after a suspend call it is very likely that the display shows nothing or only rubbish. The reason is that the video controller is not in an defined state. It does not know whether it should display the textmode or the graphics mode. Therefore the switching to the textmode must be enabled:
hw.syscons.sc_no_suspend_vtswitch=0
- This values can also be changed directly from the console. For this use the command
# sysctl <mib>
- where mib represents each line of /etc/sysctl.conf.
- /etc/devd.conf
- With device change state daemon it is possible to react on changes in the device state. This can be used for calling the suspend mode. For this the following lines have to be added to the configuration file:
notify 10 { match "system" "ACPI"; match "subsystem" "IBM"; match "notify" "0x04"; action "/usr/sbin/acpiconf -s 3"; };
- After this the devd daemon has to be restarted:
# /etc/rc.d/devd restart
After changing all this files or values you can do some tests. Hopefully this tests are successful.
Video
On my Thinkpad I use the following XOrg version:
- X.Org Version 7.3
- X.Org X Server 1.4.0
- Release Date: 5 September 2007
Setting up XOrg is very easy and can be done in a few minutes. For this enter on the console
# X -configure
This will create a configuration file based on the hardware Xorg has found. This file should be copied to
Template:PATH
after the changed were made.
Here is my working XOrg configuration:
Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "T43Screen" 0 0 InputDevice "T43Mouse" "CorePointer" InputDevice "T43Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "Files" RgbPath "/usr/local/share/X11/rgb" ModulePath "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/StarType" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/" FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/" EndSection Section "Module" Load "GLcore" Load "dbe" Load "dri" Load "extmod" Load "glx" Load "record" Load "xtrap" Load "freetype" Load "type1" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "T43Keyboard" Option "XKBLayout" "de" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "T43Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "T43Monitor" VendorName "IBM" ModelName "TFT-Thinkpad T43" Option "DPMS" "TRUE" Modeline "1024x768" 56.00 1024 1072 1104 1184 768 771 775 790 +hsync -vsync DisplaySize 285 213 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "T43Card" Driver "radeon" VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc" BoardName "M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Option "AGPMode" "1" Option "DynamicClocks" "TRUE" Option "VGAAccess" "TRUE" Option "DRI" "FALSE" Option "PanelSize" "1024x768" Option "DDCMode" "TRUE" Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS" Option "EnablePageFlip" "TRUE" Option "VBERestore" "TRUE" Option "DevicePresence" "TRUE" # Option "BIOSHotkeys" "ON" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "T43Screen" Device "T43Card" Monitor "T43Monitor" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Modes "1024x768" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection
Network
The configuration of the LAN device Broadcom Ethernet Controller BCM5750 (bge0) is very easy and it is in a few minutes done.
- Network with DHCP
- In this case in the system wide configuration file Template:PATH only these entries have to be inserted:
hostname="t43.domain.tld" ifconfig_bge0="DHCP"
- That's it
- Network without DHCP
- Here you have to insert in the file Template:PATH the IP address of the notebook, the fully qualified hostname and the default router:
hostname="t43.domain.tld" defaultrouter="<IP address of the router>" ifconfig_bge0="<IP address of the notebook>"
If the notebook is used in an network with wireless LAN the following lines describe how to do a setup of the WLAN card.
TODO
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The setup around the Atheros card (ath0) can be done, when my new WLAN is configured
|
Bluetooth
Bluetooth works under FreeBSD well. It depends on which devices you use. Generally one line has to be added to Template:PATH:
ng_ubt_load="YES"
This enables the Bluetooth stack for other drivers and daemon processes.
In my case I use an Siemens S55 mobile phone. Therefore the following three lines enabling a communication with the mobile:
hcsecd_enable="YES" sdpd_enable="YES" bluetooth_enable="YES"
TODO
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Description of the entries and a small startup script for establishing a connect to mobile phone
|
Sound
For enabling the sound card only one line in Template:PATH has to be added:
snd_ich_load="YES"
Now the sound card can do its job.
Gnome Desktop
Applications
Applets
Notes
See also
References
The following man pages are important for understanding:
- devd(8), devd.conf(5)
- xorg.conf(5)
- sysctl(8), sysctl.conf(5)
- rc.conf(5)
- acpiconf(8)
- kldload(8), loader.conf(5)
- device.hints(5)
External links
- The FreeBSD Homepage
- The excellent FreeBSD manual: FreeBSD Handbook
- German forums: BSDGroup.de and BSDForen.de
- FreeBSD Laptop List