Intel Making Improvements On FreeBSD Power Management

[Sonadow]

Have you ever bought hardware with Linux compatibility in mind? At some point in history you simply had to. Same with a BSD. You have to know what you are buying and there are far fewer problems. Laptops not running Linux properly still crop up as well, time to time. OEM branded wifi, OEM branded 3G/LTE modems, quirky ACPI, OEM branded GPU - some of it could always be problematic.

I do test new laptop out in store beforehand, using FreeBSD installation DVD - if the store does not allow advance boot test - I'll walk out. Easy as that. To put ball back to your side of the playing field, my old Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 (I like sturdier old machines) does not like quite a few Linux distros as well - it has Optimus graphics with no option in BIOS for turning it off. I can get it going on FreeBSD though.

WiFi compatibility in FreeBSD is just pathetic, and at some point of time it's just impossible to find that kind of dated hardware that will function on FBSD.

At least Linux finally supported two 802.11ac USB chipsets with kernel 4.19. In FreeBSD, even typical WiFi chipsets for 2.4GHz 802.11n are a game of chance while virtually all 802.11n USB chipsets are now compatible under Linux. Let's not even start with laptops, where M.2 or soldered down WiFi cards with 802.11ac are the norm. Are we seriously going to have to start hunting Taobao, AliExpress and eBay for M.2 cards that still use the super-dated 2.4GHz 802.11n standard?

At least in Linux, unsupported hardware have friendly hackers posting patched Linux vendor drivers on Github that can be compiled in any distribution. The BSDs don't even have that luxury.

And lastly, my point about software still stands; most FOSS software out in the wild are written for building and installation on Linux, Windows and macOS; FreeBSD is a tier-2 or tier-3 platform for them. And the FreeBSD ports actually contain extensive patches to compile older versions of said software (and the build process even fails every so often). I don't have any faith in community/downstream-supported versions of software.

[aht0]

WiFi compatibility in FreeBSD is just pathetic, and at some point of time it's just impossible to find that kind of dated hardware that will function on FBSD.

At least Linux finally supported two 802.11ac USB chipsets with kernel 4.19. In FreeBSD, even typical WiFi chipsets for 2.4GHz 802.11n are a game of chance while virtually all 802.11n USB chipsets are now compatible under Linux. Let's not even start with laptops, where M.2 or soldered down WiFi cards with 802.11ac are the norm. Are we seriously going to have to start hunting Taobao, AliExpress and eBay for M.2 cards that still use the super-dated 2.4GHz 802.11n standard?

Then feel free to pick up at what you see missing and provide. Instead of whining about it You can always send in patches.. There is only 1 FreeBSD developer writing these drivers/reverse-engineering hardware (Adrian Chadd) and hardware manufacturers have tendency to release only Linux sources. Pick up the driver development, raise the popularity of the OS, get manufacturers release BSD sources as well and you have broken out of dead loop. It's easy to whine, demand and sneer. Do. Something. About. It. Yourself.. perhaps.

I am using Atheros AR9280, AR9462, AR9580, Intel 5500 for mPCIe wifi cards (802.11abgn - which means both 2.4GHz and 5...5.8GHz band "N") or Intel 7260 and Intel 7265 for M2 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac).
Atheros manual page
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?...64&format=html

Manual page for supported Intel AC Wifi cards (some are mPCIe, some M2, some both)
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?...-release-ports

In fact, Intel devs who started putting effort into FreeBSD, are taking a look at WiFI (or have already done so?), not only power-management or GPU support. So it's perhaps just question of time.

[aht0]

And lastly, my point about software still stands; most FOSS software out in the wild are written for building and installation on Linux, Windows and macOS; FreeBSD is a tier-2 or tier-3 platform for them. And the FreeBSD ports actually contain extensive patches to compile older versions of said software (and the build process even fails every so often). I don't have any faith in community/downstream-supported versions of software.

This problem did not exist about 10 years a go. Thank Linux for increasing incompatibilities, not accuse BSD. As an argument, it's pure demagogy.
Linux plows it's own field how it pleases - disregarding POSIX more often than not - even breaking compatibility with it's own earlier versions, BSD tries to follow certain common Unix rules.
You don't like it? Then leave the topic and stay in Linux-threads Stay with your Lindows. If you want me to like it, you are no better than Microsoft fanboys.

[aht0]

...writes a windows fanboy aht0

If you define fanboy as a person who would use tools according to their fitness: like Windows for gaming, BSD for coding, browsing.. - you are actually correct.

Trying to play my games on Linux or BSD is worse than masohistic. So, ty, I'll stick to Windows there.

[aht0]

There are thousands of Linux gamers. Windows is horrible to maintain and use compared to Debian Xfce. Masochists use slow, difficult to maintain and buggy virus hoovers.

There are literally tens of millions windows gamers. So, what is "thousand of Linux gamers".. drop in the ocean.

It does reflect in the choice, availability and stability of Linux games. For example, combat simulator ArMA III does have Linux port but it's not usable for online gaming - version lagging multiple iterations behind Windows version, it's stability and performance even in single player is horrendous not to mention it not having all the functions available in Windows version. Wanna play it on Linux? - for starters you have nobody to play it with (everyone are in newer Windows servers), even if you had, it would have 2/3 of it's performance, more crashes and stripped down functionality (like recent mods not working on linux port because of multiple ABI changes between Linux and Windows versions).. You wanna still play it on Linux for ideological reasons? It means you are literally masochist because you receive next to no fun in return of constant troubleshooting and frustration. I did not even make it to driver issues with Linux..

Playing Facebook's Farmville or flippin' Tank Battle is not gaming in my eyes. Perhaps it is in yours.

Windows maintenance is horrible? - funny claim. Maybe you should check up on Windows. It has changed a lot, I feel like Windows ME was your last experience with Windows.

[aht0]

WiFi compatibility in FreeBSD is just pathetic, and at some point of time it's just impossible to find that kind of dated hardware that will function on FBSD.

Lolz.. I was given old Fujitsu laptop, more or less "found it during house cleaning, look if you can put something on it and make it work". It originally had had Vista.
Well, I threw Ubuntu on it and was baffled when Ubuntu failed to find it's wifi card.. I removed the underside lid and found it had pcie half-sized wifi card in it. Removed the stickers hiding the markings on the chipset and.. SIS u163? Well, it looks like there are adapters linux has never been able to do shit with as well.