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Title: FreeBSD 12.1 on a laptop |
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Author: Solène |
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Date: 11 May 2020 |
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Tags: freebsd mate laptop |
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Description: |
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# Introduction |
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I'm using FreeBSD again on a laptop for some reasons so expect to read |
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more |
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about FreeBSD here. This tutorial explain how to get a graphical |
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desktop using |
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FreeBSD 12.1. |
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I used a Lenovo Thinkpad T480 for this tutorial. |
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# Intel graphics hardware support |
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If you have a recent Intel integrated graphic card (maybe less than 3 |
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years), |
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you have to install a package containing the driver: |
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pkg install drm-kmod |
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and you also have to tell the system the correct path of the module |
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(because |
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another i915kms.ko file exist): |
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sysrc kld_list="/boot/modules/i915kms.ko" |
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# Choose your desktop environnement |
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## Install Xfce |
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pkg install xfce |
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Then in your user `~/.xsession` file you must append: |
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exec ck-launch-session startxfce4 |
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## Install MATE |
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pkg install mate |
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Then in your user `~/.xsession` file you must append: |
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exec ck-launch-session mate-session |
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## Install KDE5 |
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pkg install kde5 |
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Then in your user `~/.xsession` file you must append: |
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exec ck-launch-session startplasma-x11 |
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# Setting up the graphical interface |
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You have to enable a few services to have a working graphical session: |
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- **moused** to get laptop mouse support |
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- **dbus** for hald |
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- **hald** for hardware detection |
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- **xdm** for display manager where you log-in |
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You can install them with the command: |
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pkg install xorg dbus hal xdm |
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Then you can enable the services at boot using the following commands, |
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order is |
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important: |
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sysrc moused_enable="yes" |
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sysrc dbus_enable="yes" |
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sysrc hald_enable="yes" |
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sysrc xdm_enable="yes" |
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Reboot or start the services in the same order: |
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service moused start |
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service dbus start |
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service hald start |
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service xdm start |
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**Note that xdm will be in qwerty layout.** |
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# Power management |
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The installer should have prompted for the service powerd, if you |
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didn't |
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activate it at this time, you can still enable it. |
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Check if it's running |
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service powerd status |
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Enabling |
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sysrc powerd_enable="yes" |
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Starting the service |
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service powerd start |
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# Webcam support |
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If you have a webcam and want to use it, some configuration is required |
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in |
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order to make it work. |
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Install the package webcamd, it will displays all the instructions |
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written |
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below at the install step. |
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pkg install webcamd |
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From here, append this line to the file `/boot/loader.conf` to load |
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webcam |
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support at boot time: |
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cuse_load="yes" |
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Add your user to the webcamd group so it will be able to use the |
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device: |
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pw groupmod webcamd -m YOUR_USER |
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Enable webcamd at boot: |
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sysrc webcamd_enable="yes" |
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Now, you have to logout from your user for the group change to take |
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place. And |
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if you want the webcamd daemon to work now and not wait next reboot: |
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kldload cuse |
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service webcamd start |
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service devd restart |
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You should have a /dev/video0 device now. You can test it easily with |
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the |
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package `pwcview`. |
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# External resources |
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I found this blog very interesting, I wish I found it before I struggle |
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with |
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all the configuration as it explains how to install FreeBSD on the |
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exact same |
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laptop. The author explains how to make a transparent lagg0 interface |
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for |
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switching from ethernet to wifi automatically with a failover pseudo |
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device. |
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[https://genneko.github.io/playing-with-bsd/hardware/freebsd-on-thinkpa |
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d-t480/](https://genneko.github.io/playing-with-bsd/hardware/freebsd-on |
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-thinkpad-t480/) |
