FreeBSD Current WiFi and Audio problem

I know it has been emphasized in various threads for many times, but if you are just _using_ FreeBSD, in 99% of the cases there is absolutely no reason to use development versions -CURRENT and -STABLE.
Just go for a release.
 
Good news folk! I got a cheap atheros wlan card from my local hardware shop for free. It was lying around and the owner turned out to be my classmate from 90s. FreeBSD works perfectly fine on it. I'm waiting for the capture card and webcam from Amazon. I'm running KDE Plasma on FreeBSD. Overall I'm happy how it turned out. However, here are a few observations:
  • Responsiveness: No complaints. It flies.
  • Boot time: Feels a bit slow. Boots in 20 seconds whereas on a similar built at my place Debian Testing* boots in 5 seconds.
  • Disk footprint: Full KDE Plasma stack + FreeBSD takes some 10 GB, somewhat similar Debian installation takes some 6GB.
  • Overall experience: FreeBSD Plasma, though somewhat heavy, feels a better cohesive whole, and as much as I go through its handbooks, seems a well organized product. Documentation is superb!
  • This place (FreeBSD Forum) feels home. More sensible, helpful and sane than I've so far experienced elsewhere in other opensource places online.
*Note: My Debian Plasma desktop has a heavily modified kernel compiled from liquorix sources with "localyesconfig" option with all debugging symbols disabled. The boot partition takes only 11MB. Same with the application software. They have only the necessary dependencies. I've removed Debian recommended/suggested dependencies to the highest extent. The debian info:
Code: 
manmath@debian:~$ neofetch
       _,met$$$$$gg.          manmath@debian
    ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P.       --------------
  ,g$$P"     """Y$$.".        OS: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid x86_64
 ,$$P'              `$$$.     Host: H61M-DS2
',$$P       ,ggs.     `$$b:   Kernel: 5.17.15-lqx1
`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$    Uptime: 37 mins
 $$P      d$'     ,    $$P    Packages: 1495 (dpkg)
 $$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'    Shell: bash 5.2.0
 $$;      Y$b._   _,d$P'      Resolution: 1920x1080
 Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'         DE: Plasma 5.25.4
 `$$b      "-.__              WM: KWin
  `Y$$                        Theme: Raleigh [GTK2], Adwaita [GTK3]
   `Y$$.                      Icons: oxygen [GTK2], breeze [GTK3]
     `$$b.                    Terminal: konsole
       `Y$$b.                 CPU: Intel i5-3330 (4) @ 3.200GHz
          `"Y$b._             GPU: Intel HD Graphics
              `"""            Memory: 1278MiB / 7886MiB

Query: Would anybody please suggest me how to recompile a FreeBSD kernel having support to my hardware, stripping off the unnecessary bits. Also it'd be better if you suggest me removing (if at all) server bits, security option, etc., that may result in yet more responsiveness. I won't mind investing some time. It'll be a learning experience.
 
manmath said:
Also it'd be better if you suggest me removing (if at all) server bits, security option, etc., that may result in yet more responsiveness.
Click to expand...
Same thing. Minimize as you learn the sub-systems. There is no golden goose.

On my router which I have tried to minimize I focused on increasing security not eliminating it.

I did disable some services I do not use.

/etc/rc.conf entries.
Code: 
### Un-needed services ###
cron_enable="NO"
virecover_enable="NO"
mixer_enable="NO"
moused_ums0_enable="NO"
moused_ums1_enable="NO"
ip6addrctl_enable="NO"
ipv6_activate_all_interfaces="NO"
update_motd="NO"
savecore_enable="NO"
 
I have tested all the ATSC cards on this list ( WinTV 18xx (PCIe) and FusionHDTV 7 (PCI))

These cards are very old, but like the Atheros card you maybe able to score one for cheap.

If you want just video capture I think there is a USB dongle for that. Used with OBS studio in ports.
 
Do you use the computer in many different places or mostly in the same place?

In the latter case, you can simply purchase a wi-fi extender that has an Ethernet output and then connect the Ethernet cable to your computer.

With computers I use often, I almost always do this even if it has a working wi-fi card, simply because extenders almost always provide faster and more stable internet connections. And extenders have also become very cheap these days.
 
Open a PR. If the hardware works on -RELEASE and not -STABLE or -CURRENT the regression must be fixed (unless of course the driver has been deprecated and removed). You've listed a number of wifi drivers in your rc.conf. One of them must work.

Secondly, -CURRENT is the development trunk of the tree. Things do break from time to time.

I think it's great if people kick the tires of -CURRENT. Too many times patches go into -CURRENT, are merged into -STABLE, and one or two years later when someone upgrades to -RELEASE minus one do we find out that there's a regression. Sometimes by that time it's too late because too much other code and too many other people are now dependent upon the new feature that caused the regression in the first place, and there we are between a rock and a hard place. It's better to find out sooner than later for sooner a problem is fixed the better chance it will be fixed.

What have you tried to narrow down the problem?

Have you opened a PR?
 
elgrande said:
I know it has been emphasized in various threads for many times, but if you are just _using_ FreeBSD, in 99% of the cases there is absolutely no reason to use development versions -CURRENT and -STABLE.
Just go for a release.
Click to expand...
Typically for most users -RELEASE is the preferred approach, using freebsd-update (and pkgbase when it's GA) for updates.

As for ports, use binary packages. Binary packages are based on quarterly which tends to be more stable than ports.

Try to have as stock an installation as possible. Use GENERIC. Use the tools, like sysrc, enable/disable services. Avoid editing files.

The last thing I tell people is to avoid vi and use ee. At $JOB, where Linux is the main course, I tell people to use nano. It's appropriate for new sysadmins to use it as well. The learning curve isn't as steep. In this regard I disagree with my manager who insists the new kids on the team learn vi. It's 2022. People should use the tools they're comfortable with. (Us old dogs will never change though.)
 
elgrande said:
I never will!!!!!
Click to expand...
The world is a different place than it was 25 years ago. (And back then the controversy was emacs v.s. vi.)

Having said that I could never get the hang of ee or nano. I don't know how to use them. I'm comfortable with vi. And, when I was seconded to work on an IBM mainframe project a few years ago, ISPF EDIT was foreign to me, entering h's, j's, k's, and l's where there should be text, because IBM ISPF EDIT uses arrow keys.

But, new people to this business don't understand its modal nature. We have a new guy in our group without any IT experience let alone experience with anything UNIX or Linux (this is how desperate we are for staff). vi confounds him. Let him use what's comfortable.
 
I'm using freebsd 3.1. All the hardware works fine. Previously I had some problems (as mentioned in this thread) with -current release with mediatek wifi card. With atheros wifi card and logitech webcam, freebsd 3.1 works just perfect.
 
Sorry, it's 13.1.

Also I'd like to add a few points regarding my experience of FreeBSD 13.1 and Debian Bookworm (testing) on the same hardware .

FreeBSD 13.1: As responsive as Debian. Good point, it never crashed. All applications and devices (video, audio, webcam, wifi) behave well. But booting takes more time (15 sec.). Shutdown is instantaneous. Takes almost twice the disk space in total (FreeBSD + applications) than Debian. The set of applications are same in both OSes.
Debian Bookworm (testing): Responsive, especially booting is very fast (~3 secs.). But applications sometimes crash.

Overall I'm having a great experience except for one thing - I cann't install AnyDesk (https://download.anydesk.com/freebsd/anydesk-freebsd-6.1.1-x86_64.tar.gz). Please suggest me how to install this tar.gz application. I need this.
 
manmath said:
Sorry, it's 13.1.

Also I'd like to add a few points regarding my experience of FreeBSD 13.1 and Debian Bookworm (testing) on the same hardware .

FreeBSD 13.1: As responsive as Debian. Good point, it never crashed. All applications and devices (video, audio, webcam, wifi) behave well. But booting takes more time (15 sec.). Shutdown is instantaneous. Takes almost twice the disk space in total (FreeBSD + applications) than Debian. The set of applications are same in both OSes.
Debian Bookworm (testing): Responsive, especially booting is very fast (~3 secs.). But applications sometimes crash.

Overall I'm having a great experience except for one thing - I cann't install AnyDesk (https://download.anydesk.com/freebsd/anydesk-freebsd-6.1.1-x86_64.tar.gz). Please suggest me how to install this tar.gz application. I need this.
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning Anydesk. I downloaded it and it didn't run. Had to install x11-toolkits/gtkglext/.

262275 – deskutils/anydesk: missing dependency

bugs.freebsd.org bugs.freebsd.org
 
manmath said:
booting takes more time (15 sec.) ... Takes almost twice the disk space in total (FreeBSD + applications) than Debian. The set of applications are same in both OSes.
Click to expand...
FreeBSD runs its rc scripts sequentially, Debian probably uses systemd which starts things in parallel (subject to dependencies completing).

FreeBSD has a lot is its base system, so it's probably not the same applications in both cases.
 
larshenrikoern said:
Choice is good. Vi, ee or nano are all valid choices. And we are all different people. So let everyone choose what works best for them :)
Click to expand...

The advantage of vi and ee is that both are part of the FreeBSD base system, which means that you can use them when other editors aren't installed, or in some situations where the system isn't fully functional. Everyone using FreeBSD ought to know one of them, fortunately ee is so basic that it doesn't really require much learning to make simple changes to configuration files.

That doesn't mean that either are good choices for everyday editing. In my experience people that know vi mostly use vim, and ee is too basic for much more than configuration changes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top