Installing on Asus laptop

T

TheNewUser

So I got a new laptop, and I thought I'd install FreeBSD on it like I did with my old one. Dual booting with Windows.

But it seems this hardware probably won't work well with FreeBSD. It has Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless Network Adapter (with wi-fi and Bluetooth), Intel HD Graphics 620, NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, HID touchpad, internal Microsoft VGA UVC USB 2.0 webcam, Realtek High Definition Audio and it's a 64 bit computer.

From what I can find by looking around, the wi-fi is not supported, and neither is the Intel card.
It seems it's not worth it (at least for the moment) to install FreeBSD, last laptop was hard enough to configure, and then not everything worked well (like sleep mode). And I really used it mostly for web browsing. What do you think I should do?

And would it be possible to install on a USB flash or a flash card if my computer supports booting from that? At least just to check things out before I install properly.
 
Oops, I didn't see there was a separate part of the forum for laptops and stuff. If a moderator or something sees this, can you move this thread and delete this post?
 
System hardware might be a reasonable categeory. I suspect that many do what I do, look at new posts, and pay more attention to that than category.

As for the Intel graphics, a lot of newer ones will work with CURRENT (which isn't really supported on these forums), or 11.x-STABLE (I dunno if that's supported on the forums or not) NOTE: STABLE is not considered stable, see http://srobb.net/release.html

For getting the Intel graphics working with CURRENT, see http://srobb.net/freebsdintel.html

I don't know about that wireless card. Generally, although many cards are supported, I don't know if any yet support 802.11ac, the fastest mode. If you really want to play with FreeBSD, and the card the is the problem, you can get an inexpensive Edimax
https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY

That one works with FreeBSD, though you might have to add something into /boot/loader.conf as indicated in the urtwn(4) man page.

By the way, the installer does give you a shell so that you can check if your hardware is seen and so on. Often, if it says a wireless card needs something added in /boot/loader.conf you can kldload it to see if it is being recognized.
 
Installing on a usb device (usb memory stick, usb hard drive) is supported and works. For the machines where I have the possibility of "hands on" testing I bring a usb stick with the latest FreeBSD install image; if allowed, I boot from the usb stick and quickly get a feel for how much of the machine works with FreeBSD. Or not.
Unfortunately, much of the machines must be bought online, no pre sales test possible.
 
Yes, I think booting from a USB stick first can get you a better understanding of how your system works with FreeBSD. You get to see what works and what doesn't before installing it on your system properly. You can also read about with hardware is supported by each FreeBSD release before installing.
 
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