300 lines
13 KiB
Text
300 lines
13 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
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<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
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%articles.ent;
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]>
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<article>
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<articleinfo>
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<title>FreeBSD on Laptops</title>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<abstract>
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<para>FreeBSD works fine on most laptops, with a few caveats.
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Some issues specific to running FreeBSD on laptops, relating
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to different hardware requirements from desktops, are
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discussed below.</para>
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</abstract>
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<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
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&tm-attrib.freebsd;
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&tm-attrib.linux;
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&tm-attrib.microsoft;
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&tm-attrib.general;
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</legalnotice>
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</articleinfo>
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<para>FreeBSD is often thought of as a server operating system, but
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it works just fine on the desktop, and if you want to use it on
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your laptop you can enjoy all the usual benefits: systematic
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layout, easy administration and upgrading, the ports/packages
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system for adding software, and so on. (Its other benefits,
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such as stability, network performance, and performance under
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a heavy load, may not be obvious on a laptop, of course.)
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However, installing it on laptops often involves problems which
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are not encountered on desktop machines and are not commonly
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discussed (laptops, even more than desktops, are fine-tuned for
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µsoft.windows;). This article aims to discuss some of these
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issues. Several people have also documented their experiences
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with &os; on specific laptop models on webpages which are not
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part of the &os; documentation. You might very well find some
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information if you type the name of your laptop model and the
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word <quote>&os;</quote> into a search engine of your
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choice. Additionally there is a &os;-specific online database
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which aims to give information on hardware issues with laptops,
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<ulink url="http://gerda.univie.ac.at/freebsd-laptops/">The &os;
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Laptop Compatibility List</ulink>.</para>
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<para>If you want to communicate with other &os; laptop users,
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check out the &a.mobile.name; list. You can also get additional
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information about using Laptops on &os; at
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<ulink url="http://tuxmobil.org/mobile_bsd.html"></ulink>.</para>
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<sect1 id="xorg">
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<title>&xorg;</title>
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<para>Recent versions of <application>&xorg;</application> work with most display adapters
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available on laptops these days. Acceleration may not be
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supported, but a generic SVGA configuration should work.</para>
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<para>Check your laptop documentation for which card you have,
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and check in the <application>&xorg;</application> documentation
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to see whether it is specifically supported. If it is not, use
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a generic device (do not go for a name which just looks
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similar). You can try your luck
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with the command <userinput>Xorg -configure</userinput>
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which auto-detects a lot of configurations.</para>
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<para>The problem often is configuring the monitor. Common
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resources for <application>&xorg;</application> focus on CRT monitors; getting a
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suitable modeline for an LCD display may be tricky. You may
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be lucky and not need to specify a modeline, or just need to
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specify suitable <literal>HorizSync</literal> and <literal>VertRefresh</literal> ranges. If that
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does not work, the best option is to check web resources
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devoted to configuring X on laptops (these are often
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Linux oriented sites but it does not matter because both systems
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use <application>&xorg;</application>) and copy a modeline posted by someone for similar
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hardware.</para>
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<para>Most laptops come with two buttons on their pointing
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devices, which is rather problematic in X (since the middle
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button is commonly used to paste text); you can map a
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simultaneous left-right click in your X configuration to
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a middle button click with the line</para>
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<programlisting>
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Option "Emulate3Buttons"
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</programlisting>
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<para>in the <filename>xorg.conf</filename> file in the <literal>InputDevice</literal>
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section.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="modems">
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<title>Modems</title>
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<para>
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Laptops usually come with internal (on-board) modems.
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Unfortunately, this almost always means they are
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<quote>winmodems</quote> whose
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functionality is implemented in software, for which only &windows;
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drivers are normally available (though a few drivers are beginning
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to show up for other operating systems; for example, if your modem has a Lucent LT chipset it might be supported by the <filename role="package">comms/ltmdm</filename> port). If that is the case, you
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need to buy an external modem: the most compact option is
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probably a PC Card (PCMCIA) modem, discussed below, but
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serial or USB modems may be cheaper. Generally, regular
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modems (non-winmodems) should work fine.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="pcmcia">
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<title>PCMCIA (PC Card) devices</title>
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<para> Most laptops come with PCMCIA (also called PC Card)
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slots; these are supported fine under FreeBSD. Look through
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your boot-up messages (using &man.dmesg.8;) and see whether these were
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detected correctly (they should appear as
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<devicename>pccard0</devicename>,
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<devicename>pccard1</devicename> etc on devices like
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<devicename>pcic0</devicename>).</para>
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<para>&os; 4.X supports 16-bit PCMCIA cards, and
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&os; 5.X supports both 16-bit and
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32-bit (<quote>CardBus</quote>) cards. A database of supported
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cards is in the file <filename>/etc/defaults/pccard.conf</filename>.
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Look through it, and preferably buy cards listed there. Cards not
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listed may also work as <quote>generic</quote> devices: in
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particular most modems (16-bit) should work fine, provided they
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are not winmodems (these do exist even as PC Cards, so watch out).
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If your card is recognised as a generic modem, note that the
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default <filename>pccard.conf</filename> file specifies a delay time of 10 seconds
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(to avoid freezes on certain modems); this may well be
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over-cautious for your modem, so you may want to play with it,
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reducing it or removing it totally.</para>
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<para>Some parts of <filename>pccard.conf</filename> may need
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editing. Check the irq line, and be sure to remove any number
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already being used: in particular, if you have an on board sound
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card, remove irq 5 (otherwise you may experience hangs when you
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insert a card). Check also the available memory slots; if your
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card is not being detected, try changing it to one of the other
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allowed values (listed in the manual page &man.pccardc.8;).
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</para>
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<para>If it is not running already, start the &man.pccardd.8; daemon.
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(To enable it at boot time, add
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<programlisting>pccard_enable="YES"</programlisting> to
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<filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>.) Now your cards should be
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detected when you insert and remove them, and you should get
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log messages about new devices being enabled.</para>
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<para>There have been major changes to the pccard code
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(including ISA routing of interrupts, for machines where
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&os; is not able to use the PCI BIOS) before the &os; 4.4
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release. If you have problems, try upgrading your system.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="power-management">
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<title>Power management</title>
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<para>Unfortunately, this is not very reliably supported under
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FreeBSD. If you are lucky, some functions may work reliably;
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or they may not work at all.</para>
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<para>To make things a little more complex, there are two existing
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standards for power management: APM and ACPI, the latter
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superseding the former and including more features, but also
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introducing more problems.</para>
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<para>Some laptops support both APM and ACPI (to a certain
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degree), others just support one of them, so chances are that
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you have to experiment with both of them to have reliable power
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management on your laptop.</para>
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<note>
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<para>You cannot have APM and ACPI enabled at the same time,
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even if your laptop has support for both of them.</para>
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</note>
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<sect2>
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<title>APM</title>
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<para>The APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS provides support
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for various power management features like standby, suspend,
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hibernation, CPU clock slow down etc. and is available
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under &os; 4.X and &os; 5.X.</para>
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<para>To enable APM support, you can compile a kernel with power
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management support (<literal>device apm0</literal> on
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&os; 4.X and <literal>device apm</literal> on
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&os; 5.X). A kernel module for APM is available under
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&os; 5.X, to simply load the APM kernel module at boot
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add the line <literal>apm_load="YES"</literal> to
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<filename>/boot/loader.conf</filename>.</para>
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<para>On &os; 5.X, you also have to set
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<literal>hint.apm.0.disabled="0"</literal> in
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<filename>/boot/device.hints</filename>.</para>
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<para>You can start APM at boot time by having
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<literal>apm_enable="YES"</literal> in
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<filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>. You may also want start
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the &man.apmd.8; daemon by adding
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<literal>apmd_enable="YES"</literal> to
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<filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>, which takes care of
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various APM events that are posted to the BIOS, so you can
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have your laptop suspend/resume by pressing some function
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key on the keyboard or by closing/opening the lid.</para>
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<para>The APM commands are listed in the &man.apm.8; manual page.
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For instance, <command>apm -b</command> gives you battery
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status (or 255 if not supported), <command>apm -Z</command>
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puts the laptop on standby, <command>apm -z</command> (or
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<command>zzz</command>) suspends it. To shutdown and power
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off the machine, use <command>shutdown -p</command>. Again,
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some or all of these functions may not work very well or at
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all.</para>
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<para>You may find that laptop suspension/standby works in
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console mode but not under X (that is, the screen does not
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come on again); if you are running &os; 5.X, one solution
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for this might be to put <literal>options
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SC_NO_SUSPEND_VTYSWITCH</literal>
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in your kernel configuration file and recompile your kernel.
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Another workaround is to switch to a virtual console (using
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<keycombo
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action="simul"><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo>
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or another function key) and then execute &man.apm.8;.
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You can automate this with &man.vidcontrol.1;, if you are
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running &man.apmd.8;. Simply edit
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<filename>/etc/apmd.conf</filename> and change it to
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this:</para>
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<programlisting>apm_event SUSPENDREQ {
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exec "vidcontrol -s 1 < /dev/console";
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exec "/etc/rc.suspend";
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}
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apm_event USERSUSPENDREQ {
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exec "vidcontrol -s 1 < /dev/console";
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exec "sync && sync && sync";
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exec "sleep 1";
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exec "apm -z";
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}
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apm_event NORMRESUME, STANDBYRESUME {
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exec "/etc/rc.resume";
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exec "vidcontrol -s 9 < /dev/console";
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}</programlisting>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>ACPI</title>
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<para>ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Management
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Interface) provides not only power management but also
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platform hardware discovery (superseding PnP and PCI BIOS).
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ACPI is only available under &os; 5.X and is enabled by
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default, so you do not have to do anything special to get it
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running. You can control ACPI behaviour with
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&man.acpiconf.8;.</para>
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<para>Unfortunately, vendors often ship their laptops with
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broken ACPI implementations, thus having ACPI enabled
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sometimes causes more problems than being useful, up to the
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point that you cannot even boot &os; on some machines with
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ACPI enabled.</para>
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<para>If ACPI is causing problems, you might check if your
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laptop vendor has released a new BIOS version that fixes some
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bugs. Since the &os; ACPI implementation is still very
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evolving code, you might also want to upgrade your system;
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chances are that your problems are fixed.</para>
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<para>If you want to disable ACPI simply add
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<literal>hint.acpi.0.disabled="1"</literal> to
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<filename>/boot/device.hints</filename>. You can disable
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ACPI temporarily at the boot loader prompt by issueing
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<literal>unset acpi_load</literal> if you are having problems
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booting an ACPI enabled machine. &os; 5.1-RELEASE and
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later come with a boot-time menu that controls how &os; is
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booted. One of the proposed options is to turn off ACPI. So
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to disable ACPI just select <guimenuitem>2. Boot &os; with ACPI
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disabled</guimenuitem> in the menu.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Display Power Management</title>
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<para>The X window system (<application>&xorg;</application>) also includes display power
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management (look at the &man.xset.1; manual page, and search for
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<quote>dpms</quote> there). You may want to investigate this. However, this,
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too, works inconsistently on laptops: it
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often turns off the display but does not turn off the
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backlight.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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</article>
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