BSD Hardware

[thnewguy]

On the topic of spreading BSD love, where can we find companies that sell BSD-specific hardware? I thinking end-user solutions similar to what HP and Dell do with their Linux lines.

I know iXsystems sells workstations and a laptop, but their selection is very limited. And they aren't very forthcoming with the price of one of these machines, so I'm guessing it's high. (http://www.ixsystems.com/ix/servers/home-and-office)

The FreeBSD Mall doesn't appear to mention computer hardware.

I found this page on the FreeBSD website (http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/hardware.html) but it seems to just be for servers and, again, higher end workstations. The terms "notebook" and "laptop" don't appear on the page at all.

Anyone know of an affordable OEM that sells FreeBSD compatible machines?

[Fatmice]

You might want to check out my link, the laptop section.

http://forums.pcbsd.org/showthread.php?t=13415

It would be nice if we can collect more infos on supported hardware.

Usually, for BSD supported hardware, I always look at supported hardware for each release and then buy the ones that is supported.

What are you looking to do?

[Galraedia]

It would be nice if PC-BSD/FreeBSD had a hardware database like the one for Haiku.

http://haikuware.com/hardware/

[drulavigne]

Yes, I really like the layout of the haiku hardware link. Let's find all the info we can about supported hardware, post links on what we find in this thread, and start compiling that info into a page on the website. Suggestions on where to put that info on the website are also welcome. If you wanted to get this info, where would you look on the main page of the website? e.g. Support link in menu bar?

[thnewguy]

One of the links in Fatmice's post is pretty close to what I'd like to see:
http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/

What I had in mind was a hardware database which focused on OEM solutions as opposed to bare hardware solutions. Maybe with a rating/comment system. So I could go to the hardware database, click "HP laptop" or "HP desktop" and see a list of products they produce which are known to work (or not work) with PC-BSD/FreeBSD.

The Wine project does something like this where they list applications and give them ratings. Gold, silver, bronze, n/a depending on how well the app works.

I think it would be great to be able to check to see if PC-BSD will work with a given machine ahead of time... or be able to buy a machine I'm 99% sure will work with PC-BSD out of the box.

I'm also curious if any OEMs sell PC-BSD pre-installed laptops? I did a search for them and only came up with iXsystems. They have a nice laptop, but it looks like it's targeting a fairly specific (higher end) user, rather than an everyday low/mid-level consumer.

[Fatmice]

You know the only way your solution would work is if some brave soul buy and test it. That is essentially how the laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd do it. Random people with random hardware available install freebsd and give their 2 cents.

A better way...I suppose harder way, but less costly, is to survey OEM based on their hardware configuration and cross that with freebsd supported device list. If the hardware has the kernel modules for them then that OEM device will work with freebsd...whatever version that maybe.

[Ralph_Ellis]

BSDstats also collects hardware information and you can get a sense of what works.

http://bsdstats.org/

[algould]

I am completely in support of an improved hardware compatibility list; but I'm not sure I'm in favor of a new list that is separate from existing efforts. One of the difficulties for newbies is that they are expected to read "the documentation", which is vaguely defined and dispersed across the internet. I've seen a laptop compatibility web page, NYCBUG has a dmesg database, PCBSD and FreeBSD forums both have hardware sections and bsdstats.org.

Take a look at the device stats at bsdstats.org. Can the data (or a copy of the data) in the back-end be harnessed by a more user-friendly interface? I think getting people to report their hardware is going to be half the battle. Using bsdstats may be the easiest solution from both a data gathering and reporting perspective.

[Fatmice]

I must say but is this list and the link useful?

I think about that some time ago. It may look like using devinfo (3) ( and pciconf with online hardware base. For example application collect information about devices with devinfo api or command or may be with pciconf. After that app calls server for example by SOAP to give some additional information about device.

Hints: pciconf(, devinfo(, devinfo(3), /usr/share/misc/pci_vendors

http://www.pcidatabase.com/reports.php?type=csv
(http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads/pcidevs.txt)

[cabpa]

Can my Acer aspire 4736z can also be listed because I was able to install PCBSD on it but it is not listed yet in the FreeBSD hardware compatibility list?

[drulavigne]

Please submit the info to http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html?action=laptop_submit_form.

[cabpa]

thank you drulavigne