FreeBSD on E4200/E4300

[Manolis Kiagias]

Albert Shih wrote:
>  Le 28/07/2009 à 10:27:04+0200, Matthias Apitz a écrit
>   
>> El día Tuesday, July 28, 2009 a las 10:17:02AM +0200, Albert Shih escribió:
>>
>>     
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> Anyone have try to install FreeBSD (any version) on Dell E4200 or E4300 ?
>>> If someone already do, can he tell me what's working and what's not
>>> working.
>>>       
>> Hello Albert,
>>
>> The place to look (and make entries) is here:
>> http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/
>>
>> I run a Dell Precision M4400, not sure how close this is to your E4200
>> or E4300; you might check all Dell boxes there and mine is:
>> http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html?action=show_laptop_detail&laptop=12868
>>
>>     
> Thanks for the tips.
>
> Another question : I've access (but I can't install anything) a E4200
> computer. How can I check what's is supported by FreeBSD ? www.freesbie.org
> don't answer (maybe the project is stop). Is they are another livecd or
> something like that ? 
>
> Regards.
>
>   
Assuming there is windows installed in it, just check the device manager
for entries like wireless, vga, sound etc.
Then have a look at the hardware notes here:

http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.2R/hardware.html

to see if these devices are supported.

Another thing to try: Boot from the FreeBSD DVD or  the livefs iso
(ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES-i386/7.2/7.2-RELEASE-i386-livefs.iso),
go to the "Fixit" option and select to use the live filesystem. Once you
get to a console try a few things like dmesg -a to see what the kernel
has recognized. Also look for problems like ACPI error messages and the
like.

At this point it is probably worth to try this with a FreeBSD 8.0
livefs, as it will probably support hardware than 7.2 does not. Many
recent laptops have wireless chipsets that are not yet supported in
FreeBSD. Take a look at the bottom side to see if an easy access to the
wireless mini-PCI express card is provided. You can then easily exchange
the card if needed. Atheros-based cards are sold on ebay for a few bucks.