Run FreeBSD on ThinkPad T480

Hardware Specs

The following is the hardware list of thinkpad t480.

• Cpu: Intel texttel core i5-8250
• Gpu: Intel UHD Graphics 620
• Ram: 32GB(16GBx2) DDR4 2400MHz (Kingston)
• Storage: 512GB SSD (Samsung 860 pro)
• Wireless: Intel Wireless-AC 8265
• Ethernet: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I219-V
• Dock: ThinkPad Thunderbolt Workstation Dock 2

Hardware & Function	works?	need config?	description
Ethernet	yes	no
Wifi	yes	no
Bluethooth	no	---
Graphics	yes	yes
Microphone	yes	unknown
Sound	yes	no
Webcam	yes	yes
Suspend & Resume	yes	yes

And the Dock station:

Hardware & Function	works?	need conf ?	description
VGA	yes	no
Ethernet	yes	no
Usb	yes	no

Basic Setup

Prepare install usb stick

FreeBSD has three type of versions:

• Current --- Not stable, but with new features.

• Release --- Stable

• Stable --- Stablest

  I chose 12.1-RELEASE.

1. Usb stick & download image.
   You can download official install image here. Choose the amd64memstick.img, but amd64memstick.img.xz is better.

2. Burn with dd

   dd if=FreeBSD*amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/sda* bs=1M conv=sync

Bios Setup

1. Disable Secure Boot

• Security > Secure Boot
  • Secure Boot: Enabled -> Disabled

2. Disable TPM

• Security > Security Chip
  • Security Chip: Enabled -> Disabled

3. Disable Bluetooth

• Security > I/O Port Access
  • Bluetooth: Enabled -> Disabled

Install Base system

1. Boot from usb

2. Then install FreeBSD base system.\

   That is easy, just follow the installer.

3. Reboot

Further Configurations

Network & Wireless

Graphic & X system

A graphic desktop would be necessary for daily use. We have many options. We have two popular options: WM(window manager) and DE(desktop environment).

• DE:
  • Gnome: Not uptodate. Only 3.28.
  • KDE: Uptodate and beautiful, but not stable 😑️.
  • Xfce4
• WM:
  • DWM: The most suckless wm, but you need cood, patches are annoying.
  • Xmonad: Many functions, but haskell programming needed.
  • i3WM: widely used, easy to config (just copy from github 😉️).
  • Awesome: Also has many functions, and easy to config.

If you use WM, a DM(Desktop manager) would be required.

• DM:
  • slim
  • SDDM
  • GDM
  • XDM

Install:

• Install graphic driver and load it.
  After this, the resolution of your tty should be larger. If so, modify rc.conf to load this module at startup. The changes will work at next boot.

   pkg install drm-kmod # you can also install from ports.
   kldload i915-kmod.ko

   echo kld_list = '/boot/module/i915-kmod.ko'

• Install the desktop

   pkg install xorg xfce4 slim

• Cerate ~/.xinitrc

   exec startxfce4

• Then test Xorg. If the system starts a xfce4 session, one can goto the next step.

   startx

• Enable system servers

   sysrc dbus_enable=YES
   sysrc hald_enable=YES
   sysrc slim_enable=YES
  
   service dbus start
   service hald start
   service slim start

Softwares

• Browser
  • Chromium
  • Firefox
• Terminal
  • Urxvt
  • Termite
• GIMP
• ThunderBird
• Inkscape
• VIM || Emacs
• Rhythmbox
• Vscode