Barely finished my last article about FreeBSD (PRERELEASE at that time) on Compaq laptops, and my computer was replaced (as part of Company refresh policy). I was upgraded to a laptop Compaq NC 6400.

As any good lazy Unix sysadmin (and clever), I just recovered a backup from my previous model (nc 6220). It worked *almost fine*. Just a few adjustments were needed.

Previously I wrote about my quest, getting FreeBSD up and running. As such, let me start describing a little better this laptop hardware:

• CPU Intel Centrino Dual Core 1.66 GHz
• 2 GB of RAM
• 80 GB of Hard Disk SATA (faster!!! And kernel says 76319 MB instead)
• Built-in bluetooth
• Built-in Wireless Intel 3945ABG
• 3 USB ports
• VGA and S/Video outputs
• CD/DVD-RW unity (finally!!!)
• SD Memory card reader
• Gigabit Ethernet interface (Broadcom)
• Internal Modem
• Smart Card reader
• Fingerprint sensor
• Sound system Intel 82801G

Getting hands dirty

First thing, I had to move my partitions from /dev/ad0 to /dev/ad4since they use the new SATA interface. A boot with recovery disk was enough to achieve this.

First boot was ok, but far from fine. Screen came up weirdly, caused by xorg.conf, due the chipset swap from i810 to i915. And also the physical screen size was different from old 14".

Seeking in google, I found the following links:

Last resource was really handy. I could realize screen was 1280x800 instead. And some Linux procedures (not so few nowadays) helped me to make a roadmap to have FreeBSD successfully installed.

Graphical card 945GM

To achieve an optimal usage, add the following lines in /boot/loader.conf:

i915_load="YES" 

It'll load all required modules (drm and so on).

Through ports, install package sysutils/915resolution. Then add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf:

i915resolution_enable="YES" 
i915resolution_modes="3c" 
i915resolution_width=1280 
i915resolution_height=800 

This will be enough to fix the poorly effect from xorg usage only.

Sound card Intel 82801G

Just add the following line to /boot/loader.conf:

snd_hda_load="YES" 

Wireless 3945ABG (wpi0)

This one was a little bit trick. I had to add the following lines to /boot/loader.conf:

wlan_wep_load="YES" 
wlan_scan_sta_load="YES" 
if_ath_load="YES" 
legal.intel_wpi.license_ack=1 
wpifw_load="YES" 
if_wpi_load="YES" 
wlan_load="YES" 
wlan_amrr_load="YES" 
firmware_load="YES" 

The last statement, firmware_load isn't needed since legal.intel_wpi.license_ack is in place, but it didn't hurt me to include there :-)

Internet Keys

As a plus, I added package sysutils/lineakd to make all internet keys useful (they were dead before). I configured /usr/local/etc/lineakkb.def as described in Linux article, just appending the following lines:

[HP-NC6400]
  brandname = "Hewlett Packard"
  modelname = "Compaq NC6400"
  [KEYS]
    Information      = 245
    Wireless         = 133
    Presentation     = 205
    Mute             = 160
    VolumeDown       = 174
    VolumeUp         = 176
  [END KEYS]
[END HP-NC6400]

It worked fine.

Dual Core CPU

It works by default once ACPI is enabled. Just check the following line in your boot messages:

SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!
I've seen lately a lot of kernel messages as below:
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C) 
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C)
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C) 
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C) 
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C) 
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C) 
acpi_tz0: _CRT value is absurd, ignored (256.0C)

It's harmless, but annoying. I tried to remove it setting sysctl with hw.acpi.thermal.polling_rate=0, but it didn't work...

Gigabit ethernet (bge0)

Just loaded as before, as bge0.

ACPI and sleep mode

Remains as a dream. Not working and crashing everything, as before. Some day it'll be fixed... For now, I need to shutdown my laptop every time. At least it isn't crashing on boot as before.

Card reader, fingerprint sensor and others

Not working and just detected as generic USB. Since I don't use so much those things, I really don't care about it. Maybe it would useful for internal modem, but since wireless broadband is becoming popular, I really don't think I'll need it soon.

Status Brief

• Dual core CPU: Working (requires ACPI)
• Sound system Intel 82801G: Working (requires snd_hda)
• Video card Mobile 945GM: Working (requires i915 module and i915resolution)
• Gigabit Ethernet: Working (requires if_bge)
• Bluetooth: Working
• Wireless 3945ABG: Working (requires wpifw, if_wpi andlegal.intel_wpi.license_ack=1 )
• SD Memory card reader: Not working
• Internal Modem: Not working
• Smart Card reader: Not working
• Fingerprint sensor: Not working