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We reuse FreeBSD's WiFi drivers (I assumed responsibility for that port some years ago), so most things that work on FreeBSD work on Haiku. FreeBSD has fallen

We reuse FreeBSD's WiFi drivers (I assumed responsibility for that port some years ago), so most things that work on FreeBSD work on Haiku. FreeBSD has fallen behind a bit, so you may want to check model numbers carefully before buying something. Intel hardware of the "9200" series and anything before it generally works (though it may not have all features enabled.) Atheros hardware is the next best, with anything before the "Killer" series especially well supported. Slightly older ThinkPads tend to do very well. I have an E550 (from 2015) and a T60 (I dunno, 2009?) that are pretty great. My main machine is a custom Ryzen desktop where I carefully picked out hardware that I knew either was already supported or would soon be (e.g when I bought it, the NVMe driver was still in an unstable state and I had more work to do on it, but now it's pretty solid.)

Klonoar 5y ago
But then I take it that means the wifi is relatively slow, no? FreeBSD IIRC lacks 802.11ac support still.
- waddlesplash 5y ago
  You are correct, unfortunately. FreeBSD has one WiFi driver ("iwm", or on Haiku we call it "idualwifi7260") that supports 802.11ac hardware, and supposedly the 802.11 stack is ready for ac (there is an out-of-tree driver that crashes a lot but does get ac speed), but nobody added ac support to the "iwm" driver. Actually both my laptop and desktop use that driver, so who knows, maybe I'll poke at adding 802.11ac support to it one of these days.
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    Are there any problems preventing the adaptation of Linux ac drivers, I mean are they technical or licensing etc?
    - Klonoar 5y ago
      I believe that's one ongoing effort to solve the issue (since it'd also ensure things like 802.11ax support). It's just low dev resources, I think - but this is from my just browsing the situation over the past few weeks, mind you. An actual FreeBSD dev should correct me if I'm wrong. I also believe there's a hack floating around to forward ac from a Linux VM, which some use.
    - waddlesplash 5y ago
      FreeBSD does have some kind of effort to work on adopting them. While that may expand compatibility greatly, it would be in my view a major loss. FreeBSD WiFi drivers more than make up for in quality what they fail to have in quantity; Linux drivers are generally the bottom of the barrel and this often translates directly to poor user experiences with them. FreeBSD drivers may work on less hardware ... but when or where they do work, they are often much more of a sure thing. (Haiku has its own troubles with FreeBSD drivers, for sure, but generally this seems to hold true: either it works nearly perfectly or it completely fails to recognize or initialize the hardware. Almost all tickets on our tracker now or in the past about such drivers have been along those lines.)
      - Klonoar 5y ago
        You've put into words something I've been thinking about and somewhat remorseful about: when FreeBSD just exists as a different kernel to run the same Linux stuff, what's the project really? Legacy? I find that I tend to prefer the FreeBSD take on things as well, so the Linux angle just feels weird the past few years.
  - Klonoar 5y ago
    Huh, curious about the out-of-tree driver - I haven't seen that. I've considered donating funds to FreeBSD with the idea of earmarking them specifically for Wifi, but I don't know how much that actually helps...
    - queuebert 5y ago
      I would donate also. The only reason I don't run it on my newer laptop is lack of wifi. Using Linux after FreeBSD is like getting dessert at McDonald's after a Michelin-star meal.
      - nix23 5y ago
        If have exactly the same problem, now my laptop runs ubuntu, because i have zero interest in customizing linux on the laptop...i want my FreeBSD :) Now we are three who could donate to FreeBSD-Foundation and wish for ac on Intel wireless.
- zdw 5y ago
  Do any of the BSD's have 802.11ac support? I know OpenBSD hasn't worked on it yet. Not criticizing, just observing how hard it is to work through new alphabet soup of standards without hardware vendor support.
em-bee 5y ago
i just booted successfully on a T420. if it can handle the TV as external monitor then i may be able to use it as a media player.

Klonoar 5y ago

But then I take it that means the wifi is relatively slow, no? FreeBSD IIRC lacks 802.11ac support still.

waddlesplash 5y ago
You are correct, unfortunately. FreeBSD has one WiFi driver ("iwm", or on Haiku we call it "idualwifi7260") that supports 802.11ac hardware, and supposedly the 802.11 stack is ready for ac (there is an out-of-tree driver that crashes a lot but does get ac speed), but nobody added ac support to the "iwm" driver. Actually both my laptop and desktop use that driver, so who knows, maybe I'll poke at adding 802.11ac support to it one of these days.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Are there any problems preventing the adaptation of Linux ac drivers, I mean are they technical or licensing etc?
  - Klonoar 5y ago
    I believe that's one ongoing effort to solve the issue (since it'd also ensure things like 802.11ax support). It's just low dev resources, I think - but this is from my just browsing the situation over the past few weeks, mind you. An actual FreeBSD dev should correct me if I'm wrong. I also believe there's a hack floating around to forward ac from a Linux VM, which some use.
  - waddlesplash 5y ago
    FreeBSD does have some kind of effort to work on adopting them. While that may expand compatibility greatly, it would be in my view a major loss. FreeBSD WiFi drivers more than make up for in quality what they fail to have in quantity; Linux drivers are generally the bottom of the barrel and this often translates directly to poor user experiences with them. FreeBSD drivers may work on less hardware ... but when or where they do work, they are often much more of a sure thing. (Haiku has its own troubles with FreeBSD drivers, for sure, but generally this seems to hold true: either it works nearly perfectly or it completely fails to recognize or initialize the hardware. Almost all tickets on our tracker now or in the past about such drivers have been along those lines.)
    - Klonoar 5y ago
      You've put into words something I've been thinking about and somewhat remorseful about: when FreeBSD just exists as a different kernel to run the same Linux stuff, what's the project really? Legacy? I find that I tend to prefer the FreeBSD take on things as well, so the Linux angle just feels weird the past few years.
- Klonoar 5y ago
  Huh, curious about the out-of-tree driver - I haven't seen that. I've considered donating funds to FreeBSD with the idea of earmarking them specifically for Wifi, but I don't know how much that actually helps...
  - queuebert 5y ago
    I would donate also. The only reason I don't run it on my newer laptop is lack of wifi. Using Linux after FreeBSD is like getting dessert at McDonald's after a Michelin-star meal.
    - nix23 5y ago
      If have exactly the same problem, now my laptop runs ubuntu, because i have zero interest in customizing linux on the laptop...i want my FreeBSD :) Now we are three who could donate to FreeBSD-Foundation and wish for ac on Intel wireless.
zdw 5y ago
Do any of the BSD's have 802.11ac support? I know OpenBSD hasn't worked on it yet. Not criticizing, just observing how hard it is to work through new alphabet soup of standards without hardware vendor support.

em-bee 5y ago

i just booted successfully on a T420. if it can handle the TV as external monitor then i may be able to use it as a media player.