freeBSD

Discussion in 'UDOO X86' started by dr. Chernobyl, Mar 14, 2017.

  1. dr. Chernobyl

    dr. Chernobyl New Member

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    does anybody know will it be possible to install and run freeBSD OS on udoo x86 with all features intact?

    I am also looking to possibly replace my PC with SBC like this one so I am investigating multiple options, if anybody has better suggestion than udoo x86 ultra for SBC solution I am all ears(arduino part of this SBC is less important to me, x86 architecture, RAM, CPU, low power consumption and expandability are key things Im looking for)
     
  2. Maurice

    Maurice Active Member

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    The X86 part is just like a regular PC, so if it meets the normal requirements of FreeBSD, and I wouldn't know why not, it will run FreeBSD.
     
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  3. Laura

    Laura UDOOer

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    Should be good to go. An earlier Intel Braswell SoC processor (N3050) was tested by FreeBSD. Here's the dmesg from their test - https://people.freebsd.org/~gonzo/dmesg-NUC5CPYH.txt

    The UDOO X86 is a good SBC solution. I've not seen any in this class that include M.2 interfaces. The option to upgrade my board with bigger storage capacity without any noticeable increase in it's compact size, I think is fantastic!
     
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  4. dr. Chernobyl

    dr. Chernobyl New Member

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    thank you very much for the answer, I did investigate other solutions like SECO boards, but this seems best bang for the buck because industrial boards are probably way more expensive, the only thing is I would maybe like 16 GB of RAM to avoid using swap, but when it comes to expandability udoo x86 has everything I need, that M.2 interface for SSD is a great thing to have
     
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  5. stecolumna

    stecolumna UDOOer

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  6. Benjamin

    Benjamin New Member

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    For anyone reading this thread FreeBSD on udoo x86 works very well. In order to get accelerated graphical output you'll need to upgrade to 12-Current and compile the the drm-next kernel from https://github.com/FreeBSDDesktop/freebsd-base-graphics/wiki else X will try and use the modesetting or vesa driver.

    Make sure you have:
    i915kms_load="YES"

    in loader.conf

    You'll need to upgrade to FreeBSD 12-Current for support for the onboard EMMC.
    FreeBSD can see the modem port for the onboard arduino, but the ardunio pkg in Freebsd deliberately disable the ability to install new boards as many boards install linux only drivers/tools. Hence I've not been able to program the ardunio from FreeBSD. I've also tried via virtualbox to access the ardunio (FreeBSD host, windows guest) but because the ardunio resets when programmed the umodem driver in FreeBSD allocates a new cuaX device at device reset and hence the original cuaX device virtual box has accessed no longer works and programming fails.

    HDMI video output works fine, I've not tried the minidisplay ports.
    FreeBSD can see the audio driver for HDMI but I've not been able to get sound out of it.

    ZFS works nicely with the hardware, the onboard emmcs is quick for read/write but trim commands are slow. If you create a zpool on the emmc, FreeBSD will run trim across the entire drive which with 32Gb takes a few minutes to complete. During which time the box almost appears hung. gstat -d will show you all the pending trim commands processing.

    As a mythtv backend/frontend with additional usb tuner (used via webcamd) the udoo simply rocks.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  7. Benjamin

    Benjamin New Member

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    Other modules worth loading under FreeBSD are:
    • ichsmb (SM Bus support)
    • ichwd (Watchdog support via watchdogd)
    • aesni & cryptodev (Gives hardware support for aes encryption when using openssl)
     

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