FreeBSD 13.1 on ThinkPad W520 (2024)

I created whole FreeBSD Desktop series … but I never created an article describing how I run FreeBSD on my own daily driver – the Lenovo ThinkPad W520 from 2011 – the last one with the so much appreciated 7-row keyboard. In this article I will share how I configured FreeBSD to make the most of it. If you are curious why I use such old laptop then my older Epitaph to Laptops article explains that in detail.

This is the Table of Contents for this article.

• FreeBSD 13.1 on ThinkPad W520
• ThinkPad W520
• Specifications
• FreeBSD System Configuration
• Desktop Environment
  • Openbox
  • XFCE
  • GNOME
• Accessories
  • Smaller Power Supply
  • Mouse Companion
  • Two Additional USB 3.0 Ports
  • Larger Custom Battery
• Experience
• Summary

This machine was out-f*cking-standing when it was released in 2011 … and expensive as hell also 🙂 With 4 physical cores and up to 32 GB RAM only a few laptops could compete with it – Dell Precision M4600 – also could do that back then … but not exactly the same. You see – the last Dell Precision to carry similar 7-row keyboard was Dell Precision M4500 – but that one was from 2010 and was able to pack only … 8 GB RAM (official) and 16 GB RAM (unofficial) – so its not a fair comparison. Today 11 years (!) later ThinkPad W520 is still very capable and powerful machine. The only thing that you may need to do is to replace the thermal paste. I also did that – Classic ThinkPad Thermal Paste Change – as described here.

To make you imagine how big that 11 years time span in IT is I will try to show you example with a car. Its like driving 30 years old Mercedes-Benz W124 from 1992 today because IT world and hardware changes and improves a lot faster then automobile industry. The Mercedes-Benz W124 with its indestructible automatic transmission and engine along with comfortable suspension and automatic air conditioning – offers daily experience not that far away from today’s cars – the meritum is definitely fulfilled. I know that from first hand since I owned one not that long ago. Not to mention its legendary reliability. Its also a car that is very liked by mechanics as its very ‘serviceable’ and has lots of space for everything. You do not need to disassemble entire front bumper and the headlight just to replace a broken light beam.

This is the same that I would say about ThinkPad W520 today. You can put three (!) storage devices at the same time. Two 2.5 SATA drives and one mSATA disk. Assuming you would use 8 TB 2.5 Samsung QVO drives and 2 TB mSATA drive you would have 18 TB of storage … in a 11 years old laptop. You can grow that to 19TB with 1TB SD card in the slot … and we even did not touched any USB ports yet. Today you are able to get ThinkPad W520 in nice condition for about $300 if you are not heisty and getting 32 GB of DDR3 RAM costs another $100 so its pretty affordable hardware.

For the record below You will find specs of mine machine. I also added driver and/or package that is used to support these devices.

CPU: Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.30GHz (4C/8T) Sandy Bridge 32nmRAM: 32 GB (4 * 8GB DDR3)HDD0: 128GB mSATA Samsung PM830 (system)HDD1: 4 TB 2.5 SATA Samsung 860 QVO (data)GFX0: Intel HD Graphics 3000 (integrated) [graphics/drm-kmod]GFX1: Nvidia Quadro 2000M (discrete) [x11/nvidia-driver-390] {nvidia}SCR: 15.6 1920x1080USB: 2 x USB 2.0 + 2 x USB 3.0 [ehci(4) + xhci(4)]AUDIO: Conexant CX20590 [snd_hda(4)]PORTS0: 1 x VGAPORTS1: 1 x DisplayPortPORTS2: 1 x eSataSD: Card Reader 5in1 [sdhci(4)]LAN: 10/100/1000 Intel 82579LM Gigabit [em(4)]WIFI: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN 802.11n [iwn(4)]BT: Bluetooth 3.0 [ng_ubt(4)]CAM: Webcam 720p [multimedia/webcamd]

Articles such as this one often focuses on what works and is supported by FreeBSD and what is problematic or does not work at all. The very nice thing about ThinkPad W520 under FreeBSD command is that EVERYTHING works. From Bluetooth through Card Reader and also multiple suspend/resume cycles. I am doing months of uptime on that laptop and I reboot only when I need to update the system or I want to test something … but that often also does not need reboot now as you can just reroot into other BE as described in my other ZFS Boot Environments Revolutions article.

I do not need the compute power of discrete Nvidia Quadro 2000M card so I disabled it in the BIOS – but when I tried it with drivers from the FreeBSD Ports – everything worked as desired. I use integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 which is more then enough for my needs. To be honest I would get ThinkPad T520 which can be bought with integrated graphics only but it has two downsides. The T520 does not have any USB 3.0 ports – that one I could probably live with but … it comes only with Dual Core CPUs. You can of course place a Quad Core CPU in it by yourself – but as W520 exist I do not see a reason not to get one 🙂

From many things that I really like about FreeBSD (more here – Quare FreeBSD? – in separate article) is that it can be mostly configured using just 3 files. This configuration already features all power management settings that I described in the The Power to Serve – FreeBSD Power Management article.

I installed FreeBSD in a pretty standard way with GELI full disk encryption enabled and with ZFS as the filesystem as I can not live without ZFS Boot Environments. The FreeBSD installer automatically detects and applies the so called ‘Lenovo Fix‘. When in doubt the installation procedure is described in the FreeBSD Desktop – Part 2.1 – Install FreeBSD 12 article.

Main FreeBSD configuration files.

• /etc/rc.conf – system and services configuration
• /etc/sysctl.conf – runtime parameters configuration
• /boot/loader.conf – parameters configurable at boot

I will also include these below as they are also important:

• /etc/devfs.rules – devices configuration
• /etc/fstab – filesystems configuration
• /etc/ttys – terminal initialization configuration
• /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf – WiFi configuration
• /usr/local/etc/automount.conf – automount(8) configuration
• /usr/local/etc/doas.conf – doas(1) configuration
• id(1) groups membership
• /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/* – X11 configuration

First the main /etc/rc.conf configuration file.

% cat /etc/rc.conf# SILENCE # ------------------------------------------------------------------ rc_startmsgs=NO# NETWORK # ------------------------------------------------------------------ hostname=w520.local background_dhclient=YES extra_netfs_types=NFS defaultroute_delay=3 defaultroute_carrier_delay=3 gateway_enable=YES harvest_mask=351 rtsol_flags="-i" rtsold_flags="-a -i"# MODULES/COMMON/BASE # ------------------------------------------------------ kld_list="${kld_list} /boot/modules/i915kms.ko" kld_list="${kld_list} fusefs coretemp sem cpuctl ichsmb cuse" kld_list="${kld_list} libiconv cd9660_iconv msdosfs_iconv udf_iconv"# MODULES/VIRTUALBOX # ------------------------------------------------------- vboxnet_enable=YES kld_list="${kld_list} vboxdrv vboxnetadp vboxnetflt"# POWER performance_cx_lowest=C1 economy_cx_lowest=Cmax powerd_enable=YES powerd_flags="-n adaptive -a hiadaptive -b adaptive -m 800 -M 2000"# DAEMONS | yes # ------------------------------------------------------------ zfs_enable=YES xdm_enable=YES xdm_tty=ttyv4 nfs_client_enable=YES ubuntu_enable=YES moused_enable=YES syslogd_flags='-s -s' sshd_enable=YES local_unbound_enable=YES webcamd_enable=YES rctl_enable=YES# DAEMONS | no # ------------------------------------------------------------- linux_enable=NO sendmail_enable=NONE sendmail_submit_enable=NO sendmail_outbound_enable=NO sendmail_msp_queue_enable=NO# FS # ----------------------------------------------------------------------- fsck_y_enable=YES clear_tmp_enable=YES clear_tmp_X=YES growfs_enable=YES# OTHER # -------------------------------------------------------------------- keyrate=fast keymap=pl.kbd virecover_enable=NO update_motd=NO devfs_system_ruleset=desktop hostid_enable=NO savecore_enable=NO

Now the runtime parameters /etc/sysctl.conf file.

% cat /etc/sysctl.conf# SECURITY security.bsd.see_jail_proc=0 security.bsd.unprivileged_proc_debug=0# SECURITY/RANDOM PID kern.randompid=1# ANNOYING THINGS vfs.usermount=1 kern.coredump=0 hw.syscons.bell=0 kern.vt.enable_bell=0# ZFS DELETE f*ckUP TRIM (DEFAULT: 64) vfs.zfs.vdev.trim_max_active=1# ZFS ARC TUNING vfs.zfs.arc.min=134217728 vfs.zfs.arc.max=536870912# ZFS ARC FREE ENFORCE @ 1024 \* 1024 \* 3 vfs.zfs.arc_free_target=3145728# JAILS/ALLOW UPGRADES IN JAILS security.jail.chflags_allowed=1# JAILS/ALLOW RAW SOCKETS security.jail.allow_raw_sockets=1# DESKTOP/INTERACTIVITY kern.sched.preempt_thresh=224# DESKTOP QUANTUM FOR TIMESHARE THREADS IN stathz TICKS (12) NomadBSD kern.sched.slice=3# DESKTOP/IRIDIUM/CHROMIUM kern.ipc.shm_allow_removed=1# SAMPLE RATE CONVERTER QUALITY (0=low .. 4=high) (1) NomadBSD hw.snd.feeder_rate_quality=3# PERFORMANCE/ALL SHARED MEMORY SEGMENTS WILL BE MAPPED TO UNPAGEABLE RAM kern.ipc.shm_use_phys=1# VIRTUALBOX aio(4) SETTINGS vfs.aio.max_buf_aio=8192 vfs.aio.max_aio_queue_per_proc=65536 vfs.aio.max_aio_per_proc=8192 vfs.aio.max_aio_queue=65536# NETWORK/DO NOT SEND RST ON SEGMENTS TO CLOSED PORTS net.inet.tcp.blackhole=2# NETWORK/DO NOT SEND PORT UNREACHABLES FOR REFUSED CONNECTS net.inet.udp.blackhole=1# NETWORK/LIMIT ON SYN/ACK RETRANSMISSIONS (3) net.inet.tcp.syncache.rexmtlimit=0# NETWORK/USE TCP SYN COOKIES IF THE SYNCACHE OVERFLOWS (1) net.inet.tcp.syncookies=0# NETWORK/ASSIGN RANDOM ip_id VALUES (0) net.inet.ip.random_id=1# NETWORK/ENABLE SENDING IP REDIRECTS (1) net.inet.ip.redirect=0# NETWORK/IGNORE ICMP REDIRECTS (0) net.inet.icmp.drop_redirect=1# NETWORK/DROP TCP PACKETS WITH SYN+FIN SET (0) net.inet.tcp.drop_synfin=1# NETWORK/RECYCLE CLOSED FIN_WAIT_2 CONNECTIONS FASTER (0) net.inet.tcp.fast_finwait2_recycle=1# NETWORK/CERTAIN ICMP UNREACHABLE MESSAGES MAY ABORT CONNECTIONS IN SYN_SENT (1) net.inet.tcp.icmp_may_rst=0

Now the boot parameters in /boot/loader.conf file.

% cat /boot/loader.conf# CONSOLE COMMON autoboot_delay=1 # OPTION '-1' MEANS NO WAIT AND 'NO' MEANS INFINITE WAIT hw.usb.no_boot_wait=0 # DO NOT WAIT FOR USB DEVICES FOR ROOT (/) FILESYSTEM boot_mute=YES # SAME AS '-m' IN LOADER - MUTE CONSOLE WITH FreeBSD LOGO loader_logo=none # DESIRED LOGO: fbsdbw beastiebw beastie none loader_menu_frame="none" screen.font="6x12"# CONSOLE RESOLUTION efi_max_resolution="1920x1080"# WINE FIX machdep.max_ldt_segment=2048# MODULES - BOOT geom_eli_load=YES zfs_load=YES# drm-kmod PACKAGE - USE SEMAPHORES FOR INTER-RING SYNC compat.linuxkpi.semaphores=1# drm-kmod PACKAGE - ENABLE POWER-SAVING RENDER C-STATE 6 compat.linuxkpi.enable_rc6=7# drm-kmod PACKAGE - ENABLE POWER-SAVING DISPLAY C-STATES compat.linuxkpi.enable_dc=2# drm-kmod PACKAGE - ENABLE FRAME BUFFER COMPRESSION FOR POWER SAVINGS compat.linuxkpi.enable_fbc=1# ENABLE SYNAPTICS hw.psm.synaptics_support=1# DISABLE /dev/diskid/* ENTRIES FOR DISKS kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable=0# DISABLE /dev/gptid/* ENTRIES FOR DISKS kern.geom.label.gptid.enable=0# TERMINAL vt(4) COLORS kern.vt.color.0.rgb="#000000" kern.vt.color.1.rgb="#dc322f" kern.vt.color.2.rgb="#859900" kern.vt.color.3.rgb="#b58900" kern.vt.color.4.rgb="#268bd2" kern.vt.color.5.rgb="#ec0048" kern.vt.color.6.rgb="#2aa198" kern.vt.color.7.rgb="#94a3a5" kern.vt.color.8.rgb="#586e75" kern.vt.color.9.rgb="#cb4b16" kern.vt.color.10.rgb="#859900" kern.vt.color.11.rgb="#b58900" kern.vt.color.12.rgb="#268bd2" kern.vt.color.13.rgb="#d33682" kern.vt.color.14.rgb="#2aa198" kern.vt.color.15.rgb="#6c71c4"# RACCT/RCTL RESOURCE LIMITS kern.racct.enable=1# DISABLE ZFS PREFETCH vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=1# POWER MGMT / POWER OFF DEVICES WITHOUT ATTACHED DRIVER hw.pci.do_power_nodriver=3# POWER MANAGEMENT FOR EVERY USED AHCI CHANNEL (ahcich 0-7) hint.ahcich.0.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.1.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.2.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.3.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.4.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.5.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.6.pm_level=5 hint.ahcich.7.pm_level=5# GELI THREADS kern.geom.eli.threads=4

Now the mentioned /etc/devfs.rules file.

% cat /etc/devfs.rules[desktop=10]add path 'acd*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'cd*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'da*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'pass*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'xpt*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'fd*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'md*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'uscanner*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'ugen*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'usb/*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'video*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'cuse*' mode 0660 group operatoradd path 'lpt*' mode 0660 group cupsadd path 'ulpt*' mode 0660 group cupsadd path 'unlpt*' mode 0660 group cups

Filesystems and SWAP configuration.

% cat /etc/fstab# SWAP /dev/gpt/swap0 none swap sw 0 0# FreeBSD PSEUDO - NEEDED BY wine(1) procfs /proc procfs rw 0 0# Ubuntu Linux PSEUDO linprocfs /compat/ubuntu/proc linprocfs rw,late 0 0 linsysfs /compat/ubuntu/sys linsysfs rw,late 0 0 devfs /compat/ubuntu/dev devfs rw,late 0 0 fdescfs /compat/ubuntu/dev/fd fdescfs rw,late,linrdlnk 0 0 tmpfs /compat/ubuntu/dev/shm tmpfs rw,late,size=1g,mode=1777 0 0 /home /compat/ubuntu/home nullfs rw,late 0 0 /tmp /compat/ubuntu/tmp nullfs rw,late 0 0

Terminals configuration under /etc/ttys file. Important part is the ttyv4 entry to match the xdm_tty=ttyv4 value from /etc/rc.conf file.

% grep '^[^#]' /etc/ttys | catconsole none unknown off insecurettyv0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm onifexists securettyv1 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm onifexists securettyv2 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm onifexists securettyv3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm onifexists securettyv4 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm off securettyv5 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm off securettyv6 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm off securettyv7 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm off securettyv4 "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off securettyu0 "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire" vt100 onifconsole securettyu1 "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire" vt100 onifconsole securettyu2 "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire" vt100 onifconsole securettyu3 "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire" vt100 onifconsole securedcons "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 off securexc0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" xterm onifconsole securercons "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 onifconsole secure

Wireless config – as an example for different network types. As you have seen I did not included any network information in the /etc/rc.conf file – this is because I use my own network.sh solution to connect to various both wire and wireless networks – FreeBSD Network Management with network.sh Script – described in detail here.

# cat /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf# GENERALeapol_version=2ap_scan=1fast_reauth=1# OPEN NETWORKSnetwork={ key_mgmt=NONE priority=0}# NETWORK WITH HIDDEN SSIDnetwork={ scan_ssid=1 ssid="hidden-network" psk="12341234" priority=0}# NAMED OPEN NETWORKnetwork={ ssid="Free_Internet" key_mgmt=NONE priority=0}# NORMAL WPA/WPA2 SECURED NETWORKnetwork={ ssid="SECURED" psk="12345678"}

The automount(8) config.

% cat /usr/local/etc/automount.conf USERUMOUNT=YES USER=vermaden FM='caja --no-desktop' NICENAMES=YES

The doas(1) configuration.

# cat /usr/local/etc/doas.conf# CORE permit nopass keepenv root as root permit nopass keepenv vermaden as root# THE network.sh SCRIPT # pw groupmod network -m YOURUSERNAME # cat /usr/local/etc/doas.conf permit nopass :network as root cmd /etc/rc.d/netif args onerestart permit nopass :network as root cmd /usr/sbin/service args squid onerestart permit nopass :network as root cmd dhclient permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 dhclient permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 ppp permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 wpa_supplicant permit nopass :network as root cmd ppp permit nopass :network as root cmd route permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args -a /etc/resolv.conf permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args /etc/resolv.conf permit nopass :network as root cmd umount permit nopass :network as root cmd wpa_supplicant

Groups I am member of with id(1) output.

% id vermaden | tr ' ' '\n' | tr ',' '\n'uid=1000(vermaden)gid=1000(vermaden)groups=1000(vermaden)0(wheel)5(operator)44(video)69(network)145(webcamd)920(vboxusers)

Current X11 configuration.

% cat /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/card.confSection "Device" Identifier "Card0" Option "DPMS" Driver "intel" Option "DRI" "3" Option "AccelMethod" "sna" Option "TearFree" "true"EndSection% cat /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/flags.confSection "ServerFlags" Option "DontZap" "off"EndSection% cat /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/keyboard.confSection "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" Option "XkbLayout" "pl" Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp,ctrl:nocaps"EndSection% cat /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/touchpad.confSection "InputClass" Identifier "touchpad" MatchIsTouchpad "on" Driver "libinput" Option "Tapping" "on" Option "NaturalScrolling" "on"EndSection

I also do not rely on ‘stock’ fan speeds and set my own speeds according to CPU temperature with acpi-thinkpad-fan.sh script.

Openbox

As for the ‘desktop environment’ that I use – its my custom setup with Openbox along with tools like Tint2 and Dzen2 – for the most basic setup. The screenshot is from FreeBSD 11.1 but it looks exactly the same today.

I described this setup in details in the entire FreeBSD Desktop series.

XFCE

I have also tried XFCE – I liked it especially with the Global Menu app-menu plugin. You go this way with this XFCE Cupertino Way handy guide.

GNOME

I also tried GNOME for a test – it did not suit me well so I went back to my Openbox setup – but You may find it more comfortable to use. Here is the FreeBSD GNOME 3 Fast Track article that will help you with that.

There are some accessories that are very handy with the ThinkPad W520 laptop. I will describe them below.

Smaller Power Supply

The ThinkPad W520 comes with quite large brick of ThinkPad 170W Power Supply. It works. Its OK … but you can use smaller one and more universal at the same time. I use the ThinkPad 135W Power Supply that originally was sold with ThinkPad W510 – the earlier model. Besides being smaller in size it also has one additional advantage. Its plug is round and also fits into other ThinkPads from this line like ThinkPad X220 or ThinkPad T420s. The original ThinkPad 170W Power Supply unfortunately only fits into the ThinkPad W520 laptop. Below you can compare their sizes.

Mouse Companion

After checking many mouse models – as described in the UNIX Mouse Shootout article – I finally settled with Logitech Triathlon M720 mouse. I have plugged the Lenovo USB Receiver into the back ‘powered’ USB port. While I use that mouse over the USB receiver you can also connect it using Bluetooth – also to other computers. This mouse has a special dedicated button to switch between 3 different computers. Unfortunately the copy-paste between them does not work 🙂

If you would like to ‘save’ that port for something else then you may use special USB board adapter that you will place in the Bluetooth module under the palm rest. You would loose Bluetooth support then of course – but not everyone uses that. Its available for example on Aliexpress site and looks like that.

I do not use it as I do not need the ‘back’ USB port so below you will find its mounted picture on the ThinkPad X220 laptop instead – along with the Lenovo USB Receiver attached.

Two Additional USB 3.0 Ports

The ThinkPad W520 comes with not well known today ExpressCard port. With this cheap adapter from Aliexpress you can add two additional USB 3.0 ports. You may of course do not need that many ports – but if you are left handed then you probably use mouse on the left of your laptop – then USB ports on the right will be handy.

These USB 3.0 ports may be also useful with some bhyve(8) setups. Currently its not supported to pass-thru just a single USB port to a virtual machine. You need to pass thru entire controller. This way you can pass-thru that controller to bhyve(8) VM and have another USB 3.0 ports on the host.

Larger Custom Battery

The original largest extended battery for ThinkPad W520 had 9400mAh capacity. Its possible to get even larger custom extended battery but in the same physical size and shape – with 9600mAh capacity – and for only about $50. To remind you the original one costs closer to $200 unfortunately. I got mine from this Aliexpress page. With my power settings and with this battery along with enabled WiFi and screen brightness just one step less then maximum brightness it show more then 7 hours of time left in acpiconf(8) command.

% acpiconf -i 0Design capacity: 10368 mAhLast full capacity: 10368 mAhTechnology: secondary (rechargeable)Design voltage: 10800 mVCapacity (warn): 518 mAhCapacity (low): 18 mAhLow/warn granularity: 1 mAhWarn/full granularity: 1 mAhModel number: 42T4763Serial number: 1Type: LIONOEM info: SANYOState: dischargingRemaining capacity: 97%Remaining time: 7:17Present rate: 1393 mA (17086 mW)Present voltage: 12266 mV

As you can see from the command above this custom battery size is even reported as closer to 10400mAh instead of advertised 9600maH. I do not know how to check which one is closer to truth – but the fact is that it allows longer work then the official one – and for smaller price.

This laptop along with its smaller and lighter brothers such as ThinkPad X220 or ThinkPad T420s are the best machines I know to work on FreeBSD … but maybe its because I do not use newer laptops 🙂 The general experience of FreeBSD on ThinkPad W520 is stable and uninterrupted work count in days and weeks of uptime. The suspend/resume works like a charm with many cycles possible – not just one. I one even recorded such suspend/resume cycle with many applications and games running on a busy FreeBSD system. Its available here FreeBSD 12.2 Suspend/Resume on a Vimeo page.

Here is now its being used daily.

I have been using this laptop since many years and I even laugh that as its a decade old – I would use it for the next decade 🙂 Most/all of this configuration applies to other ThinkPad models from this lineup like X220/T420s/T420/T520 … probably even L520 (but I did not tested that one).

EOF