[talk] OpenBSD 7.0 on ThinkPad X220

Isaac (.ike) Levy ike at blackskyresearch.net
Fri Dec 17 12:31:05 EST 2021


On Fri, Dec 17, 2021, at 11:28 AM, Robert Menes wrote:
> Hello NYC*BUG!
>
> I got myself a new laptop recently: a ThinkPad T470s, which is now 
> going to be my new main laptop, which means that my X220 will now be an 
> OpenBSD laptop!
>
> I've installed a modified BIOS to the X220, which allows me to now 
> switch out the WLAN card for a better one with 802.11 ac capacity. I'm 
> looking for one that's friendly with OpenBSD and can be set up with a 
> quick fw_update.
>
> The X220 has a 1TB SSD installed, but OpenBSD's auto partitioning 
> suggestion doesn't look like it's taking full advantage of the space. I 
> was considering a partition scheme like this (sd0 is the SSD):
>
> sd0a: mount as / (30GB)
> sd0b: swap (8GB)
> sd0c: refers to whole disk
> sd0d: mount as /usr (40GB)
> sd0e: mount as /tmp (6GB)
> sd0f: mount as /var (10GB)
> sg0g: mount as /home and use remaining space
>
> I know that the default partition scheme splits /usr down further into 
> /usr/local, /usr/X11, etc., but I don't think using one /usr partition 
> should hurt things, unless anyone has a good reason as to why it should 
> be split.
>
> As for the rest of the hardware, has anyone who has used OpenBSD on the 
> X200 series have any advice or tips for setup? How is sound and video 
> support? Anything I should keep in mind?

It's been a minute, but I did run OpenBSD on an X230 for a while- and I really enjoyed that rig when I had it running.  At the time, X220's were even better supported.  I believe the trackpad was even functional (with some fuss) as I remember, (which was *rare* at the time).  Synaptics - never not a fuss- grrrr.
(I didn't live with that rig for long, I was doing ZFS/jail hacking at the time, and swtiched that laptop to run FreeBSD - and X230 hardware was far less supported at the time.  Gave up audio and fast video to hack on my project at the time.)

As I remember that little laptop with OpenBSD: audio worked without fuss, (headphone jack and all), video was quite pretty, and Chromium was a new port so I do remember being giddy watching youtube high-def stuff...

Have fun with that rig!

Best,
.ike



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