I am using OpenBSD and looking for a hw to use it on the go for reading/light programming/ssh work. I used a Blackberry Passport so far for this, but as it is not yet possible to root/jailbreak it i am looking for a different portable device to run BSD on it. I'd like to have a - small, light, thin device - at least one USB port - console and X should be supported - a 3,5 jack - doesn't need ethernet, but wifi would be good to have - hw should from this century, but not some overpriced gimmick. Also it would be great if all component would be supported by any BSD, but OpenBSD preferred. Thank you!

@"szilard"#p14168 difficult question 😀

@"szilard"#p14200 Look at [RetroBSD](https://github.com/RetroBSD/retrobsd/wiki): a port of 2.11BSD running on the PIC32 (MIPS arch) uC.

@"szilard"#p14396 I have deicded to buy a T480S, it works very well with OBSD.

Looking for a mini laptop / handheld / pocket pc for BSD

szilard

I am using OpenBSD and looking for a hw to use it on the go for reading/light programming/ssh work.
I used a Blackberry Passport so far for this, but as it is not yet possible to root/jailbreak it i am looking for a different portable device to run BSD on it.
I'd like to have a

small, light, thin device
at least one USB port
console and X should be supported
a 3,5 jack
doesn't need ethernet, but wifi would be good to have
hw should from this century, but not some overpriced gimmick.

Also it would be great if all component would be supported by any BSD, but OpenBSD preferred.

Thank you!

Jay

szilard difficult question 😀

CiotBSD

difficult to reply… but, currently prefer lenovo/IBM. because it's the most on the developers run the code.
and, not recent.

szilard

CiotBSD
But i already got a T42, x200s and T440s.

Nowadays i am thinking about diy a small, single board handheld computer based on a microcontroller with an LCD screen and run BASIC or Forth on it…
Like this:
https://hackaday.io/project/187468-ello-lc1

I also can compile pforth for QNX to be able to run it on my Blackberry Passport…

rvp

szilard Look at RetroBSD: a port of 2.11BSD running on the PIC32 (MIPS arch) uC.

CiotBSD

szilard But i already got a T42, x200s and T440s.

So typically, that runs with OpenBSD. 😃

szilard

In the meantime i started to think about if i should upgrade my T440s (i7-4600U, 8GB, 768GB SSD, FHD). It is old, but still going strong, and works perfectly with OBSD 7.2.
Now if i upgrade my hw, i would expect significant speed boost or better battery runtime, ideally both. But it feels like i should jump to at least to T/X470 with a 7th gen CPU or to a T/X480 with an 8th gen CPU and 16G RAM, FHD is mandatory, but better would be ideal. Thinkpads like this are readily available on the second-hand market in my country, but most of them are foreign ex-enterprise machines, therefore i will have to replace the keyboard. I also don't truest their SSD, so that would be needed aswell. Now counting all of this the resulting price feels just not really economical (₆₀₀ EUR or so). I have money, i just don't feel like i want to pay that much for a machine. Can somebody give me a hint?

szilard

szilard
I have deicded to buy a T480S, it works very well with OBSD.

bsduck

I read these machines have their RAM soldered to the motherboard... that would be a no-go for me.

bsduck The laptop provided by my employer is a T480S and I can confirm the RAM is indeed soldered.

szilard

The T480s have either 4 or 8 GB DDR4 RAM soldered on the MoBo, but an additional slot is available for further RAM expansion. It supports officially max. 24GB RAM (8+16) configuration.
Mine have 16 GB (8+8).
See the ThinkWiki article for more info : https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T480s

bsduck

szilard an additional slot is available for further RAM expansion

Then it's not as bad as I thought, thanks for the feedback. Still problematic in that if the built-in RAM goes bad you can't replace it. But it seems that most laptops built nowadays are quite bad at repairability and modularity.

szilard

It works with Haiku aswell: https://discuss.haiku-os.org/t/recommended-refurbished-laptop-for-haiku

szilard

bsduck
I think (at least in Linux) there is a grub switch to ignore specific memory blocks, maybe there is a similar solution on BSDs.

LibreQuest

There is a company ZWYING that makes 7" laptops based on the Celeron J4125 that should work well with bsd. 😄

Edit: I am sorry it looks like they are using the j4105 and apparently it's a speedier chip than the j4125. I've had a BeeLink GK55 in the past that used the J4125 and it was a very peppy little system.

bsduck

Oh, interesting. That's basically the kind of laptop that was commonly called a netbook 15 years ago (the name seems to have fallen out of use). I wasn't aware there were still some being made today, that's good news because I like this format much more than tablets.