NomadBSD 13.2 and 14.0 not booting on Thinkpad X200s

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1

Hello forum,

(consider this a placeholder! - to obligate myself to document and solve this ‘challenge’ :wink: )

has someone had a similar experience?

In the local makerspace I was gifted a Lenovo Thinkpad X200x (the old style of keyboard is definitely better than their new keyboards - and “get off my lawn!” :smiley: ).

That day I had a USB-drive with NomadBSD 13.1 and booted the Thinkpad. All hardware was detected and I was so happy!!!
BUT trying to USB-boot or install a later version of NomadBSD - both 13.2 and 14.0 - stalls late in the boot-process.

(here I will later paste in the details - and where exactly the boot-process stops)
I have tried to research what changed in FreeBSD at that point, but haven’t found the right answer yet…

Have a nice day :+1:

BSD-regards
Tom Ludensen

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2

Unfortunately no progress :-/

Time is spend on curveballs, that Life keeps throwing at me - and friends I am helping…

Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.
Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills.
Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.
— Jim Rohn

3

Can you share a photo? Thanks.

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Hello @grahamperrin (AKA ‘CRT’ :wink: ),
will do!
…maybe already this weekend.

Right now my solution has been to install the old NomadBSD 13.1 and manually bring it up to FreeBSD 14.1 - with the added bonus of still using the more lightweight Openbox (and that explains my newest post :smiley: ).

Enjoy your weekend everybody :+1:

PS.
Should call it “FrankenBSD” and not FreeBSD or NomadBSD :smile:

1 Like
5

I am also willing to return to the clear and convenient OpenBox. Unfortunately, I have not saved the NomadBSD 13.1R distribution image. Maybe it would be easier to install pure FreeBSD, then use desktop-installer to add OpenBox and its environment.

6

Hello @vladas,

manual update to FreeBSD 14.1 wasn’t smooth sailing all the way! -and the transfer of NomadBSD 13.1 w/ ZFS to fixed disk had some minor wrinkles (under the hood, not influencing the user-experience!).

You will save some time using desktop-installer, everything is up-to-date right away and no risk of carrying over old cruft.
On the other hand with the Bee-link NIC learning-experience behind you, maybe you’re ready for a new one :wink:

Enjoy ‘moving in’ to your new computer :+1:

PS.
If you must try NomadBSD 13.1, I can provide you the image.

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