early 2011 macbook pro i7 model. screen won't turn off and function keys don't work!
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As title says, I am running pfsense bare metal on early 2011 macbook pro i7. Works great.
However, nothing turns the screen off. Not even shutting the laptop. I've come across some stuff related to freebsd and using something called xorg, but I'm so out of my element at this point idk what would even be possible.
Any advice or instructions someone could provide me to get this monitor either adjusted lower or turned off? When I try to use the brightness function keys, I only see characters get typed on the console.
Y'all have been unbelievably incredible in helping me out with some early pfsense growing pains, so I figured I might as well ask here if anyone could guide me to solve this problem.
Thanks in advance!
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Would it perhaps better to ask this question in the Apple Forum?
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Or the FreeBSD forum will likely have some advice.
There have been some other threads here about running on Apple hardware. You probably need to use asmc(4).
Steve
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@dobby_ you're saying someone in the apple forums could give advice regarding pfsense/freebsd on a mbp? I guess it doesn't hurt to take a look there.
Thanks
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@rsherga I'm also a Mac user. At one point I was toying with the idea of using an old MBP but couldn't. Then I had a Mac Mini drop in my lap and I'm going that way now. Anyhow, I had found this and saved it thinking it may come in handy. Maybe it will work for you. FYI, there are some links nested in the thread that give more info. Let us know!
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/63815/disable-laptop-display-completely
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@sledge Thanks, I've unfortunately already reviewed those and the links and package (green_saver) don't exist anymore. Closest I got was directions to edit rc.conf but I see pfsense does not use rc.conf. Maybe I'll see if I can find a way instead to just extend the monitor power cable so I can disconnect it with the case closed. I can't think of anything else at this point.
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@rsherga sorry that didn't help. :(
Another thought, but probably not what you want. Save all your configuration files. Reformat. Install OS X. Install pfSense under VM and copy in your config files.
It would now have normal Mac OS functionality for screen saver, lid display, etc.
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@sledge I originally had it in a vm, but the networking was problematic. I did hyper-v on a windows machine and it worked ok, but I repurposed that one. To run it on a vm using macos high sierra, I had to use an old version of virtualbox. and something was wonky with the traffic routing that I just couldn't figure out, especially isolating traffic to virtual interfaces instead of physical. Plus the bandwidth was shit lol. So I went bare metal and it does gigabit no sweat. Just can't turn off the GD monitor...
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@rsherga good info to know there. I am converting a 2014 Mac Mini to a pfSense router and was toying with the thought of a VM setup. I think I will just use it as a dedicated unit.
I am reminded of a time shortly after high school, me and a buddy was cruising around in his old '68 Camaro. It was a beast and I loved that car but it had some squeaks and squawks. I asked if he heard them and he grinned, turned the radio up and said, "there, now it's fixed".
My point, I'd close the lid and live my best life.
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@rsherga I would use the keyboard to turn the monitor down to black (f1) but just read you tried that. That's why a Mac Mini is the best Apple device to use for a small form factor pfSense. I had successfully used a 2011 Mac Mini server with a thunderbolt enclosure with Intel I350x2 NIC worked great with pfSense 2.4. However, upgrading to pfSense 2.5 saw a scenario where FreeBSD did not include the internal fan driver that cause the Mac Mini to run hot on boot up loading Suricata, Snort, pfBlockerNG for about 2 minutes. That's when decided to re-purpose the Mini back to Apple/Adobe media server.
However, another member was able to add the fan driver. If I were to do it all over the 2012 Mac Mini Server would be my choice.
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@nollipfsense well, yeah if I had a spare mac mini lying around instead, I'd just use that. But I had an old mbp instead. And I like it for the built-in monitor.
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@nollipfsense said in early 2011 macbook pro i7 model. screen won't turn off and function keys don't work!:
@rsherga I would use the keyboard to turn the monitor down to black (f1) but just read you tried that. That's why a Mac Mini is the best Apple device to use for a small form factor pfSense. I had successfully used a 2011 Mac Mini server with a thunderbolt enclosure with Intel I350x2 NIC worked great with pfSense 2.4. However, upgrading to pfSense 2.5 saw a scenario where FreeBSD did not include the internal fan driver that cause the Mac Mini to run hot on boot up loading Suricata, Snort, pfBlockerNG for about 2 minutes. That's when decided to re-purpose the Mini back to Apple/Adobe media server.
However, another member was able to add the fan driver. If I were to do it all over the 2012 Mac Mini Server would be my choice.
@NollipfSense I have a 2014 Mac Mini (dual core, i7, 16gb DDR3 and 256 SSD) I plan to use as dedicated hardware. Any reason the 2012 is your sweet spot? I just got the Apple TB2 to gigabit Ethernet port adapter in. I believe both the internal and TB2 are both Broadcom units but I saw others reported success with them.
That said I think one limitation is the netmap doesn’t play well with Broadcom and won’t allow Snort to run inline or Suricata at all (as I believe it is inline only). At least that was my very inexperienced take away from what I read. I suspect the MBP may have similar limitations if the NIC is also Broadcom.
The TB2 enclosure like you mentioned would be great with an Intel NIC but they are fairly hard to find and not very cheap. I did manage to find one but was late to the party…he didn’t have any interest and gave to Goodwill. But if one was found I suspect it would take away the netmap issue being an Intel card.
Anyhow would like to hear more about your Mac Mini journey and experience as I’m on that same journey. Sounds like I need to look at the fan fix.
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@sledge said in early 2011 macbook pro i7 model. screen won't turn off and function keys don't work!:
Any reason the 2012 is your sweet spot?
It was only if you didn't already have the 2014 decked out with 16GB RAM, since those RAM is soldered...in your case, hallelujah. Yes, both device and thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter used Broadcom which is not compatible with Netmap.
The thunderbolt two enclosure worked like a charm with Intel NIC, and I had no problem running Suricata on WAN and Snort on LAN both in-line mode despite that not recommended by the package maintainer. I just love the idea, and it works great as long as one is not using the same rules feed with both.
I was lucky to find the thunderbolt PCI enclosure on eBay for close to $100 used (Akitio) and if you're unable to find one, I maybe able to help you out. I believe the current version of FreeBSD should have the fan driver but could be added and recompiled although I had not done it.
