As planned, there will be a 5.4. 1 release for DragonFly. Matthew Dillon’s work on HAMMER2 will be in there, as will be a fix for keyboard attachment and updates from Aaron LI on dhcpcd support. I will tag and build this weekend, so it’ll be just in time for Christmas.
Lazy Reading for 2018/12/16
I’m not planning a holiday gift guide this year, though they are fun to do. You can always check previous ones; I try to link to stores rather than individual items.
- Six Ways to Level Up Your nmap Game. (via)
- Controlling the Spice, Part 3: Westwood’s Dune. The first real RTS.
- Choosing error codes based on a really nice
#definedoesn’t necessarily lead to a readable message to the user. - Xformer 10: The Atari 800 emulator has gotten a huge update. That’s a big monitor. A really really big monitor.
- HTTPS in the real world. (via via)
- Wget is not welcome here any more (sort of). I was bit recently by wget in a different way; currently using httrack for the same task based on advice from EFNet #dragonflybsd.
- Fun tip #2: Display trailing spaces using ed and Fun tip #3: Split a line using ed.
- Classic computer images for sale though it looks like only a C64 and Spectrum image are available.
- Kubernetes being hijacked worldwide.
- You Can’t Opt Out of the Patent System. That’s Why Patent Pandas Was Created!
- Announcing Yggdrasil Network v0.3. I am not sure of the use, but I am interested by the implementation. (via)
In Other BSDs for 2018/12/15
I think/hope I cleared my backlog of BSD links.
- FreeBSD Graphics Blog – Getting Started With drm-kmod. (via)
- Berkeley smorgasbord. (via)
- Amazon Web Service EC2?a1???????NetBSD/aarch64???????. Probably need to be able to render/read Japanese for that link to work out. (via)
- Today I (re-)learned that
top‘s output can be quietly system dependent. - pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p1 now available.
- unbound(8): DNSSEC validation enabled in default configuration.
- NetHack, OpenBSD, curses, tty. Curses as in the terminal interface, not as in Sword of Monster Calling -1.
- Configuration deployment made easy with drist.
- SoloBSD 11.2-STABLE-1206 is out.
- mports updates, mport package manager configuration feature added, and MidnightBSD security advisory site.
- Valuable News – 2018/11/24, Valuable News – 2018/12/01, and Valuable News – 2018/12/08.
- FreeBSD 12.0-RC3 Available. No, wait, FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE out.
- pkgs.org – packages for as many systems as possible, including FreeBSD and NetBSD. (via)
- GOG Winter Sale – OpenBSD Highlights. (via)
- Cirrus CI support and FreeBSD.
- OPNsense 18.7.9 released.
- OpenSMTPD proc filters & fc-rDNS. (via)
- Otto Moerbeek on the Virtues of OpenBSD malloc(3). I need to keep a better eye on bsd.network; I can’t collate it like RSS. Or can I?
- A proposal for a new RPKI validator: OpenBSD rpki-client(1). (via)
- OpenBGPD – Adding Diversity to the Route Server Landscape. (via)
- FreeNAS 11.2 new features.
- NetBSD desktop pt.4: The X Display Manager (XDM). (via)
- PINEBOOK on FreeBSD soon. Joining OpenBSD and NetBSD. (via)
BSD Now 276: Ho, Ho, Ho – 12.0
The newest BSD Now covers the 12.0 release of FreeBSD, handily talks about setting up Synth, and links to an interview of the fellow behind GhostBSD.
HAMMER2 update on the way
Matthew Dillon’s been working on “reliable on-media topology” for HAMMER2. If you had a crash at just the right time with HAMMER2, you wouldn’t lose data but you might have to do some manual cleanup. (Don’t ask me the steps; never happened to me.) With these changes, that doesn’t happen any more. It’s present now in -master and will be in what should be DragonFly 5.4.1 by the end of the year. He has a post to users@ that goes into better detail. If you want way too much detail, you can check the commits.
Three related notes: snapshots are now faster, the HAMMER2 design document has been updated to the tune of 400+ new lines, and yes, you can encrypt your root HAMMER2 filesystem, and have been able to for a while.
BSD Now 275: OpenBSD in Stereo
BSD Now 275 went up a bit late, so I’m also a bit late posting about it – this past week’s episode includes among other things, a UNIX ownership history, and gopher details.
Excuse Digest downtime
I have stuff to post, but moving DragonFly to 5.4, php to 7.2, postgres to 9.5, WordPress to 5.0, etc. Regular Digest transmissions should resume tomorrow.
Lazy Reading for 2018/12/09
Involuntary vi theme this week. Or ssh! I have lots of links.
- Old mp3 players skins, a baroque mess. (via)
- Buying a Commodore Amiga 30 years later. (via)
- Paleotronic’s 12 Years of Retro-Christmas Year One: 1980. It continues. (via)
- What makes BeOS and Haiku unique. Linking for nostalgia. (via)
- Why, oh WHY, do those #? nutheads use vi? (via)
- vi, my favorite config-less editor. I had to switch to vi away from vim just to get it to stop paying attention to where I clicked in a terminal window and changing the insertion point. (via)
- Turn Vim into Excel: Tips for Editing Tabular Data. (via)
- Open Source is Not About You. (via)
- 2018 IFComp Winners. (via)
- UTF-7: a ghost from the time before UTF-8. Maddening. (via)
- Controlling the Spice, Part 2: Cryo’s Dune.
- Experiences with the Cray X/MP (2000). (via)
- Retirement video for the Philco 212 Mainframe Computer. (via)
- And now for some keyboards that are completely different.
- redo, buildroot, and serializing parallel logs.
- The New Illustrated TLS Connection. (via)
- The needs of Version Control Systems conflict with capturing all metadata.
- How not to reconfigure your sshd.
- Safely allow commands through ssh.
- OpenSSH 7.9’s new key revocation support is welcome but can’t be a full fix.
- Up-to-date O’Reilly covers.
- Running a Gopher Server in 2018. (via)
In Other BSDs for 2018/12/08
Once again playing catchup – but we all benefit from the abundance.
- Using the GOG.com installers for Linux, on NetBSD. (via)
- Firefox’s middle-click behavior on HTML links on Linux. Should apply to BSD too.
- BSD vs. Linux. Old, but the source link has links to more discussion if that interests you.
- A proposal for a new RPKI validator: OpenBSD rpki-client(1). (via)
- NetBSD on AWS EC2 a1.medium (ARM). (via)
- The Power to Serve – FreeBSD Power Management. (via)
- NetBSD Advent Calendar 2018. (via)
- Why BSD/OS is the best candidate for being the only tested legally open UNIX. (via)
- NetBSD and support for two finger scroll emulation. (via)
- Wherefore FreeBSD?
- Securing home. (via)
- The History of Unix, Rob Pike. I find this comment entertaining. (via)
- Showing a Gigabit OpenBSD firewall some Monitoring Love. (via)
- Portability of tar features. Linked because BSD tar is a thing. (via)
MeatBSD, soon
If you are going to MeatBSD, the reservations have to be in by Saturday. (Which is why I am posting it now instead of on Saturday for In Other BSDs.)
script(1) updates in DragonFly
I didn’t get a chance to mention this before release: script(1) has had a refresh, now sharing more options with the FreeBSD version. The update is in DragonFly-master and in the 5.4 release.
NYCBUG holiday party, tomorrow
NYCBUG’s holiday party is tomorrow at Suspenders. Go, if you are near New York City, and talk about what you’d like to see in a presentation. Chances are good someone there is familiar with the topic.
DragonFly 5.4 released!
DragonFly 5.4.0 has been released. This release bring a new compiler (gcc 8.0), asymmetric NUMA support, and a number of new and updated drivers for virtual machine devices and network.
My users@ post has the details on upgrading, as do the release notes. Note there’s a step in there to update initrd, which has been available for the last few releases, though I’ve never mentioned it. It’s probably a good idea, since that builds a mini “rescue” system, in case disaster strikes.
Lazy Reading for 2018/12/02
It’s a classic Lazy Reading this week – some deep dives, some history, some stuff that will take a while to explore. Enjoy!
- CGSociety, computer rendering showplace. Makes me think of the old Bud Plant Catalog. (via)
- Underrated websites. You may come back to this. (via)
- The recent ACM/IEEE Super Computing conference reassembled a Cray 1, serial number 1.
- Right to Repair takes a step forward. (via)
- The Twenty-Five-Year Journey of Magic: The Gathering. (via, via)
- Tiling Window Managers, a video. (via)
- What’s hiding in your PDF? A PDF used to just be encapsulated PostScript, really. It’s been stretched much, much farther. (also via)
- Sourdough culture components worldwide, mapped. (via)
- peek-for-tmux – the most smallest useful tmux trick you’ll use. Peek into a text file at the command line, but keep the prompt accessible. (via)
- eDEX-UI, futuristic interface. (via)
- Lessons on exec from 4:40PM on a Friday.
- Lisp Machine Inc. K-machine. Sort of an alien architecture to me at this point, years later. (via)
- The story of the ZX81, in tweets. (via I lost it, sorry)
- The special effects for the computer display in “Escape From New York”. (via)
- Why Chips Die. Proportionally related to user need, of course. (via)
In Other BSDs for 2018/12/01
An oddly uplifting batch of BSD stories this week.
- Tor on OpenBSD, part 5 and part 6.
- Slides and transcript and code from the November NYCBUG meeting. (I wish all BUG meetings had this.)
- MeatBSD, the December SEMIBUG meeting, is a meetup at a local meat-heavy restaurant, December 18th. Plan for it now, cause you need to reserve a seat.
- Steam Autumn Sale Highlights for OpenBSD.
- OPNsense 18.7.8 released.
- GhostBSD 18.10 Now Available. (via)
- Abandon Linux – Move to FreeBSD or Illumos. A pro-ZFS item, which means plenty of filesystem comments at the source link. (via)
- Debugging rcctl in OpenBSD. (via)
- FreeBSD for Thanksgiving. This is a nice story to hear. (via)
- Stardew Valley on FreeBSD. (via)
- Cheap BSD-friendly notebook? Thinkpads thinkpads stinkpads thinkpads. (via)
iwn 6035 support in DragonFly
If you happen to have a Intel Centrino advanced 6035 wireless card, it now works on DragonFly, thanks to Tobias Heilig.
BSD Now 274: Language: Assembly
This week’s BSD Now covers assembly on OpenBSD, games on FreeBSD, and disk space on DragonFly.
How all those dports get built
I’ve mentioned it before, but the tool ‘synth‘ is what DragonFly uses to build all the dports binaries – over 30,000 packages, though I’m typing that from memory and not from looking at a tool. Anyway, the one part of the release process I’ve never touched was the package building – and now it’s documented. This document is oriented towards DragonFly releases – but if you wanted to create your own package repo with custom options, this is the way to do it.
DragonFly 5.4rc1 image to use
I uploaded the current 5.4 release candidate – there’s an ISO and an IMG file, though your local mirror may be a better place to get it than those links. Or just wait; I think the release won’t be long.
Note that I was smart for once and named it ‘rc1’, so if there’s another release candidate, it can be named ‘rc2’. I used ‘rc’ in previous releases and was never sure if I should name a second candidate rc1, rc2…
wpa_supplicant installed by default in DragonFly
Bear with me; this is the history: wpa_supplicant is the program DragonFly uses to connect to most wireless networks. It’s been part of the base system for some time, but if you start it up, you will see a warning (at boot time) about how this version is deprecated. Installing from dports puts a newer version in place.
As is the case with most third-party include in any operating system’s base, there’s always lag between the newest version of software and what’s been included in. Dependencies creep in, or it’s duplicated work between packaging and basic OS maintenance, etc. (Who here used Perl on FreeBSD 4? That was frustrating, but a good example here.) Anyway, the dilemma is that since wpa_supplicant is a program that may be required in order to get online, it must be in the base install. However, since it has / had vulnerabilities, it must be updated. The base install doesn’t update as fast as the origin of the software, and there’s the mismatch.
All that’s a long explanation as to why network/wpa_supplicant is now on the DragonFly install CD, and gets automatically used if installed. Thanks for Aaron LI and Matthew Dillon for making it happen. The base package is still there, in case someone deletes their installed ports and needs to get online before they can reinstall. This is in master now and will be in the 5.4 release.