Justin Sherrill – Page 278 – DragonFly BSD Digest

2009/08/082009/08/07

pkg_radd improvments

If you’re on DragonFly 2.3.1 or 2.3.2: I’ve uploaded a full pkgsrc build to avalon.dragonflybsd.org based on pkgsrc-2009Q2. It’s possible to use pkg_radd to automatically download and install packages for those systems. (and pkg_search will search the remote repository for you.)

If you’re on DragonFly 2.2.x, I’ve modified the pkg_radd target for that release so that when pkg_radd makes a request, it is redirected to the appropriate place on avalon.dragonflybsd.org instead of attempting (and potentially failing) to find a matching mirror.

I said close to the same thing as the above text on users@; the short form of all this is that pkg_radd should generally work for everyone. Tell me if that’s not your experience.

2009/08/07

HAR 2009 meetup

Are you going to (already sold out) HAR2009? Matthias Schmidt is, and he’s like to meet up with any other DragonFly users there.

2009/08/06

Serial number details

There’s some more explanations of how disk serial number support is working from Matthew Dillon, plus a warning that a full kernel/world rebuild is needed because of these changes.

If I’m reading it right, serial number support, combined with a dynamic /dev, makes it possible to identify a disk by serial number, assign a name to it, and then refer to that disk directly by name in places like /etc/fstab. Much, much easier than remembering /dev/ad0c or /dev/ad1a, and so on.

2009/08/062009/08/05

DevFS and vinum do not get along

DevFS breaks vinum. Will it be fixed? Yes, hopefully very soon.

2009/08/05

Serial number support for devices

Preliminary serial number support for drive identification has been added to DragonFly, with /dev/serno listing the appropriate devices and numbers.

2009/08/052009/08/04

BSD Booth worker wanted in Ohio

Dru Lavigne needs someone for the BSD booth at the Ohio Linuxfest, in late September. Please help out if you’ll be near; it’s a good way to meet people and a way to spread BSD.

I picked this up from the bsdevents Twitter feed – possibly the most comprehensive list of events out there. It’s surprising how many conventions and speaking events and etc. are out there!

2009/08/042009/08/04

DevFS arrives

DevFS has been added. There’s some issues, each with a workaround. Please test, as it’s certain that a major change like this will cause new problems around video and sound. Once those are fixed, however, device management will be a lot easier.

2009/08/04

How long those packages will last

I published a retention policy for pkgsrc packages. It works out to “current release and last release” for what will be kept as pkgsrc binaries that you can add with pkg_radd. If you need longer-term support, speak up, but I don’t think this will be a problem for anyone.

2009/08/03

Spreading Hammer

Want to bring Hammer to Slackware Linux? People want it, and there’s some work already in progress.

2009/08/03

New gcc coming in

Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert has been working on an import of gcc 4.4 to DragonFly; it’s not usable yet, but when it is, it means the 3.x gcc code can be dropped.

2009/08/02

Hardware suggestions welcome

This machine, shiningsilence.com, is having some issues. I had to power down because of unrelated problems, and the system couldn’t find the kernel on the next boot, though the issue disappeared on the next boot. That’s enough of an excuse to build new…

Any hardware recommendations? I’m interested in hearing what chipsets/disks/RAID setups/etc. and/or hardware suppliers worked well for people.

2009/08/02

OSBR: Tech Entrepreneurship

The August issue of the Open Source Business Resource is out, focusing on open-source businesses. You should read this if you plan to (or have at least dreamed of) being your own boss.

2009/08/02

Fixed links on site

The web pages on www.dragonflybsd.org now show individual page history through gitweb, and the RecentChanges page will link to diffs for each new edit.

(My apologies for not figuring this out sooner.)

2009/08/01

Postgres 8.1 removal soon

Postgres version 8.1 is going to be removed from pkgsrc soon, since Postgres 8.4 is now available (in general, and in pkgsrc). Speak up on the pkgsrc mailing lists if this is a significant problem for you.

2009/08/01

NFS clients work after a reboot

A recent change from Matthew Dillon makes it possible for a NFS client connection to be cleanly re-established after a reboot. Previously, the server would lose track of the client.

2009/07/31

Gzip expands

Thanks to Xin Li, gzip now supports pack and can unpack archives in that format.

2009/07/31

Always make an effort to report bugs

Not directly DragonFly-related, but good to think about: the amount of effort you put into reporting bugs often pays off proportionally.

2009/07/312009/07/27

Happy System Administrator Day

Hug a sysadmin today, please.

2009/07/30

DevFS this weekend

The DevFS Summer of Code project is going into DragonFly this weekend; be ready for surprises if you update. It’s not complete yet; there’s a few more weeks for Summer of Code, but there’s other work that this code will enable.

2009/07/30

ACPI update to test

Sepherosa Ziehau working on merging some of Alexander Polakov’s ACPI work; testers needed. If you have a system that pitches a fit with ACPI enabled, you would make a perfect subject.