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.
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.
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.
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.
DragonFly 5.4rc1 tagged
I tagged the first release candidate for DragonFly 5.4 last night. The commit message has summary lines from all the commits in this release, if you want to go through them – or wait for the release notes. I’m happy to see some new-to-me committer names in there, too.
Booting DragonFly EFI, and with something else
If you were looking to run DragonFly on the same disk as another operating system, Dr. Martin Ivanov has advice for you. Similarly, karu.pruun and Pierre-Alain TORET also have something on EFI booting.
DragonFly, terminfo, and tmux
I’m actually surprised this wasn’t already there: Aaron Li added terminfo entries for tmux and tmux-256color into DragonFly’s terminfo(5) file. I’ve been using tmux without issue for some time on DragonFly… but I may not be exercising it as hard as I could.
DragonFly 5.4, soon
We’re overdue for 5.4 to be released. New releases are due every 6 months; I lost track! I plan to work on tagging and building over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday later this week.
DragonFly and dhcpcd
Aaron LI has brought dhcpcd into DragonFly-current, as a replacement to dhclient(8) and rtsold(8). dhclient does support IPv6 but it’s bundled with server and BIND applications, so it’s harder to support.
Another DragonFly laptop entry
There’s a section of the DragonFly website (a wiki) that records success with various laptops and DragonFly. The latest addition: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500.
Web browsers on DragonFly
For better or worse, there’s different browser options out there, especially for non-mainstream platforms. You know what I mean. DragonFly developer tuxillo has put together a helpful page listing options and how to get them to build.
Hammer2 reminder: bulkfree makes some noise
For future edification: If you have HAMMER2 installed, the bulkfree operation will create console/dmesg activity even when nothing is wrong, to show operations are happening.
Fetching DragonFly src over https
If you happen to be using DragonFly from a network location that only allows http/https as outbound traffic, you won’t be able to update /usr/src using defaults. /usr/Makefile pulls DragonFly source using a git:// URL.
The fix is to use the read-only Github mirror. You can set origin manually or just change GITHOST in /usr/Makefile (or GITURL_SRC if you are on DragonFly-master) to “https://github.com/DragonFlyBSD/DragonFlyBSD”.
(Guess what I did today? Updated to note it’s different on -master. Thanks tuxillo for reminding me of this whole thing.)
ip6addrctl in DragonFly
Aaron LI’s added ip6addrctl(8) to DragonFly; on by default. There should be a man page entry for it within a couple hours, online.
openresolv added to DragonFly
Aaron LI has added openresolv to DragonFly. According to the commit message, this is for dhcpcd(8) support later. It’s added as resolvconf(8), needed for IPv6 DHCP support and a replacement for rtsold(8).
Limiting arp interfaces
arp(8) can now be limited to a particular interface on DragonFly; a minor change but I mention it because otherwise you may not realize it.
A rare pfi example
DragonFly has an automated installer, called PFI, for “pre-flight installer”. It’s not well-known, and there isn’t a man page to link to for it that I can find. Because of that, I jump at any chance I can get to link documentation or example configs.
Balloon testing and commit
I should have mentioned this before, but: here’s how to use the virtio balloon memory driver in DragonFly, which is timely because it’s now in base.