From the DragonFly mailing lists: Matthew Dillon posted a list of what will and won’t be in the next release. Rahul Siddharthan pointed out that there hasn’t been much user-visible improvement since FreeBSD-4, speaking specifically about 64-bit processors and SMP. Steve O’Hara-Smith added some less well known benefits we already have, while Michael Talon described the speed boost a 64-bit operating system gives. Matthew Dillon said “someone just needs to do it“. I daresay the conversation is not over.
Alexander Motin wrote to the kernel@ mailing list about netgraph in DragonFly; it was getting difficult for him to maintain compatibility with mpd4 in the FreeBSD-4 style netgraph in DragonFly and also support netgraph in FreeBSD. Matthew Dillon said “Don’t wait up“. Anyone feel like updating netgraph? It’s probably not easy.
Preview, the version of DragonFly that is not-quite-bleeding-edge, has been updated so that everyone can try the latest version of NATA and virtual kernels.
We’re reaching the decision point where the new ATA system (disk system ported from FreeBSD, without GEOM) either should or should not be set as default for the next release. Give it a try if you are running something later than 1.8.2, and report any issues.
It’s a week with variety on UnixReview.com: “More Forensic Tools“, a Shell Corner article: “Littera Delenda Est“, a Regular Expressions article: “Good Works with Real Databases“, and a product review: “Examining SlickEdit 2007: Code Quick | Think Slick“
Apparently pf has some significant speedups; updating the DragonFly version would have a nice benefit at this point. (seen on Undeadly and by _hasso_ on #dragonflybsd)
Matthew Dillon wrote up an explanation of how his disklabel changes work out.
This is interesting: Getting Flash to work on FreeBSD without Linux compatibility. It may apply to other BSDs – otherwise untested. (Thanks, BSDNews) If you want to do it with the Linux compatibility options, that’s documented on the wiki.
In an effort to make testing of a new installer easier, Matthew Dillon added support for having a virtual kernel boot from a CD image. It works, though you can’t quite run an installer on it yet.
It’s a sparse week on UnixReview.com: Examining MySQL Certification, book reviews of “FISMA Certification and Accreditation Handbook“, and “PC Technician Street Smarts“. If you’re curious to know, FISMA stands for “Federal Information Security Management Act”, which means it’s probably only of interest to U.S. readers or people who enjoy bureaucratic paperwork.
I’m going to be cleaning leaf.dragonflybsd.org – watch out! This should not affect services located there, like developer accounts or the mail archive. I hope.
Aggelos Economopoulos’s lwn.net articles titled “A Peek at the DragonFly Virtual Kernel” are now available as a single item on dragonflybsd.org, with some additional details that didn’t appear in the initial version.
Gergo Szakal suggested using FeedBurner to put recent wiki changes onto the doc@ mailing list. I think it would work well to make sure major changes get discussed – opinions?
UnixReview.com has 4 new items this week: A liitle quiz titled “Test Your Knowledge of PHP“, book reviews of “Apache Phrasebook” and “Beginning C: From Novice to Professional“, and a review of Up.Time 4.
If you wanted to use GCC4 instead of the current default of GCC3, on DragonFly, check this description by Matthew Dillon of the proper environment variables to change.
Matthew Dillon laid out his support policy for DragonFly, which boils down to: current release and the previous one.
Hasso Tepper pointed at this interesting page of DragonFly C99 projects that I no doubt linked to long ago and then forgot.
Chris Turner posted a nice summary of work that would be needed for C99 compatibility in libm. Sepherosa Ziehau also posted a short guide on how to create new drivers for wpi(4), as the existing drivers (in any BSD) are not up to snuff.
Note: I noticed again while writing this: developerWorks is neat.
Douwe Kiela passed along word that he authored an article on DragonFly BSD’s clustering goals for the Dutch ‘Linux Magazine‘, in their “BSD Corner”.
In a rare update, OnLAMP.com has a new article: all about the latest release of OpenBSD.