Rsync vs. cvsup roundup

Vincent Stemen found that it was difficult to get cvsup running on DragonFly, and went looking for mirrors that supplied DragonFly via rsync. Joerg Sonnenberger handily supplied an example script, and Simon ‘codecode’ Schubert supplied a more complex example, though there are more servers that run rsync than just the one in the script. Vincent’s further tests showed better performance with rsync, though Garance A Drosihn pointed out these tests were not comprehensive enough to point out a real advantage. Csup, the cvsup replacement that isn’t dependent on modula-3, is close to working completely as a replacement, though it doesn’t remove the need for cvsupd.

Pile of links time

A bunch of links from around the web, thrown out while I catch up on my backlog of news:

Nostalgia gaming: Micropolis

Micropolis, a cleaned-up version of the original SimCity game, is now available under the GPL. Anyone know if this works on a DragonFly system? Don Hopkins’ blog is a good place to see details about the history and ideas involved, among other things. (Via lot of places)

Note that there’s already some open-source clones out there, like lincity-ng.  Feel free to comment with more links if you know them.

A shout-out for wiki work

Dario Banno and Matthias Schmidt have both been doing a lot of cleanup work on the version of the Handbook contained in the wiki. I want to point out the work they are doing because it’s helpful, and also because it’s possible for anyone else to contribute to this. If you’ve been feeling an itch to do something, here’s your chance to contribute to DragonFly with only a few seconds of labor.

dri/drm update time

Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert has done what we’ve been needing for a long time: an update for DRI/DRM. That’s 3D support in X Windows, for those who aren’t familiar with the acronyms. His note contains extensive instructions for testing this update; give it a whirl and report back so it can get in the tree.

NetBSD version of a vkernel, and OSS goes BSD

Astute reader “Yair K.” sent along links to two things:

There is work being done on a “user-mode NetBSD“, which sounds quite similar to DragonFly’s vkernel(7) system.

4Front Technologies has placed their Open Sound System (discussed previously) under a BSD license, removing what I think was the only obstacle to using it in DragonFly and other BSDs.  A press release is out, too.

New Basics book out

The Best of FreeBSD Basics is out now on Amazon and perhaps elsewhere, containing much (all?) of Dru Lavigne’s column of the same name from OnLAMP.com. It says ‘FreeBSD’ in the title, but I’d expect everything that isn’t ports-specific will apply to every BSD. Her columns are clear and to the point.

Other factoids: