DragonFly BSD Digest

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.

Matthew Dillon posted an update a few days ago on the state of HAMMER – the short form is that he’s reworking the spike code.

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

• Regex Legends, for computer history buffs.  (via the manly Joel Johnson)
• SSH Best Practices: nothing complex, but good steps to know.
• A giant robotic trebuchet that flings bowling balls.  I love things that fling.
• A multi-part computer you can assemble.  It just runs Linux, though the SDK is called ‘dragonfly’.
• StudyBSD – a site with video lessons on administering BSD.  A neat idea!  (Via hubertf)

If anyone wants to convert NFSv4 support over from OpenBSD, Rick Macklem has some tips.

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.

I love to alliterate.  The Southern California Linux Exposition schedule for their show in early February is up.  There’s some potentially BSD-related events on there, including a talk on OpenBSD failover by Jason Dixon and Dru Lavigne’s presentation on open source publishing, for which I assume she’s using a BSD platform given her authorial bent.

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.

Matthew Dillon wrote an update on the state of HAMMER, and what remains to complete.  (summary: not too much)  He also wrote out some explanation of the balancing code, and the ‘spikes’ used for cluster expansion.

Matthew Dillon wants the 2.0 release of DragonFly to include HAMMER, so 2.0 won’t be ready until HAMMER’s ready too. This may mean a delay of the usual 6-month release to February.

In the meantime, the Preview tag has been moved up, for those folks following nearly bleeding-edge code.

Welcome DragonFly’s newest committer (we’ve had a lot lately!): Nuno Antunes.

Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert’s dri/drm update has a followup; you will need to update your sources to try it.  Other people (who have been reporting success) have some other tips.