This episode of BSD Now covers essential topics for managing core infrastructure, including DNS setup, laptop support updates, and FreeBSD's presence at FOSDEM 2025. It also delves into practical guides like uploading messages to an IMAP server using curl, the decline of email forwarding, and insights into VPS management with OpenBSD Amsterdam.
FreeBSD is highlighted as the ideal operating system for embedded devices due to its permissive license, flexibility, and high performance. Unlike Linux, FreeBSD avoids GPL restrictions, allowing developers to modify, integrate, and commercialize solutions without licensing constraints. Its robust community and upstreaming model ensure consistent, high-quality contributions, making it a reliable choice for performance-critical applications. FreeBSD powers major platforms like Netflix and Sony's PlayStation, demonstrating its versatility and reliability in real-world, high-stakes environments. For embedded systems, FreeBSD offers flexibility, reliability, and a streamlined development experience, making it a superior alternative to Linux for many developers.
The article discusses the resurrection of the 1972 UNIX V2 "Beta," an early UNIX kernel restored from historical tapes. The author details the process of extracting and booting the kernel using emulators, highlighting its unique characteristics, such as supporting both V1 and V2 binaries and having an increased core size. The article also provides download links for the restored RF disk image and explains the challenges faced during the restoration process.
FreeBSD 13.5-BETA2 released, OpenBSD ssh updates, and FreeBSD audio setup guide and more.
Errata patches for sshd(8) and ssh(1) have been released for OpenBSD 7.6 and 7.5. Binary updates are available for amd64, arm64, and i386 platforms via the syspatch utility, with source code patches accessible on the respective errata pages.
The "Valuable News" series provides a weekly summary of news, articles, and resources primarily focused on UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition covers updates on FreeBSD security culture, firewall setup with ipfw(8), PostgreSQL best practices, and more. It also includes insights into hardware developments, life-related topics, and other interesting content.
The second BETA build for the FreeBSD 13.5 release cycle is now available. ISO images for the amd64, i386, powerpc, powerpc64, powerpc64le, powerpcspe, armv6, armv7, aarch64, and riscv64 architectures are FreeBSD mirror sites.
Key Considerations for Benchmarking Network Storage Performance, OpenZFS 2.3.0 available, Updates on AsiaBSDcon, GhostBSD Desktop Conference, Recovering from external zroot, Create a new issue in a Github repository with Ansible, Stories I refuse to believe, date limit in UFS1 filesystem extended, and more.
Kleene is a container management platform designed for FreeBSD, offering Docker-like functionality while leveraging FreeBSD's native tools like jails, ZFS, and PF. It simplifies application deployment, maintenance, and upgrades without unnecessary complexity. This platform adheres to the KISS principle, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced users. The article provides detailed installation and usage instructions, including setting up the Kleened service and Klee client, building container images, and running containerized applications. Kleene is ideal for users seeking a streamlined, efficient, and transparent container management solution on FreeBSD.
FreeBSD UNIX is renowned for its features, but it also has quirks, such as pkg(8) packages being built against older releases. This article explores the recent change where GhostBSD switched to using FreeBSD RELEASE for its packages, providing a seamless solution to issues like broken kernel modules. By switching to the GhostBSD repository, users can avoid compatibility problems and ensure smoother updates. This resource is valuable for BSD users looking to optimize their package management and avoid common pitfalls.
This article provides a comprehensive guide to configuring FreeBSD for high-quality audio, including system parameters, bit-perfect signal processing, real-time operation, and equalizer setup. It covers the use of MPD (Music Player Daemon) and FFmpeg filters for advanced audio equalization. The guide is valuable for both FreeBSD and Linux users seeking to optimize their audio systems, especially for audiophile applications. Key topics include enabling bit-perfect mode, configuring real-time operation, and implementing high-quality equalizers using FFmpeg. The article also compares FreeBSD and Linux audio quality and discusses hardware support.
KDE Community has announced the release of Plasma 6.3, offering an unmatched desktop environment. This update focuses on fine-tuning, bug fixes, and new features, making it a top choice for desktop users. Key highlights include improved tablet configuration, enhanced fractional scaling for sharper visuals, and better hardware monitoring, especially for FreeBSD users.
GhostBSD is transitioning to FreeBSD RELEASE for future versions, starting with FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASEp1. This shift aims to provide greater stability, predictable updates, and reduced troubleshooting. The new versioning scheme will reflect the FreeBSD release and patch levels, and GhostBSD will align its releases with FreeBSD's schedule. This change allows the team to focus on enhancing GhostBSD, delivering a more reliable and polished system for users. Updates may include critical patches and bug fixes as needed.
Errata patches for pf fragment reassembly have been released for OpenBSD 7.6 and 7.5. Binary updates are available for amd64, arm64, and i386 platforms via the syspatch utility. Source code patches can be accessed on the respective errata pages.