This is an installation script that will turn a fresh install of FreeBSD 12.0 into based MATE desktop. It is inspired by GhostBSD. GhostBSD was a FreeBSD desktop distribution that originally used FreeBSD as it's base. After several years GhostBSD switch it's base to TrueOS. While GhostBSD continues to be a great desktop I require (and prefer) a FreeBSD base system. I created this installation script and the corresponding PKG repository to fill that gap.
It's recommended that you start with a clean install of FreeBSD 12.0 64-bit. Your non-root user should belong to the operator and wheel group so that it can perform administrative functions.
fetch -o - http://k.itty.cat/7 | sh
After about 30 minutes (depending on your Internet connection) your system will automatically reboot into a graphical desktop. See the GitHub repo or http://www.unibia.com/unibianet/freebsd/mate-desktop for additional information.
The Valuable News weekly series is dedicated to provide summary about news, articles and other interesting stuff mostly but not always related to the UNIX/BSD/Linux systems.
The annotated tag v6.4.2 for DragonFly BSD has been created, replacing v6.4.1. Key updates include fixes for virtio block devices, improvements to fdisk(8), and a kernel fix addressing panic and user process corruption.
The second BETA build for the FreeBSD 14.3 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.
The NetBSD Foundation is participating in Google Summer of Code 2025 with three projects: Enhancing Support for NAT64 Protocol Translation in NetBSD, Asynchronous I/O Framework, and Using bubblewrap to add sandboxing to NetBSD. The community bonding period will last for 3 weeks, during which mentors and contributors will familiarize themselves with the code and adjust deliverables.
Alexander Bluhm has committed changes to optimize parallel TCP input by caching the socket lock, reducing contention. This update improves performance by 12% to 22% with 10 parallel TCP streams and up to 100% with a single stream. The changes involve temporarily moving TCP packets to a per-thread queue, processing them under a shared lock, and reducing socket lock contention. This enhancement builds on previous work and contributes to significant performance gains in TCP processing.
OpenBSD 7.7, ZFS Orchestration Tools – Part 2: Replication, Switching customers from Linux to BSD because boring is good, Graphed and measured: running TCP input in parallel, Introducing an OpenBSD LLDP daemon, Hardware discovery: ACPI & Device Tree, The 2025 FreeBSD Community Survey is Here, and more.
Upstreaming FreeBSD changes is a strategic choice for commercial products, as it reduces technical debt, streamlines upgrades, and ensures long-term sustainability. By contributing to the upstream project, teams can lower upgrade friction, simplify security audits, and share maintenance efforts with the community. This approach also improves developer productivity and reduces the risk of regressions. Common barriers to upstreaming, such as perceived slowdowns or code quality concerns, can be overcome with incremental contributions and collaboration with maintainers.
The bpflogd(8) tool has been introduced into OpenBSD, offering enhanced packet logging capabilities. Unlike pflogd(8), it supports logging on any BPF interface and multiple interfaces simultaneously. It uses libevent for non-blocking operations and captures full packets by default. This tool aims to assist in debugging network issues by logging packets from multiple sources. Developers are encouraging user feedback on its performance and usability.
David Gwynne has committed lldpd(8), a daemon that acts as an LLDP agent on Ethernet interfaces, to OpenBSD -current. This daemon uses AF_FRAME Ethernet sockets to efficiently listen for LLDP packets across all interfaces. Additionally, a companion tool, lldp(8), was committed to interact with the daemon, allowing users to fetch and display LLDP packets. Both tools are now linked to the build, and further development and testing are encouraged.
OpenSSH has officially removed DSA signature support as of May 2025. The change, completed by Damien Miller, involved modifying and removing several files related to DSA in the OpenSSH codebase. This update aligns with ongoing efforts to phase out outdated cryptographic algorithms. Users are encouraged to verify the removal and adapt their configurations accordingly. The move is part of a broader initiative to enhance security and modernize the OpenSSH ecosystem.