The third 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.
The OpenZFS RAID-Z expansion feature now allows users to add disks to a RAID-Z array, addressing a long-standing limitation. This enables incremental storage growth, reducing costs and complexity for users of FreeBSD-based systems. The feature supports all RAID-Z levels (RAID-Z1, RAID-Z2, RAID-Z3) and ensures data redundancy during the expansion process. This development is significant for enterprise environments and NAS systems, providing a flexible and reliable storage solution. The FreeBSD Foundation funded this project, led by ZFS co-creator Matt Ahrens, with rigorous testing and integration efforts.
FuguIta, an OpenBSD-based live system, marks its 20th anniversary. Initially an experimental project to boot OpenBSD from a CD, it now supports i386, amd64, and arm64 architectures and can be used on various media like DVDs, USB sticks, and SD cards. FuguIta has expanded its use cases from trying OpenBSD to serving as a daily PC environment, server, router, and IoT device. It offers unique features like easy updates, flexible boot modes, and remastering options. The project continues to thrive with community support and regular releases.
The FreeBSD Project has released a security advisory addressing multiple vulnerabilities in OpenSSH. The advisory, FreeBSD-SA-25:05.openssh, details two critical issues: a client host verification error (CVE-2025-26465) and a server denial-of-service vulnerability (CVE-2025-26466). The host verification error allows an attacker to impersonate servers under specific conditions, while the denial-of-service issue can cause resource exhaustion on servers. Affected systems include all supported FreeBSD versions. Users are advised to update to patched versions and restart the SSH daemon to mitigate these risks.
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.