GhostBSD 18.12 is an updated iso of GhostBSD 18.10 with some little changes to the live DVD/USB and with updated packages.
What has changed since 18.10
The FreeBSD Foundation has published its February 2025 monthly report for the Laptop Support and Usability Project. Key highlights include advancements in laptop sleep states, such as the development of the acpi_spmc power management driver, which enables deeper sleep states using S0ix and s2idle. Additionally, the project has expanded support for WiFi 4 and WiFi 5 on modern chipsets, allowing for high throughput rates. Efforts to improve compatibility with Linux WiFi drivers through the LinuxKPI layer are also ongoing.
The pkgsrc developers have released the 86th quarterly branch, pkgsrc-2025Q1, featuring over 29,000 packages. Notable additions include Chromium 131.0.6778.204, Elm 0.19.1, and pytorch 2.5, while updates include XFCE 4.20 and PHP 8.4.5. The release also introduces support for multiple PHP versions and ends support for several platforms due to lack of use. Users with local PHP config changes will need to re-apply them to version-specific files.
The Valuable News series provides weekly summaries of news and articles primarily focused on UNIX, BSD, and Linux systems. This edition highlights key updates, including FreeBSD 14.2 on ThinkPad X220, UEFI multiboot configurations, and developments in Rust-based tools for UNIX systems. It also covers hardware news, privacy tips, and updates on community projects.
The web-browser, an indispensable piece of software for all modern desktop Operating Systems, and FreeBSD is not excused this requirement. This video is looking at the browsers available for FreeBSD and GhostBSD in 2025.
The Future Looking Back At Us: Joanne McNeil on Cyberpunk, Why ZFS reports less available space, We are destroying software, FreeBSD 13.5 Overcomes UFS Y2038 Problem To Push It Out To Year 2106, 1972 UNIX V2 "Beta" Resurrected, Some thoughts on why 'inetd activation' didn't catch on, If you believe in “Artificial Intelligence”, take five minutes to ask it about stuff you know well, and more.
The article discusses managing FreeBSD jail backups using NocoDB, a visual database tool. The author previously used a simple shell script to back up all jails but now employs NocoDB to selectively back up jails based on criteria stored in a database. This approach simplifies the process by allowing dynamic queries to exclude or include specific jails. The article provides examples of API requests to fetch and update backup information, including integrating with tools like bastille and rclone for local or S3 backups. The author highlights the efficiency and flexibility of this method, especially for managing a large number of jails.
Errata patch for FreeType has been released for OpenBSD 7.5. OpenBSD 7.6 is not affected. Binary updates for the amd64, arm64 and i386 platform are available via the syspatch utility.
The Valuable News weekly series provides a curated summary of news, articles, and updates primarily related to UNIX, BSD, and Linux systems. This edition covers topics such as FreeBSD developments, hardware builds, life-related insights, and other interesting projects. Highlights include updates on FreeBSD's bug backlog, GhostBSD experiences, OpenBSD advancements.
This post are notes for author's presentation at OSDay 2025 in Florence highlights the enduring relevance of BSD systems in 2025. Author emphasizes their stability, security, and performance, contrasting them with the mainstream "monoculture" of Linux, Docker, and Kubernetes. BSDs offer a coherent philosophy, excellent documentation, and tools designed for consistency and reliability. FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD are introduced, showcasing their unique strengths in security, portability, and long-term support. Author advocates for evaluating alternatives to mainstream tools, promoting freedom and stability in an increasingly complex technological landscape.
The recent update to fw_update(8) introduces support for arbitrary dmesg files, allowing users to specify custom dmesg logs for firmware detection. This change addresses issues with installing firmware on systems lacking direct download access and simplifies testing for devices using custom dmesg logs. The update also adjusts the OpenBSD version detection mechanism to rely on dmesg instead of sysctl, while still allowing sysupgrade to override settings. This enhancement is particularly beneficial for users installing OpenBSD on hardware that requires firmware not included in the default install media.
OpenZFS RAID-Z Expansion: A New Era in Storage Flexibility, ZFS Orchestration Tools – Part 1: Snapshots, The Case of UNIX vs. The UNIX System, OpenBGPD 8.8 released, OPNsense 25.1, and more.
FreeBSD's SO_SPLICE enables kernel-level TCP proxying, reducing CPU overhead by eliminating unnecessary data copying and system call overhead. This feature improves network efficiency, lowers latency, and enhances throughput. Available in FreeBSD 14.2, it provides a streamlined solution for high-performance proxying. Benchmarks show reduced CPU usage and increased throughput compared to traditional userspace proxying. Klara Systems implemented this feature, demonstrating its effectiveness in real-world scenarios. Future enhancements may include UDP support and integration with FreeBSD's kernel TLS (KTLS).
Errata patches for libexpat have been released for OpenBSD 7.6 and 7.5. Binary updates for the amd64, arm64 and i386 platform are available via the syspatch utility.
The FreeBSD team got on top of a huge backlog problem with help from data visualization tools. They set up dashboards to track and sort over 7,000 old bugs. Now they fix bugs twice as fast as new ones come in and respond to users more quickly.
The Valuable News series provides a weekly summary of news and articles related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition highlights key updates such as the release of FreeBSD 13.5, hardware reviews, and community projects.
In this video you can take a quick look at what GhostBSD offers - be advised that this is via VirtualBox.