The Valuable News weekly series provides a summary of news, articles, and other interesting content related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition includes various topics such as managing disk partitions in FreeBSD, the release of GNU Screen 5.0.1, and the benefits of FreeBSD for embedded devices.
The article details the author's experience setting up FreeBSD on the StarFive VisionFive v2 board. The process involved downloading a FreeBSD snapshot, writing it to a micro-SD card, and booting the board. However, the author encountered issues due to a mislabeled CPU core in the FDT, which required manual intervention to disable the problematic core. Despite following documentation and community advice, the setup faced challenges with storage options and booting. The author also explored OpenBSD as an alternative, which proved more successful in detecting storage devices.
OpenBSD users with low-power devices like PC Engines APU2 are called to test a new diff by Darren Tucker for em(4) TX interrupt mitigation. The update aims to improve network performance by adjusting interrupt timers, potentially increasing TX throughput by 25% and reducing CPU usage by 60%. The diff addresses issues with the current settings, which may cause excessive interrupts, especially with jumbo packets. Users are encouraged to test the diff and provide feedback to the OpenBSD community.
The Valuable News weekly series provides a summary of news, articles, and other interesting content related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition includes various topics such as managing disk partitions in FreeBSD, the release of GNU Screen 5.0.1, and the benefits of FreeBSD for embedded devices.
The third 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.
FreeBSD has introduced new package repositories for kernel modules, supporting various releases and branches. Since 14.2-RELEASE, packages have been available for all supported architectures. With the upcoming 14.3-RELEASE, the infrastructure has been extended to cover releng/14.2, releng/14.3, stable/14, and main branches. The repositories can be configured by adding specific settings to /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/kmods.conf. Different repositories are available for ports main and ports quarterly, with specific naming conventions for each release and branch.
This article details configuring OpenBSD on an EdgeRouter 4 as a home router with private DNS and failover WAN. It covers installation, network design, failover implementation, NAT configuration, and performance benchmarks. The setup uses distinct routing domains and interfaces for WAN failover, with ifstated managing connectivity checks. NAT performance is evaluated using iperf3, showing significant throughput and CPU utilization. Comparative benchmarks with a UniFi Security Gateway highlight performance differences.
GhostBSD: From Usability to Struggle and Renewal, Why You Can’t Trust AI to Tune ZFS, Introducing bpflogd(8): capture packets via BPF to log files, What I'd do as a College Freshman in 2025, FreeBSD and KDE Plasma generations, Improvements to the FreeBSD CI/CD systems, FreeBSD as a Workstation, and more.
The NetBSD Foundation will hold its 2025 Annual General Meeting on May 17th at 21:00 UTC in the netbsd-agm channel on irc.libera.chat. The event will include presentations about NetBSD, followed by a moderated Q&A session. The tentative agenda covers various topics such as foundation administrivia, technical direction, project servers, and publicity. A full transcript will be recorded for those unable to attend.
The ERSPAN collection driver, erspan(4), created by David Gwynne, has been committed to OpenBSD -current. ERSPAN is a GRE protocol used for network packet capture, implemented as an Ethernet tunnel interface. It reuses BPF infrastructure, allowing it to send packets and act as a collector. The tool is now available for testing and feedback from -current users, with development continuing in-tree.
This article discusses the common challenges and best practices for supporting FreeBSD in production environments. Key points include the importance of planning for upgrades, ensuring reproducible builds, implementing comprehensive monitoring, addressing hardware compatibility issues, and avoiding misconfigured ZFS deployments. The article emphasizes the need for disciplined engineering practices, strategic upgrades, and proper integration of FreeBSD with modern monitoring tools. Additionally, it highlights the significance of engaging with the FreeBSD community for driver support and maintaining a structured approach to patch management and security responses. The article concludes by stressing the importance of planning, visibility, and discipline in successfully running FreeBSD in production.
This article discusses cross-compiling for OpenBSD arm64, presenting two scenarios: using the Linaro ARM/AArch64 toolchain and setting up an OpenBSD-specific environment. The Linaro toolchain, available in ports, is the standard GCC toolchain for cross-compilation to ARM targets. The OpenBSD-specific environment involves building a toolchain from source, which is unsupported but can be achieved with some adjustments. The article provides step-by-step instructions for both scenarios, including setting environment variables, building the toolchain, and testing the environment. It also mentions the use of Aarch64 as an llvm/lld platform on OpenBSD.
FreeBSD 14.3, set to release soon, will bring significant improvements to Wi-Fi support, particularly for laptop users. This update addresses the long-standing issue of slow Wi-Fi speeds and outdated standards, offering a modern, high-speed Wi-Fi experience. Users eager to experience these enhancements can build the upcoming 14.3 kernel and use it on their existing FreeBSD 14.2 base. The process involves ensuring the latest firmware is installed, cloning the FreeBSD source code, switching to the stable/14 branch, and compiling the kernel. While the process is straightforward, users should be aware that they are dealing with pre-release software and may encounter issues. Additionally, users with graphics drivers may need to rebuild those to match the new kernel version.