The "Valuable News" weekly series provides a curated summary of news, articles, and updates primarily focused on UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition covers key developments such as FreeBSD's progress on modern standby (S0ix) support, insights from FOSDEM 2025, and updates on projects like OPNsense and LibreOffice.
ZFS replication is a critical process for ensuring efficient backups and failover readiness by leveraging snapshots and optimized data transfer. This guide explores ZFS replication strategies, tools, configurations, and key features such as compression, encryption, and snapshot management. Key points include the comparison between push and pull replication methods, transfer steps using tools like Syncoid, and advanced features like bandwidth limiting and logging. The guide also covers connection methods, security implications, and best practices for configuration, helping users choose the right tool for their needs. Additionally, it discusses snapshot management, including the use of holds and bookmarks, and provides insights into resuming interrupted transfers and optimizing performance.
FreeBSD’s continuous integration system enables developers to discover regressions automatically through comprehensive tests. This effort aims to make adoption by new developers less cumbersome and reduce the time and effort required for new contributions to be developed.
The article discusses improvements to a raw OpenBSD syscall demo, addressing fragility and manual address requirements in the original implementation. It provides a detailed walkthrough of fixing issues such as stack alignment, register clobbering, and syscall table management using inline assembly and proper compiler flags. The author demonstrates the robustness of the updated demo by porting a real application, u-config, to use raw OpenBSD syscalls, resulting in a functional and optimized static binary. The article also explores alternatives for handling string functions and optimizing binary size.
FreeBSD 14.1 will reach its end-of-life (EoL) on March 31, 2025, and will no longer receive support from the FreeBSD Security Team. Users are strongly advised to upgrade to a newer release, such as FreeBSD 14.2 or another supported branch. The announcement also provides a list of currently supported releases and their expected EoL dates.
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is a fascinating blend of two major Unix-like traditions. While it offers unique advantages like ZFS support, FreeBSD’s performance optimizations, and Debian’s extensive package ecosystem, it also comes with challenges related to software compatibility and declining official support.
The FreeBSD Project has released FreeBSD 13.5-RELEASE, the final update in the stable/13 branch. This release focuses on maintenance, including bug fixes, driver updates, and updates to externally-maintained software. It is available for multiple architectures, such as amd64, i386, and aarch64, and can be installed via ISO images, USB sticks, or over the network. Key resources like release notes, hardware compatibility details, and errata are available on the official FreeBSD website. This release will be supported until April 30, 2026.
When deploying Matrix Synapse, an open-source chat solution, authentication is critical. This guide integrates Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) using OpenID Connect (OIDC) for secure Single Sign-On (SSO). It covers installation on FreeBSD and Debian, configuration of PostgreSQL, and setup of Nginx as a reverse proxy. The process includes registering an application in Azure AD, configuring OIDC in Matrix Synapse, and ensuring secure communication. This integration enhances security and user convenience by leveraging enterprise-grade identity solutions.
The Valuable News series provides a weekly summary of news and articles related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition highlights key updates in the UNIX ecosystem, including PostgreSQL internals, hardware reviews, and FreeBSD improvements. It also covers security tips, open-source projects, and hardware insights.
The article discusses the implementation of S0ix, a modern standby feature for power savings on FreeBSD. It explains the transition from ACPI S3 to S0ix, which allows systems to enter a low-power state while remaining in the S0 global state. Key points include the differences between S3 and S0ix, how to check if a laptop supports S0ix, and the progress made so far in enabling S0ix on FreeBSD. The article also covers debugging techniques, vendor-specific complications (e.g., AMD), and future steps such as achieving full S0i3 support and testing on Intel platforms. Additionally, it mentions related features like hibernation (S4) and hybrid suspend.
The FreeBSD Foundation has opened applications for travel grants to attend BSDCan 2025 and the FreeBSD Developer Summit. These grants assist FreeBSD developers and advocates with travel expenses for attending conferences related to FreeBSD development. The application deadline for BSDCan 2025 is April 16, 2025. The Foundation also offers grants for other technical events, with applications due 7 weeks before the event. Interested individuals can apply through the general travel grant application.
The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again, The Biggest Unix Security Loophole, The monospace Web, What a FreeBSD kernel message about your bridge means, Installing FreeBSD on a HP 250 G9, Networking for System Administrators, and more.