November 2010
51 posts
Chromium testing for DragonFly →
Rui-Xiang Guo has brought chromium, the base of Google’s speedy Chrome web browser, into pkgsrc, in the wip branch. He’s looking for testers of the work, especially on DragonFly. Please…
2010 Home-made Holiday Geek Gift Guide →
I did this last year and the year before, so why not make a habit of it? I get no commissions; these are mostly places I’ve shopped or plan to shop. It’s based on “This would be SO COOL to…
Google Code-In results, so far →
Several Google Code-In tasks for DragonFly have already been claimed and finished – a regression test and desktop documentation, plus others I haven’t been involved in.
The contest runs…
NAT with pf, redux →
DragonFly versions >=2.6 and ipfw don’t seem to get along for doing network address translations. I’ve posted about this before, but I’m linking again because this time I have the explicit…
dmirror: the idea →
Alex Hornung has added the basic work for dmirror, a software RAID-1 implementation into the tree, along with a concept description from Matthew Dillon. It’s not ready for use yet; ready for…
Odd mouse fix →
Siju George noticed that his mouse would stop working in X, perhaps every hour. Restarting X would fix it, but he didn’t have a clear cause. Antonio Huete Jimenez suggested turning the sysctl…
New committer: Ilya Dryomov →
Please welcome our newest committer: Ilya Dryomov. He’s already responsible for deduplication code for Hammer, so now he can work directly.
Robotics, anyone? →
Tomas Bodzar found robotpkg, a pkgsrc-based collection of robotics-related software. Because of its pkgsrc origins, it should in theory work with DragonFly, or most anything.
arcmsr(4) update for Areca users →
Sascha Wildner has updated the arcmsr(4) driver, for you Areca users out there. I think Areca was one of the vendors kind enough to test DragonFly on their hardware directly, so please…
The return of APIC_IO →
APIC_IO is back as a kernel config option, though it just toggles the sysctl default. This is so a kernel config file with that option still set won’t cause an error.
OpenSSL updated, more stats →
Peter Avalos has committed his speedups for OpenSSL encryption (using assembly), along with a lot of numbers to show performance changes. It’s definitely sped up, but the quantity of values is…
Better AMD chipset support →
Matthew Dillon’s made several changes to improve support for AMD SB850 chipsets (for AHCI) and also for 880/890 chipsets. If you have one of these systems, it may be bootable/more reliable….
Google Code-In started! →
If you’re between 12 and 18 years of age, Google Code-In has started. There’s plenty of tasks available for DragonFly BSD, so jump in now! (or, well, wait a few days for the holiday if you’re a…
RSS feed change for Digest →
I’m moving the RSS feeds for the site to go through Feedburner, so I can see how actively they are used. I’m putting in a redirect, so it should not (I hope) affect reading it for anyone, but this…
Faster OpenSSL a possibility, without hardware →
Peter Avalos is working on having OpenSSL use assembly code. On i386, he reports initial rough results of blowfish working 15% faster, and DES doubling in speed. (seen via IRC.)
pkg_radd: oddly successful with upgrades →
The utility pkg_add has a -u option that tells it to upgrade any existing matched package with a given binary package. Since pkg_radd passes options on to the underlying use of pkg_add,…
RSS feed change for Digest →
I’m moving the RSS feeds for the site to go through Feedburner, so I can see how actively they are used. I’m putting in a redirect, so it should not (I hope) affect reading it for anyone, but this…
Faster OpenSSL a possibility, without hardware →
Peter Avalos is working on having OpenSSL use assembly code. On i386, he reports initial rough results of blowfish working 15% faster, and DES doubling in speed. (seen via IRC.)
pkg_radd: oddly successful with upgrades →
The utility pkg_add has a -u option that tells it to upgrade any existing matched package with a given binary package. Since pkg_radd passes options on to the underlying use of pkg_add,…
OpenSSL update, vn update →
Peter Avalos is bringing in OpenSSL 1.0.0b. I’m not sure what the difference between 1.0.0b and 1.0.1 would be. Also, Alex Hornung has updated vn(4) – there’s more updates than the one I…
RSS feed change for Digest →
I’m moving the RSS feeds for the site to go through Feedburner, so I can see how actively they are used. I’m putting in a redirect, so it should not (I hope) affect reading it for anyone, but this…
Faster OpenSSL a possibility, without hardware →
Peter Avalos is working on having OpenSSL use assembly code. On i386, he reports initial rough results of blowfish working 15% faster, and DES doubling in speed. (seen via IRC.)
pkg_radd: oddly successful with upgrades →
The utility pkg_add has a -u option that tells it to upgrade any existing matched package with a given binary package. Since pkg_radd passes options on to the underlying use of pkg_add,…
OpenSSL update, vn update →
Peter Avalos is bringing in OpenSSL 1.0.0b. I’m not sure what the difference between 1.0.0b and 1.0.1 would be. Also, Alex Hornung has updated vn(4) – there’s more updates than the one I…
2.8.3 is on the way →
Another point release for DragonFly 2.8 is planned, with a bunch of small updates, some of which have been covered here recently.
A Dell laptop fix →
Naoya Sugioka had trouble booting DragonFly on his Dell M4400. He updated ACPICA with this patch, and was able to boot. I link to it in case someone else with a recent Dell model (or perhaps…
More pf updates →
Jan Lentfer, who apparently has a high tolerance for pain, has now brought the kernel part of pf up to the equivalent of the OpenBSD 4.4 version, available for testing. It’s not yet committed….
Building Java, again →
Francois Tigeot was able to get wip/jdk15 to build on DragonFly, from pkgsrc-wip. Unfortunately, the package has been removed, but he’s looking to put it back.
Last Call for Code-In tasks →
If you have any last-minute suggestions for Google Code-In tasks for DragonFly, pass them along now – it starts Monday! Post them here, or in #dragonflybsd on EFNet IRC, or on the kernel@ mailing…
FOSDEM 2011 call for papers →
Marius Nünnerich posted a call for papers for FOSDEM 2011. Submissions need to be in by December 20th; the Brussels conference itself is happening in February.
(Has anyone been to this? What…
NYCBSDCon 2010: notes →
My NYCBSDCon 2010 summary, or How I Spent My New York City vacation:
Things I learned on Friday: The only event was a get-together at the B Bar and Grill, down the street from the…
Back from NYCBSDCon →
Well, almost – I’m still in an airport. I didn’t get to liveblog because of some Atheros chipset issues that are now conveniently solved, but I’ll have a lengthy post by tomorrow detailing the…
A fix for docbook and pkgsrc issues →
A number of people have encountered this: while installing some larger pkgsrc package, the process stops on a strange DocBook error. Alex Hornung has a fix: symlink /usr/pkg/etc/xml/catalog to…
Flash howto, updated →
It has multiple authors at this point starting with Chris Turner and moving to Siju George, but: the Flash setup is in the quickstart document. As I recall, someone put together a changed library…
Dovecot upgrade →
Dovecot, a rather popular IMAP/POP3 mail server, has had version 2 arrive in pkgsrc. There’s an upgrade guide on pkgsrc-users@ if you’re thinking of upgrading.
APIC_IO changes warning →
If your system has trouble when APIC_IO is enabled, and you’re tracking DragonFly 2.9, you may have trouble on your next build. The fix is putting this in your loader.conf:
hw.apic_io_enable=0
I know this has already been covered, to some extent, but one can never be too clear with solutions.
Power levels and how to vary them →
Alex Hornung is having trouble getting his power consumption as low as it could be on his DragonFly laptop. A side effect of this problem is that when he posts about it, he also manages to enumerate…
Deduplication arrives →
Ilya Dryomov’s work on deduplication for Hammer has been committed to the tree in an early test form. I guess I need to pay up as part of the code bounty. If you’re wondering how much space it…
APIC_IO changes →
For a long time, APIC_IO was an option that you usually had to enable for multiprocessor capability in your kernel config. Michael Neumann fixed up and changed this so it’s no longer a kernel…
Lazy Reading: Clouds, cookies, bugs, more →
A catch-up week.
Ivan Voras askes for the ‘anti-cloud‘, a true decentralization of resources instead of the cloud-as-a-central-service-from-one-company, which is what it’s becoming now.
How…
BSDTalk: Matthew Dillon, DragonFly →
Another day, another BSDTalk item: this time it’s 15 minutes with Matthew Dillon at MeetBSD, talking about the 2.8 release. It was recorded either today or yesterday – quite fresh.
Matthew…
Google Code-in: us too! →
We’re part of Google Code-In! One of 20 organizations, this time.
If you want to contribute something right now, we can always use more Code-In ideas on our project page. (Follow the…
Hey, that’s neat-looking →
Posted by ‘blinkkin’ on IRC: this SVG test using DragonFly facts. Click on it; it zooms.
BSDTalk: PC-BSD, Kris Moore →
BSDTalk has a brand new interview from the just-finished MeetBSD, talking about PC-BSD 9 with Kris Moore. (18 minutes)
A pile of upcoming events →
This is just based on what’s shown up in my Inbox lately:
AsiaBSDCon has a Call for Papers for the 2011 event, next March.
ECI in Argentina has a Call for Course Proposals.
MeetBSD 2010 is…
Swapcache helps out more →
Swapcache is normally used with a SSD, but Matthew Dillon was able to set it up using a separate, ‘normal’ hard disk on avalon.dragonflybsd.org. This reduced pressure on the machine’s existing…
Building Cairo/gstreamer/etc. →
If you have trouble building Cairo or gstreamer or some other X-related packages, check this page from Dave Shao. It came in useful for me. (linked by Steve O’Hara Smith)
November OSBR: Economic Development →
The November issue of the Open Source Business Resource is out, with the theme of “Economic Development.” I like the microcredit article, but perhaps that’s just my special interest.
The…
HOWTO tftp →
Pratyush Kshirsagar has addeda howto page on setting up a tftp server.
The longer I work on this Digest, the harder the names are to spell.
NYCBSDCon early registration extended →
The early bird registration (a cheap $95) for NYCBSDCon has been extended an extra week to match how long they ran it previous years. November 7th, it goes to $125 and walk-in will be $145.
