April 2010
52 posts
dsched details →
Alex Hornung has posted an elaborate summary of his I/O scheduler work, with details on usage. He reports speed improvements under heavy load. If this sounds interesting to you (and it should),…
March 2010
48 posts
Panic, and fast →
Venkatesh Srinivas’s new sysctl, “debug.panic” is available for those who want to panic their machine on purpose, but don’t have direct access to the keyboard.
OpenSSL bug fixed, BIND updated too →
OpenSSL (which recently hit 1.0, though that’s not in DragonFly yet) has been patched to cover a recent security issue, thanks to Peter Avalos.
Jan Lentfer’s updated BIND to 9.5.2-P3, too.
Recent performance improvements →
A problem found by Jan Lentfer and fixed by Matthew Dillon means that you can get a good performance boost if you’re running bleeding-edge DragonFly from the last month or so. Or, you can just…
I/O scheduler preview →
Alex Hornung has been working on an I/O scheduler; he’s made some graphs to show results so far. They’re plain, but pictures are always fun.
2.6 branched, 2.7 now for development →
DragonFly 2.6 has been branched, and should be released next week. Check the tag message for a list of the many, many commits.
BSDTalk 187: Sam Smith →
The newest BSDTalk has a 25-minute conversation with Sam Smith, who helped organize EuroBSDCon 2009 and other UKUUG events.
Flash works too! →
Thanks to work from Samuel J. Greear and Alex Hornung:
Install Firefox (natively)
libflashsupport and adobe-flash-plugin
mount linprocfs
null mount devfs within the linux system
There’s…
Pretty, big graphs →
This set of graphs that shows relationships within given languages on github shows some interesting relationships, and also happens to be very pretty.
Would it be worth moving DragonFly to…
cvsup gone, finally →
YONETANI Tomokazu has eliminated cvsup, replacing it with net/csup from pkgsrc. The README notes that the pkgsrc package devel/cvsync is another alternative if you need to retrieve the…
New bugtracker possibilities →
Alex Hornung has suggested replacing the existing bugtracker (Roundup) with a new one (Redmine). His post about the changes is lengthy and links to a demo, so read on for details; I haven’t…
BSD Strikes Again →
Steven Rosenberg, who I’ve linked to before, is trying BSD again. The linked post is a “story of my install” format.
REDOs done, and 64-bit vkernels too →
Matthew Dillon has implemented what he calls “REDO” records in Hammer, which reduce the amount of time taken flushing data to disk. It’ll be in the 2.6 release, but it isn’t on by default.
…
Simple system snapshot setup →
Matthew Dillon’s added some tools for building system snapshots, a previously custom process. Look at the README for details.
Statistics on binary pkgsrc use →
Based on a comment from John Merino on this very Digest, I managed to assemble some statistics on binary pkgsrc package use. See my full post for the details, including some analysis.
A fan control narrative →
Constantine Aleksandrovich Murenin posted his work on fan control, involving Winbond Super I/O Hardware Monitors. He’s had a series of commits up to this point, and this message nicely sums up the…
Messylaneous for 03/24/2010 →
In an effort to catch up…
Matthew Dillon made a change to how material in memory is paged out; it may improve things depending on how much paging your system already does.
The AsiaBSDCon…
2.6 very soon →
The next release, 2.6, will be branched in the next few days. The official release: next week, with some last-minute benefits.
Snapshot and mirror changes →
The naming convention for the daily snapshots of DragonFly has changed, to make the file names more readable. This may lead to some confusion as the mirrors settle, but it’ll pan out. If you run a…
OpenOffice, lpr, and a future reminder →
Stephane Russel was having trouble printing with OpenOffice and lpr on DragonFly. He fixed it, and I’m linking to his explanation because someday, someone will have the same problem and be looking…
Easy reading for what’s broke →
Every time a bulk build of pkgsrc packages is completed, a report is uploaded listing what built and what didn’t. Since there’s so many reports from the now-automated build, I’ve sorted it by…
Many ways to tell when the computer overheats →
Constantine A. Murenin’s been adding more support for various monitoring hardware; I want to link to it not just cause it’s news, but it’s nice to see how complete his coverage has been.
New handbook activity →
Alex Hornung is working on a new version of the Handbook; my hat is off to him. I brought along the FreeBSD handbook SGML to DragonFly, and converted it through to the current wiki, so I know just…
A lot of text about work on malloc →
There’s a lot to read, so if you understand it, that’s great. I’m passing it on without other comment.
Interested in pkgsrc? DragonFly? →
We actively need more people to do the small but plentiful fixes to make sure as many pkgsrc packages work as possible. Are you interested? Speak up.
Summer of Code 2010: DragonFly BSD →
We’ve got a third year in Summer of Code!
The timeline shows about a week and a half for planning, and then student applications begin on the 29th of March, and run to April 9th.
If you want to…
No chlamydia; change your mirror →
Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert’s host for DragonFly, chlamydia.fs.ei.tum.de, is down for the foreseeable future. Since it had excellent bandwidth, it was frequently used as the source for a lot of the…
PHP change in pkgsrc →
PHP version 5.3 has some differences from previous versions, so there’s now a lang/php53 port. Use this if you want to upgrade right away, or stick with lang/php if you want to play it safe.
Some specials: SSDs, port multipliers →
Newegg is running some specials: a 64G Kingston SSD for $140, a 256G (yikes!) Crucial SSD for $660, and a Sans Digital port multiplier for $110. The SSDs are good for using swapcache(8),…
BSD videos now captioned →
The BSD Conferences channel on YouTube now has updated captioning, which will be useful if you don’t follow spoken English too well.
Linuxulator progress →
Alex Hornung has committed his initial work on Linux support, which is over 6,500 lines so far. (Thanks, Alex!) He’s continuing to work on it, though going by his commit message, Java, Opera,…
Vinum root mounts possible again →
As if Alex Horning wasn’t busy enough with his Linuxulator update, he’s also made it possible to have a vinum root volume in conjunction with using devfs.
Messylaneous for 2010/03/14: complaints, events,... →
I’ve been building this one up:
Marc Espie’s post about autoconf holds true; Linux is in danger of becoming a monoculture in itself, similar to Windows.
The BSDCan 2010 schedule has been…
Another power solution →
“Device initiated power management” via AHCI is now possible, thanks to Johannes Hofmann. If I understand it correctly, it lets the computer handle power reductions automatically, which is more…
Summer of Code organization application details →
I’ve applied for DragonFly for the 2010 Summer of Code program. I posted the details of the application, for the curious. The application period closes in the next 24 hours; hopefully we’ll be…
More BSD in Argentina →
Damian Vicino has posted about plans for an expanded second “BSDDay-AR” (a BSD event in Argentina) this year. If you want to show and give a talk, let him know. It’s always good to hear about a…
BIND goes byebye? →
Jan Lentfer has accomplished something rather dramatic: the removal of BIND from the base system. It’s not actually out yet, but I daresay it will be after the 2.6 release, freeing people up to…
Ways to improve SSH security →
‘Walter’ asked about dealing with endless ssh port dictionary attacks. Several suggested changing ports and removing passwords, with opie(4) for when keyfiles aren’t available. Also, there’s…
wbsio(4) sensor support added →
Constantine Murenin has added wbsio(4) to DragonFly. It’s the ISA-attached version of the lm(4) sensor, if I remember correctly.
Linuxulator update finally happening →
Alex Hornung has taken on a very overdue and very necessary project: an update of linux binary support. His code is available for anyone who wants to try it. Testing so far is working, but it…
Messylaneous for 2010/03/08 →
I gots a Summer of Code org application to write up, so you get a linkdump:
An mp3 of “PFSense II, Rocking The Datacenter” at NYCBUG, via Dru Lavigne. Also, her “BSD for Linux Users” at the…
BSDTV starts →
BSDTV has been launched, with 3 videos to start. Will there be DragonFly content? I hope so. (found via this and this)
Mentoring reminder →
We have several potential Summer of Code mentors already, but if you want to get in on the action, let me know. Org applications start Monday, and I’d like a count before then…
em(4), igb(4) port added →
Michael Neumann has added his port of the e1000 driver from FreeBSD, though he doesn’t recommend using it yet. He’s looking for testers who have this hardware.
pkgsrc-2010Q1 freeze soon →
The ‘freeze’ for pkgsrc-2010Q1 is scheduled to start March 16th, which will be right around the same time of the DragonFly 2.6 release. The freeze lasts 2 weeks, usually, so new packages for 2.6…
New BSD Magazine: Desktops →
A new, free issue of BSD Magazine is out, with the theme of “BSD as a Desktop“. The next issue is “Hosting BSD”, and if that sounds interesting, Dru Lavigne is a contact for writing an article…
Messylaneous for 2010/03/01 →
I think I’ve almost caught up on my backlog of Things To Post:
The March issue of the Open Source Business Resource is up, with the theme of “Mobile”. The BeagleBoard and OpenBTS articles are…
Self-hosting clang; building DragonFly with it too →
clang, which many people look to as a gcc replacement, is now able to build itself. (Thanks John Marino for the heads-up, some time ago) It can also build world and kernel on DragonFly, going on…
