FreeBSD Announcements Archives

Rod Grimes, original FreeBSD Release Engineer is back

July 1, 2016 By Cao Leave a Comment

Glen Barber has announced that Rod Grimes, an original member of the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team, is back in action and ready to provide his decades of expertise to the operating system. You can see his talk at BSDCan 2016 to get familiar with his work.

Dear FreeBSD Community:

It gives me great pleasure to announce to you all that we have found, and somehow managed to trick, our first Release Engineer into rejoining the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team.

For those that have not attended BSDCan 2016, Rod Grimes reappeared after about 24 years.  There is an excellent talk from him available online that gives a brief background of the Project, available here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgeUniPBQjM

I was personally fortunate enough to attend this talk, and during the Q/A part asked Rod when he was going to return to Release Engineering.

I encourage you to listen to the talk, but his response was basically "when you drag me back."

Well, I succeeded in this endeavor, and I am pleased to announce to you all that Rod Grimes, the first FreeBSD Release Engineer, is back on the team.

Rod's insight from historical points of view will be of great value to the Project today as it has evolved.

This is something I never thought would ever happen.  But that is the great thing about this community - always expect the unexpected.

Welcome back, Rod.

With sincerity beyond words,

Glen

Original announcement: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/2016-June/001730.html

FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE now available

April 8, 2016 By Cao Leave a Comment

freebsdlogo

The developers of FreeBSD have made available 10.3-RELEASE! Notable changes are support for Intel Skylake Chipset, UEFI Boot loader improvements, Linux compatibility layer improvements, GNOME, Xorg-Server updates, and various driver and utility upgrades. Download the ISO/IMAGE files here.

FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE Announcement

The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE. This is the third release of the stable/10 branch, which improves on the stability of FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE and introduces some new features.

Some of the highlights:

The UEFI boot loader received several improvements: It now follows /boot/config and /boot.config files, multi-device boot support works and command line arguments are parsed. Additionally, its framebuffer driver has been enhanced with GOP (Graphics Output Protocol) and UGA (Universal Graphics Adapter) handling, allowing to set the current graphics mode on systems using one of these methods. Moreover, ZFS boot capability has been added to the UEFI boot loader, including support for multiple ZFS Boot Environments (BEs), e. g. those provided by sysutils/beadm.

The CAM Target Layer ctl(4) now supports High Availability setups.

The Linux® compatibility layer has been substantially improved and now is capable of running 64-bit applications on amd64 (x86_64), 1:1 threading, VDSO and subset of the epoll(7) family sufficient for the majority of programs.

The em(4) and igb(4) drivers have been updated to version 7.6.1 and 2.5.3 respectively. Among others, this brings support for i219/i219(2)/i219(3) hardware found with Intel® Skylake generation and newer chipsets.

The isp(4) driver has been updated and improved: It now also supports 16 Gbps Fibre Channel adapters, has improved target mode support and completed Multi-ID (NPIV) functionality.

The ixgbe(4) driver has been updated to Intel® FreeBSD Networking Group version 3.1.13-k and support for X552 and X550T was added.

The initial implementation of reroot support has has been added to the reboot(8) utility, allowing the root file system to be mounted from a temporary source file system without requiring a full system reboot.

The bsdinstall(8) utility has been updated to allow for creating root-on-ZFS installations on UEFI-based systems in automatic mode.

The ifconfig(8) utility now reports SFP/SFP+ optics module data when the -v flag is specified and a NIC driver provides such information, i. e. for cxgbe(4), ixgbe(4), mlx5en(4) and sfxge(4).

The jail(8) utility has been updated to include a new flag, -l, which ensures a clean environment in the target jail. Additionally, jail(8) now runs a shell within the target jail by default when no command was given.

The mkimg(1) utility has been updated to support NTFS file systems in both GPT and MBR partitioning schemes.

The xz(1) utility has been updated to version 5.2.2, which provides support for multi-threaded compression.

GNOME has been updated to version 3.16.2.

TeXLive has been updated to TL2015.

Xorg-Server has been updated to version 1.17.4.

And much more …

For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the online release notes and errata list, available at:

https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/10.3R/relnotes.html

https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/10.3R/errata.html

For more information about FreeBSD release engineering activities, please see:

https://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/

Official announcement: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.3R/announce.html

FreeBSD 10.3-RC3 Now Available

March 25, 2016 By Cao Leave a Comment

The third release candidate of FreeBSD 10.3 has been made available. Notable changes are changes to root-on-ZFS, csh(1) and tcsh(1), sysarch bug fix, OpenSSH update, and more. See the release notes for full details.

The third Release Candidate build of the 10.3-RELEASE release cycle is now
available.

Installation images are available for:

o amd64 GENERIC
o i386 GENERIC
o ia64 GENERIC
o powerpc GENERIC
o powerpc64 GENERIC64
o sparc64 GENERIC
o armv6 BEAGLEBONE
o armv6 CUBOX-HUMMINGBOARD
o armv6 GUMSTIX
o armv6 PANDABOARD
o armv6 RPI-B
o armv6 WANDBOARD

Installer images and memory stick images are available here:

    ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.3/

The image checksums follow at the end of this e-mail.

PGP-signed checksums for the images are also available at:

    https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/10.3R/signatures.html

If you notice problems you can report them through the Bugzilla PR
system or on the -stable mailing list.

If you would like to use SVN to do a source based update of an existing
system, use the "releng/10.3" branch.

A list of changes since 10.2-RELEASE are available on the stable/10
release notes:

    https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.3R/relnotes.html

Please note, the release notes page is not yet complete, and will be
updated on an ongoing basis as the 10.3-RELEASE cycle progresses.

Release notes: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2016-March/084424.html

Packaging the base system with pkg(8)

March 18, 2016 By Cao Leave a Comment

If you have not seen the mailing list, the developers of FreeBSD are planning to package the FreeBSD 11 base system with pkg(8).

For those who have missed the initial email surrounding this topic, we
are planning on packaging the base system with pkg(8) for 11.0-RELEASE.

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-pkgbase/2016-January/000000.html

At this time, I believe the major blockers and critical issues have been
resolved where it is time for an official call-for-testing.

Please note, as with any development branch, this is not yet intended
for production environments.  Testing on virtual machines or dedicated
testing machines is strongly encouraged.

Also note (as repeated below), running 'pkg delete -a' will implicitly
remove base system packages after they are installed.

To obtain the sources for testing, please use the projects/release-pkg
branch: ...

See the original announcement: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-pkgbase/2016-March/000032.html

FreeBSD 10.3-BETA2 Now Available

February 26, 2016 By Cao Leave a Comment

If you have not seen it already, FreeBSD version 10.-3 BETA2 is available. This update consists of changes to OpenSSH, UEFI ZFS loader, and various bug/security fixes. Follow the link below for the full notes.

The second BETA build of the 10.3-RELEASE release cycle is now available.

Installation images are available for:

o amd64 GENERIC
o i386 GENERIC
O ia64 GENERIC
o powerpc GENERIC
o powerpc64 GENERIC64
o sparc64 GENERIC
o armv6 BEAGLEBONE
o armv6 CUBOX-HUMMINGBOARD
o armv6 GUMSTIX
o armv6 PANDABOARD
o armv6 RPI-B
o armv6 WANDBOARD

Installer images and memory stick images are available here:

    ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/10.3/

The image checksums follow at the end of this e-mail.

If you notice problems you can report them through the Bugzilla PR
system or on the -stable mailing list.

If you would like to use SVN to do a source based update of an existing
system, use the "stable/10" branch.

A list of changes since 10.2-RELEASE are available on the stable/10
release notes:

    https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/10-STABLE/relnotes/article.html

Please note, the release notes page is not yet complete, and will be
updated on an ongoing basis as the 10.3-RELEASE cycle progresses.

Full release notes: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2016-February/084145.html

FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE Now Available

August 15, 2015 By Cao Leave a Comment

The developers of FreeBSD have made available version 10.2. Several changes noted are updates for resolvconf(8), ntp suite, rc(8), growfs, Linux(R) compatability, GNOME, KDE, ZFS performance & reliability improvements, and more. See below for the full list of changes. Download the ISO here.

daemon_hammer

Original: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/2015-August/001668.html

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

                       FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE Announcement

   The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the
   availability of FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE. This is the third release of the
   stable/10 branch, which improves on the stability of FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE
   and introduces some new features.

   Some of the highlights:

     * The resolvconf(8) utility has been updated to version 3.7.0, with
       improvements to protect DNS privacy.

     * The ntp suite has been updated to version 4.2.8p3.

     * A new rc(8) script, growfs, has been added, which will resize the
       root filesystem on boot if the /firstboot file exists.

     * The Linux(R) compatibility version has been updated to support
       Centos(TM) 6 ports.

     * The drm code has been updated to match Linux(R) version 3.8.13,
       allowing running multiple X servers simultaneously.

     * Several enhancements and updates for improved FreeBSD/arm support.

     * Several ZFS performance and reliability improvements.

     * GNOME has been updated to version 3.14.2.

     * KDE has been updated to version 4.14.3.

     * And much more...

   For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the
   online release notes and errata list, available at:

     * https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/10.2R/relnotes.html

     * https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/10.2R/errata.html

[Read more…]

[FreeBSD-Announce] Updates regarding FreeBSD.org svn mirrors

July 31, 2015 By Cao Leave a Comment

This FreeBSD announcement is regarding mirror changes on svn.freebsd.org. As noted, the update serves to improve security and will not interrupt any activities.

Original: https://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-announce@freebsd.org/msg00662.html

There have been some updates to the project-operated svn mirrors.  The current 
status is here:
  https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/svn.html

The changes should improve robustness and security and are not intended to be 
disruptive.

Of note:
* "svn.freebsd.org" is now geo-dns routed to a mirror, with failover.
* "svn.freebsd.org" is now the recommended location for general use.
* https://svn.freebsd.org now has a real certificate and use of https is 
encouraged.
* The old mirror names are deprecated and no longer documented but are 
expected to continue to be usable for the foreseeable future.

For future checkouts, you should use svn.freebsd.org rather than the 
deprecated mirror names.

Before using the https method, you should ensure that you have the 
'security/ca_root_nss' package installed, for example:
# pkg install ca_root_nss

[Read more…]

[FreeBSD-Announce] New 2015Q3 branch

July 16, 2015 By Cao Leave a Comment

Mathieu Arnold from the Ports Management Team has announced that the 2015Q3 branch has rolled out. All following updates will be listed on there.

Hi,

The 2015Q3 branch has been created. It means that the next update on the
quarterly packages will be on the 2015Q3 branch

A lot of things happened in the last three months:
- pkg 1.5.4
- New USES: waf, gnustep, jpeg
- Default version of Perl switched to 5.20
- Firefox 38.0.6
- Firefox-esr 31.7.0
- Chromium 43.0.2357.130
- Ruby 2.1.6
- Perl 5.22.0

Next quarterly package builds will start on tomorrow and
should be available on your closest mirrors few days later.

[Read more…]

[FreeBSD-Announce] Change of Security Officer

June 24, 2015 By Cao Leave a Comment

Xin Li has just been appointed as the new Security Officer as part of the FreeBSD Core Team. Congratulations sir! We also send our best wishes to Dag-Erling and his family.

Dear all,

With immediate effect, the FreeBSD Core	team has appointed Xin Li as
the new Security Officer.  Congratulations Xin!

The previous Security Officer, Dag-Erling Smørgrav has unfortunately
been unable to continue in the role due to his family circumstances.  As
is usual, he proposed his successor when he tendered his resignation to
Core.  Xin was formerly the Deputy Security Officer and Core was glad to
confirm his appointment.

Core wishes to thank Dag-Erling for his valuable contributions during
his time as Security Officer and wishes him every future success.

Traditionally the hand-over of the Security Officer role has been
announced by the departing Security Officer.  Unfortunately Dag-Erling
has not been able to do that, so in this instance I have been requested
to make the announcement in his stead.

	Matthew
--
FreeBSD Core Team Secretary
core-secretary at FreeBSD.org

Original: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/2015-June/001646.html