In this BSD now episode, hosts Allan and Benedict discuss OpenBSD, combating ransomware with OpenZFS, and using pfSense to maximize your non-gigabit internet connection. Click play below to tune in:
BSD Now weekly content roundup: http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2017_05_17-i_dont_wannacry
Jupiter Broadcasting show notes: http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/115041/i-dont-wannacry-bsd-now-195/
Check out these discussion posts of various users’ experience in using FreeBSD as a desktop and in the home lab.
This tiny machine has been with me for a few years now, It has mostly run OS X though I have tried OpenBSD on it. Besides the screen resolution I’m still really happy with it, hardware wise. Software wise, not so much. I use an external disk containing a zpool with my data on it. Among this data are several source trees. CVS on a ZFS filesystem on OS X is painfully slow. I dislike that builds running inside Terminal.app are slow at the expense of a responsive UI. The system seems fragile, at the slightest push the machine will either hang or become unresponsive. Buggy serial drivers which do not implement the break signal and cause instability are frustrating.
This tutorial by user cmcenroe shows us how to share your files from FreeBSD to macOS with the SMB protocol. See the link below for the full set of instructions.
This is an explanation of one way of sharing files with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan from FreeBSD 11.0. It uses Samba, an implementation of the SMB protocol, and Apple’s mDNSResponder for service discovery. Alternatives are listed at the end.
Background
SMB is the protocol used for file sharing between Windows systems. Mac systems previously used their own Apple Filing Protocol, but deprecated it in favour of SMB with Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
mDNS, or multicast DNS, is a technology for resolving host names in a local network. On top of this, DNS service discovery, or DNS-SD, can be used to broadcast available services, such as SMB. This is how Finder discovers hosts to show in “Shared” or “Network.”
Samba
First, install Samba. There are two versions available in FreeBSD. This is the newer one.
pkg install samba42
Full tutorial: https://cmcenroe.me/2017/01/08/freebsd-macos-file-sharing.html
This tutorial by user BRANDON.LEE shows us how to get FreeNAS 9.10 and NFS set up with a datastore VMware ESXi. See the link below for the full set of instructions.
Many choose to use NFS as opposed to iSCSI in their VMware vSphere environments. NFS has a lot of benefits and use cases particularly when we look at the efficiency of NFS. With NFS there is no encapsulation that needs to take place as there is with iSCSI. Like iSCSI, NFS can use an existing IP network as well. So, starting off simple here, let’s take a look at how to configure FreeNAS 9.10 NFS VMware ESXi 6 datastore.
Configure FreeNAS 9.10 NFS VMware ESXi 6 datastore
The specific version of FreeNAS I am using is 9.10.2 U3 and is the most recent GA version on the FreeNAS site at the time of this writing. I am not covering here the setup of FreeNAS in general. You will want to provision your storage and your network connectivity on the appliance itself. For the purposes of the post, I am running FreeNAS as a VM which is a great way to play around with iSCSI and NFS in a lab. I have setup a management IP as well as another interface that I have bound for NFS connectivity.
If you haven’t seen it already, the developers of FreeBSD have released their first quarter status report. Phoronix notes that the ports collection is reaching 30,000, and significant progress is being made for the Linux compatibility layer. Check out the links below for full details.
While a few of these projects indicate they are a “plan B” or an “attempt III”, many are still hewing to their original plans, and all have produced impressive results. Please enjoy this vibrant collection of reports, covering the first quarter of 2017.
—Benjamin Kaduk
FreeBSD Q1 Status Report: https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2017-01-2017-03.html
The FreeBSD team has published their quarterly status report to reflect the progress made by this open-source operating system during Q1’2017.
FreeBSD’s quarterly status reports remain a great way to stay updated on the current initiatives and projects being pursued by the foundation and individual developers.
Phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FreeBSD-Q1-2017-Status
User Eric McCorkle discusses some security aspects of FreeBSD, notably signatures (executables, library, kernel) in his latest blog. This article is broken down in sections such as signed elf binaries, portable verification library, key management, etc. Read the whole thing at the link below.
About a month ago, I started a discussion on freebsd-hackers and freebsd-security about a system for signed executables, with a focus on signed kernels and kernel modules. This is part of a larger agenda of mine to equip FreeBSD with OS-level tamper resistance features.
While the initial use of this is for signing the kernel and its modules, and checking signatures during the loader process as well as at runtime when kernel modules are loaded. However, it is desirable to build a system that is capable of growing in likely directions, such as executable and library signing.
This article details the current state of the design of this system.
Desiderata
I originally outlined a number of goals for this system:
Be able to check for a correct cryptographic signature for any kernel or modules loaded at boot time for some platforms (EFI at a minimum)
Be able to check for a correct cryptographic signature for any kernel module loaded during normal operations (whether or not to do this could be controlled by a sysctl, securelevel, or some similar mechanism) ….
Original post: https://ericmccorkleblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/design-of-a-trust-system-for-freebsd/
In this BSD Now episode, hosts Benedict and Allan cover the latest FreeBSD status report, discuss a plan for Open Source software development, centrally managing bhyve with Ansible, libvirt, pkg-ssh, and more. Click play below to tune in:
BSD Now weekly content roundup: http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2017_05_17-daemonic_plans
Jupiter Broadcasting show notes: http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/114751/daemonic-plans-bsd-now-194/
User spacemonkey shows us how to get a FreeBSD web server set up on Raspberry Pi. Follow the link below for the full set of instructions.
0. Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to provide step by step instructions on how to set up a system consisting of a Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer, running the FreeBSD operating system and the nginx web server. The server is meant to operate “headless” (i.e. without a display or keyboard) and run at relatively low power (approximately 2 to 4 Watts). This guide assumes that the reader has some minimal familiarity with a Linux/Unix/BSD-like environment.NOTE: Due to Raspberry Pi’s relatively low power CPU, some of the steps described below (e.g. compiling software) will take a few hours. Patience is a virtue :)
Aside from patience, you’ll need the following hardware:
– Raspberry Pi
– Power supply for the Raspberry Pi
– USB keyboard
– Display (with HDMI or Composite video connector)
– SD Card (recommended minimum size 4 GB)
– Ethernet cable
– A BSD or Linux PC with an SD card slot1. Booting FreeBSD on the Raspberry Pi …
Full tutorial: http://devio.us/~spacemonkey/raspberry_pi_freebsd_web_server_howto.html
In this BSD Now episode, hosts Allan and Benedict interview Adrian Chadd regarding 802.11ac in FreeBSD, discuss pfSense & OpenVPN, ZFS storage pool checkpoint, and more. Press play below to tune in:
BSD Now weekly content roundup: http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2017_05_10-fire_up_the_802.11_ac
Jupiter Broadcasting show notes: http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/114591/fire-up-the-802-11-ac-bsd-now-193/
The FreeBSD Foundation gives us some guidelines and ways to help promote the open source operating system at events, conferences, and trade shows around the world. Follow the link below for the full post.
Attending conferences is not only an excellent way to gain new skills and meet new collaborators, but it’s also an ideal place to spread the word about FreeBSD. Whether it’s giving a presentation or just talking to folks during the hallway track, you can help the community grow by engaging other conference attendees in the following ways:
Raise Awareness About the FreeBSD Project.
How:
- Highlight the latest developments
- What’s new in FreeBSD 11
- arm64 work
- Showcase the features that make it the OS of choice
- Highlight the research platform aspect
- Point interested parties to getting started locations
- Foundation How to Guides: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd/how-to-guides/
- Get Involved Brochure
- FreeBSD Handbook
- Digital Ocean tutorials
- Talk about the welcoming community/ plentiful documentation
- Mention how obtaining a FreeBSD skill set is a marketable job skill for students and job seekers
- For desktop questions, mention TrueOS
Questions to Ask …
Original post: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/promoting-freebsd-at-events/