August 2014 – DragonFly BSD Digest

2014/08/312014/08/30

Lazy Reading for 2014/08/31

A relatively trim list for the holiday weekend.

You have ruined HTML. (via)
Do you want to enjoy this? (via)
Useful Unix commands for exploring data. (via)
The most unintentionally tragic tech advert we’ve ever seen.
Doom 3 in Ada. (via)
The Beauty of Roots. (via)
Shift Happens. Notable for the revenue difference between Apple and IBM.
Distributed big balls of mud. Microservices are not the answer. (via)
Unix/Linux trick: ‘cd’ back to the previous directory. I forget this. (via)
The LISA14 schedule is out.
30 layers of NAT. (via EFNet #dragonflybsd)
Submarine Cable Map 2014. (via)

Your unrelated comics link of the week: “Horse.” One of my favorite single panels of all time.

2014/08/302014/08/30

In Other BSDs for 2014/08/30

I went from 1 link to lots all in one night.

DiscoverBSD’s news roundup for 2014/08/25.
The Bitrig website has been redesigned, probably to prep for a 1.0 version “soon”.
Do any of the BSDs have an equivalent to initramfs?
FreeBSD now has /etc/rc.conf.d/<service> subdirectories.
PC-BSD 10.0.3-RC2 has been tagged.
The roadmap for PC-BSD’s Lumina has been updated.
And here’s a preview of what Lumina looks like and can do.
NetBSD now supports the (rare) arcofi(4) sound device.
NetBSD now has direct I/O for FUSE.
OpenBSD no longer needs rtsol(8) or rtsold(8).
OpenBSD is very close to replacing man with mandoc.
A script for OpenBSD and WPA&WPA2 Enterprise / LEAP connections.
Via openbsd-misc, how to set up IPv6 tunneling over IPv4 and IPSec.
So I wanted to try out BSD…
A week of pkgsrc #4.
The FreeBSD Foundation has an IPSec improvement project started.
VMWare Tools for FreeBSD 10. I could really use VMWare Tools for DragonFly.
DesktopBSD is attempting a comeback, and here’s discussion.
A thread about drive reliability. To paraphrase something else: “In the long run, they’re all dead.”

2014/08/292014/08/30

Special procedure to update pkg 1.3.6

It seems pkg 1.3.6 was slightly scrambled. If you happen to have built and installed it, John Marino has special instructions on how to update to 1.3.7. If you are on DragonFly 3.8, you can follow those instructions now, and if you are on 3.9, that repo should be ready for an update in the next few days.

2014/08/282014/08/30

BSDTalk 244: Ken Moore and Lumina

BSDTalk 244 is 28 minutes of conversation with Ken Moore about Lumina, the new BSD-specific desktop environment for PC-BSD. I’ve been watching the PC-BSD source updates, and there’s a lot of activity.

2014/08/28

BSDNow 052: Reverse Takeover

It’s not about taxes, but reverse SSH tunnels. Episode 052 is also an interview with Shawn Webb about ASLR in FreeBSD, along with the normal commentary and news.

They also catch BIND’s removal in FreeBSD and OpenBSD, but not in DragonFly, which I just realized I should have linked before.

2014/08/28

Oops, had some cleanup to do

I ended up with this server rebooting as we were affected by Time Warner’s giant outage. In the process of rebooting, I found I must have done an upgrade and forgotten to reboot to make sure everything still worked, as mod_php had disappeared and mysql decided it didn’t want to work. Things appear to be OK now…

2014/08/25

New kernel and new target

You should perform a full world and kernel install if on master.

Several people (including me) have been getting bit by a problem: when performing an installworld with a changed kernel, the vn kernel module is loaded, but it was built by the previous kernel and may cause problems when it doesn’t match up.

To fix that, vn is now built in, instead of being a separate module. The rescue initrd (which is what is being mounted when it has this problem) is now installed via a ‘make rescue‘ command that can wait until a successful installworld and reboot.

2014/08/242014/08/23

Lazy Reading for 2014/08/24

I hope you like your links eclectic!

A Tale of Postmortems. As a work strategy, this strategy can restore trust that would otherwise be lost when people outside IT/Engineering experience problems. (via)
Unix: Viewing your processes through the eyes of /proc.
“Writing Aliens”, or, “Duchamp, Markov, Queneau: A Mostly Delightful Quilt” Data patterns as seen by a science fiction author, and how it comes out in history and twitter. Really, a good presentation just for the range it covers. More bits on the author’s blog. (via)
A brief history of USB, what it replaced, and what has failed to replace it. I was just thinking the other day about how much I hated PS/2 connectors, especially because I encountered a KVM switch in a rack that didn’t do USB. (via)
How Flash changes the design of database storage engines. It’s funny that when people say “Flash” nowadays, they mean the disk product, not the software.
Tweetable Mathematical Art. (via)
RGB LEDs that change color if a Server has a problem/is not responding. (via)
Not Rocket Science. An astonishingly good idea. (also via)
Years later, this image still gives me a mild jolt of panic.
Halfassed implementations of SSH are no fun.
Thursday, IRL. I just like the expression he makes.

Your unrelated comics link of the week: John Pound, one of the original Garbage Pail Kids artists, nowadays creates his art by coding it – mostly by writing out Postscript. He doesn’t draw sketchbooks – he generates them. (via)

2014/08/232014/08/22

In Other BSDs for 2014/08/23

Another long list. These are making my Friday nights take some extra effort.

Oolite, an open source game based on Elite. Yes, it runs on BSD. I’m surprised I haven’t posted about it before. (via)
My Experience Switching from Slackware Linux to FreeBSD.
A week of pkgsrc, #3.
DiscoverBSD for 2014/08/18.
OpenBSD is gaining a rcctl(8) tool for automation.
Phabricator on FreeBSD installation notes.
20 years of FreeBSD ports.
“Does BSD perform disk caching less aggressively?” I bet the person asking was using two different machines at different times with different loads, which means he doesn’t know what he’s looking for.
The FreeBSD Foundation’s August Update is out.
Some people don’t like pkg.
The EuroBSDCon 2014 travel grant has been extended, and Google has grants to bring more female computer scientists there.
Spatializer support in NetBSD.
NetBSD is keeping up with the gpl2 version of GNU Make.
PC-BSD 10.0.3-RC1 has been tagged.
FreeBSD has a new automounter.
FreeBSD has a set of keymap conversion tools. Might be useful to someone?
FreeBSD now goes up to 256 CPUs. (I thought this already happened?)
Yay cross-pollination!
Apparently people don’t pay attention to file contents.
IPv6 tunneling on OpenBSD.
OpenBSD has replaced BIND with unbound in the base system.

2014/08/22

Acer Chromebook c720p support

If you remember the earlier work to support DragonFly on An Acer c720 Chromebook, it’s been repeated for the c720p. The “p” means it’s a touchscreen.

2014/08/21

pkg upgrade tip for pkg 1.3

DragonFly’s using pkg 1.3, at least on master, and I’ve seen a few people report an error message when performing ‘pkg upgrade’. The error message usually includes something like:

pkg: need to re-create repo Avalon to upgrade schema vers

If you get this, do ‘pkg update -f’ and it will complete.

2014/08/21

BSDNow 051: Engineering Nginx

I didn’t get the pun until I said the title out loud. BSDNow 051 has an interview with Eric Le Blan of Xinuos, a webserver-building tutorial, and of course more material.

2014/08/20

New dhclient and other improvements

DragonFly’s dhclient will now retry failed interfaces and handle being re-run gracefully. This is a blessing for anyone who has had a flaky link. Matthew Dillon’s made two other improvements for booting that will also improve boot time when networks go missing.

2014/08/192014/08/18

Moving past ports

Here’s a nice advantage for dports and DragonFly: since it’s an overlay on FreeBSD ports, it’s possible to move to newer or different versions of software without waiting for it to happen in FreeBSD. For example: there’s a newer version of the xorg intel driver now in dports – newer than what’s in ports.

2014/08/182014/08/18

Full kernel build for DragonFly

If you are tracking DragonFly master, your next kernel build should be full, not quick.

2014/08/18

iwn trick: ifconfig wlan0 -ht

If you have a DragonFly system with an iwn wireless chipset, and you are having trouble connecting and running in the 5Ghz part of the spectrum only, here’s a tip: the -ht switch may fix it.

2014/08/172014/08/15

Lazy Reading for 2014/08/17

For once, a shorter week.

One of the better telemarketer things I’ve ever read… and I realized what he was trying halfway through, cause I maintain the same models. (via)
Password Gropers Take the Spamtrap Bait. Peter Hansteen is the same person who found the Hail Mary Cloud.
Pseudo Automata, Fakes & Robot costumes. (via a Kickstarter email)
Input, a non-monospaced coding font, with a preview. (via)
Unix: Gaining network insights with tcpdump.
Are you near Shenzen? This hacker camp may interest you.
UNIX Wildcards Gone Wild. (via joris on EFNet #dragonflybsd)
Continuous Integration and Delivery Illustrated. Sometimes drawn versions are better than any text. (via)
Ten Years of OpenStreetMap. OSM is one of those things that I’m happy it just exists.

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Wrenchies. I like Farel Dalrymple’s style.

Bonus unrelated: New Cyriak video!

2014/08/162014/08/15

In Other BSDs for 2014/08/16

A calm week, for once.

mandoc 1.13.1 is out.
The July/August issue of the FreeBSD Journal is out.
A week of pkgsrc #2.
Thinking about coming to FreeBSD from Arch.
Steam client on FreeBSD?
NetBSD sysinst now supports extended partitions, from an older GSoC project.
NetBSD has a nouveau importing script.
NetBSD has Embedded Kermit.
NetBSD 7 has been branched.
FreeBSD xen can now manage physical hardware.
OpenBSD distribution is moving, so last chance on some of the merch.
If you just want to donate to OpenBSD, here’s a conversation about it. (hint: CDs)
tcpdump on OpenBSD is ancient; if you need circular logfiles, there’s manual ways to do that.
Now’s a good time to check on the roadmap for Lumina, PC-BSD’s desktop environment.
A video conversation about FreeNAS and TrueNAS.

2014/08/15

DragonFly 3.8.2 images uploaded

It took me a little while, but DragonFly 3.8.2 images are uploaded now to the main site. Check the 3.8.2 changelog if you didn’t before. This is a recommended upgrade for the newer OpenSSL, and should otherwise have little impact on the programs you have installed.

2014/08/142014/08/14

BSDNow 050: VPN, My Dear Watson

BSDNow has reached the milestone of 50 episodes, and this week’s show has VPN setup as a tutorial, Robert Watson interviewed, and of course more discussion on most every flavor.