FreeBSD 6.1 Released 227
nbritton writes "FreeBSD 6.1 has been released! This release is the next step in the development of the 6.X branch, delivering several performance improvements, many bugfixes, and a few new features. Of note are the major improvements to the filesystem and SATA code, possibly making FreeBSD the number one choice for SATA RAID implementations. For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the release notes, errata list, Bittorrent Downloads, Mirrors, Hardware Notes, and Installation Guide."
But does it run... (Score:3, Funny)
NCQ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:NCQ? (Score:2)
While we're on the subject, ata(4) also has problems with 4G+ of memory and >2 disks. A hardware RAID card like the amr(4) powered LSI MegaRAID might be more suitable in such an environment for the time being.
Oh, great! (Score:3)
Now I'm gonna have to download and burn yet another version I won't get around to updating to. =)
Oh well, it aint broken, I'll update it some day.
Re:Oh, great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, great! (Score:2)
I have a colo'd server tucked away running 5.3 which simply has no reason for me to every consider updating it off that. There's a certain beauty to it being a "start up and forget about it" box.
Desktop worthy... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Desktop worthy... (Score:2)
Not that's I'd ever use Win2003, mind you. :)
Re:Desktop worthy... (Score:2)
FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:5, Informative)
## for SSHD from other hosts
pass in log on $ext_if inet proto tcp from any to $ext_if:network \
port 22 flags S/SA keep state \
(max 5, source-track rule, max-src-nodes 5, \
max-src-states 10, tcp.established 60, tcp.closing 5, \
max-src-conn-rate 3/30, overload flush global) \
label "SSHD_IN_$if"
If some sshd scanner hits my host more than three times in 30 seconds his packets go to an overload table and his states flushed. Any address or net listed in the badhosts table is blocked outright. It works as advertised and I couldn't be happier.
pf+altq really does give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
I don't see anything wrong with the cross-pollination of technologies amongst the BSDs. I prefer PF over native IPF myself on my own server, and I, too, like the overloading feature. In fact, it's one of the things I love about FreeBSD (code sharing, I mean), to the point where I jumped from the Linux camp to the FreeBSD camp.
FreeBSD's a damn fine product (as is Linux). I'll be cvsup'ing my
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:5, Insightful)
>tell, as your post had no real point.
He's probably pointing out that if "pf" is what you want, then you might as well use the original version in OpenBSD.
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
With portsentry setting pf to block all other port scans I can do this without having to move sshd ports(like I've currently had to do).
Something similar with iptables (Score:5, Informative)
## $RED_DEV is Internet-connected interface, CUSTOMFORWARD is the chain being processed
iptables -A CUSTOMFORWARD -i $RED_DEV -p tcp --destination-port 22 \
-m state --state NEW -m recent --set
iptables -A CUSTOMFORWARD -i $RED_DEV -p tcp --destination-port 22 \
-m state --state NEW -m recent --update --seconds 60 --hitcount 4 -j DROP
Re:Something similar with iptables (Score:2)
Re:Something similar with iptables (Score:2, Interesting)
Then I went to comdex in Atlanta around that time. FreeBSD 4.1.1 CDs were handed out there and I talked to several FreeBSD reps there. With a little eye candy and some good facts I was determined to try it.
Since then I've been an avid user of FreeBS
Re:Something similar with iptables (Score:2)
Actually, I need to configure a couple public-facing BSD boxen to limit the brute force attacks (we have password auth turned off, but the woodpecker behavior is annoying). What would the pf equivalent syntax be?
Re:Something similar with iptables (Score:2)
block in quick on $external_interface from <badguys> to any
pass in log quick on $external_interface proto tcp from any to $external_interface port 22 flags S/SA keep state (max-src-conn-rate 5/60, overload <badguys> flush global)
In this case, if any single IP tries to make more than 5 connections to port 22 on my firewall in 60 seconds, they are added to the <badguys> table, which is blocked. Works like a charm
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2, Redundant)
(for those of you who don't know, pf is developed by the OpenBSD team and was ported
to FreeBSD by some FBSD developers).
It just seems to me that if pf is the reason you're using FreeBSD, then you would probably
be even happier using OpenBSD.
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
Here's a similar rate-limiting deal: http://www.linux-noob.com/forums/lofiversion/index
And Linux has all kinds of QOS capabilities:
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Adv-Routing-H OWTO.html [faqs.org]
This is not a troll, it's an honest question. Why BSD for firewalls?
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:4, Interesting)
For another, please point me to the linux equivalent of CARP [openbsd.org] ( an incredibly easy to set up redundant firewall ). If you are in charge of running a firewall for a company, redundant hardware at the firewall is nice.
Re:FreeBSD 6 + pf (Score:2)
Two Keyboards. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes! Its about time, been waiting for ages for this one. Signed,
Doctor Octavius
Re:Two Keyboards. (Score:3, Insightful)
Typical scenario: you install a server at your office using a PS2 keyboard. Then, you move it to a colo with
Anything coming from Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Anything coming from Apple? (Score:2, Insightful)
----nubis
Working Great! (Score:2, Informative)
If you haven't tried it, get an old box and give it a shot. More experience with Unix never hurt anyone!
Rebuilding world (Score:2, Informative)
Re:But... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Errata list? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Errata list? (Score:4, Informative)
6x is a good branch (so far so good anyway) and MUCH better than 5. Performance is okay, not as good as Linux in some scenarios but not bad either. On my Sokris 4801 (233Mhz pentium class) it seems rather slow, but Freebsd 4x on my 133Mhz Pentium seems to be about the same - so I'd say not a big difference. If you need the most out of older hardware that is already running 4x I'd probably stick with it.
Hopefully I'll be able to figure this new bridging scheme out and be able to better evaluate performance.
Re:Errata list? (Score:2)
Re:Errata list? (Score:2)
Re:Errata list? (Score:2)
Re:Errata list? (Score:2)
Re:Errata list? (Score:2)
Debian FreeBSD port (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Debian FreeBSD port (Score:2)
Re:Debian FreeBSD port (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Debian FreeBSD port (Score:2)
Besides, you want GNU userland stuff (Bash, etc.) you just install them.
Such a thing would be for masochists.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Insightful)
FreeBSD does pretty well on new hardward. Sure it might not support the newest bleeding-edge hardware for a few months. But lets face it, not many of us have that kind of hardware AND are looking for a secure, higly stable platform like FreeBSD (or any other BSD for that matter).
The FreeBSD support community is top notch (mai
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
I eventually hit the eject on FreeBSD as I couldn't even get X up and running.
Well...
Edit xorg.conf as needed (if needed) and tada! You're running X. I've installed FreeBSD on all kinds of hardware and have never had a problem getting X running. As far as user/support community, mailing lists and bsdforums.org have provided me with answers to all the *BSD questions I've had.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
/dev/mirror/gm0s1b none
/dev/mirror/gm0s1a
/dev/mirror/gm0s1e
/dev/mirror/gm0s1f
/dev/mirror/gm0s1d
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Now, that said, I wouldn't be using a SATA raid for performance, o
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
--Speaking as a friend of a friend, do you have $link / good source for buying these SCSI drives? I'm looking to rebuild a low-end server that has a bunch of 4GB LVD's in the front. TIA
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
It's a very good investment. Fast SCSI drives not only have great seek times, they also have longer lifespans, which is important for a root partition
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Interesting)
Some of what you say I find interesting - implying that the Gentoo community is more active than the FBSD group. I know you didn't actually say that; and maybe you didn't even imply as much; so you diserve the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway, I have never seen documentation as thorough (although still somewhat incomplete) as:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/index.html [freebsd.org]
The mailing lists are really helpful:
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo [freebsd.org]
And there is usually very good help
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is it just me or does the insecurity of the FreeBSD community shine through here in blinding fashion?
I'm giving you a first-timer user experience with both FreeBSD and Gentoo. Say what you want about the "top notch" FreeBSD support forms but I found them to be limited, out of date and more often than not no help. In my opinion there appears to be a whole lot more work put into installation and setup guides of Gentoo in comparison with FreeBSD.
As far as the X setup goes: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# Xorg -configure
# cp xorg.conf.new
Yeah, when all goes well this works perfectly. If you honestly think that 1) I didn't try this and 2) that this will work perfectly all the time than you are one naive mofo.
I'd love to sit here and re-live the week of my life I wasted trying to get FreeBSD and Debian up and running on this hardware but honestly I am trying to get past it.
Let me just sum up with this. My goal was to get Software RAID-5 on four SATA drives on a A8V-MX motherboard running some form of unix/linux including X-Windows. I gave FreeBSD more than a fair shake. In the end, what got the job done was Gentoo. The only snag was the VT8251 chipset support with AHCI. I found a Gentoo forum where some guys had worked this issue out. Their fix was not in the kernel source tree yet but the patch applied, compiled and enabled my SATA drives.
I am not trying to hurt anybody's feelings. This was just my experience. YMMV.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
In other words, you shouldn't advocate a tool based on your ability to use it, you should advocate a tool based on it's ability to get the job done. Think of a jack hammer. I'm assuming you're fairly w
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2, Informative)
You didn't mention using this line:
To test your X configuration after you configured X using this line.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:4, Informative)
I had some troubles getting X working properly as well but did in the end. It's a bit stupid the hoops you have to jump through to set up X in 2006 but there ya go. I did a quick writeup here: http://stable.cowoh.org/2006/05/05/linux-users-ad
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the only problem I ran into though.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Informative)
But if my experience with Gentoo and Portage is any guide, then you've probably also been bitten by Portage -- Masked ebuilds, ~arch, whatever: the build you want is masked, and unmasking and building creates an amazing cascade of broken packages, right?
Maybe I'm not being fair; I tried Gentoo for the last time maybe two years ago. I *loved* the flexibility and built-from-scratchness. But at some p
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's there, Dude. Because it's there. Honestly, what kind of a geek are you?
I do, however, feel duty bound to point out that the man famous for saying that ended up dead shortly thereafter.
If you do manage to survive getting it installed though, what will you have conquered?
None but yourself, Dude. None but yourself.
KFG
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
I run Linux, I'm a computer guy, so why haven't I tried *BSD? Because there are other things out there that mean more to me, like going back and learning Lisp, learning Ruby, checking out open source game and graphics engines, etc. I've installed a few Linux d
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't say that I am particularly impressed with FreeBSD. There's nothing WRONG with it, per se, but there is also nothing amazing either. The only redeeming value I can think of off hand is having bleeding edge software available all the time through ports. Where with Debian I would get "stuck" with package versions dated from whenever the last stable release was and mixing unstable packages was not a good idea. Coming from Gentoo, I know you have something like ports and you are used to compiling every darn package you want to run (I hate it). You should probably give FreeBSD a try. You might like it.
-matthew
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Indeed. I've use a good number of Linux distributions (and Solaris, HPUX, etc) and now FreeBSD and it is all unix (with a lower case "u") as far as I am concerned. As long as it has sane and robust package management and a straighforward upgrade path, I'm happy.
As for the ports being bleeding edge? No, I would say they stay caught up with the latest "stable" releases from the respective projects, but they sure
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2, Insightful)
I personally use NetBSD in production environments, but make myself familiar with the various other alternatives out there, just in case some lucrative offer falls in my lap. Then at least, I have some working experience.
But that's jus
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2, Interesting)
I attempted to use Gentoo about a year ago, and there really is no comparison. The installation process was incredibly painless (the same cannot be said for Gentoo). Th
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would not deter you from trying, and you might end up loving it, but it's not just another linux distro.
FreeBSD excels not on the single user systems but, in my opinion, where you have multiple users or services running on the same piece of hardware. If you're hosting virtual domains for people and want to make sure that one of your users doesn't disturb things for another, it's great. It's things like login.conf(5) [freebsd.org] that just come with the OS. I haven't personally run any linux boxen in about 5 years (maybe more) since I started playing with FreeBSD; but some years ago, providing similar functionality in linux was not trivial. It's a stable, feature-filled OS. I'd even suggest it for learning on - like learning to drive on a manual transmission vehicle w/o power steering vs. an automatic. It's great but takes some setting up and might frusturate faster than most linux distros. More powerful, and more knobs. More like pro-audio equipment vs. a typical home-audio component CD player. Less flash, more business.
"The Power to Serve" is the tagline for this excellent OS. That's what it does best - serve - not hold you by the hand. If you're not interested in getting dirt under your fingernails and instead want point-and clicky interfaces to system administrative functions, do look elsewhere. (Spoken to other readers, not necessarily yourself.)
Do not mess with this OS without looking to the FreeBSD Handbook [freebsd.org]. A quick read will give you a feel of the power and it's something you should have close at hand when starting to play with it for the first time.
Give it a try but be ready for a time investment to get it like you want. Maybe put it on a "closet machine" and let it serve files or web for you so you can take down your regular box for dual-booting, running xine, or the reboots you're sure to have more often with linux than the beastie
It's a great platform, but doesn't come pre-configured.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Bashing is silly.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:3, Informative)
Oblivion, you say, Mr. Ballmer? (Score:2)
Oblivion, you say? Your opinion comes from a trustworthy source, I'm sure.... [userfriendly.org]
Re:Forgive me for feeding the troll (Score:2)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
The FreeBSD Java problems has more or less disappeared, given that there's now even an official version.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
I understand your generalisation but you cannot dismiss Ubuntu's success this way.
Ubuntu on AMD64 has been nigh-perfect for both essential and "nice-to-have" tools. And Synaptic is far, far ahead of ports management on FreeBSD.
I'm glad to hear that Java is available for FreeBSD now. But that wasn't the only misery that I encountered, as I said. Ubuntu has performed brilliantly on this computer an
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
I don't use Ubuntu, but I'm curious: how does it handle the case where a config file's format has changed for the software you are upgrading?
In Gentoo this was a horrible mess. FreeBSD has mergemaster which is very good. I'm curious if there are even better ways.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:4, Insightful)
Debian packages typically use dpkg-reconfigure to configure upgrades. Each package "knows" its config format and provides helpers for dpkg-reconfigure to merge in any format changes. Basically, it doesn't try to merge in the changes as a text diff, it programmatically does so, offering you a choice of GUIs or even a batch mode. If you changed an option yourself, it offers that as the default when reconfiguring. I'm a big fan of ports (not so much portage), but debian's approach at handling config files is phenomenal.
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Binaries? Sweet binaries?
*rubs eyes some more*
It's Christmas in FreeBSD land! Wheee!
We haven't seen Java binaries in FreeBSD since 1.1.8! I'm just in awe of this. Now I'm going to have to evict Linux-JDK from my system just to make room for the natives!
Re:PC-BSD (Score:2)
It looks to me like PC-BSD is to FreeBSD as Kubuntu is to Debian. It also looks like this would make a good FreeBSD Live CD.
This feature looks odd: "Online Update Manager - Manually or automatically downloads and installs updates for your operating system, without touching your installed programs." Does this mean that it only u
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Did you intend to say that we should use FreeBSD as a home server? If so, you should have said "If you plan to use a server machine at home, use FreeBSD."
Initially, I thought you meant to say "don't even think for a second about trying FreeBSD".
Re:Any reason to switch? (Score:2)
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:5, Informative)
Check out LAM/MPI [lam-mpi.org] or see pages by people who've done it [und.edu]
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:2, Funny)
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:2)
On slashdot? Naaaahhhhh
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:2)
Just think what we could do if we could harness that power... virtually unlimited computational power!
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:3, Informative)
Brooks Davis, Michael AuYeung, Gary Green, Craig Lee
The Aerospace Corporation
El Segundo, CA
{brooks,lee,mauyeung} at aero.org, Gary.B.Green at notes.aero.org
© 2003 The Aerospace Corporation
Presented at BSDCon 2003, September 8-12 2003.
http://people.freebsd.org/~brooks/papers/bsdcon200 3/ [freebsd.org]
Grid Computing with FreeBSD
Brooks Davis
The Aerospace Corporation
El Segundo, CA
{brooks,lee} at aero.org
© 2004 The Aerospace Corporation
Presented at the UseBS
Re:BSD and clusters (Score:2)
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/parallel.html [freebsd.org]
Re:Number one choice for SATA RAID? (Score:3, Informative)
possibly making FreeBSD the number one choice for SATA RAID implementations
That's "possibly". As in, it hasn't been proven yet but the developers feel that it's ahead of the rest of the market. Therefore it may "possibly" be the number one choice.
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceed ings/usenix2000/general/seltzer.html [usenix.org]
http://www.mckusick.com/softdep/ [mckusick.com]
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:5, Insightful)
>updates is Dr. McKusick's implementation to maintain filesystem integrity in
>the event of a system failure. BSD doesn't need journaling, it has soft
>udpates.
Uhm, no. softupdates is a nice (and performant) way to get quick restarts when something crashes, but it isn't close to journalling at all. You still have to run fsck, and yes, it can run in the background, but it *still has to run*.
If you're looking at Terabytes of data, this is very painful and takes ages, whereas a journalling filesystem has no need to do this.
There are certainly important applications where journalling is a must. Just because most home users or small servers don't need it, doesn't mean that softupdates removes the need for it entirely.
I'm actually pretty sure FreeBSD will switch to journalling eventually.
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:5, Informative)
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-curren
Scott Long also touches on the subject in a interview he did for the bsdtalk podcast show:
http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/2006/02/bsdtalk017-in
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:2)
No it's not. It is an alternative to journaling. Most people who want journaling just want protection for their data. If softupdates can supply that, then they don't need the journaling.
You still have to run fsck, and yes, it can run in the background, but it *still has to run*.
So what? The use of background fsck makes this a non-issue. Unless you're in the habit, that is, of pulling the plug instead of doing a proper shutdown. If you are, stop.
Sure, sometimes you'll
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:2)
No, this is going to happen extremely soon. One of the flaws of the softupdates approach was always in the code complexity. There is a definite feeling within the developer community that softupdates will be jettisoned soon, to catch the signs of this google for bad_dir panics or see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=93942 [freebsd.org] or http://people.freebsd.org/~pho/baddir.html [freebsd.org]
You may also notice in the release engineering notes for 6.1 several references to UFS deadlocks. All of these were lo
Re:Journaling Filesystem (Score:3, Interesting)
> but it's lack of a good journaling file system
> is a major barrier to adoption.
I'm not sure about journaling file systems. I was helping people in data centres and they have described me way they use FreeBSD there.
First of all, they have specially customized distro packed into single file for network boot. Then, every time something happen they just (re)plug new/replacement board, BSD is loaded with net boot over network, unpacked and booted. OS form