Hasso Tepper has committed all the recent changes to sound infrastructure in FreeBSD-6 to DragonFly; this improves sound support on a number of different laptops.
Month: November 2007
11/29/2007
New Bluetooth stack to try
Dmitry Komissaroff has created a new version of the Bluetooth stack, with a version ready to test.  Among other changes, it’s now possible to use a cellphone via Bluetooth to establish a PPP connection. There are other caveats.
11/28/2007
AsiaBSDCon 2008: Paper deadline
AsiaBSDCon 2008 is scheduled for March 27-30 in Tokyo. The deadline for paper proposals has been pushed to December 11th, and there is a mailing list for further announcements – check the official website for more information.
11/27/2007
At last, a conclusive correlation
According to Google image search, this very Digest has something to do with boobs. If this trend continues, I predict a significant increase in traffic. And disappointed visitors. (via Joerg Sonnenberger, who is apparently the common thread)
HAMMER: one chunk works
Matthew Dillon has posted another of his (apparently regular?) HAMMER updates.
11/26/2007
The inevitable path
It starts with trying to install BSD, and goes downhill from there. (Check the image properties for more of the joke.)
Make money by driving away customers
This AP news story seen in several places describes how the BSA has been vigorously obtaining money in and out of court for pirated software, and it appears to be procuring more money than the actual value of the pirated software. … Another good reason to use open source, which the article touches on, by the end.
Do you have an ExpressCard slot?
If you have a laptop with bleeding-edge DragonFly and an ExpressCard slot, please test it out, as Sepherosa Ziehau has made them supportable.
11/25/2007
Small computers and what to run on them
I like super-small computers as much as anyone, and I’ve been watching for the new Asus Eee PC. It uses Linux, though there’s been issues with it conforming with the GPL license.  You know, if the device only ran a BSD, there wouldn’t be these licensing problems… (BSD link via hubertf)
11/24/2007
PMCTools support for testing
Aggelos Economopoulos has submitted a series of patches to bring pmctools into DragonFly; PMC stands for “Performance Measurement Counters”. Give them a whirl, as positive or negative feedback will get him to continue work.
11/22/2007
OSBR November issue: Support
The Open Source Business Resource’s latest issue is up in both PDF and HTML formats, with this issue focusing on support available for open source software. (Via)
IP number randomizer updated
Matthew Dillon has changed the random IP sequence number generation in DragonFly to use the system generator. This issue comes from a review of the old randomizer algorithm by Amit Klein, who has worked on some similar issues. No idea how this affects other BSDs…
11/21/2007
Write for a BSD magazine
Dru Lavigne brings news of a BSD-focused print magazine to be published by next summer.  She includes writing guidelines – this is a good chance to get published! (Via, Via)
11/20/2007
HAMMER work continues
Matthew Dillon is continuing his HAMMER work, with this and many other subsequent commits in the past while. Check the archive for more discussion.
11/18/2007
dummynet separation finished
Sepherosa Ziehau has committed the rest of his work separating dummynet from ipfw and making it run on a per-CPU basis. This means that, with some additional work, dummynet could be used with pf, for instance.
11/17/2007
Dummynet halfway done
Sepherosa Ziehau has committed the first half of his work making dummynet(4) work per-CPU; his latest commit has a handy description and bonus ASCII art.
11/16/2007
HAMMER status, and scheduling
Matthew Dillon described the state of his distributed filesystem, saying a simple version should be up and runnable by next week, with actual clusters (meaning multiple disk blocks, not separate systems) supported some time after.
Also, the next regular 6-month release (2.0!) will probably be pushed out a little to mid-January 2008, so the release isn’t happening at the same time as everyone’s holiday plans.
Netgraph change testing
Nuno Antunes has posted his latest version of a netgraph upgrade; he’s looking for feedback and ideas. Interestingly, he included a virtual kernel config so his changes can be tested without interfering with normal system operation.
11/15/2007
Preview slipped forward
Simonm ‘corecode’ Schubert has slipped the Preview tag; those of you running 1.11-preview can update and get all recent changes.
Kernel module development on wiki
Alexander Orlov has written a wiki page on kernel module development. Please contribute if you’ve been through the same process.
11/13/2007
BSDTalk: Joerg Sonnenberger
After a short hiatus, BSDTalk is back with an interview of Joerg Sonnenberger, a developer for DragonFly and pkgsrc, etc., etc. (Add to that list if you’re reading, Joerg).
Older than UNIX
The source code to MULTICS, the ‘predecessor’ on which the UNIX named is based, has been released.  (From here via hubertf) If you are unfamiliar with the term, a short history is available.
Bulk build stats
Results from the bulk builds of pkgsrc are now available at http://pkgbox.dragonflybsd.org/package-reports/. There’s several reports in there already, for anyone who wants to see what isn’t working. (hint: net-snmp.)
Pkgsrc reports on the web
Ulrich Habel put together a script to digest emailed pkgsrc bulk build reports. You can see the output at his site.
11/12/2007
CAM as a module
Peter Avalos has managed to add some changes originally from FreeBSD that makes CAM now loadable as a module. This means, as his commit message mentions, a USB floppy can be hooked up without a kernel recompilation.
11/10/2007
Undeadly: Stupid SSH Tricks
Undeadly.org has a writeup on something I’ve needed but never done: accessing your console’s X desktop remotely, using x11vnc. There’s an earlier ‘Stupid SSH Trick’ for using ProxyCommand.
11/09/2007
Computer design evolution in pictures
(Warning: another visual timewaster)Â Seen at SrslyCool: Apple computer design parts one and two, Nintendo devices through the years, iPod evolution, various computer case mods, and of course knockoffs.
Cluster Challenge with DragonFly, someday?
The SuperComputing 2007 (SC07) Cluster Challenge has undergrads creating computer clusters using commodity equipment, with the limit being amperage used. I link to it because that’s the problem space where DragonFly is headed.
Major dummynet changes
Sepherosa Ziehau has posted initial patches for a rather large project: separating ipfw and dummynet, and making dummynet run cpu-local.
11/08/2007
CCC 24: DragonFly users and developers
The 24th Chaos Computer Congress is at the end of this year in Berlin, and Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert is going to be there, along with other DragonFly folks like Sascha Wildner and Nuno Antunes. Here’s a chance to mix with other DragonFly users (and a lot of other people…)
Binary updates are better
I’d love to see a binary update system for DragonFly, similar to this alpha version of ‘haze’ for NetBSD. (Via)
11/07/2007
The concept of Good Enough, and yay piracy
Here’s two articles for your persual: First, this Guardian Unlimited article attacks one of those ‘well-known facts’ that Betamax failed despite being better than VHS. The title says it explicitly: Why VHS was better than Betamax. The author even manages to mention the Windows vs. Unix idea that is an offshoot of this.
Second, a New Yorker article for those who care about patents and copyright: The “Piracy Paradox” describes how a lack of copyright in fashion design had led to better business – perhaps this could apply to software design too?
Both links via things magazine. So, do you all (the readers) like when I go off the beaten path for related material like this?
386 processors gone FOR REALS
The 386 processor is no longer officially supported for DragonFly. I say “officially” because it probably didn’t work anyway, as I doubt anyone was crazy enough to try it in the last few years.
Now appearing in a /dev near you
Hasso Tepper has added some USB to serial drivers: uticom(4) for TI TUSB3410, moscom(4) for the MosChip Semiconductor MCS7703, and uchcom(4), for WinChipHead CH341/CH340. Dmitry Komissaroff contributed to the uticom(4) driver.
11/06/2007
Programming languages, then and now
Some entertainment: This article at American Scientist talks about programming language choice and the arguments that have come up over the years. The bibliography at the end of this 5-page essay is worth special attention, because of the links to early documents describing these battles over languages and choices nobody thinks of these days, like PL/I or Cobol.
Some specific links to articles cited:
- How do we tell truths that might hurt? (Edsger W. Dijkstra, 1975)
- On holy wars and a plea for peace (Danny Cohen, 1980)
- Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language (Brian W. Kernighan, 1981)
- Computer Languages History (Éric Lévénez, 2006)
- Programming languages and their relationship styles (Meredith L. Patterson, 2006)
All the citations are worth investigating – take some time to read them.
11/05/2007
More ipfw changes
Sepherosa Ziehau has made more changes to ipfw, which means a more complete rebuild is required for bleeding edge users when upgrading. This is in addition to the earlier ipfw/dummynet changes.
Everybody blogs, even ICANN
Hasso Tepper updated the root servers list to accomodate an IP change. The interesting part of this is Hasso linking to something I didn’t know existed: the ICANN blog.
11/04/2007
libarchive upgrade
Peter Avalos has upgraded libarchive to version 2.4.0, which apparently eats much less CPU than earlier, inspired by benchmarks comparing it to other tar implementations.
11/03/2007
No more ipfw1
Sepherosa Ziehau has removed IPFW1; IPFW2, which is already in the system, is generally compatible from a configuration point of view. Check the ipfw man page to find out what’s different.
No realquick buildworld for you
If you are running bleeding edge code, Sepherosa Ziehau has made changes to ipfw and dummynet that require a more complete rebuild of code on the next update.
11/02/2007
Struct vattr changes coming up
Matthew Dillon warns of struct vattr changes being done to support his new filesystem, HAMMER. This may cause problems in userland, though of course this can only affect you if you are running the bleeding edge of code.
Many eyes make for positive pressure
This Associated Press story about a teacher assigning Wikipedia article writing as a project for students notes that “Knowing their work was headed for the Web … helped students reach higher”. I’d draw a parallel to open source, since knowing your code (or perhaps your news blog…) will be viewed by multiple people encourages harder work. (Via)
Cross-pollination continues
This recent “Puffy’s Marathon” article covering the OpenBSD 4.2 release, on OnLAMP.com, mentions that the new OpenBSD support for Broadcom AirForce/AirPort Extreme devices (bwi(4)) came from Sepherosa Ziehau’s work in DragonFly.
