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An Internet-Ready OS From Scratch in a Week — Rump Kernels on Bare Metal
The most time-consuming part of operating system development is obtaining enough drivers to enable the OS to run real applications which interact with the real world. NetBSD's rump kernels allow reducing that time to almost zero, for example for developing special-purpose operating systems for the cloud and embedded IoT devices. This article describes an experiment in creating an OS by using a rump kernel for drivers. It attempts to avoid going into full detail on the principles of rump kernels, which are available for interested readers from rumpkernel.org.
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Unbloating the VAX install CD
We all know that NetBSD-current is bloated compared to VMS of the early 80s. But we still can boot on some VAXes, so why not make it as easy as possible to install?[Read More] [2 comments]
NetBSD 6.1.4 and 6.0.5 released!
The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1.4, the fourth security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.1 release branch, and NetBSD 6.0.5, the fifth security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.0 release branch. They represent a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, and if you are running a prior release of either branch, we strongly suggest that you update to one of these releases.
For more details, please see the NetBSD 6.1.4 release notes or NetBSD 6.0.5 release notes.
Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 6.1.4 and NetBSD 6.0.5 are available for download at many sites around the world. A list of download sites providing FTP, AnonCVS, SUP, and other services may be found at http://www.NetBSD.org/mirrors/. [2 comments]
The playstation2 port is back
After not having a usable compiler for a few years, the playstation2 port is returning, now that gcc 4.9 (gcc-current in NetBSD terms) re-acquired support for the R5900 CPU[Read More] [2 comments]
First ports switched to gcc 4.8
NetBSD starts deploying gcc 4.8[Read More] [1 comment]
NetBSD 6.1.3, NetBSD 6.0.4, NetBSD 5.2.2, and NetBSD 5.1.4 patch releases
The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce:
- NetBSD 6.1.3, the third security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.1 release branch,
- NetBSD 6.0.4, the fourth security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.0 release branch,
- NetBSD 5.2.2, the second security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 5.2 release branch,
- and NetBSD 5.1.4, the fourth security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 5.1 release branch
Interview with Amitai Schlair member of The NetBSD Foundation’s Board of Directors
New interview with schmonz [0 comments]
Survey of rump kernel network interfaces
A cyclic trend in operating systems is moving things in and out of the kernel for better performance. Currently, the pendulum is swinging in the direction of userspace being the locus of high performance. The anykernel architecture of NetBSD ensures that the same kernel drivers work in a monolithic kernel, userspace and beyond. One of those driver stacks is networking. In this article we assume that the NetBSD networking stack is run outside of the monolithic kernel in a rump kernel and survey the open source interface layer options.
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Call for Presentations: BSD devroom at FOSDEM 2014
FOSDEM 2014 will take place on 1–2 February, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium. Just like in the last years, there will be both a BSD booth and a developer's room (on Saturday).
The topics of the devroom include all BSD operating systems. Every talk is welcome, from internal hacker discussion to real-world examples and presentations about new and shiny features. The default duration for talks will be 45 minutes including discussion. Feel free to ask if you want to have a longer or a shorter slot.
If you already submitted a talk last time, please note that the procedure is slightly different.
To submit your proposal, visit
https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM14/
and follow the instructions to create an account and an “event”. Please select “BSD devroom” as the track. (Click on “Show all” in the top right corner to display the full form.)
Please include the following information in your submission:
- The title and subtitle of your talk (please be descriptive, as titles will be listed with ~500 from other projects)
- A short abstract of one paragraph
- A longer description if you wish to do so
- Links to related websites/blogs etc.
The deadline for submissions is December 20, 2013. The talk committee, consisting of Daniel Seuffert, Marius Nünnerich and Benny Siegert, will consider the proposals. If yours has been accepted, you will be informed by e-mail before the end of the year.
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Google Summer of Code 2013 report: Defragmentation for FFS
The following report is by Manuel Wiesinger:
First of all, I like to thank the NetBSD Foundation for enabling me to successfully complete this Google Summer of Code. It has been a very valuable experience for me.
My project is a defragmentation tool for FFS. I want to point out at the beginning that it is not ready for use yet.
What has been done:
Fragment analysis + reordering. When a file is smaller or equal than the file system's fragment size, it is stored as a fragment. One can think of a fragment as a block. It can happen that there are many small files that occupy a fragment. When the file systems changes over time it can happen that there are many blocks containing fewer fragments than they can hold. The optimization my tool does is to pack all these fragments into fewer blocks. This way the system may get a little more free space.
Directory optimization. When a directory gets deleted, the space for that directory and its name are appended to the previous directory. This can be imagined like a linked list. My tool reads that list and writes all entries sequentially.
Non-contiguous files analysis + reordering strategy. This is what most other operating systems call defragmentation - a reordering of blocks, so that blocks belonging to the same file or directory can be read sequentially.
NetBSD 6.1.2 and NetBSD 6.0.3 are out!
The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1.2, the second security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.1 release branch, and NetBSD 6.0.3, the third security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.0 release branch. They represent a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, and if you are running a prior release of NetBSD 6.x3, you are recommended to update.
For more details, please see the NetBSD 6.1.2 release notes or NetBSD 6.0.3 release notes.
Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 6.1.2 and NetBSD 6.0.3 are available for download at many sites around the world. A list of download sites providing FTP, AnonCVS, SUP, and other services may be found at http://www.NetBSD.org/mirrors/. [2 comments]
NetBSD 5.2.1 and NetBSD 5.1.3 patch releases
The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 5.2.1, the first security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 5.2 release branch, and NetBSD 5.1.3, the third security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 5.1 release branch. They represent a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, and if you are running a release of NetBSD prior to 5.1.3, you are recommended to update to a supported NetBSD 5.x or NetBSD 6.x version.
For more details, please see the NetBSD 5.2.1 release notes or NetBSD 5.1.3 release notes.
Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 5.2.1 and NetBSD 5.1.3 are available for download at many sites around the world. A list of download sites providing FTP, AnonCVS, SUP, and other services may be found at http://www.NetBSD.org/mirrors/.Updates to NetBSD 6.x will be coming in the next few days.
[1 comment]