The last BSDCan 2025 video has been posted!
Adventures in porting a Wayland Compositor to NetBSD and OpenBSD by Jeff Frasca

https://youtu.be/oo_8gnWQ4xo

I'm typing this in my Xuake Wayland Compositor on OpenBSD.

I started this journey on the NetBSD 9.99.x branch and ended up having to dig into the guts of wscons, mesa, libdrm, the kernel drm subsystem, the AMDGPU driver and more. I have a couple of very small, but hard fought patches in the NetBSD kernel. It's not over yet, either. I still have a few bugs around the compositor shutdown process and a lot of integration work to be able to hope to have other people try this out.

Topics to cover in the talk include (but are not limited to):

History of Wayland and other background info

How your graphics stack and driver is organized and actually works

The actual porting journey on both NetBSD and OpenBSD

A Demo! I should be able to show it running

Current status, future work

For more information, please visit:
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/
- and -
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/timetable/timetable-Adventures-in-porting.html

#wayland #runbsd #openbsd #netbsd

18 days to go!
From heavy VMs to lightweight BastilleBSD jails - saving resources and simplifying ops.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2023/11/27/migrating-from-vm-to-hierarchical-jails-freebsd/

#EuroBSDConAdvent #EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD

I am upgrading some real and virtual machines to newer NetBSD snapshots. #NetBSD

Trying to run the #clang test suite on my #PinebookPro with #NetBSD to verify a pull request.
The poor notebook is really struggling. 4G of RAM plus 8G of swap is barely enough (or not) for a single linker invocation. Oof.

19 days to go!
How to install FreeBSD on providers that don’t support it, using mfsBSD.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/07/02/install_freebsd_providers_mfsbsd/

#EuroBSDConAdvent #EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD

@AnachronistJohn I missed out on AM1 when that was available. Had good luck with Atom 330 and #NetBSD/amd64. I wonder whether Intel UHD on the J4125 might work better than the new thing (Intel Xe?). #Xorg

If y'all want to enable the built-in WiFi of the Raspberry Pi 4 with #NetBSD, this advice is useful:

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2022/08/11/msg007785.html

This will expose the built-in interface bwfm0 to ifconfig, which you can then use to scan for networks (interestingly, will even see 5GHz networks) and connect with wpa_supplicant...

... except that the interface keeps dying 2min after I bring it up, rendering the connection essentially unusable (thanks, Broadcom) :(

So what did I do? Pull out a Realtek USB card. Interface urtwn0 works perfectly!

#RunBSD

An embedded dev kit for EndBASIC with NetBSD by Julio Merino

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WZFYTInWAqc

#netbsd #bsd #endbasic

An embedded dev kit for EndBASIC with #NetBSD by Julio Merino @jmmv

https://youtu.be/WZFYTInWAqc

An embedded dev kit for EndBASIC with NetBSD https://lobste.rs/s/ubyo2n #video #netbsd
https://youtu.be/WZFYTInWAqc

Advanced Programming the UNIX Environment

Week 1: UNIX History

We cover the early days at Bell Labs, USL vs BSDi, the birth of the BSDs and Linux, and how we got from Ken Thompson playing "Space Travel" on a PDP-7 to Unix running on your phone, fridge, and TV.

https://youtu.be/3H7SQWTR6Dw

Scroll along through it all here: https://www.levenez.com/unix/unix.pdf

#apue #unix #linux #netbsd #freebsd

@vermaden It’s hard for me to know how to vote. I’m for #1, but with better protections.

#NetBSD’s pkg_delete won’t delete certain packages, like pkg_install, even when forced (-f). To delete those special packages, you need to force force it via -ff.

Lumping in base packages with others without protections is a bit… shortsighted. It’d be one thing if there wasn’t a way to delete all packages, but since that was there first, that should stay.

With all the Linus succession talk... should the *BSDs be pushing to be in position the outcome is a new unix wars scenario? What are those scenarios.... how could *BSD position themselves ????
* with developers?
* with companies?
* with linux users?
#runbsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #hardenedbsd #dragonflybsd

20 days to go!

Guide: Move an entire FreeBSD installation to a new host or VM with ZFS send/recv.
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2024/09/16/moving-freebsd-installation-new-host-vm/

#EuroBSDConAdvent #EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD

Has anyone tried #NetBSD/amd64 on an Intel N95 or N100 box? #bsd

NSD 4.13 released with experimental support for AF_XDP sockets, disabled TLS 1.2 if TLS 1.3 is available, logging for XoT transfers, changed default send-buffer-size to 4M to mitigate a cross-layer issue

https://github.com/NLnetLabs/nsd/releases/tag/NSD_4_13_0_REL

#nsd #nlnetlabs #dnsserver #opensource #freesoftware #linux #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #dnssecurity

21 days to go!
How we ditched Kubernetes and regained sanity with FreeBSD.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2024/07/04/from-cloud-chaos-to-freebsd-efficiency/

#EuroBSDConAdvent #EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD

22 days to go!
Why BSDs in 2025?

My perspective and why we moved many services from Linux to the BSDs.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/03/23/osday-2025-why-choose-bsd-in-2025/

#EuroBSDConAdvent #EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD

Come to Zagreb September 24-28, 2025 and geek out with other BSD people at EuroBSDcon!

See https://2025.eurobsdcon.org/
Program https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2025/schedule/
Registration https://2025.eurobsdcon.org/registration.html

#openbsd #netbsd #freebsd #zagreb #eurobsdcon #conference #freesoftware #libresoftware #development #devops #sysadmin #networking #security

New #blog post. Let's write a peephole optimizer for #QBE that operates on #AArch64 assembly code. Three years ago, we did this for #AMD64 assembly code. But now that I have Arm machines, we can replicate the effort for another CPU architecture.

https://briancallahan.net/blog/20250901.html

#compiler #compilers #opensource #freesoftware #unix #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #dragonflybsd #linux #illumos #macos #assembler #assembly

@stefano here you go, late but didn't wanna lose any access 😃

Since I didn't have any computers with me at the moment, I ssh'd into the coffee machine for the pic ☕

#NetBSD #RunBSD

Alt...

termux showing uname and fastfetch of a NetBSD 10.1 machine and a coffee cup next to it

Google summer of code 2025 for #NetBSD asynchronous I/O framework:

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/gsoc2025_asynchronous_i_o_framework?utm_source=discoverbsd

Today is Monday, 1st September. And September means one thing: EuroBSDCon!

23 days to go until EuroBSDCon 2025 in Zagreb!

I’m doing a little “advent calendar” for BSD fans: each day until the conference I’ll share one article from it-notes.dragas.net about FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD, ZFS, PF and more. The dedicated hashtag will be #EuroBSDConAdvent

Let’s start right away with "I Solve Problems" - my EuroBSDCon 2024 (and #BSDCan 2025) talk about migrating from Linux to BSDs:

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2024/10/03/i-solve-problems-eurobsdcon/

If you’re coming to Zagreb, reply to this post - it would be nice to meet up with fellow BSD users!

#EuroBSDCon #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #ZFS #PF #RunBSD #EuroBSDConAdvent

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟵/𝟬𝟭 (Valuable News - 2025/09/01) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/valuable-news-2025-09-01/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟵/𝟬𝟭 (Valuable News - 2025/09/01) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/valuable-news-2025-09-01/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Watching how to install some selfhosted-software to the my #NetBSD box:

Deployment methods:
- Docker
- Docker Compose
- Kubernetes
- Unraid
- Synology NAS
- Deploy to cloud service
- Build from Source

Looking inside:
- Please install npm and 256 NodeJS dependencies.

Lol, I already love #SelfHosting

@ltning kudos for doing #netbsd hacking on a #freebsd hackathon

More hacking action at the #FreeBSD #Hackathon here in Oslo! Bugs are found, and then more "bugs" are found.

Having Level 3 support in our offices is something we could certainly get used to! ;-D

There's been documentation work, installer work, chasing down pf issues, trying to add architecture number 58 and 59 to #NetBSD (the #486DLC and #NexGen 5x86), discussions about FreeBSD pkgbase, preparing of release notes, and much else.

After a long day, restitution is again offered in the form of #Retrogaming, #beer and food. Today seems to be #MonkeyIsland day.

Alt...

"Look, we found a bug!" Two developers seem to have just discovered a bug in some code. A table with several laptops and charging cables, two persons sitting on far side, and three pictures on the wall depicting credit card-themed satire.

Alt...

Four people sitting in front of a screen showing a scene from Monkey Island 1 (for DOS). Two of the people being the same ones as in the other picture. One developer pointing at the screen as if to point out a bug.

I haven't blogged in a while. Mostly because my last post was about AI and I wanted to write a followup but found the whole AI discourse so extremely exhausting.

So anyways, back to the world of little hacks with this post about booting #NetBSD from a GPT wedge, the hard way:

https://bentsukun.ch/posts/netbsd-wedge-boot/

I changed my #NetBSD pkgin repository link to point to 2025Q2. Since then, I received 2 waves of updates already. Nice! #RunBSD

⚠️ News/Changes:

BoxyBSD will bring in a feature for more advanced users for our free boxes. Instead of only selecting a set of pre-defined BSD based images, you'll soon also be able to create your install simply from scratch with full remote access to your box. This lets you perform custom installations of #FreeBSD, #NetBSD, #OpenBSD, #DragonflyBSD, #MidnightBSD but also of some other niche systems like #illumos

Unfortunately, this might still take some time and fully relies on the spare time of @gyptazy.

#freeVPS #VPS #BSD #Box #BoxyBSD #gyptazy #opensource #education #community #foss #runbsd #hosting #freehosting #learning #ipv6

EuroBSDCon 2025 in Zagreb September 24-28 https://2025.eurobsdcon.org/
Program https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2025/schedule/
Register https://2025.eurobsdcon.org/registration.html

#zagreb #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #conference #development #devops #sysadmin