DragonFly BSD disables console bell globally, OpenBSD’s 10x Linux performance gap debated, and Netgraph VNET jails boost throughput and more.
Releases
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BSDSec
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News
Disable Console Bell Globally in DragonFly BSD: DragonFly BSD now includes a sysctl setting to disable the console beep system-wide, rather than just in individual shells. This update is either trivial or a significant quality-of-life improvement, depending on user preferences. The change eliminates the audible alert across all terminal sessions, offering a more consistent experience. For users sensitive to system sounds, this provides a simple, centralized way to mute the console bell. The feature was introduced via a commit to the project’s codebase.
Valuable News: The Valuable News series curates key updates and resources for UNIX/BSD/Linux enthusiasts, filtering the overwhelming flow of tech information. This week’s highlights include NetBSD 11’s upcoming launch with 57 supported platforms, BastilleBSD’s modern FreeBSD container framework, and OpenBSD’s performance debate (10x faster than Linux?).
OpenBSD vs Linux: Benchmark Reveals 10x Performance Gap in Specific Workloads: OpenBSD developer Ted Unangst highlights a benchmark by Jann Horn showing OpenBSD outperforming Linux by 10x in a specific test case. The performance difference was so significant that standard timing tools lacked precision to measure OpenBSD’s execution time. Unangst modified the benchmark to capture accurate results, emphasizing OpenBSD’s efficiency. The post invites readers to explore further details on his blog, including insights into system performance and benchmarking methodologies.
BSD Now 624: OpenBSD chflags vs. Log Tampering, How to Defend Against Aggressive Web Scrapers With Anubis on FreeBSD 14, OpenBSD Innovations, Full Ada programming toolchain NOW on FreeBSD, Compute GPUs can have odd failures under Linux (still), A handy collection of shell aliases from my bash startup, and more.
DragonFlyBSD Adds UVC Webcam Driver Ported from FreeBSD: Michael Neumann introduced preliminary USB Video Class (UVC) webcam support to DragonFlyBSD, porting the driver from FreeBSD (branch feature-uvc-prepare-submit3). The implementation includes compatibility fixes for DragonFlyBSD’s kernel (e.g., bus/u4b path adjustments, kprintf conversions, and kqueue support) and resolves mmap issues. Tested with built-in and external webcams, it works in Chrome, cheese, and ffmpeg (via v4l2), though Firefox and pwcview compatibility remains unresolved. A manual kldunload/kldload uvc workaround is required after device closure to avoid artifacts. Key additions include UVC 1.5+ package sizing (from OpenBSD) and atomic operation macros.
OpenBSD’s Greytrapping: 18 Years of Fighting Spam with Data and Grit: OpenBSD’s greytrapping—a spam-fighting technique via spamd(8)—celebrates 18 years with a retrospective by Peter Hansteen, revealing its evolution, impact, and milestone: over 5.4 million spamtraps (surpassing Norway’s population). The article blends field notes, war stories, and data-driven insights, highlighting how this “nastier kid sister” of greylisting has persistently thwarted spammers. Hansteen’s write-up includes graphs, raw metrics, and anecdotes from nearly two decades of deployment, offering both technical depth and historical context.
Tutorials
FreeBSD 14.3: Step-by-Step KDE Plasma 6 Wayland Installation Guide: This guide provides a detailed walkthrough for installing FreeBSD 14.3 with KDE Plasma 6 on Wayland. It covers disk partitioning (ZFS with encryption), system configuration (sshd, ntpd, powerd), and essential package installations like drm-kmod for GPU support. The process includes setting up doas for privilege escalation, installing Plasma 6 components (plasma6-plasma, konsole, dolphin), and configuring SDDM (for X11) or a manual Wayland launch via ck-launch-session. Optional software recommendations (e.g., krusader, librewolf, brave-browser) and troubleshooting notes (e.g., avoiding pkg autoremove after removing plasma6-discover) are included. Ideal for users seeking a modern FreeBSD desktop with Wayland support.
Hands-On Guide: Configuring Netgraph VNET Jails with ngbuddy: This article explores using Netgraph and ngbuddy to simplify VNET jail networking in FreeBSD, replacing traditional epair/bridge setups. The author details a step-by-step setup, including installing ngbuddy, configuring Bastille jails, and testing DHCP/CARP functionality. Performance benchmarks show ~10 Gbit/s throughput (vs. ~6 Gbit/s with epair), though CPU usage was higher (~99% vs. ~45%).
Hosting a Static Website in a FreeBSD Jail with Bastille: This guide provides a step-by-step tutorial for deploying a static website inside a FreeBSD Jail using Bastille and Lighttpd. It begins with installing Bastille, configuring ZFS (if applicable), and setting up a loopback interface. After bootstrapping a FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE environment, a jail named “web” is created with a designated IP address. Inside the jail, Lighttpd is installed and enabled as the web server, serving files from /usr/local/www/data. A simple static website is cloned from a Git repository into this directory, making it accessible via the jail’s IP. The guide emphasizes simplicity but notes that further Lighttpd configuration and security hardening are recommended for production use. Ideal for users familiar with FreeBSD jails and containerization.
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