OpenBSD 7.8 errata patches for libcxxabi, 52-partition support, and EuroBSDCon 2025 highlights and more.
Releases
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BSDSec
OpenBSD 7.8 errata patches for libcxxabi and libexecinfo (libunwind): OpenBSD 7.8 has released errata patches addressing issues in the libcxxabi and libexecinfo libraries, which are part of the libunwind stack tracing functionality. The updates are available as binary patches for the amd64, arm64, and i386 architectures through the syspatch utility, ensuring users can apply fixes without manual compilation.
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News
Valuable News – 2025/11/17: The Valuable News series curates notable updates, articles, and tools primarily related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems, with occasional broader tech coverage. This edition highlights key developments such as the rediscovery of a 52-year-old UNIX V4 tape, FreeBSD’s Git Weekly updates, and OpenBSD’s transition to support 52 partitions.
OpenBSD expands disk partition limit to 52: OpenBSD’s -current branch has begun transitioning to support up to 52 disk partitions, an increase from the previous 16-partition limit, though only 52 of the technically possible 64 slots are used due to single-character (a-zA-Z) naming constraints. The change modifies core system structures like dev_t to use 6 bits instead of 4 for partition encoding, affecting devices such as /dev/sd, /dev/wd, and others, while maintaining backward compatibility via a temporary ioctl. Users performing manual upgrades—especially those with root partitions not on sd0 or wd0, such as systems using full-disk encryption—may encounter boot failures requiring manual intervention with fsck, mount, and MAKEDEV to repair device nodes. Initial reports indicate successful upgrades on AMD64 systems with full-disk encryption using the latest snapshots, though earlier warnings advised caution due to unresolved issues in the bootblock softraid code, which have since been addressed in follow-up commits. The transition is phased, with on-disk storage for 52-partition labels and broader architecture support expected in subsequent updates.
Hammer cleanup in intermittent VMs: DragonFly BSD’s Hammer filesystem relies on automatic cleanup processes that run overnight, but these may not execute if the system is powered off intermittently, such as in a virtual machine. Without manual intervention, this can lead to storage exhaustion over time, as unused space is not reclaimed. The issue was highlighted in a 2025 mailing list discussion where users reported running out of disk space due to skipped cleanups. The solution involves manually triggering the Hammer cleanup process to reclaim unused blocks and restore available storage capacity. This is particularly relevant for users who do not leave their systems running continuously.
2025 EuroBSDCon Trip Report by Leah Budzicka: Leah Budzicka, a third-year computer science student and administrator of an OS-focused student club, attended EuroBSDCon 2025 in Zagreb after receiving a FreeBSD Foundation travel grant. The event began with the FreeBSD Developer Summit, where she participated in technical sessions on enterprise adoption, CHERI security architecture, and updates on Foundation projects like Grimoire and Sylve. She also attended Kirk McKusick’s workshops on FreeBSD internals, gaining deeper insights into the OS’s kernel, security, and networking. During the main conference, highlights included Jan Bramkamp’s ZFS-based jail provisioning, Hans-Jörg Hoxer’s talk on confidential computing, and Jake Freeland’s presentation on Capsicum, which inspired her to focus her bachelor’s thesis on FreeBSD. Budzicka expressed gratitude for the opportunity, noting the conference’s educational value and the warmth of the BSD community, and plans to introduce FreeBSD to her university through lectures and workshops.
EuroBSDcon 2025 trip report by Robert Clausecker: Robert Clausecker attended EuroBSDcon 2025 in Zagreb, Croatia, marking his second conference after presenting SIMD-enhanced libc string functions in 2024. The five-day event included a FreeBSD Dev Summit, Eurobhyvecon, tutorials, and three parallel talk tracks, covering topics like pkgbase, CHERI upstreaming, and ZFS-based jail provisioning. Highlights included discussions on OpenJDK porting, WLAN driver improvements, and USB-C internals, alongside networking with FreeBSD developers and students. Clausecker traveled by train with Jan Bramkamp and noted the conference’s role in fostering collaboration, expressing gratitude to the FreeBSD Foundation for sponsorship. The report also mentions plans for the 2026 event in Brussels.
OpenBSD enhances pf with source and state limiters: OpenBSD’s pf packet filter now includes source and state limiters, introduced by David Gwynne to improve traffic control flexibility. These limiters allow administrators to constrain the number of states a rule can create and optionally set creation rates, addressing issues like rule resets during reloads and unintended state expansion due to macro use. State limiters apply a single limit across multiple rules, while source limiters dynamically manage per-source (IP or network) constraints, preventing resource exhaustion from scans or attacks. The changes also enable better handling of blocked traffic, such as redirecting excess connections to tarpits. The feature has been tested in production for over three years and is expected to be a highlight of the upcoming OpenBSD 7.9 release.
OpenBSD improves sysupgrade handling for limited /usr space: Recent updates to OpenBSD’s sysupgrade tool address challenges faced by systems with limited free space in the /usr partition. A modification to the installer now removes obsolete files in share/relink/ before upgrades, increasing the likelihood of successful extraction of critical system files. Additionally, sysupgrade will now abort if /usr exceeds 90% capacity, preventing potential system corruption, and directs users to a new “PRUNING” section in the manual. This documentation explains the risks of low disk space, the difficulty of safely removing unused files, and recommends reinstallation with a larger /usr partition as the most reliable solution. The changes prioritize system stability over temporary workarounds.
Tutorials
n8n on FreeBSD: Installation, security, and performance optimization: This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough for deploying n8n workflow automation on FreeBSD with enterprise-grade security and performance. The setup includes PF firewall configuration with brute-force protection, Nginx as a reverse proxy with SSL/TLS encryption via Let’s Encrypt, and Redis integration for caching and queue management. Key optimizations feature Queue Mode for reliable workflow execution, rate limiting at both Nginx and application levels, and automatic certificate renewal. The solution is designed for production environments with attention to resource efficiency, using only 150-300MB RAM at rest while supporting complex workflows. Additional security measures include dedicated system users, process isolation, and comprehensive logging for audit purposes.
When RAID isn’t enough: How ZFS improves data redundancy: Hardware RAID has long been a standard for data redundancy but suffers from critical flaws like single points of failure, silent data corruption, and inefficient rebuild processes. ZFS addresses these issues with built-in checksums, copy-on-write transactions, and faster filesystem-aware resilvering that minimizes downtime. Unlike RAID, ZFS eliminates controller dependency by storing metadata on-disk, supports advanced features like snapshots and replication, and provides end-to-end data validation through Merkle tree-based checksums. The system’s self-healing capabilities and transparent error detection make it particularly suited for modern storage demands where reliability and scalability are paramount. Klara Systems offers specialized ZFS design services to help organizations transition from legacy RAID solutions to more robust storage architectures.
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