FreeBSD 15.0 major update with pkgbase, Wi-Fi/audio improvements, and AWS optimizations, OpenBSD security patches, and ZFS VDEV scaling insights and more.
Releases
No releases.
BSDSec
OpenBSD Errata December 3, 2025 addresses vulnerabilities in drm, libpng, xkbcomp, unbound, nd6: OpenBSD released errata patches for multiple components including the Direct Rendering Manager (drm), libpng image library, xkbcomp keyboard compiler, the unbound DNS resolver, and IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (nd6) protocol implementation. The updates apply to OpenBSD versions 7.7 and 7.8, with binary patches available for amd64, arm64, and i386 architectures via the syspatch utility.
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News
Valuable News – 2025/12/08: The December 8, 2025 edition of Valuable News highlights the release of FreeBSD 15.0, marking a major update with improved package management, reproducible builds, and the end of 32-bit hardware support. Key coverage includes performance benchmarks on AMD EPYC, OCI 1.3 runtime compatibility, and upgrades like OpenZFS/OpenSSL enhancements. The issue also explores alternatives to Plex, OpenBSD tools like PuffyGuard for WireGuard deployments, and ZFS optimizations from Klara Systems.
FreeBSD 15 key features and improvements: FreeBSD 15.0 introduces significant updates, including the long-awaited pkgbase, which allows package-based management of the base system for finer control over installations, smoother upgrades, and easier testing. Desktop and laptop users benefit from enhanced Wi-Fi support (802.11ac for Realtek and native Intel drivers), improved audio device handling, and fixes for AMD GPU stability. New offline help resources, like the networking(7) man page, assist users troubleshooting fresh installations. AWS deployments see faster boot times (up to 76%) and smaller “small” images (~1 GB), while bhyve now supports arm64 and riscv virtualization. Additional features include a built-in privilege escalation tool (mdo(1)) and broader hardware compatibility improvements.
BSD Now 640: Cleaning up Hammer: FreeBSD is an OCI runtime, ZFS Disaster Recovery, Cleaning up Hammer, and some historical information, and more.
Tutorials
ZFS VDEV scaling guide: ZFS leverages virtual devices (VDEVs) to balance performance, redundancy, and capacity, but scaling them requires careful planning to avoid bottlenecks. The guide explains how VDEV types (mirror, RAID-Z, DRAID) impact IOPS, rebuild speed, and fault tolerance, emphasizing that more VDEVs generally improve parallelism and fault isolation. While concerns about excessive VDEVs exist, real-world deployments show that well-designed pools with 200+ VDEVs perform reliably, provided hardware and monitoring align with workload demands. Key considerations include choosing the right VDEV type for IOPS or resilver needs, tracking metrics like import time and scrub duration, and potentially splitting workloads across multiple pools for better isolation. The focus is on matching VDEV configuration to specific use cases rather than arbitrary limits.
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