Episode 187

Catching up to BSD

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March 29th, 2017

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About this Episode

Catching up to BSD, news about the NetBSD project, a BSD Phone, and a bunch of OpenBSD and TrueOS News.

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Headlines

NetBSD 7.1 released

  • This update represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements.

  • Kernel

    • compat_linux(8): Fully support sched_setaffinity and sched_getaffinity, fixing, e.g., the Intel Math Kernel Library.

  • DTrace:

    • Avoid redefined symbol errors when loading the module.
    • Fix module autoload.

  • IPFilter:

    • Fix matching of ICMP queries when NAT'd through IPF.
    • Fix lookup of original destination address when using a redirect rule. This is required for transparent proxying by squid, for example.
    • ipsec(4): Fix NAT-T issue with NetBSD being the host behind NAT.

  • Drivers

    • Add vioscsi driver for the Google Compute Engine disk.
    • ichsmb(4): Add support for Braswell CPU and Intel 100 Series.
    • wm(4):
    • Add C2000 KX and 2.5G support.
    • Add Wake On Lan support.
    • Fixed a lot of bugs

  • Security Fixes

  • ARM related

    • Support for Raspberry Pi Zero.
    • ODROID-C1 Ethernet now works.

Summary of the preliminary LLDB support project

  • What has been done in NetBSD

    • Verified the full matrix of combinations of wait(2) and ptrace(2) in the following
    • GNU libstdc++ std::call_once bug investigation test-cases
    • Improving documentation and other minor system parts
    • Documentation of ptrace(2) and explanation how debuggers work
    • Introduction of new siginfo(2) codes for SIGTRAP
    • New ptrace(2) interfaces

  • What has been done in LLDB

  • Native Process NetBSD Plugin

  • The MonitorCallback function

  • Other LLDB code, out of the NativeProcessNetBSD Plugin

  • Automated LLDB Test Results Summary

  • Plan for the next milestone

    • fix conflict with system-wide py-six
    • add support for auxv read operation
    • switch resolution of pid -> path to executable from /proc to sysctl(7)
    • recognize Real-Time Signals (SIGRTMIN-SIGRTMAX)
    • upstream !NetBSDProcessPlugin code
    • switch std::call_once to llvm::call_once
    • add new ptrace(2) interface to lock and unlock threads from execution
    • switch the current PT_WATCHPOINT interface to PT_GETDBREGS and PT_SETDBREGS

Actually building a FreeBSD Phone

  • There have been a number of different projects that have proposed building a FreeBSD based smart phone
  • This project is a bit different, and I think that gives it a better chance to make progress
  • It uses off-the-shelf parts, so while not as neatly integrated as a regular smartphone device, it makes a much better prototype, and is more readily available.
  • Hardware overview: X86-based, long-lasting (user-replaceable) battery, WWAN Modem (w/LTE), 4-5" LCD Touchscreen (Preferably w/720p resolution, IPS), upgradable storage.
  • Currently targeting the UDOO Ultra platform. It features Intel Pentium N3710 (2.56GHz Quad-core, HD Graphics 405 [16 EUs @ 700MHz], VT-x, AES-NI), 2x4GB DDR3L RAM, 32GB eMMC storage built-in, further expansion w/M.2 SSD & MicroSD slot, lots of connectivity onboard.
  • Software: FreeBSD Hypervisor (bhyve or Xen) to run atop the hardware, hosting two separate hosts.
    • One will run an instance of pfSense, the "World's Most Popular Open Source Firewall" to handle the WWAN connection, routing, and Firewall (as well as Secure VPN if desired).
    • The other instance will run a slimmed down installation of FreeBSD. The UI will be tweaked to work best in this form factor & resources tuned for this platform. There will be a strong reliance on Google Chromium & Google's services (like Google Voice).
  • The project has a detailed log, and it looks like the hardware it is based on will ship in the next few weeks, so we expect to see more activity. ***

News Roundup

NVME M.2 card road tests (Matt Dillon)

  • DragonFlyBSD’s Matt Dillon has posted a rundown of the various M.2 NVMe devices he has tested
    • SAMSUNG 951
    • SAMSUNG 960 EVO
    • TOSHIBA OCZ RD400
    • INTEL 600P
    • WD BLACK 256G
    • MYDIGITALSSD
    • PLEXTOR M8Pe
  • It is interesting to see the relative performance of each device, but also how they handle the workload and manage their temperature (or don’t in a few cases)
  • The link provides a lot of detail about different block sizes and overall performance ***

ZREP ZFS replication and failover

  • "zrep", a robust yet easy to use ZFS based replication and failover solution. It can also serve as the conduit to create a simple backup hub.
  • The tool was originally written for Solaris, and is written in ksh
  • However, it seems people have used it on FreeBSD and even FreeNAS by installing the ksh93 port
  • Has anyone used this? How does it compare to tools like zxfer?
  • There is a FreeBSD port, but it is a few versions behind, someone should update it
  • We would be interested in hearing some feedback ***

Catching up on some TrueOS News

Catching up on some OpenBSD News

Beastie Bits

Feedback/Questions