#art (c)

GNU/Hurd Continues Effort To Use NetBSD's Drivers For Better Hardware Support.

Besides all of the Linux-focused talks at the annual FOSDEM conference, another favorite track of mine is that on micro-kernels and other operating systems. While there wasn't the GNU/Hurd status update in 2022 as there has been in some recent years, there was a talk over GNU/Hurd using NetBSD kernel drivers in order to expand its hardware coverage.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Hurd-NetBSD-Drivers-2022

#drivers #hardware

A practical solution for GNU/Hurd's lack of drivers: NetBSD's rumpkernel framework.

https://fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/dzammit/

#fosdem #video

Installing NetBSD 9.2 on a Pentium 100MHz.

#video #install

Making RockPro64 a NetBSD Server.

The time has come to upgrade my SunBlade 2500s to something more power friendly and faster. I'd already removed one CPU and thus half the ram from two of these systems to reduce their power consumption, but it's still much higher than it could be.

After much searching, I've decided on Pine64's RockPro64 4GiB ram model (technically, only 3.875GiB ram.) Pine64 make SBCs, laptops, phones, and various other mostly ARM gadgets, and the RockPro64 has the fastest CPU they ship (Rockchip RK3399), and can use a small "NAS Case", that is sufficient to house 2 HDDs and, at a stretch, upto 6 SSDs (cooling would become quite an issue at this point.)...

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/making_rockpro64_a_netbsd_server

#rockpro64 #server

Full system backups with FFS snapshots, ZFS and dump(8)

I am positive not many know that NetBSD FFSv2 allows taking atomic filesystem copies of a mounted filesystem (or part it) through fss(4), the fileysytem snapshot device. These can be used to create backups or to give fsck_ffs a consistent view of a previous version of the filesystem to compare with (see fsck -x). Having a snapshot ready before editing critical configuration files under /etc or performing etcupdates, is also a good idea...

https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/705-full-system-backups-with-ffs-snapshots-zfs-and-dump8

#backup #snapshots #dump

build and install of latest CDE (2.4.0c) on NetBSD 9.2 for Intel (i386/amd64).

i managed to build and install CDE, although few things are missing from the linked howto. so here goes...

https://www.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/thussq/build_and_install_of_latest_cde_240c_on_netbsd_92/

#cde #desktop

Writing a NetBSD kernel module.

In this post, we’ll look at implementing a simple character device driver as a kernel module in NetBSD. Once it is loaded, userspace processes will be able to write an arbitrary byte string to the device, and on every successive read expect a cryptographically-secure pseudorandom permutation of the original byte string...

https://saurvs.github.io/post/writing-netbsd-kern-mod/

#kernel #module

PlayStation remote kernel heap overflow.

The PlayStation has a kernel PPPoE driver, that originates from NetBSD. This driver has a kernel heap overflow vulnerability, that an attacker can remotely trigger over the LAN, with the ability to control both the contents that are overflown and their sizes.

https://hackerone.com/reports/1350653

#security #pppoe

Customizing NetBSD boot banners.

I recently discovered that it’s surprisingly easy to customize the NetBSD boot loader banner, simply by adding some directives in the boot.cfg configuration file...

https://www.cambus.net/customizing-netbsd-boot-banners/

#system #boot

The journey to ZFS raidz1 with different sized disks (On NetBSD) (Wheelbarrow optional).

The joy of having a redundant remote backup machine is that if it dies you do not immediately lose any data, just some redundancy. On the other hand, sufficient remoteness can make the process of rebuilding annoying enough to encourage a certain desire to not repeat it.

So... I find myself wanting to setup a NetBSD machine with a ZFS raidz1, but without sufficient equally sized large disks or enough drive bays to pack in many smaller disks. In the world of ZFS, that's a pretty big liability...

https://netbsd0.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-journey-to-zfs-raidz1-with.html

#zfs #backup

Compiling the NetBSD kernel as a benchmark.

For a while, I've been compiling my own NetBSD kernel. Just for a few options, mainly CARP, at first for my Raspberry Pis, and at the moment for paravirtualized Xen domUs. Compiling a custom NetBSD kernel is a very easy task, it's just a matter of 3 main steps...

https://blog.anotherhomepage.org/post/2022/05/25/Compiling-the-NetBSD-kernel-as-a-benchmark/

#kernel #system

SSD TRIM in NetBSD HEAD (-current).

Solid state drives are complicated. TRIM is an operation in the SATA command set that can be used to mark specific blocks of a SSD unused, which helps the SSD retain good performance when large amounts of data have been deleted. It requires operating system support. macOS actually didn't support TRIM for quite a long time, so there's at least some drives available in the wild that cope well with not being regularly TRIMed. NetBSD 7.0 added a fdiscard system call, which allows portions of a device or file to be TRIMed...

https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/859-ssd-trim-in-netbsd-head-current

#hdd #fdiscard #trim

NetBSD can also run a Minecraft server.

... The good news is, yes, you can run a Minecraft server on my other favourite OS too. This post explores how I went about it, though I’m sure there are other ways...

https://rubenerd.com/netbsd-can-also-run-a-minecraft-server/

#games #minecraft

NetBSD 9.3 released.

The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 9.3, the third release from the NetBSD 9 stable branch.

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_9_3_released

#release #system

Installing OpenBSD on Scaleway Elastic Metal.

The instructions below will roughly stay the same should you want to install NetBSD or FreeBSD instead of OpenBSD...

https://www.senzilla.io/blog/2022/08/10/installing-openbsd-scaleway-elastic-metal/

#install #system

Is the NetBSD operating system losing its competitive edge to Linux and FreeBSD?

I’m not entirely sure there was ever a “competitive edge” that NetBSD had over FreeBSD… and the differences between any of the BSDs and Linux are vast — some of them are important, others not so much...

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-NetBSD-operating-system-losing-its-competitive-edge-to-Linux-and-FreeBSD/answer/Stan-Hanks

#system #justread

EuroBSDCon 2022. NetBSD.

No videos are available yet to provide much-needed context to presentations, but we'll keep you posted...

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/eurobsdcon_2022

#eurobsdcon

Crash Override: NetBSD 5.0-9.3 Coredump Kernel Refcount LPE.

NetBSD 5.0 (released 2009) introduced a change to the in-kernel coredump handler that accidentally introduced a reference count bug on the crashing process' credential. Triggering the vulnerability leads to a use-after-free that can be trivially (though slowly) exploited to achieve local privilege escalation, gaining root from an unprivileged starting point...

https://accessvector.net/2022/netbsd-coredump-lpe

#kernel #system

OpenBSD 7.2 released. #release

Hunting kernel lock and interrupt latency.

Too much of the kernel still runs with the kernel lock, which is bad for performance -- and especially for interactive system responsiveness, since most of wscons including keyboard and mouse input still use the kernel lock. On single-CPU systems, the same problem arises with interrupt latency on its own...

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/2022/10/30/msg028499.html

#kernel #troubleshooting #system