Several hours ago, the FreeBSD team quietly released FreeBSD 4.9, the next version in the 4.x stable series. It features support for a number of new NICs, an improved ipfw, PAE support (allowing up to 64GB of RAM) and numerous other enhancements. Desktop users will be pleased to know that GNOME 2.4 and KDE 3.1.4 are included. Changelog here, mirrors here.
Am I right in the assumption that this is the end of the line for 4.X REALEASE unless you count on Dragonfly BSD?
IIRC that depends on how 5.2 turns out: the goal is for 5.2 to move the -STABLE branch to 5, but whether or not that actually ends up occurring remains to be seen, it could still be deferred to 5.3.
There could always be a 4.10. Does the FreeBSD organisation have a roadmap, perhaps that would say whether or not 4.9 will be the last 4.x release.
I wonder, doesn’t look like it so far as I can tell, does 4.9 support the Audigy card yet? Anyone know?
Now for a comment which is sure to get some bsders up in arms. FreeBSD has long been one of those things I’ve wanted to like, but after getting it installed, and somewhat working, had a hard time maintaining that positive expectation. I’ve found configure X quite a chore, and ports seem to have the habit of breaking down. (not that I can’t take the challenge, debian used to be my favorite linux distro). OK everyone, start flaming now 😉 But there are things about it I find interesting and would like to give it more of a go than I have. (not that I expect it can replace my latest love though, Slackware 9.1, tis very, very sweet)
This is something I might try out.
Sorry for being too lazy to check it myself, but does 4.9 have ACPI support?
ACPI is 5.x-only at the moment.
configuring X in FreeBSD is no more difficult then in Slackware, Gentoo, such distros IMHO. xf86config or xf86cfg will do the trick. In FreeBSD your mouse is always /dev/mouse I believe, thats something to keep in mind – else its all the same. The FreeBSD is very nicely documented, check out the FreeBSD Handbook http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.htm…
That outa help, alot too. It did me. Now your issue with ports I’ve experienced too, seems kinda hit n miss. I’ve had better luck with Gentoo’s portage system, but lately my new open source love is Slackware all over again – first time I’ve used it since 7 was released. I like, alot.
The FreeBSD *project* is very nicely documented…
The FreeBSD sound stupid.
> ACPI is 5.x-only at the moment.
Is that true? According to the release notes:
“The Intel ACPI 20030228 distribution (with local FreeBSD changes and support code) has been imported. This feature should be considered experimental and should be tested prior to being deployed in a production environment.
“Note: Unlike on FreeBSD-CURRENT, the ACPI driver must be statically compiled into the kernel by adding device acpica to a kernel configuration. There is no kernel module. This driver is not present in the default, GENERIC kernel.”
Having said that, my experience with ACPI on 5.x is not overwhelmingly positive, although it is definitely getting there
Check this:
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/4.9R/relnotes-i386.html#CONTRIB
The Intel ACPI 20030228 distribution (with local FreeBSD changes and support code) has been imported. This feature should be considered experimental and should be tested prior to being deployed in a production environment.
Cheers
Stelios
That I didn’t CVSup to 4.9-RCbazillion last night. :-p I have a mail server I’ve been building, and through fits and starts (mostly SMP-related), I’ve had like four different uname’s in a month.
The ACPI looks interesting. 5-CURRENT does not do ACPI at all, whatsoever on my notebook (5.0 did before RELEASE, but not since), nor does my sound work. 4.8, the sound worked, but no power management. Maybe now I’ll get both.
Ah, didn’t realize they’d backported it. It works quite nicely on -current on my laptop, though your mileage may vary, mostly due to the huge number of broken ACPI implementations out there (BIOS-side).
Yes, 4.9 is the last major release. The notes on BSD’s web site state that there might be a 4.9.1 but that remains to be seen.
“This release does not include all of the new technologies that were introduced with FreeBSD 5.1 in June. Most developer resources are focused on improving the FreeBSD 5.X branch, and this may very well be the last major release of FreeBSD 4.X. The security officer team will continue to actively support the 4.X branch according to the normal policy. Additional 4.9.X releases may be made available when necessitated by security vulnerabilities or high-impact bugfixes.”
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/4.9R/announce.html
anybody knows how to upgrade from 4.8-release to 4.9?
thank you.
You’ll experience a lot less broken ports if you update the installed ports/packages database after every installation with ‘pkgdb -F’. Provided you are using portupgrade, it may also be helpful to update the ports tree index file with ‘portsdb -Uu’ after you’ve updated the ports tree with cvsup.
Also, if you report broken ports yourself, they are likely to get fixed sooner than just waiting for someone else to do the reporting. 😉
“Am I right in the assumption that this is the end of the line for 4.X REALEASE unless you count on Dragonfly BSD?”
Nope. Depending on progress on the 5 branch, you might see another 4 release. Also Dragonfly is completely different from the 4 branch with many enhancements. It just took the 4 branch as a base. If you are going to label it 4, you might as well label the 5 branch of FreeBSD as a 4 branch release.
yeah I have to agree with two previous posters slack 9.1 is great. I don’t have the patience for ports. I can install software much quicker by just doing it my self. FreeBSD’s process for upgrading the system is just a PITA, and gentoo just breaks down on me eventually. Slack is great, its nice and simple.
So whats so great about the new Slack that has everyone switching?
Check out the section in the FreeBSD Handbook about using CVS. Also being apart of the mailing list does alot. AKA you will learn a whole lot about FreeBSD by reading about other peoples experiences. Just a thought.
I also agree, I love Slackware. All you need is swaret and its better than debian/gentoo.
so what does bread have to to with BSD or Linux? PITA? Oris this animanl rights? Here are some def’s.
1 : any of several fiber-yielding plants (as an agave)
2 : the fiber of a pita; also : any of several fibers from other sources
So what are you talking about? Sorry if i seem rude. I just got off the crapy slash dot site. Tension levels are high.
This is great. I was running 5.0 so that my cardbus nic card would work. Now I can finally switch to stable. It should detect it now right?
Now when you talk about cvsup, is this RELENG_4? Is this a stable branch? or will I have to specify RELENG_4_9 when I run it?
I would consider doing this if I knew
Thanks
No flames here. I upgraded to 4.9 this morning. I’m curious about the problems you’ve had with XFree86 under FreeBSD. I use a Matrox G500 and configure it under FreeBSD exactly the same way I used to do in Slackware. (You’re right, Slack 9.1 is a fine Linux distribution.) Bitstream’s vera fonts and the Microsoft so-called web fonts are in ports. XF86Config needs a quick edit to add their FontPaths. If you have a PS/2 wheel mouse, be sure to set the protocol at “auto”, rather than “PS/2”, and add “Option ZAxisMapping 4 5”.
I haven’t had any particular problems with ports, although I avoid installing ports just to play with them. I update my ports collectin prior to building something. I’ve learend to check the makefiles for potential options to flag in the build, and to read the other files in the port’s directories.
FreeBSD isn’t Linux, and Linux knowledge doesn’t necessarily translate directly. The OS is well documented, although there isn’t the flood of newbie books that characterizes the Linux shelf at your local bookstore. In addition to the Handbook, I’d recommend Greg Lehey’s “The Complete FreeBSD” and Mike Lucas’ “Absolute BSD”.
That said, the differences between FreeBSD and a good Linux distribution like Slackware need to be evaluated before someone drops Linux.
Now when you talk about cvsup, is this RELENG_4? Is this a stable branch? or will I have to specify RELENG_4_9 when I run it?
If you’re looking for stability, RELENG_4_9 is your best bet. Although from the sounds of it, there won’t be much difference between RELENG_4_9 and RELENG_4 at this point since not much is being developed for 4.x any more.
What’s the status of SATA support in FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.*?
What about support for SATA raid controllers? Specifically the intel ICH5R. Does FreeBSD have software raid at least? Can I install on to a software raid partition?
My new system arriving late this week or more likely some time next week and will be using SATA raid. And while I am pretty sure I can still use a regular IDE drive in addition to the SATA drives for compatability with other OS’s (notably Zeta and FBSD if necessary).
Well, PCCARD support doesn’t mean CARDBUS support, lol. Will just re-install 5.1.
“I don’t have the patience for ports.”
And I suppose slackware’s gcc can build from source faster than that of FreeBSD’s?
pkg_add -r someprogram
Downloads it and installs it. No compiling
But I suppose slackware has a faster means to install software eh?
Well I must hand it to the posters so far, I’d expected nasty linux sux and so do you responses, but alas they were not there (I guess I’ve been on slashdot too much). I think I’ll give 4.9 a go, sounds interesting. (Though its not going to replace linux for me, I see no reason why they can’t live happily side by side). Anyhow, thanks for the tips on configuring X and all, I don’t see why it should give me that much trouble since it’s just Xfree86 anyhow.
Anyhow, just thought I’d remark on some good replies, you do the *BSD community good, (even though its dead!!! kidding just kidding)
Your Audigy is not, as far as I know, natively supported yet. There are a few patches floating about, most notably from Yuriy Tsibizov for FreeBSD 5.1 and newer. However, the following files should work for you:
http://chibis.persons.gfk.ru/audigy/alexander/audigy_pack.tgz
Untar the files, and grab the new emu10k1.c file from that tarball, and copy it to the location of the emu10k1.c in the FBSD source tree. You may need to modify the path for a couple of includes, iirc. If you have problems with that, drop me an e-mail.
Rebuild the kernel, and you should be good to go 🙂
$ kldload snd_emu10k1
Adam
Thanks, I’ll give it a shot, probably over the weekend sometime, that is quite helpful
.. from within Linux? I d/l-ed the ISO but got wrong ISO — want to fix it via rsync, but get the error “unknown module” — I can’t figure out the proper command — can someone please post a sample?
I meant to say: got wrong md5sum
5.x has the better support on SATA, so it’s your best bet to give it a try.
Thanks!
Any word on RAID? I have no idea of how FreeBSD is in terms of (S)ATA RAID support.
‘I don’t have the patience for ports’
yeah, you need a lot of patience for this:
# cd /usr/ports/path_to_port
# make install clean