NetBSD 1.5.2 Released

KiwiSurfer writes "NetBSD 1.5.2 has been released. Check out the release announcement and the changelog from 1.5.1 to 1.5.2. Grab NetBSD 1.5.2 from ftp.netbsd.org or one of their mirrors."

Comments

"Rapid bug-fix"

[heyetv]

From the changelog:
"...Update versions to 1.5.2, leaving some references to 1.5.1 (as 1.5.2 is released as a rapid bug-fix release relative to 1.5.1)"

Rapid bug-fix... that pretty much sums it up. Lots of bug-fixes you shoulda already taken care of (telnet, sendmail, etc...) and the usual round of fixes.

Always nice to see the work on the BSDs continue...

Re:Great!

[Jace of Fuse!]

From the FREEBSD.ORG site...

We will continue to bring you new releases from both our FreeBSD-stable and FreeBSD-current branches, both as developer's snapshots and as regular full releases. The next scheduled release on the -stable branch will be FreeBSD 4.4 on September 15, 2001. The first release on what is now the -current branch will be FreeBSD 5.0, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2002.

So it looks like FreeBSD 4.4 will be tomorrow... but I suppose a day early is possible.

Re:What OS?

[Brilldon]

This is a good comparison of all of the common *BSDs. I hope this helps.
http://www.daemonnews.org/200104/bsd_family.html

CHANGES-1.5.2

[Daeron]

Apparently SlashDot can't handle posts that provide NetBSD-Changelogs ... because of their stupid (doesn't work anyway) Lameness Filter.

It won't allow me to post the contents of the CHANGES-1.5.1 file that contains the changes from 1.5.2 compared to the 1.5.1 Release.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, works very well if doing so between major releases, but going from 2.8 to 3.1 was a major pain in the ass.

Read the handbook for more information, and of course the installation and upgrade notes of the actual release.

Re:Why so many "ports"

[drazi]

If a change is made in the amiga tree, for example, my guess is that it's not automatically picked up by the other 68k ports.

Your guess is wrong. There is only one source tree. The different ports are all built from the same codebase. It is typical in NetBSD that the addition of a device driver adds support for that hardware to *all* the ports.

Re:Mirrors are clogged

[fluedke]

Announcing NetBSD 1.5.2

"CD images (ISOs), bootable on some platforms, will be available as of Sunday, 16 September 2001. Also included are three binary package CD images identical to those distributed for NetBSD 1.5.1."

Re:Why so many "ports"

[gr]

If a change is made in the amiga tree, for example, my guess is that it's not automatically picked up by the other 68k ports.

Fortunately, that's utterly false. The majority of port-specific stuff is Makefiles and things that really are specific to a given platform. (The booter on mac68k is wildly different from that on amiga, for instance... and don't even get me started on various vendors' proprietary hardware buses.) The vast majority of the code works fine, especially as regards peripheral support. (If a "mac-only" Firewire card gets supported, it gets supported on everything with a PCI bus.)

That said, with the Linux port apparently stalled, NetBSD is currently the closest I have to getting a free Unix on my NeXT black hardware. It doens't work yet, because mine are the Turbo model, but it's the closest of the bunch...

I have that same motherboard in a cube, and I hope to be hacking on it within a few months. Drop me a line at gr at eclipsed dot net if you'd like to help (or just subscribe to port-next68k@netbsd.org and contribute).

Re:What OS?

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

In a nutshell:

FreeBSD - Balls out performance on x86

NetBSD - Ported to everything with 32 bits.

OpenBSD - Best on default security.

There are other differences obviously such as ported software and the like, but at a high level, these are the major diffs.

NetBSD and IBM Z50

[bball99]

- one of my greatest pleasures is wiping out CE and booting NetBSD on this great little laptop..

- i've put up a quick mini-howto w/screenshots of the Z50 in action at:

http://www.tux.org/~bball/z50

- i use an Adaptec SCSI PCMCIA adapter and an external CD-ROM attached to the Z50 to install NetBSD onto a 1GB microdrive... (a 340MB microdrive, going for about $170 on ebay, is perfect, and will leave 110MB user space, even with a full NetBSD install!)

- the z50 is the most inexpensive wireless X11 terminal with a full keyboard and 640x480 (1280x960 if you use tvtwm!)... my favorite accessories:

D-Link DWL-650 wireless card
IBM microdrive(s)
Xircom CF Ethernet
Targus CF WWF card (serial i/o for my Moto StarTAC, so i can use the z50 for net access nearly anywhere in the U.S.)
Adaptec 1260D PCMCIA & Yamaha CDRW drive
192MB CF flash

i also keep a Linux distro on a 128MB CF card... unfortunately, while Linux supports the trackpoint, X, and audio, it will only use 16MB of RAM, even if 48MB is installed (4MB is a video hole)... on the other hand, the hpcmips port of NetBSD supports all installed memory (minus the hole), has trackpoint support, but no audio... right now, NetBSD is the best choice for this unit...

NetBSD now supports the TrackPoint pointer! use greg hughe's kernel at:

http://www.student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~gl2hughe/h pc mips/

(get the Aug. 17 kernel)

where else can you get a laptop with UNIX, wireless Internet connectivity that runs for 16 hours? (i use the extended battery; the 1GB microdrive actually seems to use *less* power)

Linux/BSD fans would be well advised to snap up one of these jewels before they're GONE!