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OpenBFS Reaches Beta

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sounds-groovy dept.

Bruno G. Albuquerque writes "The OpenBFS Team (part of the OpenBeOS project that aims to recreate BeOS from scratch) has moved the project status to early beta. This means OpenBFS is now a 100% complete (but barely tested) replacement for the original Be File System (BFS). It is a 64 bit, multithreaded and journaled file system that supports unlimited number os extended attributes and has support some database-like functions (like ultra-fast searches based on an index). OpenBFS is written in C++ and is licensed under the MIT license."

9 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Opera for BeOS by J_DarkElf · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have you ever tried Opera for BeOS? http://www.opera.com/beos/

    It's still in the 3.62 version, but has 128-bit encryption, SSL 2 and 3, TLS 1.0, HTML 3.2, JavaScript 1.1, CSS1, and plug-in support.

    While it is neither free nor up to standards compared to Opera for other platforms, it is certainly better than NetPositive, imnhso.

    Besides, it never hurts to have an alternative ;)

  2. Re:Great For Choice by leviramsey · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Well, since it's written in C++, Linus will refuse to accept it in the kernel. I guess since he's not smart enough to figure out how to write kernel-friendly C++ code, no one else is allowed to figure it out either.

    Just because the current implementation is in C++ doesn't mean that the only implementation is in C++. Assuming that there's some way to define inodes for this fs, writing an FS driver wouldn't be too difficult.

    The tougher issue is the database aspect of this fs, as it can't be hacked into the current VFS system. The best thing I can think of is exporting a few API hooks with some userspace components to allow for this. The userspace part could be done, of course, in C++.

  3. BFS for Linux page by fm6 · · Score: 2
    Here. This project is referered to as a "reference source" by the file system team -- whatever that means.

    One thing that bothers me about most filesystems is limited metadata support. BFS is a notable exception. One hopes that KDE and GNOME developers could use this to improve on the primitive file handling tools desktop users are currently stuck with.

  4. Oh wow. by psicE · · Score: 2

    I hear this news, and decide maybe it's a good idea to try it out. So I install BeOS 5.04 Dev Edition (from BeOSOnline.de), get it all set up, compile OpenBFS, and transplant it in.

    I restart my system, and lo and behold, it works. I type in 'touch t', and it successfully creates a file called t. However, I then see a box on the screen saying, "BeOS was unable to initialize a swap file." I realize something's wrong - and when I try to create another file, or do anything really, it refuses, on the account that it's a read-only file system. Of course, write support is implemented, but for some reason it was inaccessible to me.

    At the end of all this, I finally manage to corrupt my filesystem, and despite replacing the original BFS driver, it refuses to boot. So I'm going to have to reinstall. :(

    OBOS, sadly, just isn't ready for primetime yet.

    1. Re:Oh wow. by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      Note the part where the OBOS team says that the driver is barely tested. B-e-t-a. :)

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    2. Re:Oh wow. by psicE · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, we're both wrong.

      I made the stupid mistake of checking out module BeFS. Apparently, I'm not the only one. :D Had I checked out current, it would have worked. And I will now proceed to do that, though it involves reinstalling BeOS. :()

    3. Re:Oh wow. by tswinzig · · Score: 2

      OBOS, sadly, just isn't ready for primetime yet.

      This is a BETA test of one small part of OBOS. Why on earth would you think OBOS might be ready for primetime after reading this announcement???

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
  5. Note to everyone by psicE · · Score: 3

    Don't make the same stupid mistake I did!

    If you browse the OBOS source hierarchy, you'll notice a BeFS module. Do not download that one. Strangely enough, the correct module to download is current. Why the other modules remain there, I have no idea.

    If you download the wrong one, you'll get a two-month old driver; it can't write, and it will not take its time in screwing up your BeOS installation.

  6. Re:Great For Choice by Toraz+Chryx · · Score: 2

    Doesn't work with AthlonXPs, it detects the SSE support, thinks it's running on a P3 and does something that causes a hard lock.