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FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 Now Available

Posted by timothy on from the merry-eve dept.

Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long announces the availability of FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 which fixes a number of bugs, specifically the one in which users experienced system panics during install and dynamic library problems in the 'fixit' environment. Scott is asking everyone to test this release over the holidays. You can download it from one of your preferred mirror sites." Update: 12/24 23:01 GMT by T : Dan writes with more info: "Scott Long has also laid out a roadmap for future FreeBSD 5.3 releases now that FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 is getting close to release quality."

3 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Does it have proper Opteron 64-bit support?

    And yes, before the Linux hordes flames me to death, yes I know that Linux kernel does have Opteron support and has been more or less 64-bit compatible since the DEC Alpha days.

    I'm talking about the distribution. I am considering buying a dual Opteron in January but all the Linux distros seem to be betas. A quick search on Google reveals that the distros have serious problems. In particular, X doesn't work and compilers fail completely.

    FreeBSD reports Opteron as tier-1 hardware, so how is it?

  2. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by PatJensen · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Thanks for the good update and rundown. I was hoping to see some more work done on Newcard (the new Cardbus/PCMCIA engine in FBSD 5) I've had a huge amount of difficulties deploying FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.1 on recent and older laptops alike.

    I recently deployed 5.1 on a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4208XDVD and an older IBM Thinkpad 600X. Neither of them correctly probed my Cardbus controllers without specifying the size of allocated memory to the controller. I also had difficulty once the controllers came up, in that none of my wireless cards would work. (Orinoco Gold, MS Wireless Broadband Adapter)

    Has anyone else had Newcard difficulties with the FBSD 5 release train? I've read of quite a few workarounds to get Cardbus working correctly. I have yet to recompile a new kernel removing Newcard - is it worth it altogether?

    Merry Christmas Slashdot!

    -Pat

  3. Re:Unpopular Freedom by argoff · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Allowing freedom includes allowing people to do things you don't necessarily agree with. I used to defend the GPL consistently, but I'm starting to feel like "Free as in Speech" should also include unpopular speech, and that's what the BSD license protects that the GPL does not.

    I think you're working off the false premise that copyrights are not an inherent restriction of peoples freedom. The GPL solves this problem by "fighting fire with fire" the FreeBSD license doesn't.

    The logic is sorta similar to ..."I think people should be free to own slaves".

    The FreeBSD license disreguards that copyrights "the right to restrict what other people copy that is at their disposal" is inherently biased as anti freedom to begin with.