FreeBSD 5.3-BETA3 Available

hugo_pt writes "FreeBSD 5.3-BETA3 has just hit the ftp/cvsup servers. This new beta aims at correcting some known bugs from BETA2, mainly on ACPI and the schedules. It also improves several system utilities, such as bsdtar. More details available here FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE is expected October 3rd."

Comments

Trying out FreeBSD

[AresTheImpaler]

Ok, I want to try one of the BSD's. Which one should I get? this FreeBSD? Or Which one would you recommend? Also, whre can I find some good documentation with the linux compatibility mode of the BSD's? I tried google, but I get too much crap in the first 20-30 results..

Thanks

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Inominate]

Grab freebsd 4.10. 5.x still has some odd quirks.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Fweeky]

Some good documentation.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[wirelessbuzzers]

I've been running FreeBSD 5-CURRENT. It's been more or less stable, not as much as 4.10, but hopefully it will be getting more so with the establishment of a 5-STABLE branch.

The plusses: 5.x is faster, especially on an SMP or hyperthreading machine. It also supports goodies like ACLs and snapshots.

Try the Handbook for Linux compatibility mode.

--Mike

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[grilo]

Try FreeBSD 5.3 when it's out. If you can't wait almost a month, give a go to 5.2.1. It will be painless to upgrade to 5.3.

The STABLE branch is, as it's named, quite stable, but it doesn't have the new scheduler (ULE), and stuff like that. If you're looking for a desktop experience, try the most recent 5.x release, if you're looking for a server, I advise you to take a peek at 4.x.

But if you're looking to find the ultimate desktop, you can look somewhere else. I've been a long time FreeBSD user and I recently tried Fedore Core 2, and I'm in awe with the integration supplied.

FreeBSD is the ultimate server Operating System, but the ports team, in general, still can't match the level of integration provided by vendors like SuSE and RedHat (even Mandrake, for that matter), so keep your hopes low. On the other hand, the ports system really lifts any problem with dependencies, and everything. The package management facility is, in my humble opinion, much better than anything else I've seen.

Nevertheless, give it a shot, it won't hurt. Just don't think you'll have the ultimate desktop waiting for you.

By the way, FreeBSD is currently on ports freeze, which means no new ports will be added, in order to concentrate all of the resources in making sure every port builds as it should. Usually, several dozens of ports are added each day, but while the freeze lasts, only port fixes will be committed.

Have fun! :)

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[CoolGopher]

For best stability, go for FreeBSD 4.10. For the latest features, wait for 5.3 to be released. At the moment I'd roughly compare the two to Linux kernel 2.4 vs 2.6 - pretty much the same deal.

For Linux compatibility, you should probably start reading chapter 10 in the FreeBSD Handbook.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[noselasd]

I felt at home with NetBSD
Nice and clean, and good docs.
Some info on Linux emulation on NetBSD

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Moridineas]

I would probably simply wait (as others have suggested for 5.3).

though I'm running a 5.2.1 server and it runs fine--5.3 has a number of goodies like X.org default, much better SMP support, etc.

Check out the FreeBSD handbook http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/index.html for info on all things FreeBSD, as well as Linux binary support.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[marcovje]

Wait a month and take 5.3 final if it is your first.

Or if you are really in a hurry, try 4.10.

Keep in mind that one of the main problems with 4.x is the missing of 32-bits pcmcia support. So if you are on a laptop, 5.x is quite often the only way to go

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Billly Gates]

Also FBSD 5.3 is in debug mood which makes it slow while 4.10 is normal.

4.10 has the latest utilities and apps that fbsd 5.2 lacks.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

Try FreeBSD out first. It has the nicest installer. Then take a spin through NetBSD and OpenBSD. The installers aren't as pretty, but the rest of the operating system is configured and operated pretty much the same across all of the BSDs. In general, I am very impressed with the state of documentation. There are numerous resources on the web (e.g. the FreeBSD handbook and documentation project), and the manual pages are unusually complete compared to your typical Linux distribution.

You should probably dedicate a disk to this procedure, as configuring dual boot (duel boot?) can require some wizardry. They all run very nicely under VMware.

Where BSD falls down is on the availability of current binary updates. On FreeBSD 5.x, incremental security updates must be applied to the source code, then the O/S is re-compiled. The whole procedure is easy, in the sense that you type about five short commands to execute the whole update and build procedure, but it is very time consuming, especially on older hardware. Ports are even "worse": If you want to be current, you will most likely be building ports from scratch (also very time consuming when they upgraded to X.org, heh).

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[raadradd]

though I'm running a 5.2.1 server and it runs fine--5.3 has a number of goodies like X.org default

Simply set X_WINDOW_SYSTEM=xorg in you /etc/make.conf, deinstall XFree86 and install Xorg. For more details check the 20040723 entry in /usr/ports/UPDATING.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[phoenix_rizzen]

It will not be painless to upgrade from 5.2.1 to 5.3.

The upgrade will require a recompile of *ALL* installed ports due to the changes in threading libraries and the new version of GCC (3.4) in the base system.

A lot of kernel options have also been turned into sysctls requiring a thorough read through /usr/src/UPDATING to figure out what to remove from the kernel config file.

The default version of X11 has been changed to Xorg and a new make.conf variable has been introduced to allow you to choose which one you want. Blindly upgrading X apps without setting this, or setting it to the wrong version, will cause problems.

Highly recommended that people start reading the new /usr/ports/UPDATING file after every ports tree update.

There have been a *lot* of changes between 5.2.1 and 5.3. The recommended, and best, method for upgrading from one to the other is to:
1. Backup all your data and config files.
2. Install 5.3 from the CD or FTP.
3. Install all the apps you want to use.
4. Restore your data and config files, as needed.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[SillyNickName4me]

> Also FBSD 5.3 is in debug mood which makes it slow while 4.10 is normal.

mood? :) anyway.. with the default install it is indeed. Instructions for changing this when compiling your own kernel (try it, its really simple) can be found in /usr/src/UPDATING

The debug settings in the stock 5.x kernel slow it down, but it supporting much faster ide controllers properly and making better use of resources on hyperthreadign and smp machiens can easily offset that, so you may still find the 5.3 beta to be faster then 4.10

> 4.10 has the latest utilities and apps that fbsd 5.2 lacks.

If you use the ports collection, that is definitely not true, both run approx the same set of applications in whatever version you install (the latest usually when you keep your ports collection uptodate). Also, 5.x comes with newer versions of gcc and related tools for example.

I'd say.. if you intend to try this on relatively new hardware, wait till 5.3 gets released. Otherwise, go with 4.10

In either case, ensure you install the ports collection and the cvsup package (you will eb asked about the first while selection the distributions to install, and you can get the later by answering 'yes' to the question if you want to visit the configuration panel at the end of the installation. Select packages there, and add the cvsup package)

When at the configuration panel, you should also configure X and a desktop if you intend to use this as a workstation.

Then, after install and reboot, do a cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation; make install
(or cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-server; make install if you are installing a server)

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[phoenix_rizzen]

Binary security updates have been available for a good 6 months now, maybe even longer. Check out the security/freebsd-update port for more info. It's not yet part of the official FreeBSD project, but it is on track to, hopefully, become so in the future.

As for binary application availability, when you donate enough hardware to rebuild 11,700+ applications on a regular basis, then they'll be available. As is it, they have enough hardware in the ports build cluster to build the packages for each release, and that's about it. Takes a long time to build, and rebuild, and store 11,700+ applications.

Besides, who do you want to set which options / features are available in each program: you, or some nameless, faceless package builder on the other side of the world?? That is one thing I absolutely cannot stand about RPMs, .debs, .tgzs, and other binary formats: I have no say in which features are included in the application. And don't even think about saying "just build a different binary package for each possible option combination". :)

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[grilo]

You are absolutely right, and I'm sorry to give such blind advice.

The upgrade procedure per-se is painless. Fetch the branch from cvs, follow half-dozen steps and you're done, but in the specific case of upgrading to 5.3 it will take much more, since much has changed.

Thank you for point that out. :)

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[muyThaiBxr]

Actually, you don't have to recompile ALL your ports... just the C++ ones that stop running after you upgrade. The threading lib upgrades don't change the ABI so those don't have to be recompiled. In short, it's not "painless" but it's not as painful as you make it out to be... Oh, and I don't know about anything that got turned into a sysctl from a kernel option, but I know that you have to add a couple of kernel options (or modules) to your kernel to get the same functionality... I believe there is io.ko and mem.ko to get /dev/io and /dev/mem.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[phoenix_rizzen]

You *do* need to recompile *all* your apps. Otherwise, down the line, you *will* run into problems.

For instance. You install a bunch of apps on 5.2.1 that link against the default threading libs. These are using libc_r.

Later, you upgrade to 5.3. These apps are still linked against libc_r which is still installed, so everything works. Then you install a few new apps, which depend on the apps already installed. These new apps are now linked against libkse, but they are trying to load libs that are linked against libc_r. BANG! The apps don't load, you get all kinds of weird error messages, and you stare at the screen going, "Uh, huh?" You now need to recompile all the existing apps so that they all link against the same threading libraries.

Yes, you can kind of hack your way around this by using /etc/libmap.conf to alias libc_r to libkse and so on. But that's just a stop-gap measure.

YOU NEED TO RECOMPILE ALL YOUR APPS AFTER AN UPGRADE TO 5.3. That's the only way that you can be *SURE* that everything will continue to work correctly.

As for the kernel options that are now sysctls: RANDOM_IP_ID is the latest one that I can think of off the top of my head. There's at least 2 others listed in /usr/src/UPDATING.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[Shanep]

Ok, I want to try one of the BSD's. Which one should I get? this FreeBSD? Or Which one would you recommend? Also, whre can I find some good documentation with the linux compatibility mode of the BSD's?

I very much like OpenBSD. After trying out *lots* of Linux distros, including Redhat, SuSE, Debian and also FreeBSD and NetBSD, I feel comfortably "at home" with OpenBSD (which I started using at 2.5).

OpenBSD is very clean. Code, system layout and documentation. They also go to great lengths to improve security with both passive and active means (code audits and extreme consistency checks respectively).

If you want to try it, I would suggest you dedicate a hard drive to it (to test) and bear with the installer. The installer is fantastic in it's simplicity, once you figure it out. This might sound silly, but it won't once you do figure it out.

Once you have installed OpenBSD, note what it asks of new users after the install and heed it. Read the man pages it asks for, then look at the FAQ and Google if you have questions. If you like what you see, Secure Architectures with OpenBSD is an excellent book, that will help you appreciate even more, how wonderful this system is.

Please Google before asking questions in the mailing lists. Almost exact same questions sometimes get asked days apart and the subscribers can get a little annoyed at that (especially when the question may have already been answered well with a Google search).

Downloading it does not take long either (comparitively speaking). Just go to an ftp site that hosts the latest version, click on your architecture (i386 for example), download all the files within that directory (typically less that 150MB), then burn to a CD using cdrom35.fs (for example) as a bootable floppy image. The structure on the CD should be ver/arch (eg. 3.5/i386) if you want to be able to simply hit enter when it asks for the files to install.

You can also just download a floppy image, boot it and install directly from-the-net. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but those already comfortable with OpenBSD, simply because if you find you have made a mistake after installing, you'll need to download the same data again. Having it on CD or a local web/ftp server allows you to tinker with installation to your hearts content, without wasting bandwidth.

I host the latest i386, macppc and sparc64 files on an internal web/ftp server so that I can do quick network installs and also keep the latest source there too.

People say OpenBSD is "not good for desktop usage". This is just not true, unless you specifically need 3D accelerated video. I have run KDE, Gnome and WindowMaker for *years* with OpenBSD. Another thing is that OpenBSD is quite consistent across architectures. Whether you run an OpenBSD desktop on x86, Apple or Sun equipment, it seems the same. I can't speak of the other architectures, because I have not tried them.

BTW, when they say OpenBSD -stable is stable, they are not kidding. The project leader is VERY strict when it comes to where and when new features come in.

I hope you try it and enjoy it.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[phoenix_rizzen]

No.

FreeBSD 5.3 includes three different threading libraries:
- libc_r: the old-style threading that will eventually be removed
- libpthread: M:N threading using KSE
- libthr: 1:1 threading

The default is libpthread, and this is what is set in the ports tree and source tree. Any multi-threaded app you install will, by default, link against libpthread.

IOW, if you don't recompile all your apps after an upgrade from 5.2.1 to 5.3, you will run into problems. Or, you have to create a libmap.conf file, map libc_r to libpthread, and remember to eventually recompile all your apps.

Re:Trying out FreeBSD

[muyThaiBxr]

I've been running -CURRENT since before the libpthread integration, and I still have apps that I've been too lazy to recomple... yet everything STILL continues to run fine, and I'm on 6-CURRENT now.

I DID recompile all C++ apps (because of the ABI change with the compiler upgrade) and all threaded apps (just because I didn't want a libmap.conf).

I'll agree that it's best to recompile all C++ and threaded apps, but it's not necessary to recompile everything.

You're right about the RANDOM_IP_ID one, but that's the only one I've come across that has given me problems.

bsdtar

[FullMetalAlchemist]

The bsdtar is so much better than gtar I think it will replace gtar even in most Linux distributions.
It automatically handles compresson (like gzip and bzip2).

My only beef with 5.X series is the fact that even though perl is out, it still is way too large; so I need to build my own releases for CD that doesn't have sendmail etc.
No biggie but still a tad bit annoying.

Re:bsdtar

[Korpo]

Well, I don't think quite so. Not because I think bsdtar has no technological merit. I've got good reason to believe so, because gtar is known to be not very good.

The crdrecord guy rewrote gtar, because it is in a state where it is almost no longer maintainable. He committed his version. Maintainers were happy. But Stallman said: We've already got a working gtar and basta!

At least that's what I've heard.

Given that most distributors stick with the whole GNU package, bsdtar, whatever its merits are, is more likely to be an addon package, and not the default tar on any Linux distribution.

It surely would make a nice /etc/alternatives option in Debian for tar, where it would integrate nicely! But Debian is always more flexible and open in a lot of respects (Debian GNU/BSD anyone? ;) ) than other distribs.

Re:bsdtar

[shic]

You've just piqued my interest... (Not about tar one-upmanship - but about building your own releases.)

I would like to tailor my own pre-configured installation CD with only a very minimal BSD install and a single custom application... It feels as if this task is something BSDers might well have tackled previously... I was wondering if you could point me at a 'howto' kind of guide, and/or any tools which would likely be helpful in this task?

Re:bsdtar

[FullMetalAlchemist]

Here is a short version of what I normally do.
You will need to customize the buildworld procedure to your liking, and that's about it.

Re:bsdtar

[jsonn]

It sounds like Stallman had a point. You don't go around rewriting things for the sake of it. Does gtar need constant development? No, it's in a stable state. As I recall, automated testing of the GNU toolset compared extremely well with other versions - you don't throw away that stability just because the code is ugly.

The whole point of Stallman was that Schily as German didn't want to hand over the copyright because he's legally not allowed so. Also GNU Tar is not stable. It is incompatible with almost any other tar on the world. Yeah, that's not a problem for the GNU guys, "Our tar is better, use it". Heck, the code is not only ugly, it is full of bugs.

Re:bsdtar

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole point of Stallman was that Schily as German didn't want to hand over the copyright because he's legally not allowed so.

Well that's a completely different issue to "we already have a working tar". GNU requires copyright assignment for all its projects; I can't believe no German has ever contributed to a GNU project before - how have they dealt with this in the past?

Also GNU Tar is not stable. It is incompatible with almost any other tar on the world.

That's not the meaning of the word "stable". GNU tar is definitely stable. As for compatibility, have you not heard of the --posix flag?

Heck, the code is not only ugly, it is full of bugs.

That's directly contradicting studies done in the past, and you haven't backed it up with anything other than your opinion. Hell, you haven't even given a concrete example.

Re:bsdtar

[jsonn]

Yes, I have heard of --posix. I also know that it does not work. It doesn't create POSIX-compliant archives and even the manpage admits it. This is something I call a bug. There are various situations which GNU tar fails to handle correctly either by failing or creating correct streams. The FSF way of testing GNU tar is testing that GNU tar does what GNU tar is supposed to do. Not tar, GNU tar. I don't call a tool stable, if it does fail to work correctly.

For the copyright issue, like most European nations, the German copyright is based on human rights, you can't sell it. You can share the copyright, you can give an exclusive license, but it is not possible to completely hand over all your rights. Beside, this is something I as a developer would never do.

Re:bsdtar

[SillyNickName4me]

It depends a bit on what you want exactly.

You may want to look in /usr/ports/sysutils/livecd for creating a nice customized 'live' cd.

You may want to check the handbook on generating releases if you want to build your own customized 'release' that can be installed from cd (or floppy or over a network etc)

Very roughly it comes down to either
cd /usr/ports/sysutils/livecd; make
or
cd /usr/src; make release

5.3 question

[Korpo]

Out of curiosity and ignorance:

Is FreeBSD 5.3, when it's finished, the new stable or the new current release, or both?

I've read somewhere around here, that 5.3 should replace the 4.x series as stable, finally.

So, is that true?

Re:5.3 question

[DashEvil]

6.0-current has already been branched. When 5.3 hits it will be -STABLE.

Re:5.3 question

[Korpo]

Thanks, this really clears things up for me.

So, with 5.3 already becoming stable, investing in "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD OS" (version 5.2.x) was close to becoming an internals description of the new STABLE. :)

Re:5.3 question

[ArbitraryConstant]

I was under the impression -STABLE would have to wait for 5.4 because there were too many outstanding issues, and they would delay 5.3 too much.

I could be wrong, but this was my impression.

Re:5.3 question

[DashEvil]

Not from what I've heard. Everyone on the -current mailing list seems to be preping for the first -stable release.

Re:Simple query

[rplacd]

I'm not completely sure about this, but try "tag=RELENG_5".
I am certain that when 5.3 comes out, you can change it to "tag=RELENG_5_3" to track updates to 5.3.

Running joke

[rainer_d]

Don't get me wrong: I love BSD and I try to use and advocate it whenever I can.
But the FreeBSD-project is to release a BETA now every week until October. Or at least, every other week.
Are we going to see all of them announced on Slashdot ?

Re:Running joke

[Brandybuck]

Why not? Recall the buildup towards the Linux 2.6 release. It seemed like twice a week for three months there was a major story about how it was ALMOST here...

Re:Running joke

[rainer_d]

> Recall the buildup towards the Linux 2.6 release.

You may be right here.
I think I just ignore those stories about the latest kernel, so I can say ;-)

Rainer

Binary updates

[n0dez]

Try these:

FreeBSD Binary Updates
http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update/

FreeBSD/KDE packages
http://rabarber.fruitsalad.org/

FreeBSD/GNOME packages
http://www.marcuscom.com/tinderbox/

Want more?
BPM; a graphical ports collection manager for FreeBSD
http://www.meowfishies.com/bpm.rhtml

http://www.n0dez.com/

Re:Binary updates

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

Thanks for the links. Unfortunately, while Colin Percival recently began providing updates for FreeBSD 5.x, he only builds updates for X86 architectures. The KDE and GNOME binary packages are likewise X86-only. But none of this matters even on X86, because if you are regularly cvsupping ports, up-to-date binary packages are not usually available. For example, the latest www/apache2 binary for FreeBSD 5.2.1 is Apache 2.0.48, which is vulnerable to denial of service attacks, yet 2.0.50 is in the current version of ports. Not that "portupgrade -a" is difficult to use, just time consuming and occasionally broken.

By the way, have you ever run into problems where portinstall doesn't install or mis-calculates dependencies (even when compiling from source)? If I install lang/cmucl, misc/compat4x won't get installed, even though it is a dependency. Subsequent portupgrade commands complain about misc/compat4x missing, even though (strangely enough) cmucl has no problems. I don't know if it is a problem with portutils, pkgtools, ports, or the cmucl package itself. I'm open to any suggestions. I've also seen portupgrade complain about dependencies when required packages rev, e.g. portupgrade complaining about missing wget 1.9 for Nessus, when wget 1.8 was installed but not yet updated.

Re:Binary updates

[n0dez]

I have ran into problems a few times when there were conflicting packages (eg: stuff that goes into the same place).

It seems you want to be on the bleeding edge. For that, I recommend you upgrading the whole OS to either the -STABLE or -CURRENT branches (not meant to be used in a production system). Once you have upgraded your system, you will notice that there are up-to-date packages all the time.

When a new FreeBSD RELEASE is about to be released (eg: FreeBSD 5.3 as of this writing), release engineers freeze the ports to ensure that all of them compile properly (there are more than 10,000) and they make packages for that specific release. If you upgrade to a new FreeBSD release just after is out, just do a portupgrade -aPP to have all your stuff up-to-date via packages.

If you run into trouble while trying to install any app, read any README (if available), cvsup later and see if that problem is gone. Sometimes, doing a recursive (-R) upgrade fixes that kind of problems.

Compiling means that there are more possibilities of having something else not compiling because you compiled another port with or without an option, so compile with care!

why FreeBSD 6 when no Linux 2.7 ?

[CaptainPinko]

I don't understand why the FreeBSD folk would already tag a FreeBSD 6 branch when 5.3 is not yet stable? Doesn't this just encourage developers to get distracted from stabilising the 5 branch? After all isn't Linus keeping people working on 2.6 to get it more stable and that is why there is no 2.7 yet? This doesn't seem to be inline with their organized structured direction of the project... anyone want to shed light on the reasons? Perhaps it's a dumping ground for features that they can't seem to stabilise for 5? Is 6 expected to take less time than 5? Anyone have a ballpark figure? 18 months? 4 years?

Oh and as a Linux user looking forward to FreeBSD 5 to try it out, I've heard plenty about it's ports system but I have yet to hear what kind of binary support (eg. apt) if any it has...

Re:why FreeBSD 6 when no Linux 2.7 ?

[Cochonou]

FreeBSD has two binary mecanisms: one for the base system (security updates) provided through freebsd-update, and the package system which is an alternative to compiling the ports by yourself. The packages usually lag the ports by a few weeks.

Re:why FreeBSD 6 when no Linux 2.7 ?

[drmerope]

The FreeBSD model has always been that features and patches are tested in -current and then merged down to -stable and tested some more until it comes time for the next release from -stable.

This tiered approach exists to support three types of users: the developers (-current), sysadmin's test environment, impatient users (-stable), production environments, conservative users (-release).

5.0, 5.1, 5.2.1 were all preview releases--somewhat stabilized snapshpts of -current. 5.3 should be available for general adoption.

Thus, the existance of 6.0 does not reflect a change in developer focus but rather the adoption of conservativism on the 5.x branch (prior testing in -current required before merging) that is in keeping with it becoming a -stable branch from which real -releases are made. You can rest assured that bugs in 5.x will continue to be fixed and tested in 6.0-current and after some verification the fixed will be merged down to 5-Stable.

FreeBSD also maintains a POLA (principle of least astonishment) which prohibits any major behavioral/interface/abi changes from appearing in a -stable branch. (Basically you are nearly certain that an application that runs properly on n.0 will run properly on n.10).

6.0-Current exists as a proving ground for those features which would violate POLA.

Re:Check out the 5.3 To-Do List. . .

[shlong]

Is it just that this list is unmaintained, or is 5.3 going out the door with some of these items left undone?

This is the list of things that will be fixed before 5.3 goes out the door. Releaseing 5.3-BETA3 is not the same as releasing 5.3-RELEASE.

Is this the version of 5.x that is to be considered stable?

That is the intention, yes.

Re:Check out the 5.3 To-Do List. . .

[CromeDome]

Awesome. Given the project's attention to stability, I figured as much, but I hadn't seen the list change much in some time, and was a little concerned.

Thanks for the info :) Look forward to the final release.

CromeDome

Re:Simple query

[Anonymous Coward]

That is correct. RELENG_5_3 will be sliced from RELENG_5. Seeing that this hasn't happned yet, RELENG_5 is the tag you are after.

Re:Simple query

[kace]

Be careful with the tags during a pre release cycle. I got burned during the 5.2 pre release cycle using (iirc) RELENG_5. It's not exactly the same as BETAX. As I understand it, work continues on RELENG_5 and it can sometimes be a little hairy in between the beta snapshots. (OTOH, it could also contain a bug fix to problems in the latest beta.)

This CVS tags helps but doesn't fill in all the blanks when there are betas floating around. We're sort of in the twilight zone. RELENG_5 had been pointing to CURRENT, now it's being preened for RELEASE, and soon after it will point to STABLE (or, rather, STABLE will point to it).

I'm not sure if RELENG_5_3 has been branched yet or not. If it hasn't, you'll find out real quick when cvsup starts deleting every file in your source tree. (Hit enter with one hand and hover over ctl-c with the other. :) )

I'm just a happy user. If I've made any mistakes above I look forward to the corrections.

K.C.

Re:Simple query

[rplacd]

RELENG_5_3 hasn't been branched at the time of this (my) comment; look at cvsweb -- the selection box at the bottom of the page.

Changes and upgrade docs

[ivoras]

This article is a preliminary overview (work in progress) of major changes from the 4.x branch, and notes on upgrading.

http://people.freebsd.org/~bmah/pub/article.html

This is really just a question for the parent ....

[mcbevin]

You mention that FreeBSD is currently on a ports freeze ...

I am running a Java-based website on a FreeBSD server. I recently converted the code to Java 1.5, and then realised that no Java 1.5 port is yet available for FreeBSD.

However, I was hoping that as soon as the stable version of Java 1.5 is released (expected at the end of this month - currently a release candidate is available for Windows, Linux etc), then a FreeBSD port would shortly follow. However from what you say, should I expect to be waiting a while?

Re:This is really just a question for the parent .

[grilo]

Yes. Nevertheless, you should subscribe to FreeBSD-Java team's mailing list. They will be able to help much more in depth, regarding that subject. Though, officially the ports are in freeze, they may have some stuff ready to be committed which you could use. Give them a ring, and lend a hand! :)

Re: FreeBSD is useless in many laptops.

[Fweeky]

FreeBSD has battery monitor tools galore, and supports CPU frequency scaling through ACPI and the sysctl interface. There's also an experimental port of the linux powernow-k7 module.