FreeBSD 5.3-BETA7 Released; 5.3-RELEASE Soon

hugo_pt writes "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is proud to announce the availability of FreeBSD 5.3-BETA7. This is the seventh and final BETA of the 5.3 release cycle. Fixes and enhancements made since BETA6: fix timekeeping on sparc64 and alpha that would result in the day of the week being stored incorrectly in NVRAM; add support to the fxp driver for the ICH6 chipset; fix the panic on detach problem with USB hubs; import BIND 9.3.0, this completely replaces the old BIND 8.x nameserver in the base system; fix panic when allocating swap on a busy system; fix loader crash when using the 'lsdev' command.... You can read the release announcement, and download the beta ISO." (ISO 1, ISO 2)

Comments

Close to FreeBSD 5.3

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a long time Slackware Linux fan, and I have been looking extensively at FreeBSD. I wish to try FreeBSD, and I would like some of my newer supported devices (wireless ones, to be more precise), to be supported. Is it time to take the *BSD plunge? Does FreeBSD support a large enough database of hardware to give a try, even with strange and obscure devices?

Re:Close to FreeBSD 5.3

[the real darkskye]

FreeBSD 5.3 supports Project Evil, ala NDIS support.
It can take binary windows drivers for a majority of networking hardware and use them to run the device.

Information on Project Evil can be found at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ndis&apro pos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.0-current&format =html

Re:Close to FreeBSD 5.3

[JQuick]

"Newer supported devices" is uselessly vague, as you are aware. Adding the words "wireless one" is more detailed, but not as you state, "more precise".

Wireless could still mean almost anything. IRDA, 802.11*, bluetooth, heck you might be talking about anything from a mouse or a keyboard to an interface to an amateur packet radio band (via short wave). As a result, though I would like to provide an answer, I cannot. I can only make it easier for you to find it on your own.

FreeBSD supports a wide range of devices. Note however that FreeBSD strive for quality over quantity, and that your particular hardware may not be well supported yet, if supported at all. You should look at the hardware support page for the release you want to run. (version and host architecture)

For FreeeBSD 5.x on intel that page is:

http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/5-STABLE/hardwar e/ i386/index.html

It list all the hardware specific release notes for the i386 architecture, including motherboard, processors, and devices.

The device page covering everything from mice to raid controllers is:
http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/5-STABLE/hard ware/ i386/support.html

Does it support strange and obscure devices?
Yes.
Does it support your strange and obscure device?
I don't know, take a look and see. Good luck, I hope you give it a try. It's a very nice environment.

Post BitTorrent in summary for RELEASE!

[CaptainPinko]

For whomever decides to submit the article for the RELEASE of 5.3 would you please post a torrent? The horde of /. that will want it immediately will get to get it faster since they won't be bogging down the server. People who don't have the a BT client can then have the FTP all to themselves while we share our unsued bandwidth. Plus, that gives those of us on slower connections the ability to turn off the computer and resume the download later WITHOUT the fear of corruption.

Please mod this up so any submitters and story accepters can see this. (I'm not a karma whoe, got quite enough just wanted this to start at +2)

PS: why does it take so long for the FreeBSD people so long to update their schedule?