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FreeBSD 5.3 RC2 Released
ValiantSoul writes "FreeBSD 5.3 Release Candidate 2 was just released. This new RC includes an updated network stack that fixes a bug where the system stops responding when under severe network load, the complete disabling of the ULE scheduler due to instability, and other fixes. Originally the FreeBSD team decided not to release a RC 2 however the fixes in the latest CURRENT were important enough to do so. As long as there are no severe problems with RC 2, this will be the last test release until a final one. See the full announcement on the mailing lists."
"1. Why not fix the new schedular?" "2. Why did it take so long for them to realise it wasn't going to work" 5.x has been too slow. They want to release a stable, functional operative system. Despite of the lack of the ULE scheduler there're a lot of stable areas and new features in FreeBSD 5.X which people need in the real world to solve real problems. Hence the "need" of a 5.x-based "stable" release, to leave 4.x behind (just for mainteinance) and start to work 100% with 5.X. The ULE scheduler has some problems but it also has a lot of good things that work, it'll be just delayed to get maximum stability for 5.3. It looks like they don't want to have Yet Another Delay. Other operative systems (linux 2.6, windows, other BSDs) are also a natural competition for freebsd and freebsd needs a stable 5.x to face them because 4.X is just old and misses lots of features. I'd guess the ULE scheduler will be fixed and enabled by default in 5.4.
fair enough, but im just going to chime in and say - on what distro is the fastest internet land speed record performed on.
nothing else but netbsd.
some time ago there was something happenning about grapgics for the console, hmm let me google...
http://people.freebsd.org/~nsouch/kgi4BSD/
What is the best way to upgrade to this version? Download the CDs? Through the ports? Do you have some sort of strange method that no one else has heard of? The answer falls under then 3rd option. Although every FreeBSD user should have heard of it. It's called cvsup. Take a look at the FreeBSD handbook. It will describe the process much better than I ever could. Look for the heading "make world".
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
The ULE scheduler was supposed to be the default scheduler. It was placed as the default in 5.2. Between 5.2 and 5.3 kernel preemption was enabled. Some serious flaws in ULE popped up leading to crashes and other instability. Due to the complexity of ULE and preemption together only a handful of core people are able to fix this.
Since 5.x has been hold back long enough it was decided to drop ULE as the default scheduler for 5.3 and concentrate on releasing 5.3.
This doesn't mean that nobody is working on fixing the problem nor that ULE will not be the default scheduler. It is just going to take a while before it happens.
The reason for totally disabling ULE in 5.3 was to focus on other bugs in 5.3 and fix ULE on current (6.0) and then backport this to a later 5.x release.
I suggest you read cvs-src summaries at http://www.xl0.org/FreeBSD/ which gives a view on what is happening on current.
You should settle to this method as it is the preferred way of keeping your system up-to-date, wether on updating between releases or incooperating security or maintainance updates from the respective RELEASE branches.
Basically after having your source updated to the latest RELENG_5_3 branch, typically via cvsup(1), it consists of the following steps:
# make buildworld
# make buildkernel
# make installkernel
# reboot
single mode:
# mergemaster -p
# make installworld
# mergemaster
# reboot
It is very straight-forward, still be sure to read about the details in the handbook.
> i'm using 1024x768 @75Hz (128 columns of text!) and it's a dream for coding in. i don't wanna use X, so only way i'll be happy in fbsd is if i can get big BIG console windows like this. anywhere from 128 to 132 cols is good enough for me.
(i already checked fbsd web site man pages for wscons, and it looks like 800x600 with 90 cols is the max???)
First of all, you'd need man syscons, not wscons.
At any rate, I'm currently using 132x43 character mode on my console, which works fine as logn as you have a graphics card with a vesa 1.2 bios or better, and have enabled vesa support (either by compiling it into your kernel or by loading the vesa kernel module)
800x600 (with 90 text collums) seems to be the maximum for graphics mode with syscons, but for character mode it seems to rather support anythign that your vesa bios supports.
Som if all you need is a 132x43 text mode screen, then yeah, that will work fine. If you need graphics mode, checkout the manpages on vga, vgl and vesa and see if that woulf work for you.
I really need to disagree with the previous two posters on this. The early adopter's guide recommends backup-install-restore rather than cvsup from source.
Np, glad to help
I should add, that I found the tag specification somewhat confusing. The default is ".", which is current. Current is now FreeBSD-6.0 probably very unstable.
Your tag should be tag=RELENG_5_3, although it may need to be tag=RELENG_5. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that for the most up to date 5.3 you need tag=RELENG_5_3. This will make sense after reading the make world section of the handbook.
I did google on the make world process for clarity. You may come across a site "BSDVault" that is rather helpful.
Sorry I can't provide any links. The school net connection is always overloaded, so all I can stand waiting on is the gentoo forums and slashdot.
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
That should keep most people busy and relieve dial-up users from download-hell.
The DVD seems to be very cheap, so even with international shipping, it shouldn't cost a fortune.
Rainer
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
This document also has some useful information:The Road Map for 5-STABLE
Anyone who can read the handbook should be able to install it and use it. The problem is that not many people (including myself a year ago) want to spend the time to RTFM. The handbook really is well put together though. FreeBSD certainly isn't as "easy" to get up and running as Fedora or Mandrake, but it's certainly possible. Only severe issue I've had with FreeBSD lately is with my Compaq laptop. If you want to run FreeBSD, avoid Compaq like the plaque. I can't even boot into the installer (it shuts the machine down). At least it runs arch linux...
> i'd prefer a "real" graphics mode (like Linux fbdev) because that way i can use image/video software like mplayer/fbi/links2 on the console (but maybe it's ok to limp along with svgalib for now...)
/boot/loader.conf) and ensure that you have softfonts loaded (see the 'configure' menu of the installer, goto 'Console' and from there got 'Fonts' and select the font(s) suitable for your language)
Hmm, that seems to work on a radeon 9200 here when using xvidx driver, but yeah, using background graphics would be a reason to want graphics mode.
Eventho xvidx manages to play a movie as background of a text mode console, it isn't without flaws (scaling does not always work properly, and cpu cost is rather high when compared to using xvideo for example, not to mention the impact on responsiveness of the machine)
I prefer the speed and low resource use of a character mode console, tho that seems mostly relevant on low-end hardware, and changes as soon as you want to use something like xvidx. I found I'm usually better off using a very minimal x-windows setup for running graphics mode programs in such cases on FreeBSD.
> i'm sure my video cards have vesa1.2, they're not that old. here's 'lspci' output:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 (rev 6a)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS630 GUI Accelerator+3D (rev 31)
Hmm, from what I can tell both should work indeed, just ensure you have the VESA module loaded (add vesa_load="YES" to
You should now be able to do a vidcontrol 132x43 and such.
Btw, the 800x600 pixel mode that FreeBSD's syscons driver supports is actually intended for forcing certain laptops into graphics mode so X can properly use it later. I happen to use it to get a console on tv-out for a pc I use as media center. Supporting hires screens for text doesn't seem part of the plan for it. Interestingly, vidcontrol on my system lists quite a few graphics modes beyond 800x600, but refuses to consider them as valid when trying to switch to them.