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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.
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.
> 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.