OpenBSD 3.8 Released

Cowards Anonymous writes "OpenBSD 3.8 is out. It comes with improved hardware support, some improvements to the OSPF daemon, some new RAID management tools, among many others. Even if you plan on installing via FTP, why not order a CD copy, tshirt, or poster as well? "

Comments

T-shirts for us total nerds

[totallygeek]

I am a big guy and I love ordering shirts from OpenBSD over some other places because they have XXXL on their site!

New Security Features

[RAMMS EIN]

To see some of the current and new security features in OpenBSD, see this presentation by Theo.

And it runs on the Zaurus!

[wiredog]

The 3000 and 3100 Zaurii. Installation instructions.

Fairly impressive list of supported hardware, too.

One of the most important things

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the most important things new in this release is the mmap(2) based malloc(3) implementation. I can't believe the submitter didn't mention it. It has huge implications, in terms of added security and increased code quality overall. Already, important off-by-one bugs have been found and fixed in X.org which had been sitting there un-noticed for years. These bugs could cause the X server to crash on many systems, but OpenBSD exposed them reproducibly so they could be fixed.

Read more about it in this Security Focus article titled Security-related innovation in Unix and in Theo de Raadt's post to misc@.

Re:One of the most important things

[Shanep]

Performance is not an OpenBSD priority, but the interviews with
OpenBSD developers that have been popping up the last couple of
weeks seem to imply that the performance hit of the new malloc()
is minimal.

Yes, because from memory, they have been working on it for years, specifically trying to get the performance hit down.

Re:or you could give us a torrent link...

[Anonymous Coward]

OpenBSD don't do ISOs.
You have to use the FTP sites: http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html

And yeah, they openly admit that this is becasue they want people to buy the CDs.
Please stop whining.

Re:Calm. The. #$@!. Down. It's not that I'm cheap

[freshman_a]

I have to download a whole bunch of packages, make FLOPPIES

No, you don't. There is an install CD available. http://www.openbsd.com/faq/faq4.html#MkCD-ROM
Download the install ISO, burn to CD, ta-da! Very difficult, indeed...

As someone who has installed OpenBSD before, I can tell you, it's really not that difficult. Download the install CD ISO and follow this: http://www.openbsd.com/faq/faq4.html#Install

Re:We are dorks

[LurkerXXX]

This is a BSD we are talking about. The number refers to the whole operating system. Not just a kernal as in Linux. The same team that works on the kernal works on the rest of the system as well.

Make your own bootable CD then...

[aschlemm]

I've used instructions similar to this to make my own bootable CD for OpenBSD before. These instructions were for OpenBSD 3.4 but they've worked for me for both OpenBSD 3.5 and 3.7. The package names for OpenBSD 3.8 will have a "38" in them rather than 34.

http://www.pantz.org/os/openbsd/makingaopenbsdcd.s html

If you don't like these instructions do a quick Google search or something and you'll probably find a few more URLs showing the same thing.

Re:part 2- not trolling, just a little frustrated

[myspys]

Two ways:

1. Make your own ISO (http://www.pantz.org/os/openbsd/makingaopenbsdcd. shtml)

2. Download an inofficial ISO (http://www.hup.hu/modules.php?name=News&file=arti cle&sid=9953)

Both of these steps should of course be followed by buying at least something from the OpenBSD store at http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html

Re:part 2- not trolling, just a little frustrated

[Minwee]

So why not just quickly download and install it? Nobody is forcing you to buy the official CDs.

Re:part 2- not trolling, just a little frustrated

[Fezmid]

Have you even TRIED installing OpenBSD? It's simple. Download a 1M install disk, burn to CD, boot off the CD, select install, and it downloads everything that you select to install automatically. No need for an ISO, no need for a torrent.

Quick and painless. Try it, you'll like it. :)

Re:OpenBSD is cool

[jpkunst]

Absolute OpenBSD: UNIX for the Practical Paranoid
Building Firewalls with OpenBSD and PF, 2nd Edition
Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security
Secure Architectures with OpenBSD

JP

Re:Secure Heap Implementation

[/ASCII]

I've read that the Glibc heap implementation will also be implementing functionality similar to the guard pages in OpenBSD malloc. Should help shake out quite a few memory allocation bugs...

Re:We are dorks

[Anonymous Coward]

If you bothered to read the release notes you'd see that this release is very important, since it comes with a new malloc/free system that returns memory to the kernel as soon as mem has been free()'d, eliminating another source of bugs. The OpenBSD coders never cease to amaze me in their search for the most secure OS. OpenBSD is the current leader when it comes to security (has been for some years) compared to other Unices. Windows doesn't even play in the same league.

I wrote a guide....

[Nazadus]

I wrote a guide on how to make your own CD from FTP in Linux.
I'm in the process of writting for how to do it in Windows.

Check it out and lemme know if something sucks:
http://etherpunk.com/knowbase/index.php/OpenBSD:_M aking_A_CD_From_FTP

Re:What would make me try it..

[LurkerXXX]

VMWare does not run on OpenBSD. You can install it as a guest system, with no support and no VMWare tools for it, but you can't use it as a secure host OS. I've been bugging VMWare for support for it for a long time. I hope anyone else interested will write them as well.

Re:part 2- not trolling, just a little frustrated

[tyen]

It's a little frustrating when I want to try OpenBSD, and I can't because there's no ISO to FTP or torrent...I want to quickly download, install, poke around. Not spend $X on a CD, wait for it to come in the mail...

If your sole purpose is to just "poke around" and try out OpenBSD, there are plenty of people offering workable unofficial ISOs that are functionally equivalent. Sabotage.org has one that I've used; if you have requirements that demand a feature only available in the latest version, you are well beyond the stage of "poke around" and a budget request is in order. If you want something for free that is one of the project's ways of making ends meet...well, sorry, can't help you much there.

If you are that much a stickler for getting the "official" CD image, then that goes quite a ways beyond the "poke around" level of interest, and whoever is dictating the requirement for the official image either needs to pony up more money or more training/education to close the gap between bringing up the "official" OpenBSD and an FTP-based install (for just playing around, there is no difference). As any number of OpenBSD folks will attest, getting any of the unofficial images will more than suffice to satisfy your curiosity about the OS, and you won't have to retrain if you switch to the official CD's later. Personally, if I were you I would simply just follow the FTP-based install instructions; to really "play around" with a new OS and get any reasonable feel for it you're going to spend a week with it, so doing the FTP install is a fine way to introduce yourself to the OS (if for nothing else than how it lays out devices, for example) and install it at the same time. The instructions are extremely detailed and specific, certainly easy enough for people like yourself who dabble with different OS's and distros. Actual time spent messing around with the installation modulo the download time (which you would have spent anyways) will probably total no more than 1-2 hours.

Finally, note that for disaster recovery purposes, installation from FTP/HTTP/rsync/etc. repositories is one recovery mode that should be supported. You cannot absolutely count upon the availability of the discs, so any production-level interest that has any disaster recovery component (and if that component doesn't exist, you're playing with fire) should require familiarity with the FTP-based installation.

Re:Theo's an asshole and OpenBSD is over rated

[Alioth]

I've been using OpenBSD on sparc64 for about a year and found it entirely satisfactory. It also does something that Solaris cannot: it supports my Alcatel SpeedTouch USB modem.

Re:OpenBSD is cool

[dohcvtec]

I'm talking about books I can find in a shop

I've seen Absolute OpenBSD in a brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble.

Re:part 2- not trolling, just a little frustrated

[greginnj]

It's a little frustrating when I want to try OpenBSD, and I can't because there's no ISO to FTP or torrent. [...] I want to quickly download, install, poke around.

Have I got a tip for you. Here's a provider of free OpenBSD accounts you can SSH to:

http://www.metawire.org/about.php

All you have to do is send in an email request explaining that you want to learn about OpenBSD, and they'll set you up with a free account. (It may take a day or two; that's the price you pay for a free shell). Enjoy!

Re:some improvements to the OSPF daemon

[Nimrangul]

This is the second release of OpenBSD that the daemon has been available in. The deamon hasn't had a portable release yet, that's all.

Since noone has been bothered to try adding the portability goop to the daemon and send in patches there hasn't been one. You going to step up and give out some code?

Torrents

[Santana]

There are torrents too:

Re:Calm. The. #$@!. Down. It's not that I'm cheap

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not computer literate (e.g., I have no idea how
to run Word or Excel), so perhaps I am missing
something. I don't own a cd burner or a floppy
drive, but I was able to write a file called bsd.rd
to a swap partition, boot off of that, and install
OpenBSD over ftp. The whole procedure was
trivial, and I had a working desktop in about
half an hour. (Caveat: I am first and foremost
literate, so I can't speak to the problem of playing
movies or sound files.)