Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟵/𝟬𝟴 (Valuable News - 2025/09/08) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/valuable-news-2025-09-08/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

The last BSDCan 2025 video has been posted!
Adventures in porting a Wayland Compositor to NetBSD and OpenBSD by Jeff Frasca

https://youtu.be/oo_8gnWQ4xo

I'm typing this in my Xuake Wayland Compositor on OpenBSD.

I started this journey on the NetBSD 9.99.x branch and ended up having to dig into the guts of wscons, mesa, libdrm, the kernel drm subsystem, the AMDGPU driver and more. I have a couple of very small, but hard fought patches in the NetBSD kernel. It's not over yet, either. I still have a few bugs around the compositor shutdown process and a lot of integration work to be able to hope to have other people try this out.

Topics to cover in the talk include (but are not limited to):

History of Wayland and other background info

How your graphics stack and driver is organized and actually works

The actual porting journey on both NetBSD and OpenBSD

A Demo! I should be able to show it running

Current status, future work

For more information, please visit:
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/
- and -
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/timetable/timetable-Adventures-in-porting.html

#wayland #runbsd #openbsd #netbsd

I am upgrading some real and virtual machines to newer NetBSD snapshots. #NetBSD

Has anyone tried #NetBSD/amd64 on an Intel N95 or N100 box? #bsd

@AnachronistJohn I missed out on AM1 when that was available. Had good luck with Atom 330 and #NetBSD/amd64. I wonder whether Intel UHD on the J4125 might work better than the new thing (Intel Xe?). #Xorg

An embedded dev kit for EndBASIC with #NetBSD by Julio Merino @jmmv

https://youtu.be/WZFYTInWAqc

@vermaden It’s hard for me to know how to vote. I’m for #1, but with better protections.

#NetBSD’s pkg_delete won’t delete certain packages, like pkg_install, even when forced (-f). To delete those special packages, you need to force force it via -ff.

Lumping in base packages with others without protections is a bit… shortsighted. It’d be one thing if there wasn’t a way to delete all packages, but since that was there first, that should stay.

Google summer of code 2025 for #NetBSD asynchronous I/O framework:

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/gsoc2025_asynchronous_i_o_framework?utm_source=discoverbsd

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟵/𝟬𝟭 (Valuable News - 2025/09/01) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/valuable-news-2025-09-01/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

I don’t usually promote personal projects here, but I’ll give it a try.
Meet Tocaia, a minimalist, cross-platform TUI Gopher client written in C89 for POSIX systems.
It even supports Haiku.
Pull requests and bug reports are welcome! =)
https://github.com/manipuladordedados/tocaia

#gopher #TUI #haikuos #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #smolweb #retrocomputing #programming

More hacking action at the #FreeBSD #Hackathon here in Oslo! Bugs are found, and then more "bugs" are found.

Having Level 3 support in our offices is something we could certainly get used to! ;-D

There's been documentation work, installer work, chasing down pf issues, trying to add architecture number 58 and 59 to #NetBSD (the #486DLC and #NexGen 5x86), discussions about FreeBSD pkgbase, preparing of release notes, and much else.

After a long day, restitution is again offered in the form of #Retrogaming, #beer and food. Today seems to be #MonkeyIsland day.

Alt...

"Look, we found a bug!" Two developers seem to have just discovered a bug in some code. A table with several laptops and charging cables, two persons sitting on far side, and three pictures on the wall depicting credit card-themed satire.

Alt...

Four people sitting in front of a screen showing a scene from Monkey Island 1 (for DOS). Two of the people being the same ones as in the other picture. One developer pointing at the screen as if to point out a bug.

I haven't blogged in a while. Mostly because my last post was about AI and I wanted to write a followup but found the whole AI discourse so extremely exhausting.

So anyways, back to the world of little hacks with this post about booting #NetBSD from a GPT wedge, the hard way:

https://bentsukun.ch/posts/netbsd-wedge-boot/

My laptop is building pkgsrc/www/firefox-142.0 for NetBSD as final precommit check. #pkgsrc #NetBSD

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟴/𝟮𝟱 (Valuable News - 2025/08/25) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/08/25/valuable-news-2025-08-25/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

My future NetBSD server finally arrived MWA-HA-HA !

Basically, it is just a part of POS terminal, so I can say that I run my services on the cash register.

But inside of it there is a fanless PC with a little motherboard and the top board with a 6 RS232 connectors, two USB connectors and a SATA for 2.5' hard drive.

4 Gb memory, Intel Atom N2800, 64 Gb SSD and free space for (another SSD?) WiFi card, integrated TWO (!) 1 Gbit Ethernet and much more USB, RS232 and VGA + HDMI connectors.

It works completely quiet, and just a slightly warming up when Window 7 is working.

After I change the CR2032 battery and find a M3x17 brass stand for PCB (one is missing ) — I'll install #NetBSD on it and will enjoy #selfhosting , finally

Alt...

Front view of AviPos 320 Duo Mini PC. It has a black extruded aluminum profile in the form of a radiator, "PRW" and "RST" buttons, two leds (red "PWD" led and the green "HDD" led), two RS232 ports (COM5, COM6) and two USBs (USB1 and USB2)

Alt...

Back view of AviPos 320 Duo Mini PC. It has a black extruded aluminum profile in the form of a radiator, plastic plug in place for antenna connector, jack 3.5 mm for audio output, two LAN ports, VGA, HDMI, power connector ("DC 12V") and the four RS232 ports (COM1-COM4).

Alt...

Disassembled fanless PC. The top board was unmounted and the motherboard is visible. Also the memory is removed too, so the CR2032 battery is visible. There is a BiWin 64 Gb SSD on the left.

Alt...

The disassembled fanless PC with motherboard connected to the power source, to the display through the VGA and to the keyboard via the USB. The DDR3 memory is connected to the motherboard. The red LED, indicating that system is powered, is lighting.

Okay, I left the working server for the night, while it was checking the newly connected HDD with Windows integrated utililty (don't know does it do something meaningful )

The device worked the whole night without the problems. At the end it was hot not warm, but I think this is because of some Windows processes which are doing some unknown shi^Wthings on the background

Now, with attached 250 Gb HDD from the shelf, it is ready for #NetBSD , I hope

Alt...

A fanless PC with Intel Atom with top board connected and with 250 Gb HDD connected to this board.

Alt...

The fanless Intel Atom PC in semi-assembled state with motherboard (bottom board) and the top board with COM port connectors and the HDD connected to it.

Looking through the file system of this #NetBSD box and there is a file /init.core in the root directory 😳 Sounds like a bad time.

A #Linux alternative? #Debian /Hurd shows microkernel #Unix dream is alive

#NetBSD

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/18/debian_hurd_13/

Attempt at making a robot cat using #NetBSD and an ODROID C2

https://codeberg.org/20-100/musCATv1

Another issue is that the only way to stop dtrace is to kill -9 it, which takes the watched process with it in the fall..

Halp? :)

I'll take Wayland when it comes my way without me having to lift a finger, but until then I'm glad the X Window System is still around. Keeps this old hardware useful.

All of those things are absolutely wonderful and make many of todays software developers look ... spoiled? What I want, however - and what I love doing - is making this old hardware do stuff its makers never dreamt of, things that are as far removed from their time as possible. That's why I will, if #NetBSD permits, run bleeding edge BSD on a 286-on-486steroids, and why I run web+ftp+irc servers (yes, multitaskign) on one 286 and multiple BBS nodes on a 386 - like one used to do, of course.

I cannot state often enough how amazing it is that there's still software developed today that will work under such constraints.

#RunBSD #EndOfRant