Do you want to come to #ottawa and tell a bunch of #BSD geeks about what you enjoy doing?

Submit to BSDCan 2026!

Our submissions deadline is January 17, 2026, see https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/papers.html

Tutorials: June 17-18, 2026
Conference: June 19-20, 2026

More about the BSD conferences: https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

#freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #conference #development #sysadmin

5 days left to get your @bsdcan talk submitted! Join your friends in Canada to discuss the state of the *BSDs. See talks by leaders of our industry, parents of the Internet, and that person you've been seeing on mailing lists for years!:

https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/papers.html#main

#runbsd #netbsd #freebsd #openbsd #dragonflybsd #sysadmin

BSDCan 2026 is in #ottawa June 17 - 20, 2026.

The submissions deadline is January 17, 2027. See the Call for Papers page https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/papers.html for instructions on how to submit.

Want to know more about BSD and the conferences? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html @bsdcan #bsdcan #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #freesoftware #libresoftware #conferences

I had Zabbix 6.4 running on a #FreeBSD old laptop but fouled up the 15.x upgrade. Missing a dot so file. So i wiped the drive and did a fresh install from DVD.
Trickiest part was again forcing #Zabbix to use PostgreSQL instead of MariaDB because that needs port not pkg, which takes longer on an older machine. Restored templates and a couple hosts and now running Zabbix 7.4, pgsql 16.

Alt...

Zabbix console. Dials and charts and maps oh my.

A Major Mail Provider Demonstrate They Likely Do Not Understand Mail At All https://nxdomain.no/~peter/they_do_not_understand_mail_at_all.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-major-mail-provider-demonstrate-they.html)

#greytrapping #spam, #antispam #greylisting #blocklist, #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #SMTP, #contentfiltering #SPF #DMARC #security #networking

AI models don’t really 'get' the BSDs. As a result, they often provide incomplete, imprecise, or flat-out wrong answers by defaulting to Linux paradigms. When it comes to illumos-based systems, they just completely lose the plot.

This is becoming a serious issue for the BSDs and illumos ecosystems. We are seeing entire websites flooded with AI-generated tutorials and guides that are totally incorrect. Most people don't realize this; they follow the instructions, fail, and then assume that the BSDs doesn't work well or are 'unstable' because they have supposedly changed since the guide was written.

Luckily, some people eventually find my blog, reach out, and finally understand what's actually going on. Others, unfortunately, end up on major social sites or comments, claiming that these systems are broken.

In 2026, one of our greatest challenges will be teaching people how to vet their sources and filter information.
And I see this as a very, very uphill battle.

#IT #SysAdmin #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #News #UnderstandingText #Disinformation

Here is the CPU usage graph for the last 24 hours of the FediMeteo VM. A full 24 hours, during which a huge number of people are connecting, helped by the traction gained from being among the top stories on Hacker News and Lobsters, as well as the many shares across the Fediverse.

RAM usage? Active, around 450 MB. Then there is cache, ARC, and so on. But in practice, zero swap in use after days of uptime.

39 jails running, 39 snac instances, nginx serving the homepage, and HAProxy. HAProxy caching enabled. ZFS snapshots every 15 minutes, backups via zfs send and receive every hour. The same hourly schedule applies to the recalculation of cities, countries, and followers for the homepage.

All of this on a 4 euro per month FreeBSD VM.

If anyone has doubts about the quality and efficiency of FreeBSD, this is the data to show.

#FediMeteo #FreeBSD #RunBSD #IT #SysAdmin

Alt...

Time series graph showing CPU usage percentage over roughly 24 hours. The x axis represents time from about 13:00 to 12:00 the next day, and the y axis shows CPU usage from 0 to 100 percent. CPU usage fluctuates mostly between 15 and 35 percent, with periodic rises during daytime and early morning hours. Several short spikes reach around 45 to 55 percent, and one brief peak climbs to about 60 percent. Usage drops to lower levels, around 10 to 20 percent, during late evening and early morning periods. Overall, the graph shows moderate, variable CPU load with occasional sharp peaks.

Exactly one year ago, on 30th December 2024, I laid the foundation of FediMeteo.

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

* OpenMeteo - @openmeteo - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

* @grunfink - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

* FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

* FediFollows - @FediFollows - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

*All of you*, who suggested, encouraged, corrected, and celebrated this project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

Arcan 0.7.1 – Minutes To Midnight

https://arcan-fe.com/2025/12/27/arcan-0-7-1-minutes-to-midnight/

#FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD

The @bsdcan Call For Papers (CFP) is open until January 17th, see https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/papers.html

The holidays can be a great time to get that submission done! #bsdcan #openbsd #netbsd #freebsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #ottawa

Want to know more about #bsd and the conferences? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html (and links therein)

Also: indico mail problem has been fixed

The #VZ router swap was surprisingly easy, and unsurprisingly online help was no help. #Zabbix server and adjustments made post flip and local addresses stuck but the local domain was toast.
Still some flapping expected ahead. #FreeBSD on pi looking weak, and is overdue for upgrade too.

Alt...

Temperature charts, with skipped bits.

And the docs I can find on meta mode don't work. Like at all. "No such target: buildworld"

I feel dumb. And old. Dumb old dude out of touch.

The SATADOM in my FreeNAS mini XL died. If I need to replace that, I might as well investigate alternate BSD-based NAS software.

I know a few folks tried to build #FreeBSD-based successors to #freenas Did any of them get traction? #sysadmin

Here is a small tip: to easily configure your installed FreeBSD, use the `bsdconfig` command as the root user. A lot of FreeBSD users or developers (including some IT/sysadmin folks) don't know this, but you can use `bsdconfig` to set up many system configuration settings, both for new systems and for changing settings on existing systems.

#unix #tips #freebsd #sysadmin

Alt...

A screenshot of bsdconfig(8) command running on my FreeBSD machine.

CC: @edboythinks@hachyderm.io

In order to enable audio support in a jailed #xrdp desktop, install pulseaudio-module-xrdp package. Viola! Works like a charm with MS Windows RDP app.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2023/12/13/how-to-create-a-freebsd-jail-hosting-xrdp-and-xfce-remote-access-desktop/

#FreeBSD #RunBSD #RDP