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

Finally (2), I have some good enough DHCP server!

Tried kea from ISC — it works but requires some additional actions to be launched under #NetBSD. It has very strange default paths for file with leases, PIDs and logs:
- /usr/pkg/var/lib/kea/
- /usr/pkg/var/lib/run/kea
- /usr/pkg/var/log/kea

BTW, it could be changed via playing with some environment variables.

Also, the default startup script uses keactrl to launch DHCP server and keactrl requires some configuration for it. So, to use "service kea start" there are two configuration files are necessary:
- /usr/pkg/etc/keactrl.conf — the main configuration file for server.
- /usr/pkg/etc/kea/keactrl.conf — the configuration file for keactrl.

Then, I tried the dhcpsd — the new promising successor of ISC dhcpd, which could be configured with configuration file in Lua and conforms Unix FHS — all necessary files lies in the right places: /var/run, /var/log, etc. Sadly, it doesn't work: server starts but there are no leases for clients and no any errors in the log :-(

Then, I found cmu-dhcpd in the repos — there is a dhcpd from Carnegie Mellon University with some patches from Princeton. And, finally it works! And it also conforms Unix FHS: main configuration in the /etc/dhcpd.conf, PID-file in the /var/run/dhcpd.pid and logs in the /var/log/messages

#selfhosting #dhcp #DHCPv4 #dhcpd

Alt...

Screenshot of xterm with vi opened in it. In the vi there is a /etc/dhcpd.conf opened with some simple configuration for plain home network.

For #NetBSD users on #AWS I’ve made some page with information about my AMI images, test phase but maybe for someone could be usefully as official are not available unfortunately ☹️ https://netbsd.io/

I'm going to assume running multiple automated test frameworks on a 1-core #NetBSD Pi will eventually eat itself out or starve or something. Have not heard from the #Zabbix agent in an hour or so.

The Pi wifi worked until it started failing with loss of connection. I moved the SD card to a second 0W with a plugin RJ45. Restarting test suite. Dag.

Alt...

Pretty busy CPU chart for a day or so thrashing multiple tests.

Instructions for installing #NetBSD on the Wii U: https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-powerpc/2026/01/10/msg003724.html

We should modernize the #NetBSD website.
Example:

Log Message:
Add support for the Nintendo Wii U.

#NetBSD

Two more #NetBSD systems going 11.0 BETA - a creaky 686 and a teeny Pi 0W. It's been months since I managed to write a bootable SD card for the little Pi; the 2026 image worked like a champ.

Alt...

Neofetch screen grab from NetBSD 11 BETA with a 2-screen 686 processor.

Alt...

Neofetch screen grab from NetBSD 11 BETA with a 1-core Raspberry Pi 0W.

#OpenBSD 5.4 on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100.
While 6.0 was the last version to support Zaurus, X breaks in 5.5. I don't have a working network card yet, but hopefully will soon.
#NetBSD still supports the Zaurus, but I wasn't able to install it.

Alt...

OpenBSD on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 PDA running spectrwm.

Alt...

OpenBSD on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 PDA running qvwm.

Alt...

OpenBSD on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 PDA running tmux.

Es werden für den #NetBSD Stand auf den #CLT2026 @clt_news noch Mitstreiter gesucht.

Wenn jemand Interesse hat am 28. und/oder 29. März 2026 zu unterstützen, bitte bei mir melden.

#FLOSS

Current #NetBSD on Odroid M1S status: I've got everything but the ethernet PHY working. Frustratingly, when I boot chimera with my UEFI firmware, it works. NetBSD fails to reset the ethernet hardware, and the driver fails to attach. I messaged port-arm. I'm going to set it down for a bit.

(I wish I could put a scope on the mdio pins on the phy, but it's a tiny surface mount part, and I just don't have the tools on my bench to deal with it.)

@AnachronistJohn

Running #NetBSD ...? 😉

Finally:

===> Installing binary package of qgis-3.44.5

#NetBSD
#PkgSrc

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

New year, same love for clean code. 🧡

I saw @netbsd 🚩was short $327 on their 2025 funding goal, so I sent a donation to start 2026 on a high note.

Wishing the team a great 2026.

Wishing all BSD users Happy New Year ahead!

#NetBSD #Unix #OpenSource #linux #sysadmin #runbsd

Let it build
Let it build
Let it buiiiiiiild
#NetBSD

What it looks like booting #NetBSD on the Wii U for the first time https://youtu.be/pfNySZMSvLQ

It's alive! SMP kernel up and running on #NetBSD Wii U.

This evening in "cli snippets for things I learned":
To more easily upgrade to #NetBSD -current, you can

1) build and install sysupgrade:

# cd /usr/pkgsrc/sysutils/sysupgrade
# make && make install

2) Then point it to the daily snapshots at:

# sysupgrade fetch https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/$(sysctl kern.machine_arch)

3) Follow the rest of the sysupgrade steps found at
https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-upgrading.html

Be warned that sysupgrade etcupdate is long, boring, but important.

#RunBSD

#NetBSD 11 getting closer: "Timeout for showstoppers (before they will be downgraded) december 28, trying to move on to RC1 before the end of december."
https://wiki.netbsd.org/releng/netbsd-11/

Console works on the Wii U gamepad too, although it doesn’t quite fit with the default font size. #netbsd

Here's #NetBSD booting on a Nintendo Wii U (natively, not vWii!) https://youtu.be/ZLPe5g9j_Ss

Arcan 0.7.1 – Minutes To Midnight

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

#FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD

There we go. Have a modern web browser (midori) working on a 2008 netbook, with an 1.6GHz Atom processor and 1Gbyte of RAM, all thanks to the magic of BSD. First page to fire up is of course @exquisite

#RunBSD #NetBSD

Alt...

A netbook displaying the exquisite.social "About" page

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

@resuna @GrantMeStrength Pity that was lost! What language did you use?

Apologies for the ESR references in this link, but it includes many stories of Trek code bases:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/super-star-trek/sst-doc.html

And there's still a #Trek in the #NetBSD source tree, under /usr/src/games/trek .

It turns out my mysterious app crashes on #NetBSD i386 were in fact due to a bug in the i915 driver. I can disable it on boot and the programs work, but of course screen resolution is off this way. Any known workarounds?

@rqm TIL!

```
vsis$ which tetris
/usr/games/tetris
```

wow #NetBSD *rules*!

I like #NetBSD so far. Even despite my stupid mistakes with pkgsrc. And not only because THERE IS TETRIS BUNDLED

#netbsd

The #NetBSD pkgsrc system for building packages is pretty neat. Took me about 30 minutes to figure it all out and I never really used NetBSD before.

Still the official docs could be improved upon but #OpenBSD set the bar pretty high for user-friendliness.