Welcome.
Welcome to the *BSD board.
Try to keep things civilized, conversational, organized, and most importantly, simple. We believe quality over quantity. It's encouraged to write your posts like the simplest man page you've ever read (many users are non-native English speakers.) You won't get banned for not doing these things, but you may find your threads getting deleted.
This is not a place to discuss software/hardware/licensing politics. Those posts will quickly turn this place into a /g/ shithole. Any other threads are welcome.
People who are obvious 'trolls,' 'shitposters,' or 'general assholes' will be banned. We are not trigger happy Nazis, so don't be afraid to post.
IRC
irc.rizon.net, #8chbsd
Board & IRC Admin: Dvorak (Please complain on IRC.)
The Tor BSD Diversity Project
(cross-posted from /tech/, where it didn't get much attention at least not yet
https://8ch.net/tech/res/343957.html)
What does anon think about The Tor BSD Diversity Project?
>The Tor BSD Diversity Project (TDP) is an initiative seeking to extend the use of the BSD Unix operating systems in the Tor public anonymity network.
>There are three aspects of the TDP’s approach:
> Increase the number of Tor relays running BSDs. We envision this happening by increasing the total number of relays, not by convincing operators of relays using non-BSD operating systems to switch;
> Make the Tor Browser Bundle available under BSD operating systems using native packaging mechanisms. Our first target is OpenBSD;
> Engage the broader BSD community about the Tor anonymity network and the place that BSD Unix should occupy in the privacy community at large.
>Current TDP work includes:
> Guides for configuring and running FreeBSD and OpenBSD relays;
> The creation of OpenBSD Tor Browser Bundle ports;
> Organizing various events for engaging BSD users about Tor, including birds-of-a-feather sessions and informal meetings;
> A new addition to our work includes enlisting BSD-using entities to operate Tor relays.
The OpenBSD Tor Browser Bundle port is almost ready.
https://github.com/torbsd/openbsd-ports
Personally, the lack of the TBB is one of the main things that keeps me from using BSDs for the desktop. I think these efforts will greatly benefit the popularisation of BSDs.
I know this won't get a reply, but, I'll ask anyway.
I'm looking for a BSD to install on one of my netbooks, I've been running freeBSD on my laptop for a while, but I'm not entirely sure freeBSD is the best choice for a netbook. Should I try out netBSD or openBSD?
Anybody here have any actual evidence to support the claims that OpenBSD is not secure?
Anyone here ever use HardenedBSD?
I have been considering installing one of those two on my laptop but cant decide which yet.
Boardbump.
Don't you die on me, /BSD/
Hey, that rhymes…
Post your favorite OpenBSD song!
Mine is 3.5 ( http://www.openbsd.org/songs/song35.ogg )
The d is for dead
Dead board posting.
>tfw BSD saved 8ch
It was bound to happen.
Why do you use *BSD? Why do you use the family of *BSD you use, and not another?
BattlestationSD
My computer is hold enough to drink… (Well…)
Filesystem Thread
Filesystem ThreadThis thread discusses filesystems, this post specifically the ZFS filesystem. ZFS is supported by FreeBSD.
Note: If you have something against ZFS, you might like HAMMER. That is the default fs in DragonflyBSD.
Introduction to ZFS
ZFS was designed by Sun Microsystems as a need for databases. Databases were growing too large for filesystems of the time, and the filesystems weren't matching up to the technology of the time. Performance and data was suffering because of the lack of a 'future' filesystem.
ZFS is now owned by the Oracle Corporation, comparable to a trademark. The OpenZFS project aims to open-source the ZFS filesystem. OpenZFS is released under the CDDL license, and therefore is technically incompatible with the GPL; similar to how Firefox is not used on Debian, instead Iceweasel is used.
ZFS Features
ZFS has a number of features which make it better for servers (and even desktops) over traditional filesystems like UFS, NTFS, or ext*.
1. Data Integrity
ZFS has protection against silent data corruption. This includes bit rot, electrical inconsistencies, and other general physical disk errors.
Each block written to the ZFS system has a corresponding checksum. Eventually, when the block is read, it will check to see if it matches the checksum.
If it doesn't, then a hard drive error has occurred. If the filesystem is in a RAIDZ volume, then the volume will perform a self-healing operation which will fix the disk error using the other drives.
If the checksum doesn't match and there is no additional disk to pull correct data from, then the corrupted data will be sent to the application with the hope that the corrupted data is still usable.
2. Software RAID
ZFS allows for software RAID. RAID allows multiple disks to be treated as a single 'disk,' which (depending on the setup) will allow for more I/O performance and (possibly) more storage. However, RAID is usually used for redundancy; that is, a RAID volume is designed to allow for complete disk failures.
ZFS calls their software raid RAIDZ-1 (RAID5; 1 disk failure allowed), RAIDZ-2 (RAID6; 2 disk failures allowed), and RAIDZ-3 (3 disk failures allowed.) ZFS also supports disk mirroring and striping.
RAIDZ is special compared to normal RAID because of the support behind it. Most RAID implementations are either completely proprietary or weakly supported.
Additionally, the RAIDZ uses tools like scrub, which allows for data integrity checking while the filesystem is active. This is different from fscking, which only checks the metadata (headers), not the actual data. If a disk is lost and then replaced, the dataless disk can be filled with data by a process called resilvering.
3. ARC, L2ARC, & ZIL Caching
ZFS supports three forms of data caching; Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC), Level 2 ARC, and ZFS intent log (ZIL.)
ARC is a memory cache for the disk. Data is stored in two different memory buffers; one buffer stores commonly used files, the other stores recently used files. The memory used is the memory which hasn't been allocated to any programs. This cache is used for both reading and writing. Therefore, if the entire file is inside of memory, then the 'disk performance' will be the speed of the memory! Additionally, if a file is read and then written to, then the write will be performed in memory before it is performed to the disk.
Therefore, adding more memory to the system means more disk pool I/O. Please note: On FreeBSD, ARC is disabled if you have less than 4gb RAM. You can enable it if you desire.
ARC is very clever and efficient, and over time will reduce total disk wear!
L2ARC is a read-only version of ARC which uses faster hard drives ('cache disks') than the data drives. The cache disks are almost always SSDs (uncommonly 10-15K SAS drives.) L2ARC follows the exact same principles as ARC, however the storage mediums are different, and L2ARC is read only.
When the data requested from the pool is not found in ARC ('cache miss'), the file system will search for the data in L2ARC. If the level-2 cache is missed, then the data will be pulled from the data disks.
ZIL is a write-only level-two cache. It is not used as often as L2ARC, but in some cases you may benefit. For example, write heavy databases/logs which often exceed the max disk I/O will benefit.
4. Data Compression
ZFS has a feature called data compression. You might think this is 'slow,' but it's actually rather smart and even increases I/O performance (if using LZ4 at least.)
When data is being written to the disk, the file system will attempt to compress the data. If the data compression ratio is less than 12.5%, then the data will not be encrypted! Therefore, compression is only used where real benefits can be gained!
Similarly, when data is read, the data will be decompressed. Because the decompressed data is larger than the compressed data, the virtual performance of the pool increases! Thus, compression in this case not only decreases overall file sizes, but also increases I/O performance.
5. Deduplication
Deduplication is where the ZFS volume will find duplicated blocks/files and then seamlessly deletes one of the duplicates, while maintaining overall data. It is not enabled by default, because the vast majority of users do not need it or would not benefit. For example, a user at home would not benefit much from it; whereas, a image uploading service could benefit because of people uploading the same image repeatedly. Deduplication is often considered a serious performance hit unless a large amount of ARC/L2ARC is present. You can toy with this and see if you would benefit, however. You would benefit most when storage space is more valuable than performance.
6. Snapshots ('Smart Backups')
ZFS supports backups called 'snapshots.' It is a space-efficient deduplicating backup scheme.
For example, if you do a backup in January for your entire /home/ directory, everything will be stored. When you do another backup in February, only new files and modified files will be saved. Therefore, the February backup will only backup what is required, and will require less space than January and February combined.
7. Disk Encryption
ZFS supports disk encryption seamlessly ontop of the above features. This means that disk encryption will work with the above features.
Incomplete?
This list contains the most notable ZFS features, however more may be added at a later date.
Virtual Machines
I run FreeBSD on my laptop and I need to know any good virtual machines to use on said laptop. Any ideas?
If you use the source code of a program licensed under BSD and don't give credit, can the person sue you?
RetroBSD
Admin here,
I went ahead and made a 'tutorial' for RetroBSD. Hopefully this will get more people interested in true old school Unix/BSD.
It runs on a PIC32 board. This is a microcontroller that can run a Unix/BSD OS, so it puts it somewhere between a Arduino and a RPi for the less tech-literate.
Link:
OpenBSD for Starters
OpenBSD for Starters (incomplete)This thread is for people new to OpenBSD. This post will provide a general guide on how to get started using OpenBSD.
This guide assumes that you have some experience using other Unix-like operating systems.
Introduction
OpenBSD is a minimalistic security-based operating system which was forked from NetBSD in 1995.
It is used equally in desktops and servers. The desktop installation contains X and a very simple window manager, and is based on the server.
OpenBSD has a reputation for being rather ferocious about security and just plain 'doing things right.' Amongst some, it has a reputation for being hard to use for beginners due to lack of 'easily parsed' documentation.
Installation
Installation is simple. As of this writing, the latest installation ISO for x86_64 is here:
http://mirrors.sonic.net/pub/OpenBSD/5.6/amd64/install56.iso (227mb)
Installation is explained in part by the installer. If you want a desktop, you should allow the X window system, and you should let xfce start the X system. Additionally, anytime the installer requests files, you should specify HTTP or CD. It is not wise to go without these files unless you know what you're doing.
Notable Things
By default, OpenBSD will kill any process which takes more than 512mb ram. You can modify this, however this is (currently) outside of the scope of this post.
OpenBSD uses a firewall called 'pf' (packet filter) which is regarded as one of the best firewalls, if not the best. It is extremely flexible and is worth looking into, as firewalls are a larger topic than many realize. (NOTE: OpenBSD uses a different version of pf than FreeBSD, which have syntax differences.)
Installing Packages
OpenBSD supports remote binary installations. This is OpenBSD's equivalent to FreeBSD's pkg, and Linux's yum/apt-get. Unlike some Linux package tools, pkg will verify the binary signatures for added security.
The OpenBSD pkg repository is managed by OpenBSD; in slightly uncommon cases, the packages are modified by the team for security (such as privilege separation.)
The command to add a package is as follows:
# pkg_add packagename
If you wish to 'locate' packages, you'll have to install a package called 'pkglocatedb.'
# pkg_add pkglocatedb
[post installation]
# pkg_locate firefox
Ports
Besides pkg, OpenBSD also supports 'ports.' These are inherited from FreeBSD, however they are much stricter about the security requirements.
For a basic understanding of ports, see the FreeBSD post. This post will be modified at a later date.
Updating the System
todo
Using a Different Window Manager
todo
Eeek.
Should I really use OpenBSD over Ubuntu/Debian? I considering it because GNU/Schizophrenix distros mostly come with flawed presets.
Why is there not a signify for FreeBSD? Do you guys not give a shit about the NSA?
IRC is here
I've added an IRC.
irc.rizon.net
#8chbsd
Anyone want to contribute some headers to the board? I'd like them to be funny.
Or you could put an idea below and I'll shoot up paint.
CSS
Please test and improve
body {
font-family: Terminus, Fixedsys, monospace; font-weight: bold;
background: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODdhBAAEAIABAAAAAP///ywAAAAABAAEAAACBQRyZqhXADs");
}
form table tr th { background: #A00; color: #FFF; }
div.thread {
background: #888; color: #000;
padding: 12px 4px;
border: 3px ridge #2D2;
border-top: 1px outset #2D2;
}
hr { height: 20px; display: block; border: 3px ridge #1B1; background: #1B1; margin-bottom: 0; border-bottom: 0;}
div.post.reply {
background: #00F; color: #BBB;
border: 3px double #BBB; outline: 1px solid #00F; box-shadow: 8px 10px #000;
margin: 8px 4px;
}
div.thread .intro span.name { color: #F00; }
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div.boardlist { background: #000; color: #777; margin: 0; }
div.boardlist a i { background: #000; color: #777; line-height: 126%; }
div.boardlist a { background: darkcyan; color: #000; }
header { margin: 0; background: #FFF; margin-top: -114px; padding-top: 128px;
border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;
}
div.announcement { margin: -12px 0 0 0; padding-top: 22px; background: #FFF;
border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;
}
#post-form-outer { background: #FFF; border: 1px solid #000; border-top: none; }
p.unimportant { background: #FFF; margin: 0; padding: 6px 0; }
hr:last-of-type { display: none; }
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div.pages { background: #FFF; color: #F00; }
FreeBSD Migration Thread
FreeBSD Migration ThreadThis thread is for users who want to start using FreeBSD and have experience using other Unix-like operating systems, specifically Schizophrenix.
This post contains a small 'tutorial' or 'reference' which will help you get started into the FreeBSD world.
Introduction
FreeBSD is a server operating system which was released in the early 1990's. FreeBSD is indirectly based on the Unix Berkeley Software Distribution, which was a package of software for the commercial Unix operating system.
FreeBSD is considered by some to be a commercial operating system, similar to CentOS or Red Hat Schizophrenix distributions. Therefore, because FreeBSD is a commercial server operating system, it does not come with a GUI. If you wish to use FreeBSD with a GUI and you are a beginner, please look into PC-BSD or GhostBSD.
A key difference between Linux and FreeBSD which is often overlooked is that Linux is a kernel and FreeBSD is an entire operating system. This means that the FreeBSD project has a greater grasp on the entire operating system, whereas many Linux distributions do not have such a grasp on their operating system.
The FreeBSD Handbook
The FreeBSD project has it's own manual, which contains a wealth of easy to read data. Even some of the least attentive millennials can read it and learn something. It is similar in design and setup to this thread, however it contains much, much more information. Just about any question involving the operating system can be answered there!
See: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/
Installation
So you've decided to try FreeBSD for a spin. Go ahead and burn an ISO of the latest RELEASE (currently 10.1-RELEASE) or mount it to your virtual machine. The installation process is rather self explanatory, as there is a 'CLI-GUI' to help you make choices.
Packages
Packages are what FreeBSD uses to download software binaries. Packages are the equivalent to 'apt-get,' '.deb,' 'yum,' '.rpm,' in the Schizophrenix world.
Most of the well known software are in the package collection. Additionally, you do not have to worry about adding a unverified binary repository to your source repository list. That means no more dealing with sketchy undated repositories for your apt-get/yum command.
Another nice benefit to using FreeBSD's packages is that you do not have to worry about software dependencies. No more half-installed installations!
How to find a package:
todo
Ports (Automated Building from Source)
Besides pkg, FreeBSD also supports ports. Ports is much like pkg, however it is building the executable from source. So, if you want to do a ports compilation of Firefox, FreeBSD will download the source for Firefox, as well as Qt, Libpng, etc.. It will then compile all of the dependencies and then the main request. It manages to do this rather seamlessly without much interaction from the user.
Before you start using ports, you will have to download the ports! Here is how to do so:
# portsnap fetch
[…]
# portsnap extract
The ports will now be located at /usr/ports/. To find packages, you can use the 'whereis' command.
root@sector4:/home # whereis firefox
firefox: /usr/ports/www/firefox
root@sector4:/home # cd `whereis -q firefox` #these are backticks (^~), not commas
root@sector4:/usr/ports/www/firefox #
Now that we're in the directory, we can compile.
root@sector4:/usr/ports/www/firefox # make install
[…]
This will start an interactive 'CLI-GUI' which asks you what you would like to configure. These are 'compile flags,' which in some cases may be modified to your benefit, however most users will be fine with the defaults.
If you are sick and tired of the menuconfig GUI's, you can export this variable:
root@sector4:/usr/ports/www/firefox # sh
# export BATCH='yes'
# make install
[…no more GUI's, just straight downloading and installing!]
Updating the Operating System
Updating the operating system is pretty easy. You can also arrange for autoupdating, but that is outside of the scope of this article.
Please note: this does not include upgrading to the next major version (ie upgrading from 10.1-RELEASE to 10.2-RELEASE.)
The general FreeBSD software update process is as follows:
root@sector4:/usr # freebsd-update fetch
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors… 5 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 10.1-RELEASE from update5.freebsd.org… done.
Fetching metadata index… done.
Inspecting system… done.
Preparing to download files… done.
The following files will be added as part of updating to 10.1-RELEASE-p8:
/usr/src/crypto/openssl/util/mkbuildinf.pl
The following files will be updated as part of updating to 10.1-RELEASE-p8:
/bin/freebsd-version
[… a list of a bunch of files which will be updated…]
root@sector4:/usr # freebsd-update install
Installing updates… done.
rc.conf modifications
todo
Using 'locate'
todo
Jails (with ezjails)
todo