MidnightBSD Developer Journal

We've recently added a default .xinitrc file for user profiles to help with the desktop integration on a fresh install.  The default desktop environment has recently changed to Xfce.  We still need to build packages to get the default on midnightbsd-desktop updated. 

A number of package bugs are being worked on and we've placed the mport package manager in it's own repository now to help with contributions and allow us to easily package it in mports.  You can test newer versions there. 

February is the 15th anniversary for the project!

We have a new Jenkins CI server at https://jenkins.midnightbsd.org/

We have a new video up on youtube that explains how to install MidnightBSD 2.0.1 with a desktop environment. 

https://youtu.be/HpSEx6ICHrw

mports:

We've updated gnome web (epiphany), midori and webkit2-gtk3 mports.

We're in the process of updating GNOME 3.x

Two new security ports were added for systems that have ssh, mail, web or other services exposed to block some attackers. security/blacklist-de-all and security/fire-hol-list which install scripts that can download updates and you tie it in with IPFW and cron. These are unique to midnightbsd at the moment.

We've added bhyve-firmware ports recently to allow you to run linux or windows vms on midnightbsd, with some effort.

We just fixed a plist problem with the nvidia-driver port that should help folks trying to use it in stable/2.0 or 2.0.1.

We fixed a bug with one of the install scripts that will be present in 2.0.2. You can use mport install midnightbsd-desktop manually for now to get the desktop stuff.

We recently added an eclipse port. You can of course use this with java, php, C/C++ and several other languages.

We fixed some of the mono ports on stable/2.0 releases. Still need to update fsharp and fix gnome-sharp20

We updated the chromium port, although it's still broken at the moment, it's the first step in bringing a new native browser in.

As for firefox, we will first need to update our rust port which also is needed to fix several other broken ports and bring in librsvg_rust. The blocker on this before was the compiler in 1.2 so now with 2.0 out, we can revisit it.

we updated 2.0 amd64 packages recently.

We just ran a 2.0 i386 build with the first of the gnome 3 changes. 450 ports less than the previous run. we won't be releasing these packages, but it's a good start.

mail/evolution was updated.

There is a security fix for OpenSSL in master and stable/2.0 branches of MidnightBSD. It's strongly recommended that you update to this version.  It will be part of the 2.0.3 release.

MidnightBSD 2.0.2 in git.

Fixes the following:

firstboot script package name

ICMPv6 security issue

tzdata 2020d import to fix time zone problems.

certctl & certificates updated/fixed

USB audio improvements.

ACPI improvement with newer AMD systems.

NFSv4 server fixes

Hygon AHCI and USB controllers

pciconf can show extended pci capabilities

mlx5 improvements

WD green ssds quirk for trim

Denverton UART PCI ID

ZFS fixes

synaptics touchpad fixes

Add Atom C3000 watchdog ID.

JMicron JMB582/JMB585 AHCI

MidnightBSD 2.0.1 was released for amd64.  The only change is a fix for UEFI booting.

We identified some issues with the 2.0 ISOs slated for release with the ZFS bootloader not working. 

Until this issue is resolved, we are unable to build release ISOs. We've left the old ones up as they work fine for anyone using UFS.

We just added the F-PROT antivirus comamnd line scanner for BSD systems to mports under security/f-prot.

I recently setup a new system with the FreeBSD 9 32bit scanner.  I was able to get it to work on a modern 64bit system with a few caveats. 

As it's an old school FreeBSD package and not using the modern pkg, I extracted it at / and then removed the "+INSTALL, +DESC" and other + files from /. 

First, the binary requires libintl.so and libiconv.so which are external dependencies not included with the compat32 system in FreeBSD. Normally one would install some packages to get those. gettext-runtime and libiconv i think.  It would be nice if the binary was either static linked or at least mentioned these need to be installed.  You can get packages from a 32bit version of freebsd 10.x  or MidnightBSD 1.2.x for these and install them and it will just work.  

Second, since I was trying to run on a 64bit system, I had to install compat9x, compat8x and manually copy the above mentioned libraries into /usr/local/lib32/compat/ and then update the runtime path.  I set the following in /etc/rc.conf to get it to run easier

ldconfig32_paths="$ldconfig32_paths /usr/local/lib32/compat /usr/local/lib"

ldconfig_local32_dirs="$ldconfig_local32_dirs /usr/local/libdata/ldconfig"

Then I ran /etc/rc.d/ldconfig restart 

I found that I had to make two directories that are included in the +INSTALL script including one for license files and one for logging.  You'll see errors when running the tools that tell you what to make if you forget.  

I was then able to import the license file and startup the daemon using the rc.d script and then perform a manual scan.  

It would be really nice of the binary was static linked and also if a 64bit version could be created.  

I technically did this on a MidnightBSD 1.2 amd64 system, but it would also work on FreeBSD 10.x or 11.x.

Folks have been asking me about webcams lately.  I've previously gotten an integrated cam on my thinkpad working, but decided to try to get my logitech 920 usb camera working on my desktop.  

I've installed the following packages:

webcamd, cuse4bsd, pwcview (new port), v4l-utils (new port), v4l_compat

I then did 

kldload cuse4bsd 

also added it to /boot/loader.conf

Then I did 

webcamd scan

I found the camera line and copied the -N  line for it into /etc/rc.conf as 
webcamd_o_flags="-N ... " 
webcamd_enable="YES"

I added my user to webcamd group. 

I then started webcamd.  I was able to load pwcview (as root) and see the picture from the camera at this point. Cheese is not seeing the camera though and neither is firefox with youtube.

It's now possible to install 2.0-CURRENT from a 1.2.7 machine with some caveats. 

This is only tested on amd64 so far. 

before installworld, setenv  MK_TESTS no  (or put this in /etc/src.conf) 
lib/libcasper won't install without this. 

mergemaster is broken AFTER installworld.  Do mergemaster -p before at least

makewhatis is broken.  Comment out lines using it in src/share/man/Makefile when running installworld, then build makewhatis with new compiler, then uncomment and run make install from src/share/man directory to workaround this.  (it segfaults)

sendmail is not binding after updating.  Unclear what is going on so far.

Current was recently renamed 2.0 (rather than 1.3) in case we need to do a security upate past 1.2.9.  It also made sense as 2.0 is a major update. 

There aren't any snaps yet for current.  In fact, it's not building at the moment. We're actively working on it.  Buildworld on an amd64 box gets into lib32 compat libraries at this point.

The go port has been updated in mports to 1.14.3.  (lang/go)  This should allow newer go apps to be built.

We've finally got a native rust port (lang/rust) with 1.2.6.x version of rust.  The blocker to updating further is a newer system compiler. We will attempt to updatee to 1.3.0 or so.

There was a security issue in dhclient. We've created new ISOs for 1.2.8 for those installing from scratch.  

If you are on 1.2.7, you can simply update the source from git for stable/1.2 branch and rebuild dhclient.

MidnightBSD 1.2.7 is available via the FTP/HTTP and mirrors as well as github.  

It includes several bug fixes and security updates over the last ISO release and is recommended for new installations.  

Users who don't want to updatee the whole OS, should consider at least updating libmport as there are many package management fixes

ntp 4.2.8p15 is now in mports and addresses a security issue. https://t.co/3n4tIOxbUK note: this doesn't affect the base system as we use OpenNTPD

MidnightBSD 1.2.3 tag created in git. It only includes updates for 2 third party apps/libs:

unbound

sqlite3

Both include security updates.

NOTE: packages built against sqlite3 may be affected. Report issues. it's possibly a breaking change in 1.2.x

You do not need to rebuild everything to update to this release.

Run make clean; make; make install in these directories:

src/lib/libsqlite3

src/usr.bin/sqlite3

src/lib/libunbound

src/usr.sbin/unbound

If you don't use the local unbound caching resolver then sqlite3 is the only immediate need.

If you're interested in helping the project, here's a list of ideas http://wiki.midnightbsd.org/display/MD/Ways+to+Contribute… We need translators, website design, documentation, porting apps, etc.