MidnightBSD Developer Journal

MidnightBSD now has a bug reporting and tracking system setup. Please add future bug reports to this system.

http://bugreport.midnightbsd.org/

i just created a quick diff for MBSD with tcsh 6.15 which was released very recently.

http://www.midnightbsd.org/tcsh.diff

I also sent this upstream.

I noticed when mports was started after our "ports" issue, the config.sub and config.guess files are lying and saying we are freebsd.  While this might be necessary in ports for now, we should post patched versions for MBSD.  I've had some on my system for some time.  I'll try to do this later.  I also have a small qemu disk image with the latest snap + x11 installed to post on the ftp later.  I was able to install MBSD with the xorg packages on the new ISOs and that's what the qemu image is.  I'm starting to think I need to make my own patches directory that's publicly accessible. 

I am hoping to import tcsh 6.15 soon.  There is at least one known bug with the new version.  It has improved memory allocation/cleanup code though. 

I now have a redistribution agreement with Opera Software to distribute the Opera(c) browser with MidnightBSD.  This is relevant as I'm able to distribute it on ISOs. 

This morning I uploaded a new snapshot without ISOs.  (dated the 18th)  Our make release script is not including the packages properly.  I manually made ISOs with packages for testing.  Its in the snapshots/i386/0.1-Special folder on the FTP server.  In theory, xorg should be installable from the disk1 CD as well as many other packages.  There are about 500MB of packages between disk1 and disk2.  Only fetch disk2 if you intend to use the packages on it.  Mostly its GNUstep, WindowMaker and KDE packages.

I have not had an opportunity to test this ISO yet.  It may not work or not be bootable for some reason. 

As for the release script, I have an idea why it might be failing and can setup a work around for it.  Once these little details are worked out, I will start working on modifying sysinstall to drop a GNUstep base + some apps with installation.  I will also create a metaport for GNUstep related ports and another for MidnightBSD "gui" customizations which will actually setup the graphical environment.  By not including it in base, I'm able to possibly offer non gui installation for servers.  I'm not targeting servers, but I personally use MBSD on servers so its helpful to me.  There are also a few in the project that aren't big GUI fans like our security officer. :)

New ports:
print/gv
net/netatalk
java/mysql-connector-java
devel/log4j
java/jboss4
graphics/quickshow
graphics/gozer
graphics/goom
x11-wm/fvwm2

Updated ports:
shells/zsh
textproc/docproj
x11-tookits/qt33 (note not the latest version)
sysutils/cdrtools
mports/audio/libogg
mports/audio/linux-libogg
x11-tookits/gtk20
lang/php5-extensions
net/samba3
emulators/wine
x11/xscreensaver-kde


Also, archite has commited new sound drivers which improves compatibility with some newer sound cards.  He was inspired by a new acer laptop he acquired.

We haven't shipped anything with toil yet, but in case you are curious they've got a live CD.

http://xdev.org/etoile/

I just posted a freshly generated index on the webserver. make fetchindex grabs this file and its also retrieved when the local index is broken at times. I'm quite bad about keeping it updated as it had be about 45 days since I updated it last. On the upside, the index generated fine the first time.

Its cleanup day for mports. I'm going to attempt to build packages this weekend and do our first package filled isos. That also means you can expect a new snap this weekend if all goes according to plan. That snap will include the timezone changes, the new BSD licensed gzip import from NetBSD/FreeBSD, the libarchive updates, openssh 4.6p1, and so on.

I should also clarify that there is one commited mport that does not work. Mozilla was imported to help us work on the problems with it. Its currently building on some systems, but the GUI does not seem to be connected to the backend code so it does not do much of anything. We suspect a project with their security manager. Adding a new OS to it isn't fun. The linux versions of Mozilla branded browsers are available as well as opera. I may try to get permission from opera to distribute opera on our isos. Its working very well on MBSD. I realize a lot of people like that browser in spite of its closed source and "unique" UI. I have to admit it works very well on unix like systems. I would probably buy it for my wii if i could get a wii!

I just did a test install on an old HP Pavillion made around 2000. It shipped with windows me and has a celeron 700Mhz processor. It took about 5 minutes to install mbsd on it. I'm going to build a few packages on it since its got a clean install.

Archite is continuing to work on building new packages and trying to figure out what is wrong with mozilla. He's also researching making pf our default firewall. I personally like ipfw, but most others I've talked to prefer pf. There are several advantages to pf so we'll see where that goes. The version in our tree is from around OpenBSD 3.7 or so. We'd need to work on updating it.

I also did a successful test package-split today. We need to build a few more packages as we've updated freetype2 and a few other things that mess with a lot of x11 ports.

As far as new ports are concerned, I am simply going through ports I started to work on previously and commiting them if they are now working. Most of them just needed some dependancy which is now in and I forgot about them. Most notably I got several of the broken KDE ports in.

On the topic of GNUstep, we're hoping to start installing GNUstep + xorg as part of the installer soon. If we ship a working snap with packages this weekend, we'll start working on the installer to automate that step. We'll also add some new meta ports to install GNUstep based software. After these steps are completed, we'll do our first release.

Concurrently, ctriv will be working on what we are currenly calling "mport" which is a package management system. pkg_add and other package tools will become wrappers for this new system. It will be written in C and eventually a graphical version will be built as well. Most likely the gui version will be a GNUstep app. He's almost done planning and will be developing a perl based prototype in the near future. It hit me the other day that GNUstep has an installer available. I want to look at that before we go to much farther with "mport" but i suspect some integration will be required.

We're looking at having a database containing all the packages available, their security status, some meta tags describing them, and a few other pieces of information. End users would just do something like mport install pkgname. There would also be mport status, mport list and so on. The hardest step so far has been finding a name for this thing that is not a usability nightmare and still not taken. mport, mpkg and several other variants are taken.. i'm starting to see why gentoo called thier stuff emerge/portage. All the good names were taken.

I'll create an entry with new ports later.

This is an interesting read. The patch is very small.
http://secunia.com/advisories/24490/

Index: sys/kern/uipc_mbuf2.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/sys/kern/uipc_mbuf2.c,v
retrieving revision 1.24
retrieving revision 1.24.2.1
diff -u -p -r1.24 -r1.24.2.1
--- sys/kern/uipc_mbuf2.c17 Mar 2006 04:15:51 -00001.24
+++ sys/kern/uipc_mbuf2.c7 Mar 2007 19:21:48 -00001.24.2.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*$OpenBSD: uipc_mbuf2.c,v 1.24 2006/03/17 04:15:51 brad Exp $*/
+/*$OpenBSD: uipc_mbuf2.c,v 1.24.2.1 2007/03/07 19:21:48 deraadt Exp $*/
/*$KAME: uipc_mbuf2.c,v 1.29 2001/02/14 13:42:10 itojun Exp $*/
/*$NetBSD: uipc_mbuf.c,v 1.40 1999/04/01 00:23:25 thorpej Exp $*/

@@ -226,16 +226,14 @@ m_dup1(struct mbuf *m, int off, int len,
{
struct mbuf *n;
int l;
-int copyhdr;

if (len > MCLBYTES)
return (NULL);
if (off == 0 && (m->m_flags & M_PKTHDR) != 0) {
-copyhdr = 1;
MGETHDR(n, wait, m->m_type);
+M_DUP_PKTHDR(n, m);
l = MHLEN;
} else {
-copyhdr = 0;
MGET(n, wait, m->m_type);
l = MLEN;
}
@@ -249,8 +247,6 @@ m_dup1(struct mbuf *m, int off, int len,
if (!n)
return (NULL);

-if (copyhdr)
-M_DUP_PKTHDR(n, m);
m_copydata(m, off, len, mtod(n, caddr_t));
n->m_len = len;


This isn't the first time they've had a problem though:
http://secunia.com/advisories/10801/

I reviewed MidnightBSD code. Our handling is a bit different.

static struct mbuf *
m_dup1(struct mbuf *m, int off, int len, int wait)
{
struct mbuf *n;
int copyhdr;

if (len > MCLBYTES)
return NULL;

if (off == 0 && (m->m_flags & M_PKTHDR) != 0)
copyhdr = 1;
else
copyhdr = 0;

if (len >= MINCLSIZE) {
if (copyhdr == 1)
n = m_getcl(wait, m->m_type, M_PKTHDR);
else
n = m_getcl(wait, m->m_type, 0);
} else {
if (copyhdr == 1)
n = m_gethdr(wait, m->m_type);
else
n = m_get(wait, m->m_type);
}

if (!n)
return NULL; /* ENOBUFS */

if (copyhdr && !m_dup_pkthdr(n, m, wait)) {
m_free(n);
return NULL;
}
m_copydata(m, off, len, mtod(n, caddr_t));
n->m_len = len;
return n;
}

I'm in the middle of updating libarchive + bsdtar in src.  I seemed to get it to get through buildworld + installworld on one system and manually compiling libarchive + tar on another.  I am still a little suspect of it though.  Be sure to test tar thoroughly if you update source and any compilation issues should be reported to luke@midnightbsd.org.   I suppose you could comment on this blog if you have a JJ account as well. 

I've been meaning to setup bugzilla, and I think this might be a good case for why I should have done it sooner. 

As for a RELEASE, I know I promised one several times in the past.  We just don't feel its a good idea to release until we have a simple desktop working.  Perhaps if archite is successful with his mozilla patches and ctriv gets his prototyping done for our new package management system we'll be ready to work on a release.  We don't need the new package system done, but I certainly want to have it planned out before the release.  I do hope wintellect gets some free time to help us prototype it.  He's just getting enough time for bsdnexus.com I think. 

I received an e-mail yesterday from an upset individual who just realized we exist.  He was quite upset about our fork and asked why we forked.  He also assumed that I must have been involved in a fight with the core team of FreeBSD to work as DF and OpenBSD started.   Some of his concerns were understandable, but I don't feel like my actions are similar to the Linux distro scene.  In my view, PC-BSD and DesktopBSD are distros of FreeBSD.  Granted, DesktopBSD flatly states they are not a distro but rather a project writing tools.  I don't see the difference between that and say Gentoo writing portage (tools) for an existing kernel + userland.  Regardless, my point is not to define DesktopBSD's place in the world.  I did not follow the Freesbie, DesktopBSD, PC-BSD path of making a livecd or distro* because I feel that certain changes will need to be made to make MidnightBSD more friendly as a desktop environment.  FreeBSD is "the power to serve" after all.  They also have made close deals with Intel and binary blobs.  I'd rather have an open desktop.  I've said before that I am not against binary blobs in the way that OpenBSD is but I do prefer to avoid them.  FreeBSD has probably hurt the rest of the BSD community by agreeing to binary blobs in base from Intel.  There is an example of a problem with FreeBSD.  I've previously ranted about extreme SMP, treatment of commiters, and other problems with their project.  Some of those issues are being addressed.  I was never a commiter to any other BSD project.  I did submit patches to FreeBSD commiters and I did try to get involved with an HFS+ port to FreeBSD 6.  The former resulted in my code used without credit and the latter was a wasted three months when my hard drive failed and I didn't make a backup like an idiot.  (There are backups of the MBSD cvs, although I could use a tape drive or something...)  I don't feel like defending myself yet again.  People still bring up OpenBSD and DragonFly so I know this won't end regardless of what I do.  I got news for FreeBSD fans... they based theirs on 386BSD!  

I do want to address one concern he had.  "The community is stagnating".  Well, yes it is to some degree.  More likely people are joining younger BSD projects who can't get into FreeBSD or don't have the years of ass kissing to get commit bits.  From my experiences, OpenBSD seems to be much better on this front.  There is still a power structure which is inevitable in all open source projects, but people listen and discuss things.  Its not a flame war.  If I were to go back in time and not start MidnightBSD, I would probably try to join OpenBSD or DragonFly.  They are great projects with some interesting goals.  There is also nothing stopping someone from working on more than one BSD project.  In fact, there are developers doing that with DF, FBSD, etc. 

So why did I fork?  Things weren't getting done on the desktop.  At the end of the day, PC-BSD, DesktopBSD and Freesbie are just going to be ports.  Besides some people don't like KDE. 

Now that Étoilé is in mports, I thought I'd start looking into using it properly. :) 

http://www.etoile-project.org/etoile/blog/2006/12/minimal-toil.html

What you can't see from my first screenshot is that I was manually starting the various processes.  What can I say, it was early and I was just happy it compiled.  Presuming we can get everything working well, I could see using Étoilé.  The UI has potential and I was shocked how fast it was.  I suppose the similarities with Mac OS X made me expect Tiger speed.  My desktop is beating my wife's new Mac Pro hands down while running MBSD + Étoilé  + various GNUstep apps.  I've only got a Pentium D 805. 

Honestly, I was beginning to have doubts about this project's choices.  This has really shown me that we're doing the right thing. 

On a side note, I guess I'll find out if Just Journal can handle the accents in Étoilé.  I don't know :)

I just finished updating OpenSSH in src to 4.6p1.  So far it seems to be working well for me.  The merge was a bit awkward so if there are any problems with defaults, let me know. 

We're making some progress for a change.  Archite got mozilla to finally compile on mbsd although its not working just right yet.  I just did some refinements to the gnustep ports which seem to be working well so far. 

gzip and gtar in mports were updated to fix some security concerns.  There is still a possibility gtar has an issue.  That's up for debate. 

The new sound code seems to be working.  I've successfully installed the new kernel build on my laptop and desktop so far.

I spent a few hours getting etoile into mports last night.  I just posted a screenshot of Etoile running on mbsd.

Today I managed to get some much needed work on src done.  While nothing essential was commited, there were several fixes to sound done.  I also cleaned up a few other things.  I'm in the process of testing buildworld/buildkernel at the moment.  if things prove stable, I'll try to sneak in the openssh update and then build new snaps.  We could use some with the timezone changes in. 

With mports, I updated the linux-sun-jdk ports as well as the freebsd java ports (freebsd binary versions).  I also added dilion, gnustep-tracker (rss feed scroller), and i've begun importing etoile! 

I'm as shocked as anyone, but I've got part of etoile working.  I synced our bsd.gnustep.mk with FreeBSD's and did a few other changes and then Dirk's ports are working on mbsd.  I can't take much credit for these ports, but I'm happy to have them.  With some ports, even starting with a FreeBSD port still involves a lot of additional porting time.  These are going smooth so far. 

ctriv hit some snags with the msk driver.  He's made some progress with  packages.  We're hoping Wintellect will be available soon to discuss the changes with ctriv.   Most people are very busy in their personal lives right now.

I've just added the live journal command line client to mports.

My systems seem to have faired DST ok.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/11/time.change.reut/index.html

According to this CNN article, DST was changed for the environment. This is false. It was proposed for trick or treaters by Fred Upton. More time was put into y2k testing. I don't think Microsoft charged $4000 to update Windows (2000) back then.

We've hit 980 mports today. Considering darwinports has less than 4000 if their website count is correct, I think we're making good progress. Compared to the 16,000 ports FreeBSD has this isn't that significant. Many FreeBSD ports are useless crap though.

I'm debating what bug tracking software to use for the project. Tonights work was done to get Bugzilla into mports. I want to test it for a time. GNATS appears to be a big hassle to setup. Request Tracker has more dependancies than Bugzilla.

OpenSSH 4.6 was released yesterday.  Its already in mports and we'll be updating the version in userland soon.

Yesterday, I added vMac, pearpc and basiliskII to mports.  Anyone with a fondness for Macs should love it.

While the tzdata update last year should have fixed any changes in the US, I was not so sure about other countries.  I updated to tzdata2007c today.  Anyone concerned about DST can download the source and update their systems. 

The following ports were added recently:
devel/libical, misc/xtail, misc/cpuid, gworkspace, gnumail, math/R, math/blas

sysintall now "knows" about several additional ethernet and disk devices.

Archite is looking into bring BSD licensed more and less into our tree. ctriv, a new developer with MBSD is working on several projects including a possible new package management system.

Most of us have been rather busy lately, but we did get a few things commited.

mfi was added today.  Its a driver for LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID controllers.  It supports some of the Dell perc5i's and various other newer controllers from LSI. 

A few minor changes to improve timeout behavior in nfsclient were commited. 

Kernel PPP was corrected to use GIANT. 

added mports:
x11/xlockmore
x11/xscreensaver
x11/xscreensaver.app
x11/wterm