MidnightBSD Developer Journal

The ISC has setup a mirror of MidnightBSD on http://mirrors.isc.org. Special thanks to them. Their mirror contains the entire FTP archive including the recent sparc64 snapshot.

Adam upgraded OpenSSH in the tree yesterday. I'll attemp a new i386 build when I get a chance.

I'm working on migrating to OpenNTPD. I've got about half the work completed. Anyone having problems with configure scripts should simply copy the FreeBSD releated entries in the config.guess/config.sub and replace FreeBSD with MidnightBSD and freebsd with midnightbsd. Also remove any additional entries for GNU "distros" of freebsd. I asked the GNU to patch their scripts. We'll see what happens.

I've had to disable ftp and http a few times. The traffic has been so bad nothing would come in or out. I'm hoping the mirror will help. I appologize to anyone downloading when that occured.

I'll write another entry when the source tree is "safe" to build. If you don't need ntp, you should be able to just delete those directories src/contrib/ntp and src/usr.sbin/ntp and it should work alright.

Finally, we've been looking at countless window managers. Several people have expressed interest in xfce. We haven't made a final determination but xfce, fvwm-crystal, WindowMaker, something custom, or some offshoot work for the etoile project are all in the running. Two of these choices don't exactly fit into my usability requirements. If they were chosen, it certainly would not be perminent. xfce has some nice points, but its also quite mainstream. was hoping to be a bit unique.

I've just posted the first snapshot build for sparc64 on the ftp server.  It was built on a sun ultra 10 3d creator.   It took me about 11 hours to complete the snapshot build. 

I was also working on a new i386 snap, but my build system experienced some problems today as my air conditioning was on the fritz.  I'll attempt a build again in a few days. 

i386 is available via bittorrent, but sparc64 is ftp only for now.

There will also be some changes commited to ksh soon. 

A few people have inquired about the download speed problem from the ftp/webserver. I am running the server on a business cable modem package which does not have a lot of upstream. I did a recent speed test using speakeasy.net's server. 8314kbps down 823kbps up to chicago. I need a mirror quite badly. I sent an application to ibiblio but have not heard anything.

As for the iso image, the md5 for disk 1 does look wrong. I'm going to switch out the network cable and post a new snapshot for x86 and sparc64.

I did download the iso last onto a desktop and did a virtual pc test install. It worked ok.

Note on installtion: Do not use "all" or "xorg" options when it asks you to select relevant packages. The current snapshots do not include ports or documentation (aside from man pages) so those options will cause you to get errors during the install.

pkg_add intentionally points to FreeBSD's server and will fetch 6-stable packages. They still work for now and until I get ports up its a convenient way to get xorg and other items installed. I have not altered the sup files yet either.

The recommended way to get source is to check it out using the new anonymous cvs. (as of yesterday) Information is in the develop section of the website.

MidnightBSD now includes OpenBSD 3.9's ksh which is based on pdksh.  ksh is not included in /rescue and is not static. /bin/sh has not be changed to ksh either. 

I want to import a few more changes and release a new snapshot in the next few days. 

I'll attempt a sparc64 build soon. 

Today I made some changes to sysinstall.  I'm hoping to get ftp install working with the next snapshot.  I also imported the latest sendmail release over the weekend.

Over the weekend, I created a new snapshot iso of MidnightBSD.  It includes 7 security patches and a new version of Sendmail.  It has has some minor fixes with the rc scripts. 

The cvs server was recently moved to stargazer.midnightbsd.org.  I've also moved the website to the new server as well. 

xorg is not currently building.  I haven't had time to look at it yet, but you can simply use the FreeBSD 6 stable packages safely.

I was able to get some snapshot isos built.  I'm throw a link in to them soon.  The sticking point with me right now is what to do about a window manager.  There are quite a few choices and many are GPL licensed.  I'd prefer to use BSD or MIT licensed code when possible.  I don't see much choice though.  Here's my short list: (not that short)

WindowMaker
Sawfish
XFCE
something custom...
OpenBSD's modified twm?

I also considered enlightenment 1.6 and 1.7.  I liked 1.7, but its not stable enough yet.  Afterstep is too weird in recent versions. 

The problem with window managers is that for some they are religion.  Of course ports will contain others anyway, but I want a solid default.  It refects the usability and spin put on my project.

I'm leaning toward WindowMaker.  I prefer it personally and I showed a few users WindowMaker vs Gnome and KDE desktops.  Most described WIndowMaker as simple.  I didn't have them use it though.  Usibility is very important to me.  I don't want KDE because two other BSD projects are exploring that and I'm not sure how receptive Gnome developers would be to including patches I might need.  If I go the gnome route, I might as well call it ubuntubsd or something.  I don't want that.

I'm just going to do WindowMaker in the first few releases and work on something custom long term.  That seems the best. 

Still don't know what toolkit to use though. :)

I finally got time to work on the source repository.
/usr/src/share/doc/usd/13.viref didn't get imported properly which caused the world to fail. I've imported the makefile which didn't get added initially. The kernel config files for various architectures didn't get imported either. I'm adding those now.

Checking out the source is working now

To setup your environment use:
CVSROOT=:ext:user@mail.foolishgames.com:/home/cvs
CVS_RSH=ssh

Of course you need an account for this to work. I do not have anonymous cvs working at this time.

I thought I'd create a new journal to track progress on Midnight BSD.  It might be interesting and supplemental to information on the site someday.