Monthly Archive for January, 2009

Free like FreeBSD (incl photos)

Published on January 30, 2009 in FreeBSD. 0 Comments

Here’s an interesting account of a move from Windows Server 2008 to FreeBSD

…

The most important thing for the server should be file storage. Secure file storage! Well, using Windows Server allowed me to use the onboard RAID0/1 controller to create a mirror of 2x 1TB drives. Nice, but.. I wanted to go to RAID5 and there’s also the costs. Not just for a good RAID card which costs around 350 – 400 Euro (PCIexpress, 3ware), no it’s also the licence for a Windows Server which is pretty expensive. Too expensive for a server that serves just 7 computers in our and the neighbours house.

So, I turned to Google and typed “Good OS for a fileserver”, and guess what it said? FreeBSD. Sure, FreeBSD… I tried that years ago – as desktop and it was nice and easy (compared to Linux very easy and much better structured), but it was never an OS that I would recommend for a desktop.

Then I turned to an IRC channel where I often stayed in the last few years from time to time. It’s the IRC channel of the BSDGroup.de. (The IRC channel is #bsdgroup.de on irc.freenode.org (6667) if you would like to join, but it’s mainly in German). I snapped some keywords on ZFS and RAIDz. Hm.. ZFS? Isn’t this the groundbreaking new filesystem from SUN Microsystems? Yes! And it was ported to FreeBSD. Wow! I like SUN, I like their hardware which is very structured build (ever installed hardware into a SUN? That’s very similar to the Mac Pro – just easy to do!) and of course I fight with Java on my Cisco’s notebook every day. No, I like SUN – they have humor and do cool commercials which you can check out on YouTube.

Read the whole story here.

Source: klein2.de (29/01/2009)

FreeBSD Status Report: October – December 2008

Published on January 30, 2009 in FreeBSD status reports. 0 Comments

FreeBSD LogoThe FreeBSD 2008 Quarterly Status Report is now available (Oct – Nov):

This quarter included some very exciting work including the release of FreeBSD 6.4 and the much anticipated release of FreeBSD 7.1. We also launched our own official FreeBSD Forums. The first Bugathon of the year will be held this weekend, see below for more information and how to participate.

Thanks to all the reporters for the excellent work! We hope you enjoy reading.

Projects

FreeBSD Team Reports

Kernel

Architectures

Documentation

Miscellaneous

Previous Status Reports can be found here.

Source: www.freebsd.org (29/01/2009)

Mount ReiserFS partitions in FreeBSD (howto)

Published on January 30, 2009 in FreeBSD. 1 Comment Tags: .

My desktop dual boots Gentoo Linux and FreeBSD. When I installed Gentoo at the time I decided on splitting certain directories in distinct partition, so the I created a partition strictly for portage and opted for the ReiserFS filesystem.

Today I wanted to cut down on the bandwith and decided to copy over a needed distfile from the ReiserFS partition to FreeBSD.

Bellow you’ll find the procedure to mount a ReiserFS in read-only mode. Do notice than the entire procedure is performed only on the FreeBSD system:

% man reiserfs
% su
# kldload reiserfs.ko
# mount -t reiserfs -o ro /dev/ad4s5 /mnt

Full post and explanation here

Source: linux-bsd-sharing.blogspot.com (29/01/2008)

Open source NAS device using FreeNAS and iSCSI drives (howtos & video))

Published on January 29, 2009 in FreeNAS. 0 Comments Tags: .

FreeNAS LogoDave Lawlor has put together some really easy-to-follow instructions on how to install and configure FreeNAS.

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, PHP scripts and documentation are based on M0n0wall.

There are a couple of other good howtos available but this one by far the easiest to follow, AND the screenshots are of the latest FreeNAS version (changed GUI).

So far Dave has posted 3 tutorials:

1. Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS – Part 1

(Downloading, installing and accessing FreeNAS for the first time)

2. Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS – Part 2

(Setting up and accessing drives, and testing the FreeNAS installation)

3. How to Setup iSCSI Drive Using FreeNAS

(What is iSCSI and setting it up)

Hopefully we’ll see more posts from him over the next few weeks.

I came also across another interesting FreeNAS related video where Chris, from Jupiter Broadcasting, shows how FreeNAS can transform an old PC into a full blown NAS server:

[youtube 5S8ixAR4Opo]

More information on NAS servers can be found on NAS, SANs and Storage Server Technology

Updated: FreeBSD events and conferences calendar

Published on January 28, 2009 in BSD Certification, FreeBSD and FreeBSD Events calandar. 0 Comments

I’ve updated my FreeBSD Events & Conference Calendar and added:

Did you know being BSDA certified gives you an edge? TAO Security is looking to hire a BSDA certified FreeBSD systems administrator.

If you’re aware of any FreeBSD related events that aren’t listed, please let me know.

Released: NVidia driver 180.22 (x86) for FreeBSD

Published on January 28, 2009 in FreeBSD. 3 Comments

NVidia has announced the availability of the new 180.22 grapics drivers for FreeBSD.

Release Highlights:

  • Added support for the following GPUs:
    • Quadro FX 2700M
    • GeForce 9400M G
    • GeForce 9400M
    • GeForce 9800 GT
    • GeForce 8200M G
    • GeForce Go 7700
    • GeForce 9800M GTX
    • GeForce 9800M GT
    • GeForce 9800M GS
    • GeForce 9500 GT
    • GeForce 9700M GT
    • GeForce 9650M GT
    • GeForce 9500 GT
  • Added initial support for PureVideo-like features via the new VDPAU API (see the vdpau.h header file installed with the driver).
  • Added preliminary support for OpenGL 3.0.
  • Added new OpenGL workstation performance optimizations.
  • Enabled the glyph cache by default and extended its support to all supported GPUs.
  • Disabled shared memory X pixmaps by default; see the “AllowSHMPixmaps” option.
  • Improved X pixmap placement on GeForce 8 series and later GPUs.
  • Improved stability on some GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs.
  • Fixed a regression that could result in window decoration corruption when running Compiz using Geforce 6 and 7 series GPUs.
  • Fixed an nvidia-settings crash when xorg.conf contains Device and Screen sections but no ServerLayout section.
  • Fixed a problem parsing the monitor sync range X config file options.
  • Fixed a problem with the SDI sync skew controls in nvidia-settings.
  • Fixed a problem that caused some SDI applications to hang or crash.
  • Added support for SDI full-range color.

Note that the gtk-2.x ports package(s) shipped with FreeBSD releases > 5.3-RELEASE are binary incompatible with those shipped with FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE; due to this, the `nvidia-settings` binary shipped with 180.22 will not work on FreeBSD > 5.3-RELEASE. This problem can be solved by (re-)building `nvidia-settings` from source:


# fetch ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nv…-180.22.tar.gz
# tar zxf nvidia-settings-180.22.tar.gz
# cd nvidia-settings-1.0# gmake
# install nvidia-settings /usr/X11R6/bin

Download driver | Readme & Installation Guide  

Source: nvidia.com (08/01/2009)

pfSense 1.2.3 testing snapshots

Published on January 28, 2009 in pfSense. 0 Comments
Scott Ullrich of the pfSense project announced the switch of the builder system over to FreeBSD 7.1.
Currently version is 1.2.3-PRERELEASE-TESTING.  
Daily builds can be downloaded here.

Freebsd mount a NAS via SMB / CIFS (howto)

Published on January 28, 2009 in FreeBSD. 1 Comment Tags: .

Qestion: I want to use our NAS server to store backups. Our NAS supports FTP and CIFS / SMB sharing technology. How do I mount and store files on NAS using FreeBSD? How do I automate entire procedure using a shell script? Is that doable? If so, what’s the easiest solution ftp or CIFS?

Answer. The mount_smbfs command mounts a share from a remote server using SMB/CIFS protocol. You can easily mount NAS share using the following syntax:

Source: cyberciti.biz (25/01/2008)

FreeBSD development-related books, papers, slides

Published on January 28, 2009 in FreeBSD. 0 Comments

Danger@, a FreeBSD developer, is planning to maintain a list  on the FreeBSD Forums of books, slides, tutorials, videos and other multimedia resources which are related to FreeBSD development.

Check out the current list of resources

Available: x.org 7.4 for FreeBSD (ports)

Published on January 28, 2009 in FreeBSD. 0 Comments

X.org 7.4 is now available for FreeBSD (23/01/2009).

The X.Org project provides an open source implementation of the X Window System. The development work is being done in conjunction with the freedesktop.org community. 

Happy upgrading.