FreeNAS 8 Plugins

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Gerard

FreeNAS 8.2 and newer versions have support for plugins, i.e. extentions in the form of PC-BSD‘s PBIs (Push Button Install).

There’s some good plugin documentation available on the FreeNAS website explaining how to use the plugins, how to install the plugins jail, how to create, find, install, and configure PBIs, such as Firefly, miniDLNA and Transmission. If there’s no PBI available (yet), the page shows how you can create your own PBIs, and how to install non-PBI software using the FreeBSD ports and packages collections.

Plugin support is still a bit crude in FreeNAS 8.2, but it is looking a lot more polished in the upcoming FreeNAS 8.3.

FreeNAS 8 Plugins

FreeNAS 8.2.0 Plugins Part 1: Installing

FreeNAS 8.3.0 Plugins Part 2: Plugins Configuration

 

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FreeBSD – Encrypt swap partition with GELI

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Gerard

Ronnie has added a new video to the BSDTutorial Youtube channel. This video teaches you how to encrypt the swap partition in FreeBSD

1. Edit /boot/loader.conf

2. Add:

  • Add GEOM_ELI
  • Add device_crypto

3. Edit /etc/fstab

  • Add .eli at the end of your swap device name

4. Reboot

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FreeNAS Plugins Part 2: Plugins Configuration (video)

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Gerard

The FreeNAS Team has uploaded another video showing how to configure the Transmission, Firefly, and MiniDLNA plugins on FreeNAS 8.3.0 and how make them together as a streaming media platform.

Video 1 can be watched here

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FreeBSD Events and Conferences material (videos, pdf, guides etc)

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Gerard

Since not not everybody is able to attend (all) FreeBSD related conferences, it’s good that these presentations are uploaded so everybody can watch them later, and the rest of the online community can familiarise themselves with FreeBSD and related operating systems.

Recently the FreeBSD Multimedia page has had an update and Dru Lavigne has added much useful material and links to bsdevents.org.

If you want to catch up on some recent conferences this weekend, have a look at the two links above.

 

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FreeBSD running on the Nintentdo Wii (work in progress)

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Gerard

Olivier, who is the founder and maintainer of BSDRP (BSD Router Project), has recently been working on getting FreeBSD to run on the Nintendo Wii gaming console: FreeBSD kernel for Wii.

See it here in action:

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pfSense tutorial: Configure pfSense as an SMB-caliber firewall

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Gerard

“Imagine this scenario: Another business group in your midsize company needs some new network connectivity, but they also require a number of network security features, including an integrated access point, user authentication, VPN capabilities, and a firewall to separate a certain group from the rest of the network. Oh, and they also want access to Snort and Nmap. Luckily, pfSense offers all of these features along with a number of customization options.”

Keith Barker explains in this video tutorial how to configure an SMB-caliber firewall

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FreeNAS 8.3.0-BETA3 available

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Gerard

The FreeNAS team has announced the availability of FreeNAS 8.3.0-BETA3. This is the last planned public beta of 8.3.0 as it moves towards the final.

“This BETA includes a refactoring of the Active Directory and LDAP integration. It has a rework of serial port support, adding the ability to set the serial port speed. The NFS sharing was refactored in BETA2 with an eye towards maintaining compatability with sharing schemes set up in previous FreeNAS releases. The refactored sharing is more powerful and flexible than previous releases, while enforcing the OS based rules. Support for the LSI “skinny” RAID conrollers was added.”

Announcement | Download FreeNAS 8.3.0-BETA3 | FreeNAS website

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PC-BSD: From C*p to Critical

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Gerard

Michael Dexter has written up a review of PC-BSD 9.1.

He thinks PC-BSD is a great system with many window managers to choose from, has a good package manager and great jails management.

However, FreeBSD’s weak point is PC-BSD‘s: hardware support.

“It took time but PC-BSD is really shaping up nicely and teaches quite a few lessons about holistic OS design. I haven’t even explored its “Life Preserver” backup/FreeNAS option but the developers are clearly are focusing on adding the missing tools of the highest value. They are also focused on creating a complete client/server ecosystem and PC-BSD 9.1 users can look forward to expanded command line alternatives to the GUI tools. PC-BSD also has quite a few invisible features such as the unified base OS .txz it uses for jail creation that I may end up using for building BHyVe images. PC-BSD 9.0 and newer is truly worth a try and I applaud the progress its developers have made.”

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