Published on
March 9, 2010 in
FreeBSD.
For those interested in following news on Twitter: I (http://twitter.com/gvanessen) have created a custom FreeBSD news list: http://twitter.com/gvanessen/freebsd
This list if made up of the following feeds:
If you’re aware of any other interesting, mainly FreeBSD related twitter feeds, let me know and I’ll add them as well.
Dru Lavigne’s Best of FreeBSD Basics book is now available for the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. (via)
Published on
March 6, 2010 in
FreeBSD.
Hans Petter has been working hard recently on webcamd, making Linux webcam drivers work on FreeBSD.
Webcamd is a port of Video4Linux USB webcam drivers into userspace. It is a 500KiloByte daemon that enables use of hundreds of different USB based webcam devices under the FreeBSD-8/9 operating system. The webcam daemon is basically an application which is a port of Video4Linux USB webcam drivers into userspace on FreeBSD. The daemon currently depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and the VIDEO4BSD kernel module.
Webcamd is a small daemon that enables use of hundreds of different USB based webcam and DVB devices under the FreeBSD-8.0 and later operating system. The webcam daemon is basically an application which is a port of Video4Linux USB drivers into userspace on FreeBSD. The daemon currently depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and libcuse4bsd.
Licensing wise the webcamd is GPL’ed due to the external Video4Linux part which is GPL’ed, though some files inside the webcamd remains BSD licensed which allows for building similar BSD licensed daemons.
Check out his website for a step-by-step howto: video4bsd daemon. The software can also be installed from ports: /usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd
BSDTalk has a 30 minute interview with Jeff Roberson. Will Backman talks withFreeBSD committer Jeff about his recent work on softupdates journaling (SUJ) and also the ULE scheduler.
BSDTalk 186 – Listen to the podcast: MP3 | OGG
BSDTalk has a 16 minute interview with James Nixon, webmaster and committer for PC-BSD and employed by iXsystems.
They talk about some of the new features coming up in PC-BSD 8.0, gaming on BSD, his work on the unique look and feel of PC-BSD, and Camp KDE.
BSDTalk 185 – Listen to the podcast: MP3 | OGG
Published on
March 5, 2010 in
PC-BSD.
PC-BSD 8.0 was released last week. Version 8.0 of this desktop-friendly and user-friendly FreeBSD version seems to be liked, mentioned and welcomed on many websites. The announcement made it even on the BSD-undriendly Slashdot.
Some other sites:
A problem has been identified with the FreeBSD 7 series ULE Scheduler :
FreeBSD has two schedulers: the classic 4BSD scheduler and a newer, more SMP-aware scheduler called ULE. The 4BSD scheduler was the default scheduler until FreeBSD 7.0. Starting with FreeBSD 7.1 the default scheduler is ULE.
The scheduler is responsible for allocating CPU time to threads and assigning threads to CPUs. Runnable threads (i.e. threads which arenot waiting for a blocking operation, such as an I/O operation, memory allocation or lock acquisition, to complete) are assigned to a CPU and placed in that CPU’s run queue. Each thread and each CPU’s run queue is protected by a separate lock.
II. Problem Description
When a thread is reassigned from one CPU to another, the scheduler first acquires the thread’s lock, then releases the source CPU’s run queue lock. The scheduler then acquires the target CPU’s run queue lock and holds the lock while it adds the thread to the queue and signals the target CPU. Finally it reacquires the source CPU’s run queue lock before unlocking the thread. A thread on the target CPU, having been notified of the reassigned thread’s arrival on the target CPU’s run queue, will then acquire the thread’s lock before switching it in.
Read the whole errata
For general information regarding FreeBSD Errata Notices and Security Advisories, including descriptions of the fields above, security branches, and the following sections, please visit http://security.freebsd.org
Published on
March 5, 2010 in
FreeBSD.
bsdtv.org has launched on blip.tv
Currently there are 3 videos listed:
1 BSDTV -NYCBUG
This video was made from the slides and audio recording of a NYCBUG meeting in Jan. of 2010. From the NYCBUG site: This presentation gives a brief high level overview of Hadoop. Next, we hit the ground running with a quick practical example of how Hadoop solves a “big data” problem. We also discuss how the demonstrated Hadoop processing model scales out to terabytes of data and hundreds or even thousands of computers.
2 BSD4LinuxUsers
Dru Lavigne, Chair of the BSD Certification Group gives an informative talk about the differences between Linux-based and BSD Operating Systems. This talk covers the different BSD Operating Systems (PCBSD, DragonFlyBSD FreeBSD NetBSD & OpenBSD) and how they compare with the numerous Linux-based distributions.
3 BSD Certification Group: A Case Study in Open Source Certification
Dru Lavigne, Chair of the BSD Certification Group gives an informative talk about the creation of the open source certification system for the BSD operating system. This talk covers the BSDA and BSDP certifications and the Psychometrically Valid testing process for confirming an in depth knowledge of the BSD operating system.
To get involved in bsdTV, contact Patric McEvoy
For those not aware, there’s also a YouTube BSD Conferences channel
Published on
March 5, 2010 in
FreeBSD.
Nvidia has released new video drivers for FreeBSD yesterday (v 195.36.08)
Nvidia is making quite a lot of gamers happy with the latest update to its display drivers for *NIX platforms (Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris). Nvidia 195.36.08 adds support for a few of the latest graphics adapters from the chip maker, specifically Quadro FX 880M, GeForce GTS 350M and GeForce GTS 360M. The latest Nvidia 195.36.08 driver also adds support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Stereo with Quadro GPUs. It also comes with a lot of updates and changes for the VDPAU API Nvidia developed to offload video processing and decoding to the graphics unit. (source)
Highlights of Nvidia 195.36.08:
- Support for the following GPUs: Quadro FX 880M, GeForce GTS 350M, GeForce GTS 360M;
- Support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Stereo on Linux with Quadro GPUs;
- Unofficial preliminary support for xorg-server video driver ABI version 7, including xorg-server-1.7.99.2;
- Altered NVIDIA X driver behavior in the case that no display devices are connected to the GPU;
- Updated `nvidia-settings –query all` to report all available attributes queryable through all NV-CONTROL target types;
- A lot of updates and fixes for the VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) library;
- A very long list of bug fixes.
Complete change log and download FreeBSD Nvidia driver
Dru Lavigne’s “Definitive Guide to PC-BSD” book is now available to pre-order at freebsdmall.com and amazon.com
This is the table of contents.
Recent Comments