BSD & Darwin Archive

Out SMART Your Hard Drive

Submitted by Matty 2005-09-29 BSD & Darwin 7 Comments

"If you have used disk drives during your career, I am sure you are well aware of the issues that arise when a device unexpectedly dies. This short article describes how to use smartmontools to view S.M.A.R.T status information, which can be used to predict if and when a device may fail."

BSD Usage Survey

Submitted by Dave B 2005-09-17 BSD & Darwin 17 Comments

The BSD Certification Group are running a new survey: the BSD Usage Survey. This survey aims to collect detailed statistics on how and where BSD systems are used around the world. The survey is short - only 19 questions - and should only take a few minutes to complete.

Introduction to Kernel Extension Concepts

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-17 BSD & Darwin 11 Comments

Mac OS X provides a kernel extension mechanism as a means of allowing dynamic loading of pieces of code into the kernel, without the need to recompile. These pieces of code are known generically as plug-ins or, in the Darwin kernel, as kernel extensions or KEXTs.

Petition To Bring Crossover Office to BSD

Andrew Youll 2005-08-29 BSD & Darwin 30 Comments

A petition has been started to present to Codeweavers to show that BSD is a viable platform for which to release Crossover Office. Update: For those who aren't keen on posting their email address this note posted by the petition organiser will hopefully put your minds at ease.

DesktopBSD: Following PC-BSD’s Footsteps?

Submitted by anonymous 2005-08-02 BSD & Darwin 91 Comments

It seems that PC-BSD has set a trend. "DesktopBSD aims at being a stable and powerful operating system for desktop users. DesktopBSD combines the stability of FreeBSD, the usability and functionality of KDE and the simplicity of specially developed software to provide a system that's easy to use and install." How this new BSD distribution stacks up against PC-BSD remains to be seen.

DragonFly BSD Journaling Progress

Submitted by Trent 2005-07-05 BSD & Darwin 19 Comments

Matthew Dillon has made significant progress on DragonFly's journaling code, which can now mirror partitions. Essentially all that remains now is for the "reverse journaling" work to be completed (allowing for filesystem rollback), and for stability to be increased. More information here and here

BSD cognoscenti on Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-06-15 BSD & Darwin 38 Comments

Recently NewsForge published an interview with Linus Torvalds on the similarities and differences between the Linux kernel and the BSD operating systems. As a follow-up, NewsForge asked similar questions of OpenBSD's Theo de Raadt, and NetBSD's Christos Zoulas.

The Mach Kernel

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-16 BSD & Darwin 11 Comments

Learn more about the inner workings of the Mach Kernel in this PDF article.

BSD Binary updates

Submitted by Andrea 2005-05-13 BSD & Darwin 29 Comments

BSD Updates provides online security and operating system upgrades for BSD systems in binary format. No messy source patches. No waiting for system rebuilds. Just an easy to navigate web interface which securely applies the latest patches in just minutes. Read More.

DarwinPorts: 2500+ OSS Titles for Darwin/Mac OS X

David Adams 2005-05-04 BSD & Darwin 15 Comments

After more than two years in the making, DarwinPorts 1.0 is now available in binary and in source form. The DarwinPorts Project's main goal is to provide an easy way to install various open-source software products on the Darwin OS family (OpenDarwin, Mac OS X and Darwin).

Darwin 8.0.1 Installer CD Available

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-03 BSD & Darwin 72 Comments

The Darwin 8.0.1 Installer CD is available and corresponds to the open source core of Mac OS X 10.4.

DragonFly 1.2 is now Released

Submitted by GeekGod 2005-04-09 BSD & Darwin 12 Comments

1.2.0 is the second major DragonFly release and the first one which its devs have created a separate CVS branch for. DragonFly's policy is to only commit bug fixes to release branches. This release represents a significant milestone in efforts to improve the kernel infrastructure. DragonFly is still running under the Big Giant Lock, but this will probably be the last release where that is the case.

DragonFly 1.2 Release Candidate available for Download

Submitted by David Rhodus 2005-04-07 BSD & Darwin 40 Comments

After many months of work DragonFly is about to release version 1.2 of its BSD based operating system. The first release candidate version can be download from dfly-20050406-pre1.2.iso.gz

Interview with mach_inject creator for OS X/Darwin

Submitted by Bill Hong 2005-03-28 BSD & Darwin 4 Comments

There's an interview up with the creator of mach_inject, the OSS libraries that lets many apps override functions in any running process to change its behavior. It is very long, and touches on everything from compilers on the PowerPC to Apple's difficulties in breaking into the business market and why WebObjects is dying.

BSD Certification Group Announced

Submitted by Tyr 2005-03-17 BSD & Darwin 9 Comments

A new initiative has been started to create a BSD Certification: "The BSD Certification Group was formed in January, 2005 to create a BSD certification program that is recognized as the industry standard for administering BSD systems." Involved, among others, is Dru Lavigne of 'BSD Hacks' fame and David Rhodus (as mentioned on the DragonFlyBSD users list).

DragonFlyBSD slides

Guest post by Eduardo Tongson 2005-02-22 BSD & Darwin 20 Comments

I have created slides for an introduction to DragonflyBSD which was originally used for a recent get together of the Philippines BSD users group.

TextOS 1.0b5 “Architect” released

Submitted by Daniel Quintiliani 2005-02-20 BSD & Darwin 17 Comments

TextOS, the small FreeDOS-based operating system/programming language on a floppy, has been updated to version 1.0b5 "Architect." It fixes some bugs and includes the long-awaited PAK file creation menu, which makes it easier to create your own TextOS PAK applications. Download it here.