netbsd-announce: Quarterly Status Report: October

Subject: Quarterly Status Report: October - December 2004
To: None <netbsd-announce@netbsd.org>
From: Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netbsd.org>
List: netbsd-announce
Date: 01/11/2005 12:28:03
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NetBSD Quarterly Status Report - 2004Q4

NetBSD is an actively developed operating system.  With fifty four
different system architectures in total and binary support of over 48
architectures in our last official release (NetBSD 2.0), our widely
portable Packages Collection ``pkgsrc'' and large userbase there is a
lot going on within the project.  In order to allow our users to
follow the most important changes over the last few months, we provide
a brief summary in these official status reports on a regular basis.
These status reports are suitable for reproduction and publication in
part or in whole as long as the source is clearly indicated.

- -Jan Schaumann <jschauma@NetBSD.org>


October - December 2004:

The last three months of 2004 were full of exciting developments
within the NetBSD Project.  Not only did the new official NetBSD Logo
get announced (with all the hoopla and discussions about the choice
this bikeshed-prone topic solicits), but we also released the much
anticipated NetBSD 2.0 and the pkgsrc team created a new stable
branch, pkgsrc-2004Q4.

But the last quarter also brought some problems:  the 2.0 release went
through several Release Candidates in October and November before the
final release was unfortunately held back by a hardware failure of the
main release engineering server.  Together with the recent failure of
the anoncvs server this meant significant expenses for this volunteer
project.  If you would like to help us out with a tax-deductible
donation, please contact <finance-exec@NetBSD.org>.

This and other news from the fourth quarter of 2004 within NetBSD in
details below:


Administrative:
	- releng.NetBSD.org down [20041019]
	- anoncvs down due to random memory corruption [20041223]
	- New Developers [20050101]

Miscellaneous:
	- EuroBSDCon [20041029]
	- New Logo [20041030]
	- NetBSD 2.0 released [20041209]
	- NetBSD Live CD runs contest [20041119]

pkgsrc:
	- New supported platform: DragonFlyBSD [20041031]
	- Changes to the Packages Collection in October [20041109]
	- New supported platform: OSF/1 [20041120]
	- Changes to the Packages Collection in November [20041201]
	- New pkgsrc-2004Q4 branch [20041221]
	- Dates set for pkgsrcCon '05 [20041122]
	- Changes to the Packages Collection in December [20050104]
Ports:
	- sparc64: important stability fix [20041201]
	- New Port: NetBSD/iyonix [20041013]
	- evbarm: NetBSD ported to TS-7200 [20041224]

Security:
	- One Security Advisory released [20041216]

Technical:
	- ptyfs imported [20041111]
	- OpenPAM imported [20041212]
	- bind 9.3, file 4.12, pf 3.6 and postfix 2.1.5 imported



Administrative:
===============

releng.NetBSD.org down [20041019]
- ---------------------------------

The NetBSD Project runs a machine to continuously build binary
snapshots of the latest development version, NetBSD-current, as well
as the latest stable branch, currently netbsd-2, on a daily base. The
machine is also used during release cycles to assemble releases, but
due to hardware failure, the machine was closed down, and the release
had to be assembled manually for all 48 binary platforms that NetBSD
2.0 supports. We hope to bring back this service soon, to offer binary
updates to users who are either interested in latest development
snapshots or snapshots from the stable branch.


anoncvs down due to random memory corruption [20041223]
- -------------------------------------------------------

The NetBSD anoncvs server, anoncvs.NetBSD.org, suffered random memory
corruption in December and had to be taken offline.  The NetBSD
Administration Team is in the process of diagnosing and repairing the
problem. The anonymous CVS server will be unavailable until we can
find a replacement machine or repair the current one.  In the
meantime, you can download the tar file available from ftp.NetBSD.org.
The tar files of -current (the head of the CVS tree) are updated daily
and are located in:

	/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current

If you would like to help contribute to the replacement of this
essential service, please consider making a tax-deductible donation
using PayPal (paypal@NetBSD.org) or through other means by contacting
<finance-exec@NetBSD.org>.  See http://www.NetBSD.org/donations/ for
details.


New Developers [20050101]
- -------------------------

The NetBSD project is pleased to welcome the following new developers
during the fourth quarter of 2004:

- - Stephan Uphoff (login: ups), who will be working on SMP and threads.
- - Susanne Petra Zeidler (login: spz), who will be working on administration,
  Documentation and odds & ends.
- - Peter Postma (login: peter), who will be working on pf and the NetBSD
  Packages Collection.
- - Kouichirou Hiratsuka (login: hira), who will be working on the NetBSD
  Packages Collection and bug fixing.



Miscellaneous:
==============

EuroBSDCon [20041029]
- ---------------------

EuroBSDCon 2004 took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from October 29th to
October 31st.  The NetBSD Project had a strong presence, dominating
the conference with a total of 11 (out of 23) papers presented either
by NetBSD developers or on NetBSD related topics, with topics
including binary compatibility with MacOS X, cross-compilation of
pkgsrc, deploying NetBSD as a scalable desktop solution and handheld
Desktop machines (among others).

The NetBSD Project also set up a merchandise booth to advocate NetBSD,
inform users, answer questions and sell t-shirts, CDs and other
goodies.

The conference website now contains the majority of the talks and
papers online at http://2004.eurobsdcon.org/.

For a short report, also see
http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-advocacy/2004/11/02/0000.html

The NetBSD Project was, of course, also represented at various other
events worldwide, such as Systems (Munich, Germany), BSD Conference
(Japan), Kansai-OpenSource (Japan), 21st Chaos Communications Congress
(Berlin, Germany)

See http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/events.html for more information.


New Logo [20041030]
- -------------------

On October 30th, the NetBSD Projects new official logo was announced.
The logo was selected out of over 400 submissions by 238 artists.  The
winning logo was submitted by Grant   Bissett, a new media designer
from Perth, Western Australia.                                                

Members of the NetBSD Foundation voted for the new logo from a
short-list of six submitted designs selected by the logo committee.
Characteristics important for the new logo were simplicity, appealing
form and color choice, and identification with the project.

The new logo, which features a flag, is used on the NetBSD.org website
and will be used for software media, apparel, advertisements,
promotional materials, and the NetBSD Foundation literature.

As was anticipated, the choice of the logo was surrounded by lengthy
discussions and much feedback.  It is worth noting, however, that the
choice of a new logo does not mean the abandonment of the mascot, the
beloved daemon.

See http://www.NetBSD.org/Foundation/press/new-logo.html.


NetBSD 2.0 released [20041209]
- ------------------------------

NetBSD 2.0, the tenth major release of the NetBSD Operating System,
was released on December 9th.  This release, which includes binary
distributions for 48 architectures continues our long tradition with
major improvements in file system and memory management performance,
major security enhancements, and support for many new platforms and
peripherals.               

The addition of a native threads implementation for all platforms and
symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) on i386 and other popular platforms
were long-standing goals for NetBSD 2.0. Both of these goals have now
been met -- SMP support has been added for i386, SPARC, and PowerPC,
the SMP support on Alpha and VAX has been improved, and the new port
to the 64-bit AMD/Opteron also supports SMP.

See http://www.NetBSD.org/Releases/formal-2.0/NetBSD-2.0.html


NetBSD Live CD runs contest [20041119]
- --------------------------------------

Many Open Source projects pride themselves in providing a Live CD to
allow users to test their OS without having to install it.  Of course
NetBSD does also provide such a Live CD, but much more than that, the
NetBSD Live CD can easily be customized and be used for many purposes.

A custom NetBSD 2.0-Beta Live CD, developed by Jan Schaumann using the
sysutils/mklivecd package was used to run the ACM Greater New York
Regional Programming Contest in November, hosted at Stevens Institute
of Technology.

See http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-advocacy/2004/11/17/0000.html
and http://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/acm/ for details, including
instructions on how to re-create this CD as well as the entire setup.

Another, more general purpose NetBSD 2.0 based live CD that may be of
interest to a wider base of users, booting into KDE and offering
various desktop and networking programs is available from
ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/2.0/i386live.iso or via BitTorrent
from ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/2.0/i386live.iso.torrent.



pkgsrc:
=======


New supported platform: DragonFlyBSD [20041031]
- -----------------------------------------------

The NetBSD Packages Collection was ported to yet another platform on
October 31st 2004.  The newest OS to benefit from pkgsrc is
DragonFlyBSD, support for which was provided by Todd Willey on the
tech-pkg mailinglist.


Changes to the Packages Collection in October [20041109]
- --------------------------------------------------------

At the end of October 2004, there were 5083 packages in the NetBSD
Packages Collection, up from 5011 the previous month, a rise of 72.
The Package of the Month award goes to pkgsrc/audio/daapd, which scans
a directory for mp3 files and makes them available via the Apple
proprietary protocol DAAP.  DAAP clients can browse the directory and
retrieve individual files, either by streaming or by downloading them.
There are some DAAP clients in pkgsrc/audio, and iTunes can play the
MP3s served by daapd. My thanks to Nathan Williams for packaging this.


New supported platform: OSF/1 [20041120]
- ---------------------------------------

The NetBSD Packages Collection was ported to yet another platform on
November 20th, 2004.  The newest OS to benefit from pkgsrc is OSF/1,
support for which was imported by Grant Beattie.


Changes to the Packages Collection in November [20041201]
- ---------------------------------------------------------

At the end of November 2004, there were 5190 packages in the NetBSD
Packages Collection, up from 5083 the previous month, a rise of 107.
The Package of the Month award for November 2004 goes to qemu
(pkgsrc/emulators/qemu), nominated by a huge number of people
including Matt Green, Hubert Feyrer, Nick Hudson, and, according to
Quentin Garnier, "anybody who gave qemu a try".  qemu is a very fast
dynamic-translating CPU emulator, which can give you a number of
virtual machines all running at good emulation speeds.
	  
See http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-pkg/2004/12/14/0006.html for details.


New pkgsrc-2004Q4 branch [20041221]
- -----------------------------------

After a two week long freeze on the pkgsrc repository, the NetBSD
Packages Team cut the pkgsrc-2004Q4 branch, obsoleting pkgsrc-2004Q3
as the currently maintained and stable pkgsrc branch.  Among many
other things, this new branch includes support for two new platforms
(OSF/1 and DragonFlyBSD), an improved infrastructure for non-NetBSD
platforms and improved support for non-gcc compilers.

The source tar files for the new branch can be found at:
	
	ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/2004Q4/pkgsrc-2004Q4.tar.gz
	ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/2004Q4/pkgsrc-2004Q4.tar.bz2

and you can use the "pkgsrc-2004Q4" tag to check it out yourself from
anoncvs.NetBSD.org and any of the mirrors.


Dates set for pkgsrcCon '05 [20041122]
- --------------------------------------

After the widely successfull pkgsrcCon '04 last Spring in Vienna, the
planning of the upcoming pkgsrcCon '05 immediately begun, and at the
final time and place were announced in November:

pkgsrcCon '05 will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, from May 6 -
May 8, 2005.  pkgsrcCon is a technical conference for people working
on the NetBSD Packages Collection (pkgsrc), focusing on existing
technologies, research projects, and works-in-progress in pkgsrc
infrastructure. Developers, contributors, and users are all welcome to
attend.

See http://www.pkgsrcCon.org for details. 


Changes to the Packages Collection in December [20050104]
- ---------------------------------------------------------

At the end of December 2004, there were 5266 packages in the NetBSD
Packages Collection, up from 5190 the previous month, a rise of 76.
Among the many changes, updates and additions are new versions of kde,
gnome, and an addition of a wiki.  The first annual Alistair Crooks
"My Name on All Files" award goes to Grant Beattie for his updates of
perl5 packages.

As part of the infrastructure, pkg_install utilities were modified to
use a large buffer for full path names, even on operating systems
which don't use the Berkeley FFS.

The Package of the Month award goes to:  pkgsrc/graphics/graphviz,
nominated by many people including Andrew Brown, Dan McMahill, and
Alistair Crooks.

See http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-pkg/2005/01/04/0006.html for details.



Ports:
======

Due to the large number of supported platforms, this status report
will only point out the very significant changes to some of the ports.
For a full list of port-specific changes, please refer to
http://www.NetBSD.org/Changes/changes-2.0.html#port_specific and
http://www.NetBSD.org/Changes/changes-2.1.html#port_specific.


sparc64: important stability fix [20041201]
- -------------------------------------------

A very important commit that fixes a long-term stability problem for
sparc64 (which due to other changes had become very annoying lately)
was committed on December 1st.  This commit
(http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/source-changes/2004/12/01/0005.html)
fixes PRs 24126, 25669 and 27730, and while it unfortunately did not
make it into 2.0, the patch applies cleanly.


New Port: NetBSD/iyonix [20041013]
- ----------------------------------

Gavan Fantom <gavan@NetBSD.org> has imported a new port into the
NetBSD source tree: NetBSD/iyonix.  Iyonix is an ARM based PC. See
http://www.iyonix.com/ and http://www.NetBSD.org/Ports/iyonix for more
details on Iyonix or join the port-iyonix mailing list at
http://www.NetBSD.org/MailingLists/#port-iyonix


evbarm: NetBSD ported to TS-7200 [20041224]
- -------------------------------------------

Jesse Off <joff@NetBSD.org> has committed support for the TS-7200 into
the NetBSD/evbarm port.   The TS-7200 is a low-cost mass-produced
PC/104 embedded single board computer intended as a general purpose
core for real embedded applications.  The TS-7200 uses the Cirrus
Logic EP9302 ARM9 system-on-chip and comes with a PC/104 (isa) bus and
can either boot to CompactFlash or onboard flash.  The board also has
general purpose digital IO and optional multichannel analog-to-digital
converters. More information on the TS-7200 can be found at
http://www.embeddedarm.com/epc/ts7200-spec-h.html

More information about the porting process and detailed instructions
are available online at http://www.embeddedarm.com/~joff.  Also, see
http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-ports/2005/01/04/0000.html and
http://www.NetBSD.org/Ports/evbarm/




Security:
=========

One Security Advisory released [20041216]
- ------------------------------------------

The NetBSD Security-Officer team released one security advisory in
the fourth quarter of 2004:

* ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-SA2004-010.txt.asc
  Insufficient argument validation in compat code

NetBSD 2.0 was not affected by this advisory.

More information on previous Security Advisories is available at
http://www.NetBSD.org/Security/.



Technical:
==========

ptyfs imported [20041111]
- -------------------------

Christos Zoulas has committed a ptyfs implementation in November 2004.
This was done to get rid of all the tty and pty files in /dev and is
needed for compat_linux.  See Christos' implementation notes in hist
message to the tech-kern mailing list at
http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-kern/2004/11/08/0016.html


OpenPAM imported [20041212]
- ---------------------------

Christos Zoulas has imported OpenPAM ``Eeelgrass'' (http://www.openpam.org)
into the base system on December 12th, 2004.

OpenPAM is an open source PAM library that focuses on simplicity,correctness,
and cleanliness.  It is specified in the X/Open Document Number P702
(http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/008329799/).


bind 9.3, file 4.12, pf 3.6 and postfix 2.1.5 imported
- ------------------------------------------------------

Among the many significant source changes in the last three months,
there were the update of Bind to 9.3 (20041106 by Christos Zoulas),
file 4.12 (20041213 by Antti Kantee), pf 3.6 (20041114 by YAMAMOTO
Takashi) and postfix 2.1.5 (20041113 by John Heasley).

Of course there were uncountable other changes and additions -- please
see http://www.NetBSD.org/Changes/.


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