Subject: NetBSD Quarterly Status Report - 2005Q2
To: None <netbsd-announce@netbsd.org>
From: Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netbsd.org>
List: netbsd-announce
Date: 07/12/2005 16:28:30
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NetBSD Quarterly Status Report

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 2.0.2), 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>


April - June 2005:

Administrative:
	- NetBSD 3.0 branched [20050316]
	- NetBSD 2.0.2 released [20050414]
	- Daily snapshots restarted [20050502]
	- New Developers [20050701]

Miscellaneous:
	- NetBSD CVS Digest [20050405]
	- NetBSD in Google's Summer of Code [20050601]
	- NetBSD calls for donations [20050614]

pkgsrc:
	- pkgsrcCon '05 a success [20050508]
	- Sun Hardware Donation for pkgsrc work [20050509]
	- Changes to the Packages Collection in March [20050509]
	- New tools framework [20050513]
	- Cross-building pkgsrc [20050607]
	- New pkgsrc-2005Q2 branch [20050622]
	- Binary packages for 2005Q2 [20050701]

Ports:
	- evbarm: Support for Arcom Viper board committed [20050606]
	- hp700: boot-from-disk / installation tools [20050518]
	- sparc64: X support complete [20050606]

Security:
	- ipf 4.1.8 imported [20050404]
	- ipsec-tools included with NetBSD [20050404]

Technical:
	- Verified Exec update [20050420]
	- PAM Documentation [20050421]
	- Live disk backup [20050428]
	- ath/net80211 imported [20050609]
	- Magic Symlinks [20050625]


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

NetBSD 3.0 branched [20050316]
- ------------------------------

The NetBSD Release Engineering team has created the netbsd-3 branch in
preparation of the upcoming NetBSD 3.0 release.  The NetBSD 3.0
release is planned for late July 2005, a more detailed timeline for
upcoming NetBSD releases (with dates being subject to change, of
course), can be found at
http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-announce/2005/05/02/0002.html.

The release engineering site containing a list of outstanding bugs for
this branch is at http://www.NetBSD.org/releng/releng-3.html.


NetBSD 2.0.2 released [20050414]
- --------------------------------

NetBSD 2.0.2 was released on April 14th, 2002. NetBSD 2.0.2 is the
second security/critical update of the NetBSD 2.0 release branch. This
represents a selected subset of fixes deemed critical in nature for
stability or security reasons. More details are available in the
NetBSD 2.0.2 Release Announcement at
http://www.NetBSD.org/Releases/formal-2.0/NetBSD-2.0.2.html.

Since then, a number of pullup requests have been handled and the
netbsd-2 branch remains fully up to date with respect to critical
updates.


Daily snapshots restarted [20050502]
- ------------------------------------

Regular daily builds for NetBSD have begun again and are available for
public consumption at ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/ (the old
location, ftp://releng.NetBSD.org/, is no longer available). See the
announcement in the netbsd-announce mailing list archives at
http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-announce/2005/05/02/0001.html for
more information.


New Developers [20050701]
- -------------------------

The NetBSD project is pleased to welcome the following new developers
during the second quarter of 2005:

    * Elad Efrat (login: elad) will be working on veriexec, kernel and
      security.
    * Greg Troxel (login: gdt), who will be working on the NetBSD
      Packages Collection, networking code and the building process.
    * Michael Lorenz (login: macallan) will be working on the macppc
      port, the sparc64 port, the sparc port and xsrc.
    * Mike M. Volokhov (login: mishka), who will be working on russian
      translation and advocacy.
    * Rui Paulo (login: rpaulo), who will be working on the NetBSD guide and
      website documentation.
    * Sean Boudreau (login: seanb) will be working on kernel, utilities,
      libc and networking.
    * Silke Scheler (login: silke), who will be working with admins.



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

NetBSD CVS Digest [20050405]
- ----------------------------

Mark Kirby has started the NetBSD CVS Digest
<http://digest.coris.org.uk/>, a weekly summary of the latest changes
in the NetBSD CVS repository. The digest, which also includes a list
of PRs created and closed for a given week is available at
<http://digest.coris.org.uk/>, a RSS-2.0 feed is available at
<http://digest.coris.org.uk/feeds/cvs-rss.xml>.  Many thanks to Mark Kirby for
this useful service!


NetBSD in Google's "Summer of Code" [20050601]
- ----------------------------------------------

Early in June, Google announced a program designed to introduce
students to the world of Open Source software development, its Summer
of Code <http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html>. Even though the
time to apply for one of the slots as a mentoring organization was
brief, the NetBSD Project was accepted and quickly created a list of
possible projects <http://www.NetBSD.org/contrib/projects.html>.

Over a period of two weeks, students researched the list of possible
projects and discussed their proposals on the public mailing lists and
in private with developers and other users alike. After evaluating
over 100 distinct applications, the NetBSD Foundation announced
<http://www.NetBSD.org/Foundation/press/soc.html> the list of projects
that have been chosen:

    * tmpfs: Efficient memory file-system
      <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/tmpfs/>
    * wcurses: Wide Character Support for Curses
      <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/wcurses/>
    * bpg: BSD licensed privacy guard (pgp)
      <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/bpg/>
    * Zeroconfd <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/zeroconf/>
    * userfs: Userspace file system hooks
      <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/userfs/>
    * ndis: NDIS network driver
      <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/ndis/>
    * HFS+ support <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/hfs/>

Since then, the sponsored students have started coding away under the
supervision of their mentors, and the NetBSD Project is looking
forward to the results. Many thanks to Google for making these
projects possible!


NetBSD calls for donations [20050614]
- -------------------------------------

Even though NetBSD has been hesitant to appeal directly to its users
for financial support, in June an official open call for donations
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/netbsd-advocacy/2005/06/12/0002.html>
was made in order to improve the services provided to all NetBSD
users.

Since then, a number of very generous donations have been made by
individuals, user groups and companies
<http://www.NetBSD.org/donations/2005.html>, and the NetBSD Project
would like to thank all contributors for their support!

If you would like to join the number of donors and make a donation
(tax-deductible in the US), you can use your credit card or PayPal
account to donate to paypal@NetBSD.org, or contact
<finance-exec@NetBSD.org> to make other arrangements.


pkgsrc:
=======

pkgsrcCon '05 a success [20050508]
- ----------------------------------

The second pkgsrcCon, 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, was held to great success from May 6th - May 8th 2005,
in Prague, Czech Republic. Most of the presentations given are now
also available online
<http://www.pkgsrcCon.org/2005/presentations.html>.


Sun Hardware Donation for pkgsrc work [20050509]
- ------------------------------------------------

The NetBSD Foundation is pleased to have received the generous
donation of two machines from Sun Microsystems <http://www.sun.com/>
for the purpose of advancing the development of pkgsrc under Solaris.

"Sun is looking forward to working with the NetBSD Project, and
certainly wants to support the pkgsrc efforts," commented Alan DuBoff,
a member of Solaris Engineering at Sun.

For more information, read the press release
<http://www.NetBSD.org/press/sun-donation.html>.


Changes to the Packages Collection in March [20050509]
- ------------------------------------------------------

At the end of March 2005, there were 5377 packages in the Packages
Collection, up from 5331 the previous month, a rise of 46, with many
notable updates, as usual. The Package of the Month award went to
sysutils/dvd+rw-tools
<ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc/sysutils/dvd+rw-tools/README.html>,
with audio/amarok
<ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc/audio/amarok/README.html>
being a close contender.


New pkgsrc tools framework [20050513]
- -------------------------------------

Johnny C. Lam has committed the new pkgsrc tools framework, which is
now the default in pkgsrc, based on the presentation The New Tools
Framework <http://www.pkgsrccon.org/2005/slides/jlam/tools.html> given
at pkgsrcCon '05.


Cross-building pkgsrc [20050607]
- --------------------------------

Krister Walfridsson has imported his pkgsrc cross-building support
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-pkg/2005/06/07/0002.html> into
pkgsrc. This work was originally introduced and presented
<http://2004.eurobsdcon.org/uploads/media/EBSD04_38.pdf> at EuroBSDCon
2004
<http://2004.eurobsdcon.org/talks.html?tx_ptspeechupload_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=38>
and consists of a system running a full NetBSD userland with CPU
emulation, trapping known cpu instructions, system calls and esp.
exec(3)ing known native binaries (ls, crosscompiling cc/gcc) to speed
things up a lot.


New pkgsrc-2005Q2 branch [20050622]
- -----------------------------------

After a long freeze on the pkgsrc CVS repository, the NetBSD Packages
Team cut the pkgsrc-2005Q2 branch, obsoleting pkgsrc-2005Q1 as the
currently maintained and stable pkgsrc branch. Many thanks go to the
pkgsrc release engineering team, who continue to do a job performing
security pullups and maintaining the stable branches.


Binary packages for 2005Q2 [20050701]
- -------------------------------------

The first bulk-builds from the new stable pkgsrc branch 2005Q2 have
been completed, and the resulting binary packages for NetBSD 2.0 have
been uploaded to the ftp server at
<ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc-2005Q2/NetBSD-2.0/>
for the following platforms: algor, alpha, amigappc, arc, bebox,
cobalt, evbppc, hpcmips, i386, macppc, mipsel, mvmeppc, ofppc,
playstation2, pmax, pmppc, powerpc, prep, and sandpoint.

Note that packages built from NetBSD 2.0 can be installed and used
without any problems under NetBSD 2.0.2. Other bulk-builds are still
running, and the resulting binary packages will be uploaded as soon as
they finish.

Please also note that packages that are found vulnerable will be kept
available, but moved from the "All" subdirectory into the "vulnerable"
subdirectory. In order to easily install even those packages (which,
after careful evaluation of the security issue at hand, may be
acceptable under certain circumstances to fulfill prerequisites), make
sure to include both subdirectories in your PKG_PATH environment
variable.


Ports:
======

evbarm: Support for Arcom Viper board committed [20050606]
- ----------------------------------------------------------

Antti Kantee has written and committed support for the Arcom Viper
PXA255-based single board computer.


hp700: boot-from-disk / installation tools [20050518]
- -----------------------------------------------------

Booting from disk now works (via a work-around for the underlying
memory corruption bug). Release builds now include a sysinst-based
installation LIF image.


sparc64: X support complete [20050606]
- --------------------------------------

X is now fully supported on sparc64. The current tree contains working
support for cgsix (sbus) framebuffers, ffb/afb (UPA) framebuffers and
ATI based (pci) vga chipsets. This code has been (or will be) pulled
up to the 3.0 branch in time for the upcoming 3.0 release.


Security:
=========

ipf 4.1.8 imported [20050404]
- -----------------------------

Martti Kuparinen upgraded IPFilter to the latest version (4.1.8) on
NetBSD -current. For information about the changes, and recompiling
the kernel and the ipf tools see the email in the current-users
mailing list archives
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/current-users/2005/04/03/0003.html>.


ipsec-tools included with NetBSD [20050404]
- -------------------------------------------

Emmanuel Dreyfus has been working on integrating NAT Traversal and
recently replaced the KAME based racoon in NetBSD with the
feature-enhanced "ipsec-tools" version. NetBSD can now be setup to
replace Cisco 3000 VPN concentrators, while Cisco VPN clients can
still be used, talking to NetBSD instead. A detailed description of
how to setup NetBSD to build a remote user access VPN can be found
at http://www.NetBSD.org/Documentation/network/ipsec/rasvpn.html.

Many more changes come with the ipsec-tools, including dead peer
detection, privilege separation, IKE mode config, IKE and ESP
fragmentation, configurable path to certificate authority, and hook
scripts. See Emmanuel Dreyfus's mail in the current-users mailing list
archives
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/current-users/2005/02/19/0013.html> for
a more complete list.


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

Verified Exec update [20050420]
- -------------------------------

Brett Lymn has committed significant changes to the "verified exec"
code based on work by Elad Efrat. "Verified Exec" is NetBSD's feature
to only execute programs with known (good) checksums. in-kernel
fingerprints are stored in a hash table now (for faster lookup), and
multiple fingerprint methods are now supported, including md5, sha1,
rmd160, sha256, sha384 and sha512. See Brett's posting to the
current-users mailing list
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/current-users/2005/04/20/0007.html> for
more information, esp. on the veriexecctl(8) user interface.


PAM Documentation [20050421]
- ----------------------------

After NetBSD adopted Pluggable Authentication Modules earlier this
year, an extensive chapter
<http://www.NetBSD.org/guide/en/chap-pam.html> on how to set up and
use PAM was added to the NetBSD Guide. The documentation was
originally written by Dag-Erling Smørgrav for the FreeBSD project,
where the OpenPAM implementation that NetBSD uses originated, and was
adjusted to NetBSD by Rui Paulo.


Live disk backup [20050428]
- ---------------------------

der Mouse has developed a system to intercept block read/write
operations in disk drivers in realtime, and mirror them over a network
to a remote process which will then write the blocks back to disk.
Regardless of the filesystem used, this will allow a live backup of a
"hot" disk, and if data rate gets too high to transfer blocks, the
system will fall back to making a list of blocks that need backup, and
will process them when system load's down again later.

This work was originally revealed and presented at BSDCan
<http://www.bsdcan.org/> in Ottawa, Canada. The code is currently
available for NetBSD 2.0 and NetBSD 1.4T. More details are available
in the README
<ftp://ftp.rodents.montreal.qc.ca/mouse/livebackup/README>.


ath/net80211 imported [20050609]
- --------------------------------

David Young has imported ath/net80211 from FreeBSD into -current.  He
lists some of the missing pieces of the net80211 userland in his
message to the tech-net mailing list
<http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-net/2005/06/12/0007.html>.


Magic Symlinks [20050625]
- -------------------------

Jason Thorpe has committed support for "magic symlinks", which allows
embedding a number of special things into symlink targets, which are
then expanded before the symlink's target is actually accessed, much
like environment variables. See PR 1781 and symlink(7) for more
details.



More Information
================

To learn more about NetBSD visit its homepage hat
<http://www.NetBSD.org/>, for a list of code changes see the
src/doc/CHANGES and pkgsrc/doc/CHANGES files at
<http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/doc/CHANGES?rev=HEAD> and
<http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/doc/CHANGES?rev=HEAD>.
Individual changes to the NetBSD source and pkgsrc can be monitored on
the "source-changes" and "pkgsrc-changes" mailing lists, see the
archives at <http://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/> and
<http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-changes/>.

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