6 ms·

OpenBSD 7.7 Released

138 points by ecliptik 1y ago

NoWordsKotoba 1y ago
I haven't used OpenBSD since the 3.x days, but I did dearly love it at the time. I'm so glad they're still working on it.
- anyfoo 1y ago
  Still use it for my “home server” and a few others, still love it! I’m actually genuinely excited when a new version comes out, taking time to read the changelog.
- rubyfan 1y ago
  me too, it was an amazing experience that I still compare to current options and long for its simplicity.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
jmclnx 1y ago
Congratulations, my upgrades start tomorrow or maybe the next day I am sure all will go well and easy.
brynet 1y ago
OpenBSD 7.7 release artwork by Tomáš Rodr. https://www.openbsd.org/images/LifeOfAFish.png https://www.openbsd.org/images/LifeOfAFish.png https://www.openbsd.org/images/puffy77.gif https://www.openbsd.org/images/puffy77.gif t-shirts, hoodies, stickers on openbsdstore.com
sillywalk 1y ago
Theo did a talk back in 2009 on the OpenBSD release process[0], and how they manage to keep releasing on schedule. [0] https://www.openbsd.org/papers/asiabsdcon2009-release_engineering/ https://www.openbsd.org/papers/asiabsdcon2009-release_engine...
- ninjin 1y ago
  A recording of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7pkyDUX5uM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7pkyDUX5uM
ksec 1y ago
Wondering how it compares to FreeBSD in terms of performance. OpenBSD used to be slower but in the past 3-4 years there were bunch of optimisations landed. I guess I will have to wait for another phoronix benchmarks.
- myst 1y ago
  What’s your use case?
- myaccountonhn 1y ago
  7.5 was also quite slow for desktop IME. Maybe the last two releases have sped things up. What Id love is a journaling file system and extended attributes personally...
  - wakeywakeywakey 1y ago
    > What Id love is a journaling file system. Same; that would really improve the remote router scenario. I've had a router refuse to boot up after a power outage until I manually ran a disk check. I'd like to at least be able to force start-up no matter what, but journaling is the proper fix.
    - accrual 1y ago
      Agreed! I think the only other solution (at present) is to mount as much of the system read-only as possible to minimize the risk of needing to `fsck` after an unclean shutdown. That and putting it behind a UPS, but of course that only lasts so many hours.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
    https://github.com/kusumi/openbsd_hammer2 https://github.com/kusumi/openbsd_hammer2 https://github.com/kusumi/makefs https://github.com/kusumi/makefs Maybe? As a starting point?
    - rollcat 1y ago
fithisux 1y ago
DMD works on OpenBSD.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bangonkeyboard 1y ago
A note to myself for future upgrades, from the upgrade guide: • Check available disk space in /usr. Verify that the /usr partition has a size of at least 1.1G. With less space the upgrade may fail and you should consider reinstalling the system instead. When this says "available disk space," it means "total" disk space of the /usr partition, not "free" space. I had less than 1.1GB of unused free space on /usr and had to verify that that was fine before proceeding.
brynet 1y ago
Announcement mail: https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-announce&m=174577743904716&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-announce&m=174577743904716&w=2
j3th9n 1y ago
I love that it still supports only 32MB of RAM.
- accrual 1y ago
  I had 6.7 running on 32MB of RAM recently. I'll have to give 7.7 a try. ;)
- fsiefken 1y ago
  yes, with the latest linux kernel it's not really possible, even though gpt4o mentioned it might be possible if you hand compile the kernel, leave out all the modules and strip out everything you don't strictly need so there's some memory left for something like busybox. At that point it'd be cheaper/easier to arrange 64 Mbyte of RAM in the old pentiums. With Raspberry Pi's having 4 GB these day it'll be perhaps just be a painful exercise.
accrual 1y ago
Congrats on another release, OpenBSD team! I'm happily using OpenBSD as my core router, my Minecraft server, a laptop OS, and on my retro PCs. Currently updating my Raspberry Pi 4 to 7.7 as well.
- geldigitti 1y ago
  That's an extensive list! How do you manage battery life on your laptop and did you notice a significant change with 7.7?
accrual 1y ago
Anecdata regarding my RPi 4: * On 7.5 the built-in `bwmf0` was not detected * On 7.6 `bwmf0` was detected and works great, even in AP mode. However, my latest Node project core dumped when running `npm install` and nothing I tried got it working (short of recompiling Node) * On 7.7 (today's release) `npm install` is working perfect Not worth an entire blog post, but just goes to show improvements in OpenBSD over time on the Pi 4 :)
- rollcat 1y ago
  What's your experience with OpenBSD on RasPi4 specifically? I've found it's pretty poor at handling unexpected power loss - the FS requires interactive fsck during next boot, which means repositioning the box near your computer, pulling out a serial dongle, figuring out the correct GPIOs, etc. Big hassle for a box that's supposed to sit unattended.
  - accrual 1y ago
    Yeah, I would agree getting into the Pi 4 is a little troublesome if it's intended to be headless. Mine hosts a LAN using the built-in wireless adapter (bwmf0) so it's easy to SSH in, but if it's stuck in single user mode, this doesn't work. With a spare HDMI monitor and USB keyboard it's not too difficult to get back in, but it's a hassle without these laying around. I also tested a USB-KVM style solution: I used a mini HDMI adapter connected to an inexpensive USB capture card which let me view the console in OBS Studio. I used a regular keyboard to enter commands, but I also discovered there are "RS232 USB HID emulators" which are DE-9 serial on one end and USB on the other, allowing one to type characters into a serial session (e.g. PuTTY) and have them pop out the other end as an emulated USB keyboard. I didn't end up testing this, but in theory it would give you a basic KVM or crash cart style setup to get back into the Pi. The total price would have been around $40-50, much less than a real USB KVM like the Startech Notecons01. [0] Another idea is to use a power brick with pass-through charging. Many good Anker batteries support this and some of them are the size of the Pi - so one could easily setup a long lasting UPS for the Pi for $30-40. At around 2.5 watts idling, a 10,000 mAh battery should easily give 6-8 hours of charge which should be enough to survive brief outages and prevent an unclean shutdown. A basic USB-C charging meter will show the Pi's power draw as well. Other than that, the next best thing is to mount as much of the system read-only as possible to help reduce the chances of needing to fsck. FWIW, I'm using a basic Apacer 32GB microSD card and haven't had any issues with failed writes or endurance or anything like that. [0] https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/notecons01 https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/notecons01
pabs3 1y ago
Hmm, been a while since they had a release song. https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

138 points by ecliptik 1y ago

I haven't used OpenBSD since the 3.x days, but I did dearly love it at the time. I'm so glad they're still working on it.

anyfoo 1y ago
Still use it for my “home server” and a few others, still love it! I’m actually genuinely excited when a new version comes out, taking time to read the changelog.
rubyfan 1y ago
me too, it was an amazing experience that I still compare to current options and long for its simplicity.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

jmclnx 1y ago

Congratulations, my upgrades start tomorrow or maybe the next day I am sure all will go well and easy.

brynet 1y ago

OpenBSD 7.7 release artwork by Tomáš Rodr. https://www.openbsd.org/images/LifeOfAFish.png https://www.openbsd.org/images/LifeOfAFish.png https://www.openbsd.org/images/puffy77.gif https://www.openbsd.org/images/puffy77.gif t-shirts, hoodies, stickers on openbsdstore.com

sillywalk 1y ago

Theo did a talk back in 2009 on the OpenBSD release process[0], and how they manage to keep releasing on schedule. [0] https://www.openbsd.org/papers/asiabsdcon2009-release_engineering/ https://www.openbsd.org/papers/asiabsdcon2009-release_engine...

ninjin 1y ago
A recording of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7pkyDUX5uM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7pkyDUX5uM

ksec 1y ago

Wondering how it compares to FreeBSD in terms of performance. OpenBSD used to be slower but in the past 3-4 years there were bunch of optimisations landed. I guess I will have to wait for another phoronix benchmarks.

myst 1y ago
What’s your use case?
myaccountonhn 1y ago
7.5 was also quite slow for desktop IME. Maybe the last two releases have sped things up. What Id love is a journaling file system and extended attributes personally...
- wakeywakeywakey 1y ago
  > What Id love is a journaling file system. Same; that would really improve the remote router scenario. I've had a router refuse to boot up after a power outage until I manually ran a disk check. I'd like to at least be able to force start-up no matter what, but journaling is the proper fix.
  - accrual 1y ago
    Agreed! I think the only other solution (at present) is to mount as much of the system read-only as possible to minimize the risk of needing to `fsck` after an unclean shutdown. That and putting it behind a UPS, but of course that only lasts so many hours.
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
  https://github.com/kusumi/openbsd_hammer2 https://github.com/kusumi/openbsd_hammer2 https://github.com/kusumi/makefs https://github.com/kusumi/makefs Maybe? As a starting point?
  - rollcat 1y ago

fithisux 1y ago

DMD works on OpenBSD.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

bangonkeyboard 1y ago

A note to myself for future upgrades, from the upgrade guide: • Check available disk space in /usr. Verify that the /usr partition has a size of at least 1.1G. With less space the upgrade may fail and you should consider reinstalling the system instead. When this says "available disk space," it means "total" disk space of the /usr partition, not "free" space. I had less than 1.1GB of unused free space on /usr and had to verify that that was fine before proceeding.

brynet 1y ago

Announcement mail: https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-announce&m=174577743904716&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-announce&m=174577743904716&w=2

j3th9n 1y ago

I love that it still supports only 32MB of RAM.

accrual 1y ago
I had 6.7 running on 32MB of RAM recently. I'll have to give 7.7 a try. ;)
fsiefken 1y ago
yes, with the latest linux kernel it's not really possible, even though gpt4o mentioned it might be possible if you hand compile the kernel, leave out all the modules and strip out everything you don't strictly need so there's some memory left for something like busybox. At that point it'd be cheaper/easier to arrange 64 Mbyte of RAM in the old pentiums. With Raspberry Pi's having 4 GB these day it'll be perhaps just be a painful exercise.

accrual 1y ago

Congrats on another release, OpenBSD team! I'm happily using OpenBSD as my core router, my Minecraft server, a laptop OS, and on my retro PCs. Currently updating my Raspberry Pi 4 to 7.7 as well.

geldigitti 1y ago
That's an extensive list! How do you manage battery life on your laptop and did you notice a significant change with 7.7?

accrual 1y ago

Anecdata regarding my RPi 4: * On 7.5 the built-in `bwmf0` was not detected * On 7.6 `bwmf0` was detected and works great, even in AP mode. However, my latest Node project core dumped when running `npm install` and nothing I tried got it working (short of recompiling Node) * On 7.7 (today's release) `npm install` is working perfect Not worth an entire blog post, but just goes to show improvements in OpenBSD over time on the Pi 4 :)

rollcat 1y ago
What's your experience with OpenBSD on RasPi4 specifically? I've found it's pretty poor at handling unexpected power loss - the FS requires interactive fsck during next boot, which means repositioning the box near your computer, pulling out a serial dongle, figuring out the correct GPIOs, etc. Big hassle for a box that's supposed to sit unattended.
- accrual 1y ago
  Yeah, I would agree getting into the Pi 4 is a little troublesome if it's intended to be headless. Mine hosts a LAN using the built-in wireless adapter (bwmf0) so it's easy to SSH in, but if it's stuck in single user mode, this doesn't work. With a spare HDMI monitor and USB keyboard it's not too difficult to get back in, but it's a hassle without these laying around. I also tested a USB-KVM style solution: I used a mini HDMI adapter connected to an inexpensive USB capture card which let me view the console in OBS Studio. I used a regular keyboard to enter commands, but I also discovered there are "RS232 USB HID emulators" which are DE-9 serial on one end and USB on the other, allowing one to type characters into a serial session (e.g. PuTTY) and have them pop out the other end as an emulated USB keyboard. I didn't end up testing this, but in theory it would give you a basic KVM or crash cart style setup to get back into the Pi. The total price would have been around $40-50, much less than a real USB KVM like the Startech Notecons01. [0] Another idea is to use a power brick with pass-through charging. Many good Anker batteries support this and some of them are the size of the Pi - so one could easily setup a long lasting UPS for the Pi for $30-40. At around 2.5 watts idling, a 10,000 mAh battery should easily give 6-8 hours of charge which should be enough to survive brief outages and prevent an unclean shutdown. A basic USB-C charging meter will show the Pi's power draw as well. Other than that, the next best thing is to mount as much of the system read-only as possible to help reduce the chances of needing to fsck. FWIW, I'm using a basic Apacer 32GB microSD card and haven't had any issues with failed writes or endurance or anything like that. [0] https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/notecons01 https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/notecons01

pabs3 1y ago

Hmm, been a while since they had a release song. https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html