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The FreeBSD people seem to be on a roll when it comes to porting things. They mention a 64-bit Linux compatibility layer they recently rolled out in this post.

The FreeBSD people seem to be on a roll when it comes to porting things. They mention a 64-bit Linux compatibility layer they recently rolled out in this post. But in addition, some iXsystems employees have ported much of the OSF Mach kernel (sans memory object/external pager interface) as a module, plus partial or full implementations of XPC, libdispatch, ASL (Apple System Logger), liblaunch and other facilities just so they can run the low-level Darwin/OS X userspace and launchd, especially. FreeNAS then wrote Cython bindings to all this for use in their system services. This is all in feature branches atm, but it should be rolling out soon enough. It's insane.

terhechte 11y ago
Do you happen to have a link to the XPC port? I just did a cursory search but couldn't find anything.
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  It's in Kip Macy's work branch: https://github.com/kmacy/NextBSD https://github.com/kmacy/NextBSD /lib/lib[asl, dispatch, launch, mach, osxsupport, xpc]. The XPC stuff is mostly Jakub Klama's work, I think.
  - terhechte 11y ago
    Awesome thanks!
  - scurvy 11y ago
    Kip is allowed to use a computer in prison? Or was he recently released?
    - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
      I have no idea what happened to "The Landlord" on that front. Story just about died in 2013, there was a brief segment on Good Morning America in 2014 and that was that. He works for iXsystems and even gave out some talks. It's not like I'd bother asking him.
      - _delirium 11y ago
        An article around the time of sentencing (mid-2013) said he'd be out in about a year, > Kip and Nicole Macy agreed to a plea deal of "four years, four months" in state prison. If a judge approves it next month, they could be out in a year, with time served.
ObviousScience 11y ago
To be honest, I think OpenBSD is ahead on some fronts (research on security mechanisms, for instance), but the reason that I tend to use FreeBSD is that it actually works with software packages. So the computers are based on FreeBSD (which manages the hypervisor -- and soon container daemon!), and appliances only are based on OpenBSD. Compatibility ftw.
- noinsight 11y ago
  > it actually works with software packages. Well I don't know about that. I can't open Settings in Chromium at all anymore, the whole browser crashes. It also constantly uses 100% CPU for something so with Chromium open my load is always >1. In VirtualBox none of the file open dialogs work. If I switch to a console from X the whole screen glitches and gets stuck, I have to SSH in to restart/stop X. Suspend doesn't work for me. So yeah, it doesn't work on the desktop as well as Linux does. Haven't had any problems with it as a server though.
  - swills 11y ago
    The Chromium issue was fixed recently. Try updating your Chromium to at least 43.0.2357.132. The VirtualBox issue is long standing, it's caused by the fact that vbox is setuid. Try this: env KDE_FORK_SLAVES=1 VirtualBox
    - noinsight 11y ago
      Thanks, that fixed it.
      - not_with_retard 11y ago
        It's amazing what you can do if you actually use Google.
  - X-Istence 11y ago
    There is a bug in the kernel that returns the wrong error message when Chrome/Chromium attempts to get a variable. This will be fixed in 10.2. See: https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/619969753566744576 https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/619969753566744576
kitsunesoba 11y ago
The bit about adding in Mach/OS X support is really interesting. Any idea specifically what they're looking to run? It's intriguing on its own and could provide a basis for reimplementations of CoreFoundation, AppKit, Quartz, etc, enabling the creation of FreeBSD-based "open OS X" of sorts.
- mod50ack 11y ago
  That would be interesting to see. There's GNUstep and Darling Project, but they're both a bit different.
- tw04 11y ago
  >just so they can run the low-level Darwin/OS X userspace and launchd OP mentioned the "why", it was just oddly worded.
mwcampbell 11y ago
Porting that much of Darwin does seem insane if the goal is just to have launchd. Is there more to it than that?
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  It's not just to have launchd. They really want to leverage the low-level userspace that OS X uses for dynamic systems and event handling.
klausa 11y ago
Is this a really long running project? According to [1], GCD (libdispatch) has been there since 8.1. Or is there another implementation being rolled? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  Yeah, I think this one's meant to run nearly unmodified because of an OSF Mach layer being supplied, rather than translating source code from Mach to POSIX.

terhechte 11y ago

Do you happen to have a link to the XPC port? I just did a cursory search but couldn't find anything.

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
It's in Kip Macy's work branch: https://github.com/kmacy/NextBSD https://github.com/kmacy/NextBSD /lib/lib[asl, dispatch, launch, mach, osxsupport, xpc]. The XPC stuff is mostly Jakub Klama's work, I think.
- terhechte 11y ago
  Awesome thanks!
- scurvy 11y ago
  Kip is allowed to use a computer in prison? Or was he recently released?
  - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
    I have no idea what happened to "The Landlord" on that front. Story just about died in 2013, there was a brief segment on Good Morning America in 2014 and that was that. He works for iXsystems and even gave out some talks. It's not like I'd bother asking him.
    - _delirium 11y ago
      An article around the time of sentencing (mid-2013) said he'd be out in about a year, > Kip and Nicole Macy agreed to a plea deal of "four years, four months" in state prison. If a judge approves it next month, they could be out in a year, with time served.

ObviousScience 11y ago

To be honest, I think OpenBSD is ahead on some fronts (research on security mechanisms, for instance), but the reason that I tend to use FreeBSD is that it actually works with software packages. So the computers are based on FreeBSD (which manages the hypervisor -- and soon container daemon!), and appliances only are based on OpenBSD. Compatibility ftw.

noinsight 11y ago
> it actually works with software packages. Well I don't know about that. I can't open Settings in Chromium at all anymore, the whole browser crashes. It also constantly uses 100% CPU for something so with Chromium open my load is always >1. In VirtualBox none of the file open dialogs work. If I switch to a console from X the whole screen glitches and gets stuck, I have to SSH in to restart/stop X. Suspend doesn't work for me. So yeah, it doesn't work on the desktop as well as Linux does. Haven't had any problems with it as a server though.
- swills 11y ago
  The Chromium issue was fixed recently. Try updating your Chromium to at least 43.0.2357.132. The VirtualBox issue is long standing, it's caused by the fact that vbox is setuid. Try this: env KDE_FORK_SLAVES=1 VirtualBox
  - noinsight 11y ago
    Thanks, that fixed it.
    - not_with_retard 11y ago
      It's amazing what you can do if you actually use Google.
- X-Istence 11y ago
  There is a bug in the kernel that returns the wrong error message when Chrome/Chromium attempts to get a variable. This will be fixed in 10.2. See: https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/619969753566744576 https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/619969753566744576

kitsunesoba 11y ago

The bit about adding in Mach/OS X support is really interesting. Any idea specifically what they're looking to run? It's intriguing on its own and could provide a basis for reimplementations of CoreFoundation, AppKit, Quartz, etc, enabling the creation of FreeBSD-based "open OS X" of sorts.

mod50ack 11y ago
That would be interesting to see. There's GNUstep and Darling Project, but they're both a bit different.
tw04 11y ago
>just so they can run the low-level Darwin/OS X userspace and launchd OP mentioned the "why", it was just oddly worded.

mwcampbell 11y ago

Porting that much of Darwin does seem insane if the goal is just to have launchd. Is there more to it than that?

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
It's not just to have launchd. They really want to leverage the low-level userspace that OS X uses for dynamic systems and event handling.

klausa 11y ago

Is this a really long running project? According to [1], GCD (libdispatch) has been there since 8.1. Or is there another implementation being rolled? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
Yeah, I think this one's meant to run nearly unmodified because of an OSF Mach layer being supplied, rather than translating source code from Mach to POSIX.