Customizing NetBSD boot banners.

I recently discovered that it’s surprisingly easy to customize the NetBSD boot loader banner, simply by adding some directives in the boot.cfg configuration file...

https://www.cambus.net/customizing-netbsd-boot-banners/

#system #boot

Compiling the NetBSD kernel as a benchmark.

For a while, I've been compiling my own NetBSD kernel. Just for a few options, mainly CARP, at first for my Raspberry Pis, and at the moment for paravirtualized Xen domUs. Compiling a custom NetBSD kernel is a very easy task, it's just a matter of 3 main steps...

https://blog.anotherhomepage.org/post/2022/05/25/Compiling-the-NetBSD-kernel-as-a-benchmark/

#kernel #system

NetBSD 9.3 released.

The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 9.3, the third release from the NetBSD 9 stable branch.

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_9_3_released

#release #system

Installing OpenBSD on Scaleway Elastic Metal.

The instructions below will roughly stay the same should you want to install NetBSD or FreeBSD instead of OpenBSD...

https://www.senzilla.io/blog/2022/08/10/installing-openbsd-scaleway-elastic-metal/

#install #system

Is the NetBSD operating system losing its competitive edge to Linux and FreeBSD?

I’m not entirely sure there was ever a “competitive edge” that NetBSD had over FreeBSD… and the differences between any of the BSDs and Linux are vast — some of them are important, others not so much...

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-NetBSD-operating-system-losing-its-competitive-edge-to-Linux-and-FreeBSD/answer/Stan-Hanks

#system #justread

Crash Override: NetBSD 5.0-9.3 Coredump Kernel Refcount LPE.

NetBSD 5.0 (released 2009) introduced a change to the in-kernel coredump handler that accidentally introduced a reference count bug on the crashing process' credential. Triggering the vulnerability leads to a use-after-free that can be trivially (though slowly) exploited to achieve local privilege escalation, gaining root from an unprivileged starting point...

https://accessvector.net/2022/netbsd-coredump-lpe

#kernel #system

Hunting kernel lock and interrupt latency.

Too much of the kernel still runs with the kernel lock, which is bad for performance -- and especially for interactive system responsiveness, since most of wscons including keyboard and mouse input still use the kernel lock. On single-CPU systems, the same problem arises with interrupt latency on its own...

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/2022/10/30/msg028499.html

#kernel #troubleshooting #system

NetBSD 10.0 BETA available.

After nearly 3 whole years of development (work started on NetBSD 10 in late 2019), BETA snapshots have finally been published for interested users to test. More changes will be backported from the development branch over the next few months before we tag a final release, so the BETA images will keep getting updated...

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_10_0_beta_available

#system #beta #release

NetBSD at Reproducible Builds Summit Venice 2022.

The sixth Reproducible Builds Summit took place exactly two months ago in Venice, Italy. These three days of workshops were filled with a succession of interactive sessions, where everyone attending had the opportunity to present or learn about anything related to Build Reproducibility...

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/reproducible_builds_summit_venice_2022

#system #reproducible

NetBSD ASCII flag for the bootloader.

Attempting to draw the NetBSD flag in ASCII and use it when booting in both NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/amd64 in BIOS mode was thus too tempting, so here we go...

https://www.cambus.net/netbsd-ascii-flag-for-the-bootloader/

#boot #system