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<sect><heading>About the current release<label id="relnotes"></heading>
<p>FreeBSD is a freely available, full source 4.4 BSD
Lite based release for Intel i386/i486/Pentium (or
compatible) based PC's. It is based primarily on
software from U.C. Berkeley's CSRG group, with some
enhancements from NetBSD, 386BSD, and the Free Software
Foundation.
Since our release of FreeBSD 2.0 one year ago, the
performance, feature set, and stability of FreeBSD has
improved dramatically. The largest change is a
revamped VM system with a merged VM/file buffer cache
that not only increases performance, but reduces
FreeBSD's memory footprint, making a 5MB configuration
a more acceptable minimum. Other enhancements include
full NIS client and server support, transaction TCP
support, dial-on-demand PPP, an improved SCSI
subsystem, early ISDN support, support for FDDI and
Fast Ethernet (100Mbit) adapters, improved support for
the Adaptec 2940 (WIDE and narrow) and many hundreds of
bug fixes.
We have also taken the comments and suggestions of many
of our users to heart and have attempted to provide
what we hope is a more sane and easily understood
installation process. Your feedback on this
(constantly evolving) process is especially welcome!
In addition to the base distributions, FreeBSD offers a
new ported software collection with some 350 commonly
sought-after programs. The list of ports ranges from
http (WWW) servers, to games, languages, editors and
almost everything in between. The entire ports
collection requires only 10MB of storage, all ports
being expressed as ``deltas'' to their original sources.
This makes it much easier for us to update ports, and
greatly reduces the disk space demands made by the
older 1.0 ports collection. To compile a port, you
simply change to the directory of the program you wish
to install, type make and let the system do the rest.
The full original distribution for each port you build
is retrieved dynamically off of CDROM or a local ftp
site, so you need only enough disk space to build the
ports you want. (Almost) every port is also provided
as a pre-compiled "package" which can be installed with
a simple command (pkg_add) by those who do not wish to
compile their own ports from source.
A number of additional documents which you may find
very helpful in the process of installing and using
FreeBSD may now also be found in the
<bf>/usr/share/doc</bf> directory on any machine running
FreeBSD 2.1 or later. You may view the
manuals with any HTML capable browser with the
following URLs:
<descrip>
<tag>The FreeBSD handbook</tag>
<htmlurl url="file:/usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook.html">
<tag>The FreeBSD FAQ</tag>
<htmlurl url="file:/usr/share/doc/FAQ/freebsd-faq.html">
</descrip>
You can also visit the master (and most frequently
updated) copies at <htmlurl
url="http://www.freebsd.org"
name="http://www.freebsd.org">.
The core of FreeBSD does not contain DES code which
would inhibit its being exported outside the United
States. There is an add-on package to the core
distribution, for use only in the United States, that
contains the programs that normally use DES. The
auxiliary packages provided separately can be used by
anyone. A freely (from outside the U.S.) exportable
European distribution of DES for our non-U.S. users
also exists and is described in the <htmlurl
url="../FAQ/freebsd-faq.html" name="FreeBSD FAQ">.
If password security for FreeBSD is all you need, and
you have no requirement for copying encrypted passwords
from different hosts (Suns, DEC machines, etc) into
FreeBSD password entries, then FreeBSD's MD5 based
security may be all you require! We feel that our
default security model is more than a match for DES,
and without any messy export issues to deal with. If
you are outside (or even inside) the U.S., give it a
try!
<![ IGNORE [
<p>Since our first release of FreeBSD 1.0 nearly two
years ago, FreeBSD has changed dramatically. Since
release 2.0, FreeBSD has been based on the Berkeley BSD
4.4-lite code rather than the Net2 code used for
previous versions. In addition to clearing the legal
issues that surrounded the Net2 code, the port to 4.4
has also brought in numerous new features, filesystems
and enhanced driver support.
Since our release of FreeBSD 2.0 in November of 1994,
the performance, feature set, and stability of FreeBSD
has improved dramatically. The largest change is a
revamped Virtual Memory (VM) system with a merged
virtual memory and file buffer cache. This increases
performance while reducing FreeBSD's memory footprint,
making a system with 4 megabytes of RAM a more
acceptable minimum. Other enhancements include full
NIS client and server support, transaction TCP support,
dial on demand PPP, an improved SCSI subsystem, early
support for ISDN, support for FDDI and 100Mbit Fast
Ethernet adapters, improved support for the Adaptec
2940 and hundreds of bug fixes.
We have also taken the comments and suggestions of many
of our users to heart and have attempted to provide
what we hope is a more sane and easily understood
installation process. Your feedback on this constantly
evolving process is especially welcome!
In addition to the base distributions, FreeBSD offers a
new ported software collection with some 270 commonly
sought-after programs. The list of ports ranges from
World Wide Web (http) servers, to games, languages,
editors and almost everything in between. The entire
ports collection requires only 10MB of storage because
each port contains only the changes required for the
source code to compile on FreeBSD and the information
necessary to automatically retrieve the original
sources. The original distribution for each port you
build is automatically retrieved off of CD-ROM or a via
anonymous ftp, so you need only enough disk space to
build the ports you want. Each port is also provided
as a pre-compiled package which can be installed with
the <tt>pkg_add(1)</tt> command for those who do not
wish to compile their own ports from source. See <ref
id="ports" name="The Ports Collection"> for a more
complete description.
<!-- XXX make xref
For a list of contributors and a general project
description, please see the file "CONTRIB.FreeBSD"
which should be bundled with your binary distribution.
Also see the "REGISTER.FreeBSD" file for information on
registering with the "Free BSD user counter". This
counter is for ALL freely available variants of BSD,
not just FreeBSD, and we urge you to register yourself
with it.
-->
The core of FreeBSD does not contain DES code which
would inhibit its being exported outside the United
States. An add-on package, for use only in the United
States, contains the programs that normally use DES.
The auxiliary packages provided separately can be used
by anyone. A freely exportable European distribution
of DES for our non-U.S. users also exists and is
described in the <url
url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ" name="FreeBSD
FAQ">. If password security for FreeBSD is all you
need, and you have no requirement for copying encrypted
passwords from other hosts using DES into FreeBSD
password entries, then FreeBSD's MD5 based security may
be all you require. We feel that our default security
model is more than a match for DES, and without any
messy export issues to deal with.
FreeBSD 2.0.5 represents the culmination of 2 years of
work and many thousands of man hours put in by an
international development team. We hope you enjoy it!
<sect1><heading>New feature highlights</heading>
<p>The following features were added or substantially
improved between the release of 2.0 and this 2.0.5
release. In order to facilitate better
communication, the person, or persons, responsible
for each enhancement is noted. Any questions
regarding the new functionality should be directed to
them first.
<sect2><heading>Kernel</heading>
<p>
<descrip>
<tag>Merged VM-File Buffer Cache</tag> A merged
VM/buffer cache design greatly enhances overall
system performance and makes it possible to do
a number of more optimal memory allocation
strategies that were not possible before.
Owner: David Greenman (davidg@FreeBSD.org) and
John Dyson (dyson@implode.root.com)
<tag>Network PCB hash optimization</tag> For
systems with a great number of active TCP
connections (WEB and ftp servers, for example),
this greatly speeds up the lookup time required
to match an incoming packet up to its
associated connection.
Owner: David Greenman (davidg@FreeBSD.org)
<tag>Name cache optimization</tag> The name-cache
would cache all files of the same name to the
same bucket, which would put for instance all
".." entries in the same bucket. We added the
parent directory version to frustrate the hash,
and improved the management of the cache in
various other ways while we were at it.
Owner: Poul-Henning Kamp (phk@FreeBSD.org)
David Greenman (davidg@FreeBSD.org)
<tag>Less restrictive swap-spaces</tag> The need
to compile the names of the swap devices into
the kernel has been removed. Now
<tt>swapon(8)</tt> will accept any block
devices, up to the maximum number of swap
devices configured in the kernel.
Owner: Poul-Henning Kamp (phk@FreeBSD.org)
David Greenman (davidg@FreeBSD.org)
<tag>Hard Wired SCSI Devices</tag> Prior to
2.0.5, FreeBSD performed dynamic assignment of
unit numbers to SCSI devices as they were
probed, allowing a SCSI device failure to
possibly change unit number assignment. This
could cause filesystems other disks in the
system to be incorrectly mounted, or not
mounted at all. Hard wiring allows static
allocation of unit numbers (and hence device
names) to scsi devices based on SCSI ID and
bus. SCSI configuration occurs in the kernel
config file. Samples of the configuration
syntax can be found in the <tt>scsi(4)</tt> man
page or the LINT kernel config file.
Owner: Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com)
Sources involved: <tt>sys/scsi/*</tt>
<tt>usr.sbin/config/*</tt>
<tag>Slice Support</tag> FreeBSD now supports a
<em>slice</em> abstraction which enhances
FreeBSD's ability to share disks with other
operating systems. This support will allow
FreeBSD to inhabit DOS extended partitions.
Owner: Bruce Evans (bde@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>sys/disklabel.h</tt>
<tt>sys/diskslice.h</tt> <tt>sys/dkbad.h</tt>
<tt>kern/subr_diskslice.c</tt> <tt>kern/subr_dkbad.c</tt>
<tt>i386/isa/diskslice_machdep.c</tt> <tt>i386/isa/wd.c</tt>
<tt>scsi/sd.c</tt> <tt>dev/vn/vn.c</tt>
<tag>Support for Ontrack Disk Manager Version 6.0</tag>
Support has been added for disks
which use Ontrack Disk Manager. The fdisk
program does <em>not</em> know about it
however, so make all changes using the install
program on the boot.flp or the Ontrack Disk
Manager tool under MS-DOS.
Owner: Poul-Henning Kamp (phk@FreeBSD.org)
<tag>Bad144 is back and working</tag> Bad144
works again, though the semantics are slightly
different than before in that the bad-spots are
kept relative to the slice rather than absolute
on the disk.
Owner: Bruce Evans (bde@FreeBSD.org)
Poul-Henning Kamp (phk@FreeBSD.org)
</descrip>
<sect2><heading>New device support</heading>
<sect3><heading>SCSI and CDROM devices</heading>
<p><descrip>
<tag>Matsushita/Panasonic (Creative) CD-ROM driver</tag>
The Matsushita/Panasonic CR-562 and
CR-563 drives are now supported when connected to
a Sound Blaster or 100% compatible host adapter.
Up to four host adapters are supported for a
total of 16 CD-ROM drives. The audio functions
are supported with the Karoke variable speed
playback.
Owner: Frank Durda IV
(bsdmail@nemesis.lonestar.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/matcd</tt>
<tag>Adaptec 2742/2842/2940 SCSI driver</tag> The
original 274x/284x driver has evolved
considerably since the 2.0 release of FreeBSD.
We now offer full support for the 2940 series as
well as the Wide models of these cards. The
arbitration bug that caused problems with fast
devices has been corrected and
<em>experimental</em> tagged queuing support has
been added (kernel option
<tt>AHC_TAGENABLE</tt>). John Aycock has also
released the sequencer code under a Berkeley
style copyright making the driver entirely clean
of the GPL.
Owner: Justin Gibbs (gibbs@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/aic7770.c</tt> <tt>pci/aic7870.c</tt>
<tt>i386/scsi/*</tt> <tt>sys/dev/aic7xxx/*</tt>
<tag>NCR5380/NCR53400 SCSI (ProAudio Spectrum) driver</tag>
Owner: core
Submitted by: Serge Vakulenko (vak@cronyx.ru)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/ncr5380.c</tt>
<tag>Sony CDROM driver</tag> Owner: core
Submitted by: Mikael Hybsch (micke@dynas.se)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/scd.c</tt>
</descrip>
<sect3><heading>Serial devices</heading>
<p><descrip>
<tag>SDL Communications Riscom/8 Serial Board Driver</tag>
Owner: Andrey Chernov
(ache@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/rc.c</tt> <tt>isa/rcreg.h</tt>
<tag>Cyclades Cyclom-y Serial Board Driver</tag>
Owner: Bruce Evans (bde@FreeBSD.org)
Submitted by: Andrew Werple
(andrew@werple.apana.org.au) and Heikki Suonsivu
(hsu@cs.hut.fi)
Obtained from: NetBSD
Sources involved: <tt>isa/cy.c</tt>
<tag>Cronyx/Sigma sync/async serial driver</tag>
Owner: core
Submitted by: Serge Vakulenko
Sources involved: <tt>isa/cronyx.c</tt>
</descrip>
<sect2><heading>Networking</heading>
<p><descrip>
<tag>Diskless booting</tag> Diskless booting in 2.0.5
is much improved over previous releases. The boot
program is in <tt>src/sys/i386/boot/netboot</tt>,
and can be run from an MS-DOS system or burned into
an EPROM. WD, SMC, 3COM and Novell ethernet cards
are currently supported. Local swapping is also
supported.
<tag>DEC DC21140 Fast Ethernet driver</tag> This
driver supports any of the numerous NICs using the
DC21140 chipset including the 100Mb DEC DE-500-XA
and SMC 9332.
Owner: core
Submitted by: Matt Thomas (thomas@lkg.dec.com)
Sources involved: <tt>pci/if_de.c</tt> <tt>pci/dc21040.h</tt>
<tag>DEC FDDI (DEFPA/DEFEA) driver</tag> Owner: core
Submitted by: Matt Thomas (thomas@lkg.dec.com)
Sources involved: <tt>pci/if_pdq.c</tt> <tt>pci/pdq.c</tt>
<tt>pci/pdq_os.h</tt> <tt>pci/pdqreg.h</tt>
<tag>3Com 3c505 (Etherlink/+) NIC driver</tag> Owner:
core
Submitted by: Dean Huxley (dean@fsa.ca)
Obtained from: NetBSD
Sources involved: <tt>isa/if_eg.c</tt>
<tag>Fujitsu MB86960A family of NICs driver</tag>
Owner: core
Submitted by: M.S. (seki@sysrap.cs.fujitsu.co.jp)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/if_fe.c</tt>
<tag>Intel EtherExpress driver</tag> Owner: Rodney
W. Grimes (rgrimes@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/if_ix.c</tt> <tt>isa/if_ixreg.h</tt>
<tag>3Com 3c589 driver</tag> Owner: core
Submitted by: "HOSOKAWA Tatsumi"
(hosokawa@mt.cs.keio.ac.jp), Seiji Murata
(seiji@mt.cs.keio.ac.jp) and Noriyuki Takahashi
(hor@aecl.ntt.jp)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/if_zp.c</tt>
<tag>IBM Credit Card Adapter driver</tag> Owner: core
Submitted by: "HOSOKAWA Tatsumi"
(hosokawa@mt.cs.keio.ac.jp),
Sources involved: <tt>isa/pcic.c</tt> <tt>isa/pcic.h</tt>
<tag>EDSS1 and 1TR6 ISDN interface driver</tag>
Owner: core
Submitted by: Dietmar Friede
(dfriede@drnhh.neuhaus.de) and Juergen Krause
(jkr@saarlink.de)
Sources involved: <tt>gnu/isdn/*</tt>
</descrip>
<sect2><heading>Miscellaneous drivers</heading>
<p><descrip>
<tag>Joystick driver</tag> Owner: Jean-Marc Zucconi
(jmz@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/joy.c</tt>
<tag>National Instruments ``LabPC'' driver</tag> Owner:
Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/labpc.c</tt>
<tag>WD7000 driver</tag> Owner: Olof Johansson
(offe@ludd.luth.se)
<tag>Pcvt Console driver</tag> Owner: Jörg Wunsch
(joerg@FreeBSD.org)
Submitted by: Hellmuth Michaelis
(hm@altona.hamburg.com)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/pcvt/*</tt>
<tag>BSD-audio emulator for VAT driver</tag> Owner:
Amancio Hasty (ahasty@FreeBSD.org) and
Paul Traina (pst@FreeBSD.org)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/sound/vat_audio.c</tt>
<tt>isa/sound/vat_audioio.h</tt>
<tag>National Instruments AT-GPIB and AT-GPIB/TNT GPIB driver</tag>
Owner: core
Submitted by: Fred Cawthorne
(fcawth@delphi.umd.edu)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/gpib.c</tt> <tt>isa/gpib.h</tt>
<tt>isa/gpibreg.h</tt>
<tag>Genius GS-4500 hand scanner driver</tag> Owner:
core
Submitted by: Gunther Schadow
(gusw@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de)
Sources involved: <tt>isa/gsc.c</tt> <tt>isa/gscreg.h</tt>
<tag>CORTEX-I Frame Grabber</tag> Owner: core
Submitted by: Paul S. LaFollette, Jr. (
Sources involved: <tt>isa/ctx.c</tt> <tt>isa/ctxreg.h</tt>
<tag>Video Spigot video capture card</tag> Owner: Jim
Lowe
</descrip>
<sect1><heading>Experimental features</heading>
<p><descrip>
<tag>UNIONFS and LFS</tag> The unionfs and LFS file
systems are known to be severely broken in FreeBSD
2.0.5. This is in part due to old bugs that we
have not had time to resolve yet and the need to
update these file systems to deal with the new VM
system. We hope to address these issues in a later
release of FreeBSD.
<tag>iBCS2 Support</tag> FreeBSD now supports running
iBCS2 compatible binaries. Currently SCO UNIX 3.2.2
and 3.2.4, and ISC 2.2 COFF are supported. The iBCS2
emulator is in its early stages and has not been
extensively tested, but it is functional. Most of
SCO's 3.2.2 binaries work, as does an old
INFORMIX-2.10 for SCO. Further testing is necessary
to complete this project. There is also work under
way for ELF and XOUT loaders, and most of the svr4
syscall wrappers are written.
Owner: Søren Schmidt (sos) and Sean Eric Fagan (sef)
Sources involved: <tt>sys/i386/ibcs2/*</tt> and misc
kernel changes.
</descrip>
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<sect1><heading>Reporting problems, making suggestions, submitting code</heading>
<p>Your suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code
are always valued - please do not hesitate to report any
problems you may find (preferably with a fix attached if
you can!).
The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine
with Internet mail connectivity is to use the send-pr
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If, for some reason, you are unable to use the send-pr
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any questions or suggestions, please send mail to:
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Additionally, being a volunteer effort, we are always
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