Introduction

Introduction -

- This is a draft of the April-June 2014 status report. +

This is a draft of the April-June 2014 status report. Please check back after it is finalized, and an announcement email is sent to the FreeBSD-Announce mailing list.

@@ -26,17 +29,17 @@ productive time for &os;. The Ports team released their landmark first quarterly stable branch. &os; continues to grow on the ARM architecture, now running on an ARM-based - ChromeBook. SMP is now possible on multi-core ARM systems. + ChromeBook. SMP is now possible on multi-core ARM systems. bhyve, the native &os; hypervisor, continues to improve. An integral test suite is taking shape, and the Jenkins Continuous Integration system has been implemented. &os; patches to GCC are being forward-ported, and LLDB, the Clang/LLVM - debugger is being ported. Desktop use has also seen + debugger is being ported. Desktop use has also seen improvements, with work on Gnome, KDE, Xfce, KMS video drivers, X.org, and vt, the new console driver which supports KMS and Unicode. Linux and Wine binary compatibility layers have been improved. UEFI booting support has been merged to - head. The &os; Foundation continues to assist in moving &os; + head. The &os; Foundation continues to assist in moving &os; forward, sponsoring conferences and meetings and numerous development projects. And these are only some of the things that happened! Read on for even more.
@@ -168,7 +171,7 @@
With all above, and earlier improvements in CAM, GEOM, ZFS and number of other kernel areas coming soon FreeBSD 10.1 may - become the fastest storage release ever. ;)
+ become the fastest storage release ever. ;)

These projects are sponsored by iXsystems, Inc.
@@ -179,11 +182,11 @@ - + Andrew Turner - - andrew@FreeBSD.org + + andrew@FreeBSD.org @@ -193,19 +196,19 @@
Arm64 is the name of the in-progress port of &os; to the - ARMv8 CPU when it is in AArch64 mode. Until recently, all ARM - CPU designs were 32-bit only. With the introduction of the - ARMv8 architecture, ARM has added a new 64-bit mode. This new + ARMv8 CPU when it is in AArch64 mode. Until recently, all ARM + CPU designs were 32-bit only. With the introduction of the + ARMv8 architecture, ARM has added a new 64-bit mode. This new mode has been named AArch64.

Booting &os; on the ARM Foundation Model has made a lot of - progress since the last status report. An initial pmap + progress since the last status report. An initial pmap implementation has been written. With this &os; is able to - enter the Machine Independent boot code. The required autoconf - functions have been added allowing &os; to start scheduling - tasks. Finally the cpu_switch and copystr functions were - added. With these two &os; will boot to the mountroot - prompt.
+ enter the Machine Independent boot code. The required + autoconf functions have been added allowing &os; to start + scheduling tasks. Finally the cpu_switch and copystr + functions were added. With these two &os; will boot to the + mountroot prompt.

Work has started on supporting exceptions, including interrupts. This will start to allow more developers to start @@ -214,7 +217,9 @@ Finish exception and interrupt handling + Read the Device Tree or ACPI tables from UEFI + Test on real hardware @@ -285,18 +290,23 @@ next 10-STABLE release and &os; 10.1-RELEASE.

Project finally get his man page, so now vt(4) not - only project name, but also link to its documentation. Great + only project name, but also link to its documentation. Great thanks to &a.wblock; for that.

Major highlights:

Unicode support.
+
Double-width character support for CJK characters.
+
xterm(1)-like terminal emulation.
+
Support for Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) drivers (i915kms, radeonkms).
+
Support for different fonts per terminal window.
+
Simplified drivers.

@@ -305,17 +315,26 @@

amd64 (VGA/i915kms/radeonkms) — works.
+
ARM framebuffer — works.
+
i386 (VGA/i915kms/radeonkms) — works.
+
IA64 — untested.
+
MIPS — untested.
+
PPC and PPC64 — work, but without X.Org yet.
+
SPARC — works on certain hardware (e.g., Ultra 5).
+
vesa(4) — in progress.
+
i386/amd64 nVidia driver — not supported. VGA should be used (VESA planned).
+
Xbox framebuffer driver — will be deleted as unused.

@@ -334,9 +353,13 @@ device (without kbdmux(4)). CJK fonts. (This is in progress). + Address performance issues on some architectures. + Switch to vt(4) by default. + Convert keyboard maps for use with vt(4). + Implement compatibility mode to be able to use single-byte charsets/key-codes in the vt(4). @@ -347,32 +370,39 @@ - - Stacey - Son - - sson@freebsd.org - - - - Juergen - Lock - - nox@freebsd.org - - - - Sean - Bruno - - sbruno@freebsd.org + + Stacey + Son + + sson@freebsd.org + + + + + Juergen + Lock + + nox@freebsd.org + + + + + Sean + Bruno + + sbruno@freebsd.org - Overview of technology - Status of ports building - Master respository for collaboration + Overview + of technology + + Status of ports + building + + Master + respository for collaboration @@ -382,15 +412,16 @@ run.

ARMV6, MIPS32 and MIPS64 packages can be produced via full - emulation. There are several packages that block a full run of - builds. They can be viewed on the Status of ports building - link.
+ emulation. There are several packages that block a full run + of builds. They can be viewed on the Status of ports building + link.

On current or latest stable/10:
-
Clone the github - repository of qemu, and switch to - the bsd-user branch. Then run:
+
Clone the github + repository of qemu, and switch to the bsd-user branch. Then + run:

./configure --static \ --target-list="arm-bsd-user i386-bsd-user \ @@ -409,7 +440,7 @@ \x00\x28\x00" --mask "\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff \ \xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff" --size 20 --set-enabled
-
Install poudriere-devel from ports. It knows how to setup +
Install poudriere-devel from ports. It knows how to set up things.

Build poudriere jail to do all the magic:
@@ -426,6 +457,7 @@
mkdir /usr/local/poudriere/jails/11armv632/usr/ports mount -t nullfs /usr/ports /usr/local/poudriere/jails/11armv632/usr/ports
+
To chroot into the jail:

mount -t devfs devfs /usr/local/poudriere/jails/11armv632/dev @@ -436,18 +468,22 @@ PPC on AMD64 emulation. WIP as there appears to be some serious issues running the bsd-user binary on big endian hardware. Justin Hibbits working on this. + SPARC64 on AMD64 emulation is non-functional and instantly segfaults. Looking for someone to poke at the bits here. + External Tool Chain, XDEV support. Partial support for using an AMD64 tool chain that can output other architecture (use AMD64 toolchain to build MIPS64 packages). Currently tracking a linking issue with ports-mgmt/pkg. Thanks to Warner Losh, Baptiste Daroussin, Dimitry Andric for poking at bits in here to make the XDEV target useful. - Signal Handling, MIPS/ARMV6 target still displays - a failure that manifests itself when building + + Signal Handling, MIPS/ARMV6 target still displays a + failure that manifests itself when building devel/p5-Sys-SigAction. + Massive documentation update needed. These modifications actually allow you to chroot into a MIPS or ARMv6 environment and use native tool chains and libraries to prototype your @@ -460,62 +496,74 @@ - - &os; - Python Team - - python@FreeBSD.org + + &os; + Python Team + + python@FreeBSD.org - The &os; Python Team Page - IRC channel + The &os; Python Team + Page + + IRC + channel -
We are pleased to announce the availability of conflict-free - Python package support across different Python versions based on the - USES=uniquefiles feature recently introduced to the Ports framework. - A Python package can be marked as buildable and installable in - parallel for different Python versions at the same time on the same - host. The package building tools, however, do not support this feature - yet and the Python team will work closely with portmgr and pkg - developers to enable support on a global ports and package scale. -
- - In May and June a huge clean-up operation took place to remove - the last bits and pieces targeting easy_install. In the beginning of - July we committed the final changes to remove easy_install support - completely from the ports framework. This greatly simplifies the - infrastructure and allows us to modernize and maintain it with less - effort. - - We added Python 3.4, removed Python 3.1 after its end of life, - updated the setuptools ports to version 5.1 and PyPy's development - version to 2.3.1. The latest Python 2.7.8 and an updated setuptools - will hit the tree shortly. - - Our upstreaming effort continues to produce good outcomes for - simplifying maintenance and reducing complexity. - - Looking forward, one of the top priorities is to comply with - the USES framework in the foreseeable future and to roll out a - consistent maintainer policy for integrating new Python-related ports - into the tree. + We are pleased to announce the availability of conflict-free + Python package support across different Python versions based + on the USES=uniquefiles feature recently introduced to the + Ports framework. A Python package can be marked as buildable + and installable in parallel for different Python versions at + the same time on the same host. The package building tools, + however, do not support this feature yet and the Python team + will work closely with portmgr and pkg developers to enable + support on a global ports and package scale. + + In May and June a huge clean-up operation took place to + remove the last bits and pieces targeting easy_install. In + the beginning of July we committed the final changes to remove + easy_install support completely from the ports framework. + This greatly simplifies the infrastructure and allows us to + modernize and maintain it with less effort. + + We added Python 3.4, removed Python 3.1 after its end of + life, updated the setuptools ports to version 5.1 and PyPy's + development version to 2.3.1. The latest Python 2.7.8 and an + updated setuptools will hit the tree shortly. + + Our upstreaming effort continues to produce good outcomes for + simplifying maintenance and reducing complexity. + + Looking forward, one of the top priorities is to comply with + the USES framework in the foreseeable future and to roll out a + consistent maintainer policy for integrating new + Python-related ports into the tree. Migrate bsd.python.mk to the Uses framework. - Develop a high-level and lightweight Python Ports Policy. - Add support for granular dependencies (for example >=1.0,<2.0). + + Develop a high-level and lightweight Python Ports + Policy. + + Add support for granular dependencies (for example + >=1.0,<2.0). + See what adding pip (Python Package Index) support will - require. - Add default QA targets and functions for Python ports (TEST_DEPENDS, - regression-test, etc.) - More tasks can be found on the team's wiki page (see links). - To get involved, interested people can say hello on IRC and let us - know their areas of interest! + require. + + Add default QA targets and functions for Python ports + (TEST_DEPENDS, regression-test, etc.) + + More tasks can be found on the team's wiki page (see + links). + + To get involved, interested people can say hello on IRC + and let us know their areas of interest! @@ -524,23 +572,25 @@ - + Ed Maste - - emaste@FreeBSD.org + + emaste@FreeBSD.org + - + Nathan Whitehorn - - nwhitehorn@freebsd.org + + nwhitehorn@freebsd.org - &os; UEFI wiki page + &os; UEFI wiki + page @@ -564,7 +614,8 @@ syscons(4) console. Ed added automatic vt(4) selection to the UEFI boot path. - &os; snapshots + &os; snapshots are now built as dual-mode images, and should boot via BIOS and UEFI. Our plan is to merge the UEFI and vt(4) work to stable/10 to appear in &os; 10.1-RELEASE. @@ -575,11 +626,15 @@ Document manual installation, including dual-boot configurations. + Implement boot1.efi for ZFS file systems. + Add support for UEFI variables stored in non-volatile memory (NVRAM). + Debug boot failures with certain UEFI firmware implementations. + Support secure boot.