NetBSD 8.0 Announced

Posted by: Bill Martens Date: July 22, 2018 0 Likes 437 Views

The NetBSD project has announced the availability of the sixteenth major release of the NetBSD operating system.   NetBSD Version 8.0 includes a number of bug fixes and includes new hardware support as well as additional security features.

NetBSD is designed to run on over 50 platforms including the Macintosh 68K and Power PC machines.

Some of the fixes and enhancements included in the latest version are as follows:

  • USB stack rework, USB3 support added.
  • In-kernel audio mixer (audio_system(9)).
  • Reproducible builds (MKREPRO, see mk.conf(5)).
  • Full userland debug information (MKDEBUG, see mk.conf(5)) available. While most install media do not come with them (for size reasons), the debug and xdebug sets can be downloaded and extracted as needed later. They provide full symbol information for all base system and X binaries and libraries and allow better error reporting and (userland) crash analysis.
  • PaX MPROTECT (W^X) memory protection enforced by default on some architectures with fine-grained memory protection and suitable ELF formats: i386, amd64, evbarm, landisk.
  • PaX ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) enabled by default on: i386, amd64, evbarm, landisk, sparc64.
  • Position independent executables by default for userland on: i386, amd64, arm, m68k, mips, sh3, sparc64.
  • A new socket layer can(4) has been added for communication of devices on a CAN bus.
  • A special pseudo interface ipsecif(4) for route-based VPNs has been added.
  • Parts of the network stack have been made MP-safe. The kernel option NET_MPSAFE is required to enable this.
  • Hardening of the network stack in general.
  • Various WAPBL (the NetBSD file system “log” option) stability and performance improvements.

You can download the binaries as well as the sources for NetBSD from their website at:
http://www.netbsd.org/

Author: Bill Martens
A.P.P.L.E. Chairman of the Board and Club president -- Bill worked for the founder, Val J. Golding and A.P.P.L.E. from 1981 to 1982. In 1999, he began archiving the materials which were distributed and sold by A.P.P.L.E.. That project led to the group that remained of A.P.P.L.E. Bill was involved in the financial industry in Tokyo and has over 20 major office infrastructure projects to his name. In March 2001, he retired to write books and to spend more time pursuing personal interests. As the president of the users group, Bill is in charge of distribution of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine as well as the organization of this web site. Bill currently resides in Tokyo, Japan and Shelton, Wa splitting time between the places.
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