BSD Cafe Billboard

grahamperrin

A major upgrade example: 14.4-RELEASE to 15.1-RELEASE

All commands should be run as root.

pkg update
pkg upgrade -Uy -r FreeBSD pkg
freebsd-update fetch
freebsd-update install
freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.1-RELEASE
freebsd-version -kru ; uname -mvKU
freebsd-update install
do not reboot the operating system – ignore the on-screen advice from freebsd-update
freebsd-version -kru ; uname -KU
/bin/sh
export abi=FreeBSD:15:$(uname -p)
export osversion=1501000
pkg-static -o ABI=$abi -o OSVERSION=$osversion -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes update
pkg-static -o ABI=$abi -o OSVERSION=$osversion -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes upgrade -Fqy
ignore all on-screen recommendations to force a bootstrap of pkg
pkg-static -o ABI=$abi -o OSVERSION=$osversion -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes upgrade -Fqy
pkg-static -o ABI=$abi -o OSVERSION=$osversion -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes upgrade -U -r FreeBSD-kmods
pkg-static -o ABI=$abi -o OSVERSION=$osversion -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes upgrade -U -g 'virtualbox-ose-additions*'
exit
upgrade the boot loader
disable loading of kernel modules for NVIDIA GPUs – you can use sysrc(8)
shutdown -r +10min "restarting with the upgraded kernel and boot loader"
after this restart, if software such as Discover invites you to upgrade software, ignore the invitation
freebsd-version -kru
freebsd-update install
be patient
freebsd-version -kru
if /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf includes FreeBSD and FreeBSD-kmods, change the names to FreeBSD-ports and FreeBSD-ports-kmods
pkg bootstrap -fy
pkg upgrade -fFqy -r FreeBSD-ports -r FreeBSD-ports-kmods
pkg upgrade -fFqy -r FreeBSD-ports -r FreeBSD-ports-kmods
pkg upgrade -fU -r FreeBSD-ports -r FreeBSD-ports-kmods
if reinstalling all third-party software is not possible, install misc/compat14x
if the previous run of freebsd-update install asked you to rerun the command, do so
shutdown -r +10min "restarting with the upgraded userland"

grahamperrin

Raise your glasses to the other multi-OS forums:

https://github.com/DiscoverBSD/awesome-bsd#forums-and-communities

Vive le fediverse!

Cheers

grahamperrin

https://littlefedi.org/

a small ActivityPub server written in Go. It ships as a single static executable with a server-rendered web interface, a Mastodon-compatible client API, a durable federation queue, moderation tools, and optional PostgreSQL and S3 support. No runtime to install, no services to wire together.

Via https://littleone.littlefedi.social/@stefano/08d20839-b21b-47bc-a1b6-800d1137f36e | https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano@littleone.littlefedi.social/117076101948770274 @stefano@littleone.littlefedi.social

grahamperrin

Essentially, two commands:

pkg upgrade -Fqy
pkg upgrade -qUy && shutdown -r +30 "restarting with an upgraded kernel"

– it was not necessary to repeat the first.

root@clean:~ # freebsd-version -kru ; uname -mvKU
15.1-RC3-p1
15.1-RC3-p1
15.1-RC3-p1
FreeBSD 15.1-RC3-p1 releng/15.1-n283561-e89f5d0df8fd GENERIC amd64 1501000 1501000
root@clean:~ # pkg upgrade -Fqy
root@clean:~ # pkg upgrade -qUy
Generating apropos(1) database for /usr/share/man...
Generating apropos(1) database for /usr/share/openssl/man...
=====
Message from FreeBSD-local-unbound-15.1:

--
After upgrading local-unbound, the configuration file should be regenerated
by running "service local_unbound setup" before restarting the service.
root@clean:~ # freebsd-version -kru ; uname -KU
15.1-RELEASE
15.1-RC3-p1
15.1-RELEASE
1501000 1501000
root@clean:~ # shutdown -r +30 "restarting with an upgraded kernel"

Please note

This is not an encouragement to perform upgrades before official announcements.

For the second command, I used the --quiet and --yes options only because in this case – a test machine in VirtualBox – I had confidence that installing packages would have no adverse effect. You should never combine those two options without knowing exactly what you're doing.

It was a simple upgrade, not a minor or major upgrade.

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.1R/

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Releng/15.1ISSUES

grahamperrin

https://www.reddit.com/r/zfs/comments/1uo72bi/bzfs1230_is_out/

… bzfs is a CLI for reliable ZFS snapshot replication using zfs send/receive and SSH. It is meant for the boring-but-important corner of infrastructure where "probably replicated" is not the vibe.

The main bit in this release: bzfs can now drive recursive resumable ZFS stream packages …

grahamperrin

https://klarasystems.com/articles/native-inotify-in-freebsd/ – Mark Johnston

A seemingly simple file monitoring problem exposed deep limitations in FreeBSD’s traditional EVFILT_VNODE approach. This article explores how race conditions, scalability issues, and Linux compatibility challenges ultimately led to the development of a native inotify implementation for FreeBSD 15. …

@klarainc@bird.makeup (automated)

grahamperrin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtFeukJs-E

Video, fifteen minutes. Cross-posted from r/freebsd,

FreeBSD was only a small part of the chat. In the greater part, Kris Moore discussed, amongst other things:

community

ZFS

total cost of ownership.

Meet the TrueNAS Leadership Team | Open Enterprise Storage

grahamperrin

https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/06/18/freebsd-151-lands-but-desktop-dabblers-still-have-to-draw-their-own-gui/5257681

@lproven@social.vivaldi.net

Better laptop sleep and Wi-Fi support make the beastie more portable-friendly, but getting beyond the shell remains a DIY job

Tested with a Core i5-based ThinkPad X220.

Surprisingly:

… The handy optional desktop-installer script is still available, but as far as we can tell, it hasn't been updated for version 15.1 yet. In our testing, it couldn't correctly install a working desktop, and whatever desktop we tried, it failed without giving any visible error. …

Worked around, through manual installation of software, but I'm surprised that it happened.

Cross-post: r/freebsd

grahamperrin

My liferaft has a name: Pickle. If you recognise the name, you might already know
a little about
me.

People's
hidden
histories

… please tell me yours.

#SilentSunday so here,
today
I'll say
no more.

Snippets, instead,
weeks and months ahead.

Peace

@fuzzy@beige.party @grahamperrin

grahamperrin

A sequence of commands:

pkg upgrade -Fqy
pkg upgrade -U
pkg update
pkg upgrade -Fqy
pkg upgrade -U

Normally

If updates are available – and if there are no solver conflicts in response to the first command:

all updates will be listed following the second command.

With the upgrade of pkg from 2.7.5 to 2.8.0_1

The second command is followed by:

a prompt to run pkg update
"Your packages are up to date."

– and the packages are not necessarily up-to-date.

For the truth, you must run pkg update and then again pkg upgrade …

grahamperrin

No response to normal keyboard or mouse input at ttyv8, so login to a desktop environment is impossible.

Using Virtual Machine Manager to key Ctrl+Alt+F2 (pictured below) does not switch to ttyv1.

Weird.

This machine did previously work.

Comparison

I'm reminded of a bug that sometimes prevents use of vt(4) in VirtualBox, however I doubt that the root causes are the same:

FreeBSD-RELEASE in VirtualBox: vt no longer visible when switching away from a desktop environment at ttyv8 : r/freebsd

grahamperrin

https://codeberg.org/thesaigoneer/pages/src/branch/main/FreeBSD and Plasma 6 install - a log

@thesaigoneer@social.linux.pizza wrote:

I got triggered to revive my description on how to get a KDE Wayland session on FreeBSD up and running. …

From line 105 onwards it handles the Big K and how to run a Wayland session. This is what you'll end up with:

grahamperrin

FreeBSD Foundation Laptop Update:

Cross-post: https://redd.it/1tc70zr

grahamperrin

Why the Best Systems Are the Ones You Don't Notice

FreeBSD, from philosophy to practice.

https://vivianvoss.net/print/integrated-by-design

From Integrated by Design — Launch Day (23rd April):

… Five months of writing. Three weeks of final proofs. Then the last 72 hours, dedicated entirely to problems one does not anticipate. In the interest of transparency, and in the hope that it spares somebody else a week of the same, here are the four of them. …

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47928554 – please note the author's comments.

Vivian Voss — System Architect & Software Developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vvoss/

Also in Reddit: https://redd.it/1t1u1os

grahamperrin

https://www.redbsd.org/

… a FreeBSD-based distribution loaded with a curated red team and penetration testing toolkit, an XFCE-derived desktop, and VMware-ready images — built for operators who want a fast, stable alternative to Linux-based distros. …

https://greyprotocolsecurity.com/

RTFMv2 is the offensive security operations platform that combines structured checklists, automated scan integrations, and AI-assisted reporting—everything you need to finish assessments faster and with zero gaps.

This is neither an advertisement nor an endorsement.

I used RedBSD-1.20260713-amd64-installer.iso with Oracle VirtualBox 7.2.14 r174565 on Kubuntu 26.04:

allowed the default set of RedBSD packages
shutdown -r now
installed emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions-72 and enabled its two services
edited /boot/loader.conf and /etc/rc.conf to make SDDM and the desktop environment work with VirtualBox instead of VMware
enabled and started the two services for VirtualBox
service sddm restart

Security notes

RedBSD's provisioning scripts make choices that are convenient for an isolated lab but are not safe on an untrusted or internet-facing network:

…

Additional background

Six Reddit posts:

Red Team Oriented BSD OS : r/BSD (2026-06-15)
Red BSD scam or real? : r/BSD (2026-06-16)
RedBSD : r/freebsd (2026-07-10)
RedBSD: Um FreeBSD para cyberseguranca : r/FreeBSD_BR (2026-07-10)
RedBSD seems like only FreeBSD 15.1 : r/freebsd (2026-07-23)
RedBSD continued. First Run. : r/freebsd (2026-07-24)

Thanks to @jbz@indieweb.social for the Mastodon post that sparked my interest in RedBSD.

grahamperrin

OK, thanks, that looks good:

here in Billboard
in my NLI view of your original (pictured below).

New balls, please @tionisla.

grahamperrin

The Foundation's announcement:

https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/call-for-testing-introducing-the-laptop-integration-testing-project/

Thanks to u/anh0516:

In The FreeBSD Forums, maybe not open to discussion:

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/102265/

grahamperrin

Recently posted to Artificial Intelligence Made Simple by Devansh:

Anthropic's Claude Mythos Launch Is Built on Misinformation

He misinforms his readers:

… Nicholas Carlini published a 15-round reverse shell exploit here, …

– false. Devansh:

links to the post-CVE work by Calif
misattributes the work to Carlini.

Carlini used Claude Mythos before publication of CVE-2026-4747. The work by Anthropic is properly described here:

Claude Mythos Preview \ red.anthropic.com (2026-04-07)

– unfortunately, not referenced at https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-4747.

As a direct consequence of misinformation by Devansh, we have a somewhat misleading article by Jessica Lyons:

Anthropic Mythos shaping up as nothingburger • The Register

– and so on, and (sigh) I see the word "slop" in response to the article …

Credit to @bigsneakyduck for observing the mistake in Substack.

#AI

grahamperrin

Additional coverage of the roadmap: FreeBSD Laptop Project Hopes To Port Newer Linux Graphics Drivers This Year - Phoronix

grahamperrin

FreeBSD Foundation Laptop Update:

Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): roadmap – 2026, first quarter – FreeBSD Foundation | BSD Cafe Billboard

@grahamperrin@mastodon.bsd.cafe