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FreeBSD Multimedia

FreeBSD Multimedia Resources List

Links on this page refer to multimedia resources (podcast, vodcast, audio recordings, video recordings, photos) related to FreeBSD or of interest for FreeBSD users.

This list is available as chronological overview, as a tag cloud and via the sources.

This list is also available as RSS feed

If you know any resources not listed here, or notice any dead links, please send details to Edwin Groothuis so that it can be included or updated.

Tag: ogg

• A Few FreeBSD Core Team Members
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 24 May 2009
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcan, freebsd core team, robert watson, brooks davis, hiroki sato, philip paeps, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (38 minutes), MP3 version (18 Mb, 38 minutes)
  

  Interview with a few of the FreeBSD Core Team members at BSDCan 2009: Robert Watson, Brooks Davis, Hiroki Sato, Philip Paeps, and George V. Neville-Neil. We talk about the recent 7.2 release, and what is coming for 8.

• BSDCan 2009 with Dan Langille
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 24 May 2009
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcan, dan langille
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Dan Langille. We talk about BSDCan 2009. More information at http://www.bsdcan.org.

• Andrew Doran from the NetBSD Project
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 March 2009
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, netbsd, andrew doran
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with Andrew Doran from the NetBSD Project. We talk about the upcoming 5.0 release.

• Marshall Kirk McKusick at DCBSDCon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 February 2009
  Tags: bsdtalk, presentation, bsd, history, kirk mckusick
  Ogg version (55 minutes), MP3 version (26 Mb, 55 minutes)
  

  A recording of Marshall Kirk McKusick's talk "A Narrative History of BSD" at DCBSDCon this past weekend.
  You can get a much more complete history here: http://www.mckusick.com/history/index.html

• Justin Sherrill of the DragonFlyBSD Digest
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 January 2009
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, dragonflybsd, justin sherril
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with Justin Sherrill of the DragonFlyBSD Digest, which can be found at http://www.shiningsilence.com/dbsdlog/

• Michael Lauth from iXsystems
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 31 December 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, ixsystems, michael lauth
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Interview with Michael Lauth, CEO of iXsystems. We talk about his experiences with running a business using BSD.

• DCBSDCon with Jason Dixon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 10 December 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, dcbsdcon, dcbsdcon2009, jason dixon
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  I speak with Jason Dixon about DCBSDCon, which will take place in February 2009. For more info see www.dcbsdcon.org

• Asterisk Open Source Community Director John Todd
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 26 November 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, john todd, asterisk, openbsd
  Ogg version (23 minutes), MP3 version (11 Mb, 23 minutes)
  

  An interview with Asterisk Open Source Community Director John Todd, who also happens to be a user of BSD. We talk about Asterisk on BSD, and his choice of OpenBSD for his systems.

• Julian Elischer
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 November 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, julian elischer, ironport
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (16 Mb, 35 minutes)
  

  An interview with Julian Elischer at MeetBSD in California. We talk about his early days with BSD and his work using BSD at various companies. He is currently with IronPort, which was bought by Cisco.

• At MeetBSD with some of the FreeBSD Core Team
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 18 November 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd core team, meetbsd2008, meetbsd, robert watson, brooks davis, kris kennaway, peter wemm, philip paeps, freebsd, subversion
  Ogg version (38 minutes), MP3 version (18 Mb, 38 minutes)
  

  A conversation with some of the FreeBSD Core Team at MeetBSD California 2008. I speak with Brooks Davis, Kris Kennaway, Robert Watson, Peter Wemm, and Philip Paeps about the recent core team election, FreeBSD 7.1 and 8, Developer Summits, and the move to Subversion.

• A Tour of iXsystems
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 November 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, ixsystems
  Ogg version (8 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 8 minutes)
  

  A brief description of my visit to iXsystems in California prior to MeetBSD 2008.

• BSD on a eeePC 900A
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 November 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, eeepc
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  I look forward to attending MeetBSD this weekend.
  A brief description of my first attempts to get BSD on a eeePC 900A. I try OpenBSD 4.4, DragonFlyBSD 2.0.1, PC-BSD 7.0.1, and FreeBSD 7.

• Live from NYCBSDCon Sunday
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 October 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, nycbsdcon2008, nycbsdcon, interview
  Ogg version (25 minutes), MP3 version (12 Mb, 25 minutes)
  

  A copy of Sunday's live stream from NYCBSDCon 2008.

• Live from NYCBSDCon Saturday
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 12 October 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, nycbsdcon2008, nycbsdcon, interview, jason dixon, pawel jakub dawidek, kris more, matt olander, george neville-neil, phillip coblentz, jason wright
  Ogg version (40 minutes), MP3 version (18 Mb, 40 minutes)
  

  A copy of Saturday's live stream from NYCBSDCon 2008. I wander around during lunch talking to random people. Voices include Jason Dixon, Pawel Jakub Dawidek, Kris Moore, Matt Olander, George Neville-Neil, Phillip Coblentz, and Jason Wright.

• Kris Moore
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 06 October 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, kris more, pc-bsd
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Interview with Kris Moore. We talk about the recent release of PC-BSD 7.0.

• Interview with Chess Griffin
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 26 September 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, chess griffin, linuxreality
  Ogg version (24 minutes), MP3 version (11 Mb, 24 minutes)
  

  Interview with Chess Griffin, host of the LinuxReality podcast. We talk about his use of Linux and recent exploration into the BSDs.

• Questions for you
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 September 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk
  Ogg version (6 minutes), MP3 version (3 Mb, 6 minutes)
  

  • Things have been very busy at the beginning of the school year, so I'm sorry that I haven't been producing as many shows as usual.
  • Registration is open for NYCBSDCon and the list of speakers is available. Are you going?
  • I plan on streaming live during the conference. Do you have any suggestions for live streaming software that is known to work well on the BSDs? Are there any live CDs like Dyne:bolic?
  • I've come into possession of a Soekris 5501. What are your suggestions for soekris-friendly projects to test?

• NYCBSDCon Update with Isaac Levy and Steven Kreuzer
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 August 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, nycbug, nycbsdcon, nycbsdcon2008, isaac levy, steven kreuzer
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  An update on NYCBSDCon 2008 with Isaac Levy and Steven Kreuzer. More information on the conference can be found at http://www.nycbsdcon.org/

• Martin Tournoij from DaemonForums.org
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 23 July 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, daemonforums, martin tournoij
  Ogg version (7 minutes), MP3 version (3 Mb, 7 minutes)
  

  A brief interview with Martin Tournoij, one of the founders of DaemonForums.org.

• Matthew Dillon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 09 July 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, hammer, matthew dillon
  Ogg version (30 minutes), MP3 version (14 Mb, 30 minutes)
  

  An interview with Matthew Dillon. He gives a fairly technical description of the HAMMER filesystem features that will make it in the DragonflyBSD 2.0 release.

• Michael W. Lucas
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 15 June 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcan2008, michael lucas
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Interview with Michael W. Lucas at BSDCan 2008. We talk about some of his books and strategies for writing technical publications.

• A Few FreeBSD Core Team Members
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 05 June 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcan2008, freebsd core, warner losh, george neville-neil murray stokely, hiroki sato, robert watson, brooks davis, philip paeps
  Ogg version (26 minutes), MP3 version (12 Mb, 26 minutes)
  

  An interview with a few of the FreeBSD Core Team members: Warner Losh, George V. Neville-Neil, Murray Stokeley, Hiroki Sato, Robert Watson, Brooks Davis, and Philip Paeps. The interview was recorded at BSDCan2008 in Ottawa, Cananda.

• Sean Cody from Frantic Films VFX
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 31 May 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcan2008, frantic films, sean cody
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Sean Cody at BSDCan2008. We talk about his use of BSD at a visual effects studio.

• Alex Feldman from Sangoma
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 20 May 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, sangoma, alex feldman
  Ogg version (9 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 9 minutes)
  

  Interview at BSDCan2008 with Alex Feldman from Sangoma.

• Justin Gibbs from the FreeBSD Foundation
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 18 May 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd foundation, justin gibbs
  Ogg version (11 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 11 minutes)
  

  Interview with Justin Gibbs from the FreeBSD Foundation.

• Jeremy White, Founder of CodeWeavers
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 May 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, codeweavers, crossover, jeremy white
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with Jeremy White, Founder of CodeWeavers. We talk about the recent availability of an experimental build of Crossover Games for BSD.

• FreeBSD Developer Alexander Motin
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 18 April 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, mpd, alexander motin
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD Developer Alexander Motin. We talk about mpd, the netgraph based Multi-link PPP Daemon. For more information, see http://mpd.sourceforge.net/.

• James Cornell
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 08 April 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, desktop, james cornell
  Ogg version (9 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 20 minutes)
  

  Another interview with Sysadmin James Cornell. We talk about BSD, OpenSolaris, and Linux on the desktop.

• Adam Wright from No Starch Press
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 02 April 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, books, no starch press, adam wright
  Ogg version (8 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 8 minutes)
  

  Intro: Some musings on the consistency and simplicity of BSD.

  A brief interview with Adam Wright from No Starch Press, recorded by Micheal Dexter on behalf of BSDTalk. They talk about recent and future BSD books.

• Dan Langille
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 22 March 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, afilias, bsdcan2008, dan langille
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with Dan Langille. We talk about his new job with Afilias, and BSDCan 2008.

• BSD Hobbiest Deborah Norling
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 11 March 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, accessibility, deborah norling
  Ogg version (23 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 23 minutes)
  

  Interview with Deborah Norling. We talk about her use of BSD on old hardware, accessibility on the BSDs, and Simh (http://simh.trailing-edge.com).

• FreeBSD Lead Release Engineer Ken Smith
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 March 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, release engineer, ken smith
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD Lead Release Engineer Ken Smith.

• PBI 4 with Kris Moore
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 27 February 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pc-bsd, kris moore
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  Interview with PC-BSD founder Kris Moore about the new features in PBI 4.

• The Mult Project with Kristaps Dzonsons
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 06 February 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, multi project, kristaps dzonsons
  Ogg version (30 minutes), MP3 version (14 Mb, 30 minutes)
  

  We talk about the Mult project, which is "an on-going research project to create a high-performance instance multiplicity system." You can find more information at http://mult.bsd.lv/. He also gives a quick update on Sysjail.

• Dru Lavigne
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 31 January 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, dru lavigne, the best of freebsd basics
  Ogg version (14 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 14 minutes)
  

  Interview with Dru Lavigne. We talk about her new book "The Best of FreeBSD Basics" and also get an update on some other projects including BSD Certification.

  See the following links for more information:

  • https://register.bsdcertification.org/register/get-a-bsdcg-id
  • http://reedmedia.net/books/freebsd-basics
  • http://www.osbr.ca

• Central Syslog
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 25 January 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, syslog
  Ogg version (7 minutes), MP3 version (3 Mb, 7 minutes)
  

  Setting up a central syslog server.

  • If you are concerned about the security of your logs, use a dedicated machine and lock it down.
  • Keep clocks in sync.
  • You may need to change log rotation schedule in /etc/newsyslog.conf. You can rotate based in size and/or time. This can be as much a policy decision as a hardware decision.
  • On central log host, change syslogd flags to listen to network. Each BSD does this differently, so check the man pages. Also, check out the -n flag for busy environments.
  • Make sure host firewall allows syslog traffic through.
  • Be careful to limit syslog traffic to just the trusted network or hosts. FreeBSD man page refers to syslogd as a "remote disk filling service".
  • For heavy logging environments, it is important to have a dedicated network. A down syslogd server can create a lot of "ARP who-has" broadcasts.
  • Most network devices such as printers and commercial firewalls support sending to a central syslog server. Take a look at "Snare" for Windows hosts.
  • To send messages from a Unix host, specify the host name prepended with @ instead of a file for logging in /etc/syslog.conf. For example, change /var/log/xferlog to @loghost.mydomain.biz. You can also copy and edit the line to have it log to both a local file and a remote host.

• Open Community Camp with Marten Vijn
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 08 January 2008
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, opencommunitycamp, marten vijn
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Marten Vijn about www.OpenCommunityCamp.org.

• PF with Peter N. M. Hansteen
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 December 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pf, michael dexter, peter n m hansteen, book of pf
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  An interview with Peter N. M. Hansteen, recorded by Michael Dexter on behalf of BSDTalk. If you would like to learn more about the PF firewall, check out "The Book of PF" which is available at http://nostarch.com/frameset.php?startat=pf

• Joerg Sonnenberger
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 18 November 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2007, michael dexter, joerg sonnenberger
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Michael Dexter sent me an interview he recorded on behalf of BSDTalk with Joerg Sonnenberger at EuroBSDCon 2007.

• AsiaBSDCon Update with Hiroki Sato and George Neville-Neil
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 23 October 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, asiabsdcon, hiroki sato, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  A quick update on AsiaBSDCon 2008 with Hiroki Sato and George Neville-Neil. More information at http://www.asiabsdcon.org/.

• OpenCon 2007 update from Marc Balmer
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 20 October 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, opencon, marc balmer
  Ogg version (7 minutes), MP3 version (3 Mb, 7 minutes)
  

  A short update on OpenCon 2007 with Marc Balmer. More information at http://www.opencon.org/.

• Richard Stallman
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 October 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, rms, richard stallman
  Ogg version (16 Mb, 28 minutes)
  

  Interview with Richard Stallman.

• PCC with Anders "Ragge" Magnusson
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 06 October 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pcc, ragge, anders magnusson
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with Anders "Ragge" Magnusson. We talk about his work on the Portable C Compiler. More information can be found at http://pcc.ludd.ltu.se/.

• Network Stack Virtualization with Marko Zec
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 October 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, stack virtualization, marko zec
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Michael Dexter sent me an interview he recorded on behalf of BSDTalk with Marko Zec at EuroBSDCon 2007. More information on the project at http://imunes.tel.fer.hr/virtnet/.

• BSDCertification Update with Dru Lavigne
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 September 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdcertification, dru lavigne
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 20 minutes)
  

  Interview with Dru Lavigne. We talk about the progress of BSDCertification.org and also her new position with the Open Source Business Resource at http://www.osbr.ca/.

• Sysjail Revisited with Michael Dexter
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 14 September 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, sysjail, michael dexter
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with Michael Dexter. We talk about the new sysjail and the recent system call wrapper issues.

• Why I like the CLI
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 September 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, cli, will backman
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Why I like the CLI:

  • Uses minimal resources. Less space, less memory, fewer dependencies.
  • Transparency. GUI hides internals, limits options.
  • Similar between Unix-like systems. GUI tools seem to change every week.
  • Remote management. SSH rocks.
  • Everything is text. Configs, devices, output. CLI is natural complement.
  • Pipes and scripts. One time is hard, a thousand times is easy.
  • Only need a few tools. Grep, sed, awk, vi, cron.
  • Text config files. Easy to version, share, and comment.
  • Requires reading skills instead of clicking skills.
  • Much faster when you know what you are doing.

• MidnightBSD founder Lucas Holt
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 23 August 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, midnightbsd, lucas holt
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with MidnightBSD founder Lucas Holt.

• Matthew Dillon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 August 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, dragonflybsd, mattew dillon
  Ogg version (20 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 20 minutes)
  

  Interview with DragonflyBSD's Matthew Dillon. We talk about the 1.10 release and the design of a new filesystem.

• PC-BSD Founder Kris Moore
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 07 August 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pc-bsd, kris moore
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Interview with PC-BSD Founder Kris Moore. We talk about the upcoming 1.4 release.

• William "whurley" Hurley, Chief Architect of Open Source Strategy at BMC Software, Inc.
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 31 July 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bmc software, whurley, william hurley
  Ogg version (28 minutes), MP3 version (14 Mb, 28 minutes)
  

  Interview with William "whurley" Hurley, Chief Architect of Open Source Strategy at BMC Software, Inc. We talk about the BMC Developer Network.

• Embedding FreeBSD with M. Warner Losh
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 27 July 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, embedding freebsd, m warner losh
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with M. Warner Losh about embedding FreeBSD.

• Fast IPSec with George Neville-Neil
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 July 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, ipsec, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (14 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 14 minutes)
  

  Interview with George Neville-Neil about Fast IPSec.

• BSD Hacker Isaac "Ike" Levy
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 16 July 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, nycbug, isaac levy
  Ogg version (26 minutes), MP3 version (13 Mb, 26 minutes)
  

  Interview with BSD Hacker Isaac "Ike" Levy. To hear more of Ike and other NYCBUG audio, visit http://www.fetissov.org/public/nycbug/

• Playing with IPv6
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 06 July 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, ipv6
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  I ramble on about how I have been experimenting with IPv6. For more details, see http://cisx1.uma.maine.edu/~wbackman/cis341/resources/ipv6-test-lab.html.

• Sidsel Jensen from EuroBSDCon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 25 June 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2007, sidsel jensen
  Ogg version (9 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 9 minutes)
  

  Interview with Sidsel Jensen from www.eurobsdcon.org.

• One Time Passwords
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 14 June 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, security, one time passwords
  Ogg version (6 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 6 minutes)
  

  • Important when you don't trust the computer you are using, such as a library computer or internet kiosk.
  • Available by default in Free/Net/Open BSD.
  • FreeBSD uses OPIE, Net/Open use S/Key.
  • One time passwords are based on your pass phrase, a non-repeating sequence number, and a seed.
  • Initial setup should be done directly on the server.
  • "skeyinit" for Net/Open, "opiepasswd -c" for FreeBSD.
  • Enter a pass phrase that is not your regular account password.
  • Find your current sequence number and seed with "opieinfo" or "skeyinfo", for example: "497 pc5246".
  • Generate a list of the next 10 passwords and write them down, using "opiekey -n 10 497 pc5246" or "skey -n 10 497 pc5246".
  • When you log in from a remote machine that might have a keystroke logger, you can now use a one time password instead of your regular password.
  • For OpenBSD, log in as account:skey, for example "bob:skey", which will cause the system to present the s/key challenge.
  • For NetBSD, the system will always present you with the s/key challenge if it is configured for your account, although you can still use your regular password.
  • FreeBSD by default will force you to use a one time password if it is configured for your account.
  • If you want both OPIE and password authentication, FreeBSD allows you to list trusted networks or hosts in /etc/opieaccess.
  • Instead of carrying a list of passwords around, you can use s/key generators on a portable device that you trust, such as a palm pilot.
  • For more info, check the man pages.

• Rick Macklem and NFSv4
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 07 June 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, nfs, rick macklem
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Rick Macklem about his work with NFSv4. More information at http://snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca/nfsv4/.

• Jun-ichiro "itojun" Itoh Hagino
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 02 June 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, kame, itojun, jun-ichiro itoh hagino
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  Interview with KAME project core researcher Jun-ichiro "itojun" Itoh Hagino.

• A Few FreeBSD Core Team Members
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 26 May 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd core, brooks davis, warner losh, george neville-neil, hiroki sato, robert watson
  Ogg version (35 minutes), MP3 version (16 Mb, 35 minutes)
  

  An interview with a few of the FreeBSD Core Team members: Brooks Davis, Warner Losh, George V. Neville-Neil, Hiroki Sato, and Robert Watson. The interview was recorded at BSDCan in Ottawa, Cananda.

• Designing BSD Rootkits Author Joseph Kong
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 24 May 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, kernel, rootkits, books, joseph kong
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with Joseph Kong, Author of "Designing BSD Rootkits: An Introduction to Kernel Hacking" from No Starch Press. The interview was recorded at BSDCan in Ottawa.

• Qing Li and Tatuya Jinmei
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 May 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, ipv6, books, qing li, tatuya jimei
  Ogg version (20 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 20 minutes)
  

  Interview at at BSDCan with Qing Li and Tatuya Jinmei. We talk about the books that they authored with Keiichi Shima: "IPv6 Core Protocols Implementation" and "IPv6 Advanced Protocols Implementation." The books are available at Amazon.com or on the publisher's web site, www.mkp.com.

• FreeBSD Developer Diane Bruce
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 10 May 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, diana bruce
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD developer Diane Bruce. We talk about Ham Radio on BSD. Slides from one of her talks: http://www.oarc.net/hamradio_on_freebsd.pdf

• Josh Berkus, Postgresql Lead at Sun Microsystems
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 May 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, postgresql, josh berkus
  Ogg version (19 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 19 minutes)
  

  Interview with Josh Berkus, Postgresql Lead at Sun Microsystems. We talk about the upcoming PGCon on 23-24 May 2007. More info at http://www.pgcon.org.

• George Neville-Neil and Using VMs for Development
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 26 April 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, virtual machines, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  George Neville-Neil and Using VMs for Development. See http://blogs.freebsdish.org/gnn for more information.

• Matt Juszczak from bsdjobs.net
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 April 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdjobs, matt juszczak
  Ogg version (4 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 8 minutes)
  

  Interview with Matt Juszczak from bsdjobs.net.

• Contiki OS Developer Adam Dunkels
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 12 April 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, contikios, adam dunkels
  Ogg version (27 minutes), MP3 version (13 Mb, 27 minutes)
  

  Interview with Contiki OS Developer Adam Dunkels. You can find more information at http://www.sics.se/contiki/.

• Interview with Matthieu Herrb about Xenocara
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 09 April 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, xenocara, matthieu herrb
  Ogg version (14 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 14 minutes)
  

  Interview with Matthieu Herrb about Xenocara.

• Intro to PF with Jason Dixon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 April 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pf, jason dixon
  Ogg version (25 minutes), MP3 version (12 Mb, 25 minutes)
  

  Introduction to PF with Jason Dixon.

• Getting to know X
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 March 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, X
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  Getting to know the X Window System.
  > Make sure you are in a text only mode. You might need to change how the system boots, or boot into single user mode.

  • "startx" to make sure X is working right.
  • "X" by itself gives the basic grey screen.
  • "ctrl" and "alt" and "backspace" keys at the same time will zap X.
  • "X & xterm -display :0"
  • "xterm -geometry +300+300"
  • "twm" or "metacity"

• Robert Ricci from Emulab
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 March 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, emulab, robert ricci
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with Robert Ricci from www.Emulab.net.

• Cisco Distinguished Engineer Randall Stewart
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 08 March 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, cisco, freebsd, stream control transmission protocol, randall stewart
  Ogg version (35 minutes), MP3 version (17 Mb, 35 minutes)
  

  Interview with Cisco Distinguished Engineer Randall Stewart. We talk about the Stream Control Transmission Protocol and his work bringing it to FreeBSD.

• FreeBSD Developer George Neville-Neil
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 27 February 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, packet construction set, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (19 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 19 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD developer George Neville-Neil. We talk about the packet construction set and the packet debugger.

• NetBSD Developer Lubomir Sedlacik
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 17 February 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, netbsd, pkgsrccon, lubomir sedlacik
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with NetBSD Developer Lubomir Sedlacik. We talk about pkgsrcCon 2007.

• AsiaBSDCon PC Chair George Neville-Neil
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 09 February 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, asiabsdcon, asiabsdcon2007, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (14 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 14 minutes)
  

  Interview with AsiaBSDCon 2007 Program Committee Chair George Neville-Neil.

• DragonFlyBSD Developer Matthew Dillon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 08 February 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, dragonflybsd, mathew dillon
  Ogg version (24 minutes), MP3 version (12 Mb, 24 minutes)
  

  Interview with DragonFlyBSD developer Matthew Dillon. We talk about the 1.8 release.

• OpenBSD Developer Pierre-Yves Ritschard
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 02 February 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, hoststated, pierre-yves ritschard
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD Developer Pierre-Yves Ritschard. We talk about hoststated.

• Artist and Musician Ty Semaka
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 29 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, artwork, ty semaka
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Interview with Artist and Musician Ty Semaka. You can find his work at http://www.tysemaka.com/, and also on the OpenBSD CDs, posters, and shirts.

• OpenBSD Developer Claudio Jeker
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 24 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, claudio jeker
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD Developer Claudio Jeker.

• BSD Consultant Jeremy C. Reed
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, consultancy, jeremy c reed
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with BSD Consultant Jeremy C. Reed from http://www.reedmedia.net/

• EMC Lab Admin Glen R. J. Neff
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, emc lab, glen r j neff
  Ogg version (30 minutes), MP3 version (15 Mb, 30 minutes)
  

  Interview with EMC Lab Administrator Glen R. J. Neff.

• Run Your Own Server Podcast Host Adam Glen
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 12 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, run your own server, adam glen
  Ogg version (12 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 12 minutes)
  

  Interview with Adam Glen, one of the hosts of the Run Your Own Server Podcast.

• Phil Pereira from bsdnexus.com
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 07 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bsdnexus, phil pereira
  Ogg version (18 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 18 minutes)
  

  Interview with Phil Pereira from bsdnexus.com.

• Sys Admin Mike Erdely
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 04 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, binpatch, mike erdely
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Interview with Sys Admin Mike Erdely. You can find more information on his use of binpatch at http://erdelynet.com/binpatch.

• NetBSD Release Engineer Jeff Rizzo
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 January 2007
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, netbsd, jeff rizzo
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with NetBSD Release Engineer Jeff Rizzo. We talk about the upcoming 4.0 release.

• A Year of BSDTalk
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 December 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, anniversary
  Ogg version (8 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 8 minutes)
  

  A short ramble about the first year of bsdtalk.

• FreeBSD Developer Joseph Koshy
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 11 December 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, libelf, joseph koshy
  Ogg version (9 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 9 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD developer Joseph Koshy about libELF. You can find more information about libELF at http://wiki.freebsd.org/LibElf.

• FreeBSD Developer Kip Macy
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 07 December 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, ultrasparc t1, kip macy
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD developer Kip Macy. We talk about the Ultrasparc T1 port.

• FreeBSD Port Committer Thomas McLaughlin
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 December 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, bsd#, thomas mclaughlin
  Ogg version (18 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 18 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD Port Committer Thomas McLaughlin about the BSD# project.

• FreeBSD Release Engineer Bruce Mah
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 29 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, freebsd, release engineer, bruce mah
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with FreeBSD Release Engineer Bruce Mah.

• Pkgsrc Developer Johnny Lam
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 19 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pkgsrc, johnny lam
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with pkgsrc developer Johnny Lam.

• OpenBSD Developer Jason Wright
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 10 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, sparc, radio, jason wright
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD developer Jason Wright. We talk about his work on sparc and also amateur radio.

• Thorsten Glaser from MirOS
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 07 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, miros, thomas glaser
  Ogg version (19 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 19 minutes)
  

  Interview with Thorsten Glaser from MirOS, which can be found at www.mirbsd.org.

• EuroBSDCon Organizer Massimiliano Stucchi
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2006, massimiliano stucchi
  Ogg version (8 minutes), MP3 version (4 Mb, 8 minutes)
  

  Interview with EuroBSDCon organizer Massimiliano Stucchi.

• OpenBSD Developer David Gwynne
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 November 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, david gwynne
  Ogg version (16 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 16 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD developer David Gwynne. We talk about the upcoming 4.0 release of OpenBSD and current projects that he is working on.

• Kris Moore from PC-BSD
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 26 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, pc-bsd, kris moore
  Ogg version (21 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 21 minutes)
  

  Interview with Kris Moore from PC-BSD.

• Matt Olander from iXsystems
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 18 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, ixsystems, matt olander
  Ogg version (19 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 19 minutes)
  

  Interview with Matt Olander from www.iXsystems.com.

• OpenBSD Developer Marc Balmer
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, opencon, openbsd, marc balmer
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD Developer Marc Balmer. We talk about www.opencon.org and his work with OpenBSD.

• Interview with Hiroki Sato and George Neville-Neil from AsiaBSDCon
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 06 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, asiabsdcon, asiabsdcon2006, hiroki sao, george neville-neil
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Hiroki Sato and George Neville-Neil from AsiaBSDCon. More info at http://www.asiabsdcon.org/.

• Interview with Sevan Janiyan
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 05 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, brighton chilli wifi, sevan janiyan
  Ogg version (13 minutes), MP3 version (6 Mb, 13 minutes)
  

  Interview with Sevan Janiyan. We talk about the Brighton Chilli WiFi hotspot project, which can be found at http://brightonchilli.geeklan.co.uk/

• Interview with Poul-Henning Kamp about Varnish
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 03 October 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, varnish, poul-henning kamp
  Ogg version (36 minutes), MP3 version (17 Mb, 36 minutes)
  

  Interview with Poul-Henning Kamp about Varnish. More information at http://www.varnish-cache.org/.

• Interview with Einar Th. Einarsson from f-prot.com
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 29 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, f-prot, einar th einarsson
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Interview with Einar Th. Einarsson from f-prot.com.

• Interview with NetBSD Developer Tim Rightnour
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 28 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, netbsd, tim rightnour
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with NetBSD Developer Tim Rightnour. We talk about NetBSD/prep.

• Interview with Christoph Egger about Xen on OpenBSD
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 23 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, xen, christoph egger
  Ogg version (15 minutes), MP3 version (7 Mb, 15 minutes)
  

  Interview with Christoph Egger about Xen on OpenBSD.

• Interview with OpenBSD Developer Bob Beck
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 23 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, openbsd, bob beck
  Ogg version (26 minutes), MP3 version (12 Mb, 26 minutes)
  

  Interview with OpenBSD Developer Bob Beck.

• Interview with Dan Langille about backups
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 22 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, bacula, dan langille
  Ogg version (22 minutes), MP3 version (10 Mb, 22 minutes)
  

  Interview with Dan Langille about backups. Check out http://www.bacula.org/

• Interview with Michael Dexter about sysjail
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 21 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, sysjail, michael dexter
  Ogg version (35 minutes), MP3 version (16 Mb, 35 minutes)
  

  Interview with Michael Dexter about sysjail. http://sysjail.bsd.lv/

• Interview with Eirik Øverby.
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 15 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, jails, eirik Overby
  Ogg version (18 minutes), MP3 version (9 Mb, 18 minutes)
  

  Interview with Eirik Øverby. We talk about his use of BSD and Jails.

• Interview with NetBSD Developer Jason Thorpe
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 13 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, netbsd, jason thorpe
  Ogg version (38 minutes), MP3 version (18 Mb, 38 minutes)
  

  Interview with NetBSD Developer Jason Thorpe

• Interview with Mitchell Smith about BSD and Accessibility
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 01 September 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, accessibility, mitchell smith
  Ogg version (17 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 17 minutes)
  

  Interview with Mitchell Smith about BSD and Accessibility.

• Interview with YAWS developer Claes Klacke Wikstrom
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 22 August 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, yaws, claes wikstrom
  Ogg version (18 minutes), MP3 version (8 Mb, 18 minutes)
  

  Interview with YAWS developer Claes "Klacke" Wikstrom.

• My BSD History
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 11 August 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, accessibility
  Ogg version (10 minutes), MP3 version (5 Mb, 10 minutes)
  

  My BSD History, by Will Backman of BSDTalk, and a bit on accessibility.

• Interview with Matt Morley
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 08 August 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, matt morley
  Ogg version (25 minutes), MP3 version (11 Mb, 25 minutes)
  

  Interview with Matt Morley, BSD user.

• Interview with Jason Thaxter from gomoos.org
  Source: bsdtalk
  Added: 05 August 2006
  Tags: bsdtalk, interview, gomoos, jason thaxter
  Ogg version (23 minutes), MP3 version (11 Mb, 23 minutes)
  

  Interview with Jason Thaxter from gomoos.org.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Paeps Philip - How-to embed FreeBSD
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, embed, freebsd, philip paeps
  MP3 (1 byte, 43 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 43 minutes), PDF (1 byte, 17 pages)
  

  This paper provides a how-to embed FreeBSD. A console server built form an AT91RM9200 based ARM system will be explored. This paper will talk about the selection of hardware. It will explore creating images for the target system, as well as concentrate on different alternatives for deploying the system. A number of different options exist today, and no comprehensive guide for navigating through the choices exists today. This paper will explore the different alternatives that exist today for producing images targeted at different size requirements. The differing choices for storage in an embedded environment are explored. The techniques used to access rich debugging environments are discussed.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - George Neville-Neil - Multicast Performance in FreeBSD
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, multicast, freebsd, george neville-neil
  MP3 (1 byte, 39 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 39 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  In the past ten years most of the research in network protocols has gone into TCP, leaving UDP to languish as a local configuration protocol. While the majority of Internet traffic is TCP, UDP remains the only IP protocol that works over multicast and as such has some specific, and interesting uses in some areas of computing. In 2008 we undertook a study of the performance of UDP multicast on both 1Gbps and 10Gbps Ethernet networks in order to see if changing the physical layer of the network would give a linear decrease in packet latency. To measure the possible gains we developed a new network protocol test program, mctest, which is capable of recording packet round trip times from many hosts simultaneously and which we believe accurately represents how many environments use multicast. The mctest program has been integrated into FreeBSD and is now being used to verify the proper operation of multicast on various pieces of 10Gbps hardware.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Pedro Giffuni - Working with Engineering Applications in FreeBSD
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, engineering applications, pedro giffuni
  MP3 (1 byte, 51 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 51 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  In recent years, traditional branches of engineering like Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical and Industrial Engineering are requiring extensive computing facilities for their needs. Several well known labs (Sandia, Lawrence Livermore) rely on huge clusters to do all types of complex analysis that were unthinkable a couple of decades ago. While the free BSD variants share the environment with traditional UNIX systems, frequently used for such computations, it was not common to find adequate free software packages to carry complex calculations. Eventually commercial versions of important math related packages started to appear for the Linux platform. Even when the big packages were distant, the BSDs learned and adapted in resourceful ways: Matlab and Mathematica, running under Linux emulation, demanded functionality from the BSDs and NetBSD implemented a signal trampoline to be able to run AutoCAD with IRIX binary compatibility. A notable project that was always available under a free license was Berkeley's Spice circuit analysis program, however it was an exception rather than the rule. Even when the scientific community pressed for a while to get other important tools like NASA's FEA package Nastran under a free license, the objective of being able to access and enhance open scientific tools was elusive. About a decade ago the situation started to improve: FreeBSD's ports system started growing exponentially, first with a high content in the math category, afterwards with a CAD section and after sustained growth in those categories a science section was created. This growth was mostly pushed by Universities and their research projects and in general are not well known with respect to the commercial counterparts. I started porting math/engineering code for FreeBSD around 1996. Back then it was absolutely unthinkable for a Mechanical Engineer to depend only on FreeBSD for it's daily work. The situation nowadays is different: there are some very high quality engineering analysis packages like EDF's Code Aster, with more than 12 years of professional development, that just can't be ignored. A Finite Element package, like Code Aster, can easily cost 5000 US$, is priced according to the maximum problem size it can solve, can require yearly licenses, and is rarely available with source code. In NASTRAN's case the source code is only available for US citizens under a yearly fee. Free software does have serious limitations though; just like in office applications there are proprietary CAD formats or sometimes the package simply doesn't have the required functionality. Having the sources, of course, always has the advantage of being able to implement (or pay for) some specific functionality you might need. Many commercial packages have been recently ported to Linux, but even when they gain some of the advantages of an open environment they still have yet another limitation: they have been very slow to make use of the multicored features of the new processors in the market, a huge limitation now that the speed war between processors has been limited by the overheating problem. The objective of the talk is to give an overview of several CAD/CAE packages that have been made available recently as part of FreeBSD's ports system and the decisions that were made to port them. BRLCAD and Varkon are two CAD utilities that made a transition from closed source to an open environment and in the process in the process of getting ported to BSD have gained greater portability and general "bug" fixes critical for their consolidation as usable and maintainable projects. There are also some tricks that have not been well documented: it is possible to enable threads and some extra optimizations on some packages, and it is also possible to replace the standard BLAS library with the faster GOTO BLAS without rebuilding the package. It is also possible to build the packages optimized for a clustered environment, but perhaps what is most interesting of all is how all the packages interrelate with each other and can turn FreeBSD into a complete enginering environment. No OS distribution so far is offering all the engineering specific utilities offered through FreeBSD's ports system: from design to visualization, passing through analysis FreeBSD is becoming an option that can't be ignored, and best of all, it is an effort that will benefit not only FreeBSD but the wider audience.
  Pedro F. Giffuni M. Sc. Industrial Engineering - University of Pittsburgh Mechanical Engineer - Universidad Nacional de Colombia I was born in Bogota, Colombia but I am an Italian citizen. My experience with computers started when I was about 12 years old With the TRS-80 Color Computer first using Basic and the OS-9. I studied electronics for 3 years but became tired of worrying about "whatever happened to electrons in there" and moved to Mechanical Engineering. For a while I rested from the computer world until the Internet came stepping along. I started using FreeBSD around 1995 and soon fell in love with the idea of being able to install a complete version of UNIX from the net with just one floppy. After submitting a the 999th port to the FreeBSD project Walnut Creek was kind enough to give me a subscription for several years to FreeBSD's CD-ROM. Since then I've been on and off porting software packages or fixing the bugs I have caused while porting them. Of course there has always been great respect for the other BSDs and their wonderful license and while I've given up on the idea of one day seeing a "UnifiedBSD" I am glad to see different approaches sharing ideas in a healthful environment.
  Keywords: BSD, engineering, CAE, CAD, math, mechanical, FreeBSD ports

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Ion-Mihai Tetcu - Improving FreeBSD ports/packages quality
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, ports, packages, ion-mihai tetcu
  MP3 (1 byte, 56 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 56 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  This talk is focused on ways to improve the quality of FreeBSD's ports and packages and it's partially based on the 5 months experience of writing and running the consecutive versions of "QA Tindy".
  Ion-Mihai "IOnut" Tetcu is a 28 years old FreeBSD ports committer and maintains about 40 ports scattered in the Ports Tree. He lives in Bucharest, Romania where he runs and co-owns an IT& company and he's a member of Romanian FreeBSD and FreeUnix User Group (RoFUG). His non-IT interests include history, philosophy and mountain climbing.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Yvan Vanhullebus - IPSec tools: past, present and future
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, ipsec, yvan vanhullebus
  MP3 (1 byte, 46 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 46 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The first part will explain what have been major changes since Manu's presentation at Bale's EuroBSDCon, including more detailed informations on changes which have a significant impact on administrator's bad habits (why the common way of doing it is bad, why it was sometimes needed in the past, how to do it the good way now, why this is far better), on both the UserLand (ipsec-tools project) and maybe in [Free|Net]BSD kernels/ IPSec stacks.
  The second part will talk about the future of the project. News of the next major version (which may be out or about to be out when we'll be ate EuroBSDCon), news works which are planned or which are done but not yet public, but also news about the team: it's new members, new tools, what we would like to do in tue future, a
  Yvan VANHULLEBUS works as an R&D security engineer for NETASQ since 2000, where he works on FreeBSD OS. He started to work on KAME's IPSec stack in 2001, provided many patches for various parts of the stack, then became one of the maintainers of ipsec-tools project, a fork of KAME's userland daemon. He became a NetBSD developper when ipsec-tools was migrated to NetBSD's CVS.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 Keynote - George Neville-Neil - Thinking about thinking code
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, george neville-neil
  MP3 (1 byte, 37 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 37 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  EuroBSDCon 2008 Keynote - George Neville-Neil - Thinking about thinking code

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Robert Watson - FreeBSD Network Stack Performance Optimizations for Modern Hardware
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, network stack, hardware, robert watson
  MP3 (1 byte, 53 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 53 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The arrival of high CPU core density, with commodity quad-core notebooks and 32-core servers, combined with 10gbps networking have transformed network design principles for operating systems. This talk will describe changes in the FreeBSD 6.x, 7.x, and forthcoming 8.x network stacks required to exploit multiple cores and serve 10gbps networks. The goal of the session will be to introduce the audience to general strategies used to improve performance, their rationales, and their impact on applications and users:
  • Introduction to the SMPng Project and the follow-on Netperf Project
  • Workloads and performance measurement
  • Efficient primitives to support modern network stacks
  • Multi-core and cache-aware network memory allocator
  • Fine-grained network stack locking
  • Load-balancing and contention-avoidance across multiple CPUs
  • CPU affinity for network stack data structures
  • TCP performance enhancements including TSO, LRO, and TOE
  • Zero-copy Berkely Packet Filter (BPF) buffers
  • Direct network stack dispatch from interrupt handlers
  • Multiple input and output queues
  
  Robert Watson is a researcher at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory investinging operating system and network security. Prior to joining the Computer Laboratory to work on a PhD, he was Senior Principal Scientist at McAfee Research, now SPARTA ISSO, a leading security research and development organization, directing government and commercial research contracts for customers that include DARPA, the US Navy, and Apple Computer. His research interests include operating system security, network stack structure and performance, and windowing system structure. He is also a member of the FreeBSD Core Team and president of the FreeBSD Foundation.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Martin Schuette - Improved NetBSD Syslogd
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, netbsd, syslogd, martin schuette
  MP3 (1 byte, 42 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 42 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Martin Schuette has three main goals, defined by three internet drafts to implement:
  • TLS transport is the most obvious improvement: it provides a reliable network transport with data encryption and peer authentication. To make full use of this a buffering mechanism to bridge temporary network errors is implemented as well.
  • Syslog-protocol extends the message format to use a complete timestamp, include a fully qualified domain name, and allow UTF-8 messages. It also offers a structured data field to unambiguously encode application dependent information.
  • Syslog-sign will allow any syslog sender to digitally sign its messages, so their integrity can be verified later. This enable the detection of loss, deletion or other manipulation syslog data after network transfer or archiving on storage media.
  
  Martin Schuette is a student of computer science in Potsdam, Germany, and has been working as a part-time system administrator for BSD servers since 2004.
  In 2007 Martin Schuette already gave a talk on Syslog at the Chemnitze Linux-Tage (http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2007/vortraege/detail.html?idx=547 in german; for a newer english version see these slides for a seminar talk: http://fara.cs.uni-potsdam.de/~mschuett/uni/syslog-protocols-080522.pdf).

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Aggelos Economopoulos - An MP-capable network stack for DragonFlyBSD with minimal use of locks
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, dragonflybsd, mp, network stack, aggelos economopoulos
  MP3 (1 byte, 42 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 42 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Given the modern trend towards multi-core shared memory multiprocessors, it is inconceivable for production OS kernels not to be reentrant. The typical approach for allowing multiple execution contexts to simultaneously execute in kernel mode has been to use fine-grained locking for synchronising access to shared resources. While this technique has been proven efficient, empirical evidence suggests that the resulting locking rules tend to be cumbersome even for the experienced kernel programmer, leading to bugs that are hard to diagnose. Moreover, scaling to more processors requires extensive use of locks, which may impose unnecessary locking overhead for small scale multiprocessor systems. This talk will describe the typical approach and then discuss the alternative approach taken in the DragonFlyBSD network stack. We will give an overview of the various protocol threads employed for network I/O processing and the common-case code paths for packet reception and transmission. Additionally, we'll need to make a passing reference to DragonFlyBSD's message passing model. This should establish a baseline, allowing us to focus on the recent work by the author to eliminate use of the Big Giant Lock in the performance-critical paths for the TCP and UDP protocols. The decision to constrain this work on the two by far most widely-used transport protocols was made in order to (a) limit the amount of work necessary and (b) explore the effectiveness of the approach on the cases that matter at this point in time.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Edd Barret - Modern Typesetting on BSD
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, typesetting, bsd, edd barrett
  MP3 (1 byte, 33 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 33 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Edd Barrett will speak about using the BSD Platform as a means of typesetting from a practical standpoint at EuroBSDcon 2008. Edd Barrett does not wish to go into the technicalities of each typesetter, but rather state which are good for certain types of document, and which tools (ports and packages), integrate well with the available typesetters.
  Edd Barrett os a student from the UK, currently on "placement year" as a systems administrator for Bournemouth University. Open Source *NIX has been his platform of choice for many years and he has been using OpenBSD for about 3 years now, simply because it is small, clean, correct and secure. Just recently he has started developing things I want or need for OpenBSD.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Michael Dexter - Zen and the Art of Multiplicity Maintenance: An applied survey of BSD-licensed multiplicity strategies from chroot to mult
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, bsd, michael dexter
  MP3 (1 byte, 38 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 38 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Many BSD-licensed strategies of various levels of maturity exist to implement multiplicity, herein defined as the introduction of plurality to traditionally singular computing environments via isolation, virtualization, or other method. For example, the chroot utility introduces an additional isolated root execution environment within that of the host; or an emulator provides highly-isolated virtual systems that can run complete native or foreign operating systems. Motivations for multiplicity vary, but a demonstrable desire exists for users to obtain root or run a foreign binary or operating system. We propose a hands-on survey of portable and integrated BSD-licensed multiplicity strategies applicable to the FreeBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD and NetBSD operating systems on the i386 architecture. We will also address three oft-coupled disciplines: software storage devices, the installation of operating system and userlands in multiplicity environments plus the management of select multiplicity environments. Finally we will comment on each strategies potential limits of isolation, compatibility, independence and potential overhead in comparison to traditional systems. Keywords: multiplicity, virtualization, chroot, jail, hypervisor, xen, compat.
  Michael Dexter has used Unix systems since 1991 and BSD-licensed multiplicity strategies for over five years. He is the Program Manager at the BSD Fund and Project Manager of the BSD.lv Project.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Nick Barkas - Dynamic memory allocation for dirhash in UFS2
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, ufs2, nick barkas
  MP3 (1 byte, 32 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 32 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Hello My name is Nick Barkas. I'm a master's student studying scientific computing at Kungliga Tekniska hgskolan (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. I have just begun work on a Google Summer of Code project with FreeBSD: Dynamic memory allocation for dirhash in UFS2 . I would like to present my results from this project at EuroBSDCon this year. This project is very much a work in progress now so it is a bit difficult to summarize what I would ultimately present. I will try to describe an outline, though. First I will give background information on dirhash: an explanation of the directory data structure in UFS2, how directory lookups in this structure necessitate a linear search, and how dirhash speeds these lookups up without having to change anything about the directory data structure. Next I will explain the current limitation that dirhash's maximum memory use must be manually specified by administrators, or left at a small conservative default of 2MB. I will explain some different methods I will have explored to try and make this maximum memory limit dynamically increase and decrease as the system has more or less free memory, and which method I will have ultimately settled on and implemented. Then I'll present some test results of performance of operations on very large directories with and without dynamic memory allocation enabled for dirhash. Next I will talk about how speed gains from dirhash are limited by the fact that the hash tables exist only in memory and must be recreated after each system boot, as big directories are scanned for the first time, or even have to be recreated for a directory that has not been scanned in some time if its dirhash has been discarded to free memory. These problems can be eliminated by using an on-disk index for directory entries. I will talk about some of the challenges of implementing on-disk indexing, such as remaining backwards compatible with older versions of UFS2 and interoperating properly with softupdates. Then, if my SoC project has permitted me time to work on this aspect of it, I will explain some possible methods for adding directory indexing to UFS2 that meets these challenges, and which of those ideas I will have implemented. Finally I will present results of some benchmarks on this filesystem with indices, and compare to performance with dirhash, and with no indices or dirhashes.
  Keywords: dirhash, ufs2, filesystems, performance tuning

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Paul Richards - eXtreme Programming: FreeBSD a case study
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, extreme programming, paul richards
  MP3 (1 byte, 54 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 54 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  Traditional project management methodologies are typically based on the waterfall model where there are distinct phases: requirements capture, design, implementation, testing, delivery. Once a project has moved on to the next phase there is no going back. The end result is often a late project that no-one wants anymore because the requirements have fundamentally changed by the time the project is delivered.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Hauke Fath - Managing BSD desktop clients - Fencing in the herd
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, bsd, desktop, hauke fath
  MP3 (1 byte, 50 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 50 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The members of the BSD family have traditionally prospered off the desktop, as operating systems on servers and embedded systems. The advent of MacOS X has marked a change, and moved the desktop more into focus. Modern desktop systems create a richer software landscape, with more diverse requirements, than their server counterparts. User demands, software package interdependencies and frequent security issues result in a change rate that can put a considerable load on the admin staff. Without central management tools, previously identical installations diverge quickly. This paper looks at concepts and strategies for managing tens to hundreds of modern, Unix-like desktop clients. The available management tools range from simple, image-based software distribution, mainly used for setting up uniform clients, to "intelligent" rule-based engines capable of search-and-replace operations on configuration files. We will briefly compare their properties and limitations, then take a closer look at Radmind, a suite for file level administration of Unix clients. Radmind has been in use in the Institute of Telecommunication at Technische Universitt Darmstadt for over three years, managing NetBSD and Debian Linux clients in the labs as well as faculty members' machines. We will explore the Radmind suite's underlying concepts and functionality. In order to see how the concept holds up, we will discuss real-world scenarios from the system life-cycle of Installation, configuration changes, security updates, component updates, and system upgrades.
  Hauke Fath works as a systems administrator for the Institut fr Nachrichtentechnik (telecommunication) at Technische Universitt Darmstadt. He has been using NetBSD since 1994, when he first booted a NetBSD 1.0A kernel on a Macintosh SE/30. NetBSD helped shaping his career by causing a slow drift from application programmer's work towards systems and network administration. Hauke Fath holds a MS in Physics and became a NetBSD developer in late 2006.
  Keywords: Managing Unix desktop clients, software distribution, tripwire

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Joerg Sonnenberger - Sleeping beauty - NetBSD on Modern Laptops
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, netbsd, laptops, joerg sonnenberger
  MP3 (1 byte, 54 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 54 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  This paper discusses the NetBSD Power Management Framework (PMF) and related changes to the kernel. The outlined changes allow NetBSD to support essential functions like suspend-to-RAM on most post-Y2K X86 machines. They are also the fundation for intelligent handling of device activity by enabling devices on-demand. This work is still progressing. Many of the features will be available in the up-coming NetBSD 5.0 release The NetBSD kernel is widely regarded to be one of the cleanest and most portable Operating System kernels available. For various reasons it is also assumed that NetBSD only runs well on older hardware. In the summer of 2006 Charles Hannum, one of the founders of NetBSD, left with a long mail mentioning as important issues the lack of proper power management and suspendto- RAM support. One year later, Jared D. McNeill posted a plan for attacking this issue based on ideas derived from the Windows Driver Model. This plan would evolve into the new NetBSD Power Management Framework (PMF for short).

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Brooks Davis - Isolating cluster jobs for performance and predictability
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, cluster, brooks davis
  MP3 (1 byte, 51 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 51 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The Aerospace Corporation operates a federally funded research and development center in support of national-security, civil and commercial space programs. Many of our 2400+ engineers use a variety of computing technologies to support their work. Applications range from small models which are easily handled by desktops to parameter studies involving thousands of cpu hours and traditional, large scale parallel codes such as computational fluid dynamics and molecular modeling applications. Our primary resources used to support these large applications are computing clusters. Our current primary cluster, the Fellowship cluster consists of 352 dual-processor nodes with a total of 14xx cores. Two additional clusters, beginning at 150 dual-processor nodes each are being constructed to augment Fellowship. As in In any multiuser computing environment with limited resources, user competition for resources is a significant burden. Users want everything they need to do their job, right now. Unfortunately, other users may need those resources at the same time. Thus, systems to arbitrate this resource contention are necessary. On Fellowship we have deployed the Sun Grid Engine scheduler which scheduled batch jobs across the nodes. In the next section we discuss the performance problems that can occur when sharing resources in a high performance computing cluster. We then discuss range of possibilities to address these problems. We then explain the solutions we are investigating and describe our experiments with them. We then conclude with a discussion of future work.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Russel Sutherland - UTORvpn: A BSD based VPN service for the masses
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, freebsd, vpn, russel sutherland
  MP3 (1 byte, 52 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 52 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The University of Toronto is a large educational institutional with over 70,000 students and 10,000 staff and faculty. For the past three years, we have developed and implemented a ubiquitous VPN service, based up on OpenVPN and FreeBSD. The service has over 3000 active customers, with up to 35 simultaneous users. The system supports, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/2000 clients. Tools have been developed to create a central CA which enables users to log in to a secure server and get their customized client, certificates and configuration. The NSIS installer is used to generate the customized windows installers. Similar packages are generated for the various Unix based clients. Additional WWW/PHP based tools, have been developed to monitor and log usage of the service, using standard graphs, alarms for excessive use and a certificate revocation mechanism. The system has been integrated into the local identity management system (Kerberos/LDAP) in order to authorize and authenticate users upon initiation and per session usage. All code is Open Source and freely available.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - George Neville-Neil - Four years of summer of code
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, google soc, george neville-neil
  MP3 (1 byte, 27 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 27 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  The Google Summer of Code is a program designed to provide students with real world experience contributing to open source projects during the summer break in university studies. Each year Google selects a number of open source projects to act as mentoring organizations. Students are invited to submit project proposals for the open source projects that are most interesting to them. FreeBSD was one of the projects selected to participate in the inaugural Summer of Code in 2005 and we have participated each year since then. Over the past 4 years a total of 79 students have participated in the program and it has become a very significant source of new committers to FreeBSD. This talk will examine in detail the selection criteria for projects, the impact that successful projects have had, and some suggestions for how we can better leverage this program in the future.

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Anttii Kantee - Converting kernel file systems to services
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, anttii kantee
  MP3 (1 byte, 55 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 55 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  ABSD/UNIX operating system is traditionally split into two pieces: the kernel and userspace. Historically the reasons for this were clear: the UNIX kernel was a simple entity. However, over time the kernel has grown more and more complex. Currently, most of the same functionality is available both in userspace and the kernel, but under different names. Examples include synchronization routines and threading support. For instance, to lock a mutex in the NetBSD kernel, the call is mutex_enter(), while in userspace the routine which does exactly the same thing is known as pthread_mutex_enter(). Taking another classic example, a BSD style OS has malloc()/free() available both in userspace and the kernel, but with different linkage (the kernel malloc interface is currently being widely deprecated, though). This imposes a completely arbitrary division between the kernel and userspace. Most functionality provided by an opearating system should be treated as a service instead of explicitly pinning it down as a userspace daemon or a kernel driver. Currently, due to the arbitrarily difference in programming interface names, functionality must be explicitly ported between the kernel and userspace if it is to run in one or the other environment. By unifying the environments where possible, the arbitrary division is weakened and porting between these environments becomes simpler.
  Antti Kantee has been a NetBSD developer for many many moons. He has managed to work on quite a few bits and pieces of a BSD system: userland utilities, the pkgsrc packaging system, networking, virtual memory, device drivers, hardware support and file systems.
  See also http://www.netbsd.org/docs/puffs/rump.htm

• EuroBSDCon 2008 - Matthieu Herrb - Input handling in wscons and X.Org
  Source: EuroBSDCon
  Added: 22 October 2008
  Tags: eurobsdcon, eurobsdcon2008, wscons, x.org, matthieu herrb
  MP3 (1 byte, 57 minutes), OGG (1 byte, 57 minutes), PDF (1 byte, n pages)
  

  This talk will present the different layers that handle input, from the key that gets pressed or the mouse motion to the applications, all the way through the kernel drivers, X drivers and libraries, in the case of the OpenBSD/NetBSD wscons driver and the current and future X.Org server. It will cover stuff like keyboard mappings, touch-screen calibration, multi-pointer X or input coordinates transformations. It will show some problems of current implementations and try to show how current evolutions can solve them.
  Matthieu Herrb is maintaing X on OpenBSD. I've been using X on various systems (SunOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X,...) since 1989. He has been a member of the XFree86 Core Team for a short period in 2003 and is now a member of the X.Org Foundation BoD. Matthieu Herrb works at LAAS a research laborarory of the French National Research Agency (CNRS) both on robotics and network security.

• Episode 07 of "FreeBSD for all" uploaded
  Source: FreeBSD for All
  Added: 27 July 2006
  Tags: freebsd for all, talk, podcast clients, ipfw
  64 kbps MP3 version (23 minutes), 128 kbps MP3 version (11 Mb, 23 minutes), Ogg version (23 minutes)
  

  This week we talk about podcast clients, ipfw firewall etc.

• Episode 06 of "FreeBSD for all" uploaded
  Source: FreeBSD for All
  Added: 05 June 2006
  Tags: freebsd for all, talk, john baldwin, freebsd vs linux
  Ogg version, MP3 version, 64 kbps MP3 version
  

  This week we talk about

  • Macromedia plugin
  • FreeBSD-Linux differences part 2
  • John Baldwin Introduction
  • Podcast announcement - call for co-hosts!

• Robert Watson - How a large scale opensource project works (81 Mb, 45 minutes)
  Source: Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting
  Added: 27 May 2008
  Tags: fosdem, fosdem2008, presentation, freebsd project, robert watson
  

  The FreeBSD Project is one of the oldest and most successful open source operating system projects, seeing wide deployment across the IT industry. From the root name servers, to top tier ISPs, to core router operating systems, to firewalls, to embedded appliances, you can't use a networked computer for ten minutes without using FreeBSD dozens of times.

  Part of FreeBSD's reputation for quality and reliability comes from the nature of its development organization -- driven by a hundreds of highly skilled volunteers, from high school students to university professors. And unlike most open source projects, the FreeBSD Project has developers who have been working on the same source base for over twenty years.

  But how does this organization work? Who pays the bandwidth bills, runs the web servers, writes the documentation, writes the code, and calls the shots? And how can developers in a dozen time zones reach agreement on the time of day, let alone a kernel architecture?

  This presentation will attempt to provide, in 45 minutes, a brief if entertaining snapshot into what makes FreeBSD run.

• OpenBSD 4.4 Release Song - "Source Wars - Episode IV - Trial of the BSD Knights"
  Source: OpenBSD
  Added: 18 November 2008
  Tags: openbsd, artwork
  Ogg version (4.4 Mb, 3 minutes 5 seconds), MP3 version (5.6 Mb, 3 minutes 5 seconds)
  

  Nearly 10 years ago Kirk McKusick wrote a history of the Berkeley Unix distributions for the O'Reilly book "Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution". We recommend you read his story, entitled "Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable" first, to see how Kirk remembers how we got here. Sadly, since it showed up in book form originally, this text has probably not been read by enough people.

  The USL(AT&T) vs BSDI/UCB court case settlement documents were not public until recently; their disclosure has made the facts more clear. But the story of how three people decided to free the BSD codebase of corporate pollution -- and release it freely -- is more interesting than the lawsuit which followed. Sure, a stupid lawsuit happened which hindered the acceptance of the BSD code during a critical period. But how did a bunch of guys go through the effort of replacing so much AT&T code in the first place? After all, companies had lots of really evil lawyers back then too -- were they not afraid?

  After a decade of development, most of the AT&T code had already been replaced by university researchers and their associates. So Keith Bostic, Mike Karels and Kirk McKusick (the main UCB CSRG group) started going through the 4.3BSD codebase to cleanse the rest. Keith, in particular, built a ragtag team (in those days, USENIX conferences were a gold mine for such team building) and led these rebels to rewrite and replace all the Imperial AT&T code, piece by piece, starting with the libraries and userland programs. Anyone who helped only got credit as a Contributor -- people like Chris Torek and a cast of .. hundreds more.

  Then Mike and Kirk purified the kernel. After a bit more careful checking, this led to the release of a clean tree called Net/2 which was given to the world in June 1991 -- the largest dump of free source code the world had ever received (for those days -- not modern monsters like OpenOffice).

  Some of these ragtags formed a company (BSDi) to sell a production system based on this free code base, and a year later Unix System Laboratories (basically AT&T) sued BSDi and UCB. Eventually AT&T lost and after a few trifling fixes (described in the lawsuit documents) the codebase was free. A few newer developments (and more free code) were added, and released in June 1994 as 4.4BSD-Lite. Just over 14 years later OpenBSD is releasing its own 4.4 release (and for a lot less than $1000 per copy).

  The OpenBSD 4.4 release is dedicated to Keith Bostic, Mike Karels, Kirk McKusick, and all of those who contributed to making Net/2 and 4.4BSD-Lite free.

• OpenBSD 4.3 Release Song - "Home to Hypocrisy"
  Source: OpenBSD
  Added: 03 May 2008
  Tags: openbsd, artwork
  Ogg version (6.5 Mb, 4 minutes 48 seconds), MP3 version (8.2 Mb, 4 minutes 48 seconds)
  

  We are just plain tired of being lectured to by a man who is a lot like Naomi Campbell.

  In 1998 when a United Airlines plane was waiting in the queue at Washington Dulles International Airport for take-off to New Orleans (where a Usenix conference was taking place), one man stood up from his seat, demanded that they stop waiting in the queue and be permitted to deplane. Even after orders from the crew and a pilot from the cockpit he refused to sit down. The plane exited the queue and returned to the airport gangway. Security personnel ran onto the plane and removed this man, Richard Stallman, from the plane. After Richard was removed from the plane, everyone else stayed onboard and continued their journey to New Orleans. A few OpenBSD developers were on that same plane, seated very closeby, so we have an accurate story of the events.

  This is the man who presumes that he should preach to us about morality, freedom, and what is best for us. He believes it is his God-given role to tell us what is best for us, when he has shown that he takes actions which are not best for everyone. He prefers actions which he thinks are best for him -- and him alone -- and then lies to the public. Richard Stallman is no Spock.

  We release our software in ways that are maximally free. We remove all restrictions on use and distribution, but leave a requirement to be known as the authors. We follow a pattern of free source code distribution that started in the mid-1980's in Berkeley, from before Richard Stallman had any powerful influence which he could use so falsely.

  We have a development sub-tree called "ports". Our "ports" tree builds software that is 'found on the net' into packages that OpenBSD users can use more easily. A scaffold of Makefiles and scripts automatically fetch these pieces of software, apply patches as required by OpenBSD, and then build them into nice neat little tarballs. This is provided as a convenience for users. The ports tree is maintained by OpenBSD entirely separately from our main source tree. Some of the software which is fetched and compiled is not as free as we would like, but what can we do. All the other operating system projects make exactly the same decision, and provide these same conveniences to their users.

  Richard felt that this "ports tree" of ours made OpenBSD non-free. He came to our mailing lists and lectured to us specifically, yet he said nothing to the many other vendors who do the same; many of them donate to the FSF and perhaps that has something to do with it. Meanwhile, Richard has personally made sure that all the official GNU software -- including Emacs -- compiles and runs on Windows.

  That man is a false leader. He is a hypocrite. There may be some people who listen to him. But we don't listen to people who do not follow their own stupid rules.

• OpenBSD 4.2 Release Song - "100001 1010101"
  Source: OpenBSD
  Added: 02 November 2007
  Tags: openbsd, artwork
  Ogg version (6.4 Mb, 4 minutes 4- seconds), MP3 version (4.0 Mb, 4 minutes 40 seconds)
  

  Those of us who work on OpenBSD are often asked why we do what we do. This song's lyrics express the core motivations and goals which have remained unchanged over the years - secure, free, reliable software, that can be shared with anyone. Many other projects purport to share these same goals, and love to wrap themselves in a banner of "Open Source" and "Free Software". Given how many projects there are one would think it might be easy to stick to those goals, but it doesn't seem to work out that way. A variety of desires drag many projects away from the ideals very quickly.

  Much of any operating system's usability depends on device support, and there are some very tempting alternative ways to support devices available to those who will surrender their moral code. A project could compromise by entering into NDA agreements with vendors, or including binary objects in the operating system for which no source code exists, or tying their users down with contract terms hidden inside copyright notices. All of these choices surrender some subset of the ideals, and we simply will not do this. Sure, we care about getting devices working, but not at the expense of our original goals.

  Of course since "free to share with anyone" is part of our goals, we've been at the forefront of many licensing and NDA issues, resulting in a good number of successes. This success had led to much recognition for the advancement of Free Software causes, but has also led to other issues.

  We fully admit that some BSD licensed software has been taken and used by many commercial entities, but contributions come back more often than people seem to know, and when they do, they're always still properly attributed to the original authors, and given back in the same spirit that they were given in the first place.

  That's the best we can expect from companies. After all, we make our stuff so free so that everyone can benefit -- it remains a core goal; we really have not strayed at all in 10 years. But we can expect more from projects who talk about sharing -- such as the various Linux projects.

  Now rather than seeing us as friends who can cooperatively improve all codebases, we are seen as foes who oppose the GPL. The participants of "the race" are being manipulated by the FSF and their legal arm, the SFLC, for the FSF's aims, rather than the goal of getting good source into Linux (and all other code bases). We don't want this to come off as some conspiracy theory, but we simply urge those developers caution -- they should ensure that the path they are being shown by those who have positioned themselves as leaders is still true. Run for yourself, not for their agenda.

  The Race is there to be run, for ourselves, not for others. We do what we do to run our own race, and finish it the best we can. We don't rush off at every distraction, or worry how this will affect our image. We are here to have fun doing right.

• OpenBSD 4.1 Release Song - Puffy Baba and the 40 Vendors
  Source: OpenBSD
  Added: 02 May 2007
  Tags: openbsd, artwork
  Ogg version (8.3 Mb, 4 minutes 19 seconds), MP3 version (4.1 Mb, 4 minutes 19 seconds)
  

  As developers of a free operating system, one of our prime responsibilities is device support. No matter how nice an operating system is, it remains useless and unusable without solid support for a wide percentage of the hardware that is available on the market. It is therefore rather unsurprising that more than half of our efforts focus on various aspects relating to device support.

  Most parts of the operating system (from low kernel, through to libraries, all the way up to X, and then even to applications) use fairly obvious interface layers, where the "communication protocols" or "argument passing" mechanisms (ie. APIs) can be understood by any developer who takes the time to read the free code. Device drivers pose an additional and significant challenge though: because many vendors refuse to document the exact behavior of their devices. The devices are black boxes. And often they are surprisingly weird, or even buggy.

  When vendor documentation does not exist, the development process can become extremely hairy. Groups of developers have found themselves focused for months at a time, figuring out the most simple steps, simply because the hardware is a complete mystery. Access to documentation can ease these difficulties rapidly. However, getting access to the chip documentation from vendors is ... almost always a negotiation. If we had open access to documentation, anyone would be able to see how simple all these devices actually are, and device driver development would flourish (and not just in OpenBSD, either).

  When we proceed into negotiations with vendors, asking for documentation, our position is often weak. One would assume that the modern market is fair, and that selling chips would be the primary focus of these vendors. But unfortunately a number of behemoth software vendors have spent the last 10 or 20 years building political hurdles against the smaller players.

  A particularly nasty player in this regard has been the Linux vendors and some Linux developers, who have played along with an American corporate model of requiring NDAs for chip documentation. This has effectively put Linux into the club with Microsoft, but has left all the other operating system communities -- and their developers -- with much less available clout for requesting documentation. In a more fair world, the Linux vendors would work with us, and the device driver support in all free operating systems would be fantastic by now.

  We only ask that users help us in changing the political landscape.

• OpenBSD 4.0 Release Song - Humppa negala
  Source: OpenBSD
  Added: 10 October 2006
  Tags: openbsd, artwork
  Ogg version (3.6 Mb, 2 minutes 40 seconds), MP3 version (2.3 Mb, 2 minutes 40 seconds)
  

  The last 10 years, every 6 month period has (without fail) resulted in an official OpenBSD release making it to the FTP servers. But CDs are also manufactured, which the project sells to continue our development goals.

  While tests of the release binaries are done by developers around the world, Theo and some developers from Calgary or Edmonton (such as Peter Valchev or Bob Beck) test that the discs are full of (only) correct code. Ty Semaka works for approximately two months to design and draw artwork that will fit the designated theme, and coordinates with his music buddies to write and record a song that also matches the theme.

  Then the discs and all the artwork gets delivered to the plant, so that they can be pressed in time for an official release date.

  This release, instead of bemoaning vendors or organizations that try to make our task of writing free software more difficult, we instead celebrate the 10 years that we have been given (so far) to write free software, express our themes in art, and the 5 years that we have made music with a group of talented musicians.

  OpenBSD developers have been torturing each other for years now with Humppa-style music, so this release our users get a taste of this too. Sometimes at hackathons you will hear the same songs being played on multiple laptops, out of sync. It is under such duress that much of our code gets written.

  We feel like Pufferix and Bobilix delivering The Three Discs of Freedom to those who want them whenever the need arises, then returning to celebrate the (unlocked) source tree with all the other developers.

  For RSS readers: Please note that the download URL is an FTP site.