NetBSD/i386 news archive

2005-11-02: NetBSD 2.1 released

NetBSD 2.1, the first maintenance release of the netbsd-2 release branch, has been released with binary distributions for 48 architectures. More information is available in the 2.1 release announcement.

2004-12-09: NetBSD 2.0 released

NetBSD 2.0 released with support for 48 architectures. More information is available in the 2.0 release announcement.

2004-03-01: NetBSD 1.6.2 released

NetBSD 1.6.2 released with support for 40 architectures. More information is available in the 1.6.2 release announcement.

2003-10-23: pmap(9) improvement

Niels Provos has changed i386 pmap(9) in -current to use a splay tree instead of linked lists, thereby made fork(2) scale much better as the number of processes increases.

2003-04-21: NetBSD 1.6.1 released

NetBSD 1.6.1 released with support for 40 architectures. More information is available in the 1.6.1 release announcement.

2003-03-05: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2003-03-05 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2002-10-02: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2002-10-02 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2002-10-01: i386 SMP branch merged with -current

Frank van der Linden has merged Bill Sommerfeld's i386mp branch into i386/-current. i386 SMP support should work fine on 1-CPU systems and quite well on a lot of multiprocessor systems.

See Frank's message to current-users.

2002-09-14: NetBSD 1.6 released

NetBSD 1.6 released with support for 39 architectures. More information is available in the 1.6 release announcement.

2002-07-22: NetBSD 1.5.3 released

NetBSD 1.5.3 released with support for 20 architectures. More information is available in the 1.5.3 release announcement.

2002-05-30: 1.6_BETA1 snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.6_BETA1 snapshot, based off of 1.6 sources as of 2002-05-30, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2002-05-18: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2002-05-18 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2002-04-27: 1.5.3_RC2 snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.5.3_RC2 snapshot, based off of 1.5.3 sources as of 2002-04-27, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-12-06: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-12-06 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-11-18: NetBSD/i386 on IBM PS/2 (MCA) machines

Jaromir Dolecek announced the IBM PS/2 (MCA) machine support in NetBSD-current has reached the point where it's usable for general work and should provide stable multiuser service. The system installation tool (sysinst) was also changed to support installation on this class of i386 machines. Until the next major release (NetBSD 1.6), PS/2 support will only be available via NetBSD/i386 -current binary snapshots.

2001-11-11: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-11-11 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-10-30: New XFree86 4.1.0 snapshot for 1.5.2 available

Stoned Elipot has made a new snapshot for NetBSD/i386 1.5.2 of XFree86 4.1.0 made from NetBSD's xsrc/xfree sources as of 2001/10/30. The new snapshot is available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-09-13: NetBSD 1.5.2 released

NetBSD 1.5.2 released with support for 21 architectures. More information is available in the 1.5.2 release announcement.

2001-08-28: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-08-27 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-08-09: Kernel support for SSE/SSE2

Jason Thorpe has added the necessary kernel support for SSE/SSE2 to NetBSD/i386 -current. The kernel needed to know about the extended FPU save format, and initialize the MXCSR properly for the new processes.

Note that ptrace(2)/procfs and coredumps will not contain SSE/SSE2 state; we need to come up with interfaces to expose that information (the same problem exists for PowerPC AltiVEC).

In order to use SSE/SSE2, you'll need an updated assembler. The in-tree gas is too old to understand the SSE/SSE2 insns, but this should change soon.

2001-07-31: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-07-25 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-07-30: NetBSD/i386 GENERIC kernel now includes MCA bits

The GENERIC kernel configuration has ben changed to include the things specific for running NetBSD/i386 on the IBM PS/2. If you encounter any problems running a -current i386 GENERIC kernel due to this change, please report them with send-pr(1).

2001-07-12: XFree86 4.1.0 snapshot for NetBSD/i386 1.5.1

Hubert Feyrer has put together an unofficial snapshot of XFree86 version 4.1.0 built on NetBSD/i386 1.5.1. This snapshot is based on the 4.1.0 sources in the xsrc tree as of 2001-07-09.

The XFree86 4.1.0 snapshot for NetBSD/i386 1.5.1 is available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. The file xfree410.tgz is a tar file to be extracted from /, and which contains bits which will only go into usr/X11R6.

Also, there's an XFree86 4.0.3 snapshot available for NetBSD/i386 1.5.1. For more details, please see the NetBSD/i386 news entry from June 29th, 2001.

2001-07-11: NetBSD 1.5.1 released

NetBSD 1.5.1 released with support for 21 architectures. More information is available in the 1.5.1 release announcement.

2001-06-29: XFree86 4.0.3 snapshot for upcoming NetBSD/i386 1.5.1

Havard Eidnes has put together an unofficial snapshot of XFree86 version 4.0.3 built on NetBSD/i386 1.5.1. This is built from the xsrc tree just before the 4.1 version was imported. The build tree was subsequently modified to include Matrox's drivers. This means that the Matrox G450 cards are supported, instead of being probed and "refused", as would be the case with plain 4.0.3.

The XFree86 4.0.3 snapshot for NetBSD/i386 1.5.1 is available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. The file xfree403+.tgz is a tar file to be extracted from /, and which contains bits which will only go into usr/X11R6.

2001-05-26: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-05-26 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-05-16: 1.5.1_BETA2 snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.5.1_BETA2 snapshot, based off of 1.5.1 sources as of 2001-05-16, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5.1 was released on July 11th, 2001)

2001-04-19: VMware compatibility package available

Frank van der Linden has created a VMware compatibility package for NetBSD/i386. The package consists a set of kernel modules and scripts that will allow owners of the Linux version of VMware to run their binaries under NetBSD. To use this software, a user will need to buy a copy of VMware for Linux and download and install the VMware compatibility package. This can be downloaded at:

http://www.wasabisystems.com/vmware-survey.html

More details are available in the netbsd-announce mail archive.

Frank's work on the VMware compatibility package was sponsored by Wasabi Systems.

2001-04-11: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-04-07 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-04-06: 1.5.1_BETA snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.5.1_BETA snapshot, based off of 1.5.1 sources as of 2001-04-06, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5.1 was released on July 11th, 2001)

2001-04-01: 1.5.1_ALPHA snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.5.1_ALPHA snapshot, based off of 1.5.1 sources as of 2001-03-24, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5.1 was released on July 11th, 2001)

2001-03-28: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-03-24 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-02-07: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-02-06 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-02-04: New compat14 package available

Matthew Green has added a compat14 package to pkgsrc. This package contains NetBSD 1.4.3 shared libraries, and can add compatibility for dynamically linked executables compiled under NetBSD/i386 1.4 (a.out) to a NetBSD/i386 1.5 (elf) machine.

2001-01-30: 1.4.3A snapshot available

A NetBSD/i386 1.4.3A snapshot based off of netbsd-1-4 sources as of 2001-01-30 is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. This snapshot includes BIND 8.2.3.

2001-01-29: New -current snapshot available

A new -current snapshot based on 2001-01-28 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2001-01-02: NetBSD/i386 supports 16 partitions in -current

NetBSD's i386 port supports up to 16 partitions per disk in -current. Before you can use this you have to update your complete source, rebuild the kernel and userland, and invoke the latest "src/etc/etc.i386/MAKEDEV" in "/dev" to create the additional device nodes. If you do use more than 8 partitions per disk, you won't be able to cleanly downgrade to an earlier NetBSD version.

2000-12-06: NetBSD 1.5 released

NetBSD 1.5 released with support for 20 architectures. More information is available in the 1.5 release announcement.

2000-11-25: NetBSD 1.4.3 released

NetBSD 1.4.3 released with support for 16 architectures. More information is available in the 1.4.3 release announcement.

2000-11-21: Improved ptrace(2) emulation for NetBSD/i386

Jaromír Dolecek has improved ptrace(2) emulation in NetBSD/i386 -current. PTRACE_{SET|GET}FPREGS in now fully supported, and PTRACE_{PEEK|POKE}USER is partially supported. Also, linux gdb can now attach to a running linux process and show the first function on a stack backtrace, and info float works.

2000-11-17: New JDK/JRE 1.3.0 available in pkgsrc

Todd Vierling has added the Sun-sourced Linux port of JDK 1.3.0, both JDK and JRE, to the NetBSD Packages Collection. They are located in lang/sun-jdk13 and lang/sun-jre13 respectively. For JRE only, install sun-jre13; for full JDK, install sun-jdk13 (which will install sun-jre13 as a dependency). You should have no problems using AWT/Swing apps with this JVM.

2000-11-06: 1.5_BETA2 snapshot

A NetBSD/i386 1.5_BETA2 snapshot is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-10-31: New Mozilla port available

Charles Hannum has ported Mozilla to the i386 CPU type. A prebuilt package for NetBSD/i386 1.5 is available, see the mozilla page under the NetBSD Packages Collection. More information on this, and the other CPU types that there are new Mozilla ports for, is available in Charles' message in the netbsd-announce mail archive.

2000-10-30: 1.5_BETA ISO image available

Bernd Sieker has made a 1.5_BETA ISO image for NetBSD/i386. (ISO image deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-10-30: Support for booting off RAIDframe RAID1 mirrors

Luke Mewburn has added support, in NetBSD/i386 -current, to the bootblocks for booting off RAIDframe RAID1 mirrors (installboot(8) can't install them onto a RAID1 mirror yet).

2000-10-21: 1.5_BETA snapshot

A NetBSD/i386 1.5_BETA snapshot is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-10-16: New -current and third 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshots

A new NetBSD-current snapshot, based on sources from 2000-10-14, and the third 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot are both now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-09-12: Second 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot

The second NetBSD/i386 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-09-07: Initial support for large pages

Jason Thorpe has added support for mapping the kernel text using large pages to NetBSD-current/i386. This gives a reasonable performance improvement. For example, building a GENERIC kernel on a 600MHz P-III laptop:

before: 636.59s real 387.34s user 27.53s system

after: 597.21s real 382.88s user 24.88s system

Note that compiling stuff is userland-intensive, so things that spend a lot more time in the kernel (e.g forwarding packets, IPsec processing, RAIDframe, etc.) are likely to see better improvements.

This is initial support for large pages, so there is not generic support for using large pages for other types of mappings yet, nor is there support for mapping the kernel data/bss segments with large pages (although that should be pretty straightforward).

An example kernel config can be found in sys/arch/i386/conf/DR-EVIL.4MB. Follow its lead to learn how to enable large page support.

This initial support was developed at and contributed by Zembu Labs, Inc.

2000-08-22: First 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot

The first NetBSD/i386 1.5_ALPHA2 snapshot is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-08-11: 1.5E PS/2 boot floppy

A boot floppy supporting IBM PS/2 machines is available for testing at the ftp server.

2000-08-11: 1.5_ALPHA/i386 binary packages

A total of 1268 binary packages are now available for NetBSD/i386 1.5_ALPHA in the packages area of the ftp server.

2000-08-10: Fourth 1.5_ALPHA snapshot

The fourth i386 1.5_ALPHA snapshot, based off of 1.5 sources as of 2000-08-09, is now available in the NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-08-06: Third 1.5_ALPHA snapshot

The third i386 1.5_ALPHA snapshot is now available in the NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-07-19: First 1.4.3_ALPHA snapshot

The first NetBSD/i386 1.4.3_ALPHA snapshot, based off of 1.4.3 sources as of 2000-07-07, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.4.3 was released on November 25th, 2000)

2000-07-14: Second 1.5_ALPHA snapshot

The second i386 1.5_ALPHA snapshot is now available in the NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-06-22: First 1.5_ALPHA snapshot

The first i386 1.5_ALPHA snapshot, based off of 1.5 sources as of 2000-06-20, is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server. (snapshot deprecated. NetBSD 1.5 was released on December 6th, 2000)

2000-05-28: New snapshot available

A new snapshot based on 2000-05-27 sources is now available in the NetBSD/i386 snapshot area of the ftp server.

2000-05-11: Initial MCA support committed

Jaromir Dolecek has committed initial work on MicroChannel Architecture support, as found in some IBM PS/2 machines. It's based upon Scott Telford's MCA code. Note it's still very experimental and not suitable for production use at the moment.

2000-04-16: New snapshot available

A new snapshot based on 2000-04-16 sources is available at: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/i386/snapshot/.

2000-03-19: NetBSD 1.4.2 released

NetBSD 1.4.2 released with support for 16 architectures.

2000-02-29: New test kernels for SMP on i386

Bill Sommerfeld has put up a second round of test kernels for SMP on i386. See Bill's announcement in the tech-smp mail archive for a list of changes since the first round and more details.

2000-02-26: New snapshot available

This one is based off of February 26, 2000 sources and, among other things, contains significant bug fixes to the PCMCIA code. It is available at ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/i386/snapshot/.

2000-02-25: Initial work for SMP on i386 committed

Bill Sommerfeld has committed his initial work on i386 SMP spinup code to the sommerfeld_i386mp_1 branch. See Bill's announcement in the tech-smp mail archive for more details.

2000-02-25: NetBSD-current snapshot

A new snapshot based on 2000-02-13 sources is available at: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/i386/snapshot/.

2000-01-05: NetBSD-current snapshot

Based on 1999-12-23 sources, at: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/i386/snapshot/.

2000-01-04: JDK 1.1.8 RC1 available for i386

Version 1.1.8 of the Sun Java Development Kit is now available. This version requires NetBSD 1.4 or later. A gzipped tar file can be found at ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/java/i386/.

1999-08-26: NetBSD-1.4.1 released

The NetBSD 1.4.1 release supports sixteen architectures, and was distributed free by Usenix to all 1999 ATC attendees.

1999-07-05: Switch to ELF format

NetBSD/i386 has switched from the a.out executable format to ELF. For those running -current see notes on upgrading from a.out.

1998-12-23

NetBSD version 1.3.3 released. NetBSD 1.3.3 is a stability release containing fixes (among them, important security fixes) for those wanting or needing to run stable code and which have been running version 1.3.2 or earlier software on their systems. Note that if you have already been using an earlier snapshot of NetBSD-current, installing 1.3.3 would actually downgrade your system.

1998-12-10

New binary snapshot available. Of major note since the last snapshot is that an egcs compiler fix has been implemented in global.c which should fix the problems some have had with the we ethernet driver.

1998-11-18

New binary snapshot available. A few notes:

1. This snapshot has been built with egcs 1.1.1-pre-release and with gas.new.
2. The GENERIC kernels in this snapshot contain the PS/2 mouse device driver (pms0). The problems which earlier caused it to be excluded are now thought to be gone. Note that if your system has many PCI devices, your BIOS should now prevent allocation of irq number 12 to PCI devices, as the pms0 device will now claim that interrupt.

1998-11-16

The i386 port has now switched to using egcs and gas.new.

1998-11-03

A driver for 3Com 90xB boards added (the ex driver). This driver provides DMA support for the 90x and 90xB cards, and hopefully better performance than the old PIO-based driver (which could not be used on the 90xB cards).

1998-10-12

Major changes to the IDE code for better error handling, improved ATAPI support, 32 bit data I/O support and bus-master DMA support on PCI IDE controllers.

1998-09-26

Support for the AdvanSys Ultra Wide boards added (the adw driver). These boards are quite different from the other AdvanSys boards which are supported by the adv driver. This adds support for the ABP-9xxUW cards.

1998-08-31

The i386 port switched to using UVM; the new, vastly improved virtual memory system.

1998-08-26

Driver for the AdvanSys PCI SCSI controllers added (the adv driver). This supports the following cards:

• ABP-9xx
• ABP-9xxU
• ABP-9xxUA

1998-07-12

USB support added. USB is only supported for i386 initially, but it should be easy to add to other PCI platforms as well.

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