cvs-src summary for 21/03/04

From: Mark Johnston <mjohnston_at_skyweb.ca>
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 15:40:22 -0600
FreeBSD cvs-src summary for 14/03/04 to 21/03/04
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is a regular weekly summary of FreeBSD's cutting-edge development.
It is intended to help the FreeBSD community keep up with the fast-paced
work going on in FreeBSD-CURRENT by distilling the deluge of data from
the CVS mailing list into a (hopefully) easy-to-read newsletter.  This
newsletter is marked up in reStructuredText_, so any odd punctuation
that you see is likely intended for the reST parser.

.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html

You can get old summaries, and an HTML version of this one, at
http://www.xl0.org/FreeBSD/.  Please send any comments to Mark Johnston
(mark at xl0.org).

For Lukasz Dudek and Szymon Roczniak's Polish translations of these
summaries, which may lag the English ones slightly, please see
http://mocart.pinco.pl/FreeBSD/.

.. contents::

============
New features
============
PC Card ATA/SATA controller support
-----------------------------------
Søren Schmidt added support to the ATA code for detaching PCI ATA
controllers.  This allows PC card (Cardbus) ATA and Serial ATA controllers
to be used, with similar speeds to PCI controllers.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403151203.i2FC3mrZ046442

Intel ACPI-CA 20040311 imported
-------------------------------
Nate Lawson (njl) imported Intel's ACPI-CA ACPI support code, version
20040311.  ACPI-CA upgrades like this one improve hardware support,
especially on laptops.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403181742.i2IHgK8r043974

Aironet Arlan 655 wireless NIC support
--------------------------------------
Max Khon (fjoe) committed the arl driver for the Aironet Arlan 655
wireless network adapter.  He also added the arlconfig program to control
Airolan cards.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403152224.i2FMOSQh002806

Mixer settings saved and restored across reboots
------------------------------------------------
John Baldwin (jhb) added an rc script to save the audio mixer settings
at shutdown and restore them when starting up.  Also, the command
``/etc/rc.d/mixer reload`` can be used to restore the last saved settings.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403152309.i2FN9I5n012369

===============
Notable changes
===============
RAIDFrame removed
-----------------
Scott Long (scottl) removed the RAIDFrame software RAID driver, since it
hasn't been working since the GEOM disk API was introduced, and nobody
has volunteered to fix it.  For software raid, you should use the `Vinum`_
package, which is included with the base system.

.. _`Vinum`: http://www.vinumvm.org/

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403161223.i2GCNh6a010477

=================
Discussion topics
=================
Opinions on the Intel C Compiler
--------------------------------
As a follow-up to last week's commit of `ICC support for kernel building`,
David O'Brien (obrien) noted that Intel C Compiler (ICC) version 8 will
build code that either doesn't work or disables all optimizations on AMD
processors.  Alexander Leidinger (netchild) responded that Intel has found
some problems with ICC on AMD processors; David stated that Intel is
deliberately breaking compatibility with AMD chips.  Alexander suggested
that different releases could be built for different processors, allowing
the use of the ICC optimizations without the incompatibility problems.
Scott Long (scottl) brought up the point that even if release kernels were
built with ICC, users often rebuild the kernels, so they would lose the
speed benefits of ICC.  Garance A. Drosihn (gad) pointed out that even if
releases are still built with GCC, the ability to build the system with
other compilers provides a benchmark to compare with GCC.

.. `ICC support for kernel building`: http://excel.xl0.org/FreeBSD/14-03-04.html#intel-c-compiler-support-added-for-kernel-building

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20040315033213.GA40858

Finding a home for dvcfg.h and physio_proc.h
--------------------------------------------
Last week, Peter Wemm (peter) moved the files machine/dvcfg.h and
machine/physio_proc.h from various machine-dependent locations to a common
machine-independent area in compat/netbsd.  Yoshihiro TAKAHASHI (nyan)
pointed out that the files came from from NetBSD/pc98, but aren't actually
for NetBSD compatibility, and that they aren't PC98 specific.  David
O'Brien (obrien) suggested that sys/dev/<device_name>/ would be a good
place for the files, but he didn't know what that device name should be.
Noriaki Mitsunaga (non) agreed that the files are not PC98 specific, and
suggested sys/ or dev/dev/ for the files.  Peter specified that he didn't
want to put the files under sys/, and suggested dev/include.  M. Warner
Losh (imp) agreed.  John Baldwin (jhb) wondered whether the files even
need to exist; he suggested that the outdated APIs could be replaced by
other code with similar functionality.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403131946.i2DJkRit022925

Specifying the serial console and debug port without hints
----------------------------------------------------------
Marcel Moolenaar (marcel) committed code to replace the use of hints
to select a serial console and debug port with the loader variables
hw.uart.console and hw.uart.dbgport, since hints have a side effect of
reserving a unit number for ISA or ACPI devices, but not PCI, and they
don't have enough flexibility to select non-standard ports.  John-Mark
Gurney (jmg) asked for more explanation, saying that hints are supposed
to tie down a device so it doesn't change between reboots, and that they
should work on all bus types.  Marcel explained that hints are used
to tell the kernel about devices it can't always detect on its own;
the PCI bus doesn't have this problem, so it doesn't need hints.  He
pointed out that the console settings are used before device listings are
taken on busses, so a unit number would be meaningless.  M. Warner Losh
(imp) agreed, adding that this scheme works only for devices with fixed
addresses.  Marcel pointed out that devices without fixed addresses can't
be used as low-level consoles.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403200214.i2K2E3ps052217

=================
Committer changes
=================
Nate Lawson (njl) introduced Mark Santcroos (marks), who he will be mentoring.

===================
Important bug fixes
===================
Denial-of-service vulnerabilities in OpenSSL patched
----------------------------------------------------
Jacques A. Vidrine (nectar) committed patches to the branches for 5.2,
5.1, 4.8, 4.9, and -STABLE to fix the denial-of-service vulnerabilities
reported in the `OpenSSL security advisory`_ of March 17th.  He also
imported OpenSSL 0.9.7d, which includes the fix, to -CURRENT.

.. _`OpenSSL security advisory`: http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20040317.txt

Import of fix: http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403171211.i2HCB8AN067605
OpenSSL 0.9.7d: http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403171550.i2HFo0Rm023201

Information leak in process separation fixed
--------------------------------------------
Pawel Jakub Dawidek (pjd) committed a fix to the kernel code for
separating processes.  This fix closes a hole that allowed processes to
circumvent restrictions on which processes can see which, like the sysctl
security.bsd.see_other_uids and the jail subsystem.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403171319.i2HDJihF089490

Installation on disks and filesystems larger than 1 TB fixed
------------------------------------------------------------
John Baldwin (jhb) committed code submitted by Julian Elischer (julian)
that changes sysinstall to use 64-bit integers for disk addresses.  This
allows sysinstall to work properly on disks and filesystems larger than 1
TB.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403161707.i2GH76qZ087362

panic: lockmgr: locking against myself (kern_lock.c:370) fixed
--------------------------------------------------------------
Alexander Kabaev (kan) fixed a bug in the FFS code that could cause a
panic under heavy disk activity while a filesystem snapshot exists; for
instance, during background fsck.  This commit closes `PR 64206`, reported
by Nik Clayton (nik).

.. _`PR 64206`: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=64206

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403162206.i2GM6WWF061249

===============
Other bug fixes
===============
John Baldwin (jhb) fixed bsdlabel to create working, bootable disklabels
for the Alpha.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403152310.i2FNAYO7012470

Bill Paul (wpaul) mostly fixed his NDISulator code for the Intel Centrino
2200BG wireless chip.  The only remaining problem is that the driver
can use up too much stack space, causing a panic; adding ``options
KSTACK_PAGES=8`` to the kernel configuration file is a temporary fix.

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403202339.i2KNdhQI069350
Received on Sun Mar 21 2004 - 12:39:57 UTC

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