Announcing NetBSD 3.0

Introduction

The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that release 3.0 of the NetBSD operating system is now available.

NetBSD is widely known as the most portable operating system in the world. It currently supports fifty seven different system architectures, all from a single source tree, and is always being ported to more.

NetBSD 3.0 continues our long tradition with major improvements in stability, performance, networking, security, also includes support for two new platforms (iyonix and hp700), and many new peripherals.

Far reaching improvements to the network stack will not only provide better performance but also make NetBSD an excellent choice for a VPN gateway. PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) framework adds more flexibility to NetBSD's user management and simplifies integration into heterogeneous networks. The kernel, libraries and utilities can now handle filesystems larger than two terabytes, and support for Xen 2.0 allows hosting many virtual servers on a single machine.

Please read below for more achievements in NetBSD 3.0!

Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 3.0 are available for download at many sites around the world. A list of download sites providing FTP, AnonCVS, SUP, and other services is provided at the end of this announcement; the latest list of available download sites may also be found at: http://www.NetBSD.org/mirrors/

We encourage users who wish to install via a CD-ROM ISO image to download via BitTorrent by using the torrent files supplied in the ISO image area.

A list of hashes for the NetBSD 3.0 distribution has been signed with the well-connected PGP key for the NetBSD Security Officer: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/security/hashes/NetBSD-3.0_hashes.asc

About NetBSD

The NetBSD operating system is a full-featured, open source, UNIX-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Networking Release 2 (Net/2), 4.4BSD-Lite, and 4.4BSD-Lite2. NetBSD 3.0 runs on 57 different system architectures featuring 17 machine architectures across 17 distinct CPU families, and is being ported to more. The NetBSD 3.0 release contains complete binary releases for 53 different machine types, with the platforms amigappc, bebox, pc532 and playstation2 released in source form only.

NetBSD is a highly integrated system. In addition to its highly portable, high performance kernel, NetBSD features a complete set of user utilities, compilers for several languages, the X Window System, firewall software and numerous other tools, all accompanied by full source code. The NetBSD Packages Collection, pkgsrc, contains over 5,700 packages. Binary package releases for a number of platforms are currently in progress.

More information on the goals of the NetBSD Project can be procured from the NetBSD website at:

NetBSD is free. All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone. Free support services are available via our mailing lists and website. Commercial support is available from a variety of sources; some are listed at:

More extensive information on NetBSD is available from the NetBSD website:

NetBSD is the work of a diverse group of people spread around the world. The “Net” in our name is a tribute to the Internet, which enables us to communicate and share code, and without which the project would not exist.

System families supported by NetBSD 3.0

The NetBSD 3.0 release provides supported binary distributions for the following systems:

NetBSD/acorn26 Acorn Archimedes, A-series and R-series systems
NetBSD/acorn32 Acorn RiscPC/A7000, VLSI RC7500
NetBSD/algor Algorithmics, Ltd. MIPS evaluation boards
NetBSD/alpha Digital/Compaq Alpha (64-bit)
NetBSD/amd64 Computers with x86_64 capable CPUs
NetBSD/amiga Commodore Amiga, MacroSystem DraCo
NetBSD/arc MIPS-based machines following the Advanced RISC Computing spec
NetBSD/atari Atari TT030, Falcon, Hades
NetBSD/cats Chalice Technology's CATS and Intel's EBSA-285 evaluation boards
NetBSD/cesfic CES FIC8234 VME processor board
NetBSD/cobalt Cobalt Networks' MIPS-based Microservers
NetBSD/dreamcast Sega Dreamcast game console
NetBSD/evbarm ARM evaluation boards
NetBSD/evbmips MIPS-based evaluation boards
NetBSD/evbppc Evaluation boards and appliances with PowerPC CPUs
NetBSD/evbsh3 Evaluation boards with Hitachi Super-H SH3 and SH4 CPUs
NetBSD/evbsh5 Evaluation boards with Hitachi Super-H SH5 CPUs
NetBSD/hp300 Hewlett-Packard 9000/300 and 400 series
NetBSD/hp700 Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 700 workstations
NetBSD/hpcarm StrongARM based Windows CE PDA machines
NetBSD/hpcmips MIPS-based Windows CE PDA machines
NetBSD/hpcsh Hitachi SH3/4 based Windows CE PDA machines
NetBSD/i386 80x86-based IBM PCs and clones
NetBSD/ibmnws IBM Network Station 1000
NetBSD/iyonix Castle Technology's Iyonix ARM based PCs
NetBSD/luna68k OMRON Tateisi Electric's LUNA series
NetBSD/mac68k Apple Macintosh with 68k CPU
NetBSD/macppc Apple Power Macintosh and clones
NetBSD/mipsco MIPS Computer Systems Inc. family of workstations and servers
NetBSD/mmeye Brains mmEye multimedia server
NetBSD/mvme68k Motorola MVME 68k SBCs
NetBSD/mvmeppc Motorola PowerPC VME SBCs
NetBSD/netwinder StrongARM based NetWinder machines
NetBSD/news68k Sony's 68k-based “NET WORK STATION” series
NetBSD/newsmips Sony's MIPS-based “NET WORK STATION” series
NetBSD/next68k NeXT 68k “black” hardware
NetBSD/ofppc OpenFirmware PowerPC machines
NetBSD/pmax Digital MIPS-based DECstations and DECsystems
NetBSD/pmppc Artesyn's PM/PPC board
NetBSD/prep PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) and CHRP machines
NetBSD/sandpoint Motorola Sandpoint reference platform
NetBSD/sbmips Broadcom SiByte evaluation boards
NetBSD/sgimips Silicon Graphics' MIPS-based workstations
NetBSD/shark Digital DNARD (“shark”)
NetBSD/sparc Sun SPARC (32-bit) and UltraSPARC (in 32-bit mode)
NetBSD/sparc64 Sun UltraSPARC (in native 64-bit mode)
NetBSD/sun2 Sun 2
NetBSD/sun3 Sun 3 and 3x
NetBSD/vax Digital VAX
NetBSD/x68k Sharp X680x0 series

Ports available in source form only for this release include the following:

NetBSD/amigappc PowerPC-based Amiga boards
NetBSD/bebox Be Inc's BeBox
NetBSD/pc532 The NS32532-based PC532 computer
NetBSD/playstation2 SONY PlayStation 2

Major Changes Between 2.0 and 3.0

The complete list of changes can be found in the CHANGES and CHANGES-3.0 files in the top level directory of the NetBSD 3.0 release tree. Some highlights include:

Supported platforms and machines

  • A port to new platform: iyonix. The iyonix port supports the Iyonix PC, which is a desktop computer from Castle Technology, based on a 600MHz XScale 80321 processor.
  • The xen port now supports Xen 2.0, both in privileged and unprivileged mode.
  • The evbarm port has support for the TS-7200 single board computer, which is also known as “the NetBSD Controlled Toaster”.
  • The sgimips port now supports IP12 (Personal Iris 4D/30, 4D/35, and Indigo R3K) machines.
  • The PowerPC 601 support is added, and the prep port now supports IBM RS/6000 60P 7020-011.

Kernel

  • The i386 port now supports the Enhanced SpeedStep Technology.
  • Added the statvfs(2) family of system calls.
  • Added ptm(4), Unix/98 pty multiplexor device.
  • Added swwdog(4), a software watchdog timer facility.
  • The autoconfiguration framework is rewritten for device driver LKMs.
  • compat_darwin(8) emulation now supports Mac OS X version 10.3 binaries.
  • The sparc64 and shark ports have switched to wscons(9), the machine-independent console framework. Additionally, the sparc64 port switched to an XFree86 based X server and now supports the cg6, mach64 and ffb/afb framebuffers with acceleration.
  • Added new pselect(2) and pollts(2) synchronous I/O multiplexing system calls.
  • Added another experimental buffer queue strategy, BUFQ_PRIOCSCAN, per-priority cyclical scan. Note: the existing strategy NEW_BUFQ_STRATEGY is renamed to BUFQ_READPRIO, since that gives priority to issuing read requests over write requests.
  • The way to allocate a kernel structure, map entry, was improved so that it doesn't need preliminary knowledge of system load, i.e., users no longer have to define “options MAX_KMAPENT” in their kernel configurations even on busy servers.

Networking

  • TCP now supports TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options (RFC 2018) for enhanced performance (especially on long distance connections), and TCP MD5 signatures (RFC 2385) for enhanced protection against attacks.
  • TCP can take advantage of hardware-assisted TCP/IPv4 segmentation on re(4), wm(4), and xge(4) interfaces.
  • The OpenBSD Packet Filter has been integrated as an alternative packet filter solution.
  • IP Filter has been upgraded to version 4.1.8.
  • The KAME IPsec stack now supports ESP over NAT connections (RFC 3948).
  • IPv4 Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) routing support has been added.
  • ipsec-tools 0.6.3 provides IKE support for ESP over NAT connections (RFC 3947), user authentication via XAuth, and automatic network configurations of VPN clients via Mode Config.
  • Added RFC 3378 EtherIP support, which makes it possible to add gif(4) interface to bridges.
  • Added tap(4), the virtual Ethernet device.
  • ppp(4) has been updated to 2.4.3.
  • gre(4) now supports tunneling of the IPv6 Protocol.

Supported devices

  • Added iteide(4): driver for ITE 8212 IDE controller.
  • Added ixpide(4): driver for ATI IXP series chipset IDE controller.
  • Added pdcsata(4): driver for Promise SATA150 (aka PDC203xx) controllers.
  • Added ipw(4): driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 2100.
  • Added iwi(4): driver for Intel PRO/Wireless 2200AG/2915ABG.
  • Added rtw(4): driver for Realtek RTL8180L IEEE 802.11b wireless network.
  • Added vge(4): driver for VIA VT612X Gigabit Ethernet controller.
  • Added xge(4): driver for Neterion Xframe-I 10 gigabit Ethernet.
  • Added cdce(4): driver for CDC USB Ethernet.
  • Added atu(4): driver for Atmel AT76C50x based 802.11b wireless network interfaces.
  • Added uep(4): driver for eGalax USB touchpanel controller.
  • Added ugensa(4): driver for USB generic serial adapter, which currently supports CDMA Wireless PC Card.
  • Added auixp(4): driver for ATI IXP series chipset audio controller.
  • Added auacer(4): driver for ALi M5455 audio controller.
  • Added azalia(4): driver for High Definition Audio controller.
  • Added spif(4): driver for Sun SUNW,spif multi-port Sbus card.
  • viaide(4) now supports nForce2 Ultra 400, nForce3 250 IDE and SATA, and nForce4 IDE and SATA controllers. viaide(4) also supports the VIA VT6421 SATA RAID controller, though drives on the controller need to be configured into RAID/JOBS sets via its BIOS.
  • siside(4) now supports SiS 180 and 741 SATA controllers.
  • artsata(4), which is the Intel i31244 Serial ATA disk controller driver, now supports DPA mode.
  • satalink(4) now supports Silicon Image 3512 SATA.
  • piixide(4) now supports Intel 82801FB/FR (ICH6/6R) IDE and SATA, 82801FBM SATA, 82801G (ICH7) IDE and SATA, and i6300ESB IDE and SATA controllers. Also added basic support for RAID0 and RAID1 for the Adaptec HostRAID format as found on the Intel 6300ESB on-board RAID.
  • stge(4) now works on big-endian machines including sparc64 with hardware checksums.
  • aac(4) now supports Adaptec SATA RAID 2810SA.
  • mpt(4) now supports LSI Logic FC919x SCSI controllers.
  • spc(4) now has support for Fujitsu MB87030-based PCMCIA SCSI controller.
  • bge(4) now supports Broadcom BCM5788, BCM5705K, BCM5721, and BCM5751M Gigabit Ethernet controllers, and has 802.3x flow control support.
  • gem(4) and hme(4) now have hardware checksum support.
  • re(4) and wm(4) now support TCPv4 hardware transmit segment offload.
  • wm(4) now supports more Intel Gigabit Ethernet chips and 64bit PCI DMA transfer.
  • re(4) now supports Corega CG-LAPCIGT Gigabit Ethernet and RTL8169 based CardBus Ethernet interfaces, including NetGear GA-511.
  • ex(4) now supports 3Com 3c920B-EMB-WNM Integrated Fast Ethernet.
  • sk(4) now supports Belkin Gigabit Desktop Network card.
  • bce(4) now supports Broadcom BCM4401-B0 Ethernet.
  • tl(4) now supports Compaq Netelligent 10 T/2 PCI UTP/Coax Controller.
  • wi(4) now supports SMC2531W-B EliteConnect Wireless Adapter.
  • fxp(4) now supports Intel 82801FB (ICH6) 10/100 Ethernet.
  • tlp(4) now supports LinkSys PCMPC200 CardBus Ethernet and ASIX AX88140A/AX88141 chipsets.
  • Many improvements for atw(4), the ADMtek ADM8211 802.11 wireless network driver.
  • auich(4) now supports nForce2 Ultra 400, nForce3 250 MCP-T AC-97, nForce4, Intel ICH7, and Intel 6300ESB audio controllers.
  • auvia(4) now supports suspend and resume.
  • puc(4) now supports VS-Com PCI-210H 2S/1P card, VScom PCI-200 2S card, and ADDI-DATA APCI-7800 8-port serial adapter.
  • uftdi(4) now supports Sealevel Systems' uftdi-based USB-Serial adapter.
  • uvscom(4) now supports SUNTAC U-Cable type A4 USB serial adapter.
  • pms(4) now supports synaptics touchpad.
  • lm(4) now supports iTE IT8705f and Winbond 83627THF environment monitor controllers.
  • Many bug fixes and improvements for ehci(4) USB 2.0 controllers.
  • Many fixes for uaudio(4) devices.
  • uax(4) ASIX AX88172 USB Ethernet driver has been replaced by axe(4) driver derived from FreeBSD.
  • The vnd(4) pseudo-device now supports compressed images.

File system

  • UFS_DIRHASH support is added from FreeBSD. UFS_DIRHASH improves lookup performance by maintaining in-core hash tables for large directories on UFS.
  • Added ptyfs, a pseudo-terminal file system.
  • The CD9660 file system now supports UTF-8 filenames using Joliet extensions.
  • Ext2fs now supports large files (larger than 2 GB). fsck_ext2fs(8) also handles them and supports conversion from old file systems.
  • The stability of the Log-structured File System (LFS) has been improved.
  • vnd(4) can now read compressed disk images. A new tool vndcompress(1) is included to create them.

Libraries

  • Added PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) framework.
  • Support wide strings in C++.
  • Re-entrant library functions like getpwent_r() have been added.
  • Some libc string functions for i386 have been replaced with optimized versions.
  • Added DCE 1.1 RPC compatible UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) routines to libc.
  • Added memmem(3) to libc, which is API compatible with the functions in FreeBSD and Linux.

Security

  • The Veriexec framework is now using hash tables to store per-file data, resulting in much faster operation. It supports four different enforcement levels and full control over verbosity. Signature files are easier to generate and are more flexible than in the previous version.
  • Added SHA2 to libc to provide more secure hashing algorithms and made cksum(1) and mtree(8) support them.

System administration and user tools

  • Various improvements to the “sysinst” installation program, including Spanish language translation.
  • Numerous improvements to syslogd(8), mostly from FreeBSD.
  • fsck(8) now has a progress meter option.
  • dump(8) now supports file system snapshots.
  • Added sockstat(1), which lists open sockets.
  • Added seq(1), a utility which prints a sequence of numbers. seq(1) is derived from Plan 9.

Miscellaneous

  • audio(9) interface is improved. Added audio software filter pipeline capabilities, making it easier for hardware drivers to add encoding support or sample rates support.
  • Updates of most third party packages that are shipped in the base system to the following stable releases:
    • am-utils 6.1-rc2
    • BIND 9.3.0
    • binutils 2.15-20041204
    • cvs 1.11.20
    • file 4.13
    • gcc 3.3.3
    • groff 1.19.1
    • OpenSSH 3.9
    • OpenSSL 0.9.7d
    • Postfix 2.1.5
    • sendmail 8.13.3
    • tcpdump 3.8.3
    • texinfo 4.7
    • tzdata2005o
    • XFree86 4.5.0
  • Many new and updated packages in the pkgsrc system, including current versions of the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktops, the Perl language, the Apache web server and a lot more. At the time of writing, there are over 5,700 third party packages available in pkgsrc.

And of course there have also been innumerable bug fixes and other miscellaneous enhancements.

Please note that at the moment, sysinst will not assist you in installing pre-built third-party binary packages or the pkgsrc system itself. See the NetBSD packages collection documentation:

Acknowledgments

The NetBSD Foundation would like to thank all those who have contributed code, hardware, documentation, funds, colocation for our servers, web pages and other documentation, release engineering, and other resources over the years. More information on the people who make NetBSD happen is available at:

We would like to especially thank the University of California at Berkeley and the GNU Project for particularly large subsets of code that we use. We would also like to thank the Internet Systems Consortium Inc., Columbia University and Ludd (Luleå Academic Computer Society) computer society at Luleå University of Technology for current colocation services.

About the NetBSD Foundation

The NetBSD Foundation was chartered in 1995, with the task of overseeing core NetBSD project services, promoting the project within industry and the open source community, and holding intellectual property rights on much of the NetBSD code base. Day-to-day operations of the project are handled by volunteers.

As a non-profit organization with no commercial backing, The NetBSD Foundation depends on donations from its users, and we would like to ask you to consider making a donation to the NetBSD Foundation in support of continuing production of our fine operating system. Your generous donation would be particularly welcome assistance with ongoing upgrades and maintenance, as well as with operating expenses for The NetBSD Foundation.

Donations can be done via PayPal to and are fully tax-deductible in the US. If you would prefer not to use PayPal, or would like to make other arrangements, please contact .

NetBSD mirror sites

Please use a mirror site close to you.

Please also note our list of CD-ROM vendors.


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