FreeBSD 13.1
FreeBSD 13.1 is now available, notable as it comes in both big-endian and little-endian flavours depending on how you swing (as well as 32-bit ports for Power Macs and the AmigaOne A1222). The biggest change in this version is that 13's shift to the PowerPC ELF ABIv2 makes it binary-incompatible with 12.x (so you may need to rebuild or relink; the release notes also suggest doing kldxref /boot/kernel after successful installation or upgrade). However, there are also fixes for the bootloader on the LE port, OpenSSL performance improvements, a serial console fix for the BE port, a fix for running FreeBSD with HPT superpages enabled on QEMU with TCG (if you're trying before you're buying), and — particularly of relevance to those of us on OpenPOWER hardware — a fix for the AST2500 console on bootup with recent OpenBMC firmware. It's a big update but one that makes OpenPOWER an even better citizen on FreeBSD (now if only NetBSD would get with the program, because at this point it's just embarrassing). Read the release notes, or download.
I have tried to install 13.1-RC3…5 on my PowerMac G5 2 x 1.8 GHz. Unfortunately, these installations were not successful. There is a problem with the USB keyboard support. After pressing a key, the keyboard locks for about 2 minutes. The whole installation process takes several hours ;-) After rebooting, the loading process runs smoothly up to a point, then it collapses. These incomprehensible pauses appear.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried FreeBSD on my Talos II yet, but I think I'll do it soon :-)