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Announcements Operating Systems BSD

FreeBSD 4.6.2 Released 85

Posted by timothy from the even-the-box-looks-powerful dept.
MobyTurbo writes: "FreeBSD 4.6.2 has been released. It primarily cures a few security problems in the 4.6 release. If you are impatient it will be available at various mirrors, or upgrade your existing FreeBSD installation via cvsup, or support the FreeBSD project by purchasing it at a vendor that supports the FreeBSD project."
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FreeBSD 4.6.2 Released More

FreeBSD 4.6.2 Released

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  • It's very stable (Score:2, Interesting)

    by edyu ( 259748 )
    I'm been cvsuping all along and it has not given me any problem yet.
  • I remember about 4.6 being announced ten times or
    so, and a reply from a developer to only post
    announcements when they are pgp-signed from a
    freebse developer.

    nah, all not my stuff - we release on
    December 1th
    June 1th
    of every year, and a bit earlier this year.
    There is nothing to interpretate...

    Yep, I'm a happy OpenBSD sysadmin and user.
    • Yes, officially

      A release is not official until the announcement has gone out on the mailing list and it is visible on http://www.freebsd.org/releases/index.html. Some bozos don't seem to understand that (and Slashdot never seems to learn how to verify these stories). Looks like this one went off without incident for once.

    • Yes, this time officially. As can be seen (for now) on http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=0+0+c urrent/freebsd-announce

      and will be in the regular archive in a week from now...

      Now, I'm a bit frustrated because I *DID* submit the news myself earlier today but got it rejected.. Oh well. The release is official, but the website takes a while to be rebuilt from the SGML sources committed to CVS.
      • The reason why is necause the Slashdot editors ovbiously wait until the story is submitted by someone they know, or something with a cool-sounding handle, then they publish it. To hell with being first - it's all about being a favorite son.

        • blockquoth the troll:
          The reason why is necause the Slashdot editors ovbiously wait until the story is submitted by someone they know, or something with a cool-sounding handle, then they publish it. To hell with being first - it's all about being a favorite son.
          I don't know about how the the 2 bogus release announcements for the previous release got out, but I posted my submission concerning this release when I saw the official announcement in the moderated freebsd-announce mailing list.

          The secret to getting a story on slashdot is not being a "favorite son", it's to submit early, submit often, and don't whine when your story is rejected or scooped by someone else because that's what will happen to the majority of your submissions. BTW, thanks for the implied complement concerning my choice of handle. :-)

    • And your point is? Just like this posting, yours is nothing but an unnecessary flamebait.

      Instead of working together we smash each others head in. Fun isn't it?
      • My point was:
        * I know from earlier that FreeBSD-releases have been
        announced by Slashdot when this announce was not
        yet fully official.
        * I found it quite amusing when I read, back then, a
        comment from a FreeBSD developer, asking for /. to
        only post such stories again when they come, pgp signed,
        from a developer.
        * I wondered whether it was officially this time, that's
        why I asked.
        * I got a comment which showed me that it was - and
        which author wondered about this NOT happening...

        Furthermore I wrote about the OpenBSD release scheme,
        to show that we don't have this kind of problems. My
        post was not intended a flamebait in any way.

  • Other vendors (Score:4, Informative)

    by Arandir ( 19206 ) on Thursday August 15, 2002 @10:01PM (#4080398) Homepage Journal
    support the FreeBSD project by purchasing it at a vendor that supports the FreeBSD project.

    Other vendors include DaemonNews/BSDMall [bsdmall.com], and Hinner EDV [hinner.de].

  • Crap :( (Score:1, Interesting)

    by RLiegh ( 247921 )
    ..meanwhile, I'm downloading netbsd.

    Given that this is only a (very) minor point release, I don't expect I'm missing too terribly much.

    • Re:Crap :( (Score:3, Informative)

      by MobyTurbo ( 537363 )
      Blockquoth the poster:
      ..meanwhile, I'm downloading netbsd.
      According to a previous Slashdot story, NetBSD version 1.6 is expected *very* soon, it's already at the release candidate stage, so perhaps you haven't avoided avoided downloading a version of BSD too soon either. :-)

      Keep in mind however that even if you have download a version of FreeBSD (maybe the same is true for Net) too soon, you can cvsup to the latest -RELEASE or -STABLE without much of a hassle; and 5.0-CURRENT if you want to be on the alpha/beta version edge.(Since I'm tracking -STABLE I don't need to download anything to upgrade; I already am running a system similar to 4.6.2 if not somewhat more cutting edge.)

      Hmm, *BSD is releasing new versions. It must not be "dead" after all. ;-)

    • It's a release to fix security problems, it isn't a major release with new nifty features. Unless you've been consequent with your patches (openssh, openssl, kqueue, ufs etc etc etc) there is no reason to upgrade. But if you want to have a checkpoint for your machines (i.e. a stable release without having to do all the patches each time you install something in the 4.6-series), this is a good start.
  • The 4.6.1 release was announced as the next release, but it never happened. Why? If it is that much a PR blunder to admit that something went wrong, why still increase the version number?
    • set your cvs tag to 4_6_1 and cvsup your sources. You'll get 4.6.1 don't worry, it was there.. be it for a very short while and as far as I can tell not really worthy of a point release. Why not just stick to 4.6-RELEASE and bump up the patch level all you want until 4.7-RELEASE?? (I know 5.0 probably should come out before 4.7 but hey.. who knows..)
      • I really doubt 5.0 will come out before 4.7 makes it out. But from the looks of it the first few 5.0 release won't quite be ready for general consumption. There's a big push right now to go ahead and move to GCC 3.3 and skip 3.2 entirely. I'm rather happy with my 5-current box. Only problem I've found is that if it does shut down ungracefully background fsck sticks you into a reboot cycle. It looks as if it doesn't cope well with much of any activity while its checking in the background.
      • 4.6.1 was _never_ released. A CVS tag does not indicate a release.

    • Re:Where did 4.6.1 go? (Score:5, Informative)

      by MavEtJu ( 241979 ) <[gro.ujtevam] [ta] [todhsals]> on Friday August 16, 2002 @07:17AM (#4081683) Homepage
      During the first and second RCs of 4.6.1 a couple of more problems regarding security came up and it would be a bad idea to release something with known problems (actually the reason why 4.6.1 was going to be released). That's why it was delayed with a month (I believe).

    • Re:Where did 4.6.1 go? (Score:3, Informative)

      by mosch ( 204 )
      You can get 4.6.1, you just wouldn't want to, because then you'd have to apply 11 patches to get it to 4.6.1-p11, then one more to get it to 4.6.2. They didn't make a big public announcement because of the number of major issues that came up right after it was created (OpenSSL and such) and because of some bugs that turned out to be not quite fixed.
    • The OpenSSH bug was found the day before 4.6.1 was supposed to come out (or something like that). So they decided to scrap 4.6.1, and add the OpenSSH fixes, and back port more fixes from -current while they did the testing for it.
  • Okay, it's time to put on my newbie hat, so flame away.

    I'm testing out my first real FreeBSD installation on a colocated server, and I'm using the ports tree for installing just about everything. I'd like to be able to keep on top of the latest security releases and pretty much make sure I stay in line with all the -RELEASE releases. The problem is, I have no idea how to do this. It seems like most examples I see for using cvsup are for -STABLE or -CURRENT. There doesn't seem to be a nice guide for doing so on the FreeBSD site or on my system.

    Will the example ports-supfile, as-is, do the trick? Or should I use a different supfile?

    Does anyone have any pointers or advice?
    • I'd like to be able to keep on top of the latest security releases

      The RELEASE tag is only slid for security fixes that come out after the release tag is initally laid and before the CDs are gold. In other words, if you really want to keep on top of security issues, you should be tracking -STABLE; but of course with this comes no express or implied guarantee that your tree will build, that everything will work properly, etc. But thankfully, -STABLE tends to be pretty much just that, STABLE, with few exceptions. If you're concerned about the latest security patches, either update STABLE every time there is a security advisory, or apply the patches from -STABLE to your release tree, but that's probably not worth the time. So -STABLE tends to be the best in terms of having security patches applied, but on a colocated box you could run into issues setting it to upgrade automatically (in the rare, but possible event -STABLE is fubared when you cvsup) - but unfortunately you can't have it every way- there's no way to have a guarantee of successful working automatic builds with all of the security patches. That's pretty much true with any OS.

      But you didn't ask that, you asked how to get -RELEASE sources. Open up your supfile and set the tag to RELENG_4_6_2_RELEASE in this case (or RELENG_4_6_0_RELEASE for 4.6, or RELENG_4_0_0_RELEASE for 4.0, etc.)

      Have fun!

      • Re:Tracking -RELEASE with cvsup (Score:5, Informative)

        by shlong ( 121504 ) on Friday August 16, 2002 @01:13PM (#4083523) Homepage
        Tag slides are not how security issues are tracked in FreeBSD. True, they are used when last minute changes are needed before a release. However, branches are made with every major release, and security fixes are applied to those branches. If you track the RELENG_4_6 tag, you will get all the security patches for 4.6.x. These branches are often maintained for a year or more, even after newer releases have come out. So, to answer the previous posters' question about how to track FreeBSD 4.6 + ports, here is a cvsup file to use:

        *default host=cvsup14.freebsd.org
        *default base=/usr
        *default prefix=/usr
        *default release=cvs tag=RELENG_4_6
        *default delete use-rel-suffix
        *default compress
        src-all
        ports-all
        • I'm sorry, did I not make that clear? The original poster was under the idea that he wanted the release; I was merely correcting him in that the release tag (_RELEASE) is only slid when changes are made between the inital laying of the tag and before the CDs go gold (which is a very short period of time).

          Well, anyhow, I think the OP has enough information to help him now.

          • Sorry, no flame was intended. I felt that your comment about tag sliding could be misinterpretted, but I also wanted to definitely answer the question of the OP with a cvsup file that was appropriate for what he (appeared to) asked for.
            • Egads, a polite resolution to a thread!

              Glad to see that there's some civility on slashdot. I'm impressed that we handled that well. (Insert wisecrack about only in the BSD section can you find nice slashdotters...)

      • It's also worth pointing out that anyone tracking -stable should be keeping up with the freebsd-stable mailing list (in order to learn about any problems or incompatible changes, including any requirements to update the kernel or ports/package, which although rare can happen on occasion).

        On a colocated box, perhaps it would be wise to cvsup and wait at least a day or two to check for any problems reported to that mailing list before updating the running system.

        --
        As noted in the History section, one of the biggest problems with sysinstall is its user interface which could only be charitably described as Evil Incarnate. -libh Project [freebsd.org]

    • You could cd /usr/ports/net/cvsupit and type make install. This will run a script that will set up a cvsupfile for you, and place it in /etc/cvsupfile. This is a very painless way to set up your file, and it gives you many options to choose from.

    • Use the RELENG_4_6 tag in your cvsup file to stay on the 4.6-release branch, of which 4.6.2-release is a part.

      Be sure to check out Chapter 20 of the FreeBSD Handbook [freebsd.org], especially the sections on Synchronizing Your Source and Using make world. Also read the top of /usr/src/Makefile

      The real trick is going to be doing the upgrade to a remote server. Since you can't really drop to single user mode you'll have to do the installworld, installkernel, and mergemaster on a live system. Make sure your kern.securelevel is at -1 for that (you can always raise it back up afterwards). You may even want to go through the process on a spare box in front of you before attempting to do so remotely.

  • Only 2 ISO's? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why only 2 CDs? Is it just an "upgrade CD"? 4.6 was 5 CDs.
  • Here's a good question for all you FreeBSD guru's, semi-guru's, and people smarter than I. I installed my current FreeBSD machine with FreeBSD 4.4 a year or two ago, and have been cvsup'ing and make buildworld'ing to keep -stable. When I did the installation, I chose to install XFree86 3.3.6, and so it does not show up in /var/db/pkg. Now I want to remove 3.3.6 from the system and install XFree86 4.2.0 from ports. Finally for the question....

    How can I remove XFree86 3.3.6 from FreeBSD 4.2.6 since there is no entry in /var/db/pkg?

    • Re:XFree86 3-4 (Score:4, Informative)

      by wabb1t ( 84176 ) on Saturday August 17, 2002 @07:28PM (#4090470)
      As the prevoius answer stated, remove /usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11 and /etc/XF86Config.

      But be sure to also remove all ports that might have installed stuff under /usr/X11. I just tested this (will give you a few unimportant errors), but YMMV:

      (use some bourne shell, like /bin/sh or bash)
      cd /var/db/pkg
      for i in *; do if grep -q '^@cwd /usr/X11R6' $i/+CONTENTS; then echo $i;fi;done > ${HOME}/packagelist

      Then remove those packages in ~/packagelist
      After this, just install /usr/ports/x11/XFree86-4, and reinstall the ports/packages you need.

      HTH
    • It does not show up because it is a distribution, which is different from a package and different from a port, intuitive, huh?

      Get your source media, and do tar tzvf on the archives you installed (Xbin.tgz, Xcfg.tgz), and remove those files.
      I usually move /usr/X11R6 out of the way instead of removing it, just in case.
  • make world takes so long on my k6, this is a kewl way to get those fixes quickly.

  • I have been able to reproduce on 3 different machines that an upgrade from 4.6 Stable to 4.6.2 causes the system to become unstable after doing the installworld, installworld dies, you are unable to do a mergemaster due to out of memory problems and I have ended up rebuilding all three of the boxes off of 4.6 stable.

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