8:46 PM - The last week in brief
There are quite a few new developments with the project. Archite is experimenting with some very interesting patches. I'm hoping they'll work out as the enhanced security would be nice.
ctriv has a good start on the changes to mports. A bsd.mport.mk file was created which will eventually replace bsd.port.mk. He's working on several new targets, changing existing targets and has prototypes of a new database format for packages and some perl prototype scripts. We will most likely implement the final system in C, but perl is an excellent language to prototype with.
raven has been working on a prototype package management GUI application. (GNUstep)
I've been very busy the last week and haven't done much. I did update Enhanced Speedstep (ESS) support with cpufreq to support several Pentium M chips.
I also increased the default loopback MTU (LOMTU is now 32768). In some cases, the speed was slightly less but in others it made a significant improvement. NetBSD has been using a similar value since 4.4 lite and OpenBSD also uses it. FreeBSD and DragonFly use 16384. I believe some adjustments to the network stack could improve throughput on lo0 with the new value.
Archite also made adjustments to the umask default to make installing mports easier. He also added a .kshrc file to the system.
I've had some feedback on the new website design. Everyone I've talked to has found one element about it strange. Surprisingly, its not the new "logo" with the cat eyes. Most people dislike the gray background or the layout. We're considering some changes to the design and changing the layout of content. I designed the current site with a little feedback from archite.
wintellect has been working with ctriv on the mports overhaul. ctriv has almost completed the x11 ports transition to /usr/local. We need to do more testing.
I've also had some requests to change the CVSup server to add CVSROOT and some other modules. I'll try to get to that soon. I'm no expert with CVSup (just pretend the registered trademark is there) . I'd appreciate if there are any other changes or addition to CVSup, rsync or the ftp layout that it would be shared with me soon. I'd rather be coding.
I was talking with archite today about the DragonFly 1.0 RC1 announcement on slashdot from a few years back. We talked about the struggle that project went through in the community for forking as well as the amount of work they accomplished going into 1.0 Release. We realized that we don't have a very structured list of goals and a timeframe as that project did from the beginning. It was rather nice looking back. Several of us plan to write up some goals in our respective areas of interest and hopefully publish that on midnightbsd.org soon. I made up a list of changes for userland a few weeks ago that I'll be posting as well. The DragonFly project focused heavily on the kernel design early on. In our case, we are more concerned with getting a basic desktop environment working. That means immediate goals include creating a live cd based installation system with a new installer, overhauling mports to improve package management (including GUI tools), working on improving management of services as well as providing graphical system preferences, etc. At the same time, I have a personal wish list which includes doing a lot of work on the network stack, improving file system interopability, adding a journalized file system, possibly trying to get gjournal working, and there's even been talk about eventually bringing zfs in. We'd like to improve the wiereless user experience including new drivers, easier administration, and so on. I'd also like to overhaul syscons at some point.
Then we have the normal userland related changes we'd like to do:
update gcc to something more recent (3.4.6 and later 4.1.x)
binutiles
bind 9.4
sendmail (no i don't plan on switching to postfix)
merge some of the changed to dhclient from OpenBSD and FreeBSD
less
OK, i forget the rest right now. rc.d cleanup is also planned.
ctriv has a good start on the changes to mports. A bsd.mport.mk file was created which will eventually replace bsd.port.mk. He's working on several new targets, changing existing targets and has prototypes of a new database format for packages and some perl prototype scripts. We will most likely implement the final system in C, but perl is an excellent language to prototype with.
raven has been working on a prototype package management GUI application. (GNUstep)
I've been very busy the last week and haven't done much. I did update Enhanced Speedstep (ESS) support with cpufreq to support several Pentium M chips.
I also increased the default loopback MTU (LOMTU is now 32768). In some cases, the speed was slightly less but in others it made a significant improvement. NetBSD has been using a similar value since 4.4 lite and OpenBSD also uses it. FreeBSD and DragonFly use 16384. I believe some adjustments to the network stack could improve throughput on lo0 with the new value.
Archite also made adjustments to the umask default to make installing mports easier. He also added a .kshrc file to the system.
I've had some feedback on the new website design. Everyone I've talked to has found one element about it strange. Surprisingly, its not the new "logo" with the cat eyes. Most people dislike the gray background or the layout. We're considering some changes to the design and changing the layout of content. I designed the current site with a little feedback from archite.
wintellect has been working with ctriv on the mports overhaul. ctriv has almost completed the x11 ports transition to /usr/local. We need to do more testing.
I've also had some requests to change the CVSup server to add CVSROOT and some other modules. I'll try to get to that soon. I'm no expert with CVSup (just pretend the registered trademark is there) . I'd appreciate if there are any other changes or addition to CVSup, rsync or the ftp layout that it would be shared with me soon. I'd rather be coding.
I was talking with archite today about the DragonFly 1.0 RC1 announcement on slashdot from a few years back. We talked about the struggle that project went through in the community for forking as well as the amount of work they accomplished going into 1.0 Release. We realized that we don't have a very structured list of goals and a timeframe as that project did from the beginning. It was rather nice looking back. Several of us plan to write up some goals in our respective areas of interest and hopefully publish that on midnightbsd.org soon. I made up a list of changes for userland a few weeks ago that I'll be posting as well. The DragonFly project focused heavily on the kernel design early on. In our case, we are more concerned with getting a basic desktop environment working. That means immediate goals include creating a live cd based installation system with a new installer, overhauling mports to improve package management (including GUI tools), working on improving management of services as well as providing graphical system preferences, etc. At the same time, I have a personal wish list which includes doing a lot of work on the network stack, improving file system interopability, adding a journalized file system, possibly trying to get gjournal working, and there's even been talk about eventually bringing zfs in. We'd like to improve the wiereless user experience including new drivers, easier administration, and so on. I'd also like to overhaul syscons at some point.
Then we have the normal userland related changes we'd like to do:
update gcc to something more recent (3.4.6 and later 4.1.x)
binutiles
bind 9.4
sendmail (no i don't plan on switching to postfix)
merge some of the changed to dhclient from OpenBSD and FreeBSD
less
OK, i forget the rest right now. rc.d cleanup is also planned.
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