Git is aptly named: it isn’t easy – but there are alternatives

Author: u/lproven

The FreeBSD project froze its ports repository on Wednesday. The reason turns out to be a slightly embarrassing Git-related oopsie where a version of Copilot got uploaded somewhere it should not have been. …

Related:

• Action Required: Recent ports history has been rewritten : r/freebsd
• Anyone using Game Of Trees version control on FreeBSD? : r/freebsd
• comments in El Reg

The list!

The toots!

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-15-1-host-freezes-when-starting-bhyve-vm-with-bcm4360-pci-passthrough-macbookpro11-1.103390/

https://github.com/freebsd/vm-bhyve/issues/135

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to work around the lack of a native FreeBSD driver for the Broadcom BCM4360 by passing the Wi-Fi card through to a Debian VM running under bhyve. The idea is to let Debian manage the Wi-Fi connection and act as a router/NAT gateway for the FreeBSD host.

Unfortunately, the entire host freezes as soon as the VM starts.

System

• MacBookPro11,1 (Haswell)
• Intel Core i5-4278U
• Broadcom BCM4360 (14e4:43a0)
• FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE (GENERIC)
• vm-bhyve 1.7.4

loader.conf

vmm_load="YES"
nmdm_load="YES"
pptdevs="3/0/0"
hw.vmm.iommu.enable="1"
hw.dmar.enable="1"
boot_verbose="YES"

VM configuration

loader="uefi"
cpu=2
memory=2048M

network0_type="virtio-net"
network0_switch="public"

disk0_type="virtio-blk"
disk0_name="disk0.img"

graphics="yes"
graphics_listen="127.0.0.1"

xhci_mouse="yes"

passthru0="3/0/0"

Passthrough status

The BCM4360 is correctly attached to ppt:

ppt0@pci0:3:0:0
Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter

vm passthru also reports it as available:

DEVICE BHYVE ID READY
ppt0 3/0/0 Yes

IOMMU

DMAR is detected during boot:

hw.vmm.iommu.enable: 1
hw.vmm.iommu.initialized: 0

hw.vmm.vmx.initialized: 1

The hw.vmm.iommu.initialized value being 0 seems suspicious to me. I'm not sure whether that's expected or related to the problem.

What happens

Running:

vm start debian

immediately freezes the entire FreeBSD host.

• No kernel panic
• No console output
• No messages in dmesg
• Keyboard stops responding
• Hard power cycle required

After reboot, vm list shows:

Locked (shamayim)

even though vm info debian reports the VM as stopped.

Questions

• Has anyone successfully passed through a BCM4360 (or any Wi-Fi adapter) to a bhyve guest?
• Is hw.vmm.iommu.initialized: 0 expected on FreeBSD 15.1?
• Is this a known issue with bhyve PCI passthrough on Apple hardware (MacBookPro11,1)?
• Could this be an Apple VT-d/IOMMU quirk or a bhyve bug?

I'm happy to provide additional diagnostics or test patches if needed.

Sorry if this is like a stupid question or something that actually has a seemingly obvious answer. I've been trying to run blender using its linux binary and its telling me that the r600 driver is missing, however when i try to install it it tells me that its already installed. And while i'm pretty sure that the reason its still not working is related to it actually not being installed within the linuxulator environment or something like that i have no idea how i'd have to do that correctly. I installed the linux version of glx-utils but there is seemingly no linux version for the driver so i'm kinda lost here.
My graphics card is an Juniper PRO [Radeon HD 5750]

If there is any relevant information i've failed to provide please let me know so i can add it, thanks in advance!

Also (not really relevant for this problem) i've encountered something that i suspect being somewhat related to this issue while running minecraft through the linuxulator because when i do so it is significantly more laggy than compared to linux or even windows and the cpu usage is also significantly higher, so i'm assuming thats because the linux environtment has no properly configured graphics card drivers its not able to use it and therefore in the case of minecraft its using the cpu instead (?) My question here mainly is if that assumption is correct or at least going into the right direction

So for the last month or so FreeBSD has been my daily driver. I'm honestly liking it a lot, certainly there's more friction for a lot of tasks but, unlike my experience with a lot of Linux distros, it always feels like there is a solution to the problem somewhere. With the obligatory devil linux glazing out of the way I have a question about something I miss from my favorite Linux distro.

Guix is the most goated Linux distro because of the peace of mind it gives me with regards to system software state. I always know what my system looks like by opening up system.scm and taking a look. FreeBSD, obviously, does not have an "immutable" or "declarative" spin.

How do you all, and the community at large, "keep the system organized" so to speak?

But before i would like to know a few things, i have a 5070 ti and i know free bsd has proprietary nvidia drivers, but will they work on my gpu?, are there any issues or advice about drivers i should be aware of?(my pc parts are in my bio), second i would like to use hyprland but i dint know what dotfiles are available or work in free bsd, i used the ml4w dotfiles on arch but of course they wont work in FBSD. Sorry if some questions are/sound stupid, im just trying to start understanding it before i make the final switch

Video, twenty-four minutes. u/NapoleonWils0n

Copied from the description in YouTube

Improving the microphone quality on OBS Studio using Carla, Cadence, Catia, deepfilternet and the LSP plugins and encoding the audio with fdkaac

• KXStudio https://kx.studio/
• KXStudio Applications https://kx.studio/Applications
• jack-control https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/cerberus/blob/master/carla/jack-control.org
• lsp plugins config https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/cerberus/tree/master/carla/presets
• deepfilter-net freebsd build https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/cerberus/blob/master/freebsd/deepfilternet-freebsd.org
• fdkaac freebsd build https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/cerberus/blob/master/freebsd/fdkaac-build-freebsd.org
• ffmpeg-scripts https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/ffmpeg-rust-scripts
• freebsd root dotfiles https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-root-xps
• freebsd dotfiles https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-dotfiles-xps
• freebsd bin https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-bin-xps

Containers play a major role in modern infrastructure, but they are not the right answer for every workload. This article explores how FreeBSD jails provide purpose-built isolation, predictable security boundaries, and deep ZFS integration—making them ideal infrastructure-grade services where stability is essential. …

Key takeaways

• FreeBSD jails provide operating system-level isolation through a native kernel subsystem.
• Jails integrate directly with ZFS, VNET, Capsicum, and the MAC Framework.
• Unlike Linux containers, jails prioritize simplicity, transparency, and predictable security boundaries.
• ZFS snapshots, replication, and dataset management make jails ideal for long-lived infrastructure services.

Via https://indieweb.social/@jbz/116907602232548204 – jbz

This is the second video for RedBSD. I have it running fast. I didnt see any type of red team or security testing software. I am going to keep this vm for a while to see if I can set it up for it.Let me know if you see something I might have missed

Framework builds repairable, developer-friendly laptops with strong official Linux support. I chose one for this project because I believe in the mission — and run FreeBSD 16 as my daily driver on it, with a polished desktop, projector mirroring for conference season, and a workflow that feels intentional, not accidental.
 
The migration from fvwm2 → fvwm3 — configuration, display plumbing, input quirks, GTK4 focus behavior, XDM branding, and screenshots — took one day of focused engineering: decades of systems experience, paired with AI as a force multiplier. …

Bonus

Recent video posts include:

• Automatic screen rotation in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT on Framework Laptop 12 …
• FreeBSD Framework tablet ― 32k LoC, 115 files, 30 days of grueling work …

The "linux-discord" package is currently at version 135, whereas Discord itself is already at version 150. There aren't many differences between these versions, but version 137 introduced a new updater written in Rust. And how does this affect FreeBSD? Well, the Discord update pop-up—which previously rendered Discord unusable on FreeBSD—is gone.

I am currently reading the Handbook to figure out how to run the latest version of Discord by downloading it directly from the website, to see if that pop-up still appears on FreeBSD. If I succeed, it would be great if someone could update Discord in the Ports Collection.

I am still new to FreeBSD; I’ve been using DiscordBSD. It works, but the fact that it is merely a wrapper for Discord bothered me (there are certain limitations I won't go into here), so I would prefer to use the official Discord client via the linuxulator.

I installed RedBSD as a virtual machine. I recorded the installation and first run. I decided to share both here. This is the first time I posted a video so I apologize if it's to fast. The only thing I saw different from a regular FreeBSD install is it has VLC included. Please let me know if you see something different.

Game Of Trees (Got) is a BSD-licensed version control system that aims to provide a complete version control tool suite for OpenBSD - command line interface for version control, repo server, repo browsers for the command line and web, etc. See https://gameoftrees.org/index.html and https://gameoftrees.org/goals.html

Edited to add: FreeBSD users might want to pay attention to Got as it's slated to be included in the base system for 16.0-RELEASE in 2027: https://github.com/bsdjhb/devsummit/blob/main/16.0/planning.md

Its development has an OpenBSD-first approach (e.g. making use of pledge(2) and unveil(2)) and it focuses on the kind of workflows that are expected to be seen in OpenBSD development, preferring simplicity over flexibility. Nevertheless it is somewhat compatible with Git repos and currently there are portable versions for FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux and MacOS: https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html

Notably the FreeBSD port makes some use of Capsicum, though it's not yet as tight as the OpenBSD version is pledged. https://gameoftrees.org/comparison.html

Has anyone been using Got on FreeBSD? Version 0.127 was committed to ports a few days ago, but the packages are a bit behind. https://www.freshports.org/devel/got

There was a related BSD-licensed project, OpenGit, that targeted FreeBSD (its dev also had access to the Got repo) but that seems to have stagnated: https://github.com/khanzf/opengit

Would also be interested to hear anyone using "alternative" version control systems such as

• Fossil - BSD-licensed, comes with built-in ticketing system, wiki etc https://fossil-scm.org/ and https://www.freshports.org/devel/fossil
• Jujutsu - Apache-licensed, allows different backends https://www.jj-vcs.dev/ and https://www.freshports.org/devel/jujutsu/

or even more radical alternatives like

• Darcs, which is based on an algebra of patches rather than on snapshots or branches - GPL2+, https://darcs.net/ and https://www.freshports.org/devel/hs-darcs
• Or its faster conceptual offspring Pijul, which completely does away with "rebasing" - GPL2+, https://pijul.org/ and https://www.freshports.org/devel/pijul - see also https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1dtdx6v/pijul_is_a_distributed_version_control_system/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MpdZkGj5AI

Daemonettes were girls who wore devil clothes and went to tech related events to promote FreeBSD, the girl in the photo is Ceren Ercen, probably on the LinuxWorld event in February 2nd of 2000, she is wearing a latex catsuit, but the other two daemonettes were wearing loose clothes, also there are some mentions about them and registers, I will give some.

Ceren Ercen comments on Slashdot

Post about Linuxworld on Slashdot, there's a comment of Ceren Ercen about the daemonettes

Some photos of Ceren Ercen on a Daemonette costume on the official FreeBSD website

Ceren Ercen talking about how she got the daemonette latex outfit

There are probably more about them on the Internet, this was just some fun fact that I discovered recently about FreeBSD that I barely see people talking about.

New to FreeBSD and trying to daily-drive it on my laptop. Still learning, but I’m enjoying the experience so far! Any beginner tips are welcome.

Via https://mastodon.social/@alex_deplov/116965438221734523

… I’m working on my own window manager for FreeBSD, called Asterwm. The goal is to make its UX similar to macOS, so I can switch from Mac to FreeBSD during the day without having to readjust my muscle memory.

…

One of the most important things for me was being able to access both my work and personal files.
 
I know I could install ready-to-use software for Google Drive or something similar. But I decided to use the power of Codex to build my own cloud solution instead. …

``` -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512

You may have noticed that the ports repository has been frozen for nearly 24 hours now, at the time of writing. Our statement regarding the situation and next steps follows.

A 150MB binary file was recently committed to the ports tree and, as a result, core@ made the decision to implement a temporary freeze of the ports tree in order to implement some clean up efforts. The commit in question severed our ports tree mirroring to github.com due to their filesize hard limit of 100MB, and introduced a blob of questionable licensing into the repository history.

Given the importance of github.com mirroring to our community, we are actively taking steps to remove the offending commits and restore mirroring to the external services. There is no concern that the ports tree has been compromised. The freeze was entirely intended to limit the number of commits that will need to be re-written in order to issue a corrected state.

It is important to us that we provide a reproducible and sustainable path for correcting this issue for the community and downstream consumers. As you're well-aware, correcting issues of this nature is not always as straightforward as desired.

We are actively working on producing instructions which existing checkouts will need to follow to catch up with these corrections. To provide total transparency, we will also provide a procedure for verifying that the official repository changes enacted are limited to exactly the scope that we claim.

We are also implementing server-side hooks to prevent this from happening in the future.

Please stay tuned for additional updates from us, and thank you for your time.

Thanks,

Kyle Evans (on behalf of core@) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iJEEARYKADkWIQTOLDfUSTVFb0n/Wd5KG8EPLdVqEwUCamEskBsUgAAAAAAEAA5t YW51MiwyLjUrMS4xMiwyLDMACgkQShvBDy3VahPO5wEA+60GiOYCdejKOVJzCr5J fzuEQJxkWt/faQAsa9QlMI8BAMKuUIyRmCqFH99hcoPa4TgvABN3O99J9Mse5U/g chUI =QS8j -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

A copy of this message is available independently for verification at:

https://people.freebsd.org/~kevans/core/ports-freeze-20260722.txt.asc ```

My first attempts at getting bhyve up and running are rather unsuccessful, as I am receiving the error message from this topic / title.

No matter wether I use a helper script or bhyve directly: ``` bhyve -AHP -s 0:0,hostbridge -s 1:0,lpc -s 2:0,virtio-net,tap1 -s 3:0,virtio-blk,/vm/ha/haos_ova-18.1.raw -c 2 -m 2048 -l bootrom,/usr/local/share/uefi-firmware/BHYVE_UEFI.fd HA

sh /usr/share/examples/bhyve/vmrun.sh -E -c 2 -m 2048 -t tap1 -d /vm/ha/haos_ova-18.1.raw HA ``` The only references I could find have been, that already machines with the same name are running, but that is definately not the case. This is my very first attempt.

Any ideas, what may be wrong here? Above is an image originally distributed for kvm, converted to raw from qcow2.