NetBSD

Hi,

If you are looking for a VPS hosting service compatible with NetBSD amd64, dedirock.com makes it pretty easy :

• full virtio devices
• qemu vCPU (KVM
• custom iso file uploading
• boot from cdrom that actually works
• VNC remote access during installation phase

What can I say, it has been a long time since I hadn't toyed with NetBSD on a VPS. That was surprisingly easy.

No need to boot in rescue mode, overwrite the default Linux OS with a NetBSD bootstrap and tweaks dozen things. Nope, just boot, install, done.

                                  __,gnnnOCCCCCOObaau,_      root@localhost
   _._                    __,gnnCCCCCCCCOPF"''               OS: NetBSD 
  (N\\XCbngg,._____.,gnnndCCCCCCCCCCCCF"___,,,,___           Kernel: amd64 NetBSD 10.1
   \N\\XCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOPYvv.      Uptime: 34m
    \N\\XCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCPF"''                Packages: 69
     \N\\XCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOF"'                      Shell: sh 
      \N\\XCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOF"'                          Disk: 1.8G / 14G (13%)
       \N\\XCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCPF"'                              CPU: QEMU Virtual version 2.5+ @ 2.6GHz
        \N\\"PCOCCCOCCFP""                                   RAM: 606MiB / 1958MiB
         \N\                                                
          \N\                                               
           \N\                                              
            \NN\                                            
             \NN\                                           
              \NNA.                                         
               \NNA,                                        
                \NNN,                                       
                 \NNN\                                      
                  \NNN\                                     
                   \NNNA                                    

A new BSDCan video has been posted: The NetBSD Packet Filter(NPF)by Emmanuel Nyarko

One of NetBSD's goal with network security is to upgrade NPF with lots of useful features and then be used as the primary packet filter. In this talk, As NetBSD's current primary maintainer of NPF, I will reveal the improvements I have added to NetBSD's NPF packet filter. I will also reveal Further improvements in relation to performance and the direction of the project to reaching completion.

For more information, please visit: 
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/
- and -
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/timetable/timetable-The-NetBSD-Packet.html

A new BSDCan video has been posted: Flipping Bits: Memory Errors in the Machine by Taylor Campbell

We've all heard stories of the dreaded cosmic ray angrily flipping bits in your RAM. But how much does it matter, really? And, more importantly, how do you tell?

This talk will cover an overview of hardware architecture around detecting and correcting memory errors, software support for handling them and other types of hardware errors, and stories of memory errors in the real world.

And, if the stars align (specifically, the cosmic-ray-generating supernovae), perhaps we'll have a live demo.

For more information, please visit: 
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/
- and -
https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/timetable/timetable-Flipping-Bits-Memory.html

A new BSDCan video has been posted: An embedded "dev kit" for EndBASIC with NetBSD by Julio Merino

In this talk, I'd like to present how I took EndBASIC and built a NetBSD-based embedded device that boots into this interpreter in just a few seconds.

EndBASIC is a side project of mine that implements a retro-looking BASIC environment. Up until now, this featured a web interface and a desktop interface -- but I wanted to offer a prebuilt image for the Raspberry Pi that booted almost-immediately and was resilient to reboots. You know, like the computers of the 1980s, because I believe such a simplified environment can help with learning the basics of programming.

For this project, I picked NetBSD as the core due to its great cross-building features and then implemented new backends for EndBASIC to leverage NetBSD's native features. In particular, I wrote a driver for NetBSD's wscons framebuffer to have graphics output without having to even start X11.

The result is that I can build a full disk image from my Linux development box for NetBSD, write it to an SD card, and have a Pi boot straight into EndBASIC in about 5 seconds.

What's more: the whole of EndBASIC is written in Rust, and cross-compiling it from Linux x86_64 to NetBSD aarch6 is challenging. I bridged this gap with qemu and automated the whole thing so that I can build images end-to-end without even looking. Having proper cross-build support would be desirable, and I'll cover that.

I can also cover the contributions that this project led to upstream NetBSD, which actually made me recover my account and come back to contributing.

I'm actively working on this project and, from now through June, things may change significantly and I might have new things to talk about and demonstrate. For example, I want to integrate with NetBSD's WiFi stack, or SPI to leverage a tiny LCD. But for now, that's what I can offer for this talk!

For more information, please visit:  https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/

• and - https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/timetable/timetable-An-embedded-dev.html

Greetings,

I recently setup my own NetBSD server to learn more about selfhosting and Unix. I am sharing it with anyone who also want to learn about command line and server stuff and will be also providing mentorship ( not an expert but know enough to at least teach begginers).

stuff I can teach using that server:

• basic command line
• how to host stuff like static HTML pages
• ssh concepts
• hosting http alternative like Gemini, Gopher etc
• scripting in Bash, Python etc

so yeah, if you think you or someone else is interested in learning NetBSD share this post with them :)

( again this is just for begginers only please don't sign up if you are already an expert or intermediate ) ( this is my mail alias I put to avoid spammers so don't be afraid of it sawura19.zofeta41@murena.io )