FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE Errata

The FreeBSD Project

$FreeBSD: - src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/errata/article.sgml,v - 1.38.2.1 2003/06/01 01:50:16 bmah Exp $
+ src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/errata/article.sgml,v 1.40 + 2003/06/07 17:46:09 bmah Exp $

This document lists errata items for FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE, containing significant information discovered after the release or too late in the release cycle to be otherwise included in the release documentation. This information includes security advisories, as well as news relating to the software or documentation that could affect its operation or usability. An up-to-date version of this document should always be consulted before installing this version of FreeBSD.

This errata document for FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE will be maintained until the release of FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE.

1 Introduction

This errata document contains ``late-breaking news'' about FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. Before installing this version, it is important to consult this document to learn about any post-release discoveries or problems that may already have been found and fixed.

Any version of this errata document actually distributed with the release (for example, on a CDROM distribution) will be out of date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be consulted as the ``current errata'' for this release. These other copies of the errata are located at http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/, plus any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this location.

Source and binary snapshots of FreeBSD 5-CURRENT also contain up-to-date copies of this document (as of the time of the snapshot).

For a list of all FreeBSD CERT security advisories, see http://www.FreeBSD.org/security/ or ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/.

2 Security Advisories

No advisories.

3 +
3 + Open Issues
+ +
The RAIDframe disk driver described in + raid(4) is + non-functional for this release.
+ +
ACPI seems to make some i386 machines unstable. Turning + off ACPI support may help solve some of these problems; see + an item in Section 4.
+

+ +

4 Late-Breaking News

No news.

+ ipfw(4) should work + correctly on strict-alignment 64-bit architectures such as + alpha and sparc64.

+ +

The release notes should have stated that the libthr library is built by default + for the i386 platform.

+ +

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE includes some new boot loader + scripts designed to make booting FreeBSD with different + options easier. This may help diagnose bootstrapping + problems. These scripts build on the existing Forth-based + boot loader scripts (thus, /boot/loader.conf and other existing + loader configuration files still apply). They are only + installed by default for new binary installs on i386 + machines. The new scripts present a boot-time menu that + controls how FreeBSD is booted, and include options to turn + off ACPI, a ``safe mode'' boot, single-user booting, and + verbose booting. ``Safe mode'' booting can be particularly + useful when compatibility with a system's hardware is + uncertain, and sets the following kernel tunable + variables:

+hint.acpi.0.disabled=1 # disable ACPI (i386 only)
+hw.ata.ata_dma=0       # disable IDE DMA
+hw.ata.atapi_dma=0     # disable ATAPI/IDE DMA
+hw.ata.wc=0            # disable IDE disk write cache
+hw.eisa_slots=0        # disable probing for EISA devices
+

+ +

For new installs on i386 architecture machines, + sysinstall(8) will + try to determine if ACPI was disabled via the new boot + loader scripts mentioned above, and if so, ask if this + change should be made permanent.

+ +

The release notes should have mentioned that work on the + following features was sponsored by the Defense Advanced + Research Projects Agency (DARPA): OpenPAM, NSS support, PAE + support, various MAC framework updates, the GEOM disk + geometry system.

This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/.

All users of FreeBSD 5-CURRENT should subscribe to the <current@FreeBSD.org> mailing list.