# DragonFly Release 2.4 - XXX $date

The DragonFly 2.4 release is here! XXX release text here

Three release options are now available:  Our bare-bones CD ISO, a DVD ISO which includes a fully operational X environment, and a bare-bones bootable USB disk-key image (less than 512 M).

In addition we will for the first time be shipping a 64-bit ISO and USB disk-key image.  64-bit support is stable but there will only be limited
pkgsrc support in this release.

## Availability

The release ISO images should be available on most of the [[mirrors|mirrors]]. If the ISO is not available on a certain mirror, please try another one or download it from the DragonFly FTP server.

### MD5 sums

* XXX

### pkgsrc packages

We offer over 6000 pre-built [pkgsrc](http://www.pkgsrc.org) packages for this release.   The [pkg_radd(1)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=pkg_radd&section=ANY) utility may be used to download pre-built binary packages.  By default this script will query the main package site for a random redirect to one of our mirrors.  The path can be overridden by setting BINPKG_SITES in `/etc/settings.conf`.

To get a list of all packages, let [pkg_search(1)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=pkg_search&section=ANY) download the summary file for that release:

    # pkg_search -d

## DragonFly 2.4.0 Release Notes


##<font color="red">THE ORDER OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS IS (MOSTLY) ALPHABETICAL. PLEASE TRY TO KEEP THE ORDER IF POSSIBLE!</font>

### Release Improvements

> ### Kernel changes

 * acpi(4): Import acpica-unix-20090521.
 * acpi(4): Improved power & frequency management for cpus.
 * acpi(4): Significantly improved APIC support.
 * buf/bio: New read-prioritizing bioq sort algorithm.  The new algorithm does a much better job
   prioritizing reads over writes and also contains features to avoid starving-out writes.  It
   works best with CAM based drivers but NATA uses some of its functionality too.
 * buf/bio: Make biowait(), getpbuf(), and most other buf/bio functions MPSAFE.
 * buffer-cache: Improved pipe-lining for writes.
 * devfs(5): Replaced the static /dev directory with a dynamic device file system written by Alex Hornung during the Google Summer of Code 2009.
  * All block devices now auto-probe their slices and partitions.
  * All block devices now auto-probe serial numbers and may be mounted and otherwise referenced by serial number.
  * loader.conf now supports specifying the root device by serial number.
  * Autocloning support for cloning devices such as VN.
 * ddb(4): Fix an IPI messaging lockup which can occur while in ddb(4).
 * disklabel64(5): Add UFS + HAMMER boot support (was previously just HAMMER boot support).
 * drm(4): Sync code with latest from FreeBSD.
 * ext2fs: Support variable inode size (from FreeBSD).
 * mountctl/mount -v: New infrastructure for reporting mount flags.
 * NFS
  * Rewrite the client-side RPC code.  The kernel now creates two kernel threads
    for each NFS mount, one handles reading from the socket and the other handles
    writing to the socket.  A virtually unlimited number of RPCs may be in-flight
    at any given moment.
  * Use TCP mounts by default as the new RPC mechanics can now trivally blow
    out UDP sockbufs.
  * Hugely improved client-side performance.
  * Fix fsx test regressions.
  * Fix linux compatibility issues (fix bugs in readdirplus)
 * msdos(5): Fixed a number of bugs.
 * pci(4): Sync code with FreeBSD 7.2.
 * pipe(2): Pipes are now 100% MPSAFE.
 * Add new cred/privilege infrastructure for jail and general use.
 * Consolidate VOP access tests in vop_helper_access().
 * usched_set: Add USCHED_CPU_GET for retrieving the current CPU.
 * revoke(2): Reimplemented the revoke code.
 * pty: Add Unix98 ptys (/dev/ptmx and /dev/pts/*).
 * sound: add autocloning support for dsp devices.
 * tcp: Fix a reestablishment bug for TCP connections if one side reboots without
   closing the connection.  A port pair could wind up becoming unusable for
   upwards of an hour or longer.
 * tcp: Improve performance by implementing an automatic high-water mark when
   it is not otherwise specified, allowing hysteresis between the kernel and
   the tcp protocol stack.
 * tsleep: New tsleep interlock mechanics implemented to fix races.
 * vkernel(7)
  * Fix entry into ddb(4) when running a SMP vkernel.  Fixes stop/cont.
  * Fix startup race with I/O cothread support.
  * Fix some issues - enable ithread preemption, races, and more.
  * Fix races in stopsig() and ipisig().
  * libkvm now understands live vkernels.
  * libkvm: Add support for accessing a running vkernel's memory by reading its `/proc/$pid/mem` file.
 * vn(4): Add autocloning support
 * Fix permissions check for utimes() - owner can call even if u-w.
 * Replace the old BSD malloc code with a port of our slab allocator.
 * Fix various clang compile issues
 * Add HPET cputimer.
 * Add lapic timer and enable it by default.
 * Add kernel-layer support for chflags checks, remove (most) from the VFS layer.

> ### HAMMER changes

 * Return shorter-form softlinks "@@-1:%05d" when appropriate.
 * Add a B-Tree rebalancing feature (hammer rebalance).
 * Fix improper cred checks for utimes().
 * Fix edge case in mirroring code.
 * Fix nohistory mounts and a rare lost inode issue.
 * Fix sticky bit directory handling for deletions.
 * Break-up initial mirroring batch so restarts do not start from scratch.
 * Better CRC handling, bad-file handling.
 * Refactor merged search function to try to avoid missed entries.
 * Limit recursion for long directory chains, update mtime/ctime.
 * Improve performance for large write loads.
 * Improve directory layout (in-place upgrade to version 2).
 * Allow hammer -b to specify bytes per second if no suffix is supplied.
 * Extract PFS null mounts from anywhere in the filesystem, instead of just from the `/pfs` subdirectory.
 * Add hammer info directive which prints useful info about a hammer filesystem.

> ### Hardware changes (non-networking)

 * ath(4): Add open source HAL code (from FreeBSD) and make it possible to build it into the kernel.
 * cxm(4): Add new driver for Hauppauge PVR-250/350 video capture cards (from FreeBSD).
 * kbdmux(4): Add multiple keyboards on the console via keyboard multiplexer (from FreeBSD).
 * mpi(4): Sync the driver with the latest version from FreeBSD.
 * mpt(4): Sync the driver with the latest version from FreeBSD.
 * ahci(4): Implement a native AHCI driver with full hot-plug and port multiplier support.
   Also implement ATA pass-through.  Uses CAM.
 * sili(4): Implement a native Silicon Image 3132 driver with full hot-plug and port multiplier support.
   Also implement ATA pass-through.  Uses CAM.

> ### Hardware changes (networking)

 * ae(4): Add driver for Attansic/Atheros L2 FastEthernet (from FreeBSD).
 * bpf(4): Add autocloning support
 * em(4): Synced with Intel's em-6.9.6 (from FreeBSD).
 * emx(4): Copy of em(4) which supports only 8257{1,2,3} parts.
 * iwi(4): Upgrade to use 3.0 firmware and use firmware(9) API to load firmware.
 * mxge(4): Add driver for mxge 10GigE (from FreeBSD + minor adjustments)
 * tap(4): Add ifclone support and autoclone support.
 * vke(4): Convert from kqueue API to cothread API.
 * Turn on adaptive MPSAFE for network threads, and MPSAFE for IP and ARP.
 * RSS: Add Toeplitz hash function.
 * Split ifnet serializer.
 * Add ifpoll, which support hardware TX/RX queues based polling.

> ### Userland changes

 * Fix a huge number of compiler warnings for various userland utilities.
 * battd(8): Fix some errors and improve the man page
 * compilers.conf(5): This file allows to configure ''external'' compilers (e.g. LLVM/clang) for usage with the DragonFly build(7) system.
 * cpdup(1): Allow uid/gid/flags changes to fail if running as user.
 * env(1): unbreak build of 2.2 release branch under HEAD.
 * expr(1): Add support for -- as required by POSIX.
 * fetch(1): Synced with FreeBSD.
 * devtab: As devfs(5) support access to devices via serial numbers, `/etc/devtab` can be used to map serial number to human readable labels.
 * devfsctl(1): New utility to add/remove/control devfs(5) rules.
 * dma(1): The DragonFly Mail Agent is now more robust and reliable.
 * ifconfig(8): Add static ARP support.
 * installer: Fix the bug when used from console with the LiveDVD.
 * installer: Fixed various bugs and cleaned the code.
 * libc
  * Synced various parts with FreeBSD and NetBSD.
  * Add some new system calls.
  * Add locale support for static binaries.
  * Apply FreeBSD-SA-09:07.libc - fix information leak in db(3).
 * libfetch(3): Synced with FreeBSD.
 * libiconv: Add support for static binaries.
 * libm
  * Imported complex arithmetic functions from {Net,Free}BSD.
  * Imported maximum, minimum, and positive difference functions from FreeBSD.
 * magic(3): Fix program name extraction from core dumps.
 * mount_msdos(8): Add UTF8 support.
 * mount_ntfs(8): Add UTF8 support.
 * ncal(1): Highlight current day (from FreeBSD).
 * pax(1): Add a -O option: force one volume (from NetBSD).
 * pkgsrc: pkgsrc GIT repo now shipped instead of CVS repo.
 * telnetd(8): Apply FreeBSD-SA-09:05.telnet - fix environment based code execution vulnerability.
 * window(1): Synced with NetBSD.
 * vkentd(8): Add features, allow IP address to be set in unsecure mode, allow address 0.
 * smbfs(8): Add UTF8 support.
 * syslogd(8): Sync with FreeBSD.
 * telnet(1): Autologin is now disabled by default.
 * undo(1)
  * Fix @@ formatting used by undo -ad and fix duplicate test
  * Use a Red-Black tree to track HAMMER transaction IDs.
  * It can now detect all prior replacements of a file.
  * Add an indexing feature to the -t option.
 * unix98 ptys
  * Implement posix_openpt, ptsname, grantpt, unlockpt
  * Change openpty(3) to use unix98 ptys by default and let it fall back to bsd ptys if any problem occurs.
 * vinum(8): Support for geometries larger than 2 TB was added.

> ### amd64 related changes

 * From Jordan Gordeev's Google Summer of Code 2009 project.
 * Kernel can now map 512G if KVA space.
 * Kernel now supports the entire user VM space.
 * Signal stacks, handlers, dynamic binaries, compiler warnings, etc.
 * Misc fixes for cross-building amd64.
 * Add a build system for amd64 build/test environments.
 * Both cross-build and native world/kernel builds work.
 * Pkgsrc builds are ramping up.
 * Load testing using parallel pkgsrc bulk builds succeeded!
 * SMP now works!

> ### Removals

 * GNU cpio(1) was removed. The BSD licensed rewrite based on libarchive(3) is now default.
 * GNU GCC 3.4 was removed. GCC 4.1.2 and 4.4.1 remain in base.
 * Kerberos/heimdal was removed. Use the version from pkgsrc (`security/heimdal`).
 * iwicontrol(8) was removed. The iwi(4) firmware is now loaded automatically.

> ### Contributed Software

 * Update file to version 5.03.
 * GCC 4.4.1 was added to base, but is not enabled by default.
 * Update less to version 429.
 * Update OpenSSH to version 5.2p1.
 * Update OpenSSL to version 0.9.8k.
 * Sync zoneinfo database with tzdata2009l.