norbert's weblog

Some OpenBSD/zaurus news

Norbert — 2006-11-26 17:54:10 PHT

Just want to give some OpenBSD/zaurus news...

Uwe commited several new stuffs in the zaurus port of the current source tree, like USB logical device (usbf) support, CDC ethernet function (cdcef) support, and NAND flash (flash0) support.

BTW, all of these new stuffs (usbdf, cdcef, and flash0) has been enabled on the GENERIC kernel.

More Zaurus photos

Norbert — 2006-11-24 11:58:21 PHT

Here are some photos of my Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200 running OpenBSD/zaurus. I wasn't able to explore the default operating system included in the Zaurus because I installed OpenBSD on this machine few minutes after receiving the Zaurus (and that's my primary purpose for purchasing a Zaurus - to install and run OpenBSD onto it :-)

My two Zs (my Zaurus and my Zippo :-)

A closer look...

Running evilwm as the window manager and GAIM

Zaurus with the Toshiba Satellite, both booting OpenBSD :-)

My Zaurus while compiling GAIM (this photo was taken using my officemate's Nokia N70)

My Zaurus has arrived!

Norbert — 2006-11-09 15:03:09 PHT

It's my birthday today and I've just received the gift for myself - a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200! It just arrived today (thanks Kaneda-san). I'll install OpenBSD on this little machine later.

Here are some specs of the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200:

Processor Type     : ARM (PXA27x step C-5 Xscale core)
Memory             : 128MB flash memory/64MB SDRAM
Display            : 640x480 resolution, 3.7 type 65k colors
                     penetrated type system back-lite LCD,
                     touch screen
Hard Disk          : 6GB Hitachi micro drive (internal)
Connection Terminal: USB port, headphone terminal (3.5phi)
Infrared           : IrDA (115kbps)
Card Slot          : CF slot Type II, SD card slot
Power supply       : DC3.7V Lithium ion battery (included)

This Zaurus model is used to be only on sale in Japan (so as other older models like SL-C3000 and SL-C3100), but can be ordered online via various sites.

I'll post more photos soon!

My OpenBSD audio CD

Norbert — 2006-11-02 15:21:18 PHT

My OpenBSD audio CD has arrived! It contains OpenBSD release songs from 3.0 to 4.0. This CD also contains a bonus track entitled "OpenVOX" by Ty Semaka, explaining how Ty is involved in the development of each OpenBSD release art.

For more information about the contents of this CD, you may go to...

http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

You can order this audio CD and other OpenBSD goodies at...

http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html

By the way, a cool wireframe Puffy sticker was also included in the CD :-)

Clonable pflog(4), etc.

Norbert — 2006-10-26 23:52:21 PHT

There are many commits to pf in the OpenBSD current source tree this past few weeks. Aside from the implicit 'flags S/SA' and 'keep state' (that can be overriden by 'no state') to a filter rule and allowing 'quick' keyword to an anchor rule, the pflog(4) device is now a clonable interface. I can now log a certain set of hosts (or a certain rule) to a certain pflog interface. For example...

block log (to pflog9) all
...
block in log (to pflog1) on $ext_if proto tcp from  to $ext_if
pass in log (to pflog2) on $ext_if proto tcp from  to $ext_if
...

This is pretty cool! And I can have up to 16 pflog interfaces! I'm currently experimenting this feature now.

BTW, rthreads syscalls was commited to libc. A response to Ben Hawkes' RUXCON presentation was also commited to libc and is enabled by default.

NVIDIA Blob Buffer Overflow

Norbert — 2006-10-17 08:59:45 PHT

After the controversial Atheros wireless blob exploit, another blob problem was discovered. Today, its against the NVIDIA graphics blob driver for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD. A buffer overflow has been discovered on the NVIDIA binary graphics driver. A proof-of-concept was also included in the advisory.

http://download2.rapid7.com/r7-0025/

Blobs can pose security risks on our system since OS developers don't have direct access to the blob code (thus cannot maintain, improve, audit, and/or fix the code), and the fact is, most blobs run inside the kernel space of the host system. IMO, security-oriented operating systems (e.g. Hardened Gentoo) should have a policy not to allow any inclusion of binary blobs on their system just like what the OpenBSD project is doing.

ACPI on OpenBSD/amd64

Norbert — 2006-10-15 00:50:21 PHT

After the massive ACPI code changes commited by jordan@ and marco@ on the current source tree, my OpenBSD/amd64 system now shuts down gracefully and powers off when pushing the power button after enabling ACPI on my kernel.

--- src/sys/arch/amd64/conf/GENERIC.orig	Wed Oct 11 00:07:37 2006
+++ src/sys/arch/amd64/conf/GENERIC	Mon Oct 15 00:27:21 2006
@@ -43,18 +43,18 @@
 isa0	at pcib?
 pci*	at mainbus0
 
-#option		ACPIVERBOSE
-#option		ACPI_ENABLE
+option		ACPIVERBOSE
+option		ACPI_ENABLE
 
-#acpi0		at mainbus?
-#acpitimer*	at acpi?
-#acpihpet*	at acpi?
-#acpiac*	at acpi?
-#acpibat*	at acpi?
-#acpibtn*	at acpi?
-#acpicpu*	at acpi?
-#acpiec*	at acpi?
-#acpitz*	at acpi?
+acpi0		at mainbus?
+acpitimer*	at acpi?
+acpihpet*	at acpi?
+acpiac*	at acpi?
+acpibat*	at acpi?
+acpibtn*	at acpi?
+acpicpu*	at acpi?
+acpiec*	at acpi?
+acpitz*	at acpi?
 
 ipmi0	at mainbus?		# IPMI

Here's a snippet of my dmesg:

$ dmesg | grep acpi
acpi0 at mainbus0: rev 0
acpi0: tables DSDT FACP SSDT MCFG APIC
acpitimer0 at acpi0: 3579545 Hz, 24 bits
acpibtn0 at acpi0: PWRB
...

Tagpi, My Monster!

Norbert — 2006-10-08 09:09:15 PHT

This is "Tagpi" my cat, posing in front of the camera with the Beanie daemon.

He loves to jump, walk, and preen on keyboards, sleep on monitors, nibble on network cables, chase rolling discs, play with Beanie. He also chases the cursor on my screen sometimes.

By the way, he's the one who broke my WD200 and he also love tearing off Penguin stuff toys

TGP on 38th

Norbert — 2006-10-04 07:10:02 PHT

Happy 38th anniversary Tau Gamma Phi Triskelion Grand Fraternity. Greetings to my fellow Triskelions :-)

OpenBSD Audio CD

Norbert — 2006-09-23 22:10:10 PHT

OpenBSD audio CD, in celebration of 10 years of OpenBSD releases is now available (pre-order) in the OpenBSD order page.

From: austin@
Subject: OpenBSD Order 2006/9/22-XX:XX:XX-XXXXX

Thank you for your OpenBSD Order!
In case of problems or questions about this order,
please contact austin@

Order number 2006/9/22-XX:XX:XX-XXXXX:
Your order currently is:
-> 1 [CDA1] OpenBSD Audio CD @ USD $15.00
-> Total: USD $15.00 + Shipping.

...

I have just ordered mine :-)