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From: jkh@nx.ilo.dec.com (Jordan Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Announcing FreeBSD 1.1.5 RELEASE
Date: 30 Jun 1994 11:54:49 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Galway Ireland
Lines: 106
Message-ID: <JKH.94Jun30125449@nx.ilo.dec.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nx.ilo.dec.com
[ comp.os.386bsd.announce seems to be moribund right now ]
The FreeBSD group is pleased to announce their final Net/2 based
release, FreeBSD 1.1.5. This release represents a substantial
improvement over FreeBSD 1.1R, and we'd like to encourage everyone to
upgrade to this relesae as it will be the last release for awhile
while we devote our full energies to producing FreeBSD 2.0.
FreeBSD 1.1.5R is available in:
freebsd.cdrom.com:~ftp/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-1.1.5-RELEASE
This will truly be the last 1.x release, and this release heralds the
end of the Net/2 based FreeBSD distribution. The next release from
this group will be FreeBSD 2.0, and entirely 4.4 LITE based.
This release contains everything but the patch file for upgrading from
1.1R to 1.1.5R, which will have to wait a little longer while I stare
at the output produced by CVS and try to untie all the various
weirdnesses that have no doubt entered the tree (and no doubt with
substantial help from Rod, who's done this before). I promise to get
both of these out ASAP so that 1.1.5R is quickly usable by all
segments of our user base.
Here's a brief list of what's new in 1.1.5 (from the WHATS_NEW file):
-- KERNEL IMPROVEMENTS SINCE FreeBSD 1.1 --
1) Bounce buffers. This allows systems to use bus master ISA controllers
in systems with more than 16MB of memory.
2) VM performance improvements. Many new enhancements to the Mach derived
VM system including page table preloading (dramatically reduces page
faults); page usage statistics gathering (improves page replacement
thus reducing thrashing); clustered page-ins and page-outs (reduces
paging I/O overhead).
3) Overall kernel performance improvements. Some critical functions have
been inlined; the trap, pmap, and other critical code has been
optimized, etc.
4) Improved scheduling algorithm. Improves interactive performance on
busy machines, expecially in cases where lots of software builds are
occurring.
5) Disk I/O clustering. Improves the I/O speed dramatically on most disk
drives.
6) Vastly superior optional floating point emulator from Bill Metzenthen.
Faster and more reliable/accurate/complete emulation and has fewer bugs.
Provided as an option in the kernel (the original emulator is still
the default).
7) IP Multicast support. Allows reception of Internet multicast packets.
8) Improved sound support. Version 2.5 of Hannu Savolainen's VoxWare sound
drivers. Supports SoundBlaster, PAS, GUS, and other common sound boards.
9) New device support for the ST01/ST02 and Future Domain 950 SCSI adapters.
10) X10 device driver from Gene Stark for X-10 style remote power control.
(such as Radio Shack "Plus 'n Power")
11) PS/2 mouse driver from Erik Forsberg.
12) Busmouse driver from Rick Macklem.
13) IBM/National PCMCIA ethernet driver from Keith Moore.
14) Improved floppy driver support.
15) Much improved syscons driver (now default) with user-editable ascii
keymaps and many other new features.
16) Many improvements and fixes to nearly every supported device driver.
17) Many improvements and fixes scattered throughout the kernel.
-- USER CODE IMPROVEMENTS SINCE FreeBSD 1.1 --
1) Man pages now compressed by default, saving quite a bit of space for
small configurations.
2) "Secure key" freely distributable encryption support.
3) Many many bug fixes and miscellaneous enhancements.
4) Sun math library now available for faster FPU support (see #5).
5) New /etc/make.conf mechanism allows users to tailor how their systems
are built (from source) and switch various options on and off.
6) C++ shared libs are now fully supported (and libg++ shared by default).
Thanks from all in the FreeBSD development group for all the kind help
and good wishes we received during all of our previous 1.x releases!
We couldn't have done it without you, and we hope that our 2.0 future
will be an even brighter one for all concerned!
Regards,
Jordan
(FreeBSD core team)