Arcan and OpenBSD, running OpenBSD 6.3 on RPI 3, why C is not a low-level language, HardenedBSD switching back to OpenSSL, how the Internet was almost broken, EuroBSDcon CfP is out, and the BSDCan 2018 schedule is available.
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Towards Secure System Graphics: Arcan and OpenBSD


Let me preface this by saying that this is a (very) long and medium-rare technical article about the security considerations and minutiae of porting (most of) the Arcan ecosystem to work under OpenBSD. The main point of this article is not so much flirting with the OpenBSD crowd or adding further noise to software engineering topics, but to go through the special considerations that had to be taken, as notes to anyone else that decides to go down this overgrown and lonesome trail, or are curious about some less than obvious differences between how these things “work” on Linux vs. other parts of the world.

A disclaimer is also that most of this have been discovered by experimentation and combining bits and pieces scattered in everything from Xorg code to man pages, there may be smarter ways to solve some of the problems mentioned – this is just the best I could find within the time allotted. I’d be happy to be corrected, in patch/pull request form that is ?

Each section will start with a short rant-like explanation of how it works in Linux, and what the translation to OpenBSD involved or, in the cases that are still partly or fully missing, will require. The topics that will be covered this time are:



Graphics Device Access
Hotplug
Input
Backlight
Xorg
Pledging
Missing



Installing OpenBSD 6.3 (snapshots) on Raspberry pi 3


The Easy way



Installing the OpenBSD on raspberry pi 3 is very easy and well documented which almost convinced me of not writing about it, but still I felt like it may help somebody new to the project (But again I really recommend reading the document if you are interested and have the time).

Note: I'm always running snapshots and recommend anybody to do it as well. But the snapshots links will change to the next version every 6 month, so I changed the links to the 6.3 version to keep the blog post valid over times. If you're familiar to the OpenBSD flavors, feel free to use the snapshots links instead.



Requirements



Due to the lack of driver, the OpenBSD can not boot directly from the SD Card yet, So we'll need an USB Stick for the installtion target aside the SD Card for the U-Boot and installer. Also, a Serial Console connection is required. I Used a PL2303 USB to Serial (TTL) adapter connected to my Laptop via USB port and connected to the Raspberry via TX, RX and GND pins.



iXsystems
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/truenas-m-series-veeam-pr-2018/

Why Didn’t Larrabee Fail?


Every month or so, someone will ask me what happened to Larrabee and why it failed so badly. And I then try to explain to them that not only didn't it fail, it was a pretty huge success. And they are understandably very puzzled by this, because in the public consciousness Larrabee was like the Itanic and the SPU rolled into one, wasn't it? Well, not quite. So rather than explain it in person a whole bunch more times, I thought I should write it down.

This is not a history, and I'm going to skip a TON of details for brevity. One day I'll write the whole story down, because it's a pretty decent escapade with lots of fun characters. But not today. Today you just get the very start and the very end.

When I say "Larrabee" I mean all of Knights, all of MIC, all of Xeon Phi, all of the "Isle" cards - they're all exactly the same chip and the same people and the same software effort. Marketing seemed to dream up a new codeword every week, but there was only ever three chips:



Knights Ferry / Aubrey Isle / LRB1 - mostly a prototype, had some performance gotchas, but did work, and shipped to partners.
Knights Corner / Xeon Phi / LRB2 - the thing we actually shipped in bulk.
Knights Landing - the new version that is shipping any day now (mid 2