Move to FreeBSD 12?

[gothbert]

Hi,

what plans there are for moving OPNsense to FreeBSD 12?

I am asking because I consider buying a box with WLE900VX WLAN module which requires 802.11ac support.

Kind regards
Boris

[lattera]

In early March, Franco and I plan to start work on incorporating HardenedBSD 12, with the goal of releasing OPNsense 20.1 based on HardenedBSD 12.

[mimugmail]

I could offer a dedicated server to build weekly ISOs to reach a broader base of testers

[lattera]

I could offer a dedicated server to build weekly ISOs to reach a broader base of testers

Now that would be awesome!

[gothbert]

Depending on the outcome of my investigations here and here, I volunteer to run OPNsense 20.1 development versions on a yet-to-buy PCEngines APU.4C4 board with WLE900VX WLAN.

[Gary7]

I'm new to the OPNsense community. Replaced a consumer grade router with OPNsense for my home
Even though it will be a while before OPNsense will be running on FreeBSD 12, would it be possible to incorporate a specific FreeBSD 12 update into HardenedBSD 11.2 ?
In the release notes for FreeBSD 12, under section 10.1 General Network:
The pf(4) packet filter has been updated to use rmlock(9) instead of rwlock(9), resulting in significant performance improvements. https://svnweb.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=334375
Running a benchmark on a high-end system, changing rwlock(9) to rmlock(9), increased pf performance by 65%. https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15502
This would be a nice performance increase if this update could be incorporated into the current HardenedBSD.
On the other hand, it might not be possible.

[Daemotrix]

Why is better FreeBSD 12 instead of 11.3? I saw on FreeBSD webpage, that both releases exist side by side.  Can you someone explain me differences between releases? Thank you.

[franco]

@Gary7: welcome to the future

https://github.com/opnsense/changelog/blob/master/doc/19.1/19.1.r1#L122

@all FreeBSD 12 is scheduled for our 20.1 and we're not sure if that is going to be 12.0 or 12.1. Only minor changes for 11.2 will go into our 19.7 release, mostly netmap improvements.


Cheers,
Franco

[Gary7]

Sorry. I didn't know that PF_RULES_LOCK in pf(4) had already been updated to use rmlock(9) in OPNsense 19.1-RC1
I'm still learning about the basics of OPNsense.
Thanks

[franco]

No worries, I just wanted to mention it. We try to pick up useful patches proactively.


Cheers,
Franco

[sadiq]

Based on the details at https://www.freebsd.org/security/#sup it's possible that FreeBSD 12.x  End of Life is set to June 30, 2020 (exact date TBD). Also see the discussion on the mailing list at https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/2018-November/001854.html.

In that case, would be it a good idea to rebase OPNsense 20.1 over FreeBSD 12.x, which might cause FreeBSD 12.x EOL during the lifetime of OPNsense 20.1?

[franco]

These numbers don't add up. I've found them very unreliable in planning so far with almost no forward indication of when 11.x and 12.x are going to happen, if at all.


Cheers,
Franco

[ruffy91]

"Under the current support model, each major version's stable branch is explicitly supported for 5 years".
As stable/12 was released in december 2018 it should be supported until at least december 2023.

So it seems that this page just hasnt been updated in half a year.