FreeBSD/i386 6.4-STABLE Release Notes

The FreeBSD Project

$FreeBSD: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/common/new.sgml,v 1.883.2.95 2010/01/31 20:02:42 gshapiro Exp $

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The release notes for FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE contain a summary of the changes made to the FreeBSD base system on the 6-STABLE development line. This document lists applicable security advisories that were issued since the last release, as well as significant changes to the FreeBSD kernel and userland. Some brief remarks on upgrading are also presented.


Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 What's New
2.1 Security Advisories
2.2 Kernel Changes
2.2.1 Boot Loader Changes
2.2.2 Hardware Support
2.2.3 Network Protocols
2.2.4 Disks and Storage
2.2.5 File Systems
2.3 Userland Changes
2.3.1 /etc/rc.d Scripts
2.4 Contributed Software
2.5 Ports/Packages Collection Infrastructure
2.6 Release Engineering and Integration
2.7 Documentation
3 Upgrading from previous releases of FreeBSD

1 Introduction

This document contains the release notes for FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE on the i386 hardware platform. It describes recently added, changed, or deleted features of FreeBSD. It also provides some notes on upgrading from previous versions of FreeBSD.

The snapshot distribution to which these release notes apply represents the latest point along the 6-STABLE development branch since 6-STABLE was created. Information regarding pre-built, binary snapshot distributions along this branch can be found at http://www.FreeBSD.org/snapshots/.

All users are encouraged to consult the release errata before installing FreeBSD. The errata document is updated with “late-breaking” information discovered late in the release cycle or after the release. Typically, it contains information on known bugs, security advisories, and corrections to documentation. An up-to-date copy of the errata for FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE can be found on the FreeBSD Web site.


2 What's New

This section describes the most user-visible new or changed features in FreeBSD since 6.3-RELEASE.

Typical release note items document recent security advisories issued after 6.3-RELEASE, new drivers or hardware support, new commands or options, major bug fixes, or contributed software upgrades. They may also list changes to major ports/packages or release engineering practices. Clearly the release notes cannot list every single change made to FreeBSD between releases; this document focuses primarily on security advisories, user-visible changes, and major architectural improvements.


2.1 Security Advisories

An error that could allow sendfile(2) to inappropriately access the contents of a file has been fixed. For more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-08:03.sendfile.


2.4 Contributed Software

sendmail has been updated to version 8.14.4.


3 Upgrading from previous releases of FreeBSD

Source upgrades to FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE are only supported from FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE or later. Users of older systems wanting to upgrade 6.4-STABLE will need to update to FreeBSD 5.3 or newer first, then to FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE.

Important: Upgrading FreeBSD should, of course, only be attempted after backing up all data and configuration files.


This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from http://www.FreeBSD.org/snapshots/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.

All users of FreeBSD 6-STABLE should subscribe to the <stable@FreeBSD.org> mailing list.

For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.