J3115
April 30th, 2009, 06:02 PM
OpenBSD-4.5 Just Hit The Mirrors.
We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.5.
This is our 25th release on CD-ROM (and 26th via FTP). We remain
proud of OpenBSD's record of more than ten years with only two remote
holes in the default install.
If you'd like to see a list of what has changed between OpenBSD 4.4
and 4.5, look at
http://www.openbsd.org/plus45.html
Even though the list is a summary of the most important changes
made to OpenBSD, it still is a very very long list.
We provide patches for known security threats and other important
issues discovered after each CD release. As usual, between the
creation of the OpenBSD 4.5 FTP/CD-ROM binaries and the actual 4.5
release date, our team found and fixed some new reliability problems
(note: most are minor and in subsystems that are not enabled by
default). Our continued research into security means we will find
new security problems -- and we always provide patches as soon as
possible. Therefore, we advise regular visits to
http://www.openbsd.org/security.html
and
http://www.openbsd.org/errata.html
Security patch announcements are sent to the
security-announce@OpenBSD.org mailing list. For information on OpenBSD
mailing lists, please see:
http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html
OpenBSD 4.5 is also available on CD-ROM. The 3-CD set costs $50 CDN and
is available via mail order and from a number of contacts around the
world. The set includes a colourful booklet which carefully explains
the installation of OpenBSD. A new set of cute little stickers is also
included (sorry, but our FTP mirror sites do not support STP, the
Sticker Transfer Protocol). As an added bonus, the second CD contains
an audio track, a song entitled "Games". MP3 and OGG versions of the
audio track can be found on the first CD.
Lyrics (and an explanation) for the songs may be found at:
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#45
Profits from CD sales are the primary income source for the OpenBSD
project -- in essence selling these CD-ROM units ensures that OpenBSD
will continue to make another release six months from now.
The OpenBSD 4.5 CD-ROMs are bootable on the following four platforms:
o i386
o amd64
o macppc
o sparc64
(Other platforms must boot from floppy, network, or other method).
For more information on ordering CD-ROMs, see:
http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html
The above web page lists a number of places where OpenBSD CD-ROMs
can be purchased from. For our default mail order, go directly to:
https://https.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/order
All of our developers strongly urge you to buy a CD-ROM and support
our future efforts. Additionally, donations to the project are
highly appreciated, as described in more detail at:
http://www.openbsd.org/goals.html#funding
For those unable to make their contributions as straightforward gifts,
the OpenBSD Foundation (http://www.openbsdfoundation.org) is a Canadian
not-for-profit corporation that can accept larger contributions and
issue receipts. In some situations, their receipt may qualify as a
business expense writeoff, so this is certainly a consideration for
some organizations or businesses. There may also be exposure benefits
since the Foundation may be interested in participating in press
releases. In turn, the Foundation then uses these contributions to
assist OpenBSD's infrastructure needs. Contact the foundation
directors at directors@openbsdfoundation.org for more information.
The OpenBSD distribution companies also sell tshirts and polo shirts.
And our users like them too. We have a variety of shirts available,
with the new and old designs, from our web ordering system at, as
described above.
The OpenBSD 4.5 t-shirts are available now. We also sell our older
shirts, as well as a selection of OpenSSH t-shirts.
If you choose not to buy an OpenBSD CD-ROM, OpenBSD can be easily
installed via FTP. Typically you need a single small piece of boot
media (e.g., a boot floppy) and then the rest of the files can be
installed from a number of locations, including directly off the
Internet. Follow this simple set of instructions to ensure that
you find all of the documentation you will need while performing
an install via FTP. With the CD-ROMs, the necessary documentation
is easier to find.
1) Read either of the following two files for a list of ftp
mirrors which provide OpenBSD, then choose one near you:
http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ftplist
As of May 1, 2009, the following ftp mirror sites have the 4.5
release:
ftp://ftp.stacken.kth.se/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ Sweden
ftp://ftp2.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ NYC, USA
ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ CO, USA
ftp://ftp5.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ CA, USA
ftp://rt.fm/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ IL, USA
The release is also available at the master site:
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ Alberta, Canada
However it is strongly suggested you use a mirror.
Other mirror sites may take a day or two to update.
2) Connect to that ftp mirror site and go into the directory
pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ which contains these files and directories.
This is a list of what you will see:
ANNOUNCEMENT amd64/ macppc/ sys.tar.gz
Changelogs/ armish/ mvme68k/ tools/
HARDWARE ftplist packages/ vax/
PACKAGES hp300/ ports.tar.gz xenocara.tar.gz
PORTS hppa/ root.mail zaurus/
README i386/ sparc/
SIZES landisk/ sparc64/
alpha/ mac68k/ src.tar.gz
It is quite likely that you will want at LEAST the following
files which apply to all the architectures OpenBSD supports.
README - generic README
HARDWARE - list of hardware we support
PORTS - description of our "ports" tree
PACKAGES - description of pre-compiled packages
root.mail - a copy of root's mail at initial login.
(This is really worthwhile reading).
3) Read the README file. It is short, and a quick read will make
sure you understand what else you need to fetch.
4) Next, go into the directory that applies to your architecture,
for example, i386. This is a list of what you will see:
INSTALL.i386 cd45.iso floppyB45.fs pxeboot*
INSTALL.linux cdboot* floppyC45.fs xbase45.tgz
MD5 cdbr* game45.tgz xetc45.tgz
base45.tgz cdemu45.iso index.txt xfont45.tgz
bsd* comp45.tgz install45.iso xserv45.tgz
bsd.mp* etc45.tgz man45.tgz xshare45.tgz
bsd.rd* floppy45.fs misc45.tgz
If you are new to OpenBSD, fetch _at least_ the file INSTALL.i386
and the appropriate floppy*.fs or install45.iso files. Consult the
INSTALL.i386 file if you don't know which of the floppy images
you need (or simply fetch all of them).
If you use the install45.iso file (roughly 200MB in size), then you
do not need the various *.tgz files since they are contained on that
one-step ISO-format install CD.
5) If you are an expert, follow the instructions in the file called
README; otherwise, use the more complete instructions in the
file called INSTALL.i386. INSTALL.i386 may tell you that you
need to fetch other files.
6) Just in case, take a peek at:
http://www.openbsd.org/errata.html
This is the page where we talk about the mistakes we made while
creating the 4.5 release, or the significant bugs we fixed
post-release which we think our users should have fixes for.
Patches and workarounds are clearly described there.
Note: If you end up needing to write a raw floppy using Windows,
you can use "fdimage.exe" located in the pub/OpenBSD/4.5/tools
directory to do so.
X.Org has been integrated more closely into the system. This release
contains X.Org 7.4. Most of our architectures ship with X.Org,
including amd64, sparc, sparc64 and macppc. During installation, you
can install X.Org quite easily. Be sure to try out xdm(1) and see how
we have customized it for OpenBSD.
The OpenBSD ports tree contains automated instructions for building
third party software. The software has been verified to build and
run on the various OpenBSD architectures. The 4.5 ports collection,
including many of the distribution files, is included on the 3-CD
set. Please see the PORTS file for more information.
Note: some of the most popular ports, e.g., the Apache web server
and several X applications, come standard with OpenBSD. Also, many
popular ports have been pre-compiled for those who do not desire
to build their own binaries (see BINARY PACKAGES, below).
A large number of binary packages are provided. Please see the PACKAGES
file (ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/PACKAGES) for more details.
The CD-ROMs contain source code for all the subsystems explained
above, and the README (ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/README)
file explains how to deal with these source files. For those who
are doing an FTP install, the source code for all four subsystems
can be found in the pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ directory:
We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.5.
This is our 25th release on CD-ROM (and 26th via FTP). We remain
proud of OpenBSD's record of more than ten years with only two remote
holes in the default install.
If you'd like to see a list of what has changed between OpenBSD 4.4
and 4.5, look at
http://www.openbsd.org/plus45.html
Even though the list is a summary of the most important changes
made to OpenBSD, it still is a very very long list.
We provide patches for known security threats and other important
issues discovered after each CD release. As usual, between the
creation of the OpenBSD 4.5 FTP/CD-ROM binaries and the actual 4.5
release date, our team found and fixed some new reliability problems
(note: most are minor and in subsystems that are not enabled by
default). Our continued research into security means we will find
new security problems -- and we always provide patches as soon as
possible. Therefore, we advise regular visits to
http://www.openbsd.org/security.html
and
http://www.openbsd.org/errata.html
Security patch announcements are sent to the
security-announce@OpenBSD.org mailing list. For information on OpenBSD
mailing lists, please see:
http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html
OpenBSD 4.5 is also available on CD-ROM. The 3-CD set costs $50 CDN and
is available via mail order and from a number of contacts around the
world. The set includes a colourful booklet which carefully explains
the installation of OpenBSD. A new set of cute little stickers is also
included (sorry, but our FTP mirror sites do not support STP, the
Sticker Transfer Protocol). As an added bonus, the second CD contains
an audio track, a song entitled "Games". MP3 and OGG versions of the
audio track can be found on the first CD.
Lyrics (and an explanation) for the songs may be found at:
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#45
Profits from CD sales are the primary income source for the OpenBSD
project -- in essence selling these CD-ROM units ensures that OpenBSD
will continue to make another release six months from now.
The OpenBSD 4.5 CD-ROMs are bootable on the following four platforms:
o i386
o amd64
o macppc
o sparc64
(Other platforms must boot from floppy, network, or other method).
For more information on ordering CD-ROMs, see:
http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html
The above web page lists a number of places where OpenBSD CD-ROMs
can be purchased from. For our default mail order, go directly to:
https://https.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/order
All of our developers strongly urge you to buy a CD-ROM and support
our future efforts. Additionally, donations to the project are
highly appreciated, as described in more detail at:
http://www.openbsd.org/goals.html#funding
For those unable to make their contributions as straightforward gifts,
the OpenBSD Foundation (http://www.openbsdfoundation.org) is a Canadian
not-for-profit corporation that can accept larger contributions and
issue receipts. In some situations, their receipt may qualify as a
business expense writeoff, so this is certainly a consideration for
some organizations or businesses. There may also be exposure benefits
since the Foundation may be interested in participating in press
releases. In turn, the Foundation then uses these contributions to
assist OpenBSD's infrastructure needs. Contact the foundation
directors at directors@openbsdfoundation.org for more information.
The OpenBSD distribution companies also sell tshirts and polo shirts.
And our users like them too. We have a variety of shirts available,
with the new and old designs, from our web ordering system at, as
described above.
The OpenBSD 4.5 t-shirts are available now. We also sell our older
shirts, as well as a selection of OpenSSH t-shirts.
If you choose not to buy an OpenBSD CD-ROM, OpenBSD can be easily
installed via FTP. Typically you need a single small piece of boot
media (e.g., a boot floppy) and then the rest of the files can be
installed from a number of locations, including directly off the
Internet. Follow this simple set of instructions to ensure that
you find all of the documentation you will need while performing
an install via FTP. With the CD-ROMs, the necessary documentation
is easier to find.
1) Read either of the following two files for a list of ftp
mirrors which provide OpenBSD, then choose one near you:
http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ftplist
As of May 1, 2009, the following ftp mirror sites have the 4.5
release:
ftp://ftp.stacken.kth.se/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ Sweden
ftp://ftp2.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ NYC, USA
ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ CO, USA
ftp://ftp5.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ CA, USA
ftp://rt.fm/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ IL, USA
The release is also available at the master site:
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ Alberta, Canada
However it is strongly suggested you use a mirror.
Other mirror sites may take a day or two to update.
2) Connect to that ftp mirror site and go into the directory
pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ which contains these files and directories.
This is a list of what you will see:
ANNOUNCEMENT amd64/ macppc/ sys.tar.gz
Changelogs/ armish/ mvme68k/ tools/
HARDWARE ftplist packages/ vax/
PACKAGES hp300/ ports.tar.gz xenocara.tar.gz
PORTS hppa/ root.mail zaurus/
README i386/ sparc/
SIZES landisk/ sparc64/
alpha/ mac68k/ src.tar.gz
It is quite likely that you will want at LEAST the following
files which apply to all the architectures OpenBSD supports.
README - generic README
HARDWARE - list of hardware we support
PORTS - description of our "ports" tree
PACKAGES - description of pre-compiled packages
root.mail - a copy of root's mail at initial login.
(This is really worthwhile reading).
3) Read the README file. It is short, and a quick read will make
sure you understand what else you need to fetch.
4) Next, go into the directory that applies to your architecture,
for example, i386. This is a list of what you will see:
INSTALL.i386 cd45.iso floppyB45.fs pxeboot*
INSTALL.linux cdboot* floppyC45.fs xbase45.tgz
MD5 cdbr* game45.tgz xetc45.tgz
base45.tgz cdemu45.iso index.txt xfont45.tgz
bsd* comp45.tgz install45.iso xserv45.tgz
bsd.mp* etc45.tgz man45.tgz xshare45.tgz
bsd.rd* floppy45.fs misc45.tgz
If you are new to OpenBSD, fetch _at least_ the file INSTALL.i386
and the appropriate floppy*.fs or install45.iso files. Consult the
INSTALL.i386 file if you don't know which of the floppy images
you need (or simply fetch all of them).
If you use the install45.iso file (roughly 200MB in size), then you
do not need the various *.tgz files since they are contained on that
one-step ISO-format install CD.
5) If you are an expert, follow the instructions in the file called
README; otherwise, use the more complete instructions in the
file called INSTALL.i386. INSTALL.i386 may tell you that you
need to fetch other files.
6) Just in case, take a peek at:
http://www.openbsd.org/errata.html
This is the page where we talk about the mistakes we made while
creating the 4.5 release, or the significant bugs we fixed
post-release which we think our users should have fixes for.
Patches and workarounds are clearly described there.
Note: If you end up needing to write a raw floppy using Windows,
you can use "fdimage.exe" located in the pub/OpenBSD/4.5/tools
directory to do so.
X.Org has been integrated more closely into the system. This release
contains X.Org 7.4. Most of our architectures ship with X.Org,
including amd64, sparc, sparc64 and macppc. During installation, you
can install X.Org quite easily. Be sure to try out xdm(1) and see how
we have customized it for OpenBSD.
The OpenBSD ports tree contains automated instructions for building
third party software. The software has been verified to build and
run on the various OpenBSD architectures. The 4.5 ports collection,
including many of the distribution files, is included on the 3-CD
set. Please see the PORTS file for more information.
Note: some of the most popular ports, e.g., the Apache web server
and several X applications, come standard with OpenBSD. Also, many
popular ports have been pre-compiled for those who do not desire
to build their own binaries (see BINARY PACKAGES, below).
A large number of binary packages are provided. Please see the PACKAGES
file (ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/PACKAGES) for more details.
The CD-ROMs contain source code for all the subsystems explained
above, and the README (ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.5/README)
file explains how to deal with these source files. For those who
are doing an FTP install, the source code for all four subsystems
can be found in the pub/OpenBSD/4.5/ directory: