OpenBSD 8.0 is here, marking the project’s 61st release and continuing its semi-annual release schedule that dates back to 1996. What started over 30 years ago as a fork of NetBSD has become one of the most security-conscious operating systems in active development. In a post on the project’s announcement mailing list, OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt highlights a number of improvements included in the latest version and writes that the project remains “proud of OpenBSD’s thirty-plus year track record with only two remote holes in the default installation.”
The latest version of OpenBSD brings new features and improvements across the board. These changes, particularly new support for Intel Arc and expanded virtual address space, should improve compatibility with modern graphics cards and allow the system to allocate more than 4GB of VRAM. Some of the main updates noted in the launch bulletin are the following:
- Added support for Intel Arc A-Series (DG2/Alchemist) graphics cards.
- 512GB kernel virtual address space on AMD64, up from 4GB, allowing VRAM mapping above 4GB.
- Added hibernation support for ARM64 systems.
- A new RPKI-to-router daemon: rtrd(8).
- RISC-V enhancements including kernel support for the ‘V’ vector extension and support for advanced interrupt architecture.
- Additions and improvements to the wireless network controller, including 802.11n and 40 MHz channels for the qwx(4) wireless controller.
- Added support for up to 64 virtual CPUs per guest virtual machine.
- Security and internal improvements for LibreSSL 4.4.0 and OpenSSH 10.6.
- Improvements to the vmm/vmd virtualization stack.
The new OpenBSD also drops support for the Loongson architecture after the port stopped working with the Clang 22 compiler. If you are interested in reading all the changes coming with the new OpenBSD 8.0, you can check out the release announcement.
