Announcing NetBSD 2.0.2
The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that update 2.0.2 of the NetBSD operating system is now available.
NetBSD 2.0.2 is the second security/critical update of the NetBSD 2.0 release branch. This represents a selected subset of fixes deemed critical in nature for stability or security reasons.
This is also the first binary security/critical update since NetBSD 2.0. NetBSD 2.0.1 was tagged within the CVS repository, and is available from there as a source update, but its full binary release was preempted by patches incorporated into 2.0.2 and build hardware issues.
All fixes in security/critical updates (ie, NetBSD 2.0.1, 2.0.2, etc) are cumulative, so the latest update contains all such fixes since the corresponding minor release. These fixes will also appear in future minor releases (ie, NetBSD 2.1, 2.2, etc), together with other less-critical fixes and feature enhancements.
Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 2.0.2 are available for download at many sites around the world. A list of download sites providing FTP, AnonCVS, SUP, and other services is provided at the end of this announcement; the latest list of available download sites may also be found at:
We encourage users who wish to install via a CD-ROM ISO image to download via BitTorrent by using the torrent files supplied in the ISO image area. BitTorrent has recently been added to the list of distribution mechanisms and its use is strongly encouraged to help keep bandwidth available.
The NetBSD operating system is a full-featured, open source, UNIX-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Networking Release 2 (Net/2), 4.4BSD-Lite, and 4.4BSD-Lite2. NetBSD runs on 54 different system architectures featuring 17 machine architectures across 17 distinct CPU families, and is being ported to more. The NetBSD 2.0.2 release contains complete binary releases for 48 different machine types.
NetBSD is a highly integrated system. In addition to its highly portable, high performance kernel, NetBSD features a complete set of user utilities, compilers for several languages, the X Window System, firewall software and numerous other tools, all accompanied by full source code. The NetBSD Packages Collection contains over 5000 packages and binary package releases for a number of platforms are currently in progress.
More information on the goals of the NetBSD Project can be procured from the NetBSD web site at:
NetBSD is free. All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone. Free support services are available via our mailing lists and web site. Commercial support is available from a variety of sources; some are listed at:
More extensive information on NetBSD is available from the NetBSD web site:
NetBSD is the work of a diverse group of people spread around the world. The “Net” in our name is a tribute to the Internet, which enables us to communicate and share code, and without which the project would not exist.
The complete list of changes can be found in the CHANGES-2.0.1 and CHANGES-2.0.2 files in the top level doc directory of the NetBSD 2.0.2 release tree.
The complete list is as follows:
- Avoid endless loop in F_CLOSEM fcntl(2) which could be abused for a local DOS.
- Avoid possible security issues on amd64, i386 and xen by properly checking range for copyinstr(9) and copyoutstr(9).
- Make pmap_map() work on sun4 machines so these are usable again.
- Fix a UVM problem that causes hangs when large processes fork.
- Fix pthreads on sun4c hardware by fixing a problem with detecting faults in atomic load/store instructions.
- Address further pthread issues on sparc and sparc64 by defining a new LWP flag which indicates that we're in the process of doing a context switch.
- Make sun3 port functional again by restoring the definition for MAXPHYS as it is now used rather than MAXBSIZE to limit page cache I/O sizes.
- Prevent lockups/panics if the VOP_LOOKUP(9) call unlocked the parent directory node.
- Prevent a kernel panic on boot with a PX graphics card on DECstations.
- Fix prep port to be functional by ensuring that the OpenPIC register window is mapped during startup.
- Clear freed memory in cgd(4) code to avoid possibly security issues.
- Prevent panics on powerpc with DIAGNOSTIC kernels and trap handling.
- Make the macppc INSTALL kernel bootable again by moving the load address to the correct location.
- Fix a major issue with sparc64 pmap(9) to prevent crashes under heavy load.
- Fix major performance issue with xen port so idle loop doesn't consume 100% of CPU time.
- Fix xen port so it can reboot cleanly instead of hanging.
- MMU fixes for sh3 based ports to prevent reboots under heavy load.
- Disabled the oow test in ipf(4) because it is killing valid packets.
- Prevent deadlock/panic on NFS clients after NFS server reboots and caches aren't in sync.
- Fix an NFS panic caused by truncating a file while another client is writing data to it.
- Avoid infinite loops when getting NFS readdir(3) response without any entries or EOF.
- Fix possible remote DOS via IPsec AH packets.
- Fix major performance issues with the i82547 Gig-E chip which improves performance with wm(4).
- Fix problems with sk(4) performance on ASUS A8V motherboards.
- Prevent panics in ipf(4) when receiving IPv6 packets.
- NFS fixes to address incorrect atimes updates and cache coherency issues.
- Teach groff(1) about NetBSD versions that aren't on the branches documentation.
- Add description for Solaris 10 dual boot installation.
- Document PTHREAD_CONCURRENCY.
- Fix bug in binutils which broke Firefox under sparc64.
- Address xpm security problems reported in CAN-2005-0605.
- Fix swapcontext(3) for amd64 so that it works correctly.
Please note that at the moment, sysinst will not assist you in installing pre-built third-party binary packages or the pkgsrc system itself. See the NetBSD packages collection documentation:
The NetBSD Foundation would like to thank all those who have contributed code, hardware, documentation, funds, colocation for our servers, web pages and other documentation, release engineering, and other resources over the years. More information on the people who make NetBSD happen is available at:
We would like to especially thank the University of California at Berkeley and the GNU Project for particularly large subsets of code that we use. We would also like to thank the Internet Systems Consortium and the Helsinki University of Technology for current colocation services.
The NetBSD Foundation was chartered in 1995, with the task of overseeing core NetBSD project services, promoting the project within industry and the open source community, and holding intellectual property rights on much of the NetBSD code base. Day-to-day operations of the project are handled by volunteers.
As a non-profit organisation with no commercial backing, The NetBSD Foundation depends on donations from its users, and we would like to ask you to consider making a donation to the NetBSD Foundation in support of continuing production of our fine operating system. Your generous donation would be particularly welcome at this point in time, since the release engineering process for NetBSD 2.0 was unfortunately set back by hardware failures on the build machines, necessitating the immediate replacement of the equipment.
Donations can be done via PayPal (<paypal@NetBSD.org>) and are fully
tax-deductible in the US. If you would prefer not to use PayPal, or
would like to make other arrangements, please contact
<finance-exec@NetBSD.org>.
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