VX weblog

Since OpenSolaris got discontinued, the development of open source ZFS continues at the illumos project. The main contributors are the companies Delphix, Nexenta and Joyent. In this post I am going to sum up the main user-visible changes in ZFS since the start of illumos.

This is an updated version of the article originally posted on July 9, 2012. Continue reading "New features in open source ZFS" »

This year's EuroBSDcon took place at the Warsaw University of Technology on October 20-21. The conference was well organized with great keynote talks by Eric Allman and Kirk McKusick. My talk was titled "Tuning ZFS on FreeBSD" and based on my identically named article in the August issue of the BSD Magazine. I presented several do's and don'ts and other findings and recommendations from my experience with the ZFS file system.
PDF with presentation slides Continue reading "EuroBSDcon 2012 - Tuning ZFS on FreeBSD" »

An introductory article about the open-source SSH client for Android VX ConnectBot has been published in the October 2012 issue (pages 6-7) of the freely downloadable BSD Magazine.

Link to the free issue: BSD Magazine 10/2012
Link to project homepage: VX ConnectBot

A new article of mine with the title "Tuning ZFS on FreeBSD" has been published in the August 2012 issue of the free online publication BSD Magazine (pages 10-15). The target group of this magazine are novice and advanced FreeBSD users.

Link to the free issue: BSD Magazine 08/2012

Continue reading "Article in BSD Magazine: Tuning ZFS on FreeBSD" »

I am nicely surprised that the user number of VX ConnectBot (Android SSH client) users keeps growing steadily. The app has been on Google Play since December, 2011. The total user installs (users that have tried the application) has passed the 10000 mark in June and active user installs (users that have the application installed) are now over 5000. Continue reading "VX Connectbot passes 10000 user installs" »

Update: article updated 20.3.2013

My current dedicated server provider in Europe is the german company Hetzner. They support FreeBSD but use a non-standard network configuration. It is not very well documented how to properly configure network settings on FreeBSD to have a fully functional IPv4 and IPv6 network. In this article I am giving an example how to configure it properly just with the /etc/rc.conf file. Continue reading "FreeBSD network configuration on Hetzner servers" »

In my last article, I have introduced my new smartphone Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and mentioned the open source SSH client ConnectBot. It is a great application but it was by far not optimized for the hardware keyboard of my smartphone. I have also tried the alternative solution Irssiconnectbot, which was little better but still not really usable - important keys were missing.

So I decided to fork, add some features from Irssiconnectbot, add ssh agent from Roberto Tyley, fix several bugs, add some tweaks by myself and optimize for Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and Xperia mini pro. The new application is named VX ConnectBot. Continue reading "VX ConnectBot" »

My well-proven companion Nokia N810 used for remote administration of FreeBSD servers was getting old, slow and outdated. It was my mobile SSH device for the last 4 years (probably one of the best solutions at time of purchase). Unfortunately, it was lacking phone functions (Bluetooth and WiFi only).

So I decided to go for a new device. I needed a smartphone with a decent screen, a hardware keyboard and an acceptable operating system (I need a SSH client). There are not many devices with an acceptable hardware keyboard on the European market. After a long decision process I chose the Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and it am happy with my choice. Continue reading "My new Android smartphone" »

This year's Central European BSD_day will be on November 5th, 2011 in my home city Bratislava, Slovakia. The one-day event is intended for everyone interested in BSD operating systems and is organized by me (Martin Matuška, mm@), Gábor Páli (pgj@) and YNET. Several BSD developers will give a talk, including myself. Entry is free.

More information at the event homepage: http://bsdday.eu/2011
Social network links: Facebook, LinkedIn

The BSDA certification exam will be offered at the event.

A new article of mine with the title "mfsBSD – The Swiss Army Knife for FreeBSD system administrators" was published in the August issue of the free online publication BSD Magazine. The target group of this magazine are users and friends of BSD operating systems.

The article contains an introduction to mfsBSD and two tutorials:
1. Installing ZFS-on-root FreeBSD with mfsBSD
2. Setting up network boot with mfsBSD (pxeboot or PXELINUX)


Link to the free issue: BSD Magazine 08/2011