FreeBSD 15.0 arrives with a modular system, synchronization with Linux 6.9, and says goodbye to 32-bit architecture.

Key points:
  • FreeBSD 15.0 debuts an accelerated lifecycle and versions every 6 months.
  • Revolution with pkgbase: the base system is now managed by packages.
  • Graphics power: DRM drivers synchronized with the Linux Kernel 6.9.
  • Virtualization improvements: Bhyve with slirp backend and Jails with ZFS mount.
  • End of an era: Images for 32-bit architectures (i386) are being eliminated.
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FreeBSD

Two years after the release of branch 14.0, The development team has officially announced the availability of FreeBSD 15.0, a new version that comes with profound structural changes, not only at the code level, but also in the very philosophy of system maintenance.

One of the most important changes is that, starting with this version, The maintenance period for the main branches has been reduced from 5 to 4 yearsIn addition, a new fixed development cycle is established: new major branches will be created every two years and intermediate versions will be released every six months, accelerating the arrival of innovations to end users.

Major New Features in FreeBSD 15.0

The most significant new feature in this version of FreeBSD 15.0 is the transition to a modular system. Now, The pkg package manager can be used to install and update base system components.

The installer bsdinstall offers two paths: the traditional one and the new one using packages (pkgbase)It is important to mention that the traditional method, which treats the system as a monolithic block, is planned to be eliminated in FreeBSD 16, so the future is to manage the kernel and userspace as individual packages from the FreeBSD-base repository.

In the area of ​​development and compilation, two important achievements have been made:

  • Unprivileged compilations: Now, support has been added to compile FreeBSD and create ISO images without requiring root privileges.
  • Reproducible compilations: Distributed binaries are guaranteed to be bit-for-bit identical if compiled from the same source code, ensuring that there are no hidden modifications.

Kernel modernization and Linux compatibility

The FreeBSD 15.0 kernel has received updated code improvements to enhance hardware support. The DRM graphics drivers (i915 and amdgpu) have been synchronized with the Linux 6.9 kernel., while the wireless drivers (Intel and Realtek) are up to date with Linux 6.17.

Other kernel improvements include:

  • Inotify Support: Linux-compatible system calls have been added to monitor file system changes.
  • Solaris-style extended attributes: Added support for named file attributes, managed as normal files in a hidden service directory.
  • mac_do module: It allows setting policies so that unprivileged users can change process credentials without using suid root, accompanied by the new mdo utility.
  • Kernel TLS (KTLS): The implementation is enabled by default to improve encryption performance.

New features in storage and file systems

The storage subsystem also features critical improvements for future reliability and performance:

  • Year 2038 Problem: The issue has been resolved in the implementation of UFS1, allowing dates up to the year 2106, and the reliability of UFS partitions with more than 2 billion inodes has been improved.
  • More than 4 TB of RAM: In amd64 systems, it is now possible to use memory capacities higher than this limit.
  • NFSv4.2 CLONE: Added support for fast file cloning (copying blocks on the server), functional when exporting ZFS partitions.
  • NVMe over Fabric: The nvmft module and the nvmecontrol utility are introduced for connecting high-performance external controllers.
  • ufshci controller: Added support for Universal Flash Storage systems.

Improvements in Virtualization and Networking

For administrators of systems and virtualized environments, FreeBSD 15.0 brings more powerful tools:

  • Bhyve with backend slirp: The hypervisor now allows access to the guest system's network from the host without complex configurations, using the user-space network stack.
  • Powerful Jail: They now support the zfs.dataset option to mount datasets directly, and metadata and environment variables can be passed.
  • TCP Socket Splice: SO_SPLICE is added to combine TCP connections without copying data to user space, improving proxy performance.

Changes to user space and tools

As for the daily tools, these have also been updated:

  • Kerberos: The implementation in the kernel has changed from Heimdal to WITH Kerberos default.
  • Audio and MIDI: New sndctl utilities for configuring sound cards and mididump for MIDI event dumping 1.0.
  • Utility date: It now supports nanosecond precision (e.g., date -Ins).
  • Log compression: newsyslog allows you to configure the default compression method (xz, zstd, etc.) globally.
  • Console sources: The Gallant font has been updated with over 4,300 new glyphs, including Cyrillic and mathematical support.
  • bsddialog: It replaces the old dialog utility in installers.

Obsolescence and cleaning up old hardware

With an eye to the future, the team has made some tough decisions regarding legacy support:

  • End of 32-bit: Image generation for i386, armv6 and 32-bit PowerPC has been discontinued (only armv7 is maintained).
  • Removed or depreciated drivers: The gvinum manager has been removed. Older controllers such as agp, fdc (floppy drive), firewire, and others are marked for removal in version 16.
  • Tools removed: ftpd and shar are removed from the base system (available as ports), and fdisk is deprecated in favor of gpart.
  • SSH: Support for DSA keys and the public key database with the DES algorithm is removed.

Finally, the system comes with an updated package that includes LLVM 19.1.7, OpenSSH 10.0p2, OpenZFS 2.4.0rc4 and OpenSSL 3.5.4.

If you're interested in seeing the full list of technical changes, you can find the details in the following link

Download and install FreeBSD 15.0

To test this new version, since it introduces significant structural changes, a clean installation is recommended if you wish to use the new partitioning scheme or features of ZFS.

You can get the installation pictures from the official siteFor standard (64-bit) server or desktop users, you can download the ISO directly from the terminal:

wget https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso

Once downloaded, to burn it to a USB drive from Linux or BSD, use the dd command (carefully verifying the path to your device):

sudo dd if=FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress && sync

If you prefer to upgrade an existing system from the 14.x branch, the traditional method is still valid for now:

freebsd-update fetch freebsd-update install freebsd-update -r 15.0-RELEASE upgrade