- OpenBSD 7.2 comes with Ampere Altra Arm server processor support and initial support for Apple’s M2 SoCs.
- OpenBSD 7.2 also brings multiple bug fixes, better power management handling, and improved support for running in Oracle Cloud instances.
- OpenBSD 7.2 adds support for Lenovo ThinkPad x13s and other machines using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC.
Founder of OpenBSD, Theo de Raadt announced that OpenBSD 7.2 is now available for everyone to download. The most notable feature of the latest release is Ampere Altra Arm server processor support. OpenBSD 7.2 also comes with initial support for Apple’s M2 SoCs.
What’s new?
Since it is a minor release, OpenBSD also brings multiple bug fixes, better power management handling, and improved support for running in Oracle Cloud instances. The support for newer Intel wireless and graphics chipsets is also improved, along with the built-in graphics of Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake processors. The release announcement says,
« We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 7.2. This is our 53rd release. We remain proud of OpenBSD’s record of more than twenty years with only two remote holes in the default install. As in our previous releases, 7.2 provides significant improvements, including new features, in nearly all areas of the system. »
Some of the improvements are:
- Added support for Ampere Altra
- Added support for Apple M2
- Added support for Lenovo ThinkPad x13s and other machines using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 (SC8280XP) SoC.
- Allowed bsd.rd and bsd/bsd.mp to boot on Oracle Cloud amd64 instances.
- Added support for switching from glass console to serial console on arm64 systems that default to glass console.
- Make route timer MP safe and use rttimer pool.
- Use kernel lock to protect parts of ARP, ND6 and PPPoE that are not MP safe. Lookup of existing ARP entries is MP safe and can run in parallel.
- Start up to 4 softnet tasks to run IP input and forwarding in parallel on multiple cores.
- Run IPv4 packet reassembly in parallel.
- Run IPv6 hop-by-hop options processing in parallel.
- Fixed the watchdog in the installer so that it is reset after each download and each set installation.
The complete list of changes can be found in the changelog.