OpenBSD 5.9

Dr W^X Released March 29, 2016
Copyright 1997-2016, Theo de Raadt.
ISBN 978-0-9881561-7-3
5.9 Songs: "Doctor W^X", "Systemagic (Anniversary Edition)"

  • See the information on the FTP page for a list of mirror machines.
  • Go to the pub/OpenBSD/5.9/ directory on one of the mirror sites.
  • Have a look at the 5.9 errata page for a list of bugs and workarounds.
  • See a detailed log of changes between the 5.8 and 5.9 releases.

  • signify(1) pubkeys for this release:

    openbsd-59-base.pub: RWQJVNompF3pwfIqbg+5sxfpxmZMa3tTBaW4qbUhWje/H/M7glrA6oVn
    openbsd-59-fw.pub: RWSdmaNkytzh6BApmPSNSDLNg26ZaXlY8g/879UvLdo3rjbsby76Eda1
    openbsd-59-pkg.pub: RWSLRYDCTJeWLIScncqwGuXK6JVXDcIyRT0q+0m30MXXG4W2xWS4NZBP

All applicable copyrights and credits are in the src.tar.gz, sys.tar.gz, xenocara.tar.gz, ports.tar.gz files, or in the files fetched via ports.tar.gz.


What's New

This is a partial list of new features and systems included in OpenBSD 5.9. For a comprehensive list, see the changelog leading to 5.9.


How to install

Following this are the instructions which you would have on a piece of paper if you had purchased a CDROM set instead of doing an alternate form of install. The instructions for doing an HTTP (or other style of) install are very similar; the CDROM instructions are left intact so that you can see how much easier it would have been if you had purchased a CDROM instead.


Please refer to the following files on the three CDROMs or mirror site for extensive details on how to install OpenBSD 5.9 on your machine:


Quick installer information for people familiar with OpenBSD, and the use of the "disklabel -E" command. If you are at all confused when installing OpenBSD, read the relevant INSTALL.* file as listed above!

OpenBSD/i386:

OpenBSD/amd64:

OpenBSD/macppc:

OpenBSD/sparc64:

OpenBSD/alpha:

OpenBSD/hppa:

OpenBSD/landisk:

OpenBSD/loongson:

OpenBSD/luna88k:

OpenBSD/octeon:

OpenBSD/sgi:

OpenBSD/socppc:

OpenBSD/zaurus:


How to upgrade

If you already have an OpenBSD 5.8 system, and do not want to reinstall, upgrade instructions and advice can be found in the Upgrade Guide.


Notes about the source code

src.tar.gz contains a source archive starting at /usr/src. This file contains everything you need except for the kernel sources, which are in a separate archive. To extract:

# mkdir -p /usr/src
# cd /usr/src
# tar xvfz /tmp/src.tar.gz

sys.tar.gz contains a source archive starting at /usr/src/sys. This file contains all the kernel sources you need to rebuild kernels. To extract:

# mkdir -p /usr/src/sys
# cd /usr/src
# tar xvfz /tmp/sys.tar.gz

Both of these trees are a regular CVS checkout. Using these trees it is possible to get a head-start on using the anoncvs servers as described here. Using these files results in a much faster initial CVS update than you could expect from a fresh checkout of the full OpenBSD source tree.


Ports Tree

A ports tree archive is also provided. To extract:

# cd /usr
# tar xvfz /tmp/ports.tar.gz

Go read the ports page if you know nothing about ports at this point. This text is not a manual of how to use ports. Rather, it is a set of notes meant to kickstart the user on the OpenBSD ports system.

The ports/ directory represents a CVS (see the manpage for cvs(1) if you aren't familiar with CVS) checkout of our ports. As with our complete source tree, our ports tree is available via AnonCVS. So, in order to keep up to date with the -stable branch, you must make the ports/ tree available on a read-write medium and update the tree with a command like:

# cd /usr/ports
# cvs -d [email protected]:/cvs update -Pd -rOPENBSD_5_9

[Of course, you must replace the server name here with a nearby anoncvs server.]

Note that most ports are available as packages on our mirrors. Updated ports for the 5.9 release will be made available if problems arise.

If you're interested in seeing a port added, would like to help out, or just would like to know more, the mailing list [email protected] is a good place to know.