FreeBSD 12.2 Released - Supports Linux In Jailed Environments, Better Hardware Support

FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE is now available as the latest feature and bug fix update to the FreeBSD 12 platform ahead of the expected FreeBSD 13.0 release around the end of Q1-2021.

FreeBSD 12.2 brings with it many improvements to the stable code-base for this BSD operating system including the likes of:

- The default LLVM Clang compiler toolchain and LLVM sub-projects updated against the 10.0.1 release.

- Updates to the wireless network driver stack yielding better 802.11n and 802.11ac WiFi support. Also on the network front is the Intel ICE driver added for Intel E800 series 100Gb Ethernet card support.

- FreeBSD's Jail utility now allows running Linux in a jailed environment.

- The rc.conf now supports a "linux_mounts_enable" option for handling whether Linux-specific file-systems get mounted in /compat/linux.

- Various kernel drivers deprecated and marked for removal in FreeBSD 13.0.

- FreeBSD's VirtIO Block (virtio_blk) driver now supports TRIM.

- A notice that beginning with FreeBSD 13.0, the default CPU type for i386 architecture builds will change from i486 to i686. In other words binaries for i386 will now require at least i686 class CPUs. Fortunately, i486/i586 processors still running modern software is increasingly rare. This change for FreeBSD 13.0 will be the final bump for their default i386 / x86 32-bit support.

Download links and more details on today's FreeBSD 12.2 availability via FreeBSD.org.