386BSD support? reddit / freebsd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 00:27 Is there 386BSD support of FreeBSD and NetBSD for backwards compatibility? I was wondering if compiling a 386BSD binary and distributing that would be feasible as an alternative to maintaining 2 BSD binaries. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CatPasswd · 2022-01-16 04:25 Depends upon what you mean by support. FreeBSD stopped base system support for i386 recently. NetBSD supports your late-model toaster. Either will have historical, static images that still have i386. As far as going forward... FreeBSD? No. NetBSD? Yes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 06:24 Whats the reason for the end in i386 support of FreeBSD? And can I enable it after it got removed? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2022-01-16 06:32 The truth is, no. Unlike Windows, \*BSD variants aren't really uber backwards compatible. They may be slightly better than Linux cross-distro compatibility, Opera 12 from 2013 can run on 13 beta/early 14-CURRENT, but nowhere close to perfect. 90s-era compatibility hacks have probably been purged by now. Also, FreeBSD 2.0 has broken backwards compatibility with 1.x releases, due to the 4.4BSD import. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2022-01-16 06:36 i386 isn't gone yet, but it's now a Tier-2 architecture. This means that it's not as big of a priority, while still maintained for a few people who use it. Most x86 PCs built in the past 15 years are 64-bit. I can run FreeBSD 13 on a Pentium III Dell, and possibly 14-CURRENT. But sometime in the future that will get gutted. **NetBSD is designed for legacy hardware**, your DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, 68k Mac, BeBox, you name it, NetBSD supports it. **FreeBSD is designed for "mainstream" hardware**. FreeBSD supports your new ThinkPad or HP ProLiant, maybe supports your old Compaq or maybe your Power Mac, but not your PA-RISC HP 9000 workstation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 09:14 so i386 on x64 still works? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 09:18 Since on the installer I see "32bit compatibility libraries" I assume 386BSD on x64 works??? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheFallenIdealist · 2022-01-16 09:21 I though this was about [386BSD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/386BSD) not FreeBSD/i386 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WikiSummarizerBot · 2022-01-16 09:21 **[386BSD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/386BSD)** >386BSD (also known as "Jolix") is a discontinued Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was released in 1992 and ran on PC-compatible computer systems based on the 32-bit Intel 80386 microprocessor. 386BSD innovations included role-based security, ring buffers, self-ordered configuration and modular kernel design. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wik i_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiS ummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/freebsd/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 09:33 Yeah.... the question is basically is FreeBSD/x86\_64 and NetBSD/x86\_64 compatible with 386BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredfredburgerscuz · 2022-01-16 09:36 So, there is no way to simplify my builds by creating 1 binary from a old abi to run on FreeBSD x64 and NetBSD x64 :( ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditAlready19 · 2022-01-16 10:42 I mean, on Linux I was able to compile and run a program from 1998 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bsdbro · 2022-01-16 23:11 Yes, 32-bit x86 support still works and is supported. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bsdbro · 2022-01-16 23:18 FreeBSD at least works pretty hard to maintain compatibility in the kernel for running old binaries. The default kernel should be able to run binaries compiled for FreeBSD 4, and it's possible to enable support for 4.3BSD a.out binaries by compiling a custom kernel. There was a ton of work done to avoid breaking old binaries when support was added for 64-bit inodes, for instance. If Opera doesn't run properly due to a kernel change, then it's probably a kernel bug. OpenBSD explicitly doesn't maintain compatibility, I'm not sure about NetBSD.