OpenBSD 8.0

OpenBSD 8.0 introduces numerous enhancements and improvements across various platforms. On the amd64 platform, the size of the kernel virtual address space has been increased from 4G to 512G. The pmap(9) direct map now places itself at a random location, while swap encryption has been sped up by utilizing AES CPU instructions.

The arm64 architecture now includes hibernate support, swap encryption has been optimized similarly, and bounce buffers have been implemented. The luna88k platform has fixed multiple CMMU register writes and extended kernel-mode CMMU fault handling to manage write protection faults. Additionally, m88k m8820x_initialize_cpu() has been modified to initialize logical CPU #0 on non-MP kernels.

RISC-V users can now detect CPU extensions and advertise usable capabilities via elf_aux_info(3) AT_HWCAP and AT_HWCAP2 queries. Kernel support for the Vector extension has been added, along with bounce buffers and RISC-V Advanced Interrupt Architecture support through imsic(4) and aplic(4) drivers. The Sstc timer extension also boasts kernel support.

On the sparc64 platform, a bounds check for the sparc64 relocation flags table has been added, and the system has been switched to the LLVM toolchain. Memory alignment on SPARCV9 has been improved.

Several other platforms have received updates, including the retirement of loongson architecture support, bugfixes for RISC-V, MIPS, and hppa, and miscellaneous improvements. The kernel has seen numerous enhancements, such as memory size calculation fixes, improved inactive page queue heuristics, and the introduction of getexecpath(3) for program execution path copies.

Key platform-specific improvements include suspend/resume support for qwz(4), ufshci(4) endurance on Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and HONOR MagicBook Art 14 Snapdragon, and the prevention of wake-up during lid closures on machines with machdep.lidaction=0. The system also now supports hibernate on qwz(4) and qcuart(4) devices, along with wakeup interrupts for bytgpio(4).

The Direct Rendering Manager and graphics drivers have been updated to Linux 6.18.53, with added support for Intel Arc A-Series (DG2/Alchemist) graphics cards. VMM/VMD improvements include MP support for up to 64 VCPUs per guest VM, redesigned ownership management, x2apic mode support, and various fault handling enhancements.