Update your bootloader on FreeBSD 13 when you upgrade your zroot pool…

May 9, 2021 2 minute read

One of the nice new features of FreeBSD 13 is OpenZFS 2.0. OpenZFS 2.0 comes with zstd compression support. Zstd compression can have compression ratios similar to gzip with less CPU usage.

For my backups, I copy the most import data - /etc/, /home, … - first locally to a ZFS dataset. This data gets synced to a backup server. This local ZFS dataset was compressed with gzip, after upgrading the zroot pool and setting zstd as the compress method. FreeBSD failed to boot with the error message:

ZFS: unsupported feature: org.freebsd:zstd
ZFS: pool zroot is not supported
gptzfsboot: failed to mount default pool zroot

As this might help people with the same issue, I decided to create a blog post about it.

How to run a FreeBSD Virtual Machine on the RPI4 with QEMU. Part 2: Network, Install from cdrom, startup

March 28, 2021 10 minute read

In my last blog post, we set up a FreeBSD virtual machine with QEMU. I switched from the EDK2 (UEFI) firmware to U-boot, the EDK2 firmware had issues with multiple CPU’s in the virtual machines.

In this blog post, we’ll continue with the Network setup, install the virtual machine from a CDROM image and how to start the virtual machine during the PI start-up.

How to run a FreeBSD Virtual Machine on the RPI4 with QEMU. Part 1: QEMU setup

March 14, 2021 2 minute read

I got a Raspberry PI 4 a couple of months back and started it use it to run virtual machines.

This works great for GNU/Linux distributions but FreeBSD as a virtual machine didn’t work for me. When I tried to install FreeBSD or import a virtual machine image, FreeBSD wasn’t able to mount the root filesystem and ended with an “error 19”.

On the FreeBSD wiki, there are a few articles on how to use ARM64 FreeBSD with QEMU directly.

You find my journey of getting a FreeBSD Virtual Machine below.

I use Manjaro on my Raspberry PI, but the same setup will work with other GNU/Linux distributions.

OpenVAS on Kali GNU/Linux Part 2: First scan

March 7, 2021 4 minute read

In my previous blog post, I described how to install OpenVAS, in this blog post we will configure and execute a security scan with OpenVAS.

OpenVAS documentation is available on the OpenVAS developer website Greenbone: https://docs.greenbone.net/

Logon to the Greenbone Manager assistend at https://127.0.0.1:9392.

OpenVAS on Kali GNU/Linux Part 1: How to install OpenVAS

February 28, 2021 6 minute read

OpenVAS is an opensource security scanner it started as a fork of Nessus which went from an opensource project to a closed source scanner.

I always prefer opensource software, for security tools, I even prefer it more… It nice to see/audit where the security data comes from, instead of the “magic” that is used by the close source software.

To scan for missing patches on your systems there are faster/better tools available that can be integrated into your build pipeline more easily. But OpenVAS is still a very nice network security scanner. Relying on one security tool is also not a “best security practice”.

Kali GNU/Linux has become the default Linux distribution for security auditing pen testing, it’s nice to have OpenVAS installed on your Kali GNU/Linux setup. If you just want to have OpenVAS available there is also a (virtual) appliance available from the OpenVAS developers ( Greenbone ).

You’ll find my journey to install OpenVAS on Kali GNU/Linux.