Disabling COMPAT_FREEBSD4/5/6/7/9 as a default kernel option

[rainer at ultra-secure.de]

Am 2019-05-27 17:05, schrieb Conrad Meyer:
> Hi Rainier,
> 
> On Mon, May 27, 2019 at 7:47 AM <rainer at ultra-secure.de> wrote:
>> I have a 32bit FreeBSD 6 binary that I'll need for a bit until the
>> department who is technically responsible for the service gets around
>> redoing that service.
> 
> Even if this proposal is approved, it would only affect 13+.  You
> could still run your FreeBSD 6 binary in a 32-bit 12 VM in a 13+
> Bhyve.  But do consider lighting a fire under whatever department
> thinks it's ok to deploy like that :-).
> 
> Take care,
> Conrad


I thought so, too.

I don't really want to run the abandonware of a RADIUS-server any longer 
than necessary (as absurd as that sounds).

It's also running a recursive nameserver (previously also authoritative) 
that is still hard-coded in CPE and computers behind firewalls.

I first wanted to virtualize it (it's not a big problem) - but this way 
the problem is just dragged out: "But it still works, does it and we 
have no time".

Everybody now knows that the clock is ticking, literally.

Oh, I also remember George Neville-Neil talking about a - what - FreeBSD 
4 binary that a certain search-engine had lost the sources for and was 
running on FreeBSD 7 with compat4.
(We also have a client who literally begged us to leave a decade-old 
Solaris box running through 2019 and half of 2020 so they could continue 
to do their bookkeeping on a home-grown java-app that I suspect they, 
too have lost the sources to...). It's running jdk15 and getting that 
thing to run under anything semi-decent doesn't seem to have worked-out 
too well.
So, people pray for the best and don't prepare for the worst.


Other stuff I can think of:
  - very old Netbackup-Clients (like 5-series), though I doubt they still 
work on recent releases, because 7.71 (last official version and 
intended for FreeBSD 11) stopped working on FreeBSD12, sadly)
  - certain pre-compiled VMWare Tools Modules? Pre open-source-tools (I 
can never make up my mind if it's VMWare-open-Tools or Open-VMWare-Tools 
or something different)


What ever people do with COMPAT4-9 - it's bordering the pathological.