FreeBSD: End-of-life for all FreeBSD Operating Systems: January 1st, 2022 (2024)

Richard8 said:

R.I.P.

This has forced me, after ~20 years (FreeBSD 3.x-12) to shut down my last FreeBSD servers and migrate everything to Debian.

I always joked about systemd and now I'm living the nightmare as DirectAdmin becomes the last commercial panel to ditch *BSD support. Just when you thought 2020 was a bad year...

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I unfortunately had to switch a while ago, mostly due to customers and support staff. I still run FreeBSD (since 1999) on my back-end, backup and DNS server cluster. I have also settled on Debian for running hosting. Have been dealing with systemd, don't like it but it is what it is.

DirectAdmin Support said:

The license.key files should still work fine with normal updates for now. You just won't get any directadmin/dataskq binary updates.
At a certain point, you'll likely feel the pain from lack of DirectAdmin updates, eg: SSL often drops old protocols over time, or you'd be missing new features/fixes, etc. It's possible that at some point, some change could happen which does need the binaries to be updated, but those changes wouldn't ever arrive, so you might not be able to sit on the OS forever.

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Can we still force-update our DA installations, even if unsupported, on FreeBSD? As in, can we still install the Linux binaries on our servers and worry about the compatibility issues that may arise? Will DirectAdmin go out of its way to stop installations/updates to take place on FreeBSD?

I prefer to to run DA on linux-compat than switch operating systems (I'll shut down my hosting business before I ever do that). I'll worry about the segfaults and other issues, just let me run DA with zero support. There's no need for CustomBuild either; I'll build the packages myself.

I might test the linux compat idea on a VM, but I expect that binary will also look for certain files and expect systemd etc. to be in place so might cause extra issues.

Personally I hate systemd, the only Linux I actually like is probably Gentoo and Arch Linux, Devuan is ok because it doesnt have systemd.

If the license isnt killed and as long as there isnt a showstopper issue I am probably going to run DA for longer on BSD, but probably at same time start testing it on linux platforms for when the day comes I will have to migrate.

Time to update the system requirements page:

mmx said:

Can we still force-update our DA installations, even if unsupported, on FreeBSD? As in, can we still install the Linux binaries on our servers and worry about the compatibility issues that may arise? Will DirectAdmin go out of its way to stop installations/updates to take place on FreeBSD?

I prefer to to run DA on linux-compat than switch operating systems (I'll shut down my hosting business before I ever do that). I'll worry about the segfaults and other issues, just let me run DA with zero support. There's no need for CustomBuild either; I'll build the packages myself.

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You still can install on freebsd with linux compatibility.. but have to fake some linux tools like: chpasswd, useradd, userdel, usermod, groupadd, groupdel and other stuff..
I managed to install the linux binary so far works fine

Sami

wattie said:

Just got update to 1.63.8

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noticed they updated also..
don't know for how long...
as I wrote I wrote my own setup.sh and tools that run linux binaries untouched

Psst, lets keep this between us .

All jokes aside we put extra efforts in releasing 1.63.8 for FreeBSD because in 1.63.8 we finally removed the dependency on old licensing infrastructure (periodic license file updates). Once everyone upgrades to 1.63.8 we can kill parts of the old licensing infrastructure responsible for issuing license file updates. Releasing FreeBSD DA 1.63.8 with all the features were easier than backporting licensing changes onto old version.

Also releasing something for FreeBSD admins running modern systems feels much more meaningful compared to fighting lazy server admins complaining about 10 year old distros being EOLed.

fln said:

Also releasing something for FreeBSD admins running modern systems feels much more meaningful compared to fighting lazy server admins complaining about 10 year old distros being EOLed.

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now you are talking.

@fln @DirectAdmin Sales
Seriously lets bring back FreeBSD support. Like I said in the past and have done. I will help you test it and keep in going. However if this is only a one time thing. oh well.

fln said:

fighting lazy server admins

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I hear you I stopped helping most of them.. I mean Centos 4 and 5 really my kids were in high school.

fln said:

FreeBSD admins

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fln said:

feels much more meaningful

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FreeBSD is a way better OS than Linux always will be. Logical, solid well coded and stable.

mmx said:

e.g. the last binary that will allow DA to run on FreeBSD without trouble.

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That is confirmed by DA in post #20 of that link. So 1.642 -is- the last binary for FreeBSD. Read that thread.

Richard G said:

That is confirmed by DA in post #20 of that link. So 1.642 -is- the last binary for FreeBSD. Read that thread.

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I did. There is no mention of it being the last, just the latest.

mmx said:

I did. There is no mention of it being the last, just the latest.

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You clearly missed post #2.
There was also an announcement of end of support by DA earlier.

That last version was purely made to give some people a bit more time to migrate. As also mentioned in the first thread somewhere.

Richard G said:

You clearly missed post #2.
There was also an announcement of end of support by DA earlier.

FreeBSD: End-of-life for all FreeBSD Operating Systems: January 1st, 2022

Hello, We have no regrets with our longtime support of FreeBSD, especially when others refused to do so. However, demand has virtually ceased and we do not feel justified in using development resources on a product that has reached a nearly 0% order rate. We're officially announcing...

forum.directadmin.com

That last version was purely made to give some people a bit more time to migrate. As also mentioned in the first thread somewhere.

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You clearly misunderstood my original question. Perhaps, if you read the entire thread, you will see I've posted here before.

mmx said:

You clearly misunderstood my original question.

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No I didn't because I didn't even answered to your earlier question because that was answered already in #27 in March this year.
If you think that was not answered correctly, you then had more then half a year to make that clear. You didn't.

So don't go accusing me of not understanding your question.
Your question in #33 was stand alone and very specific.
I won't discuss any further about this. Update at your own risk, but there will be no further DA binary for FreeBSD.

Richard G said:

No I didn't because I didn't even answered to your earlier question because that was answered already in #27 in March this year.
If you think that was not answered correctly, you then had more then half a year to make that clear. You didn't.

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So far, none of the post numbers you keep referencing are valid. This is post #27.

My FreeBSD server running DA 1.642 is still working great. I have no plans to install or migrate to Linux, ever.

So don't go accusing me of not understanding your question.
Your question in #33 was stand alone and very specific.

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You did in fact misunderstood my original question. I will rephrase it by eliminating informal-speak (re: "heads up"):

Can the DirectAdmin staff please let us know in advance the last FreeBSD-compatible binary before completely removing support? or is the last binary release 1.642 considered final for FreeBSD? An official statement will be appreciated.

I won't discuss any further about this. Update at your own risk, but there will be no further DA binary for FreeBSD.

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Yeah, you clearly didn't understand the question, lol. Feel free to move on since I was asking @DirectAdmin Support and not you.

@mmx Your going to have a problem and be unable to update/maintain a patched system, unless you want to do everything yourself at your own risk. And if there is any bugs/problems in the control panel I wouldn't expect any help.

I retired all my FreeBSD DA servers a while ago (the rest of my network is still mostly FreeBSD for infrastructure/DNS/storage/etc... Front web/virtualization facing stuff is mostly Debian).

I do not expect DA to release any more updates for FreeBSD, you should really move on to a supported system. Were coming up on a year after EOL, they were nice enough to release one last update to help with migration.

Just my 2 cents... Won't say anything else.