Speaker
Description
The boundary between the Linux and FreeBSD ecosystems is often loose and porous,while developers continuously building bridges to maximize hardware support and software availability across both platforms.
Two mechanisms carry that weight on shoulders: the Linuxulator, a native
implementation of the Linux syscall ABI that runs unmodified Linux binaries,
and LinuxKPI, a shim layer that lets FreeBSD build largely unmodified Linux
drivers -- the DRM drivers via drm-kmod, mac80211-based wireless drivers, and a growing set of others -- against a subset of the Linux in-kernel API.
Depending directly on the ripples from Linux's advancements, Linuxulator tracks syscall, vDSO, /proc, netlink and seccomp behaviors and LinuxKPI tracks an in-kernel API that is explicitly not stable, which makes every DRM or wireless driver during release cycle into an aerobics workout.
Hence, this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session is then hereby proposed to serve as an information exchange hub for developers working at the intersection of Linux and FreeBSD kernel mechanisms.
Furthermore, FreeBSD is not the only Frankenstein here: Fuchsia's starnix and illumos LX zones reimplement parts of the exposed surface of Linux userspace, and several BSDs have maintained downstream of DRM shims of their own. So if you are also an amphibian developer other operating systems. Don't hesitate to join us :-)
During this session, we may discuss topics including but not limited to :
- Linuxulator (Linux Emulation Layer): The current state, limitations, and future enhancements of running unmodified Linux binaries on FreeBSD. E.g. RISC-V architecture.
- LinuxKPI: The compatibility framework designed to ease the porting of complex Linux kernel drivers (such as DRM and wireless drivers) to FreeBSD. We will discuss the friction points driver maintainers face and how the Linux community's API changes impact downstream compatibility.
- The LLM Porting and License Issues: With the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs), developers are actively experimenting with AI to assist in translating or porting drivers from Linux to FreeBSD. However, this introduces complex license compatibility questions i.e. GPLv2 vs. BSD. And thus shall deserve a chat with beers in my humble opinion. And here's the living witness of such kind of work : aqtion-freebsd-aq2 work.
Related discussions could be found in AsiasBSDCon 2026