Post #4037050

2026-07-23 09:40 UTC

Now let me tell you about the 87th commit. It was about FireWire. https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/e7efe2f059a474f8f8e14393713071761a633e65 Most people think FireWire died when USB became famous. It didnt. Its still used by professional audio interfaces, DV camcorders, industrial and scientific cameras, and plenty of legacy equipment that continues to do its job every day. Audio equipment don't need upgrades if they are still operating correctly. A firewire cable is superior to a new USB cable. That where i tested it. The users just kept using old version of MacOS that don't even have updated SSH. Together with Adrian Chadd, we dusted off the stack, rediscovered how it worked, cleaned it up, and refactored years of accumulated code. And we didnt stop there. We also added three new drivers: • fwcam - Firewire webcams • fwisound - Apple FireWire audio interfaces. • fwdv - DV camcorders, including many classic Sony, Canon, Panasonic, and JVC models. That means #FreeBSD can now talk directly to equipment that many operating systems have quietly abandoned. Someone in reddit used it to dump 50 tapes of childhood to digital format. I used it to have a zoom call with FreeBSD wifi group. :)

Replies (5)

@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 2026-07-23 13:29

@seuros@mastodon.bsd.cafe Sadly, my iSight died a while ago, but it was a great camera for its day. We actually did a load of filming with it. We had a DV camcorder, but it really needed an external microphone because otherwise the tape motor was loud and we needed to rerecord all of the sound after using it. It took 10 GB DV tapes and could dump them with Firewire isochronous transfer (the tape couldn't slow down, the computer either took the data or dropped it. USB prior to 2.0 didn't let you even guarantee it would reach the computer). But we moved to using the iSight because it let us record directly to the Mac's hard disk. A laptop on a trolley (with the iSight on its lid) gave us a stable camera platform that we could move around easily and no tape noise. As a result, I have a small pile of DV tapes that are still in their original packaging that I never opened.

Open ##4037049
@dalias@hachyderm.io 2026-07-23 13:44

@seuros@mastodon.bsd.cafe My impression of FireWire was always that it was inherently insecure and gave the device a backdoor to the host. Was this inaccurate or later fixed or is it just something you have to accept using that ecosystem?

Open ##4038132
@encthenet@flyovercountry.social 2026-07-23 17:31

@seuros@mastodon.bsd.cafe Thanks for the work. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for FireWire. Did you test out dcons? To make sure it still works? #FreeBSD

Open ##4213101
@grant_h@mastodon.social 2026-07-23 17:37

@seuros@mastodon.bsd.cafe Audio person with a firewire i7 laptop here, appreciating this. I have been wanting to move my old i7 gen3 laptop off windows, but it has the Texas Instruments FW chipset, which is the gold standard for audio. I've done 16 channels for 8 solid hours without losing a bit. Thank you!

Open ##4237537
@trouble@masto.ai 2026-07-23 19:42

@seuros@mastodon.bsd.cafe I still have some firewire devices gathering dust in the closet. free to good home (though shipping may be an issue if you're not in the US).

Open ##4237539