FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE Has Arrived — What’s New, Why It Matters, and How to Get It
Quick-look highlights
- 802.11ac finally lands in the native iwlwifi driver, bringing Wi-Fi 5 speeds to recent Intel chipsets.
- Official OCI container images are now pushed to both Docker Hub and GitHub Packages.
- Toolchain refresh: LLVM/Clang 19.1.7, OpenSSH 9.9p2, xz 5.8.1, expat 2.7.1, plus a round of security fixes.
- Broader hardware reach thanks to new or updated drivers: Realtek rtw88/rtw89, Broadcom 400 GbE in bnxt, Amazon ENA v2.8.1, Intel I226 fixes in igc, and more.
- New
FreeBSD-kmodspkg repo ships kernel-version-matched graphics and out-of-tree drivers. - Supported until 30 June 2026; 14.2 hits EoL on 30 Sept 2025.
A deeper dive into the release
1. Wireless that just works
The LinuxKPI 802.11 stack gained crypto off-load plus 11n/11ac capabilities, and iwlwifi is the first beneficiary. Many laptops that previously limped along at 802.11g/11n now negotiate full 11ac speeds out of the box. Realtek users aren’t left behind—rtw88 and rtw89 were rebased on Linux 6.14, fixing association issues and memory leaks.
2. Containers, clouds & CI
FreeBSD now publishes OCI images in Docker and GitHub, complementing refreshed QCOW2/VHD/VMDK cloud images. Device hot-plug quirks on AWS EC2 (x86 & Graviton) were ironed out; Google Compute Engine, Oracle Cloud and Azure Marketplace images are live or imminent.
3. Toolchain & base upgrades
Shipping an up-to-date LLVM 19.1 toolchain keeps ports in lock-step with upstream compilers. OpenSSH 9.9p2 includes patches for the keystroke-timing obfuscation bypass, and xz 5.8.1/expat 2.7.1 close recent CVEs. All relevant FreeBSD security advisories SA-25:01 - 06 and errata EN-25:01 - 06 are already merged.
4. Driver bounty
mpi3mr 8.14, ena 2.8.1, 400 G Broadcom support in bnxt, 1 Gb BiDi SFPs in ix, and Brainboxes USB-serial support headline the ever-growing driver list. Sound users benefit from on-demand vchan allocation, eliminating the “set vchans, hope it doesn’t hang” dance.
5. Sysadmin quality-of-life tweaks
sysctl -jcan now interrogate child jails even if sysctl isn’t present inside them.- VNET sysctls are loader-tunable, easing automated deployments.
- A new
mountd -aflag aligns NFS exports withnmount(2)improvements.
6. Ports & packages
Graphics stacks that track bleeding-edge Linux ABIs often break after a point-release bump; the brand-new FreeBSD-kmods repository packages those modules against the exact 14.3 kernel to keep your desktop (and Steam on Wine) humming.
Upgrading & support lifecycle
Upgrade with the familiar:
# freebsd-update upgrade -r 14.3-RELEASE
# freebsd-update install # repeat after reboot
Binary upgrades from 14.2 or source builds via /usr/src both work, but back up first. 14.3 receives security fixes until 30 June 2026; the entire 14-STABLE line is supported through 30 Nov 2028.
Getting FreeBSD 14.3
- ISOs & memsticks: download.freebsd.org/ISO-IMAGES/14.3
- VM images: …/VM-IMAGES/14.3-RELEASE
- OCI containers: …/OCI-IMAGES/14.3-RELEASE or pull
ghcr.io/freebsd/freebsd:14.3
A PGP-signed announcement and checksums are available for verification.
Final thoughts
14.3 isn’t a flashy new-feature release; instead, it’s the kind of rock-solid point release FreeBSD is famous for—pulling in a year’s worth of incremental work across Wi-Fi, drivers, toolchains, and containers, while keeping the upgrade path painless. If you’re on 14.2 (or still clinging to 13-STABLE) there’s never been a better moment to hop aboard. Happy hacking—and enjoy the bandwidth bump on your laptop’s shiny new 11ac card!
