FreeBSD 14.3 Released With Network Driver Updates, OpenZFS Updated

Written by Michael Larabel in BSD on 9 June 2025 at 08:35 PM EDT. Add A Comment

As a nice stepping stone until FreeBSD 15 is ready to ship later in the calendar year, FreeBSD 14.3 stable is out today as the newest point release for this leading BSD operating system.

FreeBSD 14.3 has back-ported a number of improvements from FreeBSD 15 back to the FreeBSD 14 series. Plus a number of routine package updates and other fixes. Some of the FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE highlights include:

- Updating the ZFS support against OpenZFS 2.2.7.

- Merging of the Realtek RTW88 and RTW89 WiFi drivers based on the Linux 6.14 kernel code.

- The LinuxKPI code has been improved to support crypto offload as well as the 802.11n and 802.11ac standards.

- The Intel IX Ethernet driver has added support for the x550 1000BAS-BX SFP modules.

- Thor2 PCI IDs added to the Broadcom NetXtreme "BNXT" driver along with support for 400G speed modules.

- XZ 5.8.1, OpenSSH 9.9p2, OpenSSL 3.0.16, and many other package updates.

- Syscons as the legacy system console driver is now considered deprecated. Syscons is not compatible with UEFI, lacks UTF-8 support, and is Giant-locked.

Downloads and more details on today's FreeBSD 14.3 release via FreeBSD.org.