OpenBSD 8.0 adds arm64 hibernate, expands amd64 kernel address space to 512GB

Brief written by the FOSSWire AI editor from LWN.net How we write

October 20, 2026 1 min read 1 reads

Key Takeaway

OpenBSD 8.0 introduces hibernate support for arm64 systems and increases the amd64 kernel virtual address space from 128GB to 512GB.

Summary

OpenBSD 8.0 is now available with several kernel-level improvements. The release adds hibernate support for arm64 platforms, which was previously unavailable on that architecture. For amd64, the kernel virtual address space quadruples to 512GB. The qwx driver for Qualcomm WiFi 6 chipsets also receives multiple improvements.

What's new in OpenBSD 8.0

arm64 hibernate: New power management capability for 64-bit ARM systems, enabling suspend-to-disk functionality
amd64 KVA expansion: Kernel virtual address space grows from 128GB to 512GB, supporting larger memory configurations and more kernel subsystems
qwx driver improvements: Multiple updates for the driver handling Qualcomm WiFi 6 (802.11ax) wireless devices

Why it matters

The amd64 KVA expansion addresses growing memory demands in server and workstation deployments, while arm64 hibernate support improves OpenBSD's viability for ARM-based laptops and embedded systems.

Original reference: lwn.net →