Real time changelog for upcoming Porteus-1.2 release

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fanthom
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Real time changelog for upcoming Porteus-1.2 release

Post#1 by fanthom » 20 Mar 2012, 22:46

Changes implemented so far in latest development snapshot:

/boot folder:
- updated syslinux to version 4.05
- extilinux is recompiled againt uClibc and linked statically (size reduced from 260KB to 60KB)
- removed /boot/syslinux/syslinux as extlinux supports FAT filesystem as well
- 32bit: fixed broken /boot/pxelinux.cfg/default menu
- updated /boot/lin_start_here.sh:
a) removed syslinux installation option
b) dropped unused 'update' function
- busybox is recompiled against new uClibc library patched for support for more than 256 loop devices/xzm modules (thanks to uClibc dev team for the patch). no need for carrying glibc based initrd for that purpose
- added support for encrypted .dat containers to linuxrc
- linuxrc will symlink /modules /and /optional folders from booting device to /mnt/live/porteus folder. these symlink can be used by PPM (or any other app) in case of booting on PC's with different drive configuration.

/porteus folder:
- updated to kernel-3.2.4, kde-4.8.0 and firefox-10.0 (with duckduckgo as default search engine)
- added various tweaks for XFCE support accross whole system (thanks to Ahau)
- rc.6 will detach unused loop devices during shutdown/reboot.
- added xterm fix to /etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources (thanks to bigbass)
- porteus scripts:
a) updated many scripts for not using liblinuxlive anymore
b) added support for encrypted .dat containers to mloop utility
c) various tweaks to activate/deactivate scripts. they work much faster and it should be possible to activate many modules at time without any restrictions.
d) fixed 'update_module' tool which deals with files only and not folders
e) added new cheatcode: 'volume=' to /opt/porteus-scripts/paths for setting volume after login into GUI
f) fixed 'kmap=' cheatcode implemented in /opt/porteus-scripts/paths (thanks to Blaze for bug report)
- added statically linked /sbin/cryptsetup to 000-kernel.xzm required for encryption of the .dat containers
- bumped wicd to 1.7.1 which closes "revealing of typed wifi password" issue
- added avahi daemon and recompiled kde-4 with zeroconf support (wread suggestion).

UPDATE as per 19.02.2012

- updated kernel to 3.2.6
- added support for 32 CPU's in kernel config (13G request)
- updated tg3 driver (as per fondfire report)
- updated intel ucode and b43 firmware to latest versions
- rc.M (instead of rc.4) is determining display manager and doing necessary tweaks:
a) setting /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc symlink (Rava request)
b) switching desktop session between lxde/xfce in /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf (Ahau request)
- added 'proprietary-watcher' process to rc.4 which sniffs /var/log/Xorg.0.log for errors and unload nVidia|ati-fglrx drivers when Xorg fails at startup so opensource direvers are used on second try.
- devided '/opt/porteus-scripts/paths' into separate scripts and moved all to /opt/porteus-scripts/xorg folder. these scripts (browser, terminal, fmanager) should be used instead of /tmp/.terminal, /tmp/.browser and /tmp/wmanager. scripts does the same job but covers all scenarios unlike /tmp symlinks.
- moved lxdm from 003-lxde.xzm to 002-xorg.xzm as it's required for XFCE desktop

UPDATE as per 20.03.2012

- upgraded kernel to 3.3 (with BFS 418), KDE-4.8.1 and LXDE from git (using ponce's slackbuilds)
- upgraded various userland packages: unrar, sshfs-fuse, xf86-input-*, xf86-video-*, qmmp, smplayer, etc...
- replaced Wicd with NetworkManager in 64bit edition, removed python and it's deps (ISO image is 13 MB smaller). still working on NM for 32bits.
- linuxrc:
a) new 'base_only' cheatcode which gonna load only base modules from /porteus/base folder and skip all others (added by default to 'Always Fresh' mode in /boot/porteus.cfg)
b) new 'norootcopy' cheatcode which gonna skip files from /rootcopy folder (added by default to 'Always Fresh' mode in /boot/porteus.cfg)
c) 'vga-detect' is now renamed to 'vga_detect' to keep standard naming convention
e) enabled by default fsck for all non xfs formatted (ext2/3/4 and reiserfs) save.dat containers. applies also to encrypted ones.
- fixed unmounting of .dat containers in cleanup script from initrd
- added support for NetworkManager to linuxrc and booting scripts (rc.M and rc.6). they still support wicd for people who prefer wicd over NM.
- added 'nomodeset' cheatcode to 'VESA mode' in /boot/porteus.cfg
- added dummy 'xdm' display manager. This is useful in case when user is booting without 'xfce' or 'lxde' cheats when no KDE xzm is available.
- added 'wacomtablet' utility to KDE-4 which let the users to manage wacom peripherals through KDE Settings Centre (edge226 request)
- fixed xinitrc.xfce symlink created by rc.M (thanks to Rava)
- fixed fmanager script in XFCE (thanks to Ahau)
- added support for xterm-256color, screen and scree-256color to /etc/termcap (thanks to dafan)
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Re: Real time changelog for upcoming Porteus-1.2 release

Post#2 by fanthom » 25 Jun 2012, 21:02

another set of updates.
i have decided to drop k3b in favor of pburn to save some space in the ISO. non-kde users should be happy with new GUI applications added by default as they are all gtk based.

- drivers for Muti Media Cards and Memory Sticks are compiled directly into kernel (as per luc0zade bug report)
- disabled "CONFIG_INTEL_IOMMU_DEFAULT_ON" in kernel config (as per amshyd bug report)
- added support for /dev/mmcblk* and /dev/mspblk* (MMC ans MS cards) to copy2ram function in linuxrc
- added 'sleep 2' and second unmounting attempt to the cleanup script when /union is found as busy
- added 'sleep 0.5' to rc.syslog script to avoid race condition between klogd and syslogd which were causing ocassional boot hangs
- fixed age old bug with lxdm not recognizing 'Session=default' in ~/.dmrc with forcing kdm/tdm to save .dmrc in /var/lib/(t/k)dm so lxde and kde settings wont interfere with each other
- lxpanel is restarted through /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart to make sure it happens after lxpanel launch
- added support for laptop-mode-tools to "power saver switch"
- kcalc replaced by galculator (po please LXDE users)
- flashget firefox extenstion replaced with uget download manager (works for all browsers not only firefox)
- k3b replaced by pburn (we saved over 10MB which i spent on other utilities mentioned below)
Added following new packages:
- transmission-2.51 torrent client + deps (curl, libevent)
- pidgin IM client (voice and video chat are disabled as requires gstreamer + 1000 deps)
- avidemux + deps (faac libvpx opencore-amr x264 xvidcore) which lets you convert movies to various formats, removed mencoder
- krfb: kde VNC server (it's possible now to connect remotely to Porteus X session)
- sweeper: kde cleanup utility
- asunder: audio CD ripper
- isomaster: create, extract ISO images
- epdfview: pdf viever for LXDE/XFCE
- gftp: ftp client
- cli utilities: bridge-utils, ethtool, hdparm, laptop-mode-tools, numlockx, powertop, strace, testdisk, traceroute, vorbis-tools
- bumped to gnome-mplayer-1.0.5, ModemManager-0.5.2, Network Manager-0.9.4, radeon-ucode-20120320, sg3_utils-1.33, phonon-mplayer-git, etc...
- removed k3b deps: cdrdao, kcddb

UPDATE as per 03.05.2012

this is basically what you can expect in rc2 release as no other updates are planned (only fixes).
rc2 should be out on Monday so stay tuned for news :)

- updated to kernel-3.3.4
- updated to kde-4.8.2, firefox-12, flash-player-11.2.202.233
- added support for encrypted save.dat containers to magic-folders in rc.S and rc.6.
- fsck (for ext2/3/4 and reiserfs) is enabled by default on save.dat mounted by either linuxrc (changes= cheatcode) or rc.S (magic-folders). this also apply to encrypted ones.
- updated rc.S to mount LVM volumes as /mnt/group/lvm_name instread of /mnt/group-lvmname (edge226 request)
- rc.6 will deactivate volume groups only if LVM partitions are found in the system
- added missing /etc/rc.d/rcS.d directory (used for sysvinit scripts launched by rc.S)
- bunch of fixes to pns-tool and xpns-tool (Network Manager will be disabled by pns-tool as is not compatible)
- disabled "low battery" warning message in LXDE (thanks to oranus/brokenman)
- added PPM shortcut to lxpanel in LXDE
- added support for empty save.dat containers to uloop utility

UPDATE as per 22.05.2012

- updated: powertop, upower, xf86-input-synaptics, xf86-video-openchrome, flashplayer-plugin, transmission
- added noautologin cheatcode to disable logging into desktop during bootime (mailmegx suggestion)
- added possibility of closing CD Tray immediately (hit enter) during shutdown. (thanks to Salix team for the tip)
- cache functions from rc.M are exported to /opt/porteus-scripts/xorg/update_cache script. it can be called from rc.local, autoexec= cheatcode, etc... (useful in case when we keep unpacked modules in /rootcopy and need to force updating system cache's)
- update_cache is run very early by rc.S to make sure everything is updated before we enter runlevel 4
- rc.M is cleared up from services which are not necessary to run GUI. services are moved to /etc/rc.d/rc.services and launched in the background (booting should be faster - especially in 32bits).
- added extra checks to activate/deactivate scripts to make sure all caches are updated during xzm activation/deactivation (thanks to pumbaa2)
- removed LC_ALL= variable from /etc/profile.d/lang.sh as it was overwriting LC_COLLATE=C and causing 'sed' issues in 64bit edition (thanks Tonio for bug report)
- fixed perms on /tmp/.* folders (thanks to sams)

UPDATE as per 02.06.2012

- added support for batch activation/deactivation
from cli

Code: Select all

activate module.xzm
activate module1.xzm module2.xzm module3.xzm
activate /folder/with_modules/*
from GUI : select group of modules with mouse (or with ctlr or shift) -> right mouse click -> activate (do not activate them by pressing enter as only last one will be activated)
- activate/deactivate scripts are now "noarch" (no difference between 64 and 32bits)
- added /usr/share/applications/deactivate.desktop so users can deactivate a group of modules without answering the question: "Module is already activated. Deactivate?"
- "activate" is set as default for xzm files in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
- UUID are default now for "magic folders" (sams suggestion)
- stripped off qt package from some development tools like: designer, assistant, linguist and qtHelp.so (hopefully nothing breaks). this let us save another 8 MB from the ISO size. looks like we need designer, linguist, etc for compilation from sources. reverted to full qt package (thanks brokenman for reporting)
- added more flexible unmount /union function to cleanup script (now it's 4 seconds counting to 0)
- moved binding of magic folders from rc.S to rc.M (syslogd is started and it can catch up an odd cryptsetup warning about missing HW crypto engines)
- kernel config: compiled hotplug for pci as (M) to bring back broken automount of usb devices on some PC's
- removed .lzm suffix from /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml (porteus wont recognize lzm modules anymore, end of support)
- tweaked default settings of smplayer and gnome-mplayer

UPDATE as per 25.06.2012

- upgaded to kernel 3.4.4
- upgraded to kde-4.8.4
- upgraded to alsa-1.0.25 (Lukas request)
- upgraded LXDE to latest stable components: http://blog.lxde.org/
- added wgetpaste cli utility which automatically exports log files to pastebin.ca site, syntax: 'wgetpaste -s ca /var/log/Xorg.0.log'
- added xclip package (needed by PSC and wgetpaste)
- added nft-utils package (justwantin request)
- added 'md5sum check' dolphin servicemenu (thanks to brokenman)
- recompiled busybox with Large File Support to allow > 3GB save.dat (sams bug report)
- added many brand new gtk tools and updated old ones (brokenman rulez!)
- IMPORTANT
removed following items from kmenu/xfcemenu/lxdemenu:
a) Language Selection Tool
b) Magic Folders
c) Porteus Network Setup Tool
d) Porteus FAQ
e) Save Session
f) Porteus Updater
from now on they can be launched through 'Porteus Settings Centre' only.
Reason: these tools are used rarely and we wanted to make 'System' category less cluttered.

This is pretty much it guys - no more updates, just small bug fixes (Ahau is catching up with XFCE edition), updating of the docs, website, etc...

if everything goes well then we will have 1.2 final by the end of this week :)
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Re: Real time changelog for upcoming Porteus-1.2 release

Post#3 by Ahau » 03 Jul 2012, 21:44

Here's the changelog for the Xfce edition, from 1.2rc2 to 1.2 final (see xfce threads in the development section of the forum for earlier changes). Note that the Xfce edition is built on top of the core, xorg, devel, and firefox modules from the Standard edition, so any changes that are made to those modules also apply to the xfce edition.


-added 'open thunar as super user' menu item, using ktsuss to open thunar
-moved application launcher buttons back to the main panel (no more second, autohide panel)
-added scripts to change the location of the panel from top to bottom and back:
'xfpaneltop' and 'xfpanelbottom'. These can be run from GUI or CLI, and can be used with the 'autoexec' cheatcode to change the panel location to the bottom of the screen for users who prefer that and are not saving changes. Example: 'autoexec=xfpanelbottom'
-added 'xfce4-cpugraph plugin'
-removed duplicated menu entries for Thunar, Task Manager, and Terminal (they are only found under the accessories heading now)
-moved geany to the accessories heading in the menu, instead of development
-removed gnome-ppp and deps from 32-bit, you can use network-manager instead
-added gparted
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

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