Porteus-XFCE-v1.2-rc1-x86_64.iso is ready for testing!
Posted: 20 Feb 2012, 18:53
I'm pleased to report that the XFCE desktop has been accepted as an official desktop for Porteus!
You can download the Porteus-XFCE 64-bit ISO here:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/testing/Porteus-v1.2-rc1
This ISO is based on the standard edition of Porteus and uses the same kernel, initrd, and the following base modules: kernel, core, xorg, devel and firefox. To these modules, I've added a module containing the XFCE desktop and a module with several desktop applications.
The ISO has modified bootloader configs, so you can install it exactly the same as the standard edition, and the default options will get you into XFCE.
If you're interested, please download and test it, and report any issues you find here. Also, I've got some room left for additional applications, so feel free to suggest things you'd like to add. I do want to keep this ISO as one application per task, so keep that in mind for your suggestions.
Known Bugs:
- on rare occasions, I've had the desktop hang for about 30 seconds when I logout from the session using the buttons in the panel (running reboot or halt from the command line is not affected). This appears to be an upstream bug, but I haven't sorted out when it occurs or why, so please let me know if this happens to you, and we'll get it sorted.
EDIT: This only seems to occur when applications that write to ~/.cache are left open (e.g. medit) while logging out. To avoid this bug, please close these applications prior to logging out. If you get hit with this bug with saved changes applied, you'll need to delete the contents of the ~/.cache/sessions/ directory in order to get the window manager working properly again.
Changelog from last beta release:
- dropped several packages from the XFCE build: gnome-keyring, gstreamer, and all dependencies
- replaced xfce4-mixer with retrovol, a neat little panel mixer app from the puppy distro
- replaced xfce4-volumed with some keymappings -- please let me know if your laptop/keyboard volume/mute buttons stop working
- replaced xfburn with pburn (also from the puppy project) to eliminate gstreamer
- dropped parole (gnome-mplayer is already present in the 002-xorg.xzm module)
- replaced xnoise with audacious
- dropped midori from the ISO, but it can still be downloaded from the google code page, here: http://code.google.com/p/porteus-xfce/downloads
- dropped SLiM login manager -- XFCE now loads through lxdm, which has been moved into the 002-xorg.xzm base module
- added abiword and gnumeric to the office section
- removed "opaque" cheatcode, this functionality is now available from the second boot option in extlinux/lilo, using the cheat "autoexec=xf-compositing~off". This turns off compositing for the XFCE window manager, but it will be turned on at each boot-up by default unless this cheatcode is used.
- removed international language support (locales) -- this will be added to the downloads for Language Selection Tool, so users can set up internationalization just as they would in the standard editions.
-other minor tweaks to the DE to improve the look/feel
Thank you for testing!
You can download the Porteus-XFCE 64-bit ISO here:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/testing/Porteus-v1.2-rc1
This ISO is based on the standard edition of Porteus and uses the same kernel, initrd, and the following base modules: kernel, core, xorg, devel and firefox. To these modules, I've added a module containing the XFCE desktop and a module with several desktop applications.
The ISO has modified bootloader configs, so you can install it exactly the same as the standard edition, and the default options will get you into XFCE.
If you're interested, please download and test it, and report any issues you find here. Also, I've got some room left for additional applications, so feel free to suggest things you'd like to add. I do want to keep this ISO as one application per task, so keep that in mind for your suggestions.
Known Bugs:
- on rare occasions, I've had the desktop hang for about 30 seconds when I logout from the session using the buttons in the panel (running reboot or halt from the command line is not affected). This appears to be an upstream bug, but I haven't sorted out when it occurs or why, so please let me know if this happens to you, and we'll get it sorted.
EDIT: This only seems to occur when applications that write to ~/.cache are left open (e.g. medit) while logging out. To avoid this bug, please close these applications prior to logging out. If you get hit with this bug with saved changes applied, you'll need to delete the contents of the ~/.cache/sessions/ directory in order to get the window manager working properly again.
Changelog from last beta release:
- dropped several packages from the XFCE build: gnome-keyring, gstreamer, and all dependencies
- replaced xfce4-mixer with retrovol, a neat little panel mixer app from the puppy distro
- replaced xfce4-volumed with some keymappings -- please let me know if your laptop/keyboard volume/mute buttons stop working
- replaced xfburn with pburn (also from the puppy project) to eliminate gstreamer
- dropped parole (gnome-mplayer is already present in the 002-xorg.xzm module)
- replaced xnoise with audacious
- dropped midori from the ISO, but it can still be downloaded from the google code page, here: http://code.google.com/p/porteus-xfce/downloads
- dropped SLiM login manager -- XFCE now loads through lxdm, which has been moved into the 002-xorg.xzm base module
- added abiword and gnumeric to the office section
- removed "opaque" cheatcode, this functionality is now available from the second boot option in extlinux/lilo, using the cheat "autoexec=xf-compositing~off". This turns off compositing for the XFCE window manager, but it will be turned on at each boot-up by default unless this cheatcode is used.
- removed international language support (locales) -- this will be added to the downloads for Language Selection Tool, so users can set up internationalization just as they would in the standard editions.
-other minor tweaks to the DE to improve the look/feel
Thank you for testing!