Distributions

Kanotix seeks stability, sidux follows unstable

Kanotix is a live CD distribution, that originally used Knoppix as a base. As a live CD it automatically detects and configures lots of hardware and has software for analysis, data rescue, forensic work, removal of viruses on Windows systems, or it can be used for surfing and mailing in an Internet cafe. Kanotix can also be installed to a hard drive where it allows the user access to all the packages available in the Debian unstable repository. The Kanotix fan base has remained loyal because of the hardware support and because of the great community support available to help smooth over the rough spots while following Debian unstable, aka 'sid'.

Now it seems that Kanotix will be changing. One developer, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh) has left the project. Lead developer Jörg Schirottke (Kano) writes:

Stefan Lippers-Hollmann posted his resignation to an internal section of the forum, but it has been copied in its entirety (with permission) into this public forum post by kelmo. Stefan writes:

Meanwhile, for those who still want to follow Debian sid, but need some help getting through the rougher spots, a new distribution, sidux, is on the horizon. This sidux press release introduces a new star in the Linux galaxy:

sidux has yet to see its first release, but the documentation is there to upgrade an existing Kanotix system, or to install sidux on a free partition. The forums and IRC channels are open and there's code available in its SVN repository. This would seem to be a good time to get started, while Debian sid is relatively stable.

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openSUSE 10.2 is done

openSUSE 10.2 has been completed. "There are still a lot of bugs open for 10.2 and I'm sure real usage over the time will find some more. We will release via online update security updates for 10.2 as usual and release also the most severe bug fixes. But most bug fixes will only be done for 10.3, our next release coming out next summer."

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rPath Linux 1.0.5 available for x86 and x86_64

rPath has released a updated images for rPath Linux 1. "The new images incorporate installation fixes for certain installation methods and all package updates released as of November 22. The Xen dom0 images have been enhanced with several additional packages for various filesystems and LVM support."

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Ubuntu "Feisty" Herd 1 released

The first test release for the upcoming Ubuntu "Feisty Fawn" distribution is now available. They suggest not trying it if you're not prepared to run into a few bugs. See this page for a list of new things in Feisty. "Feisty will certainly lead the way with new desktop technologies, including 3d effects and windows that wobble. On the networking side, Network Manager is likely going to finally make it on the default desktop, after what seems like forever waiting in the wings. On the Zeroconf side, Feisty will have Avahi installed and enabled by default. Upstart, the sysvinit replacement, is going to have the new event-based init system actually turned on, for faster and more reliable booting."

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Zod livecd beta

A beta live CD version of Fedora 6 with software from Core and Extras is available. Click below for download information.

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Debian release update: open blockers for the freeze

Andreas Barth looks at the Etch release. "There are a few items that should be resolved prior to the hard freeze, for the very good reason that we don't want to spend time reviewing fixes if we can use the same time (more productive) for fixing bugs."

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Linspire Continues Global Expansion of Desktop Linux

Linspire, Inc. has announced the immediate release and digital availability of Linspire 5 in German, Dutch, Spanish, and Standard English (UK). "The combined translation efforts from the community-based desktop Linux localization IRMA Project, with the commercial support from Linspire translation specialists and strategic partners, continues the international expansion of new language offerings, following the announcement of Linspire 5 French last week."

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Mandriva Linux, 3D on a flash drive

Mandriva has launched Mandriva Flash, the first Mandriva Linux Live USB key. "Bringing its long experience with Live CDs, Mandriva aims to offer the best performing live system. All you have to do is plug in the USB key, turn the PC on and the Mandriva Linux 2007 operating system is ready to use in no time, with all you need for office work, Internet and multimedia tasks."

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OpenPKG Advent Calendar 2006 now online

OpenPKG GmbH has created an Advent Calendar, with background information and tips & tricks about OpenPKG.

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Fedora Weekly News Issue 69

The Fedora Weekly News for December 4, 2006 covers Fedora Project is Hiring, Fedora Ambassadors Day, Eclipse on Linux Distributions Project, FUDCon Boston 2007, SCALE 5X Registration Opens, Migration to Fedora Core 6, and several other topics.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of November 27, 2006 is out, with a look at new x86/i586 stages, experimental Alpha/PPC LiveCD images, GNOME 2.16 going stable, new virtual/mysql, and much more.

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Ulteo Newsletter #1

The first Ulteo Newsletter takes a look at what's been happening behind the scenes of the Ulteo Project. The first alpha release of Ulteo should be available soon. "For this first alpha release, be prepared to dive a bit inside the system to understand the potential of Ulteo. On the desktop you will find only a few differences with what you can use or see when compared to a graphical environment on other distro's. Maybe then you will understand what makes Ulteo different, and you will start to think about the next steps of development." (For those just tuning in, Ulteo is what Gaël Duval has been working on since leaving Mandriva).

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 180

The DistroWatch Weekly for December 4, 2006 is out. "It's openSUSE week, as one of the oldest and most popular Linux distributions on the market makes a brand new release on Thursday. Will the project's association with Novell (and, indirectly, Microsoft) hurt the download figures? We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, the much awaited public release from Gaël Duval's Ulteo is about to hit the download mirrors - expect the live CD image later this week. Also in the news: interest in running Linux on Sony PlayStation 3 intensifies, KANOTIX is rocked by resignation of a co-developer, and Ubuntu developers react on the project's decision to include proprietary graphics driver in Feisty. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of DistroWatch's November 2006 donation is the digiKam project."

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Fedora updates

Updates for Fedora Core 6: parted (upgrade to GNU parted-1.8.0), pyparted (upgrade to pyparted-1.8.0), net-snmp (fix memory leak), gjdoc (fixes required to build multlib version of Eclipse), gnome-volume-manager (prevent storage devices from mounting when the screen saver is running), hal (bug fixes), dbus-glib (bug fixes), authconfig (bug fixes), mod_auth_kerb (bug fix), audit (bug fix), dbus (update to 1.0.1), redhat-menus (bug fix), hsqldb (add missing entries to files section), openssl (bug fix), control-center (gnome bug fix), rhythmbox (bug fix), gnome-session (bug fix), m17n-db (fixed a typo), ppp (bug fix), frysk (new upstream version), freetype (bug fixes, Asian font fix), dbus (bug fix), boost (bug fixes), libsoup (update to 2.2.98), gtk2 (bug fixes), selinux-policy (bug fixes), gamin (bug fix), gtkhtml3 (update to 3.12.2), evolution (update to latest 2.8 release), evolution-data-server (update to 1.8.2), evolution-connector (update to latest 2.8 release), libsepol (upgrade to latest from NSA), gnome-icon-theme (bug fix), paps (bug fix), ypbind (bug fixes), autofs (bug fixes), policycoreutils (bug fix), libvirt (bug fixes, new features), tar (security bug fix), freetype (bug fixes), eclipse (bug fixes), cpio (bug fix), gnome-bluetooth (bug fixes), ntp (bug fix), initscripts (bug fixes), kudzu (bug fixes), virt-manager (bug fix), fonts-indic (bug fixes), gaim (bug fixes).

Updates for Fedora Core 5: parted (upgrade to GNU parted-1.8.0), pyparted (upgrade to pyparted-1.8.0), audit (fix minor parsing problem and add new msg types), gamin (bug fixes), boost (bug fixes), tar (security bug fix).

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Mandriva updates

Updates for Mandriva Linux 2007.0: rpmdrake (bug fixes), drakxtools (bug fixes), clamav (new upstream version, also available for 2006.0, Corporate 3.0 & 4.0).

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rPath updates

Updates for rPath Linux 1: conary, conary-build, conary-repository (Conary 1.0.40 maintenance release) openldap, openldap-clients, openldap-servers (bug fixes).

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Trustix updates

Updates for Trustix Secure Linux 2.2 & 3.0: samba (new upstream version).

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Ubuntu updates

Updates for Ubuntu 6.10: lvm2 2.02.06-2ubuntu3.2, initramfs-tools 0.69ubuntu20.0edgy1, mediawiki_1.7~edgy1, katapult_0.3.1.4-0ubuntu2~edgy1, brasero_0.5.1-0ubuntu2~edgy1, compiz_0.3.3-0ubuntu2~git2006112~edgy1, comix_3.6-1~edgy1, rar_3.6.0-0ubuntu1~edgy1, lyx_1.4.3-2~edgy1, flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.21.78.2ubuntu1~edgy1, seahorse_0.9.7-0ubuntu1~edgy1, soundconverter_0.9.3-1~edgy1, stardict_2.4.8-1~edgy1, unrar-nonfree_3.6.8-0ubuntu2~edgy1, trac_0.10.2-1~edgy1, kopete 4:3.5.5+kopete0.12.3-0ubuntu2.1, mdadm 2.4.1-6ubuntu5.1.

Updates for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: lvm2 2.02.02-1ubuntu1.2, scummvm_0.9.0-0ubuntu1~dapper1, moodle-book_1.6.1-1~dapper1, seahorse_0.9.7-0ubuntu1~dapper1, moodle_1.6.3-1ubuntu1~dapper1, mediawiki_1.7~dapper1, lirc_0.8.0-9ubuntu1~dapper1, apcupsd_3.12.4-2~dapper1, kino_0.92-1ubuntu2~dapper1, gcin_1.2.9-1ubuntu1~dapper1, mythtv_0.20-0.2ubuntu2~dapper1, mythplugins_0.20-0.6ubuntu4~dapper1, conky_1.4.4-1~dapper1, amule_2.1.3-1~dapper1, libraw1394_1.2.1-2build1~dapper1, rkhunter_1.2.9-2~dapper1, bzflag_2.0.8.20060605ubuntu1~dapper1, flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.21.78.2ubuntu1~dapper1, cmake_2.4.3-1ubuntu1~dapper1.

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How To Compile A Kernel - The SuSE Way (HowtoForge)

HowtoForge looks at creating a custom kernel on SUSE Linux. "Each distribution has some specific tools to build a custom kernel from the sources. This article is about compiling a kernel on SuSE systems. It describes how to build a custom kernel using the latest unmodified kernel sources from www.kernel.org (vanilla kernel) so that you are independent from the kernels supplied by your distribution. It also shows how to patch the kernel sources if you need features that are not in there."

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Simple Package management with Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu (Debian Admin)

Debian Admin covers some Synaptic tips for Ubuntu systems. "Synaptic is a graphical user interface (GUI) for managing software packages on Debian-based distributions. If you are using Debian or Ubuntu you will easily find Synaptic in the System Tools menu or in the Administration menu. Synaptic uses the GTK graphic libraries . So, if you are using GNOME on your debian-based distro you will probably have Synaptic installed as well. Synaptic is a graphical package management program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command line utility with a GUI front-end based on Gtk+."

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Installing Popular Applications On Your Ubuntu Desktop With Automatix2 (HowtoForge)

HowtoForge looks at the use of Automatix2 on Ubuntu. "Although Ubuntu comes with lots of applications that can be installed on your desktop, there are still some applications that are available only from third-party repositories. Finding all these repositories and installing these applications manually is very time-consuming, but fortunately some people have created a script called Automatix2 (which is the successor to Automatix) which automates the task for you. It comes with a graphical interface so that you can run it from your desktop, and this tutorial describes how you do it."

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Xandros 4.1 Professional - Review (Open Addict)

Open Addict has a review of Xandros 4.1 Professional. "Xandros Desktop Professional was released not too long after Xandros Home Edition-Premium, but the differences are quite extraordinary. I just recently bought (I'm talking about a week ago) a copy of Home Edition-Premium (which will be referred to as HEP for the rest of this review) and noticed it used an older kernel. HEP uses a 2.6.15.x kernel while the Professional version uses the 2.6.18.x kernel. Another note of significance is the addition of AIGLX/XGL to the Professional edition as well as the ability to use Mobile Broadband connections via 3G and other related technologies. Bluetooth is also available as well as the addition of the Beagle search utility."

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