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Archiv für February, 2014

That was fast! Stable build based on kernel 3.13.2 available

Monday, February 10th, 2014

Right at this moment I am uploading the first stable build based on Kernel 3.13.2. I am very happy that everything compiled nice with the 3.13.2 kernel headers. Besides this the changes to the 3.12 series builds are quite small:

  • Firefox got updated to 27.0
  • Thunderbird got updated to 24.3.0
  • QPhotoRec is now present with a menu entry
  • Added vshadowinfo/vshadowmount – a nice small tool to access V-Shadow Snapshots on NTFS drives
  • Fix to Adwaita theme’s look on applications run with root privileges

If you installed LessLinux Search and Rescue to a thumb drive you probably noticed an empty “partition 7” that seemed to be without use. This partition is intended for updates. When updating a binary delta file will be downloaded. Then the content of “partition 8” together with the binary delta will be streamed through Xdelta and saved on “partition 7”. After this, boot information will be rewritten and you are prompted to reboot. On the next update the same will be done the other way round. This build will be the first stable build fully supporting this update mechanism. This means: You have to prepare your thumbdrive once and will be prompted to update if one is available. Since the update will be streamed to the other partition, you do not have to restart programs during update, just continue to work.

And what’s next

These are some features to expect from the near future, see it primarily as a todo list for me:

  • Add a usable IceWM configuration for more conservative users
  • Further clean up nonfree packages
  • Build a “full” ISO for self containing builds
  • Update the documentation on building
  • Move to Xorg server 1.15, Mesa 10, GStreamer 1.2 and GNU make 4.0
  • Move to glibc 2.19
  • Add a BOOTIA32.EFI to boot on bay trail tablets
  • Continue to work on building full 64 bit systems
  • Continue to work on support for RaspberryPi

Download it here: lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20140209-200536.iso

Fresh stable build based on kernel 3.12.9 available

Friday, February 7th, 2014

I just uploaded a build from three days ago. This features all the previously mentioned changes regarding moving to Gtk+ 3. The “weight penalty” by using both Gtk+ versions should be around 20MB. That’s reasonable for having a working upgrade path.

Other changes include:

  • Many fixes to VLC 2.1.2 – you want to check if the videos rescued from a failed drive are still OK
  • Added Audacious – I like to listen to MP3s when doing long annoying jobs
  • Added some casual games – customers asked me to do so
  • Added wimlib – allows creation and access of WIM files
  • Added qemu – not primarily for virtualization, but for creation of and access to image files like VDI and VMDK
  • Added multipath tools – mainly for kpartx, for convenient access of partitions in hard disk images
  • Added cabextract – to extract Windows drivers from cabinet files

Combine the last four tools in some scripts (mix in the registry editing capabilities of ntpasswd) and you get cool options for either deployment of Windows images or using LessLinux as a semi automated tool for converting Windows installations running on real hardware to virtual machine images.

However this build is just a stopgap. The update to kernel 3.13.2 seems so smooth that I think the next week will provide a first testing image based on 3.13.2.

Download here: download.lesslinux.org/releases/lesslinux-search-and-rescue/lesslinux-search-and-rescue-uluru-20140204-161107.iso