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Posted by : slh on Sep 14, 2008 - 10:28 PM Release Notes
Release Notes

Later than planned (due to a hard to find bug in virtualbox-ose), sidux 2008-03 "Ουρέα" is now ready to enter the preview season for amd64 and i686 systems. As usual the previews are shipping only as a small (≈460 MB), but fully functional, KDE-lite flavour, accompanied by a ≈695 MB large combined xfce-lite flavour for amd64+i386.

sidux is a full featured Debian sid based live CD with a special focus on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path within sid and additional hard- and software support. The ISO is completely based on Debian sid, enriched and stabilized with sidux' own packages and scripts.

Release notes for Ουρέα preview 1

"Ουρέα" concentrates on integrating the changes caused by kernel 2.6.26 and on the post-install experiences — by propagating the default user profile to new users as well. As a welcome side effect, hardware for common netbooks and newer chipsets is now be supported by sidux. Furthermore a large number of individual functionality enhancements and bugfixes have been applied to the full package line up and especially sidux' own packages.

Our special thanks go to the sidux art team and especially all mirror hosters for their efforts regarding sidux.

The release schedule for sidux in 2009 will be announced with the final release of sidux 2008-03 "Ουρέα", which is expected in roughly 1–2 weeks.

Now to the interesting topics, like what's on the menu for now:

  • amd64 (AMD64, Intel Core2, newer 64 bit capable AMD Sempron and Intel Pentium 4 CPUs (watch for the "lm" flag in /proc/cpuinfo or use infobash -v3) and i686 (Pentium pro/ Pentium II, AMD K7 Athlon or newer)).
  • Debian sid, as of 2008-09-14.
  • kernel 2.6.26.5 (smp, hard preemption).
  • X.org 7.3.
  • KDE 3.5.9 (en + de).
  • new, SVG based, art theme created by bfree and the sidux art team.
  • offline manual for en + de directly on the disc, online manuals for more languages online at http://manual.sidux.com/ and available via apt; a big thank you goes to the documentation and translation teams!
    Please note that the offline manual is only available on the running live CD or the installed system.
  • many changes for the manual.
  • iwlwifi3945/ iwlwifi4965 support.
  • ath5k support for 54 MBit/s Atheros cards.
  • b43/ b43legacy support for Broadcom wlan cards.
  • rt2x00 support for RaLink cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8101 and RTL8102(E) PCIe ethernet cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8180L and RTL8185 PCI/ cardbus wlan cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8187 USB wlan cards.
  • support for ADMtek ADM8211 PCI/ cardbus wlan cards.
  • support for IPWireless 3G UMTS PCMCIA cards.
  • support for HSDPA Broadband Wireless Data (Globe Trotter) cards.
  • e1000e support for Intel 82801I, 82566DM-2, 82562GT-2, 82562G-2 and 82562V-2 Gigabit Ethernet cards (ICH9).
  • support for Logitech Quickcam Orbit, Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks, Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000, Asus Eee PC webcams (linux-uvc).
  • driver support for Ricoh R5U870 OEM webcams
  • fw-detect to probe for hardware with non-free needs.
  • memtest86+.
  • bitsetting/ xrandr settings for ATi and Intel cards.
  • native gtk2 support for siduxcc.
  • screen support fixed.
  • bugfixes for virtualbox-ose and kernel 2.6.26 guests.
  • several XFCE bugfixes.
  • persistent userprofile defaults for new users.

What hasn't made it into the preview yet:

  • release notes.
  • minor artwork tweaking.
  • final integration testing.

Hints for hardware with non-free needs:

sidux contains only dfsg free software, so you'll probably want to add contrib/ non-free to your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list and ensure internet access. 

# See sources.list(5) for more information, especially
# Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs
# CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.
# The /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory provides a way to add sources.list
# entries in separate files that end with sources.list file.

# unstable
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

# testing
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

# experimental
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free

and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sidux.list: 

# sidux e.V., Germany
deb http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free
#deb-src http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free

The required firmware can be determined with the following device/ firmware enumeration or by using the newly developed fw-detect script (packaged in configure-networkcard).

  • ATi Radeon graphics:
    3d acceleration for older cards up to r35x should work with free drivers, newer Radeon X1xxx cards need non-free drivers for accelerated performance, which currently aren't compatible with current kernels.
  • Atmel AT76c50x 11 MBit/s wlan:
    apt-get install atmel-firmware
  • Broadcom, b43/ b43legacy wlan:
    apt-get install b43-fwcutter
  • Broadcom Blutonium Bluetooth chipset (BCM2033):
    apt-get install bluez-firmware
  • Eagle USB ADSL modem:
    fetch the firmware from http://eagle-usb.org/ueagle-atm/non-free/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • DVB firmware for various full featured DVB TV cards (most budget cards won't need this):
    fetch the needed firmware (check dmesg) from http://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/firmware/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • IVTV firmware:
    fetch the firmware from http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/ivtv/firmware/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • Intel ipw2100, 11 MBit/s wlan:
    apt-get install ipw2100-firmware
  • Intel ipw2200, 54 MBit/s wlan:
    apt-get install ipw2200-firmware
  • Intel ipw3945/ iwlwifi, 54 Mbit/s wlan:
    apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi
  • Intel ipw4965/ iwlwifi, draft-n wlan:
    apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi
  • Intersil prism54 (p54pci/ p54usb), 54 MBit/s wlan:
    fetch the firmware from http://jbnote.free.fr/prism54usb/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • nVidia graphics:
    3d acceleration isn't possible with free drivers yet.
  • RaLink rt61 and rt73 54 MBit/s wlan:
    apt-get install firmware-ralink
  • Ricoh R5U870 OEM webcams:
    fetch the firmware from http://mediati.org/r5u870/r5u870-0.11.0.tar.gz and copy the "r5u870_*.fw" files to /lib/firmware/.
  • Texas Instruments ACX100 (22 Mbit/s)/ ACX111 (54 MBit/s) wlan: 
    m-a a-i acx100
    and fetch the firmware from http://www.kazer.org/acx-firmware-20060207.tar.bz2 and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • ZyDAS zd1201 11 MBit/s wlan:
    fetch the firmware from http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/linux-lc100020/zd1201-0.14-fw.tar.gz and place it under /lib/firmware/.
  • ZyDAS zd1211 54 MBit/s wlan:
    apt-get install zd1211-firmware

We try to provide packages for legally redistributable firmware from our non-free repositories, but not all vendors allow this.

Hints for Upgraders:

sidux tries hard to provide seamless upgrade path for debian and sidux' own packages, nevertheless a few things remain that could be improved with manual interaction.

Broadcom b43 wlan

Kernels > 2.6.25 will require firmware revisions ≥4.150.10.5 (internal revision "410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)") of the Broadcom firmware, while older ones (up to kernel 2.6.24) required 4.80.53.0 (internal revision "351.126 (2006-07-29 05:54:02)"), which has been installed by older b43-fwcutter revisions. b43-fwcutter cannot upgrade existing firmware images on its own, so upgrading needs manual intervention. 

dpkg --purge b43-fwcutter
rm -rf /lib/firmware/b43 /lib/firmware/b43legacy
apt-get update
apt-get install b43-fwcutter

This change is not strictly required for Ουρέα and kernel 2.6.26 (but strongly recommended), but is pending for Πόντος and kernel 2.6.27.

Disclaimer:

This is experimental software. Use at your own risk. The sidux project, it's developers and team members (all represented by the sidux e.V.) cannot be held liable under any circumstances for damage to hardware or software, lost data, or other direct or indirect damage resulting from the use of this software. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, you are not permitted to use or further distribute this software.

Download URLs, please give the mirrors some time to sync:

Europe

North America

Asia

Africa

Australia

Our thanks go to all mirror hosters for their efforts regarding sidux.

How to get involved

Getting involved in sidux is easy, just join us at our Forum or even better on IRC (irc.oftc.net, port 6667, channel #sidux) and discuss your patches/ proposals or additions.

We will gladly discuss any dfsg-free patches and contributions, especially regarding alternative window managers (gnome, xfce), mobile network connectivity (GPRS/ UMTS, Bluetooth, but also ISDN, PPP, PPPoE) or general janitorial tasks or translations/ localisations.

Roadmap:

Please understand that the following roadmap is a rough estimate regarding our release schedule and is affected by the status of upstream Debian sid, major system components like X.org, KDE, the linux kernel and our own developments and is subject to changes.

  • sidux 2008-04 "Πόντος" — Q4 2008

Special thanks go to the entire sidux team.

Developers:

Joaquim Boura (x-un-i)
Bernard Gray (cleary)
Aedan Kelly (etorix)
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh)
Kel Modderman (kelmo)
Horst Tritremmel (hjt)
Niall Walsh (bfree)
Andreas Weber (webera)
Fabian Wuertz (xadras)

Documentation and Manuals:

Jose Tadeu Barros (ceti)
Stefan R. Eissens (eislon)
Roland Engert (RoEn)
HarzG
Richard Holt (Richard)
Markus Huber (hubi)
Philippe Masson (LjanA)
Markus Müller (moto)
Mutsumu Nomura (muchan)
Gabriel Palade (ladepa)
Dinko Sabo (cobra)
Trevor Walkley (bluewater)
zerby
zonker
zulu9

Art Team:

David Creedy (klaymen)
Bernard Gray (cleary)
Daniel-S-P

vital Support:

Alessio Giustini (alessiog75)
Chris Hildebrandt (slam)
Ralph Hokanson Jr. (piper)
Latino
Gerald Prock (raider700)
Ferdi Thommes (devil)
Florian Schneider (hathe)
Torsten Wohlfarth (towo|)
sidux e.V.

Thanks to Hetzner Online AG for sponsoring sidux.com.

On behalf of the sidux team:
        Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh)

 
Logos and trademarks are the property of their respective owners, comments are property of their posters, the rest is © 2006-2009 by sidux e.V., 10407 Berlin, Kniprodestr. 104. sidux e.V. is a Berlin, Germany based non-profit foundation. Consult Impressum and Legal Terms for details. sidux™ is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license and other compatible licenses.
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