A last minute update of xine-lib (1.1.7-2) in debian sid has dropped all previous dependencies of libxine1 on its required audio/ video plugins to "Recommends" (in preparation of implementing "Installation of Recommends by default on October 1st") and caused our initial sidux 2007-03 "Γαια" release to lose out-of-the box support for audio/ video playback (#437693). Already existing installations of 2007-03 "Γαια" can be fixed by updating "libxine1", "libxine1-ffmpeg" and fixing the group membership for "video".

apt-get update
apt-get install libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg
sed -i "s/\,sidux/\,$(getent passwd 1000 | cut -d\: -f1)/" /etc/group

This updated hotfix release fixes the audio/ video problems for live purposes and is targeted at preventing these issues for new installations.

After less than 3 months of development, we are proud to announce the immediate availability of the sidux 2007-03 "Γαια" release for amd64 and i686 systems, shipping in a ≈440 MB lite KDE and a ≈700 MB full KDE flavor. 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.

Release notes for Γαια

Our third official sidux release concentrates on overhauling the SysV init sequence of the live CD, refactoring the installer backend and laying the foundation for proper gettext based localisations of our toolset, with additional efforts regarding general clean up, obsoletion of gtk+ 1.2 based tools and especially the kernel. While shipping kernel 2.6.22.3(-rc1), using libata for most PATA chipsets, additional support for Intel IPW3945/ IPW4965 (iwlwifi 1.0.0-1), Realtek RTL8187 and RT2x00 wireless LAN devices has been added based on mac80211.

Again this release only ships in two KDE flavors (lite and full), we're looking for interested maintainers contributing to special purpose releases or tweaking support for other desktop environments and window managers. Even though there seems to be interest in xfce and gnome variants, the required developer support quorum hasn't been reached yet.

The ISO is completely based on debian sid, enriched and stabilized with sidux' own packages and scripts.

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 2007-08-15.
• kernel 2.6.22.3-rc1 (smp, hard preemption).
• KDE 3.5.7 (en + de).
• completely overhauled init sequence.
• completely refactored installer backend.
• new artwork created by cleary 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.
• lots of changes for the manual.
• iwlwifi3945/ iwlwifi4965 1.0.0-1.
• rt2x00 2.0.6+git20060810 support for RaLink cards supporting wpasupplicant, remove /etc/modprobe.d/mac80211 to prefer it over RaLink legacy drivers
• support for RealTek RTL8187 wlan cards.
• libata support for parallel ATA systems.
• native vmlinuz-$KVERS and initrd.img-$KVERS naming conventions are used on the live CD now, please consult the manual for fromiso syntax changes.
• enhanced hardware support libraries.
• support for "smxi", replacing "sm" and "du-fixes-h2.sh".
• bugfix for keyboard layout selections in X.
• USB scanner support has been fixed in kernel ≥2.6.22.1-slh-smp-7/ ≥2.6.22.1-slh64-smp-7.
• XDG menu entry fix for My-PPPoE Conf.
• added siduxcc and kooka.
• thanks to concerted team efforts, the dependencies on Xdialog and therefore gtk+ 1.2 could be removed.
• support for Agere Systems et131x ethernet controllers.
• fw-detect to probe for hardware with non-free needs.
• rt73-legacy driver.
• memtest86+.
• added iputils-ping.
• added VDR 1.4.7.
• bugfix for partition detection.
• CUPS 1.3.0.
• fix audio-/ video playback issues, please update libxine1 and libxine1-ffmpeg to fix existing 2007-03 installs.
• fix group membership for multiple users per group.

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 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.

# 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

# sidux
deb http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free firmware fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free
#deb-src http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free firmware 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, newer Radeon X1xxx cards need non-free drivers for accelerated performance which are not yet compatible with X.org 7.2. Depending on the particular chipset "xmodule=vesa" or "xmodule=fbdev" as cheatcode might be in order for later Radeon X1xxx models.
• Atheros/ "madwifi" wlan:
  

  m-a a-i madwifi

• Atmel AT76c50x 11 MBit/s wlan:
  

  apt-get install atmel-firmware

• Broadcom/ bcm43xx wlan:
  

  apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

• 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/.
• 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

  please remove iwlwifi-ucode and iwlwifi-3945, if already installed.
• Intel ipw4965/ iwlwifi, draft-n wlan:
  

  apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi

  please remove iwlwifi-4965, if already installed.
  
  feedback regarding iwlwifi 3945 and iwlwifi 4965 is always appreciated.
• Intersil prism54, 54 MBit/s wlan:
  fetch the firmware from http://prism54.org/firmware/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• nVidia graphics:
  3d acceleration isn't possible with free drivers yet, please use "get-sidux-binary-gfx && install-binary-gfx -a" or "sgfxi" to fetch install scripts for these cards.
• RaLink rt61 54 MBit/s wlan:
  

  apt-get install rt61-fwcutter

• RaLink rt73 54 MBit/s wlan:
  

  apt-get install rt73-fwcutter

• Texas Instruments ACX100 (22 Mbit/s)/ ACX111 (54 MBit/s) wlan:
  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.

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

• Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina at Brunswick, Germany
  http://debian.tu-bs.de/project/sidux/
  ftp://debian.tu-bs.de/project/sidux/
  

  deb http://debian.tu-bs.de/project/sidux/debian/ sid main contrib non-free firmware fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free

• University of Kent/ Computer Science Department, United Kingdom
  ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/sidux.com/sidux/
  http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/sidux.com/sidux/
  rsync://rsync.mirrorservice.org/sidux.com/sidux/
• Free University Berlin/ Institute of Computer Science, Germany
  ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/sidux/
  rsync://ftp.spline.de/Sidux/
  

  deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/sidux/debian/ sid main contrib non-free firmware fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free

• Russian Federal University Network St.Petersburg, Russian Federation
  http://sidux.2wl.ru/downloads/

North America

• University of Tennessee/ SunSITE, TN, USA
  ftp://ftp.sunsite.utk.edu/pub/linux/Sidux/
  rsync://sunsite.utk.edu/sidux/
• Washington State University/ Linux User Group and School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Pullman WA, USA
  http://lug01.eecs.wsu.edu/sidux/

Africa

• University of Cape Town/ Linux Enthusiasts Group, South Africa
  http://ftp.leg.uct.ac.za/pub/linux/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 2007-04 "Ερως" — calendar week 41-42 2007
• sidux 2008-01 "Νυξ" — calendar week 1-2 2008
• sidux 2008-02 "Ερεβος" — calendar week 13-14 2008
• sidux 2008-03 "Ωυρεα" — calendar week 25-26 2008
• sidux 2008-04 "Ποντος" — calendar week 37-38 2008

Special thanks go to the entire sidux development team:

Joaquim Boura (x-un-i)
Michiel de Boer (locsmif)
Mikhail Burov (von_Selbst)
Alessio Giustini (alessiog75)
Stefan R. Eissens (eislon)
Roland Engert (RoEn)
Bernard Gray (cleary)
Andreas Hausmann (Bohdi)
Chris Hildebrandt (slam)
Ralph Hokanson Jr. (piper)
Richard Holt (Richard)
Markus Huber (hubi)
Harald Hope (h2)
HarzG
Aedan Kelly (etorix)
Lady_Cuddles
Latino
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh)
Kel Modderman (kelmo)
Koslow
Markus Müller (moto)
maslot
Gabriel Palade (ladepa)
Gerald Prock (raider700)
Steven J. Robinson (cathbard)
Philipp Rudolph (Zophod)
Dinko Sabo (cobra)
Florian Schneider (hathe)
Ferdi Thommes (devil)
Horst Tritremmel (hjt)
Trevor Walkley (bluewater)
Niall Walsh (bfree)
Andreas Weber (webera)
Fabian Wuertz (xadras)
zerby
zulu9

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