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Posted by : slh on Dec 23, 2008 - 03:20 AM Release Notes
Release Notes

After fixing the problem with multiple optical disc drives, which occured in our first preview, and quite some infrastructural changes, we now have the pleasure to announce the immediate availability of sidux 2008-04 "Πόντος", available in the following flavours:

  • KDE-lite, amd64, en/ de, ≈460 MB.
  • KDE-lite, i686, en/ de, ≈455 MB.
  • KDE-full, amd64+i686, en/ de (da, el, es, fr, hr, it, ja, nl, pt, pt_BR, ro, ru through liveapt) ≈1.9 GB.
  • XFCE, amd64, en/ de, ≈400 MB.
  • XFCE, i686, en/ de, ≈395 MB.

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 Πόντος

"Πόντος" concentrates on integrating the changes caused by kernel 2.6.27, init optimisations accomplished by insserv and in particular overhauling the installer.

While kernel 2.6.27 improves and stabilises hardware support for newer devices, like Intel IPW5xxx and Atheros AR9xxx 802.11 draft-n wlan chipsets, and chipsets significantly, it also splits out a number of binary firmware blobs formerly shipped inside the kernel image. Please attend to non-free sources and Drivers for an overview.

Starting with "Πόντος", sidux is using "insserv" to reorder and optimise the sysv initscripts used during the system boot, this doesn't only improve the boot times, but also allows easier de-/ activating of particular initscripts using standard tools.

Another topic for this release is refactoring and optimising the installer, choosing new internet access tools for handling PPP, in particular GPRS/ UMTS, connections, but also improved support for kvm and other infrastructural changes. 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.

Minimum system requirements:

  • 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).
    • ≥256 MB RAM, ≥ 512 MB RAM for liveapt.
    • VGA graphics card capable of at least 640x480 pixel resolution.
    • optical disk drive or USB media.
    • ≥3 GB HDD space, ≥10 GB recommended.
  • i686:
    • Intel Pentium pro/ Pentium II
      AMD K7 Athlon (not K5/ K6)
      VIA C3-2 (Nehemiah, not C3 Samuel or Ezra)/ C7
      any x86-64/ EM64T capable CPU or newer; the full i686 command set is required.
    • ≥192 MB RAM, ≥ 512 MB RAM for liveapt.
    • VGA graphics card capable of at least 640x480 pixel resolution.
    • optical disk drive or USB media.
    • ≥3 GB HDD space, ≥10 GB recommended.

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

  • Debian sid, as of 2008-12-22.
  • kernel 2.6.27.10 (smp, hard preemption).
  • X.org 7.3.
  • KDE 3.5.10 (en + de).
  • new, SVG based, art theme created by 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.
  • support for Intel P4x, G4x and Q4x chipsets.
  • iwlwifi support (3945 and 4965 chipsets).
  • iwlagn support for the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n part of the Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5xxxAGN family.
  • ath5k support for 54/ "108" MBit/s Atheros wlan cards (AR2425, AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5213 and AR5414).
  • ath9k support for 802.11 draft-n Atheros wlan cards (AR5418+AR5133, AR5416+AR5133, AR5416+AR2133, AR9160, AR9280 and AR9281).
  • b43/ b43legacy support for Broadcom wlan cards.
  • rt2x00 support for RaLink cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8101, RTL8102(E), RTL8168B, RTL8168C and RTL8168CP PCIe ethernet cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8180L and RTL8185 PCI/ cardbus wlan cards.
  • support for RealTek RTL8187 and RTL8187B 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).
  • gspca2 support for various webcams.
  • support for Logitech Quickcam Orbit, Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks, Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000, Asus Eee PC webcams (linux-uvc).
  • support for the Elantech multitouch Touchpad.
  • various new WMI drivers for different notebooks and netbooks.
  • fw-detect to probe for hardware with non-free needs.
  • memtest86+.
  • persistent userprofile defaults for new users.
  • OpenJDK 6 as part of the kde-full variant.
  • employ "insserv" to reorder the bootsequence based on LSB headers.
  • Correctly validate and support special characters within the installer.
  • support kvm (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for kde-full; kvm depends on hardware virtualisation support (AMD pacifica virtualisation extensions "svm" or Intel IVT (vanderpool) virtualization extensions "vmx")
  • WPA roaming support for Ceni.
  • switch to console-setup for CLI keymaps.
  • localisation fixes for Switzerland and Canada.
  • force vfat filsystems mounted by KDE to iso-8859-1
  • prefer ati/ "radeon" over "radeonhd" for detecting the video card.
  • Plug'n'Play compatible printers are now handled by hal-cups-utils.
  • lock down $HOME on default.
  • compatibility fix for systemes with multiple optical disc drives.
  • further improvements in regard to $HOME detection and install avoidance in case of existing content.

Localisation:

A new feature since sidux 2008-03 "Ουρέα" is the ability to select all other languages than German or US English from the grub menu (F4) in the kde-full flavour, installing the localisations for the desktop and many applications while booting. This ensures they are also present after installing sidux, while only installing the required languages for the given system. The amount of memory required for this feature depends on the language and sidux may refuse to install the given language packs automatically with insufficient RAM and the boot sequence will be continued in english language but with the desired locales-settings (currency, date/ time format, keyboard charsets). 512 MB memory or more is supposed to be safe for all supported languages, which are:

  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Greek
  • English (GB)
  • French
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Croatian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (BR and PT)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • the language selection depends on the availability of sidux-manual translations, get involved to add your language.

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).

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.

sidux security advisory/ lock down $HOME

While refactoring the sidux installer, a potential local privilege escalation issue has been discovered, which leaves a copy of the installer's configuration file on the target system. This configuration file also contains the salted MD5 password hashes for root and the first user account (UID 1000) and remains readable for local users. While this does not reveal these passwords directly, it can be used for a brute force attack against them.

Affected releases:

  • 2007-01 Χάος
  • 2007-02 Τάρταρς
  • 2007-03/ 2007-03.1 Γάια
  • 2007-04/ 2007-04.5 Έρως
  • 2008-01 Νυξ
  • 2008-02 Έρεβος
  • 2008-03 Ουρέα

Fix:

find /root /home -maxdepth 2 -type f -name '.sidconf*' -delete

Especially on multi-user systems, it is recommended to change the passwords for root and the first user (UID 1000) as well, this can be done using "passwd" as root/ user. The cause for this issue has been found and sidux 2008-04 "Πόντος" is not affected.

Debian creates home directories with 0751 access permissions, sidux diverge from this default and enforce 0700 for new installs. 

sed -i 's/^DIR_MODE=.*/DIR_MODE=0700/' /etc/adduser.conf
dpkg-reconfigure adduser
(deny "system-wide readable home directories")

ALSA OSS compatibility layer

Starting with alsa-driver 1.0.17.dfsg-3, the OSS compatibility modules are not loaded on default anymore. While this shouldn't impose any problems on modern linux systems, some commercial- or legacy applications might still require OSS support. Given that ALSA's in-kernel emulation for OSS is rather limited (no software based mixing, so there can only be one application accessing /dev/dsp at once), ALSA compatible applications should be preferred instead, but if OSS compatibility is required there are two alternatives available:

  • aoss wrapper
    /usr/bin/aoss is part of the alsa-oss package and can wrap around legacy applications to trap into OSS calls by transparently mapping the OSS ABI on ALSA; this usually allows to take advantage of most ALSA features.
  • in-kernel ALSA emulation
    better binary compatibility (emulated /dev/dsp, /dev/audio and /dev/mixer device nodes are created), but this allows no software based mixing, so there can only be one sound application active at the same time.

For most applications it is preferred to start the affected applications with "aoss <program>" to keep the advantages of software based mixing and concurrent access to the sound hardware, but there might be rare cases which require the in-kernel OSS compatibility layer. This can be activated, if needed, by loading the snd-pcm-oss, snd-mixer-oss and snd-seq-midi modules. 

for i in snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-midi; do
	grep -q "^${i}" /etc/modules  || echo "${i}" >> /etc/modules
	grep -q "^${i}" /proc/modules || modprobe "${i}"
done

Broadcom b43 wlan

Kernels >2.6.25 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

console-setup

The console keymaps are now handled by "console-setup". 

apt-get install console-setup
dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

gspca2

Kernel 2.6.27 ships with the new v4l2 based gspca2 driver, which replaces the old v4l1 based external gspca driver, which is needed for a large number of different webcams. Unfortunately most userspace programs are not aware of the new v4l2 API for devices formerly covered by gspca, meanwhile they need to be started using "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <program>". 

# apt-get update
# apt-get install libv4l-0
$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <program>

insserv

Warning: This package should be used with care, as incorrect or missing LSB dependencies of existing initscripts can lead to an unbootable system. Installing insserv on an existing install might require some manual changes and is not recommended. Please read /usr/share/doc/insserv/README.Debian carefully before installing insserv.

Obsolete packages

As part of the continuing development of sidux, a number of packages have been replaced by better alternatives or become redundant.

  • capi-isdnconf, obsolete.
  • configure-xawtv, obsolete.
  • gprsconnect, replaced by umtsmon.
  • ipw2100-firmware, replaced by firmware-ipw2x00.
  • ipw2200-firmware, replaced by firmware-ipw2x00.
  • modemlink, replaced by umtsmon and wvdial.
  • ppp-scripts, replaced by umtsmon.

The following command is able to find packages not available from any active apt repository and may hint at obsolete packages, be careful about manually installed packages though. apt-show-versions is a separate package and isn't necessarily preinstalled. 

$ apt-show-versions | awk '/No available version in archive/{print $1}'

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 2009-01 "Ουρανός" — Q1 2009
  • sidux 2009-02 "Αιθήρ" — Q2 2009
  • sidux 2009-03 "Μώμος" — Q3 2009
  • sidux 2009-04 "Μόρος" — Q4 2009

Special thanks go to the entire sidux team.

Developers:

Joaquim Boura (x-un-i)
Michael Deelwater (ModestUser)
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)
Alpha Mohamed Diakite (alphad)
Stefan R. Eissens (eislon)
Roland Engert (RoEn)
Gregory Gretri (grigris)
HarzG
Richard Holt (Richard)
Markus Huber (hubi)
Philippe Masson (LjanA)
Markus Müller (moto)
Mutsumu Nomura (muchan)
Gabriel Palade (ladepa)
Nicolas Poniros (edhunter)
Dinko Sabo (cobra)
speedygeo
Trevor Walkley (bluewater)
zenren
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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