Posted by : slh on Feb 14, 2007 - 03:36 AM Release Notes

We are a little late in our release schedule for sidux 2007-01 since Kernel 2.6.20 entered the stage, most of our efforts have gone into adapting sidux for the new kernel, fixing a number of smaller issues reported over the last two weeks so we would like to take the opportunity of releasing another preview to test regressions imposed by kernel 2.6.20 and to confirm fixes we cannot test ourselves. Please note this is not the final release. The full featured final release of sidux-2007-01 "Χάος" will be ready soon (i686 and amd64), intermediate xdeltas will be provided as needed until then.
As already mentioned in "sidux Release Plan" we're skipping preview 2 which couldn't be released due to grave bugs in time, special thanks go to our qa teams to uncover these issues on their hardware.

This release is meant to check for potential regressions introduced by kernel 2.6.20, to confirm bugfixes introduced over the last 2 weeks and to test some further development on sidux core packages. We're still using a pretty small package list which leaves some room for additions and awaits your suggestions. Again it is completely based on Debian Sid and enriched & stabilized with sidux own packages and scripts. It comes with kernel 2.6.20, which is based on the most recent vanilla kernel together with several patches for improved hardware support and allows initial testing of kvm for pacifica or vanderpool compatible CPUs (AMD64 for socket AM2, Intel Core2). Other special purpose kernels are available from the sidux servers. Reportedly binary nvidia and ATi drivers don't cope very well with kernel 2.6.20 yet, while there are chances to get nVidia running ATi seems to have more problems, due to their closed source nature we're awaiting fixes from their respective upstreams which will be made available as soon as possible.

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

• amd64 (AMD64, Intel Core2, newer 64 bit capable Pentium 4 CPUs (watch for the "lm" flag in /proc/cpuinfo or use infobash -v3) and i686 (pentium pro/ pentium II or newer).
• debian sid, up to date as of 2007-02-13.
• kernel 2.6.20 (smp, voluntary preemption).
  • kvm virtualization support for pacifica or vanderpool compatible CPUs (AMD64 for socket AM2, Intel Core2)
• minimal, but fully functional KDE 3.5.5 (en + de).
• completely overhauled live mode.
• largely adapted installer.
• new graphical installer frontend.
• netcardconfig can cope with wpa/ wpa2 again.
• offline manual for en + de directly on the disc, online manuals for more languages online at http://manual.sidux.com/; a big thank you goes to the documentation and translation teams!
• a completely new ISO creation process written from scratch in a clean room environment.

What hasn't made it into the preview yet:

• merging the great artwork from Cathbard and cleary hasn't happened completely yet, it won't appear until the final release.
• we're working with a small package list for now, to ease up testing, further xdelta patches and to leave some headroom for discussions which of your package wishes can become part of the final ISO.
• we cannot provide an updateinstall due to largely changed technical concepts in favour of providing a clean debian sid based system.
• the preview contains only DFSG free software, this affects hardware support for devices that need non-free components, such as firmwares (see below).
• the grub bootmenu is still work in progress.

Hints for hardware with non-free needs:

(after adding contrib/ non-free to /etc/apt/sources.list and ensuring internet access)

• ATi Radeon graphics: 3d acceleration for older cards up to r35x should work, newer Radeon X1xxx cards need non-free drivers for accelerated performance, please use get-sidux-binary-gfx to fetch install scripts for these cards - initial support for kernel 2.6.20 has been merged and needs to be tested (this might not work under all circumstances with kernel 2.6.20 yet, 2.6.19.x kernels are still available on our servers).
• Atheros/ "madwifi" wlan: m-a a-i madwifi.
• Atmel AT76c50x 11 MBit/s wlan: apt-get install atmel-firmware
• AVM ISDN/ ADSL PCI/ USB Karten: AVM's closed source driver are not compatible with kernel 2.6.19.x yet, please download kernel 2.6.18.x (http://sidux.net/files/kernel/) for now and use m-a a-i avm.
• 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 firmwares for various full featured DVB TV cards (most budget cards won't need this): fetch the needed firmeware (check dmesg) from http://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/firmware/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• hostap based 11 MBit/s wlan with loadable firmware (e.g. D-Link DWL-520 rev. E1 and others): http://www.oakcourt.dyndns.org/~andrew/dwl520e1.html
• Intel ipw2100, 11 MBit/s wlan: fetch the firmware from http://ipw2100.sf.net/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• Intel ipw2200, 54 MBit/s wlan: fetch the firmware from http://ipw2200.sf.net/ and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• Intel ipw3945, 54 Mbit/s wlan: apt-get install ipw3945d firmware-ipw3945
• 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 to fetch install scripts for these cards (this might not work under all circumstances with kernel 2.6.20 yet, 2.6.19.x kernels are still available on our servers).
• RaLink rt61 54 MBit/s wlan, fetch the firmware from http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html
• Texas Instruments ACX100 (22 Mbit/s)/ ACX111 (54 MBit/s) wlan, fetch the firmware from http://acx100.erley.org/acx_fw/acx1xx.htm and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• ZyDAS zd1201 11 MBit/s wlan: apt-get install zd1201-firmware
• ZyDAS zd1211 54 MBit/s wlan: fetch the firmware from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=129083 and place it under /lib/firmware/.
• We will check if we can provide packages for at least some of these devices, but the legal status isn't necessarily easy.

This is still a preview, please help us to improve the final release with testing an reporting all issues you encounter, especially:

• the new graphical installer.
• boot cheats like fromiso, toram.
• new installer for nvidia & ati gfx drivers.
• operations with SCSI or S-ATA optical drives.
• general operations as a whole.
• initial USB support for the installer
• initial GUI for handling meta tasks
• numerous localization/ keymap related fixes

Roadmap

• sidux-2007-01 "Χάος" - calender week 5-6 2007, yes we're a bit late - the release will happen as soon as possible
• sidux-2007-02 "Τάρταρος" - calender week 16-17 2007
• sidux-2007-03 "Γαῖα" - calender week 27-28 2007
• sidux-2007-04 "Ἔρως" - calender week 40-41 2007
• sidux-2008-01 "Νύξ" - calender week 3-4 2008
• sidux-2008-02 "Έρεβος" - calender week 15-16 2008

Disclaimer:

This is experimental software. Use at your own risk. The sidux project, it's developers and team members (all represented by the sidux Foundation, Inc) 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 synch:

• http://debian.tu-bs.de/project/sidux/preview/ (Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, Germany)
• ftp://ftp.spline.de/mirrors/sidux/ (Freie Universität Berlin/ Institut für Informatik, Germany)

Special thanks go to the whole sidux development team:

Joaquim Boura (x-un-i)
Roland Engert (RoEn)
etorix
Bernard Gray (cleary)
Andreas Hausmann (Bodhi)
Chris Hildebrandt (slam)
Ralph Hokanson Jr. (piper)
Harald Hope (h2)
Kel Modderman (kelmo)
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh)
Ferdi Thommes (devil)
Horst Tritremmel (hjt)
Niall Walsh (bfree)
Trevor Walkley (bluewater)
Andreas Weber (webera)
and many more

Thanks to all involved for making this possible:
     Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh)