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Finnix Changelog

What's new in Finnix 111

Jun 5, 2015
  • Finnix 111 includes support for the ARM architecture, OverlayFS support, as well as other features and bugfixes.
  • ARM support:
  • Finnix 111 introduces support for the ARM (armhf) architecture, in addition to existing x86 and PowerPC archicture support. Finnix 111 for ARM is currently classified as a "technology preview", and primarily targets the Versatile Express A9 platform, as emulated by QEMU. This makes it easy to download and test via QEMU on a standard PC without special hardware.
  • Additional platforms are planned for the future. Finnix for ARM has been successfully tested on the Raspberry Pi 2, when combined with Raspberry Pi firmware and a custom kernel.
  • OverlayFS support:
  • Finnix 111 includes Linux kernel 4.0, which includes OverlayFS functionality. Previous Finnix releases used AUFS to overlay a ramdisk on top of a compressed root filesystem, but required a kernel patch, as AUFS is not in the upstream Linux kernel. Finnix 111 now uses OverlayFS directly, which means that special (non-upstream) kernel functionality is no longer required in Finnix kernels. This will help VPS providers better integrate Finnix into their platforms, and will make kernel maintenance easier for future releases.

New in Finnix 110 (Jun 2, 2014)

  • Includes Linux kernel 3.13.
  • Updated Debian upstream software.
  • Bug fixes and feature enhancements.

New in Finnix 109 (Nov 16, 2013)

  • Finnix 109 includes a number of new features and bug fixes. Linux kernel 3.10 is included, USB 3.0 boot support has been fixed, PowerPC G5 automatic fan / thermal control has been implemented, and "nomodeset" is now passed by default, increasing boot compatibility on many Radeon graphics cards.

New in Finnix 108 (May 10, 2013)

  • This version contains Linux kernel 3.8, updated Debian upstream software, bugfixes, and minor feature enhancements.

New in Finnix 107 (Dec 27, 2012)

  • Linux 3.6:
  • Finnix 107 includes Linux kernel 3.6, and includes a fix for the (overhyped, it seems) ext4 corruption bug.
  • Faster startup, faster shutdown:
  • Average Finnix startup times have been reduced even further by the cleanup of legacy code. In addition, the shutdown procedure, which largely has not changed in years, got a revamp and is now noticeably quicker.
  • isohybrid support included:
  • The x86 ISO is now being built with the isohybrid method, meaning you can now write the ISO directly to a USB flash drive at the block level to boot it.
  • findiso support added, grub-finnix utility released:
  • Finnix 107 includes support for searching for and mounting a Finnix ISO on a filesystem (findiso=/path/to/finnix-107.iso). This can be used to create a GRUB 2 configuration on a server/workstation to boot a Finnix ISO directly. To that end, I have released a utility for Debian/Ubuntu, grub-finnix, which hooks into the update-grub2 system to automatically handle building the necessary GRUB 2 config.
  • finnix-hwsubmit redesigned:
  • The finnix-hwsubmit utility has been completely redesigned. The report format is now in a standardized machine-parsable yet easy to read format (MIME), you will be given a URL of the submitted report, and you can choose to make the report public. Public reports are available at hwsubmit.finnix.org.
  • New utilities included:
  • A number of new packages have been included with Finnix 107, including: arping, bridge-utils, chntpw, cmospwd, ifenslave-2.6, sshfs, testdisk, udftools, zerofree. iPXE has also been added to the main x86 boot menu.

New in Finnix 106 (Oct 30, 2012)

  • Finnix 106 includes Linux kernel 3.5, and notably fixes a major bug observed in Finnix 105 where booting would freeze if the system's disk included an extended partition.

New in Finnix 104 (Feb 14, 2012)

  • This version is a maintenance and rollup release.
  • It includes updated upstream Debian software, Linux kernel 3.2, small functionality updates, and a large number of bugfixes.

New in Finnix 100 (Oct 28, 2010)

  • dist-upgrade
  • Upgraded kernels to 2.6.32 (Debian 2.6.32-26).
  • Upgraded Memtest86+ to 4.10.
  • Many fixes related to Debian and Linux upgrades.
  • Changed auto mount creation point from /mnt to /media.
  • Fixed inclusion of network module dependencies when generating a netboot initrd.
  • Removed finnix-thumbdrive (use UNetbootin instead)
  • Switched from unionfs2 to aufs for union filesystem (aufs is included in Debian kernels now; technically Finnix can now be run on "stock" unmodified Debian kernels).
  • Added ability for compressed root filesystem (/FINNIX directory) to be placed inside initrd
  • Added ability to skip shutdown/reboot countdown by pressing Enter during the countdown
  • Changed default DNS servers from defunct provider to Google Public DNS

New in Finnix 93.0 (Aug 11, 2009)

  • Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 93.0 for the x86/AMD64, PowerPC, and UML/Xen platforms.
  • Finnix 93.0 itself is a maintenance release, but due to the length of time between Finnix 92.1 and 93.0, the time between Debian upstream updates warranted a major version number bump. New features include Linux kernel 2.6.30, and updated upstream software.

New in Finnix 92.1 (Dec 4, 2008)

  • Today marks the release of version 92.1 for the x86/AMD64, PowerPC, and UML/Xen platforms. Finnix 92.1 is a regular maintenance release. New features include Linux kernel 2.6.26, updated upstream software, and x86 boot menu cleanups. Changes: dist-upgrade; upgraded kernels to 2.6.26 (Debian 2.6.26-7); added space after boot parameters in x86 boot menu, to add extra boot parameters, simply select a menu item, press Tab, then start typing extra parameters; re-added F2 cheat codes x86 boot screen, which did not carry over in the menu transition; removed dvdrtools; added Emad, an action adventure side-scrolling RPG platformer about a boy and his loving pet pig in 38th-century Scotland.