What's new in Frugalware Linux 2.1
Sep 5, 2016
- Linux kernel 4.7.2
- Xorg server 1.18.4
- Mesa 12.0.1
- KDE (Plasma) 5.7.3
- GNOME 3.20.2
- LibreOffice 5.2.1.2
- Mozilla Firefox 48.0.2
- Chromium browser 52.0.2743.116
New in Frugalware Linux 2.0 (Feb 17, 2015)
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 3.14.19
- Xorg server 1.15.2
- KDE 4.14.3
- GNOME 3.12.2
- Xfce 4.10.1
- LXDE 0.99.0
- LibreOffice 4.3.3.2
- Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1
- Chromium browser 39.0.2171.96
- New features:
- MATE 1.8.1
New in Frugalware Linux 2.0 RC2 (Dec 24, 2014)
New in Frugalware Linux 1.9 (Nov 6, 2013)
- Updated packages: Linux kernel 3.10.17, XOrg server 1.14.2, GNOME 3.8, KDE 4.11, LibreOffice 4.1.2.3, Mozilla Firefox 22.0 to name a few major components.
- netconfig has been replaced by NetworkManager
- frugalwareutils has been replaced by the new fvbeutils
- vi binary symlinks are now configurable, used to be hardcoded to their packages
- old display-manager-legacy.service has been dropped for the new systemd method of individual service files
- console keymaps and x11 keymaps are now managed by the systemd method
New in Frugalware Linux 1.9 RC2 (Sep 17, 2013)
- This release fixes a number of minor issues with the installer.
- A case where TAB would cycle through the wrong order with the widgets in the partition formatting window is now fixed.
- Installer no longer relies on HOSTNAME for determining if it is within the live environment.
- It is now possible to skip IPv6 configuration and adding a new user.
- A case where a crash happened when the swap filesystem mount path is empty is now fixed.
- A missing locale file is now symlinked on new grub installs. It was a harmless bug, but still needed fixing.
- Installer now automatically starts after booting and the other TTYs have login information if you need shell access.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.9 RC1 (Sep 3, 2013)
- Starting with this release, our old display-manager-legacy.service and /etc/sysconfig/desktop system has been replaced by a system where each display manager provides their own service file. You can switch to this new system by using the new dmconfig utility or through use of systemctl.
- Also, we have removed the vi symlinks that we used to provide. These were hardcoded to a specific editor (VIM) before. The new system is to manage these symlinks with the new viconfig utility or by manually creating the symlinks to your preferred editor.
- At least one bug has been fixed since last release. The system for mounting local packages to use as an install source has been redesigned to work more consistently. Some users were reporting installation failures because of how the package source was mounted before. This should now be fixed.
- Now for the installer instructions. You will need to login as root after the ISO boots using the password fvbe. To run the installer, use the command fwsetup.
- One final note is that we are looking for someone to design a new 16 color palette for the new installer. Currently it uses the color palette from Mandriva's NEWT patches. If you are interested, then contact us on IRC or the forums.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.9 Pre1 (Apr 9, 2013)
- This is the first preview release of Frugalware 1.9. It also marks the first public testing for our new live CD environment, FVBE, and our new installer called fwsetup.
- This has been in development for 8 months already, and is a compilation of 4 older projects. They are fwlive, setup, fwife, and frugalwareutils. In this new project, they are integrated so they will share a common codebase. This should help avoid the fragmentation like we had with setup and fwife.
- The new installer should be feature complete in terms of replacing the old installer. However, some parts were removed because of disuse or just plain uselessness. And some features are entirely new, such as the keyboard layout selection that also configures your X11 XKB layout.
- The main feature that is not yet implemented is a replacement for netconfig. It should be finishd by pre2. There are no other major features planned for the new installer during this release cycle, as the existing stuff needs to be tested more.
- There has also been changes to what kinds of ISOs we will build from now on. Starting with this release, we will only provide ISOs with packages from the main package groups. Anything from -extra will only be available via net install or after install is complete. By pre2, net install ISOs should also be available.
- Also of interest is that our new ISOs are now using GRUB2 to boot and no longer using isolinux to boot. GRUB2 natively supports BIOS hybrid ISOs for our i686 branch and BIOS/UEFI hybrid ISOs for our x86_64 branch. UEFI mode is only supported for booting at this time, and not for installation.
- One other thing is that the new installer has been primarily tested on x86_64 using the ISO mode of the hybrid ISO. So, we need the most testing on i686 and USB mode. Any feedback will be examined, to help improve the new installer.
- Current known issues include network not working after initial install. For now, run netconfig after logging in as root. This should work as a temporary fix until we can implement the netconfig replacement.
- To use the new installer, you will need to login as root after the ISO boots using the password fvbe. To run the installer, use the command fwsetup.
- One final note is that we are looking for someone to design a new 16 color palette for the new installer. Currently it uses the color palette from Mandriva's NEWT patches. If you are interested, then contact us on IRC or the forums.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.8 (Feb 7, 2013)
- Updated packages: Linux kernel 3.7.5, XOrg server 1.13.2, GNOME 3.6, KDE 4.9, LibreOffice 3.6.3.2, Mozilla Firefox 18.0.1 to name a few major components.
- video decoding acceleration is now enabled in most multimedia applications
- cpu scaling should now work out of the box on i686 and x86_64
- cpupower is now only needed to modify the default cpu scaling settings
- mesa 7.11 drivers revived to support hardware that mesa upstream dropped support for
- utf8 is now the default locale encoding for new installs and upgrades
New in Frugalware Linux 1.8 RC2 (Jan 21, 2013)
New in Frugalware Linux 1.8 Pre2 (Dec 10, 2012)
- Linux kernel was updated to version 3.6.6;
- KDE SC was updated to version 4.9.3;
- GNOME was updated to version 3.6;
- XOrg Server was updated to version 1.13.0;
- cpu scaling on i686 and x86_64 now works out of the box for most hardware
- cpupower is now only needed if you want to change the default behavior
- video decoding acceleration libraries have been enabled in most multimedia programs
New in Frugalware Linux 1.7 (Aug 20, 2012)
- Updated packages: Linux kernel 3.4.8, XOrg server 1.12.3, GNOME 3.4, KDE SC 4.9, LibreOffice 3.5.4.2, Mozilla Firefox 14.0.1 to name a few major components.
- slocate was removed and replaced by mlocate
- catalyst has dropped support for all ATI Radeon HD hardware before the 5000 series
- cpupower package has replaced all CPU scaling daemons
- all packages that still used sysvinit have been converted to use systemd
- grub1 has been replaced by grub2
- localtime should now work again
New in Frugalware Linux 1.6 RC2 (Jan 30, 2012)
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 3.1.10
- LibreOffice 3.4.5
- ~100 updated packages
- 27 new packages
- New features:
- New cpupower (LWN article) and perf packages
- kmod replaced module-init-tools
- Fixes:
- The installer now handles network timeout errors
- Documentation updates
New in Frugalware Linux 1.6 Pre2 (Dec 19, 2011)
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 3.1
- XOrg server 1.11.2
- KDE SC 4.7.4
- Firefox 8.0.1
- Chromium 16.0.912.63
- Blender 2.60
- 1.1.0 release of the core EFL component
- New features:
- All services used by the default installation now have native systemd units
- Installer images now use isohybrid on x86, separate USB images no longer provided.
- Chrony is now the default NTP client.
- /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab now contains UUID's on new installs
New in Frugalware Linux 1.5 RC2 (Aug 1, 2011)
- Package updates:
- Linux Kernel 2.6.39.3
- XOrg server 1.10.3
- LXDE updated (lxsession-lite-0.4.6,lxpanel-0.5.7,lxlauncher-0.2.2,lxterminal-0.1.10...)
- 1.0.1 release of the core EFL libraries
- Mozilla Firefox 5.0.1
- 245 packages updated
- 20 new packages
- New features:
- Our Vim package gained Python nsupport.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.5 Pre1 (Apr 19, 2011)
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 2.6.38
- Gnome 3.0
- KDE 4.6
- Firefox 4.0
- XFCE 4.8 with some bug fix releases (4.8.1), see here the details brought by this version.
- 1.0 release of the core EFL libraries (details)
- New features:
- systemd is now the default init system
- Initial ARM port
- XFCE now has lcdfilter for fonts like GNOME
- Full package archive is now available on DVD only, instead we offer a smaller (~200MB-sized) CD for installing a base-only system.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.4 RC1 (Jan 10, 2011)
- Package updates:
- Linux 2.6.36.2
- Firefox 3.6.13, Chromium 10.0.616.0
- Midnight Commander 4.7.5
- New Features:
- New LCD font rendering available in GNOME. If you use digital video output, this will improve font appearance.
- OSSv4 has been added. Feel free to try it out if you have issues with ALSA.
- systemd is now available as an alternative of sysvinit.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.3 (Aug 23, 2010)
- Updated packages: Linux kernel 2.6.35, Xorg server 1.8, GNOME 2.30, KDE 4.4.5 to name a few major components.
- For the first time in the history of Frugalware Linux, we're offering an official graphical netinstall image, search for the "-gui" suffix on the ftp mirrors.
- This time we've verified that no workaround is needed to install this release in VMware and because of this, the relevant note is removed from the documentation.
- The monolithic configuration of XOrg is now split to the xorg.conf.d directory. You can still use the monolithic config, but the config files in the new directory have priority. XOrg now also uses udev to detect your hardware automatically, /etc/X11/xorg.conf is no longer generated by default.
- Updated image libraries: libjpeg 8 and libpng 1.4. While adding support for these new libraries, we touched 1500+ packages, doing various minor fixes and improvements.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.3 RC2 (Aug 9, 2010)
- Improvements and fixes:
- The included new Linux 2.6.35 kernel comes with various new drivers and features (summary).
- Fixed the USB installer, the image we shipped in 1.3rc1 was missing a working bootloader on it.
- Fixed the KDE artwork.
- A candidate of the 1.2 to 1.3 upgrade guide is now available.
- Package updates:
- Linux 2.6.35
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6.8, Chromium 6.0.472.14 with vp8 support
- Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.1
- 429 package updates
- 46 new packages
New in Frugalware Linux 1.2 (Mar 8, 2010)
- Up to date packages: Linux kernel 2.6.32.8, GNU C library 2.11.1, Xorg 7.5, GNOME 2.28, KDE 4.3.5 to name a few major components.
- KMS (Kernel Mode-Setting) is now enabled by default for Intel and Radeon cards.
- PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is now part of the base system.
- Introduced devtmpfs: you can now exclude /dev from backups, along with /proc and /sys.
- Removed several large games from the install images (CD/DVD) which means one less DVD or 4 less CDs.
- We finally upgraded our KDE (and related) packages to the 4.x branch. The work started back in April 2009 and now we thought it's a good move to merge that testing repository.
- This release comes with Xorg 7.5, see the upstream list of new features.
- We've updated our bluez userspace stack to the 4.x branch, which allowed us to improve both GNOME and KDE bluetooth support.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.2 RC1 (Feb 8, 2010)
- Improvements:
- We finally upgraded our KDE (and related) packages to the 4.x branch. The work started back in April 2009 and now we thought it's a good move to merge that testing repository.
- Updated artwork.
- Package updates:
- KDE 4.3.5
- GNU C Library 2.11.1
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6
- Thunderbird 3.0.1
- More than 400 other package updates
- More than 100 new packages
New in Frugalware Linux 1.1 (Sep 7, 2009)
- Up to date packages: Linux kernel 2.6.30.5, GNU C library 2.10.1, Xorg 7.4 with xorg-server 1.6, GNOME 2.26.3, XFCE 4.6.1, GCC 4.4.0 to name a few major components.
- Major review in the documentation: numerous grammatical fixes and various extensions.
- An x86_64 flash plugin is now part of the default installation.
- Etoile is now part of the repository, see this post for more details.
- Major update on the graphical installer (fwife), see the changelog here and there.
- Packaged android-sdk, for those who want network access from Frugalware through their Android phones.
- Just a FYI in case you are using the ext3 filesystem, which is our current default: though we ship the latest stable kernel, we did not switch the default value of the 'data' option to 'writeback', the feature which still makes ext3 seem more robust than ext4 at the time of writing. See here for more information.
- New artwork includes a new wallpaper and a new Gnome theme.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.1 RC1 (Aug 4, 2009)
- Improvements:
- Etoile is now part of the repository, see this post for more details.
- Major update on the graphical installer (fwife), see the changelog here and there.
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 2.6.30.3
- GnuTLS 2.8
- More than 400 package updates
- More than 100 new packages
New in Frugalware Linux 1.1 Pre 2 (Jul 7, 2009)
- Improvements:
- An x86_64 flash plugin is now part of the default installation.
- Just a FYI in case you are using the ext3 filesystem, which is our current default: though we ship the latest stable kernel, we did not switch the default value of the 'data' option to 'writeback', the feature which still makes ext3 seem more robust than ext4 at the time of writing. See here for more information.
- Package updates:
- GNU C library 2.10.1
- Linux kernel 2.6.30
- Xorg 7.4 with xorg-server 1.6
- GNOME 2.26.3
- Xfce 4.6.1
- GCC 4.4.0
- More than 980 package updates
- More than 100 new packages
New in Frugalware Linux 1.1 Pre 1 (May 12, 2009)
- The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.1pre1, the first technical preview of the upcoming 1.1 stable release.A short and incomplete list of changes since 1.0: The installer is built with debug support by default for the pre-releases to help bug reporters; major review in the documention - numerous grammatical fixes and various extensions; package updates - Linux kernel 2.6.29.2 + fixes, GNOME 2.26, Mono 2.4, more than 800 other package updates, more than 70 new packages.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.0 (Mar 22, 2009)
- The version number 1.0 does not indicate anything really special, the new release will bring as many new features and bug fixes as usual, but it's still a milestone in the development of the last five years. Here are the most important changes since 0.9 in no particular order: support for ASUS Eee PC models; new PPC port (though security support will not be available for this architecture in this release cycle due to lack of resources); support for having a 32-bit chroot on x86_64; having '/boot' on a RAID1 device is now supported; gService, a new graphical tool for enabling and disabling services; Java plugin on x86_64; support for the ext4 file system.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.0 RC2 (Mar 8, 2009)
- Improvements:
- Updated the graphical installer (more info here and here).
- Updated the artwork.
- Fixes in the setup:
- Fixed the detection of wireless cards (it asked for ESSID for wired interfaces as well).
- Fixed GRUB installation when /boot is on RAID1.
- Handle existing home directories for new users.
- Package updates:
- Linux kernel 2.6.28.7 + fixes
- KDE 3.5.10
- PHP 5.2.9
- More than 150 other package updates
- More than 20 new packages
New in Frugalware Linux 1.0 RC1 (Feb 22, 2009)
- experimental support for the ext4 file system;
- Java plugin for x86_64 architecture;
- gService - implemented a brand new graphical runlevel editor;
- package updates - Linux kernel 2.6.28 + fixes, Python 3.0, GNOME 2.24.3, OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6;
- more than 500 other package updates and more than 90 new packages.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.0 Pre 2 (Jan 13, 2009)
- support for having /boot on a RAID1 device;
- improved support for detecting network card names;
- serial ports are now owned by the 'dialout' (instead of 'uucp') group;
- for Virtual Box users the kernel module is now a separate package to stop wasting bandwidth and time;
- for Pidgin users, an alternative MSN support has been provided in case the default one has problems, the package is called 'msn-pecan';
- package updates - Mono 2.0.1, Python 2.6.1, GNOME 2.24.2, more than 800 other package updates, more than 100 new packages.
New in Frugalware Linux 1.0 Pre 1 (Nov 4, 2008)
- The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware Linux 1.0pre1, the first technical preview of the upcoming 1.0 stable release. A short and incomplete list of changes since 0.9: the first Frugalware installer front-end landed in the package repository, yes, a graphical one, initial 'ppc' port, it has been actively tested on Apple boxes: iBook/Power Macintosh models, but IBM hardware is not yet supported; support for having a 32-bit chroot on x86_64 has now arrived; this release should install and run fine on ASUS Eee PC models; package updates - Linux 2.6.27 + security fixes, GCC 4.3.2, GNOME 2.24.1, OpenOffice.org 3.0.
New in Frugalware Linux 0.9 (Sep 9, 2008)
- The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 0.9, our ninth stable release. No new features have been added since 0.9rc2, but about 40 changes have been made to fix minor bugs. If you didn't follow the changes during the pre-releases, here are the most important changes since 0.8: up to date base system - Linux kernel 2.6.26, glibc 2.8 and GCC 4.3.1; updated desktop packages - GNOME 2.22, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 and Firefox 3.0.1; setup - improved support for machines with multiple network cards, the USB installer is now easier to start, fixed/documented installation in VirtualBox and VMware; improved graphical tools - FUN (update notifier) now supports news notifications.