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KaOS Changelog

What's new in KaOS 2016.09

Sep 13, 2016
  • Desktop:
  • A new addition for KaOS is a First Run Wizard. It will run on the newly installed system and enables with just a few clicks to adjust mouse behavior, menu launcher, desktop theme, used wallpaper, color scheme, widget style, window decoration and virtual desktops used. With one click this Wizard will also link to KaOS Documentation and all contact info.
  • Another first on this ISO is a new tool to write ISO files to USB. Not only does IsoWriter write to USB it also gives the option to recover your USB stick after using it for an ISO, something that regular dd copy or the previously used Imagewriter were not able to do.
  • The Plasma Desktop includes Frameworks 5.26.0, Plasma 5.7.90, KDE Applications 16.08.1 & not yet released ports of KDE Applications. All built on Qt 5.7.0. Changes in Plasma 5.8 include much improved support for multi-screen setups and docking stations, support for modifier-only shortcuts (default: Meta to open launcher menu), global shortcuts for launching applications and their jumplist actions, KWin now supports the llvmpipe driver for OpenGL, compositing removal of unredirect-fullscreen, replaced by compositing blocking and a rewritten Pager using less CPU and memory, shared back-end processing with the Task Manager.
  • For Plasma 5.8 the used Midna theme has been updated in many parts, this includes on all new SDDM theme, new gfxboot splashscreen, redone panel launchers, updated Logout and Lock screen, several new icons, including icons for the system tray.
  • The installer now automates setting your location on the world map and has improved volume scanning so it won’t show live USB or optical drives as install options.
  • Base of the system:
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are a Boost 1.61.0, FFMPEG 3.1.3, Linux 4.7.3, Systemd 231, Poppler 0.47.0, Python 3.5.2, Gstreamer 1.8.3, Protobuf 3.0.2 and MariaDB 10.1.17
  • KaOS repositories no longer provide Qt 4. It is a good three years ago that development for Qt 4 stopped, late 2015 all support including security fixes ended. Any application that has not made the transition to Qt 5 in all this time can no longer be supported in KaOS. Either they actually are no longer maintained or their development is ignoring the implications of building on a possible insecure toolkit.
  • The Linux kernel has all the needed ucode build-in for a fully automated Early Microcode update.

New in KaOS 2016.07 (Jul 25, 2016)

  • Desktop:
  • The Plasma Desktop includes Frameworks 5.24.0, Plasma 5.7.2, KDE Applications 16.04.3 & not yet released ports of KDE Applications. All built on Qt 5.7.0. Changes in Plasma 5.7 include improved workflows, the return of the agenda view in the calendar, the Volume Control applet gained the ability to control volume on a per-application basis & allows you to move application output between devices using drag & drop, new System Tray & Task Manager, plus huge steps towards a Wayland-based windowing system.
  • K3b is back on this ISO as the default CD/DVD creator. The port to Qt 5/Frameworks 5 has progressed to such a state that it is a fully functioning application again.
  • Some of the latest Qt 5 applications that just moved into the KaOS repositories include Amarok (back as a Frameworks 5 application), Mediainfo and Cryfs-Gui.
  • Kernel with build-in Microcode support:
  • With the move to the Linux kernel 4.6, it is now possible to fully automate the Early Microcode update. This new kernel has all needed ucode build-in, thanks to commits like these. For users, this means no need to install any ucode package, no need to adjust bootloaders or have an extra initrd just for Microcode loading. Many modern CPUs require loading microcode before everything else, as the update causes system instability otherwise.
  • Base of the system:
  • Encrypted file system support is included in the installer. LUKS encryption is available for both the automated install options as well as manual.
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are a GCC 5.4.0, Binutils 2.26.1 new toolchain, Linux 4.6.4, LLVM/Clang 3.8.1, Poppler 0.45.0, Python 3.5.2, Pulseaudio 9.0, Xorg-Server 1.18.4 and MariaDB 10.1.15
  • KaOS repositories no longer provide Qt 4. It is a good three years ago that development for Qt 4 stopped, late 2015 all support including security fixes ended. Any application that has not made the transition to Qt 5 in all this time can no longer be supported in KaOS. Either they actually are no longer maintained or their development is ignoring the implications of building on a possible insecure toolkit.
  • Common Notes:
  • The artwork includes custom icon themes for light and dark themes. Midna and Midna Dark both create a complete unified look from boot-up all the way through logout.
  • This ISO uses the CRC and finobt enabled XFS filesystem as default. CRCs enable enhanced error detection due to hardware issues, whilst the format changes also improves crash recovery algorithms and the ability of various tools to validate and repair metadata corruptions when they are found. The free inode btree does not index used inodes, allowing faster, more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.
  • It is possible for both the Live session and installed system to start a Plasma Wayland session right from the login manager. An X11 session is of course still default, but the drop-down menu has a Wayland entry too. With Plasma 5.7, the Wayland session is now possible on more systems.
  • KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs.

New in KaOS 2016.06 (Jun 25, 2016)

  • Kernel with build-in Microcode support
  • KDE Frameworks 5.23.0
  • KDE Plasma 5.6.95
  • KDE Applications 16.04.2
  • Full Disk Encryption
  • Calamares 2.3

New in KaOS 2016.04 (Apr 20, 2016)

  • Not the customary bi-monthly release this time, but celebrating the three-year anniversary of KaOS by releasing 2016.04. Reason for this earlier release is the move to Qt 5.6 and with that an update and/or rebuild of the complete Desktop.
  • QtWebengine has now replaced QtWebkit as the base for the default web-browser Qupzilla. You will find a much better multimedia experience, were full-screen video is now supported, sites like Vimeo just work and there is no longer a need to use the unmaintained since 2012 flashplugin. Pepperflash is fully compatible with new Qupzilla 2.0
  • The Plasma Desktop includes Frameworks 5.21.0, Plasma 5.6.2 and KDE Applications 16.04.0.
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are Boost 1.60.0, ICU 57.1, Xorg-server 1.18.3, gstreamer group is at 1.8.0, Libarchive 3.2RC, Alsa packages moved to 1.1.1, Linux 4.4.5, Mesa 11.2.0, Pulseaudio 8.0 and Mariadb 10.1.12.
  • Some KDE applications look like they might not make the kf5 migration. One such app is kget, it was partially ported, but all work on it has stalled for too long to keep it an option for KaOS. A new and very complete download manager has replaced kget. Fatrat will be part of KaOS default installs from now on. Another change is the move to Cantata as the default Music Manager, Clementine’s focus is still on developing for Qt 4 plus has security issues which new Sqlite tried to avoid. Cantata is fully Qt 5 ported and very well-integrated in the Plasma 5 desktop.
  • This ISO KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs, Gummiboot is depreciated.

New in KaOS 2016.03 (Mar 14, 2016)

  • The Plasma Desktop includes Frameworks 5.20.0, Plasma 5.5.5 and KDE Applications 15.12.2. A few enhancements to the Plasma 5 experience have been added, these are KaOS specific extras.
  • You now have the option to calculate the md5sum from any file from the Dolphin service menu.
  • Since the kf5 move there has not been a fully working GUI for user management, there is one added now for KaOS, you will find it under systemsettings, account details.
  • From there you can create new users, change existing user(s) role or delete a user. Also added it is a KCM for locale/language settings.
  • Thanks to the contributions of fabianalexisinostroza & forostm the artwork received a redesign in many elements. A new icon theme for light and dark themes has arrived. The Midna Dark theme received a complete overhaul with a new plasma theme, window decorations, colorscheme and new sddm & splash themes. The new work brings to Midna Dark a complete unified look.
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are a Glibc 2.23/Binutils 2.26 based new toolchain, a move of the xorg stack to 1.18, gstreamer group is at 1.6.3, a move to Pacman 5, Linux 4.4.5, Mesa 11.1.2, Pulseaudio 8.0 and Mariadb 10.1.12.
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, has moved to the 2.1 series.
  • Among the new applications that are now fully ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5, Kjots, Keneric, Kcolorchooser, SqliteBrowser and Grub2-editor.
  • KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs.

New in KaOS 2016.01 (Jan 15, 2016)

  • As always with this rolling distribution you will find the very latest packages for the Plasma Desktop, this includes Frameworks 5.18.0, Plasma 5.5.3 and KDE Applications 15.12.1. Plasma 5.5 has brought new features in the Widget Explorer, expanded options in the Applications Launchers, new widgets including Color Picker & Disk Quota, restored support for legacy system tray icons, default font has moved to Noto and Desktop Tweaks for different handling of widgets plus option to disable the desktop toolbox.
  • Among the new Applications in 15.12 are Spectacle, the new screenshot capture program.
  • Many more are now fully ported to Frameworks 5 and are part of the stable tar release in their frameworks version.
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are a Glibc 2.22 based new toolchain, a move of python 3 to 3.5, GRUB updated with the latest security fixes, Ruby 2.3.0 stack, Linux 4.3.3, Mesa 11.1.0 and LLVM/Clang moved to 3.7.1.
  • The artwork received a complete overhaul for 2016. It is back to the original simple gray look as was used when KaOS started in 2013. Work has gone into integrating all parts for one complete uniform look. You now will see one continuous theme starting with the grub bootloader to the logout screen.With the move to Linux 4.3.3 came the end of nvidia 304xx as the legacy Nvidia version. It no longer works with the latest kernels so it is time to move to nvidia 340xx as the legacy Nvidia option. This means systems running GeForce 6000/7000 GPUs (graphics cards from around 2004) need to switch to Nouveau.
  • This ISO uses the CRC and finobt enabled XFS filesystem as default. CRCs enable enhanced error detection due to hardware issues, whilst the format changes also improves crash recovery algorithms and the ability of various tools to validate and repair metadata corruptions when they are found. The free inode btree does not index used inodes, allowing faster, more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.
  • KaOS specific settings for kinit make it possible to start a Plasma Wayland session right from the login manager. An X11 session is of course still default, but the drop-down menu has a wayland entry too. With Plasma 5.5, the Wayland session is now possible on more systems.
  • This ISO KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs.
  • Among the new applications that are now fully ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5, Rosegarden, Doxygen, Genymotion, Ktorrent, Kwave and Kbibtex.
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, has moved to the 2.0 series.

New in KaOS 2015.11 (Nov 24, 2015)

  • The policy is, once a first pacman -Syu becomes a major update, it is time for a new ISO so new users are not faced with a difficult first update. With new builds effecting over half of the KaOS repositories (currently at about 2100), that new ISO is more than due.
  • As always with this rolling distribution you will find the very latest packages for the Plasma Desktop, this includes Frameworks 5.16.0, Plasma 5.4.3 and KDE Applications 15.08.3.
  • Most notable major updates to the base of the system are the Boost 1.59.0/ICU 56.1 stack, Glib2 2.46.2 stack, a move of Mariadb to the 10 series, Perl 5.22.0 stack, Linux 4.2.6, all Texlive packages updated to their 2015 versions, Qt 5.5.1 and Systemd 228.
  • Logo KaOS
  • Artwork received several updates. The all new logo is implemented over various parts of the system.
  • A fully scalable slideshow with SVG based images and QML based text was designed for the installer, replacing the old png based slides.
  • This ISO uses the CRC and finobt enabled XFS filesystem as default. CRCs enable enhanced error detection due to hardware issues, whilst the format changes also improves crash recovery algorithms and the ability of various tools to validate and repair metadata corruptions when they are found. The free inode btree does not index used inodes, allowing faster, more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.
  • KaOS specific settings for SDDM, kwin and kinit make it possible to start a Plasma Wayland session right from the login manager. An X11 session is of course still default, but the drop-down menu has a wayland entry too. The default web-browser Qupzilla is one of the first applications that heavily relied on X11 in its code that is fully ported to run a Wayland session too.
  • This ISO KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs, Gummiboot is depreciated.
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, has moved to the 2.0 series.

New in KaOS 2015.10 (Oct 3, 2015)

  • Bigger news though are two changes. This ISO is the first time that the default XFS filesystem is CRC and finobt enabled. CRCs enable enhanced error detection due to hardware issues, whilst the format changes also improves crash recovery algorithms and the ability of various tools to validate and repair metadata corruptions when they are found. The free inode btree does not index used inodes, allowing faster, more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.
  • Second is not so much an enhancement for the user, but vital for this distribution, the addition of a License Approval page to the installer. Since KaOS ships with the option to install with proprietary graphics drivers, users accepting the EULA for such drivers was sorely needed.
  • Changes to SDDM, kwin and kinit make it now possible to start a Plasma Wayland session right from the login manager. An X11 session is of course still default, but the drop-down menu has now a wayland entry too. The default web-browser Qupzilla is one of the first applications that heavily relied on X11 in its code that now is fully ported to run a Wayland session too.
  • Most notable major updates over the last two months are the Ncurses 6.0 stack, OpenCV 3.0.0 stack, Xfsprogs 4.2.0, grub 2.02beta, Networkmanager packages moved to 1.0.6, all of gstreamer is at 1.6.0 and Systemd 226.
  • Many more applications are now fully ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5, examples of the recent ports are Sweeper, KRFB, ksuperkey, Basket and Lyx.
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, has received a lot of work. Highlights of the additions:
  • An all new WebView module, which allows the deployer to show any web page in a WebKit environment.
  • An all new License module, which allows the deployer to require acceptance of licensing terms for proprietary components
  • Enhanced autologin defaults customization.
  • Swap partition support in automatic partitioning
  • Support for blacklisting modules at build time.
  • Service disabling support in the Services module.
  • Fixed a bug with swap partitions needlessly getting new UUIDs.
  • Fixed a bug with alongside install being allowed even if the DOS MBR partition table limit of 4 primary partitions is reached.
  • Several bug fixes in the partitioning component.
  • Changes for Octopi include: At Info tab, packages in “depends On” field are shown as clickable anchors. Information tab now supports “ctrl+F” searching. Help/About dialog now shows Pacman information. StatusBar msg got updated with number of selected packages more visible. When outdated packages are printed at Output tab, you can see their information just hovering the mouse over them. The built-in tool to access KCP has now a much clearer place with the addition of its own “foreign” icon in the menu-bar.
  • For UEFI installs, KaOS uses the simple, transparent but quite powerful systemd-boot as bootloader.
  • The ISO ships with Frameworks 5.14.0, Plasma 5.4.1, KDE Applications 15.08.1 & not yet released ports of KDE Applications, Linux 4.1.9, Systemd 226, Kmod 21, Networkmanager 1.0.6, Calligra 3.0Alpha, Clementine, Plasma-nm 5.4.1, Xorg-server 1.17.2, Mesa 11.0.2, Glibc 2.21, GCC 4.9.4, non-free Nvidia 352.41 and Python3 3.4.3 to name a few.

New in KaOS 2015.08.11 (Aug 16, 2015)

  • It is with great pleasure to present to you the 2015.08 ISO. This ISO brings a long list of wonderful improvements to all of KDE. Biggest part undoubtedly is the first time to have the option to run Plasma 5 in a Wayland session. It still is in an early stage so kwin_x11 is of course the default still. For all the latest on Plasma 5 see Plasma 5.4RC announcement
  • There are a few option to test a Wayland session, best working currently (possible in Live mode too) is to disable sddm sudo systemctl stop sddm
  • Log in at tty2: Ctrl-Alt-F2 and use your user-name and password to login, in live mode those are live/live
  • Then run: kwin_wayland --libinput --xwayland "plasmashell --platform wayland"
  • KaOS is also approaching a completed switch from Qt 4 to Qt 5 only. This ISO has only one application left that depends on Qt 4, hplip, The repositories have about a dozen left that still need Qt 4.
  • Screenshot_20150813_125406
  • Most notable major updates over the last two months are the Xorg 1.17 stack, Glib2 2.44.2 stack, Qt 5.50, GCC 4.9.3, Linux 4.1.5 and Systemd 224.
  • This ISO KaOS uses the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs, Gummiboot is depreciated.
  • As for the desktop this ISO brings all the latest of Plasma 5 (Frameworks 5.13.0, Plasma 5.4RC) and KDE Applications 15.07.90. All build on Qt 5.5.0. Plasma-volume-control is now part of the Plasma 5 group, renamed to Plasma-pa (for sound plasmoid). Many more applications are now fully ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5, examples of the recent ports are Megaglest, Tellico, KMahjongg, lmms, smb4k, qmmp, Basket and Lyx.

New in KaOS 2015.06 (Jun 13, 2015)

  • KaOS is proud to present the 2015.06 ISO. The policy is, once a first pacman -Syu becomes a major update, it is time for a new ISO so new users are not faced with a difficult first update. With the magnitude of changes the last two months, that new ISO is more than due.
  • Most notable major updates are the Boost/ICU stack, Gnutls/Nettles stack, a new Glibc 2.21 & Binutils 2.25 based toolchain, a move to Libpng 1.6 series, Linux 4 (4.0.5) and Systemd 220.
  • The latter now made the logical step to merge a bootloader with an init system. With this ISO KaOS moves to the Systemd provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs, Gummiboot is depreciated.
  • With Linux 4.0.5 a much simpler way for users to make sure their intel microcode is always updated on boot is implemented. The needed in-kernel modules are now built in such a way that Systemd can handle the microcode updates.
  • As for the desktop this ISO brings all the latest of Plasma 5 (Frameworks 5.9.11, Plasma 5.3.1) and KDE Applications 15.04.2. All build on Qt 5.4.2. Plasma-volume-control has replaced kmix for sound plasmoid, Kscreengenie has replaced Ksnapshot. Many more applications are now fully ported to Midna sddmQt5/Frameworks 5, biggest among those is the Calligra Suite. Also moved to Qt5 and back on this ISO is Clementine. New additions to the repositories includes applications very recently switching to Qt5, examples are Avidemux, Mixxx and Kup. The Midna artwork has expanded to now also provide a custom, modern flat icon set and a new sddm theme written in QML for KaOS.

New in KaOS 2015.04 (Apr 19, 2015)

  • Most attention has gone in updating and rebuilding well over 1200 packages the last two months. This includes updates to base packages like pacman, kmod, openssl, openssh, sudo, util-linux, cmake, ruby, nano, tzdata, full update of the complete glib2 stack and perl. PHP moved to the 5.6 series and has a much simpler build and install working.
  • As for the desktop this ISO brings all the latest of Plasma 5 (Frameworks 5.9.0, Plasma 5.2.95) and KDE Applications 15.04.0. All build on Qt 5.4.1. Many more applications are now fully ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5, among those re-added since their port became available are Skrooge, Kid3, Choqok and Kgamma. New additions to the repositories includes applications very recently switching to Qt5, examples are Wireshark, Frescobaldi and Musescore. The Midna artwork has a complete new look and recieved a good dozen bug fixes to integrate much better in Plasma 5. Issues to run AppsKaOS in virtualbox with guest-additions and sddm are fixed.
  • What was not foreseen two years ago when this distribution started that although it is limited, there seems to be a much larger user-base looking for what KaOS offers then was expected. The server in use was no longer capable to handle the tremendous increase in traffic. A second server is now deployed, the main server has moved to a much larger system. With all those infrastructure changes, the website did not stay behind, it too got a complete overhaul to show in a direct way, with clear focus what this distribution is about. Added is a Knowledge Base page which gathers many tutorials, tips, video presentations in one central place.Calamares
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, has added options in the partitioning stage, an expanded overview in the summary page, more translations added and an optional debug window. Gone is the issue with partitions not being properly unmounted.
  • OctopiOctopi is becoming a very crucial part of full system maintenance for KaOS. It is not just a GUI frontend to pacman. Tools like making sure a mirror is synced before starting any update, looking at the pacman logs were already included. Added now are an option to get a paste from a complete snapshot of all info of a system with the new SysInfo tool. Also included are very simple ways to open files, like copy to clipboard the file path shown in Octopi. To make sure the system doesn’t start using too much disk space for the pacman cache, but still giving the user the option to retain some recent packages, the cache-cleaner tool is a great addition. The built-in tool to access KCP has now a much clearer place with the addition of it’s own “foreign” icon in the menu-bar.

New in KaOS 2015.02 (Feb 25, 2015)

  • This release brings the end of KDE 4 as the default Desktop Environment for KaOS. Almost ten months ago work started to fully migrate to a Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 based distribution and with the release of Plasma 5.2.1 this migration is now deemed ready to bring a better user experience then KDE 4. From the unset of this migration there was never a plan to mix the two environments. What you will see on this ISO is a pure Plasma 5 based environment.
  • As many might have noted KDE Applications 14.12 did not contain more then a handful of Plasma 5 applications. KaOS though has been shipping all ported applications from their frameworks branch in the many snapshot ISO it has released to get ready for this migration. Just about all applications that users have become used to seeing in a KDE 4 version are available as a Plasma 5 port. A few though are not ready yet, and those will be missing from the KaOS repositories until their ports are ready for daily use. An example is the application Skrooge, users are advised to use the fully ported Kmymoney until Skrooge can return back to the repositories.
  • To give you an idea of what is available in the KaOS repositories from the well over 150 framework ports, kde-baseapps (including Dolphin, Konqueror, Kdialog), Okular, Choqok, Kdepim, Kdenlive, Ktuberling, Marble, Kpat, Kcmsystemd, Digikam, Kipi-plugins, Quassel, Kget, the KDE-telepathy packages and Kamoso. Support packages ported to Qt5/Frameworks 5 for this include mlt, opencv, qca and frei0r-plugins.
  • Look & Feel is a KaOS exclusive version “Midna”, fully redone for the Plasma 5 move.
  • Calamares, the used installer framework, reached its first stable release early February. Since the December ISO where this installer was used for the first time, it received well over forty bug fixes. A few more of the planned features are implemented, this includes a proper closing page and the presentation of a slideshow during the install.
  • For UEFI installs, KaOS uses the simple, transparent but quite powerful gummiboot as bootloader.
  • Octopi received a new tool “Cache Cleaner”, with it you can selectively remove packages from your pacman cache. That cache can grow to a significant size if never cleaned.
  • All current KaOS users, with the release of this ISO all packages needed to move your system to Plasma 5–see kf5 move News– will be moved too. Make sure to give your mirror time to sync before attempting this update, or wait 1-2 days before doing this update.

New in KaOS 2014.12 (Dec 27, 2014)

  • The new, Qt5/python3 based installer is a joint effort of several distributions. In May of this year, developers of Netrunnner, KaOS and Manjaro got together to discuss the possibility to work jointly on a brand new, Qt5 based installer. The idea was born to create Calamares. By June the coding started and by August a first, raw usable version was put into testing for KaOS-kf5 based ISOs. Currently, Calamares is being developed with contributions from BBQLinux, Fedora, KaOS, Kubuntu, Manjaro, Maui and Netrunner.
  • Calamares is an installer framework, entirely modular. Being that modular shows on this ISO, since it uses about 25 % of the modules that are KaOS specific, but all stays entirely integrated. Please understand though, Calamares is not at a stable version yet, it is at beta stage, and certain parts are not implemented yet.
  • For UEFI installs, KaOS uses the simple, transparent but quite powerful gummiboot as bootloader.
  • This ISO is a first to have the split way of releasing from KDE. The applications are KDE Applications 14.12.0, bringing new features and bug fixes to more than a hundred applications. The base of KDE is more in a frozen state now, those are at 4.14.3, were the lts kde-workspace is at 4.11.14.
  • The all new Qt 5.4.0 is bringing new features like the chromium based qtwebengine and qtwayland. The Qt5 based KDE Frameworks 5 packages are starting to get integrated into the KaOS repositories. Examples of packages using frameworks are the default web-browser Qupzilla, package-manager Octopi and the installer Calamares.
  • The base of the system underwent quite some change. An all new GCC 4.9.2 and GLIBC 2.20 toolchain was build. Systemd moved to 218, with that move firmware loading is no longer handled by systemd, but is now done by the kernel. Linux 3.17.7 was build in such a way that it can accommodate those changes.
  • Cellix keeps improving the KaOS Community Packages helper “kcp”. It is now go based, can do searches for outdated packages, list all packages, list the packages by popularity, much faster searches and improved handling of building & installing packages.
  • The default media-player, smplayer, added a new backend. It now can not only use mplayer, but also mpv. With mpv full streaming integration is implemented, the list of sites it can now handle in smplayer is large.

New in KaOS 2014.11 (Nov 6, 2014)

  • Since August updates were done to a good 1200 packages and to stay with the policy that a first pacman -Syu should be an uncomplicated one for new users means a new ISO is needed.
  • Testing for this ISO took longer then usual, due to the fact that getting ready for an UEFI capable ISO is a must. For that, the interim installer is not a good option, so a lot of work was done to try and get the new Qt5 based installer, Calamares ready, but it is just too early to use on a stable ISO. So this is one last time a BIOS only ISO.
  • At the base of the system some of the updates this ISO has, linux 3.16.7, gcc 4.8.3, llvm 3.5.0, Qt5 5.3.2, openssl 1.0.1.j, mesa 10.3.2, bash 4.3.030, poppler 0.26.1, systemd 216 and xorg-server 1.16.1.
  • The latest KDE 4.14.2 version is available on this ISO, the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.14 series. More than 35 recorded bugfixes include improvements to E-Mail client KMail, Umbrello UML Modeller, the document viewer Okular, the plot drawing application Kmplot and the file manager Dolphin.
  • Large rebuilds were needed for the boost 1.56.0/icu 54.1, ffmpeg 2.4.3 and libimobiledvice/usbmuxd updates.
  • Major apps that were updated to their latest include Calligra 2.8.6, LibreOffice 4.3.3, Google-Chrome 40, Firefox 33.0.2
  • The move to gstreamer 1.0 only in the KaOS repos is almost complete, with that, Clementine is back on this ISO since it too moved to gstreamer 1.0.
  • New to this ISO is the Qt5 webcam app “webcamoid” and the opensource, Qt5 based, file sharing client Seafile
  • About 200 packages will be moved with the release of this ISO, so for all current users, give your mirror a few hours to fully sync, or wait until tomorrow to do your update.

New in KaOS 2014.08 (Aug 21, 2014)

  • With KDE releasing the new major version KDE 4.14.0, offering primarily improvements and bugfixes, KaOS is happy to be able to present you a new ISO with KDE 4.14.0 the same day it is released. KDE Applications 4.14 is not about lots of “new and improved stuff”. As with KaOS, many KDE developers are focused on the Next Experience (Plasma 5) or porting to KDE Frameworks (based on Qt5). Mostly, the 4.14 release is needed by aspects of the workflow. This release offers more software stability, with little emphasis on new and less-proven stuff.
  • For KaOS, a new major KDE is not the biggest news on this ISO, that part goes Installerto the all new installer. The idea of always evaluating what is available and seeing what can be the best fit for KaOS really came through with selecting this installer. It is based on work from Cinchi by Antergos and Thus by ManjaroLinux, whose installers in turn used code from Ubiquity by Ubuntu and the old Anakonda (for partitioning) by Fedora. The postinstall jobs were written in python3 for KaOS (big thanks goes to arnt and cellix with helping to get this code ready). This new installer brings automated partitioning, option to encrypt the drive, much simpler locale selection and brings the minimal needed RAM to install KaOS down to 1 Gb.
  • Since the last ISO virtually every package available on that version has been updated. The Xorg group moved to 1.16.1, including mesa 10.2.5, libdrm 2.4.56. Another large stack was the glib2 2.40.0 update, this included a move to GTK3 3.12.2. Python3 is now at the 3.4 version, all that depend on it were rebuild to their latest available. At the core of the system you’ll find the linux kernel at 3.15.10, systemd 215, kmod 18, util-linux 2.25.
  • dropboxKaOS is in a transition phase to move to Frameworks 5, plasma 5 and KDE Applications based on those two, with that as many applications as possible are moved to Qt5 too. This does not only include those moving from Qt4, but lately also a few that have moved from GTK, an example in the repositories for this is gcompris-qt and available on the ISO is the all new Qt5 based dropbox.

New in KaOS 2014.06 (Jun 12, 2014)

  • The last two months updates were done to a good 1100 packages and to stay with the policy that a first pacman -Syu should be an uncomplicated one for new users means a new ISO is needed.
  • At the base of the system some of the updates this ISO has, linux 3.14.6 with the futex bug fix included, gcc 4.8.3, llvm 3.4.1, Qt5 5.3.0, openssl 1.0.1.h, mesa 10.2.1, bash 4.3.018, poppler 0.26.1. Systemd 213 was part of the updates tested but did not make the cut, 212 is the version of systemd on this ISO.
  • With this ISO, KaOS makes the switch to present XFS as the default filesystem, a good explanation for the reasons behind this switch can be found in this XFS presentation.
  • The latest KDE 4.13.2 version is available on this ISO, the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.13 series. It includes 40 recorded bugfixes, includes improvements to Personal Information Management suite Kontact, Umbrello UML Modeller, the Desktop search functionality, web browser Konqueror and the file manager Dolphin.
  • The sound group had a complete rebuild, this included a move to ffmpeg 2 (2.2.3), and a bigger change, a full move away from gstreamer0.10 (maintenance for it stopped 2-3 years ago). This ISO only includes gstreamer 1. Most applications were ready for this move, a few needed some patching for this switch (qtwebkit for example). The only application left in the KaOS repositories needing gstreamer0.10 is clementine, that is why it is replaced on this ISO with Amarok.
  • To include the community more into shaping how the end users’ installs looks like, KaOS Community Packages is available to locally build missing packages and share the needed files with other KaOS users. To automate the use of KCP, Cellix developed the package “kcp”, which is also fully integrated in Octopi, the KaOS GUI package-manager. This ISO includes kcp and the base-devel group needed to build packages from the KaOS-Community-Packages. In octopi, just highlight the KCP group, type a few letters to search for a desired package, hit “enter” and a list will be shown. Marking a package for install will build and install. To use kcp as standalone application, type “kcp -h” for a list of options.
  • This is not the only improvement you will find in octopi, the ability to search or list packages by repositories is also added.
  • A few hundred new icons have been added to the flattr-icons set.
  • Major apps that were updated to their latest include Calligra 2.8.3, LibreOffice 4.2.4, Google-Chrome 37, Firefox 30.0.
  • To accommodate Linux-users living in the Eastern globe, a full set of Input Method packages (fcitx) were added to the repositories.

New in KaOS 2014.04 (Apr 22, 2014)

  • A nice way to celebrate the one year anniversary of this distribution is releasing the 2014.04 ISO. This ISO offers the major new release of KDE 4.13.0. With this version KDE moves away from nepomuk replacing it with baloo. Systemd has undergone more changes, including the ability to perform most cron jobs. Regarding artwork, hundreds more icons are ported to the flattr-icon set and Grub is themed with Midna, to continue the growth of KaOS to its own identity. The Welcome application is translated to fourteen languages. Of course openssl-1.0.1.g is included, homerun-kickoff 1.2.3 is fully translated, a switch to smplayer 14.3.0 as default mediaplayer, the addition of nvidia 304xx to support older video cards, are some of the changes in the base of KaOS you will find on this ISO. Among the other updates, kmod 17, Linux 3.13.10, bash 4.3.011, libssh 0.6.3 and a move to Samba 4 (4.1.6).