The distro is now powered by the Linux 4.9.30 LTS kernel

Jun 11, 2017 13:02 GMT  ·  By

Porteus Solutions' Tomasz Jokiel is pleased to announce the release of a new maintenance update for the Gentoo-based Porteus Kiosk operating system designed for deployment on public access computers.

Powered by a kernel from the long-term supported Linux 4.9 branch, specifically version 4.9.30, Porteus Kiosk 4.4.0 launches two and a half months after the previous point release in the 4.x series of the kiosk operating system with the Google Chrome 58.0.3029.110 and Mozilla Firefox 52.1.2 ESR web browsers.

Of course, the new ISO images also include all the software and security updates that have been released upstream in the Gentoo repositories as of May 26, 2017. Additionally, Porteus Solutions finally managed to add support for hosting SSL certificates directly on Porteus Kiosk Server.

"I'm pleased to announce that Porteus Kiosk 4.4.0 is now available for download. Major software upgrades in this release include: Linux kernel 4.9.30, Mozilla Firefox 52.1.2 ESR and Google Chrome 58.0.3029.110. Packages from the userland are upgraded to portage snapshot tagged on 20170526," says Tomasz Jokiel.

CloudPrinting now enabled by default for Porteus Kiosk Cloud and ThinClient

The Porteus Kiosk 4.4.0 enables CloudPrinting by default for both the Porteus Kiosk Cloud and Porteus Kiosk ThinClient flavors, but only if the Google Chrome web browser is used. It is also possible now to set a custom printer name in your Porteus Kiosk operating system installations.

Local or online web pages can now be used as a screensaver for your kiosk, you can create a virtual mode on headless kiosks and connect to it through the built-in Virtual Network Computing (VNC) service, and watching of Netflix movies and TV shows in Google Chrome is now possible via the "Widevine Content Decryption Module" add-on.

Among other noteworthy changes included in Porteus Kiosk 4.4.0, we can mention the use of swap files instead of swap partitions, along with support for booting the operating system from NVM Express (NVMe) devices thanks to a new "nvme" driver compiled directly into the kernel. Download Porteus Kiosk 4.4.0 right now from our website.