14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to our 20th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
Here’s what you can read about in this edition: Clement Lefebvre announces the first release candidate of the upcoming Linux Mint 6, dubbed Felicia; Elive 1.9.15 improves the support for Apple MacBooks by fixing the installation and webcam; SystemRescueCD 1.1.1 brings support for Wireless USB adaptors powered by the Ralink chipset; TheeMahn releases Ultimate Edition 2.0, based on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), but with more themes, more software and new tools; Nvidia and ATI release new and improved video drivers for Linux users; the OpenSuSE team releases an unexpected fifth beta version of the upcoming openSUSE 11.1 Linux distribution. Also, don't forget to check out the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week, at the end of the article!
Summary:
• On November 10th, Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint community announced the first release candidate of Linux Mint 6 (dubbed Felicia), on the official Linux Mint Blog. This first development release will be followed by a second one, in about two weeks. However, if everything goes well with the testing of this RC, they will prepare a stable version of Linux Mint 6, instead of a second RC. And, as promised, the x64 edition will also be released shortly after the launch of the x86 edition. Linux Mint 6 (Felicia) is based on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), it is powered by the Linux kernel 2.6.27, GNOME 2.24 and X.Org 7.4, and has the following mint tools:
· mintInstall 5 with a new offline interface, software versions information and support for multiple portals; · mintUpdate 3 with a revamped GUI, proxy support, updates history; · mintUpload 2 with support for FTP transfers; · mintNanny, parental control tool.
Linux Mint 6 includes brand new and useful applications, such as:
· Giver (LAN transfer tool); · Gufw (Graphical user interface for ufw); · Flegita (A utility for scanners).
Download Linux Mint 6 RC1 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 11th, the Elive team announced yet another development release of their GNU/Linux Live CD, Elive 1.9.15, which brings improved support for MacBooks and wireless network. Regarding the improved Apple MacBook support, the Elive team managed to fix some important bugs for the installation and webcam support. As for the wireless network improvements, the team repaired the autoconnect bug in the Net-Connector tool introduced in the 1.9.10 release. The Net-Connector will help Elive users easily configure their networks (wireless and wired).
Download Elive 1.9.15 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 12th, a stable and a development version of the SystemRescueCD were launched. While the development release adds a new filesystem backup tool called FSArchiver, SystemRescueCD 1.1.1 has the following changes:
· Fixed the "skipmount" options; · Support for Firewire-1394 was added in the Linux kernel packages; · Added ntfsreloc-0.7 and sys-fs, which deals with NTFS filesystems; · Added the atl1e and at76_usb network drivers; · Added firmware for Ralink Wireless USB adapters (rt73); · Updated the standard and alternative Linux kernel 2.6.26.07 packages with support for the Reiser4 filesystem; · Updated the speakup Linux kernel modules, thanks to Gregory Nowak; · The TrueCrypt software was updated to version 6.0a; · The NTFS-3G package, which offers out-of-the-box support to read and write on NTFS partitions, was updated to version 1.5012; · The Gparted application that helps with hard drive partitioning tasks, was updated to version 0.3.9; · The "ntpasswd" (Offline NT Password & Registry Editor) boot entry was updated; · The e1000 network driver was injected with protection against corruption.
Download SystemRescueCD 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 Beta 1 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 12th, Ultimate Edition 2.0 was released, a popular Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. Being built off Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) by hand, Ultimate Edition 2.0 is the most awaited and the most complete GNU/Linux operating system to date. It has a lot of goodies that everyone expected from Ubuntu 8.10, like dozens of wonderful desktop themes, icon sets, login manager themes, boot splash themes and many wallpapers. We should also mention that Ultimate Edition 2.0 was injected with a new Linux kernel (better than the one in Ubuntu 8.10), and it also includes all the updates available as of November 13th, 2008. Ultimate Edition 2.0 is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Ultimate Gamers Edition 2.0 was also released, and includes all the applications present in the main edition and the following games:
· Supertux · Actioncube · Assaultcube · Warsow · Wesnoth · Glest · Dreamchess · Sauerbraten · Gridwars · Vgacardgames · Alien arena 2007 · Brikx · Nexuiz · Vertris · Openarena · Pokerth · Snowballz · Chromium · Gnome-hearts · Open arena · Scorched3d · Urban terror
Download Ultimate Edition 2.0 right now from Softpedia.
Download Ultimate Gamers Edition 2.0 right now from Softpedia.
• Also on November 12th, Nvidia and ATI/AMD, the two major companies specialized in programmable graphics processor technologies, released new versions of their video drivers for Linux-based operating systems. While the 177.82 Nvidia graphics driver introduces support for a few Quadro FX GPUs and fixes three important bugs, the ATI/AMD company released version 8.11 of its video driver with support for new operating systems and enhancements to the ATI CrossFireX mode.
Highlights of Nvidia 177.82:
· The image corruption issue for the Mozilla Firefox 3 web browser was fixed; · The power management problem, which took up to 30 seconds to resume from S3 on some recent mobile GPUs, was resolved; · The hotkey switching issue for some new mobile GPUs was repaired. · Support for the following new GPUs: Quadro NVS 450, Quadro FX 370 LP, Quadro FX 470, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5800 and Quadro CX.
Highlights of ATI Catalyst 8.11:
· Added support for the newly released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 operating system; · Added support for display scaling. This feature will allow ATI users to resize the display devices that offer support for 480i/p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p TV timings; · A new option was added in the ATI Catalyst Control Center that allows users to verify if an OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX mode; · The issue when the installation could not be completed because the Powersaved function was enabled was fixed.
Read more about them here.
Download Nvidia 177.82 video driver right now from Softpedia.
Download ATI Catalyst 8.11 video driver right now from Softpedia.
• On November 13th, the openSUSE team released an unexpected fifth beta version of the upcoming openSUSE 11.1 Linux distribution, because of the unresolved bugs. This beta version will not push back the final release of openSUSE 11.1. Here are the highlights of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5:
· The Linux kernel packages were updated to version 2.6.27.5; · K Desktop Environment (KDE4) was updated to version 4.1.3; · The lightweight Xfce desktop environment was updated to version 4.4.3; · PackageKit was updated to version 0.3.9; · NetworkManager and power management Plasmoids are now available for the KDE4 edition; · Smolt was fully integrated; · Many applications were updated, like Amarok, Blender, Bazaar, Banshee, Digikam, Frozen Bubble, LyX, The GIMP and Wine; · More translations were added.
Download openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5 right now from Softpedia.
• Distributions Released Last Week:
• Distributions Updated Last Week:
· TinyMe 2008.1 Beta 1 · Absolute Linux 12.1.13 · SimplyMEPIS 8.0 Beta 5 · ThinStation 2.3 Beta 2 · Damn Small Linux 4.4.9 · Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 RC1 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.1-17 · Astaro Security Linux 7.305