ROSA Desktop Fresh R10 Release Notes

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ROSA Desktop R10 is the second release based on rosa2016.1 platform. The distribution is targeted mainly at the Linux advocates eager to try the new software versions. According to the updates policy, rosa2016.1 platform will have 4 years of technical support.

Technical changes in comparison with the previous release, R9:

  • Many system libraries, system and user software packages were updated to their new/latest versions.
  • Kernel 4.9.60 LTS is used by default. Other kernel versions and variants are available in special repositories. For example, here are the repositories with kernel 4.13 : 64 bit, 32 bit.
  • The proprietary Nvidia drivers were updated to new versions: 384.90 and experimental 387.12 for the relatively new video cards; 340.104 for GeForce 8 and 9; 304.137 for GeForce 6 and 7.
  • Mesa was updated to version 17.1.6 with OpenGL support up to version 4.5 and improved performance for video games running on the free video drivers. Support for the new Vulkan API is also provided.
  • Broadcom WiFi driver now supports kernels up to 4.13.
  • Fixed network connection issues with many USB WiFi adapters.
  • Dracut configuration was changed so that generic (rather than host-only) initrd images would be built by default. The resulting initrd images are 3-4 times larger but more reliable because it is less likely that important drivers are not included there.
  • It is now possible to configure graphics acceleration methods for Intel GPUs via XFDrake.
  • Fixed issues with running 32 bit applications in 64 bit environment with hybrid graphics when Nvidia Optimus is used.
  • Fixed issues with running some Mono applications in 64 bit environment.
  • The collection of tools for CD and DVD burning (cdrkit) was replaced with cdrtools.
  • Improved support for packages that still use sysvinit scripts instead of systemd units.
  • Added extra OpenSSL libraries libcrypto.so.10 and libssl.so.10 for better compatibility with Fedora/RHEL.
  • Fixed critical KRACKs attacks security vulnerability that affected WPA2 protocol. Some less important security issues were fixed as well.
  • Fixed artist info tab in Clementine player.
  • New graphics in the installer.
  • New local startup page for web browsers.

Desktop environments

The R10 was released with two officially supported graphical desktop environments, KDE 4 and Plasma 5, followed by LXQt one. Release notes for those environments as well as the download links are available at the relevant wiki pages. The community release based on the GNOME 3 is also planned.