Difference between revisions of "Release notes ROSA Desktop.Fresh R1"

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(About ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012)
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* Graphic cards: NVIDIA 8xxx and higher, ATI/AMD 5xxx and higher, Intel 965 and higher (HD series). Support for older cards is performed only by means of free drivers or can be absent at all.  
 
* Graphic cards: NVIDIA 8xxx and higher, ATI/AMD 5xxx and higher, Intel 965 and higher (HD series). Support for older cards is performed only by means of free drivers or can be absent at all.  
  
== Core Components ==
+
==Release Overview==
  
* RPM 5.4.10
+
'''ROSA Desktop Fresh R1''' is a new code name for a new distribution from ROSA Fresh series. The '''R''' series of distributions is targeted to those users who looks for fresh and full-functional software. This series is developed by ROSA with significant help of community.
* Systemd-194
+
* Kernel 3.6.10
+
* X.Org 1.13
+
* Grub2
+
* UEFI Support
+
* Glibc 2.15, GCC 4.7.3 Linaro
+
* Perl 5.14.2, PHP 5.4.9, Ruby 1.9.3, Python 2.7.3, Python3 3.2.3
+
  
== Desktop Environments ==
 
* KDE4 4.9.4
 
* Gnome3 3.6.2 (unofficial ISO image)
 
* Mate 1.4.0 (unofficial, can be installed from repositories)
 
* E17 0.17 lucky (unofficial, can be installed from repositories)
 
* XFCE 4.10 (unofficial, can be installed from repositories)
 
* LXDE (unofficial, ISO image is being prepared)
 
  
== Contribution to Upstream ==
+
New users will get a fast high-quality system combining advantages and improvements of successful ROSA Fresh platform with fresh and stable software components.
* Added possibility to specify decorations for inactive items of Grub2 menu.
+
* Implemented support for non-ASCII symbols in the grub-mkfont utility from Grub2.
+
  
== ROSA Brand-name Products ==
 
  
=== General ===
+
Users who already work in ROSA Desktop Fresh 2012 are able to update their systems to ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 from official repositories.
  
For graphical effects, OpenGL engine is now used by default. This allows to use additional features of compositing manager such as blur for semi-opaque window and desktop cube on most machines. If OpenGL is not supported by hardware, a rollback to software renderer (XRender) is performed automatically.
+
==Release Details==
  
=== Graphical theme ===
+
=== Desktop Environment ===
  
Totally renewed graphical theme:
+
=====General=====
** New GRUB2 theme. ROSA patches for GRUB2 developed to make it possible to apply such a theme are pushed to Upstream
+
Thanks to new rasterizer from Adobe and Google, font smoothing has been improved significantly.  
  
 +
ROSA graphical theme has got a lot of modifications:
 +
:- Completely new slide show in the installer.
 +
:- New decoration for window titles (with "shadow" support).
 +
:- Renewed the set of widgets included to RocketBar by default.
 +
:- Implemented our brand ROSA Elementary theme for Chromuim/Google Chrome.
 +
:- Fixed issues discovered in the QgtkStyleAlt theme engine.
  
[[File:Rd2012-new-grub-theme1-en.png|center|570px]]
+
=====KDE 4.10.3=====
  
 +
Besides migration from 4.9 to 4.10 by itself, one should highlight the following:
 +
: - fixes of several regressions in upstream 4.10 (in particular, fixed losing focus in lock screen password window when pressing the Alt key, including the case when one uses Alt+Shift for keyboard layout switching - [https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319935 KDE bug #319935])
 +
: - fixes for several bugs that have been present in upstream KDE for years (for example, partial reset of user settings concerning appearance after launch of KCM KDM - [https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254430 KDE bug #254430])
 +
: - fixes of different cosmetic issues
 +
: - improved quality of localization
  
** New Plymouth theme
+
ROSA brand-name tools:
+
:- TimeFrame is now able to show video directly in the preview window.
[[File:Rd2012-new-plymouth-theme.png|center|570px]]
+
:- TimeFrame is now integrated with KLook.
 +
:- A new widget "All desktops" (Expo) has been added to RocketBar which displays all user desktops in a single grid. Number of virtual desktops available for user right after installation is increased from one to four.
  
 +
The core ROSA features remain in place in the new KDE:
 +
: - a set of brand-name widgets (Simple Welcome, Stack Folder and others) used by default
 +
: - integration of Dolphin file manager with KLook tool used to preview files of different types
 +
: - extended KDE CC settings of font smoothing (possibility to enable/disable byte-code interpreter)
  
** KSplash, KDM and desktop now use unified themes
+
Later we will present updated Gnome 3.8.2 and LXDE desktops and ISO images based on them
** More then 30 new items are added to ROSA brand-name set of icons. In addition, icons were improved for better integration not only with KDE, but with GNOME 3, too
+
  
 +
===User-level Software===
  
[[File:Rd2012-new-icons.png|center|570px]]
+
* Libreoffice 3.6.6
 +
* Firefox 21
 +
* Thunderbird 17.0.5
 +
* Chromium 27
 +
* ROSA Media Player 1.6
  
** QgtkStyleAlt theme engined developed by ROSA is enhanced with possibility to drag windows of KDE applications by menu and toolbar without a need to press any additional acceleration keys
+
ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 includes the new version of ROSA Media Player - 1.6 - with the following new features:
** ROSA brand-name desktop theme is reworked significantly: the appearance became more contemporary, the areas that can be used to drag a window are now highlighted explicitly, and so on;
+
:- complete integration with YouTube, including video search, possibility to choose stream quality, etc.
 +
:- possibility to record presentation from display and add audio from microphone or line-in.
 +
:- improved IPTV support;
 +
:- DVD menu support;
 +
:- significantly renewed module responsible for Internet browsing.
  
 +
===Cloud Support===
  
[[File:rd2012_new_gtk_theme-en.png|center|570px]]
+
Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
  
=== StackFolder ===
+
Support for creation of Linux-based virtual machines is provided by RedHat, Novell, Canonical and some other vendors. And from now on, ROSA repositories also provide all necessary packages, tools and patches required for deploying guests with ROSA Fresh in Windows Azure.
  
In the StackFolder tool, several issues were fixed, memory leaks were detected and eliminated when working with images of large size, and integration with KLook was improved. A complete documentation was also added that describes stack features and integration with KLook. This documentation is available in the "Downloads" stack.
+
Below you can find instructions on how to prepare virtual appliances:
 +
* https://corpwiki.rosalinux.ru/index.php/Azure
  
[[File:RD2012_stack_folder_velcome-doc-en.png|center|570px]]
+
===New packages===
  
=== KLook ===
+
* Steam - now you can connect this service and get access to a large variety of Linux games out of the box (requires proprietary NVIDIA or AMD video drivers). Note that Steam is targeted to 32-bit systems only, but you can try to use it in 64-bit system at your own risk.
  
Functionality of KLook was significantly improved. Refactoring of its internal structure (in particular, rendering process) allowed to considerably improve quality of image rendering. Support for remote file systems was implemented. Thanks to this, you can now use KLook to view information about remote files  using such protocols as SMB, WebDav, FTP and others. If the file being opened with KLook is an image or multimedia file then it is automatically downloaded to a temporary place and displayed, otherwise general information about the file is displayed. To implement this functionality, ROSA developers have prepared a set of patches improving the the work with remote file systems. These modifications are pushed to KDE Upstream and will be available in Plasma Desktop starting with version 4.10.
+
===System part===
  
[[File:Klook-remote-folders-support-en.png|center|570px]]
+
* All repositories are now connected and enabled out of the box, so user can get system updates just after installation
<center> '''KLook 2.0: Work with remote files as if they were located on your machine''' </center>
+
* In 64-bit systems, main and non-free repositories for 32-bit platform are enabled by default to make it possible to install such programs as skype, wine, teamviewer, steam and others that are absent in 64-bit repositories.
  
=== SimpleWelcome ===
+
* Kernel 3.8.12
 +
BFQ and zswap are disabled by default due to stability reasons
  
Since ROSA Marathon 2012, the SimpleWelcome tool was completely rewritten using QT QML. In the new version, developers don't use Plasma to render application window any more; this allows to avoid compatibility problems when using different Plasma themes and different localizations, decreased memory usage and considerably improved speed and stability.
+
* Dracut 27
 +
The latest version for kernel 3.8.x series
  
The logic of SimpleWelcome operations was also revised. In particular, you can now fasten necessary application in the "Welcome" tab. Arrangement of the icons can changed according to your needs. List of recent documents can be cleared by a single mouse click, now you don't have to tear several file records if you want to drop certain file from you history.
+
* Systemd
 +
* usermod changes
  
[[File:RD2012-SimpleWelcome-First-Tab-en.png|center|570px]]
+
The code has been merged with upstream (Fedora). Currently two modes are available for consolehelper: root with password request (link to config-util) and root without password (config-util-user). Now consolehelper-based programs should be organized in the following way: primary file (xyz) should be placed to /usr/sbin/ or other folder not accessible by user, /usr/bin/ should contain a link to consolehelper, there should be a rule named /etc/pam.d/xyz with content like the following:
<center> '''SimpleWelcome 2.0: "Welcome" tab became more convenient''' </center>
+
#%PAM-1.0
 +
auth include config-util
 +
account include config-util
 +
session include config-util
  
 +
(or config-util-user)
  
Applications installed in the system are now displayed in a single grid using large icons which greatly simplify access to them: the icons are self-explaining and it's easier to hit them (especially when using touchpads). the icons themselves can be placed in any order - the arrangement is remembered, which is very convenient. In order to move an icon, just press a left mouse button on it and wait a little - less then in a second the icon will "leave" its place and you will be able to move it to a new position. If the number of icons is to large to display them all at once, then they are divided on screens. Number of screens can be checked by the number of white circles at the end of the window. You can switch between screens by clicking on any of that circles or by scrolling a mouse wheel, a well as by using gestures and multi-gestures when working with touchpads.
+
and description in /etc/security/console.apps/
  
 +
Draksec has been rewritten to use new rules. All other programs that use consolehelper have been updated, too.
  
[[File:RD2012-SimpleWelcome-Apps-en.png|center|570px]]
+
* Modifications in sysvinit subsystem
<center> '''SimpleWelcome 2.0: All applications in one place. Organize the icons according to your preferences.''' </center>
+
  
 +
As a part of migration to systemd, old init scripts have been completely dropped from the following subsystems:
  
But the main innovation in SimpleWelcome 2.0 is possibility to group icons. This feature allows you to group any icons as you wish. For example, at the screenshot below the "LibreOffice" group combines all applications from the office suite. In order to create a group, just move an icon upon the other one - the system will automatically suggest you to create a group. It is possible to rename groups, fill them with additional icons and arrange according to you wishes. In order to see what icons exist in the group withou entering that group, you can use preview (by means of thumbnails) of group elements. For screen resolutions less than 1920x1080 preview contains four icons, for larger resolutions this number is equal to 9. There is no limits on the number of groups.
+
** DM subsystem. Dropped prefdm and lookupdm scripts. Added systemd services for the main DMs - KDM, GDM, SLiM, LightDM. Now to choose a DM one should run '''systemctl enable ''xyzdm''.service'''; to disable it, run '''systemctl disable ''xyzdm''.service'''. Note that configuration line in /etc/sysconfig/desktop related to DM selection is ignored from now on. DM can be also switched using drakedm.
  
 +
** Network subsystem. drakx-net has been completely dropped, we have also dropped network-up and network-auth parts from init scripts. Now we only have CLI (network) and NM subsystems.
  
[[File:RD2012-SimpleWelcome-Apps-and-Groups-en.png|center|570px]]
+
* Added patches for X-Server 1.13.3 to improve monitor detection
<center> '''SimpleWelcome 2.0: Thanks to groups, you can combine icons according to some criteria. This allows to save a lot of space on the screen.''' </center>
+
* Intel video driver updated to 2.21.6
 +
* NVIDIA 319.17 and NVIDIA304 (for cards prior to 8xxx) 304.88
 +
* AMD Catalyst (fglrx) 13.4
 +
* NetworkManager 0.98
 +
* Complete migration to NM. drakx-net subsystem has been completely dropped.
 +
* urpmi and rpmdrake now don't calculate orphaned packages by default; this significantly speeds up package installation and removal.
 +
* urpmi and rpmdrake now install updates more aggressively - when updating a single package, by default all its dependencies will be updated automatically.
 +
* '--download-all' option for urpmi is now set by default to avoid problems with large updates.
 +
* pm-utils is replaced with systemd.
  
=== TimeFrame ===
+
Power management is now performed using systemd. For compatibility with KDE, a hybrid solution based on modified upower is used.
  
Similar to SimpleWelcome 2.0, the TimeFrame tool version 2.0  is completely rewritten in QML. This migration and different optimizations allowed ROSA developers to significantly increase performance with respect to the first version. Every function of the first version was revised.
+
* Consolekit и PolicyKit are completely dropped from the system
  
Similar to the first version, information in TimeFrame 2.0 is represented as a feed, but with a significant difference. The feed is always horizontal-oriented - this allows to "page" through it (in particular, by means of multi-gestures). Categorization now works in both gallery and "cloud" modes.
+
These components are obsolete and now they are replaced with systemd analogues. Session management is now performed by means of logind.
  
 
+
[[ru:Примечания_к_релизу_ROSA_Desktop.Fresh_R1]]
[[File:RD2012_time_frame_2.0_local-en.png|center|570px]]
+
<center> '''"Cloud" mode in TimeFrame 2.0 became more informative and convenient''' </center>
+
 
+
 
+
[[File:RD2012_time_frame_2.0_local-gallery-en.png|center|570px]]
+
 
+
<center> '''There is no vertical scrolling in the gallery mode''' </center>
+
 
+
But the main new feature of the TimeFrame is support for social networking services. Now you can use Facebook and VKontakte by means of TimeFrame and without a browser. This is really useful! You can check you feed, leave comments to your friends' posts, "like" them and even add new messages. All changes are performed "online".
+
 
+
 
+
[[File:RD2012-time-frame-2.0-social-post-en.png|center|570px]]
+
 
+
 
+
[[File:RD2012-time-frame-2.0-social-gallerу-en.png|center|570px]]
+
 
+
 
+
In order to popularize brand-name products of the company, we have prepared a video with demonstration of new generation of ROSA brand-name applications. Users' attention is directed to such features as moving and grouping icons (in SimpleWelcome 2.0) and support for Facebook and VKontakte social networking services (in TimeFrame 2.0).
+
 
+
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuGoLrAUHHA]
+
 
+
=== ROSA Media Player ===
+
 
+
ROSA Media Player became even more better. It got a renewed graphical theme and several bug fixes:
+
** Fixed issues with rendering of background of a video playback window;
+
** fixed issue with streaming mms-video playback (both in the player itself and in the Internet browser integration plugin);
+
** dropped ISO files support in ROMP for Windows;
+
** for DVD devices the /dev/cdrom device file is used by default if /dev/dvd is absent in the system.
+
 
+
 
+
[[File:ROSA_Media_Player_1.5_en.png|center|670px]]
+
 
+
<center> '''ROSA Media Player 1.5: New appearance and improved stability''' </center>
+
 
+
== User Software Updates ==
+
 
+
* Mozilla Firefox 17.0
+
* Mozilla Thunderbird 17.0
+
* LibreOffice 3.6.2
+
* Amarok 2.6.0
+
 
+
== System core updates ==
+
 
+
* Improved hardware detection
+
* Automatic detection and load of proper modules to control processor frequency
+
* Automatic detection of Wacom pads embedded into notebook displays
+
* Font settings in the KDE4 Control Center now provides more flexible setup for font rendering by enabling/disabling bytecode interpreter
+
 
+
[[ru:Примечания_к_релизу_ROSA_Desktop.Fresh_2012]]
+

Revision as of 10:02, 5 June 2013

About ROSA Desktop Fresh R1

ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 differs from its predecessors a lot. This platform was developed by ROSA company as an area for experiments with the freshest software components. The distribution is considered to be an experimental one and primarily contains freshest versions of user software and system tools. In addition, there will be no strict rules on package uptaes during the distribution life cycle.

You can find some information about known issues and workarounds of the release at the Errata page.

Distribution

ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 is available in the following editions:

1. ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 LiveDVD KDE4 Extended edition for i586 and x86_64 architectures with preinstalled codecs and proprietary components. Main, Non-free and Restricted repositories are enabled by default.

Additional editions:

2. ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 LXDE for i586 and x86_64 architectures.

3. ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 GNOME Edition (GNOME 3.3.6).

System requirements

  • 780 MB RAM (recommends 2Gb - for the Live mode, as well)
  • 10 GB free HDD space
  • VGA display with resolution 1024x768 and PnP and EDID support
  • Keyboard, mouse
  • DVD/flash for installation
  • Graphic cards: NVIDIA 8xxx and higher, ATI/AMD 5xxx and higher, Intel 965 and higher (HD series). Support for older cards is performed only by means of free drivers or can be absent at all.

Release Overview

ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 is a new code name for a new distribution from ROSA Fresh series. The R series of distributions is targeted to those users who looks for fresh and full-functional software. This series is developed by ROSA with significant help of community.


New users will get a fast high-quality system combining advantages and improvements of successful ROSA Fresh platform with fresh and stable software components.


Users who already work in ROSA Desktop Fresh 2012 are able to update their systems to ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 from official repositories.

Release Details

Desktop Environment

General

Thanks to new rasterizer from Adobe and Google, font smoothing has been improved significantly.

ROSA graphical theme has got a lot of modifications:

- Completely new slide show in the installer.
- New decoration for window titles (with "shadow" support).
- Renewed the set of widgets included to RocketBar by default.
- Implemented our brand ROSA Elementary theme for Chromuim/Google Chrome.
- Fixed issues discovered in the QgtkStyleAlt theme engine.
KDE 4.10.3

Besides migration from 4.9 to 4.10 by itself, one should highlight the following:

- fixes of several regressions in upstream 4.10 (in particular, fixed losing focus in lock screen password window when pressing the Alt key, including the case when one uses Alt+Shift for keyboard layout switching - KDE bug #319935)
- fixes for several bugs that have been present in upstream KDE for years (for example, partial reset of user settings concerning appearance after launch of KCM KDM - KDE bug #254430)
- fixes of different cosmetic issues
- improved quality of localization

ROSA brand-name tools:

- TimeFrame is now able to show video directly in the preview window.
- TimeFrame is now integrated with KLook.
- A new widget "All desktops" (Expo) has been added to RocketBar which displays all user desktops in a single grid. Number of virtual desktops available for user right after installation is increased from one to four.

The core ROSA features remain in place in the new KDE:

- a set of brand-name widgets (Simple Welcome, Stack Folder and others) used by default
- integration of Dolphin file manager with KLook tool used to preview files of different types
- extended KDE CC settings of font smoothing (possibility to enable/disable byte-code interpreter)

Later we will present updated Gnome 3.8.2 and LXDE desktops and ISO images based on them

User-level Software

  • Libreoffice 3.6.6
  • Firefox 21
  • Thunderbird 17.0.5
  • Chromium 27
  • ROSA Media Player 1.6

ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 includes the new version of ROSA Media Player - 1.6 - with the following new features:

- complete integration with YouTube, including video search, possibility to choose stream quality, etc.
- possibility to record presentation from display and add audio from microphone or line-in.
- improved IPTV support;
- DVD menu support;
- significantly renewed module responsible for Internet browsing.

Cloud Support

Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

Support for creation of Linux-based virtual machines is provided by RedHat, Novell, Canonical and some other vendors. And from now on, ROSA repositories also provide all necessary packages, tools and patches required for deploying guests with ROSA Fresh in Windows Azure.

Below you can find instructions on how to prepare virtual appliances:

New packages

  • Steam - now you can connect this service and get access to a large variety of Linux games out of the box (requires proprietary NVIDIA or AMD video drivers). Note that Steam is targeted to 32-bit systems only, but you can try to use it in 64-bit system at your own risk.

System part

  • All repositories are now connected and enabled out of the box, so user can get system updates just after installation
  • In 64-bit systems, main and non-free repositories for 32-bit platform are enabled by default to make it possible to install such programs as skype, wine, teamviewer, steam and others that are absent in 64-bit repositories.
  • Kernel 3.8.12

BFQ and zswap are disabled by default due to stability reasons

  • Dracut 27

The latest version for kernel 3.8.x series

  • Systemd
  • usermod changes

The code has been merged with upstream (Fedora). Currently two modes are available for consolehelper: root with password request (link to config-util) and root without password (config-util-user). Now consolehelper-based programs should be organized in the following way: primary file (xyz) should be placed to /usr/sbin/ or other folder not accessible by user, /usr/bin/ should contain a link to consolehelper, there should be a rule named /etc/pam.d/xyz with content like the following:

#%PAM-1.0
auth		include		config-util
account		include		config-util
session		include		config-util

(or config-util-user)

and description in /etc/security/console.apps/

Draksec has been rewritten to use new rules. All other programs that use consolehelper have been updated, too.

  • Modifications in sysvinit subsystem

As a part of migration to systemd, old init scripts have been completely dropped from the following subsystems:

    • DM subsystem. Dropped prefdm and lookupdm scripts. Added systemd services for the main DMs - KDM, GDM, SLiM, LightDM. Now to choose a DM one should run systemctl enable xyzdm.service; to disable it, run systemctl disable xyzdm.service. Note that configuration line in /etc/sysconfig/desktop related to DM selection is ignored from now on. DM can be also switched using drakedm.
    • Network subsystem. drakx-net has been completely dropped, we have also dropped network-up and network-auth parts from init scripts. Now we only have CLI (network) and NM subsystems.
  • Added patches for X-Server 1.13.3 to improve monitor detection
  • Intel video driver updated to 2.21.6
  • NVIDIA 319.17 and NVIDIA304 (for cards prior to 8xxx) 304.88
  • AMD Catalyst (fglrx) 13.4
  • NetworkManager 0.98
  • Complete migration to NM. drakx-net subsystem has been completely dropped.
  • urpmi and rpmdrake now don't calculate orphaned packages by default; this significantly speeds up package installation and removal.
  • urpmi and rpmdrake now install updates more aggressively - when updating a single package, by default all its dependencies will be updated automatically.
  • '--download-all' option for urpmi is now set by default to avoid problems with large updates.
  • pm-utils is replaced with systemd.

Power management is now performed using systemd. For compatibility with KDE, a hybrid solution based on modified upower is used.

  • Consolekit и PolicyKit are completely dropped from the system

These components are obsolete and now they are replaced with systemd analogues. Session management is now performed by means of logind.