Skolelinux / Debian Edu CD release notes
This is a summary of the changes done between releases. It should include info on what is working and what is broken. HowTo make test releases
Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 5.0 (Lenny based)
Releases using Debian/Lenny
Test release 2, alpha1 2009-11-REAL SOON NOW
This is the second test release (alpha1) of the Lenny based Skolelinux version. Since the first test release (alpha0) some bugs got fixed and some of the features broken in the last release are now working.
The updated CD image can be downloaded via FTP, HTTP and rsync (see below for detailed instructions). The CD image size is about 606 MiB and the DVD about 4.4 GiB.
Here are the most remarkable changes since the first test release (alpha0):
The package killer is no longer automatically installed, because of some remaining bugs.
- KPDF, Quanta and Kturtle are now installed automatically if KDE is installed as desktop environment.
- The proxy server is now used by Iceweasel, even if the users remove proxy configuration from his/her profile.
- The old DNS range names like printer, static, dhcp and ltsp are now added to the LDAP tree on installation.
- Nagios3 configuration was revised and now has a better default behavior.
- Further examples for extended Samba configuration are distributed.
- The test suite, used to automatically detect errors in the installed system, after installation, is now more robust.
The following features are still not working as they should:
- PowerPC is currently out of date (missing packages).
- Nagios is not configured automatically through the data collected by Sitesummary.
- Some flash based websites are not displayed correctly:
Gnash is now the default flash player, the non free flash plugin can be installed from lenny-backports (see http://www.backports.org/ for more information).
- DVD does not work properly, this alpha1 release is netinstall image only.
To download this alpha1 multiarch prerelease you can use
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha1.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha1.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org:::skolelinux-lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha1.iso
The MD5SUM of this image is
- xxx debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha1.iso
Test release 1, 2009-10-15
This is a first test release (alpha0) of the Skolelinux version based on Debian Lenny. As this is merely a snapshot of the currently ongoing development efforts, there are still some features missing or not in the final state. There are also some bugs not yet fixed. This test release is for the brave users who want to have a look at the next Skolelinux release and want to make sure, that their favorite feature is bug free (or report bugs otherwise).
After months of hard work, a new Skolelinux multi architecture (amd64, i386 and powerpc) netinstall CD is ready. This is the first test CD preparing for a Debian/Lenny based release. It is available from FTP, HTTP and rsync. The CD image size is about 606 MiB.
There are a lot of changes since the last CD/DVD release based on Etch. Here are some highlights:
- Support for newer hardware: Based on Linux Kernel version 2.6.26 and X.org version 7.3
- More flexible configuration: The configuration of the local DNS zone and the DHCP configuration have been moved into LDAP
- Multi architecture network installer CD-Rom (amd64, i386 and powerpc).
- PXE (network boot) installation of addition hosts (Workstations, Terminal Servers) are now supported by the main server (Tjener).
- Some minor changes under the hood.
Some features have been removed as we thing they are no longer required:
- Singe architecture installer CD-ROMs:
- Please use the network installer CD or the DVD images instead.
Some features are still not working as they should. We are aware of these at the moment:
- PowerPC is currently out of date (missing packages).
- LTSP chroot is not created when the Terminal Server is installed using the new PXE network installer.
- Nagios is not configured automatically through the data collected by Sitesummary.
- Some flash based websites are not displayed correctly:
Gnash is now the default flash player, the non free flash plugin can be installed from lenny-backports (see http://www.backports.org/ for more information).
- DVD does not work properly, this alpha0 release is netinstall image only.
To download this alpha0 multiarch prerelease you can use
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha0.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha0.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org:::skolelinux-lenny-prerelease/debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha0.iso
The MD5SUM of this image is
- dca1720f76562782b3f08b77b8eabab5 debian-edu-lenny-netinstall-alpha0.iso
Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0 codename terra (etch based)
Releases using Debian/Etch
Final release 3.0r1, 2007-12-05
Highlights:
- Modified CD build to make sure all packages used by the main-server and barebone profiles are included on the CDs.
- Install japanese translations by default.
- Install additional spell checkers for Greek, Brazilian, Catalan, Dutch, Portoguese and Finnish by default.
- Install the programs needed by stopmotion to fetch pictures from cameras by default.
- Activated the Debian Edu KDE background by default by fixing bug in the debian-edu-artwork package.
Provide the kiosk mode with the following kiosk mode settings
- New kernel (version 2.6.18-5) fixing a few security issues.
- Changed the sitesummary web page to be available from everywhere, and not just localhost, as almost the same information is available from the munin summary page and admins were confused when only one of the web pages were available.
- Solve installation problem on machines with Adaptec RAID controllers using the dpt_i2o kernel module.
- Fix konqueror mount problem for removable devices with xfs and other file systems who do not understand the umask mount option.
detailed list of all bugs fixed that were submitted into our bug tracking system
Security updates, see http://skolelinux.org/security/
- clamav (0.90.1-3etch4), DSA-1340
- iceweasel (2.0.0.5-0etch1), DSA-1338
- xulrunner (1.8.0.13~pre070720-0etch1), DSA-1337
- bind9 (9.3.4-2etch1), DSA-1342-1, DSA-1341-2
- file (4.17-5etch1), DSA-1343
- xfs (1.0.1-6), DSA-1342
- samba, DSA-1409-2
- ruby1.8, DSA-1410-1
- mysql-dfsg-5.0, DSA-1413-1
- wireshark, DSA-1414-1
- tk8.4, DSA-1415-1
- tk8.3, DSA-1416-1
The dvd ISO image is 4.4 GiB large. To download it, use either of these methods:
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-i386-powerpc-DVD-3.0r1.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-i386-powerpc-DVD-3.0r1.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-i386-powerpc-DVD-3.0r1.iso
or for the netinstall cd you can download for i386
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-i386-netinst-3.0r1.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-i386-netinst-3.0r1.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-i386-netinst-3.0r1.iso
and for amd64
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-netinst-3.0r1.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-netinst-3.0r1.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-amd64-netinst-3.0r1.iso
The powerpc port has not been tested as much as the other architectures, though it should work just fine and has been reported to work. Still, we consider the port an experimental release of Debian-Edu, which we might not be able to support as the other archs. Its available for download at
ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-powerpc-netinst-3.0r1.iso
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-powerpc-netinst-3.0r1.iso
- rsync ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-etch-powerpc-netinst-3.0r1.iso
Final release 3.0r0, 2007-07-22
Highlights:
- Updated translations of the install time questions.
- Updated documentation.
- Corrected links to documentation to select the correct langauge for those with translated documentation.
- Corrected package installation for the barebone profile.
Test Releases using Debian/Etch
These are older release candidates. some of these might still be found in our ftp archive. http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/old
Test release candidate 5, 2007-07-18
This is the fifth release candidate of debian-edu etch. After the release of rc4 there have been some new reports about critical bugs which were unknown before. Thanks to this testing there have also been fixes and changes made since rc4. Because of that, we like to present one more and hopefuly the last release candidate. With this common test ground, we would like to ask you for doing all kind of final testing. So please file bugs at http://bugs.skolelinux.org/ now, if you see any problems. We are especially interested in reports about upgrades from the sarge based version of Debian-Edu. If you do not have hardware available to test on, please have a look at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/TestCDinstall for hints about to test without.
Please help to make Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0 the best release ever by testing this release candidate and providing feedback of any kind to: debian-edu@lists.debian.org
Highlights:
- Enabling diskless workstations no longer break thin client boot.
- Hotplug devices now work on diskless workstations.
- No longer provide read/write access to the thin clients hard drive to the thin client user. New configuration variable LOCALDEV_FIXEDVISIBLE to enable the old behaviour. This configuration variable is not yet provided from upstream and might change name or behaviour in the future.
- Minor cleanup in how PAM and NSS are configured for LDAP, reducing the amount of manual editing done by cfengine.
- Changed partitioning rules to get more of the available disk space allocated as unused LVM space, and reduce the minimum disk requirements. Adjusted the minimum partition sizes based on recent installations.
- Fixed bug in Samba LDAP integration to make it possible to add machines to the Domain.
- Fix bug in X configuration to get scroll wheels working.
- Updated the Debian Edu documentation provided in /usr/share/doc/debian-edu-doc/.
- lsb-releases returns the same values as on debian etch now, except for DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION, which returns "DebianEdu/Skolelinux (terra)". And, same as debian etch, debian-edu etch is lsb 3.1 compliant.
- Replaced the logo used in the graphical installer with our own image.
Some features are still not working as they should. We are aware of these at the moment and would like help finding a fix for it:
- The netinst installation from CD tend to have a timeout when downloading packages. The workaround is to restart package installation when this happen.
- The amd64 netinst CD can not install LTSP, as it is missing the i386 binaries needed.
- The LDAP server SSL certificate is not verified by the clients.
The release documentation is a bit sparse.
Test release candidate 4, 2007-07-08
This is the fourth release candidate of debian-edu etch. Even though it was planned to release the final version after rc3, it was decided to release (at least) one more release candidate. The reason for that is, that some critical bugs have been fixed and some new features and changes have been implemented. So please file bugs at http://bugs.skolelinux.org/ now, if you see any problems. If you do not have hardware available to test on, please have a look at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/TestCDinstall to learn about ways to test without hardware.
Even if we did not hold the promise to release within 1.5 weeks after rc3, we still plan to release soon.
Highlights
- Fixed admin user access to LDAP.
- Keep the /etc directory under version control (using debian-edu-etc-svk).
- Fixed students kde start menu and put some more icons on the desktop.
- Changed the sitesummary client code to make it less likely that all clients connect to the server at the same time, to spread the load on the server.
- Changed sitesummary to only add clients with munin-node installed to the list of munin clients to check.
- Includes another round of translation updates for kde 3.5.5 for Bokmål and Nynorsk
- Added 700 MiB of desktop packages proposed by Linex.
- Fixed propagation of the LDAP SSL certificate to the clients.
- Added support for the LDM_DIRECTX LTSP setting to reduce security for higher performance.
- Prevent storage devices like usb-sticks and medias like cds inserted into the terminal server from raising an popup window on KDE sessions of remote terminal server users.
- Restrict jradmins to only be able to change passwords of users who are not members of the "admins" group.
- Improved the ltsp-make-client script used to generate the LTSP environment for diskless workstations.
- Made sure all the support programs used by gcompris are installed by default.
Some features are still not working as they should. We are aware of these at the moment and would like help finding a fix for it:
- Enabling diskless workstation support break thin client support.
- The LDAP server SSL certificate is not verified by the clients.
The release documentation is a bit sparse.
- The Sarge based Newdriftbook has not yet been updated to Etch.
- Does not yet include live-helper to build live-CDs
Test release candidate 3, 2007-06-24
Highlights
- Improved support for ssh based installation by not changing the network settings at the end of the installation if working network is enabled.
- Modified the CD/DVD build system to include archtecture specific packages, and use this to include the kernels needed by LTSP on amd64 and powerpc.
- Fixed bug in code telling KDE to use esd on thin clients with sound enabled.
- Now install scribus and tuxpaint by default in desktop installs.
- Enabled sound and local device access on thin clients by default.
- Added Hebrew and Japanese support.
- Removed the free Flash implementation Gnash, because it is not ready for production use.
- Provide the amd64 version as well as a multi arch dvd and a cd (i386)
- When installed with the multi arch dvd on amd64 an i386 ltsp environment is created so old hardware could be used with new terminal server.
Test release candidate 2, 2007-06-09
This is the second release candidate of debian-edu etch. We plan to release RC3 before the final release. So please file bugs at http://bugs.skolelinux.org/ now, if you see problems. Even if you dont have available hardware to test on, you can still help with testing in qemu. The url http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/TestCDinstall will help you get started.
Highlights
- New script debian-edu-fsautoresize to make it easier to resize LVM volumes
- Changed LTSP network swap location from /tmp/ to it's own lvm volume /var/opt/ltsp/swapfiles
- Scripts to clean up leftover ltsp swap files and processes from abnormal shutdowns of clients and server.
- Fixed local device access in Standalone installs.
- Fixed network-manager access for the initial user in Standalone installs.
- Samba used scripts from wlus to update ldap when joining the domain. Fixed by including the script in our configuration package.
- Made sure the client part of LTSP local device support (ltspfsd) is installed on the clients.
- Changed the pam_group config to add all users loggin in to the fuse group, to try to get local device access working out of the box when enabled in LTSP.
- Removed some obsolete code in the installer used on woody and sarge.
- Munin on main-server will now monitor all hosts reporting to sitesummary automatically.
- Removed unused code and obsolete comments from dhcpd.conf.
- Modified code generating self-signed certificate for the LDAP server to make the public key available on the web, and added a boot script to download this key to all clients the first time they boot.
- Fixed code to make admin users get a link to the web site with admin tools and information on their desktop.
Test release candidate 1, 2007-05-20
The Debian-Edu/Skolelinux project is pleased to announce that the next test release of "Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0, codename 'terra'" is ready. This is the fifth test release based on Debian/Etch. It is available to download using FTP, HTTP and rsync.
This is the first release candidate of debian-edu etch. After that we will release RC2 and RC3 with shorter delays in between and then we will release. So please file bugs at http://bugs.skolelinux.org/ now, if you see problems. Even if you dont have available hardware to test on, you can still help with testing in qemu. The url http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/TestCDinstall will help you get started.
test4 was one day late, so we shifted the release schedule: we now plan to release RC2 on May 27h, RC3 on June 3nd and Debian-Edu etch on June 10th. We might cut RC2 and RC3, as we want to release at the end of May.
Highlights
- Firefox is now installed by default, with a few much used translations. Due to legal reasons firefox is called iceweasel in Debian.
- The hostname is now correctly set based on DNS name.
- This release reintroduces the CD. It will grab the packages that did not fit on the first cd from network.
- debian-edu-doc is a new package containing all documentation. Currently it lacks update of the information for etch and translation. Help welcome!
slbackup-php is now installed as default. Test it with http://tjener.intern/slbackup-php
- Checks in place to avoid installing the standalone profile together with any of the others.
Test release 4, 2007-05-13
The Debian-Edu/Skolelinux project is pleased to announce that the next test release of "Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0, codename 'terra'" is ready. This is the fourth test release based on Debian/Etch. It is available to download using FTP, HTTP and rsync.
This will be the last test-release of debian-edu etch. After that we will release RC1, RC2 and RC3 with shorter delays in between and then we will release. So please file bugs at http://bugs.skolelinux.org/ now, if you see problems. Even if you dont have available hardware to test on, you can still help with testing in qemu. The url http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/TestCDinstall will help you get started.
We plan to release RC1 on May 19th, RC2 on May 26th, RC3 on June 2nd and Debian-Edu etch on June 9th. We might cut RC2 and RC3, as we want to release at the end of May.
Highlights
- Fix handling of USB and other hotplug devices.
- Framework for selecting languages during installation is now working again.
- LTSP default keyboard layout now uses the one selected during installation.
- LTSP network swap is enabled by default.
- CPU frequency scaling is enabled on all machines supporting it. Will increase battery lifetime and reduce power bill.
slbackup-php is available on the DVD, install it with aptitude -y install slbackup-php. And test it with http://tjener.intern/slbackup-php
- all the other highlights from the previous test-releases
Test release 3, 2007-04-21
The Debian-Edu/Skolelinux project is pleased to announce that the next test release of "Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0, codename 'terra'" is ready. This is the third test release based on Debian/Etch. It is available to download using FTP, HTTP and rsync.
Highlights
- Based on the recently released Debian 4.0 Etch.
- Released as a DVD image, with a lot more translations and applications available.
- Includes ltspfs for local device access from thin clients.
- Improved laptop support.
- And a lot more...
Test release 2, 2006-11-23
Highlights
- Installer support encrypting disks and partitions
- Added flash web plugin support using gnash
- Added the adept graphical package manager
- Added much used package ktuberling
- Added sitesummary system to make it easier to keep track of a lot of machines in the network.
- Fixed the NTP configuration.
- ltsp 0.99debian8 (supports encrypted swap and on-demand network swap)
- KDE upgraded from version 3.5.4 to 3.5.5
- New artwork (boot splash and KDE)
- Audio device access should work out of the box.
- X.org upgraded from version 7.0 to 7.1.
Some new features which are not yet fully working, but the framework is already in place:
- Kiosk mode
Some features are still not working as they should. We are aware of these at the moment:
- No LDAP user admin tool yet
- Hotplugging USB disks do not work
- Dropped gcompris and gperiodic to save space.
Test release 1, 2006-09-24
After months of hard work, a new Skolelinux CD image is ready. This is the first test CD preparing for a debian/etch based release. It is available from FTP, HTTP and rsync. The image size is 695 MiB.
There are a lot of changes since the last CD release based on Sarge. Here are some highlights
- Ported the installer to etch using d-i beta3
- Linux kernel 2.6.17
- KDE 3.5.4
- New versions of educational software and improvements in the package choice
- LTSP 0.93debian1
- Now support resizing of LVM volumes without umounting
- Improved laptop support (hybernate, extra keys, wireless configuration)
- The installer now support encrypted file systems
- New debian-edu-expert mode with new profile and manual partitioning to enable a bare-bone system without any services, for single-service installs
- Debian-Edu bootsplash during the boot process
- Custom kdm and kde artwork
Some features are still not working as they should. We are aware of these at the moment:
- LTSP server is not set up during installation. It can be set up manually after the installation.
- LVM partitioning fail if an existing LVM partition is found on the hard drive. A workaround is to boot with boot param 'linux debian-edu-expert' to get the manuall partitioning. This will be fixed in the next version of debian-installer.
- Clock sync config with NTP client/server is not correct.
Next developer meeting is tomorrow. More information available from http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Meeting
Announcing new releases
New releases are sent to debian-edu at lists.debian.org, linuxiskolen at skolelinux.no, distro at distrowatch.com, admin-discuss at skolelinux.org, user at skolelinux.de, bruker at skolelinux.no and debian-edu-french at lists.debian.org.