Planet Sabayon Linux

A few posts back I posted about setting up your own spin. Things got moving quickly and we decided to overhaul the way we maintain our iso’s server-side.

Sabayon 5.4 will have everything based on the SpinBase iso and all applications on top off this will be placed in sets. A KDE set is going to be written soon.

A first result of the reorganization are the LXDE and XFCE spins released today!

Some important recent changes:

- On amd64 we moved to 32bits flash. If you have a problem with it consider reinstalling nspluginwrapper. I know it is not the most elegant solution, but keeping users with a potential security risk was worse. And upstream Adobe did NOT provide a 64bits version.

- ATI-drivers 10.6 problems Due a bug in the new ati-drivers that only affects people with a default xorg.conf (most off you) the light went out and X would die with a segfault. Check out this bug report on debian. As a result we decided to mask 10.6.

As you all may have seen, I’ve been really busy lately producing some very awaited new releases together with our small but powerful development team.

So, we’re close to 2010 and Entropy is about to celebrate its third birthday. It’s been a very long road, full of obstacles but hey, we’re getting closer to 1.0! 2010 will be the year of Entropy 1.0 bringing a basic set of features and ideas tossed into the wild software jungle.

What can we all expect from Entropy 1.0 and perhaps, 1.0+? Well, first of all let’s list some features that are not yet available for public consuption which I am working on, I mean, minor and major things. Of course, everybody could read my cryptic TODO file inside the Entropy git repo, but as written, it’s cryptic because it only has to fit my purposes, not yours .
During the end of 2009, Entropy went through a lot of refactoring and speed improvement work, not yet complete though. All the core modules have been redesigned, a lot of code (around 2 millions of line changes, I’m close to the 5000th commit) has been rewritten with beauty, coolness and ZOMG in mind. Starting from the latest entropy.graph code to entropy.cache (Entropy async on-disk cacher there). Even the equo old and dusty codebase got a rewrite. The only parts missing are Sulfur (usability & speed), entropy.client and entropy.server modules, which are set for rewrite during Entropy 0.99.40 development cycle (we’re at 0.99.19 now, getting closer to the 0.99.20 milestone).

During Christmas holidays, while studying Calculus and Algebra for January exams spin, I am focusing on adding GPG support to Entropy, which is almost complete already, I need to commit some last bits to connect my newly created entropy.security.Repository class to the rest of the world . So yeah, another cool feature is coming to town! For the paranoid part of you!

A few lines above I mentioned Sulfur, what is going to happen in 2010? Let me tell you in a few words, bring {Google Market, Apple AppStore, Nokia Ovi, You-Name-It} apps design and concept to the Linux Desktop, defining a protocol for producing $HOME resident applications and a service platform hosted @sabayon.org.

I spent 3 years to make an almost perfect rocket-science-ready package manager, now it’s time to innovate (funds apart).

Well it’s official, Fabio is part of the Gentoo developers team now. This is a great thing for Sabayon and Gentoo. It didn’t come easy tho, but with support and his desire to do it, he did it. Our relationship with gentoo gets better and better all the time. One just has to put the negative comments aside and remember what is important, making it all better.

When Fabio said he was applying for Gentoo dev, I cringed as I knew it was gonna be a tough road, but he had good support pushing him and when he got down, we stood beside him to encourage him. He is an asset for Gentoo and has nothing but good intentions.

I should mention he did this process all while working on the betas and RCs of 5.0, while on vacation and returning back to university. One busy fella that always seems to reach his goal. I’m glad I have the chance to work along side of him and got to know him. Yea sure we bump heads once in a while, but we get over it.

As I write this, RC1 bugs are being fixed and expecting a RC2 here shortly. I also did a how to for switching branches on the wiki. It’s getting to be a frequent question so I hope I explained it well enough. Branch 5 is still going through changes yet, so expect issues yet. Please take the time tho and be sure to understand the package manager. I can’t stress learning the package manager enough. It’s just vital to know it.

Once again Congrats Fabio! You make us all proud!

The year 2004, my first jump into the Gentoo world after a slew of other distros.  Thanks to a good friend of mine for finally convinceing me to try it.  I had heard the nightmares of installing gentoo, but I wanted to learn more.  I hated the terminal, I liked my point and click GUI so it was a big change.  I glanced over the handbook without really reading it and went upon my venture,  I failed miserably.  I just never learned enough from my past years of GUI using.  A month goes by and I read the handbook a little better this time and off I went once again on my venture and failed once again.  I wasn’t going to give up and this time printed the handbook and followed it step by step and it was a success.  The next couple of years I learned more about linux than I had ever did in the years before.

In late 2005 I had got wind of a distro call RR4 designed by lxnay and it got me curious.  I needed to reinstall my gentoo system anyway so I grabbed an iso download and gave it a whirl.   I remember it booting up to a beautiful desktop with everything working nicely.  I can’t recall if I installed it right than and there as there was at the time issues with nvidia and it’s drivers with my card.  I believe I switched out my video card to a newer one first than installed.  I started hanging around the website and irc room.  It was a quiet time with people seldom posting and irc consisted of like 6 people.  As lxnay was pushing releases I would test also and report my issues.  More people started coming into irc and more people started posting on the forum.  Things really started to get active when we switched names from RR/4 RR/64 to Sabayon Linux.  We had our regulars and we were on our way to forming a close knit of volunteers willing to devote time and energy.  We’ve been through our ups and downs trying to improve each and every day.  We experienced and shared personal ups and downs also.  We’ve had a lot of people come and go, but we always see new people coming.

In present day we are still improving and adapting to make a great experience for everyone. Our releases are getting better and better.  Entropy is developing constantly and it’s got the attention of many.  We are changing from a full dvd to a minimal dvd of the KDE Desktop and Gnome Desktop Environments.  Work is just starting on the KDE minimal DVD release.  There is no release date for this nor a roadmap, but it’s going to happen.  Stay tuned to the blog here for updates.  We are seriously in the hunt for some good developers that want to help.  We are always looking for good testers that can be active.  We struggle to find good devs and testers that can be active.  We do have a Mailing List available for developers to contact us through, please use it if you are interested.  You can also send an email to anyone on the contact list that can be found here.  Of course we could always use help with translations, artwork, support, ebuilders, etc etc etc….

For the new users out there, I have to stress at this time, Sabayon Linux does have a learning curve and a good understanding of how gentoo works is vital, along with knowing your hardware.  Sure it looks all fancy and works out of the box great, but things can and will go wrong, you will need to figure out what and how.   The great thing is, plenty of documentation through the forums, wiki and irc is out there that will point you to the correct path.  I know many users don’t like to be told to read.  I use to be one of those users myself and I have to say, the more you learn/use the easier it will get.  So please do yourself a favor and take the time to go over the website and various documentation.  A good starting place with lots of links to bookmark is compiled for you already.

I’m going to say a quick thanks to the new testers that helped with the last release.  If I had the ability to hand Joseph Howse a tester of the year trophy, I sure would.  We need a dozen more just like him.  This guy gave 110% and asked for more.  Thank you Joseph and I hope you stick around for a long time.

Joost and Thev00d00 have been working hard in putting together a community repository to offer more to Sabayon Linux community.

Whats in it?
KDE 4.2, E17 SVN, LXDE SVN, Songbird, Firefox 3.1…. To much to list, see http://entropy.hyperfish.org/standard/naendo/packages

Do you provide x86 and AMD64 packages?
YES! This repo is both x86 and amd64 allowing you to experience the newest software on both versions of sabayon! w00t

How do I use it?
Add these lines to your /etc/entropy/repositories.conf:

• repository|naendo|Naendo Community Repo|http://entropy.hyperfish.org|http://entropy.hyperfish.org#bz2#2323,2424
repository|naendo||http://entropy.v00d00.net|
repository|naendo||http://entropy4.hyperfish.org|
repository|naendo||http://entropy3.hyperfish.org|
repository|naendo||http://entropy.hyperfish.org|

What Sabayon Version do you need?
Any on the 4.0 branch, including: 4.0, 4.0-r1 and 4.0-LiteMCE

We have set up a sub-forum for getting support, discussion and requesting packages at the Sabayon Linux forum.  Please see Naendo Community Repository

On another note, the feedback from LiteMCE has been good.  People are reporting lesser issues than Sabayon Linux 4.o full dvd.  People are able to add the software they desire to it.  We seem to run into a font issue here and there with the entire 4.0 series, but overall it’s been good.  I’ve seen some packages mentioned for the next release and think they would be great editions, but we want to keep the LiteMCE editions light, so we have to becareful with the packages we choose to add.  With the power of entropy, it’s easy to add your favorite application, but I will keep an eye out on packages that get mentioned over and over.  I would like to see some more plugins working OOTB with xbmc, but that isn’t the easiest thing to do I am finding out quickly. XBMC 8.10-r5 is available and in testing it, I didn’t run into any problems, so we should be able to bump that version safely.  I would like to hear from xbmc fans of which plugins are your must have ones.  I like the hulu plugin, but unable to get that working in the current version.  It works in the svn version, but than I loose sound with svn.  It’s a true work in progress I guess.

Development is discussing various ideas, working out the 4.0 glitches and continued art-work.  I would like to see us stick with the LiteMCE edition and offer it for Gnome and KDE,  than do away with the full dvd release completely.  Joost brought up doing a minimal core cd, which would be a fast quick download and than use the power of entropy to build your own system.  Our current installer allows core install, but it’s big download just to get a core install, plus the core install is the longest install process.  A core cd would get you up very quickly.  So that is something we are kicking around in the dirt for future stuff.  Remember, these are just our ideas at the moment, nothing actually being built.

Good news for UNetbootin fans,  LiteMCE has been added officially to the latest version.  This is great for those that don’t have a cd/dvd drive.  I have not tried this method myself, be interesting to hear user experiences with it.  If anyone is interested in doing a wiki page in our wiki on it, feel free to go for it.  The more options/resources we have for the community, the better.

Thanks for all recent feedback!

Press Release: Sabayon Linux x86/x86-64 4 Lite MCE

H O P E T O D A Y

Dedicated to those who like order over chaos, to those who like simplicity over complexity, to those who think that less is more, to those that just want more for less. Lite MCE will catch you, based on Sabayon 4, represent what can be the future of our Operating System: just the best of the Out-Of-The-Box, just GNOME and nothing more than what you need for your daily tasks, but what about your free time? We’ve got it. Xbox Media Center 8.10 just landed on the Linux Planet, so what’s better than having it ready to use? And why not, don’t you think it’s time to prepare your cheap Media Center platform to watch your movies and Internet TV channels? Show off the new Sabayon Linux to your friends, they have no more excuses to not try it!

Take a Tour - Booting
Take a Tour - Installer

Distribution Features:
• Based on Sabayon Linux 4, Press Release here
• Halved Hard Disk footprint, <2GB ISO image
• GNOME 2.24.2 as default Desktop Environment (the only one installed)
• OpenOffice 3.0
• Multimedia applications (audio, video, dvd ripping, file sharing)
• Media Center Mode, transforming your Sabayon in a complete Multimedia platform thanks to XBMC
• Entropy Package Manager 0.24.8, ready for 0.50
• Stable Linux Kernel 2.6.27.10 + 2.6.28 enhancements (2.6.28 available through our repositories)
• Ext4, NTFS, AUFS and UnionFS Support
  - Ready for the future today, Ext4, the future Linux Filesystem is now a reality!
  - Does your Windows(tm) system contain music and photos? We support it out of the box!
• HAL-based GPU and Input devices detection thanks to X.Org 7.4
  - Supporting AMD Catalyst Drivers 8.11 and Open Source RadeonHD
  - Supporting NVIDIA Drivers 180.11, 173.14.12, 96.43.09 and 71.86.07 through an automated selector
  - One click 3D Desktop Effects support
• For the future:
  - KDE 4.2 ready!
  - Can be upgraded to any 4.x Sabayon releases without a hitch!

Requirements
Minimum requirements:
- an i686-compatible Processor (Intel Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Celeron, AMD K6-2, Athlon)
- 512Mb RAM
- 16 GB of free space
- A X.Org supported 2D GPU
- a DVD reader
Optimal requirements:
- a Dual Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or better, AMD Athlon 64 X2 or better)
- 1024Mb RAM
- 32 GB of free space
- A X.Org supported 3D GPU (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) (esp. for XBMC)
- a DVD reader

Resources for Sabayon Linux 4 Lite MCE:
Kernel Configuration:
- 32bit 2.6.27.10 kernel config
- 64bit 2.6.27.10 kernel config
Packages list:
- Sabayon Linux x86 4 Packages
- Sabayon Linux x86-64 4 Packages

Download It!
Our Mirrors Page:
- http://www.sabayonlinux.org/mirrors

Bittorrent:
- Sabayon Linux x86 4-r1 Torrent Download
- Sabayon Linux x86-64 4-r1 Torrent Download

Digg:

http://digg.com/linux_unix/Sabayon_Linu … x86_x86_64

With sabayon Linux 4.0 rolling on it's way it's time to look at some sort of a mini edition. We are gonna spin out a mini-dvd instead of a mini-cd. There is several reasons for this move and I'm not going to go into them as I don't want to hear comments of not having a dvd drive for whatever reason it is. It's the 21st Century, get with it and get a dvd drive, even microsoft is moving to dvd format releases.

LiteMCE stands for lite dvd version, multimedia center edition. It's desktop environment is gnome. It comes with xmbc for your multimedia. If I recall correctly the dvd download will be roughly 2GB. The testers group is testing and working out the kinks as we speak. A release date has not been set, but it shouldn't be long. Just hammering out some last minute things. I am absolutely loving this type of release. I would like to see strictly dvd-lite releases only, one for KDE and one for Gnome. Once installed you have the full power of entropy to add and build what you want. Everyone knows I am a portage and compile type of guy, but entropy just keeps getting better and better. It's getting a lot of attention from outside of the sabayon community and the feedback is good. I find myself content with it on my entropy only systems. The entropy maintainers work hard so it's easy for you, nice to have people looking out for you.

With LiteMCE you have choice on boot to go to a 3D desktop or to a desktop without 3D, still being gnome of course. You will also be able to boot straight into XMBC, which works very well. XMBC takes a little bit to get the hang of for adding stuff. I recommend getting to know the Settings area and file manager of XMBC. Once you got that set, piece of cake.

I got some screenshots here. These are the testing screenshots. I've tweaked the colors a little for gnome-panel and added in my favorite icon package. The artwork still hasn't be decided yet, but this will give you a sneak-peek so you have idea. Oh, the skydome I got from the web also. I don't know who created it. Click images to see bigger version.

---

Once again Sabayon Linux is looking to grow. We are looking for a small group of 30 people or so to do beta testing. We’ll have a mailing list and irc room setup for the group to use.

Are you interested in helping test new isos, software and have the time to put into it?

Wanna have more input on what goes into Sabayon Linux?

Than this is your chance to join the team. We are looking for people that are familiar with Sabayon Linux, not afraid to use the commandline, know where to find log files and can submit reports. Experience is a plus and we will have a few people to help mentor you to get you going. English speaking will be required for irc and mail list. You will be testing and reporting on stuff before Public testing/release. This is to kill off any obvious issues missed by the dev team.

This opportunity will fill up fast and will come on a first come first serve bases and experience will trump. Contact me via email at wolfden @ sabayonlinux . org and provide the following information.

1. How long have you been using Sabayon Linux and or other Linux distro?

2. Have you done any beta testing before?

3. Are you proficient with command line commands?

4. Do you know what nano and vi are?

5. Do you know xdelta?

6. What else if anything can you offer? example programming skills. We ask this in case we discover any potential dev people.

We look forward to hearing from you and growing our team. Please provide a valid means of contact so we can contact you with details.

Once again Sabayon Linux is looking to grow. We are looking for a small group of 30 people or so to do beta testing. We’ll have a mailing list and irc room setup for the group to use.

Are you interested in helping test new isos, software and have the time to put into it?

Wanna have more input on what goes into Sabayon Linux?

Than this is your chance to join the team. We are looking for people that are familiar with Sabayon Linux, not afraid to use the commandline, know where to find log files and can submit reports. Experience is a plus and we will have a few people to help mentor you to get you going. English speaking will be required for irc and mail list. You will be testing and reporting on stuff before Public testing/release. This is to kill off any obvious issues missed by the dev team.

This opportunity will fill up fast and will come on a first come first serve bases and experience will trump. Contact me via email at wolfden @ sabayonlinux . org and provide the following information.

1. How long have you been using Sabayon Linux and or other Linux distro?

2. Have you done any beta testing before?

3. Are you proficient with command line commands?

4. Do you know what nano and vi are?

5. Do you know xdelta?

6. What else if anything can you offer? example programming skills. We ask this in case we discover any potential dev people.

We look forward to hearing from you and growing our team. Please provide a valid means of contact so we can contact you with details.

I’ve been steadily working on my Funtoo install that I started through a chroot environment.  I must say that doing it like that sure makes it a lot easier.  You don’t have to worry about no cd/dvd disk,bad burn or installer issues.  Create your partition(s), download the stage you want, unzip, chroot in and start setting up the config files than build to your heart is content. When I booted into my new install I was able to boot into a fully working Gnome desktop and it took less than a day.  I have decided that Funtoo for me is a textured Gentoo with a little bit of Sabayon Linux that leaves a person with fantastic options.