Planet Sabayon Linux

The best, refined blend of GNU/Linux, coming with bleeding edge edges is eventually here! Say hello to Sabayon Five-point-Twoh, available in both GNOME and KDE editions!
Dedicated to those who like cutting edge stability, out of the box experience, outstanding Desktop performance, clean and beauty. Sabayon 5.2 will catch you, anything that could have been compiled, has been compiled, anything cool that could have been implemented or updated, it’s there: you will find outstanding amount of new applications and features, like XBMC 9.11, KDE 4.4.1, GNOME 2.28, Linux Kernel 2.6.33, and so forth.
So, come on, go catch it, it’s half a DVD away from you!

Visual Tours:

• Take a Tour – Booting (GNOME)
• Take a Tour – Installer (GNOME)
• Take a Tour – Booting (KDE)
• Take a Tour – Installer (KDE)

Features of Sabayon 5.2:

• Based on new GCC 4.4.1 and Glibc 2.10
• Shipped with Desktop-optimized Linux kernel 2.6.33
• Providing extra Server-optimized and OpenVZ-enabled kernels in repositories
• Installable in 10 minutes
• Faster boot time and lightweight default system
• Ext4 filesystem as default
• Encrypted filesystem support
• Featuring X.Org 7.5 and up-to-date Open Source, NVIDIA, AMD video drivers
• Containing GNOME 2.28 (with GNOME Shell!) and KDE 4.4.1
• Outstanding 3D Desktop applications (Compiz, Compiz Fusion and KWin) working out of the box
• Bringing Entropy Framework (Package Manager) 0.99.38.7
• Shipped with OpenOffice 3.2 productivity suite, Multimedia applications
• Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC
• Shipped with World of Goo Demo – best 2D game ever!
• Sexiest Skin ever! (Light blueeee!)
• Try it out from Windows, just kick the DVD in and use Sabayon via QEMU virtualization!
• Ready for Sabayon 6 (someday!)

Updates since Sabayon 5.2:

• New Linux Kernel 2.6.33 with enhanced wireless and power management support
• Switched to GRUB2, improved Mac support
• Improved VirtualBox Input drivers support
• KDE updated to 4.4.1 and now more integrated than ever (featuring new KNetworkManager)!
• Entropy Framework updated to 0.99.38.7, featuring outstanding performance improvements, tons of bugfixes and features (see our Git repos). Working towards 1.0!
• More than 2000 new updated packages available (since Sabayon 5.1)
• Greatly improved boot time
• Improved Pulseaudio/ALSA support
• Reduced ISO images footprint by 100Mb
• Improved NVIDIA legacy drivers support
• Improved XBMC, Media Center installation profile support and reliability

Requirements

Minimum requirements:
- an i686-compatible Processor (Intel Pentium II/III, Celeron, AMD Athlon)
- 512Mb RAM
- 6 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
- 15 GB of free space
- A X.Org supported 3D GPU (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) (esp. for XBMC)
- a DVD reader

Resources for Sabayon Linux 5.2 GNOME and KDE:

Kernel Configuration:
- Sabayon 5.2 x86 kernel config
- Sabayon 5.2 amd64 kernel config
Packages list:
- Sabayon Linux x86 5.2 KDE Packages
- Sabayon Linux x86-64 5.2 KDE Packages
- Sabayon Linux x86 5.2 GNOME Packages
- Sabayon Linux x86-64 5.2 GNOME Packages

Download sources

Our Mirrors Page:
- http://www.sabayon.org/download
Bittorrent:
- http://tracker.sabayon.org/

Starting from April 1st, I will have to find new ways to make a living (other projects I’m currently working on are ending), that’s the good part of being a freelance IT software programmer and researcher. If there’s somebody interested in hiring me, drop me an email

So its been a while since I’ve blogged so I thought I would take some time to let you know whats happening in Sabyon-dev-land.

Limbo users will have noticed lots of cool stuff has been added including the Phoronix Test Suite, KDE4.4RC, Emesene 1.6 as well as the usual swathes of updates. These updates  will ofcourse mature into Sabayon 5.2, so what can you expect? Highlights are:

• Sabayon 2.6.32 kernel
• Xorg 1.7
• KDE 4.4
• GRUB2
• Smaller ISOs due to dependency clean-ups
• Sexy new theme
• And More!

A 5.2 beta is due to be created soon and given out to our testers team,  the the main hold up is due to ATI not releasing a driver compatible with Xorg 1.7, we are undecided whether we are going to drop the binary ati-drivers in favour of the more reliable as nearly as complete open source ati driver, your opinion is needed here .

So many things to look forward to there. We are looking for suggestions on ways to improve the disks so post a comment if you have a wishlist!

ust committed the three ebuilds, the first is app-emulation/virtualbox-bin-3.0.0 and the second is app-emulation/vitualbox-modules-3.0.0 and finally app-emulation/virtualbox-guest-additions.

I may add the  OSE but I haven’t seen anyone using that recently, so it got left out this time.

This are in the overlay right now and support lots of cool stuff such as SMP (Multiple Virtual CPUs) to guest operating systems, plus guests are now able to access OpenGL 2.0 with hardware acceleration on supported hardware / drivers.

These will hopefully be in mainline entropy after the normal testing process, if you want then now you can simply emerge them.

Well during my usual perusal of Linux based sites one particular article took my eye, it was Linux Magazines Gentoo Optimizations Benchmarked.

It shows, in my opinion quite comprehensively, the advantage of a Gentoo base system with the latest kernel and I reccomend you check out the figures for yourself.

The article states that big gains can be made but is it worth the time? I say no, use entropy and get the best of both worlds!

Oh, you can find the entropy make.conf on any entropy mirror, if you want to take a look at the setup we use to build entropy packages.

P.S. Kororaa Linux was not the first LiveCD w/ 3D desktop effects, that would be Sabayon (ofcourse!), Chris knows this, we have emails to prove it also, so he should really change his little bio on that site.

Yesterday I pushed 3 new firefox versions into the sabayon overlay, “whats so great about these firefoxes?” I hear you ask, well there are a few things.

Firstly they branded correctly as “Sabayon” which means sites that pick up on what OS your using will show you as usiong Sabayon and not Gentoo. For example on my blog, when you post a comment you will get a little Sabayon logo by your comment! (had to patch the wordpress plugin, but it has been accepted upstream now)

Secondly they now use the Sabayon homepage as default, not gentoo.org, which means in theory we could remove the firefox profile from skel (and have one less thing to worry about). However skel also has some setting to make sure Flash and Java work OOTB so maybe not a good idea to that just yet, but we will see.

Finally, there are newer versions! woop! By default everyone will get an upgrade to firefox 3.5_rc2 (-r10). However there is still an older (stabler) version of 3.0.11(-r10) available for those who dont want to run a RC browser.

For the brave there is also a bleeding edge 9999(-r1) ebuild which pulls the very latest code directly from the mozilla repository. I use the 9999 build with 0 problems. Please report any issues you encounter with these new builds to the sabayon bugzilla.

4.2 is chugging along with testing nicley and the testers have just got a pre-alpha of the CoreCD version too.  As always keep an eye on planet for the latest updates

When KDE4 was first released I was shocked at the lack of conguration options themewise compared to 3.5 and its wealth of options, I had best note plasma however is a notable exception,  a triumph of customisation and SVG goodness!

Kwin has needed a decent engine for theming for a while, while its almost on par in terms of effects with compiz, it has always lacked the extensive customisation features provided by emerald and its various engines.

Then there is the default QT theme in KDE4.3 (oxygen). This has many fans and it is nice to see some technoloigical progress being made in terms of themeing. Personally im not a fan of the whole oxygen look as it wastes to many pixels and is mostly plain grey. In my opinion its only used by alot of people as they lack an alternative.

Currently I’m working on improving KDE4.3 experience in Sabayon, we have always shipped the excellent QtCurve Qt widgetset as a alternative to Oxygen as it very flexable, fast and can be made to look as you like, it also integrates perfectly with a GTK theme provided (no winNT style firefox!).

We have, for all the KDE4 releases, shipped with the default Kwin theme due to the lack of a suitable replacement. Yesterday however, while browsing through KDE-look.org looking for a new wallpaper for my machine, I noted the Aurorae Theme Engine. This engine is designed to KDE4.3+ and uses SVGs to decorate the windows. “Yay!” was my inital thought and I immedietly installed it from the provided ebuild ( a bumped version with some cleanup is on the sabayon overlay now).

Work is now in progress on a theme for 5.0 for keep an eye out for 50._beta3 artwork.

Im back! woot. After a week of holiday its good to get involved again with some Sabayon stuff. Holiday was nice got to see the Folks and have a bit of a computer detox! Im surprised I survived so long with no linuxiness to be honest.

So I come back and the branch 5 situation has changed a bit, (which 100+ testers/devel mailing list messages attest too) the 5.0 Beta1 iso has been pushed out to the testers and then lxnay decides its a good time for a holiday (good timing perhaps?). There seems to be the usual mixed issues with the first ISO spin, most issues now seem to be handled by improved entropy and migration scripts, branch 5 is shaping up nicely.

Ive switched to KDE4.3 from Gnome, So expect to see a much more polished and enhanced KDE (as you did with gnome when I switched to that) in the next release, things on KDE todo list are:

1. New QT theme (10% Done)
2. Getting sysinfo:// working (100% Done)
3. Getting sysinfo:// customised (15% Done)
4. Kicker Customisation (SL Logos etc)
5. Skel Cleanup
6. Sabayon XDG Menus Improve KDE Compat
7. Etc etc…

Feel free to add anything you want done to KDE in the comments and Ill incorporate them if appropriate.

Next post has 5.0_beta2 theme previews!

Now with any major new release of GNOME you are going to get alot of “omg totally awesome new stuff in gnome!” posts. When there are blogs out there with names like “omgubuntu” you have to expect this.

Gnome 3.0 at its core seems to be gnome shell bolted onto a standard gnome 2.2x, with the primary purpose it seems of hyping gnome using a bigger version number. Maybe its because KDE is now soild and gnome think they need something closer to KDE’s Plasma?

However, I will watch with interest at what happens in regards to gnome shell, Its nice to see that if needed Gnome can do something new. Great. The real question is do you want it to do something new?

For me its a No, i don’t. Gnome is generally preferred by businesses building a working desktop out of Linux, why? Because its solid, predictable, a tried a tested desktop, why mess with it….that’s KDEs job!

That’s why it wont be included in ubuntu until late 2010 I suppose. Looking like Empathy all over again.

And breaking Compiz compatibility is not cricket. Its only really ever worked properly on Gnome, I’ve moved on to Kwin now but that is beside the point.

In other news, I’m very happy that you have all voted “HELL YEAH” to keeping libdvdcss for many of the reasons I originally gave to keep it, I have 0 clue why Fabio wanted it removed anyway.

It does mean however that we cant be included on cover disks of magazines, which is a shame, would love to see Sabayon on the cover of Linux Format, but playing DVDs out of the box is always a winner with me!

Bookmark It

Now sometimes you find a bit of Linux goodness that makes your geeky bits tingle, I found one recently, its called SSHFS, and its part of the awesome fuse framework. As you may have guessed it allows you to mount a file system through a SSH connection, this means it can be read from and saved to as any other part of your local file-system!

This leads to some cool possibilities, mounting a remote server over a secure connection for easy file uploads and downloads, the ability to run local scripts on remote files (WIN) and more.

Its ultra easy to use:

emerge -av1 sys-fs/sshfs-fuse

or

equo install sshfs-fuse

then

sshfs username@server:/path/to/mountpoint

I have it set up to run when I login and I use RSA key based auth so no passwords for ultraconvience at the price of a little bit of security.

Just thought I’d spread the word a bit.