Planning for 4.3beta2

Thinking ahead, for the benefit of those who are eagerly awaiting the next release, I can probably upload 4.3beta2 early next week, say Monday or Tuesday.

The Unionfs problem is still unresolved. Looking back in my blog, July 2008, I reported a problem with Unionfs version 2.3.3 which forced me to go over to Aufs:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/200807/unionfs-problem.html
The developers were working in version 2.4, a major change, but for a few months they totally ignored bug reports for the 2.3 series. I was most unhappy about that.
Regarding the latest problem, I submitted a bug report on Aug 22, so hopefully it will get attention soon:
https://bugzilla.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/show_bug.cgi?id=634

I think by this coming Sunday I will have to recompile the 2.6.29.6 kernel, I am very much hoping for the last time, and if Unionfs is not fixed by then I'll leave it out. Regardless, I'll put in the Aufs patch.

Regarding the 'devx' file, the gtkdialog examples were missing in 4.3beta1, fixed. Also, the next release will have the 'git' package.

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Comments

Wish-list for 4.3 (reloaded)
Username: Jota
Barry: Here is again my wish-list (revised) for 4.3 (by priority): - upgrade JWM to be able to resize from the top (and maybe with round-corners, why not?) Update: it seems that you are going to finally include it... Hope so! I've been using JWM revision 456 since April, without a single problem. - Geany: not much to say, it's still the best! - kernel 2.6.30 (still faster and less resource intensive than 2.6.29) Update: so, it seems that you totally gave up on this kernel...? - flashblock in seamonkey - upgrade to Gnumeric 1.8.4 (the size is almost the same as 1.8.2, so, why not??) - add some plugins in Abiword Other notes: - Abiword 2.7.8 works great for me, I even re-enable Dingbats and StandardSymbols and they display ok! - Flashplayer 9r48 is the best one for puppy - Gxine 0.5.9 is the better one (does the same than 0.5.904 but uses less memory and lower load) Thanks for your work, and hope this helps.

Package Manager idea
Username: 8-bit
"Would it be possible to have the option to save the Pet package to install as well as installing it? That way, one could have a backup offline and save having to download it again using the Package Manager.

re SCSI
Username: BarryK
"Yep, there will be a SCSI build for 4.3final.

Flash 10 security update
Username: happypuppy
"Puppy 4.3 beta 2 should include the latest version of Flash 10 (10.0.32.18) The latest version includes fixes for several critical security flaws.

Flash 10 security update
Username: happypuppy
"Puppy 4.3 beta 2 should include the latest version of Flash 10 (10.0.32.18) The latest version includes fixes for several critical security flaws.

requesting again...
Username: vk6fun
"if puppy's kernel is to be recompiled may i once again plead for the inclusion of hamradio AX25 drivers? it's not a biggie. a quick look at this page will explain it http://howto.wikia.com/wiki/Howto_configure_the_Linux_kernel/Networking/Amateur_Radio_support pete vk6fun

a recent iptables would be nice too
Username: zygo
"http://www.netfilter.org/projects/iptables/downloads.html has iptables-1.4.4 (2009-Jun-16) Puppy has iptables-1.3.8 (2007-Jun-25). Easy for me to say...

Re: Flash 10 security update
Username: Jota
"happypuppy wrote: <quote>Puppy 4.3 beta 2 should include the latest version of Flash 10 (10.0.32.18) The latest version includes fixes for several critical security flaws. </quote> Well, as far as I understand, the security problems only arises in very limited cases, and should not worry most Puppy users. The problem here is what do we (i.e. BK ;-)) want: a Puppy for old hardware, and for that Flash 9r48 is the best one; or a Puppy for faster computers.

Media files & links OK???
Username: cthisbear
"Barry. Are all the media files working out of the box? mp3, mp4, avi, mpeg, wmv etc etc. If not coolpup is Mr Fixit...Puppy 4.2.1 Just had a recent email from him. Abiword fixed. Puppy 4.2.1 was unfortunate for being knocked off the net. Extremely annoying. So Flash and Seamonkey...resolved AOK??? I would not like to see Puppy go backwards in what it offered in our last release. Despite the dramas...WhoDo did good. Puppy fared well. We got to number 2...and stay at number 8. Personally I care not if we went to 30 on Distrowatch...as long as we stay focussed on usability. If not i'm going Windows 7. Cos Steve said this time it's fixed. They wouldn't tell me fibs surely? ///////// And we must have a login eh! For all those poor Bs afraid of being Root. Just joking...wanted to get in the good books with me old mate Caitlyn Martin. What a wonderful lass. Not opinionated either. Could have been an opera singer I suppose. ME...ME...ME...Me...Me.. http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090824#feature First look at Puppy Linux 4.2.1 (by Jesse Smith) http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090824&mode=67 //////// Anyway I know that many days, weeks, hours have passed. I am not ungrateful. I'm happy that you have got satellite working. Must save on the petrol. Wishing you and the next Pup every success. Chris.

tar.xz
Username: ttuuxxx
"Hi Barry currently In 2.14X I have Xarchiver and FileRoller archivers installed, FileRoller can open tar.xz extensions, The extraction is slower than tar.gz but the compression is great below is a comparison of the 3 file formats. By far tar.xz is more superior is size, what I'm thinking is that since we don't really make all that many extra large pets maybe we could have a new format with the changing of the times? maybe it could be called "tux" lol well its 3 letters and does idolize the Linux mascot, I just wonder why it hasn't been used yet? anyways below is a image of the latest ghostscript and the actual file size differences. ttuuxxx [img]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8067/72369515.jpg[/img]

Re: suspend / hibernate
Username: Jota
"doc: "suspend / hibernate" is mostly a matter of the kernel, so, at least suspend should work, more or less. ;-) For suspend, you can always try to do, on a terminal window: [code] echo -n mem > /sys/power/state [/code] I've tried it on different hardware, and it works (but sometimes it needs some BIOS config, really depend on the setup). Hibernate is a bit more complicated to get to work, but do you really need it? I rarely use hibernation, even on Windows.

4.3beta2 schedule
Username: BarryK
"The schedule has fallen back a bit, as I was away for a few days Fri - Sun, family stuff. Um, will now aim for this coming weekend.

patch?
Username: 01micko
"Hello Barry, Any word from bugzilla yet on the unionfs patch? I just clicked your link to the bug report and that page is down with an "internal error". Cheers

Unionfs bugzilla
Username: BarryK
"Yes, the Unionfs bugzilla is down. I reported it to the mail-list yesterday, still not fixed. Unless there's some action real quick (re. the outstanding bug), I might have to give up on Unionfs (again).

HIBERNATE: YES WE NEED IT
Username: PC
"Hibernate would be great. It is safer than just suspend and loads much faster than from doing so from scratch. It is the only missing thing that is stopping me from switching over to Puppy (which is fantastic, congrats to those who contribute to it. Hibernation does not work well in Ubuntu and Debian for many PCs. The pm-hibernate bin command did fix the problem from many computers (including mine). Adding a hibernate function (and pm-hibernate) at least to Dpup gets my full support. Great Work. Thanks.

7za vs Xarchiver and FileRoller?
Username: broomdodger
"Hello ttuuxxx [quote]currently In 2.14X I have Xarchiver and FileRoller archivers installed, FileRoller can open tar.xz extensions[/quote] I compiled 7za it works great, I use it on Mac and WinXP. How would you compare it to Xarchiver and FileRoller?

7za vs Xarchiver and FileRoller?
Username: ttuuxxx
"hi Fileroller is a bit bigger in size than Xarchiver, I had to add extra deps to 214X to open newer formats like tar.xz but it turned out nice :) Fileroller can also open iso files which I find to be very handy on older puppy versions that didn't have that option, 2.14X does because I added upgraded the functionality. Over all Xarchiver and Fileroller both outdoes xarchive with formats, functions and easy of use. Plus they both open large tar.bz2 about 1/300th of the time as xarchive does, like say open some seamonkey sources and compare the 3, never understood why it takes like over 1hr just to open the sources with xarchive, where as the other 2 do it in like 1 minute. If I had a choice, I would go with Xarchiver if we could get tar.xz to extract if not then Fileroller would be my first choice, Xarchiver is a bit better than Fileroller, But Fileroller wins with formats. ttuuxxx

Tags: woof