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EasyOS Kirkstone-series version 5.6.2 released

November 12, 2023 — BarryK

Version 5.6.1 has Firefox builtin, but 5.6.2 returns to Chromium. The release notes for 5.6.2:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2023/5.6.2/release-notes.htm

Reproducing the release notes here, since 5.5.5:

Yes, a complete recompile in OpenEmbedded; "revision-5" and Chromium bumped from 116.0.5845.187 to 117.0.5938.132 and the kernel bumped from 5.15.135 to 5.15.137.

In SFSget (see the "pkg" icon on the desktop) there are two NVIDIA SFS files, one of which you can install if you have an NVIDIA GPU and the inbuilt 'nouveau' kernel driver isn't good enough. Note that these NVIDIA SFSs are experimental, so give us feedback on the forum if any issues. Also experimental is the automatic NVIDIA SFS updating when you update to EasyOS versions beyond 5.6.2.

If you are new to EasyOS, you will find it useful to read the EasyOS 5.5.5 announcement, that has links on how to install:

https://bkhome.org/news/202310/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-555-released.html

Download Easy 5.6.2, kindly hosted by ibiblio.org:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2023/5.6.2/

Or, if you live in Europe, there is a mirror kindly hosted by NLUUG:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2023/5.6.2/

Or, if already running EasyOS, just click on the "update" desktop icon, which will download a small "difference file" to achieve the update.

We welcome feedback on the forum, specifically this one for the 5.6.x releases:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=9911

...you will see there discussion why I changed back to Chromium from Firefox. Note though, if you would prefer to run Firefox (or Vivaldi), there are download links in the "Internet" category of the menu. That will download the latest version and can also be used to update to the latest version.

If you are updating via the "update" icon, let us know on the forum if you experience any problem with running Chromium. First, check that file /usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser has "chromium" in it, secondly try to run chromium from a terminal window (see "term" icon on desktop) and report any error message -- which may already be reported to the forum. I am specifically mentioning this, as I experienced an issue with Chromium not starting due to the latest version of Chromium being linked against a later version of the 'icu' package. I will report my fix to the forum.

For anyone who wants the in-depth technical details about the latest release of Easy, here are the github commits:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commits/c4181592920ec0ccd520c588a3381da683ebc180

Have fun!       

Tags: easy