DSL 3.0 now stable
Forum: Site News
Topic: DSL 3.0 now stable
started by: John
Posted by John on June 20 2006,06:22
We have lots of new under the hood goodness in this release including the very cool sshfs and the new UNC extension which takes full advantage of unionfs to minimize system requirements. We also tracked down and killed several bugs. Thank you Robert for all your hard work on this release, and thank you to the community for all your suggestions and refinements.1. New DSL now boots to unionfs.
2. New boot option "legacy" to boot without unionfs.
3. Moved MyDSL local extension loading functionality from emelfm to MyDSL desktop icon.
4. New mountable MyDSL extension type unc with automatic branch management.
5. Adjust Getting Started/Dillo screen to support booting 640x480.
6. Added ACPI modules for newer power management support.
7. New FUSE support.
8. New sshfs support for simple remote network mounts.
9. Fixed bug in kbdconfig when changing keymaps.
10. Fixed sshd stop issue in early 3.0 RC versions.
11. Fixed reported typos.
12. New theme "A Penguin with a Hat"
13. New unc extension section in the MyDSL Repository.
Posted by sankarv on June 20 2006,07:01
Thats a great piece of work. keep going.
Posted by John on June 20 2006,08:38
If you are experiencing Firefox crashes try booting with "dsl legacy". It seems like on some systems Firefox has an issue with unionfs.
Posted by Zucca on June 20 2006,10:23
I should try that too...I'm still using some old 2.x version...
I wonder if I can use my settings (on my USB stick) with that new relase?
Posted by MrBear37 on June 20 2006,11:34
John, Robert, everyone.. First , Thank you for all you have done..
Second.. a question I am not so familiar with the Union FS..
with a move to the Union FS will the other "Debian apt-get apps not work due to the change in the filing structure ?
Just curious..
Thanks again.. DSL Rocks !
Mark
Posted by roberts on June 20 2006,14:30
Mark, unionfs just allows the full filesystem to become writeable.You can still enable apt, still use Synaptic and all the debian utilis.
Also, unionfs only affect running livecd or frugal type installs. Installing to the hard drive remains as before.
Posted by dtf on June 20 2006,14:34
Are there any special procedures for upgrading from 2.4 to 3.0 for a frugal install?
Posted by roberts on June 20 2006,14:40
To upgrade from all prior versions of dsl...Emelfm loading of local extensions has been deprecated.
Please update as follows:
cp /etc/skel/.emelfm/buttons /home/dsl/.emelfm/.
cp /etc/skel/.emelfm/filetypes /home/dsl/.emelfm/.
Posted by roberts on June 20 2006,14:45
Regarding browsers:I still have not been able to directly reproduce the local firefox crash. However, I mostly use newer versions for firefox, opera, and seamonkey.uci. You may wish to try these newer versions and of course adjust the cache size for your memory and apps depending on your environment.
Posted by ZoOp on June 20 2006,15:08
Robert, John,thanks a lot! That's a very nice release with these wonderful uncs.
yours
z
Posted by randux on June 20 2006,17:33
| Quote (John @ June 20 2006,02:22) |
| 11. Fixed reported typo's. |
Hey man, typo's means "belonging to the typo." This is not what you meant.
The plural of typo is typos.
There are errors like this in the readme that pops up with Dillo, at least there used to be.
Randux
Posted by MrBear37 on June 20 2006,18:59
| Quote (randux @ June 20 2006,13:33) | ||
Hey man, typo's means "belonging to the typo." This is not what you meant. The plural of typo is typos. There are errors like this in the readme that pops up with Dillo, at least there used to be. Randux |
Randux,
I was not aware that we were splitting hairs with our benefactors where our grammar was concerned. I, myself, have been guilty of the occasional finger slip. You may in fact be correct in your analysis of John's grammar, however, I would not be so quick to pull the splinter out our neighbors eye, when there is a plank looming nearby
Peace,
Mark
Posted by knix on June 20 2006,19:14
| Quote (MrBear37 @ June 20 2006,14:59) |
... I would not be so quick to pull the splinter out our neighbors eye, when there is a plank looming nearby |
In Matthew 7 it is "neighbor's eye", not "neighbors eye"...
Posted by kerry on June 20 2006,19:46
Works great for me too now. As long as i don't use the /tmp folder for the .unc's and .uci's i have no problems. I still can't beleave how long it took me to figure that out. 
Posted by MrBear37 on June 20 2006,21:40
ROFLMAO Nix.. OK.. ya got me.. darn FFFS ( Fat Finger Filing Syndrome)..
Posted by clacker on June 20 2006,22:28
| Quote (knix @ June 20 2006,15:14) | ||||
In Matthew 7 it is "neighbor's eye", not "neighbors eye"... |
Knix, just to be a jerk with a plank, I'd like to point out it's
In Matthew 7 it is "neighbor's eye," not "neighbors eye"
not
In Matthew 7 it is "neighbor's eye", not "neighbors eye"
At least it's that way in America.
Oh, and I think dsl 3.0 looks great. Punctuation aside, that is.
Posted by roberts on June 20 2006,23:01
"typo's" is not John's error but mine.I make the change log. It is based on the work I have implemented in DSL. I never did get good grades in English. In fact, it has always been my least favorite subject. Guess, that's why I went into computers. But that is the least of my woes. I am being directed to remove unionfs as default and make it as a boot option. Hopefully, I can pull this off without breaking other things. I really don't want to do another rc exercise. So stay tuned, as I make this requested emergency surgery. Oh, it has been requested because of the issue with the inbuilt firefox browser. So it goes... And I had so hoped to start to move away from the .dsl memory hungry extensions.
Robert
Posted by kerry on June 20 2006,23:53
I think that's a smart move. It really makes more since to have unionfs as a cheat code. But i've got to ask "How's this going to help DSL?" Can the inbuilt firefox be dropped instead? Firefox updated is already offered in the DSL repo's and almost everybody grabs the updated version. Why not just drop firefox and make dillo a little better(antialishing turned on in the build would help). It would also help save "Robert" alot of work. Robert, sorry you have to go 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.
Posted by John on June 21 2006,01:31
*hanging out the undies to dry*Spelling isn't my best subject either, fwiw. I'm dyslexic, and I was functionally illiterate until my late teens. My brand of dyslexia is interesting, my brain will actually fill the page up with what I think is on it. Other times the page will just blank out or become like boiling water -- it's sort of like a visual stuttering.
Regarding FF and Unionfs, I am working on the compatibility issue. So, folks just need to have a little patients.
Re dropping FF... For the first several releases of DSL we had links-hacked and dillo, which was a very good light combination, but these days with AJAX being so widely deployed I believe it is important to have a functional browser which is compatible with javascript, flash, CSS, etc.
Posted by clivesay on June 21 2006,01:34
| Quote (kerry @ June 20 2006,18:53) |
| Why not just drop firefox and make dillo a little better(antialishing turned on in the build would help). |
I was thinking the same thing before I saw this post. I know this has been visited before but with unionfs and people creating many extensions that now use very little ram, should this argument be revisited? Is Opera an option in place of FF if you really want a base browser that has java and flash support? I have no idea if Opera can be smaller than FF or not. FF is a pain for John to craft into DSL and he was forced into the last update because FF updates were not backward compatible and the old version no longer worked with places like Yahoo! Mail. Since FF is so popular and has many updates, just seems that maybe it's time to remove it and use the latest builds from the repo as they are submitted by the community.
Just a thought.
Chris
EDIT: John hit the submit button faster than me!
I understand the reference to Ajax. Guess it just comes down to if it's important for DSL to support such things 'out of the box'. There are many arguements both ways, I guess.
Posted by vees on June 21 2006,05:16
| Quote (John @ June 20 2006,02:22) |
13. New unc extension section in the MyDSL Repository. |
what are 'unc' extensions?
Posted by kerry on June 21 2006,05:33
It's for DSL 3.0 series with unionfs. There just like .uci's in a way.
Posted by aaylnx on June 21 2006,16:42
You guys rock!I just did a HD install of the latest DSL a couple of days before this release. I haven't really tweaked much on that box. I may actually upgrade it to 3.0. DSL is incredible.
Thanks!
Adam
Posted by ZoOp on June 21 2006,21:20
I agree with Kerry and clivesay: why do you want to keep FF in the base iso, since anyone who's getting in touch with DSL understands quick that its advantage is to run extensions instead of installing apps? An argument more and a positive evaluation of the mydslPanel.lua: I find the idea to bring mydsl net browser and the mydsl-load function together very very useful and of great pedagogical interest for new users.
When you want to load an extension, you will face the fact that you can load it from your directories or from the repo. of the DSL_Team. In other word, you tell people that the ways to get it from hd or ftp:// or http:// are functionally equivalent. If so, it makes no difference to load FF from hd or ftp:// or < http://, > but, naturally, the speed of your connection. Yet, this last difficulty seem to me not to be a really great one today, at least not for people using ajax and developping apps and tools in a web environment. And in order to download FF, dillo does the job.
Anyway, just a tought.
Very successful release!
yours
z
Posted by mcangeli on June 22 2006,04:38
Torrent is available at linuxtracker.org it has 16 seeders and has been downloaded 94 times so far.< http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=2257&hit=1 >
Also, we'd like to invite you to use linuxtracker as your official torrent tracker for DSL.
Posted by Winter Knight on June 23 2006,06:46
| Quote (MrBear37 @ June 20 2006,14:59) |
| Randux, I was not aware that we were splitting hairs with our benefactors where our grammar was concerned. |
Oh come on, he mispelled typos. You have to see the humor in that.
Also, I second (fifth?) the recommendation to ditch firefox from the base build. I've been thinking this for awhile, and haven't gotten around to mentioning it on this forum anywhere. It is grossly out of date (I understand there is a good reason, but still), and therefore insecure. Just think of what you can do with the megs you save. Plus, now, it causes problems with unionfs. Why would you want to keep it?
Posted by ZoOp on June 23 2006,11:55
I have to replace 3.0 with DSL-2.4 because 3.0 is not stable enough for my machine (vaio laptop, 1,3 ghz and 256 MB RAM). Problems:1. Firefox; again, why do we keep it in the base iso?;
2. I still have error messages when I want to load uncs apps at boot; I try it after a brand new frugall installation of DSL 3.0 stable; I loaded only uncs, but the problem is persistent; in order to check out the problem, see my post: < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....;st=85. >
3. uncs loaded: gtk2, opera and samba (already signalized in my posts, please see the link below); I don't believe that these apps cause these errors, but for opera: once loaded, it freezes when I use it more than 2 hours, and when I shut my machine down, I get the message: can't unmount opera.
I did the same test with 3.0.1 unionfs activated: same results.
yours
z
Posted by ZoOp on June 23 2006,12:17
interesting: just after posting, I wanted to open openoffice.uci (click on openoffice.uci in emelfem; I am working noicons). It was impossible. I don't have the myDSL button in emelfm anymore, too. And I have made a fresh install of DSL-2.4... My hd: hda1 (55 MB), hda5 (25 GB), hda6 (swap).yours
z
Posted by John on June 23 2006,17:22
Why keep an older version of Firefox?many users of DSL use it as a travailing distribution, either on CD or USB, many others use it on legacy hardware as a frugal install. Many do not have access to a high speed connection, so downloading an extension may take a very long time. forcing these users to download a browser is unreasonable. As much as you all are voicing for feeing up the space, the would be 10x more condemnation if we were to remove it. There is no need to keep suggesting its removal, as stated already we are working on the compatibility issue.
Posted by Zucca on June 27 2006,02:30
IMO: Change FireFox to Opera.How 'unstable' is this DSL 3 now?
Posted by meo on June 27 2006,06:46
Hello Y'all!I find the most rescent version of DSL very stable. I'm posting this from firefox (I have had problems with that one at times) as I'm listening to internet radio. I've had it running 1 day 9 hours and 52 minutes now. I've been using both firefox-1.5.0.4 and the one that comes with the distro wich means I've upgraded to gtk-2 and it still works. Furthermore I just burned a cd just to test and it went well. An odd thing I've discovered is that firefox hardly ever causes problems if I have Xmms running at the same time. By the way I'm using DSL 3.0.1 with unionfs. Uptime now 1 day 9 hours and 58 minutes without problems.
Have fun everybody,
meo
Posted by cbagger01 on June 27 2006,18:22
Man, you type slow
Posted by mgmont on July 01 2006,04:20
| Quote (cbagger01 @ June 27 2006,13:22) |
| Man, you type slow |
Don't be so hard on meo. You have to allow time to sip beer between lines.
Posted by Zucca on July 07 2006,06:24
Hmm. Does DSL 3.x have CPU temperature monitoring support. It would be very important at least for laptop users.