Salix Xfce 13.2alpha1

[gapan]

Salix Xfce 13.2alpha1 is the first development release towards Salix 13.2. Two installation images are available, in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. It is based on Slackware current and repositories for Salix current have been setup as well. A lot of things have changed in current since the 13.1 series. Here's a list of the most notable changes:

* Xorg has had a major overhaul and it doesn't use hal for configuration anymore. Individual configuration files can be placed in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory now. The Salix system tools have been updated to support the new configuration scheme.
* The kernel has been upgraded to 2.6.35.7.
* Xfce has been upgraded to the latest stable release, 4.6.2.
* gcc has been upgraded to 4.5.1.
* glibc has been upgraded to 2.12.1.
* Libreoffice has replaced OpenOffice.org. Libreoffice is now at 3.3rc2, but we're expecting that a final 3.3 version will be released before Salix 13.2 is. Localization packages for Libreoffice are not yet available, but they going to be available when Salix 13.2 is released.
* The original Slackware pkgtools are going to be used for 13.2. Spkg is now a separate package and slapt-get/gslapt have been patched to work directly with spkg. This way we get to keep all benefits of using spkg, while maintaining 100% compatibility with Slackware and 3rd party software like sbopkg.
* Salix-update-notifier has been deprecated and slapt-update-service is being used in its place.
* Perl has been updated to 5.12.2. That means that all perl related packages will need to be updated.
* A lot more package updates. You can get the full list by going through the Slackware and Salix changelogs for current in the following URLs:
http://salix.enialis.net/i486/slackware ... ngeLog.txt
http://salix.enialis.net/i486/current/ChangeLog.txt

This release is mainly targeted at developers and packagers so they can use it as the base for all their new packages. Impatient users can also try it out to get a sneak peak of our future releases. Packagers should not that the policy towards package updates for the Salix repositories has changed. The Salix current repositories, that are going to become the 13.2 repositories, have started completely empty and no packages that were in the 13.1 repositories are going to be included unless they are properly tested first. That means that if you have a package in 13.1 and you would like it to be a part of the Salix 13.2 repositories as well, you'll need to test if it works or if it needs an upgrade and then resubmit it for inclusion. Packagers are requested to use the following workflow for each package they maintain:

1. Check if there is a new version of your package available upstream
2. If a new version is available, build and submit the new version to the bugtracker as a "package addition" for current. Please make a note in the ticket if major changes were done in the SLKBUILD and more thorough testing should be done.
3. If new dependencies are needed, or if dependencies need to be upgraded before you upgrade your package, wait until dependencies have been fulfilled in the repository, or if you're impatient, build and submit the dependencies yourself! Make an enquiry in this mailing list first though.
4. If a new version is not available, check if your old package from 13.1 still works, or if it needs a rebuild
5. If it works, check if dependencies need to be updated. Make a new ticket in the bugtracker as a "package transfer" for current, specifying the new dependencies if any. No need to post the actual packages in the ticket, just add a note for the packages you want to have transfered.
6. If the package from 13.1 doesn't work and needs a rebuild, do it, making sure you increment the build number of your package, and make a "package addition" ticket in the bugtracker.

New package submissions for our binary repository will be accepted until the point that 13.2 is released. All new package submissions after that will be pushed to our new SLKBUILD repo, accessible through slapt-src. There could certainly be exceptions to that rule for packages that are considered too important, or too difficult to build.

Considering that everything will need to be tested first and then placed in the current repositories, these are not as full as the repositories for 13.1 yet. In fact, there are a few packages missing from the standard Xfce installation as they are not ready for current yet. These include claws-mail, exaile, pitivi and zim. A lot of things are still missing from the repositories and a lot of things have yet to change until we reach 13.2 final (after Slackware 13.2 is released of course). Even the artwork in this release is still the same as the artwork in 13.1, but it going to change at some point.

So, here are the iso images, available for download from Sourceforge:
Salix Xfce 13.2alpha1 (32-bit):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/salix/f ... o/download
(md5sum: 6525ee801404f70efcbb36ceaca2235f, size: 591MB)
Salix64 Xfce 13.2alpha1 (64-bit):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/salix/f ... o/download
(md5sum: e6dd72885ed1e1c59a4014db3e45e89b, size: 573MB)

All developers and packagers are requested to use these images for new installations. Please do not upgrade your 13.1 installations to current, as this might leave several obsolete packages behind.

Have fun!

[lmello]

How can I upgrade from 13.1.x to 13.2alpha1?

[gapan]

How can I upgrade from 13.1.x to 13.2alpha1?

By reading the last paragraph of the announcement.

[lmello]

How can I upgrade from 13.1.x to 13.2alpha1?

By reading the last paragraph of the announcement.

Gee, my CRT monitor is definetely hurting my sight. Sorry.

Edit: just installed it. A considerable set of Xfce bugs got fixed. The only new bug that I've seen is from xfpanel, you can't move the applets as 'freely' as before.

And the default font rendering is awesome, because of this.

[pwatk]

Can I assume that if we submit a package now but it is updated before the release of 13.2 then we can also submit an update (provided it doesn't break other packages of course)? I doubt I'd need to do this a lot but I thought it was worth asking the question!

I've already jumped ahead a bit and rebuilt all of my packages (including new packages) over the Christmas period using Slackware-current. As a result I've modified nearly all my scripts so I wont be transferring any packages from 13.1. Can I confirm that if I submit a rebuild of a package that has the same version number in 13.1 (and there will be a number of them) but I have altered the SLKBUILD then I must still increment the build number?

[franzy]

thanx gapan! best whishes and a very good year to all salix's team!
ciao!

[Duncan_Idaho]

cool!!
I'm looking forward to the 13,2 release

[JRD]

I will look for my packages this WE. How much time do you thing we (packagers) have ?

[pwatk]

There are a number of things I like already (mostly Xfce working properly ) but there is definitely one thing I don't like; the kde4-style notification bubbles are fugly please tell me they're not staying.

[gapan]

Can I assume that if we submit a package now but it is updated before the release of 13.2 then we can also submit an update (provided it doesn't break other packages of course)? I doubt I'd need to do this a lot but I thought it was worth asking the question!

Yes.

I've already jumped ahead a bit and rebuilt all of my packages (including new packages) over the Christmas period using Slackware-current. As a result I've modified nearly all my scripts so I wont be transferring any packages from 13.1. Can I confirm that if I submit a rebuild of a package that has the same version number in 13.1 (and there will be a number of them) but I have altered the SLKBUILD then I must still increment the build number?

Yes, you should increment the build number. But you should not rebuild a package if it doesn't need a rebuild.