Kongoni 1.12.3-rc2 (Cicero) it’s out in the wild

By
kongoni
Published: August 3, 2010Posted in: NewsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a while, but it’s here. I know that the last time I said the next release most probably will be the stable one, but because again there are some major changes to Kongoni, I would prefer to call this one also an Release Candidate and in this case RC2.

To start with the main changes in Kongoni, the top of the list has to be taken by GRUB2 replacing Lilo. Yes, Kongoni now uses GRUB2 as the default boot loader and also has a very good OS detection setup. The setup it’s similar to Debian and Ubuntu, because seems Debian developed os-prober and the guys from GRUB included os-prober into grub scripts, to be more precise in /etc/grub.d/. This also means that the installer had to be modified to use GRUB2 not Lilo, when installing the system, which of course was done and is working very well.

This new setup, will enable dual and multi boot, also because I added GRUB2, KSI (Kongoni System Installer) had to be modified, so now when the system installs, it will try to detect all OSes installed and set them up in grub. Now you can have dual or multi boot using Kongoni, very similar to how it works in Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora.

Another major modification done to Kongoni, is moving from the classic kernel, found at kernel.org to the FSF kernel, which has removed all of the non-free firmware. Also removed from git repository any trace of non-free software and firmware. This means that there will be no Adobe Flash, no radeon non-free firmware, no non-free codecs and so on. Everything is now open source or free.

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Kongoni 1.12.3-rc1 (Cicereo) released…

By
kongoni
Published: July 9, 2010Posted in: NewsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Finally I’ve done it and I can release rc1 of Kongoni 1.12.3. Since alpha2 a lot of things have changes, a lot of things got added and the same removed. To not get into too many details I will write the most important updates which come with rc1, so here we go.

First of all, the kernel was upgrade to version 2.6.34.1, of course patched with aufs and lzma support for squashfs4. Remove Firefox and build and added Icecat 3.6.4, PIG was re-added, but also rebuild and it comes with new icon theme, fully moved the git repository to http://gitorious.org/ and the build packages moved them to http://sourceforge.net/. Remove gtk-qt-engine and replaced it with kcm-gtk (gtk-qt-engine has some weird issues with Icecat/Firefox), added QtCurve package, flash-nonfree package (not installed by default), radeon-firmware (also not installed by default), upgraded gparted to version 0.5.2, rebuild xorg-server so it would detect better the graphics cards (thanks to Ubuntu, Fedora for their patches). Added extra packages for default skel setup, custom profile for kongoni, redone the boot logo, splash logo of the Live CD, brand new KDM theme (named KongoniMe) and Kplash theme (named KongoniSplash) and brand new default wallpaper (named KongoniAbstract) also used in the splash screen and kdm theme.

The list of modification is really big, most packages where upgraded to the latest possible level, new packages where added and of course PIG now runs by default and you can manage the system using PIG (talking about install/upgrade/remove packages).

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Kongoni 1.12.3-alpha2 is here…

By
robert
Published: June 8, 2010Posted in: NewsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It took a while, but now second alpha of Kongoni GNU/Linux is here. I’ve been working a lot to make sure that the installer (KSI) works right, taking in consideration there were a lot of issues with it. The main issue was the fact that you couldn’t install the system if there wasn’t any swap partition setup before, which it wasn’t really good and had to be fixed. Besides working on KSI, we also moved up with the kernel and now Kongoni runs on 2.6.34, named 2.6.34-desktop. Of course you will find the same things build in, like squashfs4 with lzma support, aufs2, btrfs, logfs, Nouveau and so on. We also remove BFS (Brain Fuck Scheduler) from the kernel, as I noticed that it doesn’t help the system too much, plus it can crash in certain cases the system. Update gnash to the latest version (0.8.7) and added full flash support for konqueror using gnash, added smooth-tasks (thanks to PCLinuxOS), renamed config_xorg package to xorgconfig and now the automatic option in xorgconfig.sh will not use a configuration file letting X Server to setup the display.

Since the last release also we have synchronized Kongoni with the stable version of Slackware 13.1.

I do hope that the next release will be at least an RC (release candidate) and soon after the final release of Kongoni 1.12.3 (stable). Main issues with the current version are still the full integration of PIG and the new git repository which moved to gitorious.org, update of themes and maybe the logo to a more stylish look and feel, stabilize the kernel, added (hopefully) initrd support in the installer and … others. :)

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Kongoni 1.12.3 code-name Cicero is here!

By
robert
Published: May 14, 2010Posted in: NewsTags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Finally, after several months of work, Kongoni 1.12.3 code-name Cicero is here. At the moment is still in alpha stage, as there wasn’t any proper testing done to this new release, but with your help, the users, I hope in a couple of months this new release will enter into the stable stage. This release was fully synchronized with Slackware current, which is actually Slackware 13.1-beta.

All the package are updated to the latest possible version, there is a new system installer, called Kongoni System Installer (KSI), new kernel, 2.6.32.12-desktop (based on 2.6.32.12), squashfs4 with lzma support, squashfs4-tools also with lzma support, aufs2, default kernel scheduler moved to BFS scheduler for a more faster desktop, custom linux-live scripts to support squashfs4, KDE SC 4.4.3, new wallpaper and themes (actually the new theme is not yet finished, but we moved back to Oxygen themes).

Besides the updated packages and scripts, we also remove OpenOffice and switched to Koffice, which seems to be more lighter and faster. The idea would be to free up some space on the live-cd for other applications which would be need it by everyone. Also OpenOffice its kind of sluggish and I suppose, it can be always installed after. PIG is removed also from the system tray (will not start automatically) in this release and will be added back when I will be able to clean-up a bit the git repository, but anyway, it’s still in the system, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone to use it at this point. Until the git is all nice and clean you can use the slackpkg application to install, remove and/or update the system (Do not use the clean-system option from slackpkg, it will destroy the system).

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Kongoni GNU/Linux not dead!

By
robert
Published: April 8, 2010Posted in: NewsTags: , ,

Hello people! I know I haven’t wrote anything or done anything in a while, but I wanna make everyone sure that Kongoni GNU/Linux is not dead…

I’m working hard to move ahead with the new release, but I also wanna move to a newer, better kernel. Most probably I will release the Kongoni with kernel 2.6.32 or in a better case with 2.6.33.

Until now I was able to patch kernel 2.6.32 with aufs and lzma patch for squashfs file system, but still in the works to patch kernel 2.6.33, which seems a bit more different then 2.6.32. Beside the kernel, I think, if everything will work fine, the next release will be based on Slackware 13, not Kongoni itself. I wanna rebuild all the system and the same the scripts (ex. install scripts).

Now most of you may wonder when the next release will be out… well I don’t know yet, but I hope as soon as possible or … in a couple of months.

Please be patient, I’m doing my best with this takeover and also with the next release.

Takeover of Kongoni GNU/Linux…

By
robert
Published: February 10, 2010Posted in: NewsTags:

A couple of days ago the main developer and maintainer of Kongoni Linux has decided to leave this distribution due to lack of help and of course lack of time to handle all the parts, like development, support, forums and so on. Now, as I have discussed this with AJ Venter, the main developer, I will be taking on the main development part of Kongoni, which means, the next release should be done by me, well hopefully :)

When this is gonna happen, the next release, at the moment is unknown, as this is my first time of taking over the development of a Linux distribution and plus I need to understand the overall idea of Kongoni.

Do not worry, one way or another the distribution will continue and new releases will be out there, just the time will be a small issue.

So, wish me luck and lets hope it’s gonna work for the best.

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