SALIX - Salix 13.0.2 is ready!

The Salix team is proud to announce the release of Salix 13.0.2. The most important change this release brings is the addition of a 64-bit port of Salix! As the 32-bit counterpart, Salix64 is fully backwards compatible with Slackware64 and provides a simple and fast way to install an XFCE based system that follows the one-app-per-task philosophy. The 64-bit repositories already include a considerable number of packages, making it the largest third party package repository for Slackware64 users available! The Salix team has also created and maintains a repository that includes dependency information for all Slackware packages, 32 and 64-bit.

Another important addition this release brings is the inclusion of the huge.s Slackware kernel in the 32-bit iso, which now makes it possible to install Salix in PCs with AMD K6, Intel Pentium or even 486 CPUs.

Other changes for Salix 13.0.2 include:
* Fixes for security issues in the kernel, mozilla-firefox and many other packages
* Added simplified user creation mode during installation and some more minor impovements to the installer
* Updated XFCE package that fixes an important bug which caused vfat usb devices to always mount with the sync option
* Included salix-update-notifier, a tool that periodically checks for available package updates and informs the user about them with the display of a non-intrusive tray icon, which can be used to launch the upgrade process with gslapt
* Localized taskbar buttons on the XFCE desktop

You can visit our downloads page (link) to get the new Salix or Salix64 iso using bittorrent or the SourceForge mirrors.

On behalf of the Salix team, I wish you all Merry Christmas and a very happy new year

George

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SALIX - Salix Live 13.0 beta 2

The Salix Live team (Akuna, JRD, Shador) is pleased to announce the second beta version.

Features included:

• booting from CD or USB (using the following script for unix-like, unetbootin will not work with grub2 iso)
• splashy like in the current ISO
• automatic login (user: "one")
• password for root: live
• grub2 boot menu
• some boot options accessible directly from boot menu (language, keybaord layout, numlock, touchpad)
• you can select the mode (core, basic, or full) you want to boot, the runlevel, to copy all to RAM...
• ssh-keys already generated for root
• default sound to 71%
• all ISO packages
• gparted
• ndiswrapper
• rdesktop
• graphical installer to install Salix on your computer
• translations (grub2, installer) but not complete yet.
• you can create xfs file for save changes
• fix some previous bugs (keybaord layout, USB, …)

Here are the ISO and md5 files:
http://enialis.net/~jrd/salix/salixlive ... -beta2.iso
http://enialis.net/~jrd/salix/salixlivea2.iso.md5

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SALIX - Salix identi.ca group

Hi,

The Salix OS group has just been created on the identi.ca network.
http://identi.ca/group/salix

Here is a little HowTo :
http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/H ... tica_group

Subscribing to it is a good way for being aware of what happen in the Salix users and developers world.

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SALIX - Salix 13.0.1 ISO ready for download

We have created a 13.0.1 ISO for download. This release only adds some small bugfixes and software upgrades, so it will simplify new installations. The new ISO can be found on our download page:
http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Download

List of changes from the 13.0 ISO:

1. default slackware repositories have dependency support
2. updated xfce with fixed utf8 mounting bug, notification enabled and manual cd eject using the cd button fixed.
3. fixed Swiss French keyboard setting in keyboardsetup
4. lvm2 is now included by default
5. xfce4-xkb-plugin has been included
6. default theme for claws-mail is gnome-brave
7. updated rest of the packages with security fixes and some new releases
8. fixed root user icon theme
9. /etc/rc.d/rc.services.new is now moved to /etc/rc.d/rc.services without needing to run dotnew
10. several other small fixes

PS: It's not needed to reinstall an existing system, just update all your packages with gslapt as usually.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.7

DOWNLOAD PARTED MAGIC

Parted Magic 4.7 adds and removes some programs and fixes a few bugs.

Key changes:

• Partclone 0.1.9 was added again despite Clonezilla being removed. People still wanted to use it from the command line.
• Xfburn and libburnia are replaced by simpleburn and cdrtools.
• LXMusic-0.4.0 was added with a very limited xmms2 build. Just enough to allow this program to work.
• util-linux is replaced by util-linux-ng.
• Firefox is replaced by Google Chrome (Official Linux Beta version).
• Linux is updated to 2.6.32.2 with squashfs-lzma compression.
• A mistake in the kernel config was fixed and Broadcom wireless drivers work again.
• Some major problems were fixed in the wireless scripts.
• lsof_4.78, workman_1.3.4, hddtemp-0.3-beta15 were added.

Updated Programs: boot_info_script036, hdt-0.3.6, linux-2.6.32.2, ntfs-3g-2009.11.14, openssl-0.9.8l, udev-149, coreutils-8.1, grep-2.5.4, module-init-tools-3.11.1, startup-notification-0.10, vte-0.22.5, freetype-2.3.11, lftp-4.0.4, sed-4.2.1, wpa_supplicant-0.6.9, ddrescue-1.11, gdisk-0.5.1, grsync-0.9.3, gparted-0.5.0, gtk+-2.18.5, openbox-3.4.9, fsarchiver-0.6.2, lxpanel-0.5.4, menu-cache-0.2.6, smartmontools-5.39, libxml2-2.7.6, syslinux-3.84

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account. There is also the option of sending a letter with cash, check, money order, or hardware. My address is on the donations page.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.6

DOWNLOAD PARTED MAGIC
Parted Magic 4.6 is a mostly a bug fix release with some usability improvements.

Key changes:

• Many fixes and changes for Netbooks.
• GNU Parted bug "ERROR: Current NTFS volume size is bigger than the device size!" is fixed.
  
• Parted Magic Save Session uses xz instead of 7-zip.
  
• Clamav was added, but you have to download the definitions yourself. There is an entry in the panel's application launcher to automate the download. The definitions are downloaded to /root/clamav, so they will be saved in root.xz when you use Save Session.
• Flash Player can be downloaded and installed from the panel's application launcher.
• epdfview was added so people can read hardware manuals that normally come in pdf format.
• A simple program to change the keyboard layout was added to the desktop.
• A new program added (lxrandr) to re-size the display while running inside of Xorg.
  
• Roxterm was replaced by an svn version of LXTerminal.
• Clonezilla was removed from the main Parted Magic image because it's not possible to make a rescue ISO without downloading a template. I kept getting complaints about this like a broken record. Now we offer Parted Magic - Clonezilla instead, which is far more reliable. (clonezilla-live-1.2.2-31)
• The syslinux menus were redone to add more options and break things down into sub-menus. The boot menu is far less intimidating now. Device Mapper RAID and Linux Software RAID have been moved to RAID options for automatic assembly at boot time. Device mapper is no longer automatically started at boot.
  
• Super Grub Disk 1 & 2 are both included now from the syslinux "Extras" sub-menu.
• is no longer on by default.
• sleep=10 boot option has been removed. Parted Magic's boot script is now smart enough not to need this.
  
• A slew of fixed bugs and program updates can be found in the changelog.

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account. There is also the option of sending a letter with cash, check, money order, or hardware. My address is on the donations page.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.5

Download: pmagic-4.5.iso.zip (79.0MB, MD5)

This new version of Parted Magic updates the graphical server Xorg, expands networking, improves RAM usage, and fixes some bugs.

To combat some of the problems associated with the newer versions of Xorg and Intel chipsets, Parted Magic offers driver versions intel-2.4.1, intel-2.5.1, intel-2.6.3, intel-2.7.1 to the boot options. At the first boot screen press and then add one of the listed drivers to the syslinux command line. Parted Magic will then install them while the system is booting. Most people will not have to do this because the default intel-2.8.1 driver fixes most problems from previous releases. I would also like to thank Jason Vasquez, Dukers, and verndog for all the testing with the Intel video drivers.

There is a new PPPoE option added to the "Start Network" program. PPPoE connections are now easy to establish.

RAM usage has been significantly reduced for the "Default settings (Runs from RAM)" and "Live with low RAM settings" boot options. The default option only requires 192MB, from 256MB in version 4.4, to completely run Parted Magic from RAM. The biggest gain was with the low RAM option because that now only requires 48MB to run. As far as we know, Parted Magic can run graphical GParted with less RAM than any other Live Distribution out of the box.

This is a list of fixed bugs from the forum entries: Listing devices by uuid, clonezilla bug pigz, dhclient dirty trick, Adding beep functionality, update for Fsarchiver and ntfs-3gAR, How do you set up a PPPoE internet connection?

These programs have been updated: xorg-server-1.6.3, busybox-1.14.3, glibc-2.9, hdt-0.3.4, gparted-0.4.6, pigz-2.1.5, e2fsprogs-1.41.9, clonezilla-2.3.3-74, drbl-1.9.4-53, partclone_0.1.1-16, TrueCrypt 6.2a, openssl-0.9.8k, vte-0.20.5, openssh-5.2p1, slang-2.1.4, libxml2-2.7.3, ncurses-5.7, gtk+-2.16.6, glib-2.20.5, linux-2.6.30.6, gsmartcontrol-0.8.5, fsarchiver-0.5.9, ntfs-3g-2009.4.4AR.17, firefox-3.5.3, safecopy-1.6, adblock-1.1.1, gdisk-0.4.1

New programs added in this release: bluez-utils-3.36, bluez-libs-3.36, bluez-hcidump-1.42, ntfsdump_logfile, ntfswipe, ntfstruncate, ntfsmove, ntfsmftalloc, ntfsck, rp-pppoe-3.10, beep, stress-1.0.1, lzip-1.8

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account.

Download: pmagic-4.5.iso.zip (79.0MB, MD5)

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.4

Download: pmagic-4.4.iso.zip (96MB, MD5)

This new version of Parted Magic has some major updates. Users can now get online with dial-up networing through our "Start Network" program. Parted Magic is not in the desktop media business, but ALSA sound drivers and ALSA core programs were added if you would like to use a media player. We highly suggest Slackware-12.x packages. Unionfs is now being used for the big directories and Parted Magic's RAM usage, with the "default" boot option, has been halved. That's right, it only takes 256MB of RAM to run completely run from system memory and free up that CDROM drive or USB stick. At boot time the SSH daemon is started and public keys are generated, so that's one less thing for people using SSH to deal with. Last but not least you will notice that Super Grub Disk is now an option in the boot menu.

This is a list of fixed bugs from the forum entries: BNX2 - Broadcom Ethernet driver problem, CD drive not mounted on /media when using livemedia, Clonezilla with Samba - Missing password prompt, Kernel edd=off, Adblocking Firefox, CloneZilla cannot create recovery ISO, KPPP or PPP?, Firefox, Super Grub Disk, v. 4.4 "beta" run from RAM bug, SSHD in Parted Magic

These programs have been updated: pcmanfm-svn878, fsarchiver-0.5.8, firefox-3.5.2, clonezilla-2.3.3-68, linux-2.6.30.4, drbl-1.9.4-47, e2fsprogs-1.41.8, usbutils-0.84, gtk+-2.16.5, hdparm-9.16, lftp-3.7.15, parted-1.9.0, gpicview-0.2.1, lxpanel-0.5.0, pigz-2.1.5, libburn-0.6.8.pl00, lxtask-0.1.1, safecopy-1.5, libisofs-0.6.20, mount-gtk-1.0.4, xfburn-0.4.2, gdisk-0.3.1, g4l30n

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account.

Download: pmagic-4.4.iso.zip (96MB, MD5) Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 August 2009 23:37 )

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.3

Download: pmagic-4.3.iso.zip (93MB, MD5)

This is a bug fix release for the 4.x series of Parted Magic. Not only did some bugs get fixed, but a few new programs were added too. chntpw, nilfs-utils-2.0.12, gdisk-0.2.2, Adblock Plus 1.0.2 are now part of Parted Magic's program line-up. This is a list of fixed bugs from the forum entries: reiser4 support lacking, msftres bug, gFTP Fails to connect to SSH2 computer, Parted Magic 4.2 Clonezilla LILO and keyboard bugs, Clonezilla with Samba - Missing password prompt, Clonezilla not automatically unmounting disk?, Parted Magic 4.2 HDD won't boot, Questions about Pmagic (networking problem), and cloning and swap partitions

These programs have been updated: udev-143, glib-2.20.4, gtk+-2.16.4, e2fsprogs-1.41.7, firefox-3.5, fireftp-1.0.5, clonezilla-2.3.3-65, linux-2.6.30.1, p7zip_9.04, partclone_0.1.1-15, isomaster-1.3.5, roxterm-1.15.1, drbl-1.9.4-45, ndiswrapper-1.55

We also took some time to redo the artwork. Many thanks to Doug Goodwin and Jason Vasquez for heading up this effort. I think it's the best looking version of Parted Magic yet!

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account.

Download: pmagic-4.3.iso.zip (93MB, MD5)

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.3

Download: pmagic-4.3.iso.zip (93MB, MD5)

This is a bug fix release for the 4.x series of Parted Magic. Not only did some bugs get fixed, but a few new programs were added too. chntpw, nilfs-utils-2.0.12, gdisk-0.2.2, Adblock Plus 1.0.2 are now part of Parted Magic's program line-up. This is a list of fixed bugs from the forum entries: reiser4 support lacking, msftres bug, gFTP Fails to connect to SSH2 computer, Parted Magic 4.2 Clonezilla LILO and keyboard bugs, Clonezilla with Samba - Missing password prompt, Clonezilla not automatically unmounting disk?, Parted Magic 4.2 HDD won't boot, Questions about Pmagic (networking problem), and cloning and swap partitions

These programs have been updated: udev-143, glib-2.20.4, gtk+-2.16.4, e2fsprogs-1.41.7, firefox-3.5, fireftp-1.0.5, clonezilla-2.3.3-65, linux-2.6.30.1, p7zip_9.04, partclone_0.1.1-15, isomaster-1.3.5, roxterm-1.15.1, drbl-1.9.4-45, ndiswrapper-1.55

We also took some time to redo the artwork. Many thanks to Doug Goodwin and Jason Vasquez for heading up this effort. I think it's the best looking version of Parted Magic yet!

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account.

Download: pmagic-4.3.iso.zip (93MB, MD5)

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.2

Download: pmagic-4.2.iso.zip (91.4MB, MD5)

I guess it's about time to release another version of Parted Magic. Nothing special about this release, just some minor updates and bug fixes. Just kidding, CLONEZILLA is now part of Parted Magic's program line-up! This is not a dual boot set-up like some people have done in the past, the actual program Clonezilla can be launched directly from the Parted Magic desktop. It took some modifications to get it working and the Clonezilla author Steven Shiau did a fantastic job helping us make the necessary changes to Parted Magic so it would work the way it was intended to work. Without his input, it would have taken much longer and users probably would have encountered bugs caused by Parted Magic. I can't thank Steven enough.

We also replaced bzip2 with pbzip2 and gzip with pigz. This should make compressing and decompressing files much faster if you have more than one processor. Machines with only one processor are obviously still supported and won't be affected by these changes.

This is the fairly large set of updated programs: dmraid_1.0.0.rc15, linux-2.6.30, udev-142, lftp-3.7.14, rsync-3.0.6, util-linux-ng-2.15.1, fsarchiver-0.5.7, gpicview-0.1.99, gsmartcontrol-0.8.4, ntfs-3g-2009.4.4AR.10, TrueCrypt-6.2, reiser4progs-1.0.7, progsreiserfs_0.3.0.5, safecopy-1.3, conky-1.7.1.1, pciutils-3.1.2, ext3grep-0.10.1, findutils-4.4.2.tar.gz, sshfs-fuse-2.2, testdisk-6.11-3 (with photorec_611_exif_bound_checking_v2.patch), galculator-1.3.4, busybox-1.14.1, e2fsprogs-1.41.6, gtk+-2.16.2, glib-2.20.3, syslinux-3.82, grsync-0.9.0, firefox-3.5b99, xfce4-screenshooter-1.6.0, usbutils-0.82

These programs were added: curl-7.19.5, clonezilla-2.3.3-33, partclone_0.1.1-10, drbl-1.9.4-33, awk-3.1.6, sed-4.1.5, grep-2.5.3, tightvnc-1.3.9 (only vncviewer), a script to suspend USB hard disks, mkswap-uuid-0.1.0-2

Bug Fixes: Save session from the LiveUSB works again. Added better support for "it" key maps. Stopped "menu" from having more than one instance. Xvesa settings now saved with "Save Session". Some other minor bugs were also fixed.

If Parted Magic saves you time and makes your computing experience better, take a minute to donate $2. This project is funded almost entirely by donations. You don't need a PayPal account to donate. You can use a credit card or e-check through PayPal without actually opening a PayPal account.

Download: pmagic-4.2.iso.zip (91.4MB, MD5) Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 June 2009 01:32 )

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.1

This version of Parted Magic fixes some bugs and adds some new features and programs. There was a scripting error that cause debs not to load in some situations, mkfstab was moved later in the booting process to stop the new fstab from being overwritten by the one from the "Save Session" package, and partimag user was added by default for partimage. The fstab daemon now detects device mapper RAID partitions while removing the unmountable mirrors from /etc/fstab. GParted and mount-gtk correctly display and mount these partitions. Our tools use the /dev/mapper nodes created by GParted, so run GParted and then you will see your DMRAID partitions in mount-gtk. Added support for new package extensions .tbz, tlz, txz. Numlock is set to "on" in and outside of X by default. Parted Magic is slightly larger this time around because there wasn't a squashfs-lzma patch that seemed usable for Linux 2.6.29 and squashfs 4.0.

We added wipe-2.2.0, dmidecode-2.10, mg (mini-emacs text editor), reiser4 kernel patch, boot_info_script, Chinese fonts, removepkg, unarj-265, and hardinfo-0.5.1.

These are the packages with a freash upgrade: gparted-0.4.5, syslinux-3.80, hdparm-9.15, squashfs-4.0, linux-2.6.29.2, dosfstools-3.0.2, module-init-tools-3.7, glib-2.20.1, gtk+-2.16.1, udev-141, glibmm-2.18.2, vte-0.20.1, roxterm-1.14.2, fsarchiver-0.5.4, grsync-0.6.3, busybox-1.14.0, testdisk-6.11, lxpanel-0.4.0, e2fsprogs-1.41.5, firefox-3.0.10, lftp-3.7.13, file-5.03, hdt-0.3.3, xfsdump-3.0.1, xfsprogs-3.0.1.
Last Updated ( Thursd

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 4.0

bad bad bad: I was laid off last week from my job as a machinist. If anybody has any extra work I can do over the Internet that would be great. Maybe I can make you a Joomla! website or maybe you have some data entry work that needs to be done. I just need to make some extra money because unemployment will not pay all the bills.

...back to Parted Magic
A new release with some exciting new features! Parted Magic now has full support for partitioning Device Mapper RAID partitions. The initrd was completely trashed and Parted Magic now boots from a initramfs. The new initramfs is only about 500KB and all drivers needed to boot the media are built directly into the kernel. The isolinux.cfg/syslinux.cfg files are drastically different, please make a note of this. The "Low RAM" option was changed to boot Xvesa, TWM, and GParted at 800x600x4. It now runs very well on a computer with 64MB of RAM. The pmagic.sqfs is now a squashfs-lzma image and the new overall size is about 70MB. You can now "Save Session" with the CD version (CD-RW required). The PXE version can merge initramfs for module installation. Loading debs (without dependency checking and resolving) at boot time like tgz packages is now supported. We also have all new artwork in a clean blue theme that matches the look of the new website.

These packages have been added: btrfs-0.17 (kernel module), btrfs-progs-0.18, ndiswrapper-1.54, truecrypt-6.1a (with gui), added hdt from syslinux and syslinux menus entire, multipath-tools-0.4.8.

And the following packages have been updated: gparted-0.4.4, file-5.00, fsarchiver-0.4.6, xfburn-0.4.1, xfce4-screenshooter-1.5.1, xfsdump-3.0.0, xfsprogs-3.0.0, udev-140, hdparm-9.13, cairo-1.8.6, glibmm-2.18.1, pango-1.22.4, cairomm-1.8.0, gtk+-2.16.0, pangomm-2.14.1, glib-2.20.0 gtkmm-2.14.3, mount-gtk-1.0.3, lsscsi-0.22, lftp-3.7.10, LVM2.2.02.45, tar-1.22, firefox-3.0.8, libburn-0.6.4.pl00, libisofs-0.6.16, dc3dd-6.12.3, ntfs-3g-2009.3.8.

I can't say enough how grateful I am for this new computer you all have given me! I can compile a kernel in 15 minutes compared to an hour with my 8 shiny Intel i7 processors. :)

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.7

This is a bug fix release for the 3.x series of Parted Magic. The package installer had a scripting error that wouldn't allow more than one package to be installed. Added /mnt/local so G4L works. Jason added some fixes and features to the wipe and mount scripts. The code for booting iso's directly using GRUB4DOS was merged back in after the last round of major changes. The code for forcing devices at boot with uuid= and label= was also merged back in. "unnamed window" fixed in conky. Web links in GTK app's about dialogs launch now. Added xfce files so help in screenshooter works.

List of updated packages: hdparm-9.11, util-linux-ng-2.14.2, linux2.6.28.7, coreutils-7.1 (only dd, cp, shred, split, stty), ddrescue-1.10, firefox-3.0.6, FireFTP-1.0.4, lshw-B.02.14, di-4.13.

Help?: The desktop computer I use to develop Parted Magic is 6+ years old and seems to have a bad motherboard...

Update: This hardware was ordered from newegg.com and is 100% donated from Parted Magic users!

processor $279.99
mobo $369.99
power supply (modular) $109.99
memory $166.00
case: $109.99
video card: $109.99
DVD burner: $24.99
Thermal Compound: $8.99
Total: 1,179.93

Thanks for all the generous donations!

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.6

It's that time again, ladies and gentleman. This release offers a major overhaul in the way Parted Magic boots and behaves. The "Live" option is back and Parted Magic runs on a machine with 128MB of RAM. There is also a "low memory" option that disables unnecessary daemons to speed up systems that only require trivial tasks, like running GParted. The "Live" option was tested on a PII with 128MB of RAM. There is a new way to mount devices too, mount-gtk creates a consistent interface to mount file systems found in fstab created by the pmagic_fstab_daemon. We dynamically update the mount-gtkrc so your newly created devices are added to the mount list.

Now comes the bug fixes for what was messed-up last time. :) Parted Magic PXE should work again. If you add "livemedia" to your pxelinux.cfg, it mounts the squashfs instead of copying the files to RAM. A machine with 256MB of RAM can use the PXE version if the "livemedia" boot option is used. Keyboard locales have been improved. There was a bit of grammar and menu errors that we corrected too.

When I was retooling the boot procedure I decided to remove splashy. It's looks good, but it's just eating-up RAM/space and causing strange behavior in the ttys.

The only program this release that was reverted to an older version was xfburn-0.4.0. For what ever reason version 0.4.0 stopped detecting devices correctly and reverting to xfburn-0.3.2 fixed this behavior.

There are 3 new programs joining the Parted Magic line-up: mount-gtk-1.0.1, pmount_0.9.18, and pmagic_mount

Last but not least the updated list: gparted-0.4.3, linux-2.6.28.5, hdparm-9.10, fsarchiver-0.4.1, e2fsprogs-1.41.4, syslinux-3.73, kbd-1.15, module-init-tools-3.6, hal-info-20090202, ntfs-3g-2009.2.1.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.5

This release of Parted Magic includes many new features and updated programs. The first thing you might notice is the dramatic increase in size. We are now using a squashfs image instead of a 7zip archive. This once again allows for a "live" option for older computers. Parted Magic doesn't use any additional RAM with the default boot option, the compression was just decreased. With the Linux 2.6.28 kernel comes the first stable ext4 file system release. We are using a highly tested SVN version of GParted to give you full control of your ext4 partitions. This includes all features for ext file systems found in previous releases. Jason Vasquez has vastly improved support of wireless devices. We hope you have a better experience with your wireless networking. Last but not least, we have added some new programs. gsmartcontrol-0.8.3, xfce4-screenshooter-1.5.0, fsarchiver-0.3.5, and squashfs-3.4 are now part of the Parted Magic program list.

These programs have been updated: libburn-0.6.0.pl01, xfburn-0.4.0, libisofs-0.6.12, linux-2.6.28.2, gparted-svn with full ext4 support, dhcp-4.1.0, openssl-0.9.8i, util-linux-ng-2.14.1, gtk+-2.14.6, leafpad-0.8.16, xfce libraries for xfburn to xfce version 4.4.3, memtest86+-2.11, vte-0.19.4, tar-1.21, wpa_supplicant-0.5.11, roxterm-1.13.4, rsync-3.0.5, dbus-1.2.6, dbus-glib-0.78, hal-info-20081127, hal-0.5.11, hdparm-9.8, bash-3.2.48, busybox-1.13.2, galculator-1.3.3, p7zip_4.61, reiserfsprogs-3.6.21, dhcpcd-4.0.7, xfsdump_2.2.48-1, xfsprogs_2.10.2-1, pciutils-3.1.0, ntfs-3g-2009.1.1, lftp-3.7.8.

Happy partitioning and please consider making a small donation if Parted Magic does it's job.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.4

This is a minor bug fix release to address problems with wireless networking and GParted's save details function. Our udev rules were not exactly correct and some wireless interfaces were not working. This has been fixed. LC_ALL was not set in Parted Magic and GParted would crash when trying to write the save details html file. Parted Magic's make USB script has also been fixed.

We also updated to gtk+-2.14.5, glib-2.18.3, pango-1.20.5, glibmm-2.18.1, and gtkmm-2.14.3, gpicview-0.1.11, lftp-3.7.7, firefox-3.0.5, fireftp-1.0.3.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.3

This release of Parted Magic offers better support for video drivers and adds nfs. gFTP was also added and a few other core packages have been upgraded. The contents of the USB version have been altered to clean things up a bit. All GRUB files are in /boot/grub and all syslinux files are in /boot/syslinux. You will need to alter your syslinux command syntax or move the configuration file back to the root of the USB drive. See the changelog for more details.

Please take a moment to consider a small donation to this project.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.2

This is mostly bug fix release for the 3.x series with a few new features. Some of the new updates include gparted-0.4.0, linux-2.6.27.7, xarchiver-0.5.1, dc3dd-6.12.2, and hdparm-9.2. Jason fixed the disk wiping program and some other issues were addressed as well. The newest and most powerful new feature is "installpkg" from Slackware. You can now add programs to Parted Magic by simply adding them to the pmodules directory and booting the machine. Parted Magic automatically installs them at boot. There are several tested *.tgz packages available in the forum for download. Make sure you change the tmpfs_size= boot parameter to allow more RAM for your additional packages.

As many of you know, the Parted Magic web site was hacked. The new site is up and mostly working. I would like to thank
Cassius Adams from http://sevenl.net for donating a very nice dedicated server for us to use.
Jiri Kanicky for setting up this new Parted Magic website based on Joomla!
Gert Hulselmans for spending a great deal of time helping me get the new server configured and organized.

If you use Parted Magic and it accomplished what you needed it to do, please donate $2. The only income this project receives is through donations.

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PARTED MAGIC - Parted Magic 3.1

Parted magic released with only minor changes from RC1. One of the most important new developments is the HDD version. This is a new concept in rescue/partitioning environments. It's basically a copy and paste USB distribution for system admins and is the future of the Parted Magic project. Version 4.0 will be largely based on Slackware Linux and will offer package management and most things you would expect from a small rescue environment. My honest opinion is the death of CDs and DVDs is closer than most people think and the dominance of flash media with RW is the future of any system admins toolbox. This forum post describes the new HDD version. In the weeks to come, new documents will be written to describe its uses in better detail. The 3.x series might be the last of the RO "Live" media environments for Parted Magic which a large number of distributions do better than us anyway.

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PARTED MAGIC - About Parted Magic

The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partimage, TestDisk, Truecrypt, Clonezilla, G4L, SuperGrubDisk, ddrescue, etc...) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of file system tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.

Parted Magic requires at least a i586 processor and 256MB of RAM to operate or 128MB in "Live" mode.

Features

• Format internal and external hard drives.
• Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions.
• Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup.
• Test hard drives for impending failure.
• Test memory for bad sectors.
• Benchmark your computer for a performace rating.
• Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data.
• Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data.
• Runs from the CD, no install required.

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CLEAROS - ClearOS Sneak Peek...Exclusive Screenshots

We thought we'd drop you all an early Christmas gift and release some screenshots of the new ClearOS interface. We won't say when it will be released....just that it is coming soon!

The interface has been tested in all major browsers and will be accessible via netbook, laptop, desktop, tablet and even mobile devices (Android/iPhone).

You'll notice that we've changed up the menu items a bit. This reflects the complete solution ClearOS brings to SMBs to manage every layer of the LAN environment:

• Network Layer
• Gateway Layer
• Server Layer

IMG IS

1. http://www.clearfoundation.com/images/stories/screenshots-ClearOS-5.1-Final-Release/picture%2012.png
2. http://www.clearfoundation.com/images/stories/screenshots-ClearOS-5.1-Final-Release/picture%2014.png
3. http://www.clearfoundation.com/images/stories/screenshots-ClearOS-5.1-Final-Release/picture%2015.png
4. http://www.clearfoundation.com/images/stories/screenshots-ClearOS-5.1-Final-Release/picture%2018.png
5. http://www.clearfoundation.com/images/stories/screenshots-ClearOS-5.1-Final-Release/picture%2017.png
   

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CLEAROS - ClearOS Is Coming Son...

After living in beta for over a month, the time is drawing near for the final version release of ClearOS 5.1! The usual suspects have been working very hard to ensure that the software is ready to go. ClearFoundation is excited to share this new release with the world, and it will be available very soon. Stay tuned to www.ClearFoundation.com for updates.

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CLEAROS - A Clear New OS Concept

This blog posted courtesy of ClearFoundation Community Member Shane Shields. Originally posted on Toolbox for IT

First of all I guess I should do the obligatory disclosure according to the American FTC which is just a guide but has lawful penalties (how do they figure that one out?) I received this product for free from the Clear Foundation. In return I am going to do a review of their product.

That being said they are giving their product away for free to everyone. In typical Open Source business model it is the service they are charging for. The product? The new release of the beta version of their latest ClearOS(5.1). I found out about this when their marketing manager Aaron contacted me here on ITtoolbox and basically just said check out what we did and tell me what you think.

Well since it was no skin off of my nose to download their ISO image and whack it into a VirtualBox session I did so. While I was trying to download it I hopped over to their website and had a peek and poke around (aah the old basic days, sigh). What I saw intrigued me to say the least. I was expecting just another fork of another Linux distribution. You know the standard Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, RedHat type of thing. One thing was evident was that these people were definitely thinking out of the box.

Downloading the ISO was a bit of a chore as their servers were being hammered. Having a look at their forums I found out that they were having an unprecedented interest in this beta version and they were caught with their pants down. However they quickly resolved the situation and then some. So after the third try the ISO downloaded in about ten minutes.

Once the download finished I fired up VirtualBox and connected the ISO to a test session and booted the virtual machine. The initial install was done in a text console and was pretty simple to navigate. The instructions were clear and easy to understand. It was by far the easiest install I had ever seen for a Linux distribution aimed at the server end.

Yes I did say server, not desktop. The ClearOS distributions goal is to provide a simple to maintain server package for those who don't want to fiddle around with the guts of the operating system. How well they have done that I will explain later.

During the install I was presented with a choice of modules to install. This caught my notice because it was different to what I had seen before. Sure, other distributions ask you to choose different roles of the installation yet... ClearOS gave you choices on what you want to use the server for. For example, you can choose it to be a gateway, an intrusion detection box, a mail server, a web server, a vpn server, a file server and others, or all of them. I now understood what they meant by modules. They partitioned up the installation according to the required end use. Later on I understood the reason why.

Installation was fast and it only took about ten minutes to install. So fast that I actually installed it a couple of times using different module selections just for the fun of it. When the install finished there was the usual remove the install media and reboot. Which I did of course :)

When the machine rebooted I was presented with a nice clean login screen. I gave my credentials and clicked the login button. Then I received a big surprise, like Quaid gave the guard in Total Recall. Instead of a standard desktop popping up on the screen like so many other distributions I have looked at, I was presented with a configuration wizard which walked me through the final basic server configuration. Again everything was clearly explained and I had no problems. Not only that, but with each step they explained why it was needed. The developers clearly had end users in mind when they designed ClearOS.

The configuration wizard ended and for some reason I was still expecting a standard desktop to appear. It did not. What did appear was a web browser like interface where I could monitor all the different services, configure them and receive reports. With a lot of extensive clicking around it appeared to me that they have managed to do what so many distributions have failed at. They have designed and implemented a point and click server interface to set up everything you could ever need in a server. There was no need to ever manually edit a text file at all. The organisation looked to be clear and sensible. Although the developers are thinking on how they can improve it even more.

What it looks like the ClearOS developers have done, is create a truly usable point'n'click packaged server operating system, which anyone can use. I would have to say it is even easier than windows server, or any other Linux distribution I have ever seen, for installation and configuration.

I think that ClearOS definitely deserves a good look at for an easy to use and maintain server implementation. It has been specifically designed for ease of use in any server application. It is especially suitable for single purpose services or as an all in one solution from personal use to enterprise level applications. Being based on Redhat Enterprise/CentOS Linux with Clear Foundations own customised interface, it looks like a winner to me. I was very impressed which is why I decided to write this review. There is no other reason.

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PARSIX - Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r1 `Kev` has been released

The first update version of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0 aka `Kev` is available for immediate download. This version merges all security and bug fix updates published on the APT repositories. Also a bug in installer that prevented detection of other installed operating systems on GRUB 2 has been fixed. Parsix Kev brings a vast amount of new features like: GNOME 2.26.3, brand new kernel based on Linux 2.6.29.6 with extra patches and drivers, updated installer system that supports separate /home partition, ext4 file system and GRUB 2, NetworkManager is finally default networking stack, AuFS and UnionFS support, SquashFS+Lzma compression for live-CD and lots of updated packages like GNU Iceweasel 3.5.5, GParted 0.4.8, Pidgin 2.6.2 and OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, Compiz-Fusion 0.8.2 etc. Due to vast amount of changes and new default features in this version, its highly recommended to do a CD-ROM update mode installation. For more information see release notes. Donations are highly appreciated. Another news that Parsix 3.5 aka `Frankie` repositories are up and running and all community users are welcomed to start testing and using it. Frankie final release is planned for March 2010. Download:

parsix_3.0r1-i386.iso (687 MB, MD5), parsix_3.0r1-amd64.iso (693 MB, MD5)

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PARSIX - Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r1 `Kev` has been released

The first update version of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0 aka `Kev` is available for immediate download. This version merges all security and bug fix updates published on the APT repositories. Also a bug in installer that prevented detection of other installed operating systems on GRUB 2 has been fixed. Parsix Kev brings a vast amount of new features like: GNOME 2.26.3, brand new kernel based on Linux 2.6.29.6 with extra patches and drivers, updated installer system that supports separate /home partition, ext4 file system and GRUB 2, NetworkManager is finally default networking stack, AuFS and UnionFS support, SquashFS+Lzma compression for live-CD and lots of updated packages like GNU Iceweasel 3.5.5, GParted 0.4.8, Pidgin 2.6.2 and OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, Compiz-Fusion 0.8.2 etc. Due to vast amount of changes and new default features in this version, its highly recommended to do a CD-ROM update mode installation. For more information see release notes. Donations are highly appreciated. Another news that Parsix 3.5 aka `Frankie` repositories are up and running and all community users are welcomed to start testing and using it. Frankie final release is planned for March 2010. Download:

parsix_3.0r1-i386.iso (687 MB, MD5), parsix_3.0r1-amd64.iso (693 MB, MD5)

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PARSIX - Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r0 `Kev` is ready!

We proudly announce the immediate availability of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0 aka `Kev`. Parsix Kev brings a vast amount of new features like: GNOME 2.26.3, brand new kernel based on Linux 2.6.29.6 with extra patches and drivers, updated installer system that supports separate /home partition, ext4 file system and GRUB 2, NetworkManager is finally default networking stack, AuFS and UnionFS support, SquashFS+Lzma compression for live-CD and lots of updated packages like GNU Iceweasel 3.5.3, GParted 0.4.6, Pidgin 2.6.2 and OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, Compiz-Fusion 0.8.2 etc. Here we need to thank all community users and team members who helped us to make `the best ever released Parsix` possible. Due to vast amount of changes and new default features in this version, its highly recommended to do a CD-ROM update mode installation. For more information see release notes. Donations are highly appreciated. Download:

parsix_3.0r0-i386.iso (686 MB, MD5), parsix_3.0r0-amd64.iso (692 MB, MD5)

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PARSIX - What's Parsix GNU/Linux?

Parsix GNU/Linux is a live and installation CD derived from KANOTIX and based on Debian. It is a complete GNOME centric desktop oriented distribution. Parsix GNU/Linux supports dozens of languages including English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Persian and many many more. You can install and use Parsix GNU/Linux as your default operating system. We have also included xFarDic multilingual dictionary and several free font packages. For more information about our release code names, see here.

What's Our Goal?
Our goal is to provide a ready to use, easy to install, desktop and laptop optimized operating system based on Debian's testing branch and the latest stable release of GNOME desktop environment. We also try to fit the maximum possible popular high quality open source applications on a single CD-ROM media. Also its possible to install extra software packages from Parsix APT repositories. Our annual release cycle consists of two major and four minor versions.

Current Stable Version: 3.0r1 (Kev), Download: i386 amd64

Testing Version: 3.5 Frankie

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VORTEXBOX - VortexBox 1.0 released

After several months of hard work we have released VortexBox 1.0. It has many of the features requested by the community including

* FLAC to Apple Lossless (m4a) mirroring through the web GUI
* MusicBrainz and CDDB used for ID3 tags
* Tool tips for each section in the GUI
* Logitech SqueezeCenter 7.4.1 pre installed and configured
* Software upgrade through the web GUI

1.0 also has a lot of bug fixes including better handling of existing cover art. You can update to this version using this from the command line.

yum update

If you have squeezecenter you will need to do this first. http://vortexbox.org/2009/10/squeezebox-server-on-vortexbox/

if you have a version before 0.7 you will need to do this or reload from the ISO.

http://vortexbox.org/2009/06/vortexbox-06-to-07-upgrades/

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VORTEXBOX - Announcing the VortexBox Micro Appliance

A lot of people asked me for a smaller version of the VortexBox appliance. One that they could hide under their equipment. We have worked hard and I think we have what these users want. The new micro appliance draws only 6 watts and is smaller then the SqueezeBox itself. The Micro Appliance has no moving parts (other than the hard drive).

Small Green Computer is now selling VortexBox Micro Appliance. I’ll post some more pictures when I get a chance.

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VORTEXBOX - VortexBox appliance now sold through Small Green Computer

We are now selling the VortexBox appliance through Small Green Computer. Small Green Computer is a true e-commerce site and will be much easier than using Amazon or eBay. The small profit from each appliance still goes to the VortexBox project.

Small Green Computer will be carrying an expanded product line including a 2TB version of the original appliance and the new VortexBox Micro Appliance.

http://shop.smallgreencomputer.com/

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VORTEXBOX - 21 Oct 09 FLAC to CD

Ever wanted to get your FLACs back on a CD to play in your car CD player. Now you can. The latest update to VortexBox now has a script called flac2cd.sh. From command line cd to the folder with your FLACs. Insert a blank CD and type flac2cd.sh.

The disk will eject in a few min and you can play it in your CD player!

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VORTEXBOX - 15 Oct 09 VortexBox announces Australian reseller

Vortexbox is proud to announce our first VortexBox appliance reseller. We now have a reseller in Australia http://www.vortexbox.com.au. The case we use for the VortexBox appliance was not available in Australia so the Australian version uses a slightlly different case. If you want the original VortexBox appliance we can ship it to Australia for $40. If you want to save the customs hassles and buy direct from an Australian company buy an appliance from http://www.vortexbox.com.au.

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