The Unite17  project is pleased to announce its first Unite17 version.

What is inside:

• Based of Unity Linux RC1 core (openbox removed)
• Kernel updated to 2.6.31.13-uniy1
• Enlightenment E17 0.16.999.063 (thank you guys!) not include ecomorph.
• Themes, wallpapers (Thank you Agust, Verdegal, who you are, )
• Amsn
• Skype 2.1.0.81
• Transmission (bit torrent client)
• Firefox 3.6 (web browser)
• Mozilla Thunderbird (e-mail client)
• Mplayer (movie player)
• XMMS (audio player)

This Unite17 release is a “raw” system. I hope you will like it.

Please remember! Enlightenment DR17 is under heavy development, it is not stable.

Check this page and later the mirrors to get the 32 bit LiveCD.

Unite17 homepage (in hungarian).

The Unity Linux project is pleased to announce its first candidate for release, 2010 RC1. We have taken the last nine weeks to provide many needed fixes and continual updates to the core offering of our software. Check the Downloads page to get the 32 bit and 64 bit LiveCDs.

Changelog:

• Updated xorg to 1.7.5
• New kernel version 2.6.31.12. Due to several regressions with the current 2.6.32 kernels, it was decided to stay with the 2.6.31.12 kernel for this release with the 2.6.33 to be released in the repo once the first update is released (2.6.33.1).
• Filetriggers and other minor bugs were fixed for rpm5.
• Smart 1.3 and the addition of smart-utils for mirror automation. The mirror selection is now automated based on system localization for optimum performance. David of Unity-linux is now a contributor to the Smart development team in order to ensure the best user experience.

We have made a large effort to find additional mirrors around the world for hosting our repository and LiveCD ISOs. In the process of finding mirrors, we have adopted the MirMon project for monitoring the status of our mirrors. Users can now go the Mirror Status page to find the best download location as well as the health of the various mirrors.

The repositories now contain many full fledged up to date Desktop Environments which can be installed with the use of the “task” meta-packages. Recent additions include:

• KDE 4.4.1 from Synergy Linux,
• Gnome 2.28.1,
• Openbox 3.4.11 from TinyMe,
• XFCE 4.6.1 from Qua It & SAM,
• E17 0.16.999.063 from UnitE17

Our resources are now focused on cleaning up of our documentation and the continued bug squashing in preparation for the final release.

Known issues:

• The kernel 2.6.31.12 breaks support for the wireless controller Atheros AR2413 (ath5k module). Using an older kernel in the repository fixes that issue.  A resolution to this currently being worked on.
• The smart-setup tool menu entry has not been designed and implemented. The initial setup is automatic, therefore, running this tool isn’t required unless the user wishes to specify a particular mirror.
• The ATI proprietary driver does not support xorg-1.7. It has been removed from the repository to prevent unnecessary problems for users.
• VMWare users may experience a several minute start-up delay due to an error with udev.

About Unity Linux:
Mandriva-based Unity Linux utilizes the MkLiveCD project, which allows developers to create their own distribution on top of a Unity Linux core (or “trunk”). Unity Linux thus strives to provide a solid, well maintained foundation that developers can use as a starting point to build their own “remastered” distributions, or as we like to call them, “branches.” Currently, Unity Linux offers both 32-bit and 64-bit LiveCDs. Over 7,700 packages are available after installation. In an effort to give distribution developers maximum flexibility, the core is kept small and usable, but not too basic. Unity Linux provides developers with the bare minimum– just enough to make use of remaster tools, the smart package manager, a 2.6.31.12 kernel, and rpm5. To facilitate easy access to packages, Unity Linux utilizes an SVN repository for packages and internal projects. All the necessary tools as well as a basic tutorial for building packages are already provided. An automatic build system to work with the SVN repository is in progress along with many other tools to make Unity the most functional project to start a personal or professional branch.

As many of you have noticed, we have been adding repository mirrors daily around here gearing up for our release candidate phase of Unity Linux.  Since internationalization is a HUGE priority for us, we’ve been adding mirrors to as many places as we can find in the various parts of the world.  However, since we’ve been adding mirrors, we’ve realized that keeping tabs on them is rather difficult.  After all, what happens when you normally use the German mirror but it’s down?  Then where do you go? What happens if the mirror is out of synch?  How do you know?

Enter Arch Linux and the fantastic community members they have.

Some of our devs love running Arch Linux as a secondary OS on their machines. They love the simplicity of it. They love the smallness of it. It’s Arch that has inspired many of our developers to shoot for that minimalistic OS wrapped around the LiveCD utilities. It’s Arch that we looked to as an example of a successful project.  Those devs keep eyes peeled on developments within the Arch community…and those devs knew as mirrors increased, they wanted to track mirrors like Arch does.

So, we asked about it. Arch was kind enough to share how they make their mirror status pages. We’d like to thank them for being so helpful and inspirational to us here at Unity. We’d also like to thank gri6507 and devnet for doing the work to incorporate what Arch had done into Unity Linux into our website.

I give you the Unity Linux Mirror Status Page!

As mirrors are added, they will be reflected here and their status will be reflected.  This includes whether they are down or latent and divides things up into regional areas of interest.  We hope this serves the community well.  We have set it to update about every hour.  Hopefully, this is frequent enough.  We’ve also updated our navigation at the top of the page to reflect our latest resource addition.  Please let us know in the comments section what else is important to you as far as mirrors and their status goes…we’ll continue to improve as we go along toward the Release Candidate phase of Unity!  Thanks!

The development team at Unity Linux has implemented a new tool for checking dependency errors of their packages. This tool can be run both manually and automatically as part of our synchronization with the main repo . Once analysis is complete, the generated reports are automatically emailed to our Quality Assurance team which can then address the issues. The public nature of these reports puts a spot light on any packaging problems that may exist which guarantees quick resolution of any problems. What does all of this mean to our end users? Simply put, this ensures a clean environment where every package is installable!

Some of you may have noticed that the graphics team website has gotten a major face lift.  I figured a site redesign and reorganization might inject a bit of fuel into the graphic design fires of the community.  Here’s a bit of what happened in the site redesign:

BBPress Forum Removed

No one had posted to the graphics forum in 4 months.  I figured it was time to retire it.  For now, I’ve linked the top forum link to a graphics board on the main site of Unity Linux.  I’m most likely going to install Simplepress soon here.  For an example of how simplepress works with a site like ours, see devnet’s Exchange blog forum.  More updates to come on that for us here.

A full backup was performed before this system was removed and I’ll save that in case any Unity Admin has a desire for it.

Coppermine Gallery Removed

All images from the old Coppermine gallery now reside in our Gallery Showcase.  No images were deleted.  A full backup was performed before this system was removed and I’ll save that in case any Unity Admin has a desire for it.

Gallery Showcase

The new Gallery Showcase page was put in.  This replaces our Coppermine gallery and provides one less area that hackers can attack us on.  Public uploads ARE enabled.  You have to register to upload and images will only appear upon approval.  So if you have something to share with us, please do!

Why now?

Why not now?  The graphics team is VERY talented and provides Unity Linux with a fantastic amount of icons, themes, and wallpapers.  They should have a main site that caters to and showcases all the great things they do.  I believe this new design does just that.  Hopefully, you all agree!  Please do let us know what you think of the new digs and thanks for using Unity Linux!