| SimplyMEPIS 6.0 RC2 ready for download, test |
Jun. 21, 2006
The MEPIS team released the second release candidate of SimplyMEPIS 6.0, on June 21. RC2 adds bug fixes, security updates, and screen resolution detection, founder and lead developer Warren Woodford said. The distribution now also includes monitor resolution autodetection.
[Monitor resolution autodetection] is a feature that has been requested for a long time," according to Woodford. "If the user does not specify their desired display resolution when booting the CD, we attempt to obtain it from the EDID data returned by the display card, and then the optimum screen resolution is chosen automatically. Unfortunately there are a lot of monitor-display card combinations that do not return this data, so this feature will work only for some users."
A bug was found in RC1 that broke the "install on entire disk" option, Woodford said, and it has been fixed for RC2. By popular demand, the apt-notify applet was improved to support transparency in the panel. Firefox now runs much faster out-of-the-box, due to some configuration improvements suggested by the community, he added.
RC2 incorporates more security updates from the Ubuntu Dapper pool, including a security-patched version of the 2.6.15 kernel. By request, the rdesktop package was added, so that KDE's Remote Desktop Sharing could be used with Windows remote desktop servers, he said.
The MEPIS project continues to fix bugs and prepare for the final release of 6.0, originally scheduled for June 18, then June 27, but now postponed until July 10.
"We're getting more feedback from the community than ever before," Woodford said. "A lot of users have reported that MEPIS is working perfectly, but others continue to uncover bugs. We want this release to be the best it can be. So due to the outstanding bug reports, and the fact that the restructuring of the MEPIS utilities is incomplete, and the upcoming Independence Day Holiday, final release has been rescheduled for July 10. This is meant to be a firm final release date."
RC2 runs a reconfigured version of the 2.6.15.7 kernel from Ubuntu, and uses the KDE desktop as a default. The 6.0-RC2 bootable/installable CD includes more than 900 packages, and features OpenOffice 2.0.2, Firefox 1.5.0.1, Thunderbird 1.5, Amarok 1.3.9, and JBidWatcher 1.0. Over 15,000 additional packages are available for installation from the MEPIS and Ubuntu package pools, according to the project.
The RC2 image is available for download and test in the mepis "testing" subdirectory at public mirrors and the MEPIS Subscriber's Site. For up to seven days, please send feedback to dev@mepis.org
The iso image is available for download and testing in the MEPIS "testing" subdirectory at the MEPIS subscriber's site and on public mirrors. For up to seven days, beta testers are requested to send feedback to dev@mepis.org.
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