2010.1 Notes

Contents

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Release Notes

Introduction

This page contains important information the Mandriva Linux (2010.1) release, code name Farman.

The following topics are covered:

  • General information about new features and major changes.
  • Changes to the Mandriva installer and upgrade instructions for users of previous releases.
  • Changes to supported hardware and drivers.
  • Changes regarding software packages.
  • Other technical information for experienced users.

Please also refer to Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Errata - the Errata for the 2010 Spring release. The Errata page contains information on known bugs and problems in the release and instructions on fixing, avoiding or working around them.

For a more detailed and graphical introduction to the most obvious user-visible changes in this release, please see the Release Tour.

Editions

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring is available in several different editions, listed below.

One Edition

The One edition is an installable live CD integrating the latest proprietary drivers, available free of charge. Six different versions of the One edition are available: two for GNOME and four for KDE, each with a different set of supported languages.

  • Starting from Mandriva 2010 Spring, now you are able to install Mandriva One directly from the boot menu, choosing the option 'Install to Hard Disk', no need to run into a live session if you want so.

Powerpack Edition

The Powerpack edition includes support, services, a wider range of packages, third-party proprietary applications, a subset of the Fluendo multimedia codec pack, providing support for MP3, WMA and WMV files and Fluendo DVD player.

Free Edition

The Free edition is a pure free / open source software edition, without any of the non-free packages bundled with the other editions, available as a free download.

For more information on the various editions, see Choosing the right edition.

Additional information is also available online:

Deprecation

Installation media

Available media

This release is available:

  • As a Free edition for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, on one DVD each, with a traditional installer.
  • As a Free edition for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, both on one single "dual" CD with a traditional installer.
  • As One live-CD (x86-32 architecture only), for GNOME and KDE editions, available for various languages. 4 different One editions are available, 2 for GNOME and 4 for KDE.

Upgrading

Upgrading from previous releases

Please note!
If you upgrade from a previous releases, KDE 3 – if installed - will be replaced by KDE 4. The old .kde directory in the user's /home will be backed up.

Upgrading between releases always has the potential to cause some problems. Upgrading is supported and we do test upgrades, but due to the huge range of packages and hardware configurations possible, it is always the case that in your particular situation, the upgrade may cause a problem we did not anticipate. Therefore we recommend that you always back up your system prior to upgrading.

If you tested one of the Mandriva Linux 2010 pre-releases (beta or RC), we advise you to remove all package sources and add them back using the Mandriva Control Center Image:Drakconf-icon.png > Software Management > Configure media sources for install and update to be sure you have stable release media sources.

General Upgrading Steps

After taking the necessary precautions pointed out above, you can upgrade using the Free or Powerpack editions respective DVD's, and it should work well. You can also upgrade in-line. What that means is that the Mandriva update notification applet, Mandriva Online, will notify you that a new Mandriva Linux release (2010.1) is available, and ask if you wish to upgrade. If you agree, the upgrade will be carried out from within your running system, just like a regular system update. You should then be able to reboot into a working 2010.1 system. If you have disabled the applet or it is not automatically running for some reason, you can upgrade manually either using the GUI or the CLI. Both methods are outlined below.

Upgrade using the GUI, mdkonline

First make sure you have the latest updates for your currently running release prior to upgrading. To upgrade run this command as root in terminal:

su
mdkapplet-upgrade-helper --new_distro_version=2010.1

Upgrade using the CLI, urpmi

You can also upgrade using urpmi in terminal. Below are the steps you need to follow:

  • First ensure your system is entirely up-to-date with the latest updates (when upgrading it's assumed you have the latest updates available for your installed release, so for a smoother upgrade always make sure you have the latest updates) using this command as root in terminal:
su
urpmi --auto-update -v
  • Remove your existing repositories, either using:
    • The Mandriva Control Center Image:Drakconf-icon.png > Software Management > Configure media sources for install and update OR
    • Using this command as root:
su
urpmi.removemedia -av
  • Add 2010.1 repositories. To do this, use Easy URPMI. Set the Version field to 2010.1 also make sure the Architecture field is set correctly then click Add official medias. Next open the file it offers you with the default handler (gurpmi aka Software Installer).
  • To start the upgrade process, run the following command, as root:
su
urpmi --auto --auto-update --replacefiles 2>&1 | tee upgrade.log

This will save the output of the process to the file upgrade.log in the current directory, in case you need to check it later, or you have any problems. Once the process completes (without errors), you should reboot, and you should find the system has been fully updated to 2010.1.

Caution !
If you get any errors you should try and fix them before you reboot so as not to end up with a broken system e.g. without a graphical desktop (text console, aka tty, always works and can be used to fix most problems but is not as easy to use as a graphical desktop).

Advanced upgrade options

  • You can add --download-all to the above command when upgrading, this a brand new option in urpmi and will make it download all the packages first before trying to install them, this is useful in the case of internet connection failure during the upgrade process, since you can just relaunch the command and continue the process. Be aware though that this will requires quite some free space on the root / partition. Notice that urpmi displays info about the total size of the packages it's going to download, 10GB would usually be enough, but that depends on how many packages you have installed. You can also specify a location to download the rpms, in case the / partition is full and you have more free space say in your /home, you can do this using:
urpmi -v --auto-update --download-all /path/to/download/folder
  • However note that --download-all /path/to/download/folder won't work for upgrading from releases older than 2010.0, until you update urpmi as older urpmi versions will consider /path/to/download/folder a package name, and no package names are allowed on the same command line with --auto-select or --auto-update. Working around this is simple, when upgrading, urpmi will first update itself along with some other core packages, glibc, perl, rpm... ect. So first use:
urpmi -v --auto-update to update urpmi and the other packages mentioned above. After these packages are updated you'll be asked again for the rest of the packages, press Ctrl+C to cancel then relaunch it:
urpmi -v --auto-update --download-all /path/to/download/folder
  • Another option, --noclean, will make urpmi not delete the rpms it downloads, you can then copy the rpms to another machine and use them when upgrading.

Major features

Mandriva tools

Guest account

Many improvements in guest account management: use of restricted shell, restricted access to other user's files, prevent access for most of Mandriva administration tools...

KA method / Installer

There is a new method to install a Mandriva System: duplicate an already installed one using a clone tool called KA. This is an experimental tool taken from an old research project named CLIC, (cluster product). The cloning process is able to duplicate nodes with different kinds of hardware (network, hdd, sound card etc...), and automatically regenerate his modprobe.conf. The cloning process erase all data on client nodes, so it should be used with care. A full documentation in PDF and HTML is available in the drakx trunk installer subversion repository. ka documentation.

Diskdrake / Installer

File system encryption has been improved and made easier both in diskdrake and installer. "Encrypted" is no longer listed as a Filesystem, but as a checkbox in the creation window. This allows to specify a filesystem to use inside the encrypted partition, while it used to be forced to be ext3/ext4. Another change is that there will be no longer a "dmcrypt" tab listing on the encrypted partitions from various disks. Instead they are displayed in-place, identified also by a lock icon. Passphrase will be asked at boot time.

As a reminder /boot can not be encrypted, so you need to have a separate unencrypted /boot if you decide to encrypt the root partition /.

As a side effect, cryptoloop support, which is obsolete, has been completely removed.

Media management

  • New tag "media_type" has been added in media.cfg. One of the first application is to be able to manage easily media. Non-Free media will not be added anymore on Free installation. More functionnalities coming.
  • In the Free Edition the Non-free media sources are disabled by default, this is to comply with the idea that the Free Edition, DVD and free-dual CD, only contain free-open-source-software, when setting up the online media sources in Free Edition installs, the Non-free media sources are added, but disabled/ignored by default. For more information see Image:bug_small.png Bug #40033.
    • You can easily enable the Non-free media sources from the Mandriva Control Center Image:Drakconf-icon.png > Software Management > Configure media sources for install and update. Basically you'd need to enable the Non-free and Non-free Updates repositories.

Bootloader

Mandriva configuration utilities now support setting up an encrypted password in GRUB.

msecgui

  • A security summary GUI is now available.
  • Added ACLs support (Thanks to Tiago Marques from Caixa Magica).
  • It is now possible to run each periodic test and visualize test results using graphical interface.
  • Support for different periodicity for each periodic check (e.g., checks could be run on daily, weekly or monthly base).
  • Support for task-oriented security levels, providing optimized configurations for desktops, netbooks, local and Internet servers, among others.

drakguard

  • Applications blocker: you can now decide to block some applications for a given user (Thanks also to Tiago Marques from Caixa Magica). Use the new tab for it.

netprofile

  • Add support for custom services: you can now add whatever service you need to be managed by netprofile.
For more info see this blog post by Eugeni Dodonov.

Mandriva Directory Server

New release of MDS (Mandriva Directory Server).

  • New userquota module (Glen Ogilvie) to set disk and network quota for users.
  • New bulkimport mode (Glen Ogilvie) to do massive import/update users from a CSV file.
  • New sshlpk module to manage OpenSSH LDAP public keys.
  • Many updates in translations (French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese).

Desktop environments

GNOME

  • Ia-Ora GTK+ theme improvements:
    • Tooltips are now a little bigger, have rounded-corners and if you are running with a compositing manager (Compiz, Mutter, Metacity with compositing enabled), they become a bit translucent too.
    • Tooltips placement has been improved and should try to avoid hiding the widgets they describe.
    • Windows can now be dragged not only from window title (in Metacity or Compiz), but also from window menubar. This is not very useful for Ia-Ora theme but other themes are now trying to remove the distinction between window title and menubar, so it might help.
    • mnemonics are now hidden by default, unless you start pressing "Alt" key. It is to help reducing clutter on screen.
    • GNOME Panel is now using more space between icons for launchers and status icons.

GNOME 2.30.1, which includes (non exhaustive list):

  • Many Epiphany improvements: Webkit page cache enabled, Youtube movie extension available (no flash required), infobar for saving username/password in GNOME keyring, support for GZIP compressed pages.
  • Gnome Activity Journal, a tool which uses Zeitgeist to let you browse through the documents you recently worked on, is now available in Mandriva.
  • Evolution opens attachments read-only to prevent accidentally loosing modification you might make.
  • Vinagre now supports tunnelling VNC connections over SSH.
  • GNOME Color Manager, a utility to set up colour profiles for your monitor, is now packaged in Mandriva Cooker.
  • Many changes have been implemented in Nautilus before GNOME 3.0 release. Nautilus will then become a file manager only and will not manage desktop anymore. So file management functionalities have been improved and an optional split view has been added fore more convenience.
  • You can now configure a background per monitor on a multi-monitor setup.
  • Tracker has replaced Beagle as the document search engine.
  • Packagekit service is now available for applications, including file-roller (for e.g. installing unzip or unrar utilities when needed).
  • Rewritten GDM 2.30.2 is now used as the default GNOME display manager. Please check 2010 Spring Errata as this new version doesn't support all the features from the old 2.20 series. You can still install 2.20 gdm, by using the gdm-220 package.

Various news:

  • udisks and gnome-disk-utility are now used by GNOME tools, replacing HAL, for disk handling.
  • There were further performance improvements in the GLib library.
  • LightsOff: A new GNOME game.
  • Improved IRC support for Empathy and support for Facebook chat, using XMPP standard protocol.
  • Seed supported by more and more applications.
  • GtkBuilder is one of the new APIs used for applications.
  • Cheese: the webcam application has been split into different libraries, making it easier for other applications to integrate webcam functionality (like avatar choosers in instant messaging applications).
  • A preview of GNOME-Shell (2.29.1), which will be part of GNOME 3, is now available. You should use "GNOME3Preview" session to test GNOME-Shell (and you need 3D support from your graphics card). GNOME-Shell is available on One live-CD, GNOME edition. You will need to install the live CD if you want to evaluate GNOME-Shell.

KDE

  • KDE 4.4.3 (final release) has had a number of improvements since 4.3.x:
    • The brand new Window Tabbing, this enables you to group windows together, which makes handling large numbers of application windows easier as you can group the relevant ones, according to your work flow, together
    • Possible crashes in Plasma, Dolphin and Okular have been fixed
    • A performance problem in KMail when sending emails has been fixed
    • Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE's terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
    • Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
    • Fixes for Case-sensitivity when renaming in KIO, KDE's network-transparent I/O library
    • Microblog applet now shows the correct time in the timeline
    • The audioplayer KRunner plugin has been fixed to not freeze the KRunner UI
    • Backported fixes / improvements for kdegraphics from KDE trunk
    • Backported fixes / improvements for Nepomuk from KDE trunk
    • Better plymouth support/integration in KDM
    • The GetHotNewStuff interface in KDE4 has been further improved to make it easier to install available third party content
    • KGet now has support for digital signature checking and downloading files from multiple sources
    • Gwenview now includes an easy to use photo import tool
  • Application Launcher Menu tool tips: now if the Application Launcher Menu "Format" is set to "Name Only" or "Description Only" a tool tip will appear when hovering over a menu entry displaying the other component (e.g. with "Name Only" the tool tip will display the Description and vice versa).
  • KDM:
    • KDM in Mandriva now automatically triggers XFdrake, the X server configuration tool in Mandriva, if the X server can't be started normally allowing users to easily reconfigure their display configuration.
    • To make the KDM greeter, the login screen, use the colours of each Mandriva edition (Free, One, Powerpack and Flash) correctly, the kdm configuration file kdmrc has been moved to each *-kde4-config sub-package; so now kdmrc will be in /var/lib/mandriva/kde4-profiles/{free,one,powerpack,flash}/share/config/kdm/.
  • Ia-Ora KDE theme:
    • Multiple crash fixes
    • Various fixes / improvements regrading themes colours and list view alternative background colours
    • Window tabbing support: Now IaOra-KDE supports window tabbing, i.e. several windows can be grouped together, like what the Oxygen style can do

Around KDE:

  • Qt, The current version in 2010.1 is the latest stable version, 4.6.2.
  • Nepomuk now uses Virtuoso as its back-end to store data, which should give faster tagging and indexing.
    • Nepomuk have Timeline support in Dolphin, which allows to see the new tags as a function of the modification date.
    • Ginkgo is a new graphical front-end for managing data semantically. Ginkgo lets you create and explore links between your personal data such as e-mails, contacts, files, Web pages. It harnesses the Nepomuk framework.
  • Amarok 2.3.1: improved podcast support, a newly designed toolbar and the possiblity of automatically using a USB mass storage device for the collection when it’s connected.
  • FFmpegThumbs: a new KDE4 video preview/thumbnailer implementation, based on FFmpegThumbnailer, it's very light on resources and works for all video file types supported by FFmpeg.
  • KTorrent 4.0: redesigned GUI for better ergonomy.
  • Digikam and kipi-plugins 1.2.0, the latest version, are available in the official repositories.
  • The KDE Webkit based browser reKonq was updated to version 0.4 which includes kwallet support, AdBlock support, and many more improvements/features.
  • The KDE 4 port of KmyMoney now reached beta status and is available in the official repositories.

Desktop applications

  • Firefox 3.6.3. This brand new version comes with lots of improvements in performance. You will find also some new functionalities to improve global ergonomy:
    • Tab previews: to activate this new feature, open about:config in your browser and look for browser.CtrlTab.previews parameter.
    • Support for Persona themes.
    • More feedback information like report when an installed plug-in is out of date.
    • For an overview of Firefox 3.6 features, you can check this Ars Technica article.
    • KDE4 Integration, now under KDE4, Firefox uses the KDE file chooser, and respects the KDE file type association settings.
  • OpenOffice.org 3.2: startup speed has been improved a lot. Some improvements also in OpenXML files import and basic docx file export.
  • System-config-printer 1.2.0 is now Hal Free and uses Udev for printer auto-detection.
  • Gutenprint 5.2.5 adds support for many new Epson printers.
  • Chromium (The open source browser on which Google Chrome is based) is available in the official repositories. It's, for now, available only for both i586 and x86_64 in the contrib repositories.
  • Opera: The Opera browser is now available in the official Non-free repository.
  • Gnash 0.8.7 snapshot.
  • xine-lib 1.2 with support for VDPAU for hardware accelerated rendering of high definition video is now available.
  • Clementine player has been packaged for Mandriva. This is a port of Amarok 1.4 to QT4, for people who prefer the older Amarok GUI.
  • Deluge 1.2.3 (final) is now available in Cooker. It has a rewritten web UI and performance improvements.
  • XBMC: The popular media centre software is now available in the official repositories. Ideal for setting up a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) with Mandriva!
  • Transmission 1.92 is now available. It adds support for magnet links and trackerless torrents and has many other improvements.
  • qBittorrent, a light weight but feature-full Qt-based BitTorrent client is available in the official repositories.
  • Skrooge 0.7.0: New versions of the personal finances management applications Skrooge and Homebank were released, this brings many new features and improvements, mostly focusing on import and export. Homebank 4.2.1 brings similar improvements with a new trend time reports.
  • libgpod 0.7.93 was released and this version brings iPhone, iPod Touch and iPod Nano 5G support for gtkpod, Rhythmbox and Amarok.
  • Avant Window Navigator 4.0, the latest stable version, is now available in the official repositories along with the latest awn-extras.
  • Video editors updates:
    • Lives 1.3.2 brings PulseAudio support, many improvements to multi-track mode, a startup wizard for new users, some new real-time transitions and improved performance.
    • Kdenlive 0.7.7.1 now includes colour themes, an improved titler and a few other new features.
    • The OpenShot video editor was imported in Mandriva recently. The package is now at version 1.1.3.
  • Major new version 2.0.0 of the Bluefish web editor. It adds autocompletion for HTML, CSS and PHP, inline help, inline spell checking, a character map, upload/download synchronization with remote web sites, automatic document recovery and more.

Educational and scientific applications

Many educational and scientific applications were introduced and improved Mandriva 2010.1. Among some of such applications it is possible to mention:

  • Sagemath. A free open-source mathematics software system licensed under the GPL, which combines the power of many existing open-source packages into a common Python-based interface, was fully integrated in Mandriva 2010.1
  • Salome. An open-source software that provides a generic platform for Pre- and Post-Processing for numerical simulation was also introduced in Mandriva 2010.1 distribution.
  • Invesalius. InVesalius generates 3D anatomical models based on a sequence of 2D DICOM files acquired using CT or MRI equipments.
  • Root. A framework for data processing, born at CERN, at the heart of the research on high-energy physics.
  • Axiom. A general purpose Computer Algebra system, which defines a strongly typed, mathematically correct type hierarchy and has a programming language and a built-in compiler.
  • Tachyon. Tachyon is a parallel ray tracing library, for use on distributed memory parallel computers, shared memory computers, and clusters of workstations. Tachyon supports MPI for distributed memory parallel computers, threads for shared memory machines, and can support both simultaneously for clusters of shared memory machines. Tachyon has been selected for inclusion in the SPEC MPI2007 benchmark suite.
  • Jmol. An open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D with features for chemicals, crystals, materials and biomolecules.
  • Singular. SINGULAR is a Computer Algebra system for polynomial computations with special emphasize on the needs of commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, singularity theory and polynomial system solving.
  • Gap. GAP is a system for computational discrete algebra, with particular emphasis on Computational Group Theory. GAP provides a programming language, a library of thousands of functions implementing algebraic algorithms written in the GAP language as well as large data libraries of algebraic objects.
  • Ecl. ECL (Embeddable Common-Lisp) is an interpreter of the Common-Lisp language as described in the X3J13 Ansi specification, featuring CLOS (Common-Lisp Object System), conditions, loops, etc, plus a translator to C, which can produce standalone executables.
  • Polybori. PolyBoRi is implemented as a C++ library for Polynomials over Boolean Rings, which provides high-level data types for Boolean polynomials. A python-interface yields extensible algorithms for computing Gröbner bases over Boolean Rings.
  • Macaulay2. Macaulay 2 is a software system devoted to supporting research in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, whose creation has been funded by the National Science Foundation since 1992.
  • Linalg-linbox. LinBox is a C++ template library for exact, high-performance linear algebra computation with dense, sparse, and structured matrices over the integers and over finite fields.

X server

  • Imwheel has been removed from Mandriva distribution as it was getting really old and buggy. Please report any bugs you could have because of this.
  • Nouveau driver: it's now used as the default free driver for nVidia graphics cards instead of of the nv. Nouveau will bring Kernel Mode Setting support, 2D acceleration, and RandR 1.2 support (for easy multi-monitor setup).
  • Mesa 7.8: 3D support has been enabled for the ATI R600 and R700 chipets (ATI Radeon HD 2000 and later), you can now enjoy 3D acceleration with the free ATI drivers.
  • Intel X11 driver version 2.11.0 is now included. Together with kernel 2.6.33 it brings video overlay support for more CPU efficient video playback.
  • X.org related packages have been updated to X.org release 7.5. Also included xserver version 1.7.7.
  • The free ATI driver has been updated to version 6.13. This version supports kernel-mode setting support (enabled by default in the TMB kernel) and adds support for some newer ATI cards.

Base system

  • HAL use has been removed from printing system now. Please report any trouble you may have in printers detection and daily work.
  • Linux kernel 2.6.33.4 release: Some noteworthy changes include: ** The new Nouveau driver for nVidia graphics cards is now included in the kernel and is now used by default on Mandriva instead of the nv driver.
    • DRBD, the Distributed Replicated Block Device driver, which is useful on High Availability clusters is now included in the kernel.
    • There is a new experimental Compcache driver, which compresses part of the memory, effectively increasing the amount of memory you can use. Note that Mandriva does not yet include the user space tools to effectively use this.
    • The Anticipatory I/O scheduler was removed and there were the usual improvements to the default CFQ I/O scheduler.
    • Of course there are also many improvements to hardware support, such as a new driver for WIFI devices with the Ralink RT2800 and Realtek RTL8192U chipsets.
  • TMB kernel in Contrib uses the BFS process scheduler now, bringing improved responsiveness.
  • ntfs-3g driver 2010.03.06: Performance and timestamps fixes.
  • Glibc 2.11.1: many performance improvements. For example, binutils package now comes with STT_GNU_IFUNC support.
  • The GDB debugger was updated to version 7.1. Developers are excited about the process record and replay and reverse debugging features.
  • General build options: all packages are now linked with the -Wl,-O1 linker options. This can improve start-up performance of applications linked with many libraries.
  • Dracut, a replacement for mkinitrd, has been improved to better integrate with Mandriva (but it is still experimental and does not replace mkinitrd by default) You can create a new initrd with Dracut by hand if you want, or start using it by default the next time you install a new kernel by running update-alternatives --config mkinitrd and selecting dracut.
  • Ruby 1.9.1 is now available in Contrib. This new version is much more faster than the previous Ruby 1.8 series.
  • USB/IP, a tool for using USB devices over the network, is now packaged in Cooker.
  • microcode_ctl package has been enhanced to automatically download the latest microcode for you CPU and now supports AMD CPUs. Intel microcode is also available from the new microcode package in non-free.
  • Python has been updated to the 2.6.5 release.

System administration

  • The Sysklogd system log daemon has been replaced by rsyslog. rsyslog is a very modern system logger with very active development. It includes advanced features such as storing logs in SQL databases, e-mail warnings on some log messages, support for sending syslog messages over TCP and many more.
  • Munin 1.4.4: better scalability, many new plug-ins for monitoring MySQL, PostgreSQL, Asterisk and others.
  • Spamassassin has been updated to version 3.3.1. There are new plug-ins and adaptations of the default scores for better spam detection. The rules now are in a separate spamassassin-rules package and by default sa-update is run on a daily basis to update them.
  • Monitoring tool Zabbix has been updated to new version 1.8.2. This release brings much improved performance and GUI.
  • Postfix 2.7.0 is now available, bringing improved performance in content filtering and address verification.
  • MySQL packages were reorganized a bit. The mysql-max package was dropped and its features were merged in the standard mysql packages. The clustered storage engine NDB was removed from the mysql package and is now available in the mysql-cluster package.
  • Zarafa groupware solution is now included in Mandriva (Community version).
  • This release of Mandriva Linux brings a fully-functional Network-Manager plugin, developed and maintained by Andrey Borzenkov from Mandriva community, which is able to use all features supported by the Mandriva Network Tools (drakx-net). Note that while drakx-net tools remain the official Mandriva network configuration utilities, this plugin allows users who are used to the Network-Manager and want to use it while having all Mandriva-specific features.