DesktopBSD 1.6 Release Notes


Introduction

This document contains notes regarding DesktopBSD 1.6, such as information about changes made since previous releases, a list of included software and currently known problems. Please consult this document before reporting bugs.

Overview

This release is the first stable release of the 1.6 branch and comes with a great number of new features and improvements. It is based on the second release candidate of FreeBSD's upcoming production release 6.3 and provides the user with an enhanced KDE 3.5.8 desktop environment.

Hardware requirements and support

We recommend a computer with at least a 500 MHz CPU, 256 MB of memory and 10 GB of disk space. Access to a broad-band internet connection is advised for installing additional software from the internet.

 

Less may be possible, but will result in lower overall performance.

 

For more information about supported hardware, read the FreeBSD 6.2 hardware notes for i386 (32-bit) or amd64 (64-bit) architectures. (Hardware notes for 6.3 are not available yet, so some devices supported by DesktopBSD 1.6 are not listed, for example audio hardware compatible to the popular High Definition Audio standard).

Differences between the i386 (32-bit) and amd64 (64-bit) release

The NVIDIA graphics driver with hardware 3D rendering is only available for i386 and therefore not included in the amd64 release. GRUB is only supported on i386 and replaced with the default FreeBSD boot menu on amd64.
Major changes

The most notable new features are:

FreeBSD 6 as a modern and reliable base system X.Org release 7.3, improving support for modern graphics hardware Live CD/DVD feature for testing the system without installation to a hard-drive Revised installer supporting upgrades from 1.0 and previous 1.6 release candidates Improved package manager usability and performance Many enhancements and bugfixes for the DesktopBSD tools Support for multiple processors and multi-core CPUs Inclusion of the NVIDIA graphics driver for hardware 3D rendering DesktopBSD build servers as an up-to-date source for precompiled packages
Installation

Obtain an ISO image of the installation media from the download page. Depending on the hardware of your computer and your connection bandwidth, choose either the i386 CD or DVD (for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures) or the amd64 DVD (only for 64-bit architectures). Write the image file to a blank disc, keep the disc in your drive and restart your computer. You might have to change the boot order in your BIOS before being able to boot from the CD/DVD. When your computer starts DesktopBSD, a splash screen will appear and the system will then proceed to video mode detection. Please follow the on-screen instructions to continue either directly to the installer or to the live system.

Upgrading

Using the installer's upgrade method, you can easily upgrade from DesktopBSD 1.0 and previous DesktopBSD 1.6 release candidates. The installer will only ask you to specify the partition in which DesktopBSD is currently installed.

 

This keeps all login users, user data and user configuration settings in /home, but replaces the whole operating system, all installed software and system (non-user) configuration.

 

Before attempting an upgrade, back up important files! If you were using a web server or database, make copies of your files in /usr/local/www and /var/db. Also, do not attempt to upgrade DesktopBSD releases older than 1.0.

Handbook

More information about installation and configuration of DesktopBSD and more advanced topics is available in the DesktopBSD Handbook: desktopbsd.net/wiki/doku.php

Included software

The following software is included in both the CD and the DVD:

Amarok 1.4.7 K3B 1.0.4 KTorrent 2.2.2 Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 Pidgin 2.3.1 VideoLAN client (VLC) 0.8.6d digiKam 0.9.3

The following packages are only on the DVD:

OpenOffice.org 2.3.1 More KDE packages, such as KDE PIM and KDevelop Gutenprint high-quality printer drivers Translation packages

A complete list of all included packages is available here:

All software included on the i386 DVD

All software included on the amd64 DVD

All software included on the i386 CD

Known issues

So far, no issues have been reported. Please refer to the Community for information on where to get support or send a bug report.