KIARA 13.01 is available for download.

Okay, it's 95 degrees, my best friend was just released from the hospital, and and I don't even want to be near a computer right now.   Here's the link for KIARA 13.01  see the previous post for  information


There's an issue with mplayer, the audio isn't working at the command line,  but the KDE frontend, kplayer is working fine.  Dropbox seems to be working perfectly.

KIARA 13.01 uploading now

 


KIARA 13.01 is about to be released.   The new version of my homemade Slax-based live CD contains Firefox 13.01, Thunderbird 13.01, and Seamonkey 2.10.1.

It also features the addition of Dropbox, the excellent networking and backup application, although it's not enabled to run in the default Slax root mode.  To run Dropbox requires creating a normal user account, something I've been intending to write documentation about for a long time now.

I've actually made several changes in KIARA geared toward running a normal user account, a reflection of how I've been using it lately.  If anybody wants information on using KIARA (or Slax, for that matter) as a normal user, leave a comment, and I'll get around to it that much sooner.

KIARA 13.0 REVISED VERSION

After going back to a new copy of Slax 6.1.2 for my my main platform, KIARA 13.0 may be my best release.  It sports a great new version of Firefox, additional packages, and it seems to be extraordinarily stable.  Of all of my four old machines, there's one that previous KIARA versions have crashed on quite frequently, a Dell Optiplex GX280.  It hasn't crashed yet, and I'm using it right now.

But I needed to make one major change before people start really downloading.  Vim-gvim-7.2.018, the graphical version of VIM, was interfering with the function of visudo, the secure editing application that allows users to enable sudo for a normal account.  So I have removed gvim for the moment.

Future releases may see gvim restored.  It occurs to me that I'd like to see a different editor, probably nano used as the default text editor for visudo.  For years, Debian and Ubuntu have used nano as the text editor, and it's worked great.  Vim is not at all intuitive, and people shouldn't have to learn how to use a difficult new text editor just to enable sudo.   I believe that a simple addition to the startup scripts should allow me to make the change, but that's for the next release.

I also discovered that Tomas' Slax Drive is no longer enabled, so I added a link to information to the KIARA desktop.   There are other ways of storing data in the cloud for free.   I've been using Dropbox. 

Maybe I can add Dropbox to KIARA?  There are problems. I'll be thinking about this.   

KIARA 13.0 live CD

KIARA 13.0 introduces a new system of numbering for KIARA. Traditionally, I release a new KIARA CD with each new Firefox release, and from now on, the version number of each KIARA release will match the new Firefox. Simple, right?

KIARA 13.0 includes Mozilla Firefox 13.0 (Web browser) Thunderbird 13.0 (email client) and Seamonkey 2.10 (web suite), along with the current plugin-in for adobe flashplayer. I've actually added a whole pack of applications ported from Slackware 12.2 tgz format to Slax's lzm format:

gnuchess-5.07-i486-3.lzm
gnuplot-4.2.3-i486-1.lzm
gphoto2-2.4.3-i486-1.lzm
gqview-2.1.5-i486-2.lzm
gxine-0.5.903-i486-1.lzm
imagemagick-6.4.3_10-i486-1.lzm
jove-4.16.0.61-i386-1.lzm
pidgin-2.5.2-i486-3.lzm
vim-gvim-7.2.018-i486-1.lzm
windowmaker-20060427
cvs-i486-1.lzm
xgames-0.3-i486-1.lzm
xine-lib-1.1.15-i686-1.lzm
xine-ui-0.99.5-i686-1.lzm
xpdf-3.02pl2-i486-3.lzm

 I spent a couple days trying to get the iso down below the 700 mbs necessary to release a live cd instead of a live DVD. Finally, I added the modules and rootcopy files to a freshly downloaded copy of the original Slax 6.1.2, and decided that I was going to go ahead and release KIARA 13 as a DVD, so I added a bunch of packages. The resulting iso images weighed in at 703 mb, so I only had to remove a single package to get below the 700 mark. I can't vouch for how the added packages will perform, and xine and gxine don't seem to work at all. As usual, the most reliable video player for Linux remains mplayer, especially at the command line, and it's derivatives including kplayer.

 For information about how to use mplayer at the command line, open a terminal and type:

man mplayer