KIARA 2.6 Released

Mozilla and Opera Web software upgraded Mozilla Firefox Web Browser9.01 Mozilla Thunderbird Email client 9.01 Mozilla Seamonkey Web Suite 2.6.1 Opera Web Suite 2.60 Opera must be installed after booting, the Desktop launcher will open a terminal window with the opera install script. For me, the installer works with defaults, so I hit "Enter" a few times and I'm done with the install. It just takes a few seconds, but you may need to go into more detail. After installing, the run command "opera" will launch the browser.

KIARA GNU/Linux is a full-featured general desktop live CD based on Slax 6.1.2, with packages ported from Slackware 12.2, and web software from Mozilla and Opera continually kept current.

KIARA 2.5 released.

Highlights: Upgraded browsers, WICD Network Manager, Flashplayer support for Opera

Upgrades include Firefox 8.01 and Seamonkey 2.5.

Added Packages:

flash-player-plugin-11.1.102.55-i386-3sl.lzm
mozilla-nss-3.12.3-i486-2alien.lzm
sqlite-3.6.6.2-i486-1.lzm
wicd-1.5.6-noarch-2.lzm


WICD is added as another blind stab toward enabling wireless. Once again, I don't do wireless so please test it with wireless if you can, and let me know if there's anything else I could add.

The other packages have been added to finally allow flashplayer to run with Opera, something I have personally tried to get working on KIARA for a while now, and I can honestly say I've been delighted with the results.

HARD AND LIVE! Running KIARA from a FAT32 partition

I've decided to commit to a hard drive install of KIARA, but not an ordinary hard drive install.   By copying KIARA to a partition preformatted with the DOS FAT32 filesystem (the same as most flash drives) and using the bootinst.sh script (instead of liloinst.sh)  to make the system bootable, I've replicated a live CD or flash drive install on my hard drive.    This combines the security of a live CD with the speed and performance of a hard drive install.

I keep my data and my settings by mounting an ext3 partition as /home, and recreating the same normal user account with each new reboot.  There's a simple shell script in  /root  (the home directory when you're in root) that I use to facilitate the setup process.  The script is named normal, and it looks like this:

mount /dev/sda3 /home
adduser qwerty
passwd root
visudo

/dev/sda/ is the partition that's mounted as /home
qwerty is the name of the regular user.

Running the script saves me a little work, but mostly it guides me through some basic commands, so I don't have to think too hard about what to do, and I don't forget anything.    Anyone who uses this script may have to edit it to mount the correct partition, and to choose a different user name.

I'm going to break down this whole process (partitioning, installing, configuring)  into horrible horrible detail elsewhere.  The real point of this post is to simply announce that I'm now running KIARA full time, and that has repercussions for the future of my obscure little distro.  If the trend continues, there will be additional software ported from Slackware 12.2 and available for download and install, and that may lead to a live DVD. 

KIARA 2.4 contains Firefox 8.0, Flashplayer 11, packages for wireless internet.

Kiara GNU/Linux 2.4 is now available for download.   Software upgrades include Firefox 8.0, Thunderbird 8.0,  flashplayer 11, and Opera 11.52.

By request, some packages have been added to enable wireless internet.

wireless-tools-29

wlassistant-0.5.7

wpa_supplicant-0.5.10

I've only used wired internet, so I'm completely dependent on wireless users to tell me what's needed to make Kiara wireless-enabled, and to test it for me. Thanks to Mark for getting me started with this important initiative.

Kiara 2.3 released

Kiara GNU/Linux 2.3 is now available for download. New Mozilla releases Firefox 7.01 Thunderbird 7.01 Seamonkey 2.4.1 Opera is no longer released preinstalled, but the installer is located at /root/opera-11.51-1087.i386.linux The added step seems to result in much better performance. You can cd to the installer directory (as root) and type sh install Or you can try launching the installer from the desktop. Symbolic links been added that should allow you to launch with the command opera and opera-widget-manager. The adobe flashplayer has been added to /usr/lib/opera/plugins. As far as i can figure, this should allow you to use flashplayer from opera, but so far it hasn't worked for me. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, letting me know would be much appreciated.

664.51 megabytes MD5 Checksum: 945496a677a9f174778d5255bd37cb8f

Kiara 2.2 Released.

Changes: Firefox 6.02 Thunderbird 6.2 Seamonkey 3.3 Opera 11.51 Added: GNU Screen 4.0.3 I've added a link to some firefox plugins to the Desktop I've removed all configuration files from /etc/skel which sets normal user directory, so that if someone uses adduser to recreate a normal user account on the hard drive, preexisting configuration files won't be overwritten.

Kiara 2.1 Released in response to new Mozilla releases.

Changes:
Mozilla Firefox 6.01
Mozilla Thunderbird 6.01
Mozilla Seamonkey 2.3.2

Also contains:

Slax 6.1.2

plus

amarok-1.4.10-i486-3
at-3.1.10-i486-1
bsd-games-2.13-i486-8
codecs-essential-20071007
elinks-0.11
emacs-22.3-i486-2
fluxbox-1.1.1-i486-1
fvwm-2.4.20-i486-1
gimp-2.4.7-i486-1
irssi-0.8.14-i486-1
kdeaccessibility-3.5.10-i486-2
kdeaddons-3.5.10-i486-2
kdeadmin-3.5.10-i486-4
kdeartwork-3.5.10-i486-2
kdebindings-3.5.10-i486-2
kdeedu-3.5.10-i486-2
kdegames-3.5.10-i486-2
kdegraphics-3.5.10-i486-2
kdemultimedia-3.5.10-i486-2
kdenetwork-3.5.10-i486-2
kdepim-3.5.10-i486-4
kdesdk-3.5.10-i486-3
kdetoys-3.5.10-i486-2
kdeutils-3.5.10-i486-2
kdevelop-3.5.3-i486-3
kdewebdev-3.5.10-i486-2
kdm-fix-s6
knemo-0.4.8-i486-2
koffice-1.6.3-i486-7
krusader-1.90.0
lynx-2.8.6rel.5-i486-1
mc-4.6.1_20070623p14-i486-2
mpg321-0.2.10-i486-2
nano-2.0.9-i486-1
opera-11.50-i686-1ro
sudo-1.6.8p12-i486-1
wine-1.1.22-i486-mt
xine-lib-1.1.15-i686-1
xpaint-2.7.8.1-i486-2
xscreensaver-5.07-i486-2
yakuake-2.8.1-i486-2mfb
adobe flashplayer 10.3