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

KIARA 2.11 Now Available for Download

KIARA 2.11 is about to be available for upload. KIARA is a live CD based on Slax 6.1.2 with additional software packages from Slackware 12.2, including the classic KDE 3.5.10 desktop supplemented with the latest web software from Mozilla: firefox-12.0, seamonkey-2.9.1, and thunderbird-12.0.1. Efforts have been made to make KIARA compatable with wifi, and lately we've been succsessful. For a secured wifi connection with a password, logging in with wireless assistant is recommended. For an unsecured connection, KNEMO will login automatically by default.

KIARA 2.10 released

featuring:
Mozilla Firefox 11.0
Mozilla Thunderbird 10.2
Mozilla Seamonkey 2.7.2
Adobe Flashplayer 11.1.102.55

KIARA 2.9 released

Download Here

featuring:
Mozilla Firefox 10.02
Mozilla Thunderbird 10.2
Mozilla Seamonkey 2.7.2
Adobe Flashplayer 11.1.102.55

KIARA 2.8 Released

KIARA 2.8 is now available for download.  KIARA is a live Linux CD based on Slax 6.1.2 that combines the classic KDE 3.5 Desktop environment with the latest web software from Mozilla and opera.  KIARA releases immediately follow each new release of Mozilla Firefox.

KIARA 2.7 includes Firefox 10.10, AND Seamonkey 2.7.1, and an upgraded version of wireless-assistant from Slax .org.

To simplify things, the Opera web browser has been removed.  I'll ll bring it back if anyone really misses it.

KIARA 2.7 Released

REVISED: Corrupted files replaced, perl added. New version uploaded 2012.02.03

Highlights include added development files, Firefox 10.0

KIARA 2.7 is now available for download.  KIARA is a live Linux CD based on Slax 6.1.2 that combines the classic KDE 3.5 Desktop environment with the latest web software from Mozilla and opera.  KIARA releases immediately follow each new release of Mozilla Firefox.

KIARA 2.7 includes Firefox 10.0, Thunderbird 10.0, Seamonkey 2.7, and Opera 11.61.   I've also restored the following (mostly) development files that were once included in KIARA 1.x:  p7zip-9.20.1, pygobject-2.15.4,  pygtk-2.12.1,  python-2.5.2, ruby-1.8.7, perl-5.10.0

Finally, I've added a couple of links to the /root desktop to help simplfy administrative tasks.  One link executes the command "fdisk -l" in a terminal window, listing all partitions in all hard disks.  The other link opens the Konqueror "storage media" window.