I am happy to announce the 2nd beta release of Zenlive 7.2 !
This version is featuring the latest kernel 3.2.5 with support for aufs 3.2, bootsplash and bfs based on the latest Zenwalk snapshot development version and the latest slackware-live-scripts 0.3.6 framework (http://slackware-live.tuxfamily.org).


For the first time ZenLive (even without any extra content) will not fit on on a single 700 MB CD-R anymore, but since DVD is a common media and due to the extra space that lets us include some additional goodies, not part of the Zenwalk Standard Edition, it has been decided to provide DVD ISO files only.


Well, what do we have under the hood:


- New xz compression squashfs 4.0 (now in vanilla kernel)

- All new simple Installer and Live-scripts

- On-the-fly live optional live module activation during the running live session, thanks to aufs3 and a loader script

- Persistent changes feature is now supported, even over network shares! (Need some more testers)

- Besides Standard Zenwalk package set, ZenLive provides some additional packages for more functionality

- Additional language packs & full Japanese language input support (should work for Korean and Chinese languages too)

- Fluxbox window manager and related apps now packaged together with the standard release as an alternative to Xfce4

- nouveau driver included in kernel 3.2.5 is now enabled by default, providing a _good_ 3D acceleration performance and support for a wide range of NVidia Cards (no need to ship the proprietary driver anymore ;-) )

- Broadcom wifi "WL" proprietary driver is shipped with this release as optional live module

- New bootsplash theme

- Updated ZenLive Manual addressing the changes introduced by switching to Slackware-live-scripts


My honest thanks goes to the Zenwalk Main Dev-Team, Pat and the Slackware Crew and of course Frank Endres the developer of the sophisticated Slackware-Live-scripts and all the open source community.
Without the hard work and effort of you all, ZenLive wouldn't have been possible!


Get ZenLive 7.2 Beta from here:

http://zenwalk.pinguix.com/user-account ... .2-dvd.iso
http://zenwalk.pinguix.com/user-account ... .2-dvd.md5


Please note, that this is still a beta version subject to changes, especially since stable Zenwalk 7.2 hasn't been officially released yet.
You can help finalizing by testing and bug reporting.

Thanks.

First of all : thank you for nice job! Thanks to all the people involved.

At first sight ZenLive 7.2 beta is rather different from its predecessors. No more '.lzm'-modules nor 'zenlive' directory nor 'ZenLive' password. Guess I have to learn a few things ...

Have for the time being two questions :
1. which mirror to choose to download 'missing' packages? I tried to install gvim and mplayer but was unable because these packages were not available.
2. how to do "a poor man's install" ?

Thank you for kind attention,

Thank you for trying ZenLive 7.2 beta.
Believe me, ZenLive hasn't changed too much compared to the two previous releases, we had a big cut at the time when ZenLive 6.4 was released (basically because I have taken over the project which was abandoned and introduced Slackware-live-scripts as the new live-framework).
So you should feel "at home" with 7.2 as well.
The changes you mentioned are not so extreme, lzm modules have been replaced by xz (which is lzma2), the reason is, better compression rates and xz compressed squashfs is now part of vanilla kernel, lzma patches are obsolete now (which I mentioned in the announcement).
The "03-zenlive" module now has been splited into "03-zlprofile", which holds just the liveuser profile and config data and "04-livetools", which holds slackware-live-scripts and related tools needed to build the live-system. The reason for splitting into two separate modules is just an administrative thing, it helps me be more efficient when modifying the live-system, no need to rebuild one big livemodule when actually just changing some config options. Also you know there is a boot parameter to exclude live modules form loading, so by separating into two modules one could exclude the livetools (needed for development) while still have the liveprofile activated.
The ZenLive root Password is still there if you set it using the rootpw= boot parameter. For security reason root password is disabled by default since ZenLive 7.0 (and it is a security issue releasing a live CD with a root password that is known to the whole world), the user now has to choose an own password and forcing that root password using the rootpw= boot parameter (see included ZenLive manual for details).

Now to answer your questions:

1) As Zenwalk 7.2 is not released officialy yet, ZenLive 7.2 beta is based on latest snapshot, please use the snapshot repo for adding additional packages or building from source.

2) A poor man's Installation is currently not supported, but you can either _install_ the live system from within the running live session or you can choose to _clone_ the live system during the running session.

If you really need a poor man's installation, you can do things manually supposed you already have a running linux with syslinux package installed, do the following:

1) mount the ZenLive iso using loop option

2) copy content of ZenLive ISO to an fat32 or ext2 formatted usb stick or sdcard (make sure there is only ONE primary partition)

3a) if your target is a fat filesystem
rename the isolinux folder to syslinux and the isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg
3b) install syslinux into the syslinux folder on the target (don't forget to mark the partition bootable and copy over the mbr.bin from syslinux)

4a) if your traget is an ext2 filesystem
rename the isolinux folder to extlinux and the isolinux.cfg to extlinux.conf
4b) install extlinux into the extlinux folder on the target (don't forget to mark the partition bootable and copy over the mbr.bin from syslinux)

That should do the trick and I am using this method during zenlive development for testing my live-system

(If your syslinux version is not identical with the version from Zenwalk snapshot you need to replace the vesamenu.c32, menu.c32 and chain.c32 inside the isolinux folder with the versions from your installed syslinux before installing it to the target)

Have fun!

Just to say thank you for long and detailed reply.

Will study your reply and let you have further questions if needed.

Thank you.

TESTERS WANTED:

There is a known issue:
The optional broadcom_wl live module will require some manual work in order to get wifi up (I will update this live module blacklisting some broadcom kernel modules that prevents the wl driver from working) but another issue is more critical:

For some reason the network manager is not working on systems with Broadcom BCM 4313 wifi cards (that card requires the proprietary wl kernel module), however the wifi is basically working if configured on cli or if using wicd.
I am not sure what causes that problem, but on 3 other test machines I also facing small issues with network manager while there are no problems at all if using wicd.

Anybody who owns an broadcom BCM4313 equipped device, please test and let me know if you can reproduce the issue. Thanks.

I played a little yesterday(just a little, read further...) and first thing I noticed is that I don't get any theme picked up for any app nor panels. After I change some other theme they all start to work.
Other thing is that I did it again!!! I booted and tried to connect to my wifi and it asked for a root password. Then I read the manual again, "boot with rootpw boot parameter", ok there it was, I booted again and tried to connect again, ok it ask for a rootpw and then it hit me again!!! I didn't set any root password. Now I was too pissed off to try again, maybe tonight.
So even it says it is a security issue but really annoying and I bet many users do the same what I did, so I suggest to put some comment if you want to enable root you must use rootpw=yourpassword to boot menu.

Hi, thanks for testing.

regarding the networkmanager asking for a root password, is a behaviour of network manager that can't be changed.
I don't like that eighter and I have mentined this on the mailing list. So for now you have to assign a rootpassword using the bootparamenter.

About the rootpassword is disabled by default and needs to set by bootparameter it is mentioned in the ABOUT in the ISO root as well as in the ZenLive Manual on the Liveusers Desktop.
This is not new, disabled root password was introduced in ZenLive 7.0, why people don"t read documentation?!

P.S. Since there are other issues with Networkmanager (if you followed the discussion on the mailing list) I have decided to ship ZenLive with WiCD and removing NetworkManager in the next Beta.

Have been testing this new 7.2 beta for some time. Nice experience.

The most ennoying thing was that I got stuck a few times when the screensaver was activated. Guess there is something wrong with your screensaver. It's really bad because you have to reboot.

Thank you for attention.

can you explain that more detailed? If screensaver is activated, just pressing enter should unlock the screen...
I'll have a look.

[updates in progress]


I have reviewed all the feedback I got so far regarding ZenLive 7.2beta and reworked the whole thing a bit
in order to address those issues:

- network manager has been removed from ZenLive and replaced by Wicd which is more relyable at the moment
and which doesn't requires to enter the root password to configure wireless hotspot connects

- some additional wifi and bluetooth firmware packages have been added to support more hardware

- xscreensaver has now been disabled for liveuser by default to avoid accidental lockouts

- wvdial and wvstreams have been added to 06-extra.xz as a replacement for the non-working dialup line configuration option of network manager

- an info message has been added in the bootmanger dialog mentioning about how to enable the root password
You just have to press F2 in the bootmanager to read about that comments.
Now this is described on 3 (!) different locations:
The bootmanager info dialog, the ABOUT in the Live-Media root and in the ZenLive manual on the liveuser's desktop.
That should it make clear to every one now, I don't like to discuss about the root password decision again, it's a feature
root access is not required for ordinary live session usage unless you want to install/remove software, change hardware configuration
or installing ZenLive. In this case the documentation is mentioning how to enable root password.

- small cosmetic corrections


The new beta2 ISO will be uploaded soon and should be available in the next 2-3 days.


Please test, especially wifi and dial up (3G/UMTS/GSM) connections on different hardware,
also the ZenLive Installer needs to be tested.


I hope that version will be good enough to become the first RC. Please have fun testing and give me your feedback.

Thank you very much for kind reaction. And providing a new beta iso.

Wish to confirm that I got stuck with no remedy. Even <CTRL><ALT><DEL> nor <CTRL><ALT><F2> didn't work.

Thank you!

New beta2 ISO is uploaded, you can get it from here:

http://zenwalk.pinguix.com/user-account ... .2-dvd.iso
http://zenwalk.pinguix.com/user-account ... .2-dvd.md5

trying to mount my internal disk freeze the system without or with
root pass set
I have a ssd disk. I don't know if is this particolar reason that
create the problem or can be reproduce whit a normal disk.

Hi,

thank you for testing and your feedback.
Can you please give some more details about your system, how much ram, which chipset, which model type of ssd, which sata controler, which partition layout, which filesystem, which options you use for mounting etc.
That would help to track the problem.

product: F6A ()
vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
version: 1.0
serial: NA1S8900080068
width: 32 bits
capabilities:
SMBIOS version 2.5,
DMI version 2.5,
SMP specification v1.4,
Symmetric Multi-Processing
configuration:
chassis: notebook
cpus: 2
uuid: D83881DD-7F3D-8B6E-A600-002215EE8343
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 4GiB
Linux filesystem partition
/0/2/0.0.0/1


bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /
capacity: 36GiB
capabilities:
Primary partition,
Bootable partition (active)
configuration:
mount.fstype: xfs
mount.options: rw,noatime,attr2,noquota
state: mounted



product: INTEL SSDSA2CT04
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 4PC1
serial: CVPR140300RE040AGN
size: 37GiB (40GB)
capabilities:
Partitioned disk,
MS-DOS partition table
configuration:
ansiversion: 5
sectorsize: 512
signature: 0b9dec81
-------------------------------------------------------------
just click on folder in /mnt/sda1 freeze the system
using disk utility freeze the system