Changelog:

• The usage of Plymouth for the boot graphics.
  
• New kernel version 2.6.33.5.
  
• New Unity theme
  
• Added the smart-applet for automatic package updates.
• All around updates of all major DE as well as supporting libraries.
  

The repositories now contain many full fledged up to date Desktop Environments which can be installed with the use of the “task” meta-packages. Recent additions include:

• KDE 4.4.3 from Synergy Linux,
• Gnome 2.30.0,
• Openbox 3.4.11.2 from TinyMe,
• XFCE 4.6.2 from Qua It,
• E17 0.16.999.49898 from UnitE17

Our resources are now focused on cleaning up of our documentation and the continued bug squashing to complement the final release.

Known issues:

• Autologin feature in main control center does not work properly with other DesktopManagers besides GDM, for use with KDM4 or Slim, use the DesktopEnvironment provided method.
• Broadcom firmare is not provided due to licensing issues, please use firmware provided on the cdrom you received with your broadcom card. This can cause issues with udev trying to constantly re-spawn.

About Unity Linux:
Mandriva-based Unity Linux utilizes the MkLiveCD project, which allows developers to create their own distribution on top of a Unity Linux core (or “trunk”). Unity Linux thus strives to provide a solid, well maintained foundation that developers can use as a starting point to build their own “remastered” distributions, or as we like to call them, “branches.” Currently, Unity Linux offers both 32-bit and 64-bit LiveCDs. Over 8,500 packages are available after installation. In an effort to give distribution developers maximum flexibility, the core is kept small and usable, but not too basic. Unity Linux provides developers with the bare minimum– just enough to make use of remaster tools, the smart package manager, a 2.6.33.5 kernel, and rpm5. To facilitate easy access to packages, Unity Linux utilizes an SVN repository for packages and internal projects. All the necessary tools as well as a basic tutorial for building packages are already provided. An automatic build system to work with the SVN repository is in progress along with many other tools to make Unity the most functional project to start a personal or professional branch.

What is inside:

• Based of Unity Linux RC1 core (openbox removed)
• Kernel updated to 2.6.31.13-unity1
• Enlightenment E17 0.16.999.063 (thank you guys!) not include ecomorph.
• Themes, wallpapers (Thank you Agust, Verdegal, who you are, )
• Amsn
• Skype 2.1.0.81
• Transmission (bit torrent client)
• Firefox 3.6 (web browser)
• Mozilla Thunderbird (e-mail client)
• Mplayer (movie player)
• XMMS (audio player)

This Unite17 release is a “raw” system. I hope you will like it.

Please remember! Enlightenment DR17 is under heavy development, it is not stable.

Check this page and later the mirrors to get the 32 bit LiveCD.

Unite17 homepage (in hungarian).

We’re currently moving the physical server that houses dev.unity-linux.org.  We’ve had some instability in the past few months that was tracked down to some faulty hardware.  This move should give us the stability we’ve sought but have yet to achieve.

Both the SVN and Issue tracker will be down until things have moved.  Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Most of our sub-domains are currently not resolving.  We are looking into this issue and will let everyone know when things are back online.

Sites effected:

1. Forums
2. Wiki
3. Knowledgebase
4. Graphics Site
5. Planet Unity

Changelog:

• Updated xorg to 1.7.5
• New kernel version 2.6.31.12. Due to several regressions with the current 2.6.32 kernels, it was decided to stay with the 2.6.31.12 kernel for this release with the 2.6.33 to be released in the repo once the first update is released (2.6.33.1).
• Filetriggers and other minor bugs were fixed for rpm5.
• Smart 1.3 and the addition of smart-utils for mirror automation. The mirror selection is now automated based on system localization for optimum performance. David of Unity-linux is now a contributor to the Smart development team in order to ensure the best user experience.

We have made a large effort to find additional mirrors around the world for hosting our repository and LiveCD ISOs. In the process of finding mirrors, we have adopted the MirMon project for monitoring the status of our mirrors. Users can now go the Mirror Status page to find the best download location as well as the health of the various mirrors.

The repositories now contain many full fledged up to date Desktop Environments which can be installed with the use of the “task” meta-packages. Recent additions include:

• KDE 4.4.1 from Synergy Linux,
• Gnome 2.28.1,
• Openbox 3.4.11 from TinyMe,
• XFCE 4.6.1 from Qua It & SAM,
• E17 0.16.999.063 from UnitE17

Our resources are now focused on cleaning up of our documentation and the continued bug squashing in preparation for the final release.

Known issues:

• The kernel 2.6.31.12 breaks support for the wireless controller Atheros AR2413 (ath5k module). Using an older kernel in the repository fixes that issue.  A resolution to this currently being worked on.
• The smart-setup tool menu entry has not been designed and implemented. The initial setup is automatic, therefore, running this tool isn’t required unless the user wishes to specify a particular mirror.
• The ATI proprietary driver does not support xorg-1.7. It has been removed from the repository to prevent unnecessary problems for users.
• VMWare users may experience a several minute start-up delay due to an error with udev.

About Unity Linux:
Mandriva-based Unity Linux utilizes the MkLiveCD project, which allows developers to create their own distribution on top of a Unity Linux core (or “trunk”). Unity Linux thus strives to provide a solid, well maintained foundation that developers can use as a starting point to build their own “remastered” distributions, or as we like to call them, “branches.” Currently, Unity Linux offers both 32-bit and 64-bit LiveCDs. Over 7,700 packages are available after installation. In an effort to give distribution developers maximum flexibility, the core is kept small and usable, but not too basic. Unity Linux provides developers with the bare minimum– just enough to make use of remaster tools, the smart package manager, a 2.6.31.12 kernel, and rpm5. To facilitate easy access to packages, Unity Linux utilizes an SVN repository for packages and internal projects. All the necessary tools as well as a basic tutorial for building packages are already provided. An automatic build system to work with the SVN repository is in progress along with many other tools to make Unity the most functional project to start a personal or professional branch.

Enter Arch Linux and the fantastic community members they have.

Some of our devs love running Arch Linux as a secondary OS on their machines. They love the simplicity of it. They love the smallness of it. It’s Arch that has inspired many of our developers to shoot for that minimalistic OS wrapped around the LiveCD utilities. It’s Arch that we looked to as an example of a successful project.  Those devs keep eyes peeled on developments within the Arch community…and those devs knew as mirrors increased, they wanted to track mirrors like Arch does.

So, we asked about it. Arch was kind enough to share how they make their mirror status pages. We’d like to thank them for being so helpful and inspirational to us here at Unity. We’d also like to thank gri6507 and devnet for doing the work to incorporate what Arch had done into Unity Linux into our website.

I give you the Unity Linux Mirror Status Page!

As mirrors are added, they will be reflected here and their status will be reflected.  This includes whether they are down or latent and divides things up into regional areas of interest.  We hope this serves the community well.  We have set it to update about every hour.  Hopefully, this is frequent enough.  We’ve also updated our navigation at the top of the page to reflect our latest resource addition.  Please let us know in the comments section what else is important to you as far as mirrors and their status goes…we’ll continue to improve as we go along toward the Release Candidate phase of Unity!  Thanks!

University of Idaho

• http://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/pub/unity
• ftp://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/unity
• rsync://mirror.its.uidaho.edu::unity

Virginia Tech

• http://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/unity/

This brings our list of mirrors to thirteen.  Thank you so much!

You can view our complete list of servers on our wiki: http://wiki.unity-linux.org/mirrors

A number of other institutions have been contacted, and we’re awaiting their reply.  If you know of any others who may be interested, please let us know on our mailing list (ul-developers at googlegroups.com), via a comment to this blog or by any other means.