So the new forum uses Vanilla 2; a PHP/MySQL board engine, that's easy to use, clean, with activity and notification functions. Please recreate your forum account and start posting or helping others.

http://forum.slitaz.org/

We also have a new community platform powered by Drupal. We have setup Drupal to have Wiki-like functions with a special node type with revision turned on by default. The site also provides some image galleries with SliTaz related artwork. Each user can also post blog-like personal stories and all content can be optionally displayed on the front page and/or sent to Twitter. The Community site also has language negotiation turned on and all pages or wiki content can be translated into French, German or Portuguese.

Please join the community and start sharing about SliTaz or help us in recovering the wiki:

Front page: http://community.slitaz.org/

Wiki: http://community.slitaz.org/wiki
Artwork: http://community.slitaz.org/image

- Christophe

During the last 2 weeks we worked hard to rebuild the full packages database, (more than 2000 packages), we had to fix many compilation issues mainly due to the new glibc and gcc packages. It was also time to rebuild all the packages so that all the applications were linked with the last shared libraries, this makes the system more coherent and stable, but will probably also bring up new bugs and missing dependencies.

So any Cooking systems will have a huge number of updates when running 'tazpkg upgrade'. If you have a lot of installed packages, the upgrade can take quite a long time. Please report any bugs to the bug tracker, we also need your feedback to make SliTaz 3.0 as sexy as possible!

Main shared libs and packages (ex: glibc, libX11, gtk+, gcc, python) are now frozen in the Cooking version, so we can spend the last 4 months before the next stable version to fix any bugs, write documentation and improve SliTaz i18n, tools and boxes.

This summer the development team have worked on a new tool called tazbb (SliTaz build bot). Tazbb is a tool to automate, test and build SliTaz packages, each new commit in the wok will make tazbb cook the modified package on the build host. The tool is also able to rebuild the full packages database in a few passes. Tazbb also has a web interface so everyone can check in real time the current task and build log.

• Tazbb web interface
• Tazbb documentation
• Tazbb source code

- Christophe

While we haven't written some news for a long time, we haven't stopped working hard to fix bugs, update packages and include new ones in the Cooking repository. So now, with the great work of all the SliTaz developers, we've managed to include more than 2000 packages for the next Cooking version! The packages database will be soon frozen so all contributors will begin to focus on fixing bugs and updating the official documentation for the next stable release.

This also means that we have added more than 620 packages in 4 months (from the last stable release in April), and we've updated lots of packages such as the Kernel, the base tools and the GTK graphical tool kit.

Cooking packages: http://pkgs.slitaz.org/cooking/
Hg repository: http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/

- Pankso

[en] All components of the Xorg packages have been updated to version 7.4 of the free graphical server. This version of Xorg is compiled with support for DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) and several new drivers are included to support various utilities such as xinput or xrandr.

The mini Xvesa server used by default on the LiveCD has been updated to version 1.5.3; it now supports xrandr to resize the screen on the fly and setxkbmap to map the keyboard preferences. Xvesa now has more extensions and better support for high resolutions. For this mini version of the X server to function properly, certain keyboard and mouse options should be used. When updating the server, the package will automatically add these options by configuring the session manager Slim (/etc/slim.conf). But if you start your graphical session from the Linux console, you must manually edit the ~/.xsession file or launch 'tazx' to generate a file with the correct options. Example command to start:

[fr] Tous les paquets composants Xorg ont été mis à jour vers la version 7.4 du serveur graphique libre. Cette version d'Xorg est compilée avec le support DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) et plusieurs nouveaux drivers on été inclus aisi que divers utilitaires tel que xinput ou xrandr.

Le mini serveur Xvesa utilisé par défaut sur le Live CD à aussi été mis à jour vers la version 1.5.3 du serveur, il support maintenant xrandr permettant de redimensionner l'écran à la volée et setxkbmap pour modifié le mappage et préférences du clavier. Xvesa propose aussi plus d'extensions et un meilleur support des hautes résolutions. Pour que cette version du mini serveur X fonctionne correctement il faut que les options -keybd et -mouse soit utilisées. Lors de la mise à jour du serveur, le paquet va automatiquement ajouter ces options à la configuration du gestionnaire de session Slim (/etc/slim.conf). Mais si vous démarrez votre session graphique depuis la console Linux, vous devez modifier manuellement le fichier ~/.xsession ou lançer 'tazx' pour qu'il génère un fichier avec les bonnes options. Example de commande pour démarrer la nouvelle version d'Xvesa :

Xvesa -ac -shadow -screen 1024x800x24 -keybd keyboard -mouse mouse,5,/dev/input/mice &

Translations welcome!
- Christophe

SliTaz boot scripts 3.0 have been released and provide some really nice enhancements and bug fixes. Less calls to if-cat-grep to have a faster normal boot. FAST_BOOT_X will start a X session 4-6 secs earlier. Option fastbootx or fbx can be used as a boot parameter, but this feature is designed for HD install or a Live USB and can also be configured manually in /etc/rcS.conf (Control box will be updated). Option laptop will now load the fan module and enable Kernel laptop_mode.

New option screen=auto will use Xvesa to get the higher resolution of the graphics card, so screen resolution can be skipped at boot time for a Live system. For example you can boot the Live CD and directly have a X session without any questions with:

slitaz lang=en kmap=fr_CH screen=auto

- Christophe

A new version (2.8) of the Slitaz configs package is now on the cooking mirror. It provides a new and clean Openbox theme with a matching GTK theme using the Clearlooks engine. This new theme will be the default on the next Cooking release. If you want to use it on your current SliTaz system you must first upgrade the packages (or at least slitaz-configs) and then select the SliTaz theme via "Preferences" --> "Appearance GTK+" or edit your personal ~/.gtkrc-2.0 configuration file.

Don't hesitate to comment.

- Christophe

A new Tazpkg packages Web interface is now online and usable. It provides more information about packages, direct download, last build date, a list of dependencies with links and a CGI search engine created for the needs of the project. It replaces the old interface which was included in the main website, but the translated packages section will stay and now also have a search form to easily find packages online.

New interface home page : http://pkgs.slitaz.org/

- Christophe

[fr] Le site de SliTaz a initialement été écrit en français, par la suite l'anglais, le portugais et d'autres langues ont été ajoutées par la communauté. Afin de faciliter la vie aux différents contributeurs du site et avoir une structure identique, le site en français à migré vers http://www.slitaz.org/fr/

La page d'accueil (Home) du site est maintenant en anglais et propose une petite intro, le titre des 5 dernières nouvelles et un nuage de mots clés.

- Christophe

Just so everybody is aware, I will not start looking at both Cooking and Stable vulnerabilities until 2.0 is released. For now it is just Cooking, since 1.0 is almost at end-of-life.

The new SliTaz Security Team has been started! I'm still getting things organized here, but more info on how to help should be available in the next few days.