Thoughts on Trisquel 7.1 based off of Ubuntu 14.04.3 with release in July or August

14 risposte [Ultimo contenuto]
t3g
t3g
Offline
Iscritto: 05/15/2011

I loaded up a live CD of Trisquel 7 the other day to test out MATE without hurting my system and ran into a few issues. I have an Nvidia GTX 970 video card and as you may or may not know, the 900 series hasn't received decent support within the kernel until the 3.19 release. I'm talking native detection and basic support without installing the non-free Nvidia drivers.

So this got me thinking. Most other major distributions offer point releases of their major releases to keep their ISOs fresh. Ubuntu does it (14.04.2), Debian does it (8.1), Linux Mint does it (17.2), and of course CentOS/RedHat do it (6.3).

Why does Trisquel have to be the exception?

With Trisquel based off of the LTS releases of Ubuntu and having Ubuntu 14.04.3 around the corner, why not release an updated Trisquel ISO (7.1 maybe?) that has the Vivid backport stack incorporating the 3.19 kernel and newer Xorg? As of today, the linux-generic-lts-vivid kernel is ready, but xserver-xorg-lts-vivid package is NOT fully integrated. Both will be there as part of the Ubuntu LTS Enablement Stack this month or at least by August.

I know you can always say "install the kernel after" or "just run netinstall" but some people want to run a live session off of their CD/DVD/USB drive first and then install via Ubiquity. Wouldn't it be better if people had a newer kernel from the start so they run into less issues when testing their hardware?

So please consider this as an option so the Trisquel ISOs don't grow stale. Especially since they offer packages that are at least a year too old now.

aklis
Offline
Iscritto: 04/19/2005

Good idea, this will also help to adapt the iso building script to the new package-helpers system

Dave_Hunt

I am a member!

Offline
Iscritto: 09/19/2011

Putting out live iso, based on the Ubuntu point releases, like 14.4.3 seems a good idea. If one has a system in place, will a dist-upgrade bring it up to 14.4.3 when it's ready?

onetechbuddy
Offline
Iscritto: 05/26/2014

We had a 6.1 release. Probably, there will be a 7.1.

t3g
t3g
Offline
Iscritto: 05/15/2011

That is true, but 6.1 didn't include the new kernel and xorg by default right? I'm hoping with 7.1 that they mirror the latest Ubuntu point release.

If Ruben does a 7.1 release, he should wait until 14.04.3 is ready as I get a black screen booting with the current live ISO on my 900 series Nvidia card.

danieru
Offline
Iscritto: 01/06/2013

It was 6.0.1, not 6.1. And if I remember correctly that was primarily to fix the bug about Trisquel using Google's DNS. It also brought other new features though, like support for EFI.

I second the idea of a new iso based on ubuntu 14.04 but with updated kernel and xorg.

GNUser
Offline
Iscritto: 07/17/2013

YES!
Honestly I sometimes wish to go back to Trisquel, since Debian isn't very polished and the software is outdated (even using the backports), but the lack of security updates (in a timely manner) puts me away from that idea. I think having point releases would help a LOT. That would at least make the security updates faster (i think).

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Offline
Iscritto: 07/24/2010

I think having point releases would help a LOT. That would at least make the security updates faster (i think).

Why?

GNUser
Offline
Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Having a release date for the point releases would "force" the developers to make sure that security updates were done in time.
Now, I understand that Trisquel basically has one developer, Ruben, and it's very hard for one man alone to do all this work by himself. Which is kinda funny, seeing as the GNU project never really released a distro themselves that could be said to fulfill the GNU project's purpose, nor do they actually support for real the projects that try to do that. Having more people writing code in Trisquel would certainly help Ruben a lot. He has done a great work with Icecat from what I understand. Wish it was in Debian's repos.

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

How do you imagine security updates happen? Most of them come from Ubuntu, and you don't need to wait for a new release for security updates!

davidnotcoulthard (non verificato)
davidnotcoulthard

GNUser probably wrote that with https://trisquel.info/en/forum/where-are-all-security-updates in mind.

GNUser
Offline
Iscritto: 07/17/2013

Correct

t3g
t3g
Offline
Iscritto: 05/15/2011

You get security updates no matter what version you use.

The benefit of a newer ISO based off of an Ubuntu point release is that you get a newer kernel and xorg backported to support your OS version as soon as you test or install it. More hardware is supported as a result.

SuperTramp83

I am a translator!

Offline
Iscritto: 10/31/2014

There certainly aren't many developers on Trisquel. That's true. It is also true that Ruben is not the only one working on it. There are several people helping with code. And if you (generic you) want to help you are very welcome!

https://devel.trisquel.info/groups/trisquel

t3g
t3g
Offline
Iscritto: 05/15/2011

Improvements to XFS in the newer kernels is another reason to offer an updated ISO. Why is this important? It's important since Trisquel will format a /home partition to XFS by default and I assume many of you use XFS. I do.