Official PC-BSD Blog » testers

PC-BSD Repo Switches to Github

dru — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:48:06 +0000

Last week, Kris announced on the developers mailing list that the PC-BSD source repo has switched from subversion to github.

For those of you who like to compile new features in order to test them before they are incorporated into a release or a rolling release, the instructions for getting source have been updated. Any references to svn in the wiki version of the Handbook will also be switched to the git equivalent. If you have installed subversion before from System Manager -> System Packages -> Development -> Development VCS, you already have git as it is included in that meta-package.

First Rolling Release Upgrade Available

dru — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:52:53 +0000

Kris has announced the availability of the first rolling release upgrade on the testing mailing list. Check that list’s archives before applying the upgrade to be aware of any found bugs. If you find a bug, post the details to the list.

Anybody who want to help us out testing a system update from the original 9.1 -> 9.1-RollingRelease can now do so!

To start the process on your system edit the file:

/usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf

Change the line:

PATCHSET: pcbsd

PATCHSET: pcbsdtest

After this is done you can just run the update manager gui, or pc-updatemanager command to apply the update as normal.

Please let us know any feedback you have with the patch, so we can bugfix and improve it.

Known Issues:

Once the desktop is re-installed, there is a bug in the online update tray notifier which isn’t showing if new packages are available. I’m currently investigating.

First Rolling Release ISOs Available

dru — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:31:58 +0000

Kris has announced the availabiity of the first rolling release:

As a few of you have already noticed, we have some new ISOs now up on the mirrors.

These are the first images built of PC-BSD Rolling Release, based upon FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE, which use PKGNG as the backend for keeping your desktop and base-system packages up to date. You are welcome to download and give them a spin if you want to help us beta-test them.

They include updated packages from about 2 weeks ago, which includes KDE 4.9.5 among others. Our build server is still finishing up building the entire package repository and I hope to have all ~20,000 pkgng packages online in another week or so, with weekly updates after that. The weekly updates will include all the latest PC-BSD / TrueOS utilities, so you can expect to see much more frequent bug fixes & enhancements.

For users running on the original PC-BSD / TrueOS 9.1 release, I also have an online system update in the works. This update will convert your existing install to PKGNG and allow you to start tracking the rolling release, the same as if you installed a fresh copy from our new ISOs. Once I’ve finished a bit more testing & bugfixing with it, I will post back with details on how to try it out. I’m hopeful it will be sometime next week.

Lastly, I also wanted to let you know that with this change, it will be possible convert an existing “FreeBSD” 9.1-Release into a PC-BSD or TrueOS system. I’ve started writing instructions on this PC-BSD wiki page with details.

Last but not least, we have some new hardware coming in soon which I will quickly get working on building a PC-BSD -STABLE release, and then -CURRENT. More details as they arrive

Happy testing, and please post your feedback to the testing mailing list so we can get to work quashing bugs.

RC3 Available for Testing

dru — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:28:27 +0000

The RC3 images for the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 are now available for i386 and amd64 architectures. This is expected to be the last snapshot before 9.1-RELEASE, so report any bugs to the testing mailing list so that they can be fixed in time for RELEASE. Note that the included handbook is still a draft version– it should be finalized and released to translators within the next week or so.

This release candidate provides both users and developers a means to test out new features in the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 release. This snapshot may contain buggy code and features, so users are encouraged to run it only on non-critical systems.

Notable changes since the previous release candidate:

PC-BSD handbook has been updated for 9.1
Fixed bug where some keyboard layouts were not being displayed
Multiple functionality and stability improvements for EasyPBI
Multiple functionality and stability improvements for TrueOS
New functionality improvements including better detection added to the mount-tray
Fixed bug where default mount points were not being set correctly using ZFS mirror/raidz mode
Fixed bug where update manager was not displaying the proper error text when failing
Added new ability to create ZFS datasets for jail environments
Added UK wireless channel 12 support
Fixed bug where Linux jails were not importing properly
Mirrors are now auto detected and set based upon location
Automatic ZFS 4K blocksize enabled by default
System manager should now show the correct dialog for “default”
auto-detected mirrors.

Errata:

If you wish to update from 9.0 to RC3 you may do so by editing the
/usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to pcbsdtest.

After changing this variable, run the updater utility to download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the RC3 version will appear.

RC2 Available for Testing

dru — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:05:41 +0000

The RC2 images for the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 are now available for i386 and amd64 architectures.

NOTE: the USBfull image for RC2 is slightly larger than a 4GB stick. If you wish to try this image, use a USB stick/drive larger than 4GB.

Changes since RC1:

Fixed multiple bugs where mice freeze or behave incorrectly.
Fixed language selection to be displayed as native language.
Compatibility improvements for PS2 mice.
Fixed time-out issues with External DVD Drive / USB Drives.
Updated system proxy paths and functionality.
Updated sound detection functionality.
Added mp3 / ogg encoders to CD rippers.
Added detection for NVIDIA Optimus systems.
Added options for cups-base, to fix an issue with many printers printing blank pages when using ghostscript for pdftops conversion.
Improved System Manager to only update ports tree if it already is checked out.
Improvements to the Warden’s functionality and stability. Improved jail importing functionality.
Added “Update All” button for AppCafe.
Graphical enhancements for EasyPBI.

Highlights for the upcoming 9.1-Release:

FreeBSD 9.1
KDE 4.8.4
New system installer! Greatly simplified for desktop and server installs.
New TrueOS installation option. Includes command-line utilities like pbi-manager, warden, metapkgmanager and more.
Support for ZFS mirror / raidz(1,2,3) during installation.
Support for SWAP on ZFS, allowing entire disk ZFS installation.
Support for setting additional ZFS data-set options, such as compression, noexec, etc.
Warden jail management integrated into system. Allows creating jails via GUI, adding packages and other administration.
Support for Warden to create Linux Jails.
New “Sound Configuration GUI”.
New “Hardware compatibility” GUI.
First boot setup wizard allows OEM installs to be easily performed.
New Bluetooth pairing tray / GUI utilities.
New AppCafe improvements and preferences.
Improvements to wifi utility.
Fixed bug causing untranslated strings to show up empty.
Numerous bug-fixes to PC-BSD related utilities.
Support for creating PXE boot server for remote desktop and installation.
ZFS beadm support.
And much more!

Errata:

If you wish to update from 9.0 to RC2 you may do so by editing the /usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to pcbsdtest.

After changing this variable, run the updater utility to download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the RC2 version will appear.

If you find any bugs in RC2, report them to the testing mailing list so that they can be fixed before 9.1 release.

PC-BSD 9.1-RC1 Now Available

dru — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:33:27 +0000

Kris has announced the availability of RC1:

The RC1 images for the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 are now available for i386 and amd64 architectures.

Changes since the previous beta:

Based on FreeBSD 9.1-RC1.
Added new functionality to the warden client. You can now schedule daily / hourly creation of jail snapshots. You may also set the number of days worth of jails you wish to keep. Old jail snapshots will be removed automatically.
Improve the shutdown scripts to make sure we unmount, even if the jail was manually stopped.
Added Active Directory / LDAP backend and GUI utility.
Fixed a number of bugs relating to jail creation / management.
Auto-enable the flash plugin when creating new users.
Added some initial packages to TrueOS, such as sudo / bash and others.
Bugfixes to AppCafe.
Fixed Window Maker startup issues.
Added the Enlightenment (E17) desktop as an unsupported desktop meta-package.
Added lots of new packages for TrueOS / Warden.

Errata:

If you wish to update from 9.0 to RC1 you may do so by editing the /usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to pcbsdtest.

After changing this variable, you may run the updater utility, to download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the RC1 version will appear.

If you find any bugs in this snapshot, please report them to the testing mailing list.

This version contains a first draft of the upcoming 9.1 Handbook. This draft is not complete, the sections are not hyperlinked, and sections that are still be written/tested are highlighted in yellow. The next RC will contain a more recent draft.

9.1-BETA1 Now Available

dru — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:16:23 +0000

BETA1 images for the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 are now available for the i386 and amd64 architectures!

This beta provides both users and developers a means to test out new features in the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 release. This snapshot may contain buggy code and features, so users are encouraged to run it only on non-critical systems.

Changes since the previous snapshot:

FreeBSD 9.1-BETA1
KDE 4.8.4
Support for Warden to create Linux Jails (Debian & Gentoo support included)
Fixed a bug with mouse cursor fonts changing over some tray apps
Correct some bugs with mouse not being detected after display wizard
Add new “TrueOS” server option, alongside FreeBSD Vanilla.
Display detected video resolution / driver on confirmation screen
Add new IPv4 / IPv6 validation to address fields
Fix bugs exporting / importing jails via Warden
Add new Hardware Compatibility Check GUI, which is available during install and via Control Panel
Add new Sound Configuration GUI, which lets user select and test different sound devices
Add NVIDIA legacy drivers for cards older than 8-10 years (32bit only)
Added option to “mount/clone” jail snapshots via the Warden

Highlights for the upcoming 9.1-Release:

FreeBSD 9.1
KDE 4.8.4
New system installer! Greatly simplified for desktop and server installs.
New “PC-BSD Server” installation option. Includes command-line utilities like pbi-manager, warden, metapkgmanager and more.
Support for ZFS mirror / raidz(1,2,3) during installation.
Support for SWAP on ZFS, allowing entire disk ZFS installation.
Support for setting additional ZFS data-set options, such as compression, noexec, etc.
Warden jail management integrated into system. Allows creating jails via GUI, adding packages and other administration.
Support for Warden to create Linux Jails
New “Sound Configuration GUI”
New “Hardware compatibility” GUI
First boot setup wizard allows OEM installs to be easily performed.
New Bluetooth paring tray / GUI utilities.
New AppCafe improvements and preferences
Improvements to wifi utility
Fixed bug causing untranslated strings to show up empty.
Numerous bug-fixes to PC-BSD related utilities
Support for creating PXE boot server for remote desktop and installation.
ZFS beadm support
And much more!

Errata:

Users running previous snapshots may upgrade now via the online updater. You will first need to apply the “Update Manager” 20120718 update, then the beta1 update will appear.

If you wish to update from 9.0 to this snapshot you may do so by editing the /usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to pcbsdtest.

After changing this variable, you may run the updater utility, to download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the beta will appear.

New Features for the Impatient

dru — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:28:08 +0000

FreeBSD/PC-BSD 9.1 are due out by the end of the summer and we are getting close to issuing the first BETA for 9.1. In anticipation of code freeze, Kris is busy getting in the last of the features. Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight some of the cooler features coming in 9.1.

For those of you who would like to try out the features before BETA1 is released, instructions for building an updated control panel are provided below for both PC-BSD and FreeBSD systems. These have been tested on 9.0.

For PC-BSD, in System Manager -> System Packages make sure that Development -> Development-Qt and Development-VCS are installed. You’ll also need to install system source in System Manager -> Tasks.

For FreeBSD, make sure that you have /usr/src/sys and the following packages are installed:

cmake
cmake-gui
gmake
qt4-assistant
qt4-assistant-adp
qt4-designer
qt4-doc
qt4-libQtAssistantClient
qt4-linguist
qt4-moc
qt4-qmake
qt4-qtsolutions-singleapplication
qt4-rcc
qt4-uic
subversion

Once the dependent software is installed, become the superuser, cd to a directory suitable for downloading the PC-BSD src, and run these commands:

svn co svn://svn.pcbsd.org/pcbsd/current/src-qt4
cd src-qt4/libpcbsd/
qmake-qt4 *.pro
make
make install
cd ..
qmake-qt4 *.pro
make
make install

Some icons also rely on updated scripts which can be built using these commands from the original download directory:

svn co svn://svn.pcbsd.org/pcbsd/current/src-sh
cd src-sh
make
make install

On a PC-BSD system, Control Panel will be updated and available from the GUI. On a FreeBSD system, you can start Control Panel by typing pc-controlpanel from an X session. You can also start individual control panel icons using the commands listed in /usr/local/bin/pc-*.

9-STABLE 20120622 Now Available for Testing

dru — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:55:53 +0000

Kris has announced the availability of the next testing snapshot:

The next 20120622 snapshot in the PC-BSD 9-STABLE branch has just been released for i386 and amd64 architectures.

This snapshot provides both users and developers a means to test out new features in the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 release. This snapshot may contain buggy code and features, so users are encouraged to run it only on non-critical systems.

Changes since the previous Snapshot:

FreeBSD 9-STABLE from 06-15-2012.
KDE 4.8.3.
Fixed a bug creating a /root ZFS dataset on the Server install.
Fixed a crash in install GUI if using custom pkg set, and going back steps.
Exclude /etc/pam.d and /usr/local/etc/pam.d from being overwritten during upgrades.
Fixed an upgrade bug, causing some files to not get overwritten properly.
Change detection for wifi when showing tray application.
Set default volume to 100:100 on first boot.
Fix displaying static IP addresses in GUI.
Improve network restart functionality, should now properly add default route, and fix issue with losing connectivity after restarting with a static IP.
Visually improve the AppCafe homescreen layout.
Add default configurations for i3 / windowlab WM’s.
Add new service manager GUI to warden, allows enabling, and starting / stopping services inside a jail.
Add ability to cleanup thinclient installation.
Improve the install image to not use MFS root, instead operates 100% identical to early stages of FreeBSD installer.
Shrink memory requirements of installation, can now install with UFS on systems with ~256MB of RAM.
Add initial support to Warden CLI for creating Linux jails

Highlights for the upcoming 9.1:

New system installer! Greatly simplified for desktop and server installs.
New “PC-BSD Server” installation option. Includes command-line utilities like pbi-manager, warden, metapkgmanager and more.
Support for ZFS mirror / raidz(1,2,3) during installation.
Support for SWAP on ZFS, allowing entire disk ZFS installation.
Support for setting additional ZFS data-set options, such as compression, noexec, etc.
Warden jail management integrated into system. Allows creating jails via GUI, adding packages and other administration.
First boot setup wizard allows OEM installs to be easily performed.
New Bluetooth paring tray / GUI utilities.
New AppCafe improvements and preferences.
Improvements to wifi utility.
Fixed bug causing untranslated strings to show up empty.
Numerous bug-fixes to PC-BSD related utilities.
Support for creating PXE boot server for remote desktop and installation.
ZFS beadm support
And much more!

Errata:

Users running previous snapshots may update now via the online updater. You will first need to apply the “Update Manager” 20120622 update, then the snapshot update will appear.

If you wish to update from 9.0 to this snapshot you may do so by editing the /usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanager/conf/sysupdate.conf file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to “pcbsdtest”.

After changing this variable, you may run the updater utility, to download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the snapshot will appear.

Note: The AMD64 snapshot appears as 20120621 on the mirrors, but it is the same as the 20120622 i386 version.

Download

The DVD & USB images are available via the PC-BSD mirrors. You may select the mirror and files from this URL.

20120605 Snapshot Now Available

dru — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:40:20 +0000

Kris has announced the next snapshot in the testing series:

The next 20120605 snapshot in the PC-BSD 9-STABLE branch has just been released for i386 and amd64 architectures.

Changes since the previous Snapshot:

FreeBSD 9-STABLE from 05-30-2012
KDE 4.8
Fix a bug causing installer to lockup near end of installation
Fix setup for 8021X configuration via GUI
Update font configuration to enable AA by default
Fix bugs doing updates to packages inside of the warden
Allow new ZFS dataset options during installation
Bugfixes and enhancements to the update tray notifier
Check jails for updates via the tray application automatically
Switch us to using http:// instead of ftp:// for updating, which allows proxy users to connect
Fixed bug enabling the static IP section via ethernet GUI
Add support for unattended installs via thinclient PXE
Add better Proxy configuration via GUI, will now set HTTP_PROXY universally across the system

Highlights for the upcoming 9.1:

New system installer! Greatly simplified for desktop and server installs.
New “PC-BSD Server” installation option. Includes command-line utilities like pbi-manager, warden, metapkgmanager and more.
Support for ZFS mirror / raidz(1,2,3) during installation.
Support for SWAP on ZFS, allowing entire disk ZFS installation.
Support for setting additional ZFS data-set options, such as compression, noexec, etc.
Warden jail management integrated into system. Allows creating jails via GUI, adding packages and other administration.
First boot setup wizard allows OEM installs to be easily performed.
New Bluetooth paring tray / GUI utilities.
New AppCafe improvements and preferences.
Improvements to wifi utility.
Fixed bug causing untranslated strings to show up empty.
Numerous bug-fixes to PC-BSD related utilities.
Support for creating PXE boot server for remote desktop and installation.
ZFS beadm support.
And much more!

Errata:

Users running previous snapshots may update now via the online
updater. You will first need to apply the “Update Manager” 20120606 update, then the snapshot update will appear.

If you wish to update from 9.0 to this snapshot you may do so by
editing /usr/local/share/pcbsd/pc-updatemanage/conf/sysupdate.conf
file and changing the PATCHSET: variable to pcbsdtest.

After changing this variable, you may run the updater utility, to
download a new update manager. Once this update manager is installed, the online update to the snapshot will appear.

There is a bug installing the PC-BSD Server on ZFS right now. If you wish to do so, you will need to remove the ZFS /root dataset beforehand. This will be fixed in the next snapshot.

The VirtualBox OSE additions are not included in this snapshot due to a bug in 9-STABLE. They will be included in the next release.

If it fails to download any additional packages / desktops post-installation, run the following command as root:

pbreg set /PC-BSD/Version 9-STABLE-20120605

Download

The DVD & USB images are available via the PC-BSD mirrors. You may select the mirror and files from this URL.