A Fat Stack of Bodhi Linux

A Fat Stack of Bodhi Linux

When I first started preparing Bodhi ISO images almost two and a half years ago I set out with the goal of providing a clutter free operating system powered by the latest Enlightenment desktop. We call what we do "minimalist" meaning it doesnt come with a whole lot by default. This ideology isnt for everyone, though. Thankfully, the power of choice is something that greatly empowers free software development.

Today, I would like to offer a bit more choice for Bodhi users. I would like to share with you all my "friends and family" version of Bodhi Linux. You can grab the ISO image for this fat stack of Bodhi on source forge here. I call it my "friends and family" disc because when I am pressed for time I cant always sit down and install all the extra software "normal" people need to use their PC. This image allows me to skip the installing software step after I install the operating system.

This ISO image is something Ive been working on and using as an install media for my non-personal systems for awhile now and I think it is finally in a state that I am happy sharing it. It is simply a Bodhi 2.x branch live/install CD powered by a Linux 3.5 kernel and the latest E17.1 Enlightenment desktop. It comes with a bunch of software pre-installed that should keep most people happy:

This is a 32bit disc image and no I will not be preparing a similar 64bit disc. I intend this disc for home systems, for which I recommend 32bit operating systems. Users installing from this disc can get support on the Bodhi Forums just as if they had installed from the normal disc.

~Jeff Hoogland

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A Bodhi Linux 2 0 0 FAQ

A Bodhi Linux 2 0 0 FAQ

Ive been getting a good deal of redundant questions regarding Bodhis upcoming 2.0.0 release. Today I would like to address a few of the more common questions Ive been getting.

When is the release date?

No idea. I live strictly by "its ready when its ready" philosophy for the software I work on. Setting strict release dates causes buggy software to be marked as "stable". Our targeted release month is July - but who knows it could be ready before then.

What is the main difference between 2.0.0 and 1.x.y?

The Ubuntu base is the main difference. Our 1.x.y series is based on Ubuntu 10.04, while 2.0.0 is built on top of 12.04

Can I upgrade my Bodhi Linux 1.x.y install to Bodhi 2.0.0?

No. A full reinstall will be required.

Will there be 64bit support?

Yep.

What are the minimum system requirements?

The minimum system requirements will be about the same as Bodhi 1.x.y. Currently they are looking like:

300mhz processor

128mb RAM

2gig of hard drive space

Will it be faster than Bodhi 1.x.y?

Could be. It will not be slower to say the least.

How big will the disc download be?

Since we do not have a final stable version as of yet I cannot say for sure. Expect it to be under 500mb though.

Can I upgrade from 2.0.0 pre-release to the final 2.0.0 version?

Yep.

I think that about covers all the common questions I have gotten. If you have another question regarding this release feel free to drop a comment below.

~Jeff Hoogland

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A Bodhi Linux 2 0 0 Beginning

A Bodhi Linux 2 0 0 Beginning

The Bodhi team and I are happy to announce the first pre-release (Read: Not suitable for daily usage machines) of our next major release Bodhi Linux 2.0.0! This release is considered alpha quality and is intended to allow our community to help test this release before it becomes our "stable" version.

The goal of a new major release is not to introduce ground breaking new features. The goal of a major Bodhi release is to allow our distro to transition to the next major Ubuntu LTS as a distro base. That is right folks - these ISO images are built on top of the recently released Ubuntu 12.04 (where is all previous Bodhi versions had been based on Ubuntu 10.04). The most noteworthy thing this release introduces is native support for 64bit. From this point forward all Bodhi releases will come in x86 and 64bit flavors.

Without further wait you can find these discs for download via source forge here.

Things to note with these CD images:

Not everything is going to work - we know this and so should you. The important thing is that when you find something that doesnt work let us know so we can fix it!  The best solution for discussing issues you find is our user forums (not the comments section on this post).

I had a minor brain fart when building the latest set of packages for this image - which means when you select Bodhi Linux->About from the main menu, the version number still appears as "1.4.0", this numbering issue will be resolved within the next week via package manager updates.

The download size is large. Yep - there is nothing wrong with your eyes, those ISO images are kinda fat compared to previous Bodhi releases. This is because I have yet to start manually stripping out packages from the disc that arent needed. That will be happening between now and the stable release (if youd like to help with this, please feel free to post lists of pre-installed packages you notice that arent needed).

The installer slides on the 32bit image have a permissions issue that prevents them from being displayed by the installer by default.

The network manager is not auto launching for the live user - it can be launched manually.

Network manager needs to be run with sudo to add connections - for a fix to this see here.

I will update this list with known issues as they are found/reported.


Thanks for reading and helping us test! Lets make sure this next release is as stable (and awesome) as possible.

~Jeff Hoogland

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