[CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

Dreezy · 2017-12-25 08:55:10

I have been a good boy this year, I haven't distro hopped from bunsen labs, please give us Helium official release this Chirstmas or New Year.

Pink Unicorn · 2017-12-25 09:43:49

It would be nice but it is not happening. The team wants to test it longer.They have also private life so you should keep that in mind.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-12-25 12:36:14

The Team are working hard to ensure that the release will be as bug-free and polished as possible and we will make the release the instant we consider it to be in a fit state.

Anybody who wants to try out our "Helium-dev" development system and help us test it some more before release can find a guide here:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3800

ProTip: most of that guide can be skipped if a Debian stretch netinstall is used, go straight to the "Applying the netinstall script" section

dobl · 2017-12-25 14:33:10

however for very pro^^ debootstrap method is easier and faster if we just have existing system or a live cd/usb laying around...

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-12-25 15:48:46

^ +1, I also find debootstrap faster and more convenient than faffing around with ISO images and USB sticks.

Interestingly, it should now be possible to use debootstrap directly from Windows 10: simply enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux[1], this will give you a terminal with access to a full Ubuntu user space from where you can `apt-get debootstrap` and follow my guide to install BL-He-dev.

I haven't actually tried this because using Win10 is too painful for me but it should work.

[1] run this command from an Admistrator command prompt then reboot:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

tknomanzr · 2017-12-25 18:45:03

I've been wondering where they hid that stuff.

DeepDayze · 2017-12-25 21:18:15

tknomanzr wrote:

I've been wondering where they hid that stuff.

Microsoft cleverly hid it alright. It seems to be more improved with the latest Windows 10 update.

jimjamz · 2018-01-01 17:09:41

Happy New Year! Here's to another prosperous year of using BunsenLabs.

Although, I understand that there is still some testing to do before Helium/ Stretch variant, April will be soon upon us (time flies!) and that will mark a year of Deuterium, which should be considered absolutely obsolete by that milestone, if not already.
As much as I love using BL as my main distro, I do feel it is the time to start embracing Stretch.

In the kindest possible way, here is a polite request for at least a roadmap at least specifying some rough estimations on a Helium release for 2018, rather than a 3D Realms approach. I fully understand that a provided roadmap would not be holding anyone to any promises or guarantees - simply, some visibility for end users.

I cannot lie that, over the Christmas period a few distros (namely Elementary and especially Deepin) have caught my eye, and I am trying my best not to be led astray ...

All the best for 2018!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-01 19:36:30

jimjamz wrote:

April will be soon upon us (time flies!) and that will mark a year of Deuterium, which should be considered absolutely obsolete by that milestone, if not already.

Not at all

We will endevour to support all BunsenLabs packages for as long as we can and Debian jessie is supported by the official Debian Security Team until June 2018 and will transfer to the Long Term Support team from then until the end of April 2020[1] so Deuterium has got more than two years of life left in it 8)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYcPBE5PXhs 8o

jimjamz wrote:

As much as I love using BL as my main distro, I do feel it is the time to start embracing Stretch.

Excellent news!

If you are so inclined, the BunsenLabs developers would appreciate it if you could "test-drive" our Helium-dev system and report back if you find any problems:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3800

I think quite a few community members are trying this now and (hopefully) the lack of complaints seem to indicate that it might even be fairly usable.

jimjamz wrote:

a polite request for at least a roadmap at least specifying some rough estimations on a Helium release for 2018

Hopefully within a few weeks but perhaps a few months.

One of our key Team members was recently incapacitated and we are slightly under-staffed at the moment (IMO) so please accept my sincere apologies for the protracted development process for this release.

jimjamz wrote:

I cannot lie that, over the Christmas period a few distros (namely Elementary and especially Deepin) have caught my eye, and I am trying my best not to be led astray ...

Please don't take this the wrong way but BunsenLabs is a true labour of love for every member of the Team and we all see it as an ideal rather than a commercial opportunity so by all means go and use Elementary if our distribution is too crusty for you, it does not bother us one little bit

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

dhalgren · 2018-01-01 20:52:38

I think quite a few community members are trying this now and (hopefully) the lack of complaints seem to indicate that it might even be fairly usable.

I have installed the helium-dev many times recently (playing around), and the only difficulties I have experienced have been caused by me, and myself. I would, therefore, say it is usable. Of course, I am not a very demanding user at the moment, in terms of what I need to do, but it does everything I need without problems.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-01 22:12:56

^ Thanks for the feedback!

bigbenaugust · 2018-01-02 14:45:40

It's got to be 97% of the way there. I have had zero trouble with it (not caused directly by me) and I've been running it on my work machine since July.

Narmo · 2018-01-02 14:56:46

I'm not experienced user (rather very lazy one) but even with my lazy green attitude managing wild updated from previous version system is very smooth. This tells me that long bug squashing and polishing is good for later user experience so it is worth waiting.

dolly · 2018-01-02 21:44:53

My experience with the Helium-dev is nothing but positive. But then, my use has been just of the ordinary kind.

jr2 · 2018-01-03 00:15:00

I think the helium-dev system is pretty much usable as it is.

Three hurdles remain to be cleared before we can do an "official" release:

1) various tweaks and cleanups of the default user settings. Experienced users soon make their own changes anyway, but not having inconsistent menu items etc will save us a lot of forum support threads later! (btw while a lot of improvements can be shipped post-release via package upgrades, user config files cannot be changed.)

2) polish the graphics. eg make sure the logo is on the screen even with less common display geometries. Things like this, while trivial, are what five-minute reviewers will seize on.

3) building the iso files with live-build. This will be essentially the same process as for Deuterium, so we don't anticipate problems, but it still has to be done. That, and setting up "proper" Helium repositories (with source packages), migrating the GitHub branches, etc...

None of this is difficult, but as HoaS has mentioned, we are a bit under-staffed atm. (I, personally, won't be able to do any dev work for another couple of weeks or so.)

Please bear with us, and we hope to have Helium out of the Lab door before too long!

vinzv · 2018-01-03 00:41:07

I installed helium-dev roughly a dozen times and never ran into any issues, at least none not produced by myself.

That aside:
Are there some issues, tasks etc. to scan through for eventual picking up? Or some other starting point?
I'm not a dev but I can throw in ~10 years of advanced experience with Debian, some packaging and basic bash knowledge.

jr2 · 2018-01-03 00:59:44

^@vinzv many thanks for your offer. Maybe HoaS has a to-do list with some tasks he can pass to you, but at the moment I'm in hospital with a smartphone but no access to my desktop with all its lists, notes, urls and references.

All else I can suggest right now is to have a look at the open issues in our GitHub repositories and see if you have anything to add.

https://github.com/BunsenLabs?tab=repositories

Thanks!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-03 07:26:11

jr2 wrote:

Maybe HoaS has a to-do list

Well, I had just installed a fresh Helium-dev system on my Haswell laptop to do some "shakedown" testing and try to flush out any bugs but all I had time to notice is that the system didn't appear to have any .pkla exception files for synaptic and gparted, as discussed in https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=4437

Those files should be included in the packages themselves so if any Helium-dev testers could see if this works and report back that would be great:

pkexec synaptic

Unfortunately, at that point the hinge on my laptop broke and I am currently unable to do any bare metal testing at all.

vinzv · 2018-01-03 16:53:16

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

if any Helium-dev testers could see if this works and report back that would be great:
pkexec synaptic

Synaptic and Gparted work fine for me, started both via pkexec and gksudo. Only glitch that the default theme is not set for root.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-03 19:24:16

^Thanks, that is very useful information.

And thank you also for the reports from our dedicated team of testers, such reassurances can only hasten the release.

vinzv wrote:

Only glitch that the default theme is not set for root.

Thanks but that is the expected behavior, we don't like to keep dotfiles in /root and the contrasting theme is intended to serve as a visual reminder that the application is being run as root.

#1 2017-12-25 08:55:10

[CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#2 2017-12-25 09:43:49

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#3 2017-12-25 12:36:14

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#4 2017-12-25 14:33:10

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#5 2017-12-25 15:48:46

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#6 2017-12-25 18:45:03

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#7 2017-12-25 21:18:15

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#8 2018-01-01 17:09:41

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#9 2018-01-01 19:36:30

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#10 2018-01-01 20:52:38

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#11 2018-01-01 22:12:56

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#12 2018-01-02 14:45:40

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#13 2018-01-02 14:56:46

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#14 2018-01-02 21:44:53

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#15 2018-01-03 00:15:00

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#16 2018-01-03 00:41:07

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#17 2018-01-03 00:59:44

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#18 2018-01-03 07:26:11

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#19 2018-01-03 16:53:16

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

#20 2018-01-03 19:24:16

Re: [CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT] Bunsenlabs Request

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