Icaros Desktop 1.1.2 update ready for download
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

"Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you... happy birthday Paolone, happy birthday to youuuuu": yes, tomorrow I will be 36, but this is not the most important news of the day (anyway, if you'd like to make a present for my birthday, the "Donate" button is always there...): there is a brand new update for your Icaros Desktop installation which will address many bugs of the previous ones and will add some new programs and features. And, before you ask for it: no, there isn't Poseidon. I share with you all the excitement for AROS' brand new USB stack, Chris Hodges is doing a really wonderful job and I've tested it for a while. I am impressed, but Poseidon port to AROS is still too young and needs some more testing and ironing out, before it can be included in a user-oriented distribution. Skilled people should download a nightly build and try it on their computers, but for now Icaros will keep its limited USB support. Poseidon, anyway, will be added as soon as it will correctly work on the widest range of PC configurations.



But let's stop talking about what there isn't in Icaros, and let me talk about the new features. First of all, this release fixes most of the bugs addressed for Icaros 1.1 and 1.1.1. Here is a little list: TB303 now works, muibuilder now works, alarmclock should work, ghost UAE entries have been removed, Themes prefs panel has been fixed and so on. Then, I have added some nice new applications like Protrekkr, which brings to AROS the 3rd tracker application available after HivelyTracker and MilkyTracker, DOSBOX, which should come in handy to launch old MS/DOS software, and TinySID, a simple music player for .sid files. Many old applications had been updated and some of Icaros' own features have been extended: our old updater has been replaced by LiveUpdater, which is able to download official Icaros updates and install them without the need of a CD burner, while AmiBridge has been updated to support AmigaForever 2006, 2008 and the brand new 2009 edition. AmiStart is now fairly better and should be appreciated by people who asked for a prettier dock application. Well, there are many many things you can discover about Icaros Desktop 1.1.2, so don't miss the new manual included in the distribution.



INSTALLATION

To install this update, please download LiveUpdater 1.5.1 first. This update can be installed with the default Updater tool in Icaros Desktop 1.1.1, but needs manual fixing at the end of the procedure. LiveUpdater 1.5.1 allows to download the update directly from the Internet.

> Download LiveUpdater 1.5.1

Users of the old Updater should download the update CD manually, burn it on a CD-ROM and launch Updater. Then fix the installation with the following command line:
echo "1.001002" >envarc:CURRENT_INSTALL

DOWNLOAD
> Download the Icaros Desktop 1.1.2 update CD
from main Icaros site (244 MB, 7z file format)

> Download Icaros Desktop Live! 1.1.2 full DVD (460 MB, 7z file format)

DOWNLOAD 7-ZIP
> Download 7-Zip for your operating system to extract files from .7z archives.

New from Icaros Desktop 1.1.1

- Updated AmiBridge
+ direct 68K executables support
+ autoprobe for AmigaForever editions 2006-2009
+ import of files from custom paths
- Added LiveUpdater
+ burning a CD no more needed
+ updates from ISO files
+ downloads and install updates from the Icaros website
- Added ProTrekkr
- Added DosBox
- Updated PortablE
- Updated NoWinED
- updated MUIbuilder
- Updated OWB to version 0.9.8
+ It now allows bookmarks!
- Updated AmiStart
+ better and lightier look
+ fixed conflicts with DirectoryOpus
+ enhanced dock section
+ AmiStart doesn't jump on other screens anymore
- Updated system files
- Added direct support for T64/D64 image files
- Fixed issue with ArosPDF not opening files directly

Posted by Paolo Besser 15:00 Links to this post    

Icaros Desktop LIVE! is a complete distribution of the AROS desktop operating system. Icaros Desktop LIVE! comes on a bootable live DVD-ROM which runs directly on your hardware (it must be already supported by AROS). It can be installed on the hard drive and can coexist with Microsoft Windows XP, in a dedicated partition. A quick reference guide and some AROS PDF manuals are included. This version comes also with a Qemu-based virtual machine which allows Windows users to test the distribution in a safer (but slower) environment.

SUPPORT ICAROS DESKTOP!
After downloading, please consider donating. Every release of Icaros Desktop requires a lot of time and work, for a hobbyst project. Donations will be spent to enhance Icaros Desktop and to contribute to AROS bounties.

Posted by Paolo Besser 14:40 Links to this post    

Icaros LiveUpdater released
Thursday, June 25, 2009

After some (hopefully enough) testing, Icaros' LiveUpdater 1.5.1 is finally available for download. This little package is intended to replace the current, limited Updater script of Icaros Desktop, improving on it in many ways. Once installed, LiveUpdater will be available in your AROS:Tools/LUPD directory, and you'll be able to install Icaros updates in many ways: the current CD-based one, and the new ISO- and Internet-based paths. Here's how to install it.

IMPORTANT! You need Icaros Desktop 1.1.1 already installed! I haven't tried with 1.1.0 and I don't warrantee it will work at all.

a. download wherever you like, for instance RAM:T
b. open a shell
c. enter these commands
work:
unzip RAM:T/Icaros-liveupdate-151.zip
cd icaros-liveupdate-151
execute installer
d. wait some seconds and reboot

(you can also simply double click on the archive icon to extract files, and doubleclick on the Installer one to install)

Since it won't be added to AmiStart automatically, you'll have to run it from the Tools/LUPD directory with Wanderer.

> Download LiveUpdater 1.5.1 (1,5 MB, zip file format)

When Icaros Desktop 1.1.2 update will be available, LiveUpdater will download and install it for you.

Posted by Paolo Besser 17:14 Links to this post    

Update and limited offer on iMica systems
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Steve "ClusterUK" Jones has sent an update about his cool Icaros-powered iMica systems. Replacing the external case with a bigger one, he can now mount form-factor, standard DVD drives cutting the overall costs of the system. The iMica is now sold, until the end of July 2009, for £199.


The new iMica: isn't it cool?

> more informations at ClusterUK's website.

Posted by Paolo Besser 18:39 Links to this post    

Automatic updates for Icaros Desktop!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Well, I'm really happy to announce that, thanks to the fundamental help of Yannick, Icaros Desktop will have live updates too. Yes: you launch the system, it goes to the Internet and then download new packages when available, and installs them. Our autoupdates will work somehow differently from what you're accustomed to on Linux (packages) and Windows (windows update): in practice, our LiveUpdater will automate the procedure that you followed in the past with update disks, without the need of burning a CD.

Here is how it will work:
1. searches the Icaros site for a update
2. downloads the latest ISO
3. mounts it as a virtual device
4. copies files
5. reboots

stop, that's all. The only issue, for now, is that I'd need many people trying the LiveUpdate feature before it goes gold. My goal is to make Icaros 1.1.2 available as automatic download too. So here is a LiveUpdater alpha version for brave people:

> DOWNLOAD IT! (1,5 MB)

what you have to do:

a. download wherever you like, for instance RAM:T
b. open a shell
c. enter these commands
work:
tar xvfz RAM:T/liveupdatealpha01.tgz
cd icaros-liveupdate-alpha
execute installer
d. wait some seconds and reboot

You'll get also some needed system files, like newest kernel and drivers. So maybe before point (d) make a backup of your DRIVERS: files. Then, just look in the Tools drawer, you'll find the LUPD one. Enter LUPD and start LiveUpdater. At the beginning, it will be very similar to old Updater (frankly, I forgot to update the body of the first requester, just ignore it), but then it will ask you for...



and you'll be able to start downloading new updates, or even mount them as virtual CDs. For now, the experiment will be made through a dummy update which does nothing but adding a 'cookie.txt' file in extras: if you can see it by choosing show > all files, you're done.

I also encourage the bravest of you of trying it with this ISO file:

> Download a fancy new AROS custom build (80 MB)

you should already know how to extract it. Please, try and report here!

Posted by Paolo Besser 00:23 Links to this post    

Screenmodes, VESA and FullHD resolution
Sunday, June 7, 2009

I really would like to thank Neil Cafferkey for his recent work on AROS VESA driver, because his changes finally allow people with unsupported graphic cards (unluckily too much people) to use better resolutions than the old 4:3 ones up to 1280x1024. Now the VESA driver behaves differently: recent AROS nightlies have a less verbose boot menu, which allows to choose between the "best resolution detected" at a certain palette depth, or the best palette at a chosen resolution. Success depends on your graphic card and your BIOS. To see the new driver in action, just click on the top left thumbnail and look at this screenshot at its original size: you will notice my current work-in-progress Icaros Desktop installation on VMware, at 1920x1200 pixel, 24 bit color. Nice, isn't it?

Well, to get it, I had to follow some easy steps.
1) boot Icaros and update system files to a fresh build
2) choose any old VESA boot menu line
3) change VESA=1024x768x32 (or whatever) to VESA=1920x1200
4) press Ctrl+X
5) edit boot/grub/grub.fcg to have this always available
Icaros users should wait for 1.1.2, which hopefully will have this feature already included. If you can't find a matching resolution for your nightly build, please read this thread on Arosworld, it gave me the right hint!

Posted by Paolo Besser 00:30 Links to this post