The latest version of Icaros Desktop has been released. The first update of 2011 refreshes AROS system files to january-26th nightly build, updates many programs included in the distribution and improves functionalities, adding also some new applications and features. As promised, it's time to host other operating systems inside Icaros with Bochs. Speed is quite low, but this is the first attempt to emulate a whole PC inside AROS, so it's more a proof-of-concept than a really usable thing. We are confident, however, that opening this door will bring better solutions to AROS, ported by other developers. Since we are talking about emulation, we can't miss the new Atari ST, Sega Master System and Game Gear emulators or the updated version of MAME, which fixes many glitches and improves the overall speed of emulation. But Sinclair/Amstrad lovers will go crazy for the newest release of the Fuse Spectrum emulator. The funny side of Icaros 1.2.6 includes also Giana's Return (which will actually work better with native drivers only - sorry for VESA modes users) and some new little tools like the WeatherBar, a little LUA application which shows weather conditions. Every release, anyway, introduces some ehnancement to previous ones: today's guest star is the inclusion of native AROS graphics mode, which basically brings Icaros the original AmigaOS way to handle drivers. Inside the Devs drawer you'll now find the Monitors sub-directory, which practically includes executables for native graphic drivers. Just place here the ones you will use, and AROS will start with the correct one. If your card is unsupported, however, it will fall back to VGA 640x480 resolution, 16 colour mode. If you have issues with native drivers, you can use traditional VESA modes, which are still the default choice in GRUB. Boot menu, however, will be extremely less populated and far easier to read. Netbooks, notebooks and nettops users with GMA 900 GPUs will be happy to learn that the hacked 1024x600 VESA mode has finally been replaced by the updated Intel GMA driver, which not only supports 640x480 and your LCD screen's native resolution, but also allow screen dragging with all the program using the same screensize. Dragging screens on little netbooks is a real pleasure, and it's also amazingly smooth. Last but not least, we've fixed some ugly bug in LiveUpdater (users of version 1.2.5 should download the patch 02, released yesterday, before updating to 1.2.6) and modified the way lAros+Esc shortcut works: it now opens Scout in a different screen than Wanderer's, so it should be easier to get back the system when something goes wrong. But scroll down the page, and you'll get a list of all Icaros 1.2.6 improvements...



New from Icaros Desktop 1.2.5
- updated AROS system files to january 26th, 2011 build
- pressing lAros+Esc will now call Scout in its own screen
- Icaros now chooses the best graphics driver when possible
- added MESA 7.10, EGL and OpenVG libraries from Deadwood
- added Bochs PC emulator with DLX Linux and FreeDos images
- added ThumbNailGun and dt2thumb to "iconify" images with thumbnails
- added latest release of GMA driver with screen dragging
- added Dega, a Sega Master System and Game Gear emulator
- added WaetherForecast, a Google weather client
- added Txt2Pdf, a text-to-adobe PDF conversion tool
- added dgen, a Genesis/Megadrive emulator
- added Hatari, an Atari ST emulator with free OS
- updated Janus-UAE to version 0.8
- added ability to setup amiga environment to AmiBridge
- updated standard config files for old amiga models in AmiBridge
- updated SimpleMail to v0.36 and made it default mail client
- updated Lunapaint
- updated NASM
- updated PortablE
- updated MAME
- updated FUSE Spectrum emulator
- updated AmiStart configuration files
- updated Nouveau driver
- updated Regina.library
- updated DirectoryOpus configuration
- updated AmiStart configuration files
- added Giana's Return (experimental)
- fixed a issue with drive informations
- fixed icons in Wanderer detailed file view
- fixed bugs from previous version
- incorporated Icaros 1.2.5 patch 01 Zune theme and fixes

AVAILABILITY

Icaros Desktop 1.2.6 is available both in the Live! and Light version respectively targeted to a DVD-ROM and CD-ROM media. Icaros Desktop can be installed on real hardware and virtual machines, and can be installed and booted from USB pendrives (you still need a external optical drive connected to a USB port, if your system already hasn't one). Please follow the instructions included in the Icaros Users/Reviewers Guide for further instructions.

Icaros Desktop 1.2.5 users can update their installation to version 1.2.6 using the "Icaros 1.2.6 Update Disc" available in the Upgrades section of our download page. Installation of the update disc requires the latest version of Live Updater, included in Icaros 1.2.5 patch 02 file. We strongly recommend to use the CD-ROM or ISO options of LiveUpdater when installing the new files.

Users of Icaros Desktop 1.2.5 that wish to update their distribution to the incoming version 1.2.6 will have to install a corrected version of LiveUpdater, which unfortunately doesn't work anymore (we spotted the issue during our internal tests, when trying to update a 1.2.5 installation with the incoming update-disc). The new version of LiveUpdater comes as second official patch for Icaros Desktop 1.2.5.

DOWNLOAD

You can find the patch in our centralized Download section, under the Updates section, named Icaros Desktop 1.2.5 patch 02.

INSTALLATION

Here's how to install the patch: please extract the archive wherever you like (even in RAM:) with ZuneARC, and move there with Wanderer. Inside the drawer "patch12502" you will find two files with icons, patchinfo.txt and Patch125-02: the first one includes a list of the changes applied by the patch, the other is the installer. Just double click on Patch125-022 to install everything in the right places.

Note: if you're downloading the patch with OWB, you'll find the icaros-patch12502.zip archive in MyWorkspace/Downloads drawer. To see it, remember to choose View -> All files in the Window menu of Wanderer.

...because it's deadly slow! But, besides this, the good news is it's been possible for some times, thanks to the Bochs emulator Fishy_Fis released some months ago. An emulator which required some little tweaking, but that will be included - already configured as usual - in the next release of Icaros Desktop, which is scheduled really soon. Bochs will come with two disc images with FreeDOS and DLX Linux already preinstalled. You won't probably do so much with them, we know, but they at least demonstrate that running other operating systems' software on AROS is possible, thanks to emulation. Unluckily, Bochs is not a "virtualizer" like many other virtual machine solutions (like VMware and VirtualBox, for instance), but a complete PC emulator, with all the drawbacks (one for all, speed) this can mean. Another limitation will be the need to use image disc files for storing files: current version of Bochs can't handle partitions directly. So - in the end - you'll be asking: why including it into the distribution, if it's still alpha software? For two reasons: the first, demonstrating once again that AROS is getting more and more complete, with a wide range of applications, and the second to hit a nail on virtualization under AROS. I'd really love that someone would port open source version of VirtualBox (adapting it to AROS limitations, or enhancing AROS at the point to be able to host another OS without many drawbacks), or at least QEMU. Who will be so brave to do this?