Window Maker Live 0.95.9-0
posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 13, 2023
WINDOW MAKER LIVE 0.95.9-0
WHAT IS NEW SINCE THE LAST RELEASE?
This release is based on stable Debian/Bookworm version 12.1.
The current Window Maker 0.95.9 is used as default window
manager and exclusive desktop session option.
The additional xfce4 desktop session option was removed.
Selected components and utilities of xfce4, mate, and lxqt
were seamlessly integrated with Window Maker.
A Fail-safe mode session option was added for troubleshooting
needs.
The gtk3 widget libraries have been recompiled with the
gtk3-classic patches from https://github.com/lah7/gtk3-classic
The login manager is now lightdm instead of the former
wmlive-gdm.
The default web browsers are Pale Moon and Surf. As mail
messaging client Claws-Mail has been chosen.
Most wmlive-specific scripts have been localized using machine
translation for about 17 of the most common European languages
used worldwide.
All wmlive specific components have been modularized as separate
packages and are available via https://wmlive.rumbero.org/repo/
to provide future upgrades and bug fixes via the apt package
management. These packages are also installable on compatible
Debian systems.
The default init system is now systemd instead of sysvinit.
As it turned out, systemd has become the defacto standard init
system over time, and trying to circumvent and replace it with
sysvinit while maintaining the same levels of functionality
has become increasingly difficult and laborious.
The very same sources used to create this ISO image are
available in /usr/local/src/wmlive-bookworm-0.95.9.tar.xz on
this system. These sources can be used to either recreate the
current ISO image, but using the most recent package versions
downloaded during the process from official Debian mirrors.
Or they can be modified to produce a tailor made ISO image
according to the user's own wishes and requirements.
KNOWN ISSUES:
* Dialogs of the main wmlive scripts and menus are machine translated
and language content is with unknown quality.
Please provide corrections for the machine translated texts via mail
to wmlive@rumbero.org and help enhancing internationalization.
CREDENTIALS FOR THE LIVE SESSION
The user account for the live session is named 'user' and its password is 'live'.
When installing the system to disk, this generic user account will disappear and
be replaced by one of your own defintion.
SOME WORDS OF CAUTION
Before you start to install wmlive to disk, please be aware of the following
constraints:
* Both the i386 and the amd64 variants boot and install on UEFI based machines
and also older BIOS based computers and laptops.
* If using an USB stick instead of a DVD-R for installation, please don't
even think of using something like 'unetbootin' or 'Universal-USB-Installer'
or similar tools to create a bootable USB stick from the wmlive ISO image.
These tools are designed to unpack and copy the ISO contents to the USB stick
and thus actually break the wmlive ISO's functionality.
The wmlive ISO images are isohybrid images containing an embedded partition
table. To work as intended, they need to be dumped in raw form to a USB stick.
This is the preferred way of using the provided ISO images.
In Linux you would use one of these commands (the # sign represents the shell
prompt) to write an ISO to a USB pendrive:
# dd if=wmlivebookworm_0.95.9-0_amd64.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=2048 status=progress
or
# cat wmlive-bookworm_0.95.9-0_i386.iso > /dev/sdx
Replace /dev/sdx with the device file name of your actual USB stick.
BE CAREFUL: This process will completely erase it, there is no way back.
So better be very careful to not overwrite the wrong storage drive!
If running in Windows, you can use the dd mode of the excellent 'rufus'
utility which is included on the ISO image in the top level tools folder.
* The standard installation procedure is designed for offline installation,
so no network configuration will be created during the installation stage.
Network configuration will later be managed exclusively by NetworkManager
on the running system after successful installation to disk.
Alternatively, if you choose the expert mode installation menu entry, all
possible installation options will become available.
If you find any issue, fault, or simply have any idea for improvement, please
don't hesitate to send a mail to 'wmlive@rumbero.org' to share your thoughts.
We need your feedback to widen our own perspective!
Enjoy Window Maker Live!
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