SparkyLinux 4.0

Last Updated on: 28th April 2022, 09:05 pm

I am happy to announce SparkyLinux 4.0 code name “Tyche”.
Sparky 4 is based on and fully compatible with Debian 9 testing “Stretch”.

The new iso images feature a set of applications for daily usage, wireless drivers, multimedia codecs and plugins, and they are available in a few flavors, such as :
– LXDE
– LXQt
– KDE
– MATE
– Xfce

Following Wikipedia, “Tyche” – the new Sparky 4 code name means:

Tyche is the nickname given to a hypothetical gas giant located in the Solar System’s Oort cloud. Tyche (Τύχη, meaning “fortune” or “luck” in Greek) was the Greek goddess of fortune and prosperity.

The most important changes between Sparky 3.6 and 4.0 :
– full system upgrade from Debian testing repository as of 22/06/2015
– Linux kernel 4.0.5
– added support for the system installation on 32 bit machines with UEFI motherboard
– Razor-Qt Edition has been dropped
– added two new editions: KDE and LXQt
– system rebranding, see HowTo: sparky-rebranding
– new flat theme “Sparky4” and a set of icons “Ultra-Flat-Icons”
– added Pipelight repository and the public key
– Gnome-Alsamixer has been replaced by Pulse Audio Mixer (LXDE & LXQt editions)
– Mplayer2, Gnome-player and Gecko-player have been removed
– VLC is the default video player now
– added vlc-mozilla-plugin for Iceweasel

Sparky APTus features a few new options:
– Liquorix kernel installation
– i686-pae kernel installation for 32 bit systems
– office suite installation (via ‘sparky-office’ package):
— AbiWord & Gnumeric
— Calligra
— LibreOffice
— MS Office OnLine (Menu shortcuts)
— OpenOffice
— WPS Office

Sparky APTus Extra has gotten options to let you install Google Chrome and Google Earth.

Sparky LXQt features two window managers of your choice:
– lightweight Openbox
– Kwin which lets you enable 2D and 3D desktop’s visual effects
To swith to KWin, go to: Menu-> Preferences-> LXQt Settings-> Session Settings
Then log out and log in back.

32 bit edition of SparkyLinux features Linux kernel i586 NON-PAE.
If you would like to install i686-pae kernel, you can do it via Sparky APTus-> Install tab-> Install i686-PAE Kernel. Just remember to refresh package list before.

Starting from Sparky 4.0, the live images offer support for installation the system on 32 bit machines with UEFI motherboard.
As an addition, all the traditional ‘grub-efi’ files have been removed from the live iso images and replaced by own, custom ‘efi.img’ files built by MoroS using his custom script.

The new iso images can be used to make fresh system installation.
In a case of any problem with the default installer (live-installer), try the older one (Bios machines only) via Menu-> System-> SparkyLinux (Old) Installer or launch it via the command:
sudo sparkylinux-installer gui
or (text mode):
sudo sparkylinux-installer
If you have SparkyLinux installed on a hard drive, make full system upgrade via ‘System Upgrade’ tool, Synaptic or manually:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install -f

Users of Sparky 3.6 (and older) should install ‘sparky-core’ package as well:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sparky-core

Users of Sparky 4.0 RC should make full system upgrade.

Users of Sparky 4.0 RC KDE can fix the layout of the default Sparky’s window’s theme:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove sparky-theme-root-kde
sudo apt-get install sparky-theme-root sparky-kde-colors
Then open KDE System Settings-> Application Appearance-> Colors and choose Sparky.

Minimum system requirements to install SparkyLinux:
* CPU i586 / amd64
* RAM memory:
– LXDE, LXQt – 256MB (recommended 512MB or bigger)
– MATE, Xfce – 512MB (recommended 1GB)
– KDE – 1GB (recommended 2GB)
* 512MB SWAP partition or bigger
* 10GB of hard drive or flash USB stick for installation
* an optical drive or USB port

The Live/Install iso images of Sparky 32 and 64 bit can be downloaded from download page.

Other Sparky’s Editions “Base”, “CLI” and “GameOver” will be released soon as well.

 
Informacja o wydaniu w języku polskim-> https://linuxiarze.pl/sparkylinux-4-0