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Sparky 2021.03

Sparky 2021.03 of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is the first snapshot in 2021 of Sparky which is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
– packages upgraded from Debian testing repos as of March 5, 2021
– Linux kernel 5.10.13 (5.11.3 & 5.12-rc2 in Sparky unstable repos)
– Firefox 86.0
– Thunderbird 78.8.0
– LibreOffice 7.0.4.2
– LXQt 0.16.0
– MATE 1.24.1
– Xfce 4.16
– Openbox 3.6.1
– New edition with KDE Plasma 5.20.5
– VLC 3.0.12
– Exaile 4.1.0
– Calamares 3.2.37 + kpmcore 20.12.3
– Sparky APTus AppCenter 20210302
– added extra keyboard shortcuts to Xfce, LXQt and Openbox: https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/custom_shortcuts
– removed packages: sparky-xdf, bleachbit

LXQt:
– audio player: Exaile replaced by Clementine
– IM: Pidgin replaced by Kopete; HexChat replaced by Konversation
– Web: Cheese replaced by Webcamoid

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui tool or a command:

sparky-upgrade

or:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

Known issues:
– can not open terminal emulator via right click in Thunar in all non Xfce desktops and window managers; it requires xfce4-settings to be installed

 

Sparky 2020.12

The December snapshot of Sparky 2020.12 of the (semi-)rolling line is out.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• packages updated from Debian testing repos as of December 3, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.9.11 (5.9.12 & 5.10-rc6 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Calamares 3.2.34 + kpmcore 4.2.0
• APTus replaced by APTus AppCenter 20201203-RC1; it is still under development but it is enough stable to let you test and work on it https://sparkylinux.org/sparky-aptus-appcenter/
• added ‘sparky-www’ – it is a small package, which provides a custom Sparky’s start page, powered by DuckDuckGo, to your favorite web browser; the start page is located at /opt/sparky/index.html and has to be loaded manually to a web browser, after installing the package https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_www
• Firefox 83.0
• Thunderbird 78.5.0
• LibreOffice 7.0.3
• VLC 3.0.11
• Exaile 4.1.0 beta1
• libpython3.9 is installed, but Python 3.8 is still the default one
• python2.x & libpython2.x removed
• GCC 10.2.0 as the default compiler
• added RSS feed clients: QuiteRSS to LXQt and Liferea to MATE and Xfce iso images

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui tool or a command:

sparky-upgrade

or via APT:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

UKUI desktop

A new desktop environment has been implemented into APTus & APTus AppCenter: UKUI

What is UKUI?

UKUI is a desktop environment for Linux distributions and other UNIX-like operating systems. It provides a simpler and more enjoyable experience for browsing, searching and managing your computer.

Installation (Sparky testing):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sparky-desktop-ukui

or via APTus-> Desktop-> UKUI desktop icon.

The UKUI desktop has been implemented to Sparky Advanced Installer too, so can be installed using Sparky MinimalGUI/MinimalCLI iso images of Sparky rolling edition.

UKUI on Sparky6

License: GNU GPLv2+
Git: github.com/ukui/ukui-desktop-environment

 

Sparky 2020.09

The September snapshot of Sparky 2020.09 of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

This release provides package updates and fixed an issue of the Sparky Advanced Installer, which generated broken fstab. There is no problem if you have installed Sparky 2020.08 using Calamares (called Sparky Installer).

Changes:
• packages updated from Debian testing repos as of August 31, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.7.17 (5.8.5 & 5.9-rc3 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Firefox 80
• LibreOffice 7.0.1-rc1
• fixed the Advanced Installer issue; thanks to lami07

System re-installation is not required, simply keep Sparky up to date.

The Special Edition iso images have been already updated too.

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

Sparky 2020.08

The August snapshot of Sparky 2020.08 of the (semi-)rolling line is out.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• packages updated from Debian testing repos as of August 14, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.7.10 (5.8.1 & 5.9-rc1 in Sparky unstable repos)
• added Memory Test and Hardware Detection to the live config
• installed qt5ct + added qt5ct config to non Qt based desktops: Openbox, MATE & Xfce
• GCC 9 removed; the default compiler is GCC 10 now
• LXQt 0.14.1
• MATE 1.24.1
• Xfce 4.14
• Firefox 79.0
• Thunderbird 68.11.0
• LibreOffice 7.0.0-rc2 (7.0.1~rc1 in Debian testing repos now)
• VLC 3.0.11
• Calamares 3.2.24
• small improvements

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui or a text based tool:

sparky-upgrade

or via apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

Sparky 2020.06

The June snapshot of Sparky 2020.06 of the (semi-)rolling line is out.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• system upgrade from Debian testing repos as of June 5, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.6.14 (5.7.0 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Firefox 77.0
• Thunderbird 68.8.1
• LibreOffice 6.4.4.2
• debi-tool’ replaced by ‘gdebi’
• added ‘spterm’ (Sparky Terminal) to be used by Sparky tools
• Otter Browser replaced by Epiphany Browser (MinimalGUI)
• added RadioStation – a fork of RadioTray-Lite (and Radiotray)
• added Openbox Noir to the desktop list to be installed as a choice (via MinimalGUI & MinimalCLI and APTus too)
• added disk autopartitioning, encrypting and lvm support to the Advanced Installer DEV (still experimental)
• Calamares updated up to 3.2.24; changed password strength to a minimum number of digits as possible in Calamares, as requested a few times by our users (can be used 1 digit, but I recommend to use strong password); thanks to lami07
• added lxappearance to MinimalGUI iso (Openbox)

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui or a text based tool:

sparky-upgrade

or via apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

Sparky 2020.05

The May snapshot of Sparky 2020.05 of the (semi-)rolling line is out.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• upgrade from Debian testing repos as of May 5, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.6.7 (5.6.10 & 5.7-rc4 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Calamares 3.2.23
• added additional support of Sparky installation on UEFI machines with Secure Boot: the live system should be launched with Secure Boot off as before; but after installation the Secure Boot can be turned on; both installers: Calamares and Sparky’s Advanced provides support of such installation
• disabled package list updating, during installing Sparky via Calamares; even you install Sparky with active internet connection, the Debian or Sparky server can be temporary off, so it could stop the installation
• Openbox: replaced ‘obmenu’ by ‘jgmenu’: https://sparkylinux.org/jgmenu/
• added new packages to all iso images: ‘pulseaudio-module-bluetooth’ and ‘fuse3’ insead of ‘fuse’; thanks to Richard
• Xfce: fixed an issue of not displaying a wallpaper on the desktop, and not visible Sparky wallpapers at Desktop Settings; thanks to lami07
• replaced ‘ktsuss’ by ‘sparky-su’ which is used by ‘sparky-aptus-upgrade-checker’: https://sparkylinux.org/sparky-su-0-1-11/
• Xfce: enabled fonts anti-aliasing with slight hinting
• LibreOffice 6.4.1.2
• Firefox 75.0
• Thunderbird 68.7.0
• Python 3.8

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui or a text based tool:

sparky-upgrade

or via apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

Thanks go to:
• Richard and MoroS for testing Sparky dev iso images on real machines with Secure Boot
• lami07 for helping with the wallpaper issue in Xfce

 

Sparky 2020.03.1

New iso images of Sparky 2020.03.1 of the (semi-)rolling line have been generated.

This is a minor update of the live/install media which provides:

• fixed issue which doesn’t let you boot Sparky 2020.03 copied to an USB stick
• Sparky repository changed to the named “potolo” (“testing” works as before)
• all packages updated from Debian testing repos as of March 27, 2020

No reinstallation is required, simply make full system upgrade.

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

Sparky 2020.03

The March 2020 snapshot of Sparky 2020.03 “Po Tolo” of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
– system upgraded from Debian testing repos as of March 7, 2020
– Calamares installer 3.2.20
– Linux kernel 5.4.19 as default (5.5.8 & 5.6-rc4 in Sparky unstable repos)
– changed qCamera webcam application to Cheese
– changed Vokoscreen to Vokoscreen-NG
– removed packages: radiotray, imagemagic
– GCC 10 is preinstalled, alongside to GCC 9 (default)
– LibreOffice 6.4.1.2
– Firefox 73.0.1
– Thunderbird 68.5.0

System reinstallation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui tool or a text based tool:

sparky-upgrade

or via apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

Sparky 2020.02.1

Sparky 2020.02.1 “Po Tolo” of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is based on the testing branch of Debian “Bullseye”.

This is a minor update, which temporary fixes a problem of installing Sparky via Calamares with kpmcore 4.

Changes between Sparky 2020.02 and 2020.02.1:
• system upgraded from Debian testing repos as of February 13, 2020
• kpmcore downgraded to version 3.3.0
• Calamares installer rebuild using libkpmcore7 3.3.0

No system reinstallation is required, simply keep Sparky up to date.

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

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