Window Maker Live Files

### Window Maker Live (2012-04-01) April Fools Day Release

Don't be mistaken, this release version is not meant to fool you on this
very day, but instead does offer some worthwhile little enhancements
over previous versions. If you are already running an installation based
on a former version, then don't bother downloading this here, unless you
really need a more up to date installation ISO. While the accumulated
fixes and enhancements are worth this new release, there have been no
known showstoppers in the former release versions.

As usual, ISO images for both amd64 and i386 are now available from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive/files for immediate download,
this time from it's own dedicated 'wmlive_2012-04-01' folder.

What are the most remarkable changes for this release?

# Desktop related changes:

* Changed the default visual menu style to the more modern flat style
  which eliminates the vintage style line separators between menu items.

* Rearranged and slightly reduced the dockapp components, separating it
  mainly into a dockapp section and an application starter area.

* Added the GTK-GNUstep GTK2 theme, which much better resembles the
  vintage NeXTSTEP and GNUstep looks, while leaving to be desired for
  visual contrast. So we will stay with GTK2-Step as default GTK2 theme
  for the time being.

* Added following applications to the default package installation:
  web browser chromium, scientific desktop calculator gcalculator, color
  selection tool gcolor2, file undeletion tools magicrescue and
  testdisk, drum machine/sequencer hydrogen together with some drumkit
  sound resources, and the zim graphical text editor based on wiki
  technologies, which replaces the formerly installed kompozer.

* The wmmixer dockapp entry in the dock has been removed, and its
  function was replaced by the volumeicon-alsa package and a suitable
  autostart script. The volumeicon resides within the wmsystemtray
  dockapp, and we freed up space in the dock this way.

* The 'System administration' root shell terminal window now features a
  reddish tinted background, in order to visually distinguish it from
  normal terminal windows.

* Added the firetray extension to both firefox and thunderbird, which
  adds tray icon functionality, and as an added benefit also prevents
  accidental closing of any firefox and thunderbird window.

# Under the hood:

* The 'wmlive-debian' name of this distribution ISO has been shortened
  to 'wmlive', in order to simplify the overall naming scheme.

* In order to not include any of the space hogging Packages lists on the
  resulting ISO image, we have set the build configuration  option
  "--apt-indices false", which allows for the inclusion of a few more
  applications. Configured synaptic to first update the package cache
  during its start up, in order to prevent any confusing error messages.

* The debian-installer now finally appears to properly manage the grub
  installation.  Therefore we have made the wmlive-fix-install script
  to first check for the existence of /boot/grub/grub.cfg to determine
  whether grub installation is still required, instead of just blindly
  writing grub to disk.

* The wmlive-fix-install script now requires almost no user interaction
  anymore, other than being manually executed once within the live
  session, and a second time within the chroot session. The script now
  terminates itself after having completed it's tasks within the chroot
  environment.

* The GDM login manager was replaced by our own patched compilation,
  which removes all redundant references to a Failsafe GNOME session.
  The modified sources are included.

* Optimized and fixed the /etc/apt/preferences file, in order to enable
  a few more package upgrades. This unfortunately still excludes any
  GTK3 based components from being installed to preserve the GTK2 based
  setup. We urgently need a GTK3 theme with WINGs looks to get rid of
  this artifical limitation!

* Updated both Linux kernel and debian-installer to the 3.2.12 version.

* Removed all additional components of the initrd hack, only leaving a
  suitably modified gtkrc file based on the one from the GTK2-Step theme.

* Added the required infrastructure to build a DVD sized version of
  wmlive to the wmlive build-config tree. While we prefer to not release
  any DVD version of wmlive, these additional configuration options are
  included in the wmlive-config archive.

* Added the build-essential package to the standard installation, which
  is a first step to provide all required components to enable wmlive to
  ultimately recreate itself without additional installations.

# Known issues:

* We need a GTK3 theme resembling the WINGs widget set in order to
  visually integrate GTK3 based applications with Window Maker.

* The VLC video player does not work in the live CD environment,
  claiming that it can't find it's plugins, but works normally once
  the system has been installed to disk.

* The installation still requires to run an additional script in order
  to successfully complete.

There have been many more changes and enhancements, but which are far
too numerous and small to merit any special mention of each. For more
detailed changes information, please consult the ChangeLog.txt file,
which is also available separately in the Window Maker Live download
area on Sourceforge.

Enjoy installing and using Window Maker Live!

Best regards,

Paul Seelig

-- 
Paul Seelig <wmlive@users.sf.net>
http://wmlive.sourceforge.net