First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release
26th April 2015
I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out this announcement today:
the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first
*beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first
time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable
release, Debian 8 "Jessie".
(As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been
released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish
later today ;)
We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming
weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades
from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will
be possible and encouraged!
Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit
bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete
operating system for schools, universities and other
organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles
administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which
will work in harmony on the school network. With Debian Edu, the
teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a
complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or
days.
Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the
world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come
with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian
archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach.
For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
installation instructions are available, including detailed
instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting
up a network or adding users. Please note that the password for the
user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at
least 5 characters!
== Where to download ==
A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
can be downloaded at the following locations:
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso .
The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a
Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also
available, with more software included (saving additional download
time):
http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636
Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
options.
== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==
Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.
This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian,
Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists
for Spanish. See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for
online version of the translated manual.
More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the
release notes and the installation manual:
- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
== Errata / known problems ==
It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
DHCP (#780461).
The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087).
Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
hostname immediately.
Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
more current and complete list.
== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==
=== Software updates ===
Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:
* Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for
i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like
Intel Pentium and AMD K5).
* Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14,
Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
* new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
* KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of
the others see the manual.
* the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
* LibreOffice 4.3.3
* GOsa 2.7.4
* LTSP 5.5.4
* CUPS print system 1.7.5
* new boot framework: systemd
* Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
* Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
* Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
* Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
* golearn 0.9
* tuxpaint 0.9.22
* New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
* Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation.
* More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release
notes and the installation manual, see the link above.
=== Installation changes ===
Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
for the hardware present.
=== Fixed bugs ===
A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
from a user perspective:
* Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
information is corrected (710362)
* shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608).
=== Sugar desktop removed ===
As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
available in Debian Edu jessie.
== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==
Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on
Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
configured school network. Directly after installation a school server
running all services needed for a school network is set up just
waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
services. The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
environment.
== About Debian ==
The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
operating system.
== Thanks ==
Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
You rock.