Amahi 7 alpha 4 release!

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cpg
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Amahi 7 alpha 4 release!

Postby cpg » Fri May 10, 2013 5:54 am

Hello Amahi 7 alpha 4 is here! Go ahead and install [Wiki=Fedora_18]Amahi 7[/Wiki]!

THIS VERSION REQUIRES REINSTALL -- UPGRADE AN EXISTING INSTALL TO THIS RELEASE WILL FAIL
(there are some internal DB changes)

NOTE: only x86 32 and 64 bit are supported in this release

This new release contains:
- the Network tab is back. Please test that thoroughly! We know the UI has some little details missing, but functionally it should work and control the dnsmasq DNS/DHCP server
- improvements to the theme to be more portable
- advanced-settings-only subtabs -- subtabs that only show up when advanced settings are enabled
- improvements to the initialization of the first user -- please test this thoroughly too
- internal database changes to be more homogeneous with the existing networking data structures
- misc bugfixes, mostly in the UI

Thanks for all the reports in the previous release!
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inquam
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Re: Amahi 7 alpha 4 release!

Postby inquam » Wed May 15, 2013 1:12 pm

Will upgrades to subsequent Amahi 7 releases work or will one have to reinstall each time?
Alo what does "NOTE: only x86 32 and 64 bit are supported in this release" mean???
Did older Amahi releases support 16bit? 8bit? 128bit? :)

If one would want to install a fresh install of Amahi today and excpect some long term support, which route should one go?

The site lists

Ubuntu 12.04

and then the

Express and Fedora routes as " Old, unsupported install methods".

But then I think I read that Amahi 7 is once again built on Fedora... So kind of mixed messages. Some clarification would be great since I must upgrade my aging server since that stopped being supported.

This list from the wiki kind of shows how hard it has been up until now as a user to be able to pick a distribution one bleives should be supported for an extended period and support upgrading to newer versions.

ACTIVE

Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS: Current Stable Release
Ubuntu 12.10: Not supported.
Fedora 17: Development halted.
Fedora 18: Development starting.
Fedora 9, 10, 12, and 14: Maintenance support ONLY

INACTIVE

Fedora 15 and 16: Not Supported
CentOS 5 and 6: Development Halted.
Scientific Linux 6.1: Development halted.

Optimal would be for Amahi to either become it's own distribution (based on Ubuntu or whtever) or a stand alone rpm/deb package that should not rely on any specific distribution specific things. Trying to make Amahi a central piece of hardware in the digital home (which I have advocated a lot) is very hard when your next sentence is that upgrading to a new version requires a re-install.
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bigfoot65
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Re: Amahi 7 alpha 4 release!

Postby bigfoot65 » Thu May 16, 2013 5:22 am

Will upgrades to subsequent Amahi 7 releases work or will one have to reinstall each time?
Alo what does "NOTE: only x86 32 and 64 bit are supported in this release" mean???
Did older Amahi releases support 16bit? 8bit? 128bit? :)
We hope to have a simple upgrade path, but no guarantee. There are so many moving parts with Amahi that it is difficult. Since the OS versions change drastically, it's often impossible to make things a simple upgrade. Obviously we want to try to get past this at some point, but not sure when.

As for the architecture, it means ARM is not currently supported. There are many running Plug and Raspberry pi devices. We are working on supporting these, but the 32- and 64-bit must come first.
If one would want to install a fresh install of Amahi today and excpect some long term support, which route should one go?

The site lists

Ubuntu 12.04

and then the

Express and Fedora routes as " Old, unsupported install methods".

But then I think I read that Amahi 7 is once again built on Fedora... So kind of mixed messages. Some clarification would be great since I must upgrade my aging server since that stopped being supported.

This list from the wiki kind of shows how hard it has been up until now as a user to be able to pick a distribution one bleives should be supported for an extended period and support upgrading to newer versions.

ACTIVE

Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS: Current Stable Release
Ubuntu 12.10: Not supported.
Fedora 17: Development halted.
Fedora 18: Development starting.
Fedora 9, 10, 12, and 14: Maintenance support ONLY

INACTIVE

Fedora 15 and 16: Not Supported
CentOS 5 and 6: Development Halted.
Scientific Linux 6.1: Development halted.
Fedora 18 will be the first supported with Amahi 7. We hope to then roll it out for Ubuntu 12.04.2.

Keep in mind all the OS derivatives are community supported, not Amahi core staff. We have only built on Fedora and then currently Ubuntu. Those others were started by users, but then abandoned. One day someone may come back and try them again. Maybe we should just hide them?
Optimal would be for Amahi to either become it's own distribution (based on Ubuntu or whtever) or a stand alone rpm/deb package that should not rely on any specific distribution specific things. Trying to make Amahi a central piece of hardware in the digital home (which I have advocated a lot) is very hard when your next sentence is that upgrading to a new version requires a re-install.
Ideally in a perfect world you are correct. Unfortunately, it's not going to be any time soon. We traditionally had always built on Fedora up until this past year or so when a developer came on board who had Ubuntu development experience. That's the reason we decided to offer multiple OS. One day we hope to offer more, but with a staff of 1-2 developers, it's probably not going to happen.

Amahi is a platform add on for the OS, so as close as we can get to rolling our own distro will be the Express CD. We wanted to try that for Ubuntu, but don't have the knowledge or experience. If we can get some help doing so, that would speed things along.

I totally agree about not having to reinstall when a new version is released. We hope to get there one day, but it's more complicated that many realize. By no means do we want to force a reinstall for OS upgrades, it just seems to be the nature of the beast. We have considered trying to come up with some sort of back up scheme that would allow you to back up apps, settings, etc. That is another complicated piece that will take a while to sort out.

As I said, hopefully one day we will get there and all will be cleaner and simper for the users. That is our ultimate goal, unfortunately it just takes time. With 1-2 volunteers supporting development and apps, things do not move very quick.
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