OpenSlug-2.0-beta release notes

DEPRECATED

1. The boot script sequence has been changed significantly from OpenSlug-1.12-beta. Incremental upgrade from 1.12 will not work.
2. A new program (reflash) has been added to allow in-place upgrade in the future so that it is no longer necessary to use UpSlug in 2.0 and later.

Because of these changes it is strongly recommended that all OpenSlug-1.12-beta users upgrade to OpenSlug-2.0-beta. Upgrades from 1.12 always require UpSlug, however this will may not be adequately documented in future releases!

Sections in this page:

1. Release email
2. Known bugs
3. Major package changes
4. Package additions
5. Package removals
6. Minor package changes

All changes are with respect to OpenSlug-1.12-beta. A major change corresponds to a change in the version number of the downloaded (remote) source. A minor change indicates that a package still uses the same source but has had a minor revision (including, possibly, addition of a patch) in the build.

(1) Release Email

The NSLU2-Linux development team is pleased to announce the source release of OpenSlug 2.0-beta. This source releases can be found at the release page:

http://www.slug-firmware.net

Information about the OpenSlug software and this release can be found at the OpenSlug home page. This page gives essential information for first time users of OpenSlug.

The full release notes for this software can be found in the OpenSlug-2.0-beta release notes.

Note that the OpenSlug software is intended for use by people who have previously installed and administered one or more Linux systems. If you are a first-time user of custom firmware for the NSLU2, then we recommend that you start with the Unslung firmware, and then make a decision whether to move to the OpenSlug firmware only after you are familiar with installing and running custom firmware on the NSLU2.

Due to licensing of the Intel IXP400 loadable kernel module, the binary releases are being prepared by a trusted third party, will be released separately on a different site from www.nslu2-linux.org, and will require you to agree to a click-through end-user license to be able to download the binary firmware image. As a result binary releases are made a few days after source releases.

Note that there is no charge for this click-through license, and (as far as we can tell - we are not lawyers, and you should make your own judgement before accepting the license) the only thing that the license prevents you from doing is to redistribute the Intel IXP400 loadable kernel module in a way which might subject the Intel IXP400 software to any other license obligations (this is a condition of use of the Intel IXP400 software which runs the built-in ethernet interface of the NSLU2).

Since the Intel source is compiled into a loadable kernel module (for OpenSlug, - the kernel module is just copied from the Linksys firmware for Unslung), then aggregating that loadable kernel module with the rest of the firmware does not subject the Intel software to any other license obligations and therefore complies with the Intel license.

However the nslu2-linux developent team cannot accept that license on your behalf, and therefore any individual who downloads the binary image must accept the Intel license on their own behalf before that individual can be given access to the binary image that our trusted third party will release.

Information about the binary release is sent to the NSLU2 mailing lists on http://groups.yahoo.com. If you are not familiar with building software from source you should use the binary release.

(2) Known bugs

The following bugs are know to exist in OpenSlug-2.0-beta:

1. Bug 145 shutdown -r fails on any system with a hard disk. Do not use shutdown -r - instead use shutdown -h and the power button.
2. Bug 109. Under heavy disk load the kernel will report "irq26: nobody cared". The report is believed to be harmless (i.e. there is no evidence of damage to data on the disk or of errors in file system operations.)
3. Bug 164. Samba paths are not set correctly in the build. The bug contains a fix for the build. Workrounds are possible in /etc/smb.conf
4. Bug 165. Samba lacks an init script. The bug report contains an appropriate script.
5. Some other packages currently lack init scripts.
6. Bug 182. The Perl package does not work. This is due to a bug in OE. A workaround is to run "echo /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 > /etc/ld.so.preload". Perl built natively works.

The remaining bugs reported in 1.12 have been fixed. The full list of bugs in OpenSlug (including fixed ones) can be found at the OpenSlug bug query.

(3) Major package changes

The following packages have undergone a major revision change. This means that a different revision of the package source code is being used. For further information consult the home page of the package.

(4) Package additions

These packages have been added to the build (there are many other packages which can be built from the source tree.)

(5) Package removals

The packages have been removed from the build (they may still be available in the source tree.)

(6) Minor package changes

The following packages have minor revisions. These changes can be seen in the source openembedded/packages directory for the package. Such changes include:

1. Configuration changes (OECONF)
2. Installation changes.
3. Init script (boot) changes.
4. Patches