Released on July 1, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of Calculate Linux 17.6, marking the 10th anniversary of the project.

This new version features installation in LXC/LXD containers, theme customization, more stability with automagic dependencies support, better security as editing the kernel params now requires a password and system update can be only performed by users authorized to do so. You will find the details below.

Calculate Linux Desktop featuring KDE (CLD), Cinnamon (CLDC), Mate (CLDM), or Xfce (CLDX) environments, Calculate Linux Scratch (CLS), Calculate Directory Server (CDS), Calculate Scratch Server (CSS), Timeless and Calculate Linux Container (CLC) are available for download.

Main changes

System installation

• Calculate gets a new flavour, "Calculate Linux Container", to be installed on a LXC/LXD virtual machine.
• No default password is provided on a newly installed system. Instead, a user password is prompted for at installation time.
• You can manage access priveleges via Calculate Console. For instance, a user may only have access to updates if the admin chooses so.
• Kernel configuration now can be protected by a password.
• The 'sudo' group was added for sudo authentication.
• Autopartition is the default partition scheme when installing from a Live USB.
• A bios_boot partition is not created automatically for UEFI installations.
• If the UEFI parameters have not changed, the UEFI boot record will not be overwritten.
• Building-only dependencies are not included in the distribution.

Update procedure

• The Calculate repository now provides 8284 packages.
• Binary packages index is cached and the cache updated whenever Portage is.
• A 1 Mb index archive is supported.
• If no repositories have been updated, system settings will not be setup either.

Building a customized system based on CL

• You can build your own LXC/LXD system.
• Automatic dependencies are calculated.
• Automagic dependencies (shallow dependencies recognized at build time) are handled now.
• The @autodeps set was added, containing all skipped packages.
• The --with-bdeps option is off, so that only dependencies required for package building are fetched.
• A new option, --clean-bdeps was added, allowing to remove building-only packages from a system to be built.
• Update dependencies are not pre-calculated.

Appearance

• System appearance can be configured by editing the /etc/calculate/ini.env file .
• The cl-setup-themes tool was added for appearance configuration.
• The terminal now has a background image by default.

Fixes and minor enhancements

• The cl-passwd tool for domain users was fixed.
• Systems based on the Intel video card now start correctly.
• PXE installation fixed.
• NVMe drive detection fixed.
• A system proxy will not be used for fetching udpate files.
• Bulgarian and Kazakh input fixed.
• Domain user login fixed for systems supporting encrypted profiles.
• Network bridge interfaces are not configured.
• Basic Estonian support was added for Calculate Utilities.

Packages

• CLD (KDE desktop):
  • KDE Frameworks 5.35, KDE Plasma 5.9.5, KDE Applications 17.04.2, LibreOffice 5.2.7.2, Firefox 54.0
  • i686 - 1.8 G, x86_64 - 2.0 G
• CLDC (Cinnamon desktop):
  • Cinnamon 3.4, LibreOffice 5.2.7.2, Firefox 54.0, Evolution 3.22.6, Gimp 2.8.22, Rhythmbox 3.4.1
  • i686 - 1.6 G, x86_64 - 1.8 G
• CLDM (MATE desktop):
  • MATE 1.18, LibreOffice 5.2.7.2, Firefox 54.0, Claws Mail 3.15.0, Gimp 2.8.22, Clementine 1.3.1
  • i686 - 1.7 G, x86_64 - 1.8 G
• CLDX (Xfce desktop):
  • Xfce 4.12, LibreOffice 5.2.7.2, Firefox 54.0, Claws Mail 3.15.0, Gimp 2.8.22, Clementine 1.3.1
  • i686 - 1.5 G, x86_64 - 1.7 G
• CDS (Directory Server):
  • OpenLDAP 2.4.44, Samba 4.5.10, Postfix 3.1.6, ProFTPD 1.3.5e, Bind 9.11.0_p5
  • i686 - 682 M, x86_64 - 722 M
• CLS (Linux Scratch):
  • Xorg-server 1.19.3, Kernel 4.9.34
  • i686 - 748 M, x86_64 - 872 M
• CSS (Scratch Server):
  • Kernel 4.9.34, Calculate Utilities 3.5.5.6
  • i686 - 464 M, x86_64 - 504 M
• Timeless (New server):
  • OpenLDAP 2.4.44, Calculate Utilities 3.5.5.6
  • i686 - 489 M, x86_64 - 529 M

Update from Calculate Linux 17

To update from CL 17, either:

• execute cl-update or
• put the new iso file in /var/calculate/linux, then run cl-install.

Download Calculate Linux

http://www.calculate-linux.org/main/en/download