Granular 1.0 Release Notes

Introduction


Welcome to Granular Linux Wiki.

These are the release notes for the final release of Granular 1.0. After months of silence and much delay comes this highly anticipated release. Team Granular has put their best efforts to ensure Granular 1.0 is a solid, stable and usable release. And not to mention the usual user-friendliness and ease of use.

General information related to this release are:
 * Name: Granular 1.0
 * Type: LiveCD
 * Size: 699 MB
 * Desktop Environments: KDE (default), E17
 * Installable: Yes

NOTE: Granular 1.0 is based on the last testing release - Granular 1.0 RC - and not on any beta release of PCLinuxOS 2009.

System Requirements

 * 256 MB RAM
 * Pentium III class processor or higher
 * Minimum hard disk space required for installation is 2.4 GB
 * In case of 'dual booting', a minimum HDD of 5 GB is recommended

Features and changelog
This new release (code name Esto Vox) includes very significant advances over the preceding version, 0.90 (Esto Vello).

Features:


 * Granular 1.0 now utilizes our own new repository.
 * All updated packages.
 * Our own Linux Kernel.
 * Major packages include Kernel 2.6.26.8, KDE 3.5.10, Enlightenment 0.16.999, Firefox 3.0.4, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KOffice 1.6.3, CompizFusion 0.7.6, Gimp 2.6.3, Wine 1.0.1 to name a few.
 * Out-of-the-Box support for audio and video files (Xine and MPlayer).
 * Multimedia plugins for Firefox are now pre-installed (xine-plugin).
 * Support for running Windows software, applications, and games (Wine).
 * Support for Multimedia keyboards and the extra laptop keys (HotKeys).
 * Support for Read/Write to NTFS partitions (ntfs-3g).
 * ATi and NVIDIA official drivers included.
 * Video Installation Tool included to help you install your video drivers easily.
 * Configuring printers and managing printing more easy.

Changelog:

Previous changelogs Granular 1.0 Preview, Granular 1.0 RC.


 * K3b is back by replacing Brasero as the CD/DVD burning application.
 * Yet again updated Granular Control Center.
 * StartPoint now also includes a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section.
 * Wine has been included to support running of Windows executables.
 * Official NVIDIA and ATi drivers have been included.
 * The installation procedure has changed a little bit due to the updated draklive-install.
 * Support for writing to NTFS partitions enabled by default.
 * KDE 3.5.10 is more stable than its previous version.
 * Two multimedia engines installed - Xine and MPlayer.
 * The sysinfo:/ kio slave replaced with the standard system:/.
 * Bug fixes include :
 * Minor problems in Granular StartPoint.
 * Metabar is now visible everytime in file manager window.
 * No more "kernel panic" errors on installation. The kernel has been fully tested for stability.
 * Fixed "Amarok Splash" utility, present in the Granular section, and included newer Amarok splash images.

Software included
This is the list of all major software included in Granular.


 * Desktop Environments
 * KDE 3.5.10
 * Enlightenment (E17)


 * Emulators
 * Wine 1.0.1


 * Games
 * KDE Games 3.5.9


 * Internet
 * Firefox 3.0.4
 * Thunderbird 2.0.0.14
 * FileZilla 3.1.5
 * Skype 2.0.0.72
 * Bluefish 1.0.7
 * KTorrent 2.2.6
 * Smb4k 0.9.5


 * Multimedia
 * Amarok 1.4.10
 * Kaffeine 0.8.7
 * SMPlayer 0.5.62
 * GIMP 2.6.3
 * DigiKam 0.9.3
 * XSane 0.995
 * DeVeDe 3.11b
 * soundKonverter 0.3.6
 * TVTime 1.0.2


 * Office
 * AbiWord 2.6.4
 * KOffice Suite 1.6.3
 * Xgnokii 0.6.14
 * KPDF 3.5.10


 * Tools & Utilities
 * K3b 1.0.5
 * Compiz Fusion 0.7.6
 * HP Printer Toolbox 2.8.7
 * NVIDIA Drivers 177.xx
 * ATi Drivers 8-x
 * Video Installation Tool 1.1
 * Yakuake 2.8
 * Krusader 1.90.0
 * Synaptic Package Manager 0.57.2
 * KPackage 3.5.10

How to get Granular 1.0?
There are two methods to download Granular.
 * Via torrent
 * This is the recommended method of download. Use this to get consistent download speed and help others download it too.
 * Direct download (http and ftp)
 * Use this option only if necessary. Using this, you may suffer from slow download speeds.

Please visit http://www.granularlinux.com/index.php?action=download to choose your method of downloading.

Important points to consider while downloading

 * Using torrent is the recommended way to download. Downloading through torrents is very easy. .torrent files can be opened in one of the many popular bittorrent clients, like Azureus, uTorrent, KTorrent, BitComet, etc.
 * After you have downloaded the ISO:
 * Check the md5sum of the downloaded iso for integrity
 * Burn the ISO onto a CD: for Windows users | Linux users

Screenshots
Find some screenshots of this release at http://www.granularlinux.com/index.php?action=screenshots.

Workarounds

 * If on using CompizFusion, the windows appear with no borders, make sure you have the proper drivers for your graphics card/system installed or configured correctly.


 * Due to an updated X system, choosing the default "Granular" option when the livecd is booted may end up in a command-prompt on some systems. To successfully boot into the normal graphical mode, choose the second option (VideoSafeModeFBDev) or third option (VideoSafeModeVesa) from the boot menu, depending on what works in your case.


 * On some systems, Kaffeine may display video with high brightness by default. You can try to correct this by opening Kaffeine > Settings > xine Engine Parameters > video, and set the driver option to "opengl".


 * Granular may not, by default, be setup to use the official NVIDIA or ATi drivers for the corresponding cards, and rather resort to using the NVIDIA and ATi drivers bundled with Xorg. In this case you'll have to manually configure Granular to use these drivers by using either of NVIDIA Settings tool or ATi Catalyst Control Center.


 * Instead of issuing the commands "nvidia-settings" and "nvidia-xconfig", issue "/usr/lib/nvidia-current/bin/nvidia-settings" and "/usr/lib/nvidia-current/bin/nvidia-xconfig" respectively, as the former ones may not work.


 * The Standby option for laptops is disabled by default. To re-enable it:
 * Go to Menu > System > Configuration > Control Center.
 * Navigate to Power Control > Laptop Battery > ACPI Config. If you are not logged in as root, click on the button "Start Helper Application". Enter the password for root.
 * Then, check the options "Enable Standby" and "Enable Suspend".
 * Accordingly, modify the options in other tabs too, if needed, to your choice.

Errata

 * Granular may not, by default, be setup to use the official NVIDIA or ATi drivers for the corresponding cards.
 * The commands "nvidia-settings" and "nvidia-xconfig" may not work. (See the 5th workaround for solution)

Extra Credits

 * The login music has been taken from the Cleanus system sounds set available at www.kde-look.org.
 * Several Amarok splashes taken from kde-look.org.