After several months of preparation, the kernel team has set up a public Git repository for hosting the openSUSE kernel sources. If you’d like to work with the openSUSE Linux kernel as it’s developed, please read Kernel Git on the openSUSE wiki, which explains how to clone the repository and use it.

The repository will be synced several times a day, providing much more up-to-date code than the Kernel of the Day (KOTD). The KOTD will continue, of course, as a useful resource for testers and developers who aren’t working on the kernel.

We hope the new Git repository will be helpful to anyone testing openSUSE kernels or building their own derivatives.

As usual, remember to have a lot of fun!

So now it’s up to you to announce your candidacy or just request membership

Have a lot of fun!

Stephen Shaw (decriptor) and Bryen Yunashko (suseROCKS) have completed their tenure on the Board, and their seats are up for election. There is also a new seat available to be occupied by a non-Novell member. Henne Vogelsang (henne) and Pascal Bleser (yaloki) have another year to complete and will remain, Michael Löffler (michl) as chairman will remain as well. This means that as of this year’s election the openSUSE Board will be made up of equal numbers of Novell and non-Novell employees, 2 seats+Chairperson and 3 seats respectively. Candidates for this election will be voted in for a two (2) year term, ensuring that there is continuity within the Board.

The election is broken into three phases similar to last year:

October 26th, 2009 (Phase 0) (Now Complete)

• Start of 4 week period for non-members to apply for an openSUSE membership (in order to vote).
• Start of 4 week phase for members to stand for a position in the openSUSE Board.

November 23rd, 2009 (End of Phase 0)

• Notification of intent to run, and application for an openSUSE membership close .

November 24th, 2009 (Phase 1)

• Start of 2 week campaign for the Board Candidates before the ballots open. Candidates may campaign until the final bell when ballots close, should they wish.

December 8th, 2009 (Phase 2)

• Ballots open

December 22nd, 2009 (End of Phase 1 & 2)

• Ballots close

Should anyone have any questions, you can contact the Election Committee by emailing election-officials@opensuse.org or speaking to one of the members on IRC. It is best to always email the committee even if you speak to someone on IRC. Full details of the election can be found on the wiki here. Prospective candidates are highly encouraged to read this lwn.net article on some of the tasks required of Board members.

Please add your topics to the meeting wiki page at:

http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Project_Meeting_2009-11-18

Please add topics as soon as possible. Also, if you have questions for the meeting, but can’t attend (we know that the meeting times can’t work for everyone) please add them to the agenda as well. We also take live questions, of course. Logs of the meeting are posted to the wiki here:

http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Archive

New to openSUSE’s IRC meetings? For more on our IRC meetings and how they’re run, see: http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/About. Not familiar with IRC? A good overview can be found at irchelp.org. This site is not affiliated with openSUSE. For more information on Freenode, see http://freenode.net/.

As always, we meet in #opensuse-project on Freenode. Fire up your favorite IRC client and head over to #opensuse-project.

Wondering what meeting times are? Check the openSUSE Meetings page. All project meetings and team meetings should be listed there.

If you’re interested in how the openSUSE Project is run and want to participate, please be sure to join us on Wednesday. See you there!

You can find a bevy of screenshots and more on the openSUSE wiki, and a lengthy list of packages and version numbers on DistroWatch.

Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting features of openSUSE 11.2!

openSUSE Desktop

As always, openSUSE provides everything you need to get started with Linux on the desktop.

openSUSE 11.2 includes KDE 4.3 as the “default” desktop. If you install from DVD without changing anything, you’ll have the KDE desktop by default. However, we still provide GNOME as an equal choice, and Xfce and other window managers as alternative desktops too!

KDE 4.3 is a major update to the KDE platform. It includes improved networking support, and work to make Firefox and OpenOffice.org better integrated with the KDE enviroment. The openSUSE Project also worked closely with the KDE Project on theming and branding to provide a look and feel that meshes both projects nicely.

You’ll also find plenty of GNOME greatness in openSUSE 11.2 as well. GNOME 2.28, the latest release of the popular GNOME desktop, is included with 11.2. This release includes a brand new theme, improved software update application, improvements in GNOME’s Webcam and video application, and many other enhancements and improvements to prepare the GNOME platform for GNOME 3.0 in 2010.

OpenOffice.org 3.1 is a complete office productivity suite compatible with Microsoft Office. This release includes improvements in change tracking and collaboration in Writer, and major improvements to the drawing application.

Social networking gets a boost in 11.2 with the addition of GNOME and KDE microblogging clients that handle multiple social network sites, Gwibber, and Choqok.

With openSUSE 11.2, you have the ability to install GNOME or KDE live media from USB, and numerous improvements to make openSUSE 11.2 much better on netbooks.

Under the Hood

The desktop improvements are the most noticeable, but there’s plenty going on under the hood as well in openSUSE 11.2.

Storage improvements include the ability to encrypt the entire hard disk, for users concerned about data security. Users can also take advantage of the next generation of filesystems for Linux with Ext4 or btrfs. In case you’d like to learn more about the new kernel features you can go at KernelNewbies.org and have a look at the “cool stuff” part.

Want to manage remote openSUSE servers with a Web interface? That day is coming soon! openSUSE 11.2 users can install the first technology preview of WebYaST: a Web-based remote administration tool for openSUSE systems.

Finally, you can upgrade in-place using Zypper! Though it’s been possible to do an upgrade in place for some time, with caution, it’s finally a “recommended” method of upgrade with openSUSE 11.2. For users who want to move from 11.1 to 11.2 using “zypper dup,” see Andreas Jaeger’s post on Lizards about the process. It’s quick, it’s easy, and almost competely painless.

Linux for Education

The openSUSE Build Service provides thousands of applications as 1-click packages to enhance your experience on openSUSE 11.2. The openSUSE Education Community provides hundreds of Educational applications suitable for students of all ages, parents, teachers and IT administrators of educational institutions via the Build Service.

The 11.2 release will be followed closely by a very special spin, Li-f-e: Linux for Education. Li-f-e contains GNOME, KDE as well the the award-winning Sugar learning environment for children. With packages from the Packman repository, Li-f-e provides everything required to get rich multimedia experience too.

Media and Download

openSUSE is now available for immediate download! You have several choices of installation media and live CDs (which are also installable).

• openSUSE 11.2 Installable DVD 32-bit
• openSUSE 11.2 Installable DVD 64-bit
• openSUSE 11.2 GNOME 32-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.2 GNOME 64-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.2 KDE 32-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.2 KDE 64-bit Live CD

Booting openSUSE 11.2 from a USB key: get one of the Live CDs available above, and can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!

We want to hear from you!

The openSUSE Project has many channels of communication! Whether you prefer forums, email, or IRC, there are plenty of ways to communicate about openSUSE.

• The official openSUSE forums.
• Mailing  Lists: be sure to sign up for the mailing lists that fit your interests!
• IRC: #opensuse on irc.freenode.net and other channels.
• Jabber, usenet, and more.

To keep up to date with openSUSE, be sure to keep an eye on openSUSE News and watch Planet SUSE for blog posts from the openSUSE community. We also update the @opensuse account on Twitter and Identi.ca regularly with news about the project.

Want to help the openSUSE Project? To get involved with openSUSE see the How to Participate page on the openSUSE wiki. We can use lots of different skills to help the project, so feel free to jump in!

Thanks!

openSUSE 11.2 represents the combined effort of hundreds of developers who participate in openSUSE, and thousands of developers in upstream projects that are shipped in openSUSE. The contributors, inside and outside the openSUSE Project, should be proud of this release, and they deserve a major “thank you” for all of the hard work and care that have gone into 11.2.

When we say “contributor,” we don’t mean only developers and packagers. This includes translators, openSUSE Ambassadors, the openSUSE Board, and the users who help power our forums and support users who are taking their first steps into Linux.

We are confident that openSUSE 11.2 is the best openSUSE release yet, and that it will help to encourage the use of Linux everywhere! We hope that you have a lot of fun while you use openSUSE 11.2!

To help promote the 11.2 release, we have banners for openSUSE 11.2 available on the openSUSE wiki, courtesy of Jakub Steiner (jimmac). They’re available in most standard ad sizes for the Web, so you should be able to find one to fit your blog or site.

When openSUSE 11.2 is released you can link to the openSUSE.org home page or to the download page for 11.2 directly.

Take a look – they’re quite good! (And no, 11.2 isn’t “out now” just yet. Unless you’re reading this on Thursday after the release, or later…)

openSUSE 11.2 banner by Jakub Steiner

Typically Novell has created the artwork for the openSUSE DVDs, but this time around we had some really interesting and creative input from openSUSE contributors. Want to help choose the cover? Check out the entries and vote on your favorite!

Behind the scenes, the Wiki and Booster Teams are currently working hard to improve the Usability of the openSUSE Wiki to the openSUSE Community. The process started in early October 2009 and after some lively discussions at the opensuse-wiki mailinglist, we successfully passed our first Team-Meeting discussing the Usability Concept and assigning responsibilities for specific tasks we need to achieve. I herewith like to encourage interested people to join the efforts and to contribute by participating in the discussions at the opensuse-wiki mailinglist and/or the #opensuse-wiki IRC channel on Freenode. Every helping hands is very welcome!

To get an idea about the current state of the Project we’re working on, I’d like to raise your attention on the Meeting Minutes of our first Team-Meeting. To subscribe to the opensuse-wiki mailinglist, please click here.

Not familiar with IRC? A good overview can be found at irchelp.org. This site is not affiliated with openSUSE. For more information on Freenode, see http://freenode.net.

This release should be almost ready for the gold master stamp, but there’s still time to shake out remaining bugs. This release should not be deployed on production systems, but should be ready for early adopters and contributors who want to help with testing and development of 11.2.

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 RC 1

Release Candidate 2 includes a few new packages, and several of the “most annoying bugs” in RC 1 have been fixed for this release. New packages include:

• Linux kernel 2.6.31.5
• SeaMonkey 2.0
• Firefox 3.5.4
• Samba 3.4.2
• xorg-x11-server 1.6.5

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a release candidate, we’re still shaking the release out for major bugs. However, at this point in the cycle, we’re almost ready to call 11.2 RC 2 production ready. We do know of one bug worth noting, however: The Net ISO images will call the factory repository. The URL for repositories needs to be changed from /factory/repo/oss to /factory-snapshot/repo/oss manually.

You can find more on adding repositories on the openSUSE wiki.

If any major new bugs do crop up, they will be listed on the openSUSE wiki.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 RC2 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

To learn more about testing openSUSE, visit the Testing pages on the openSUSE wiki. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Get Release Candidate 2 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!

The final release for 11.2 is scheduled to be released on November 12, 2009. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.

We’re at the home stretch. A big thanks to all the contributors who have participated in the 11.2 cycle. Without you, we’d have no openSUSE.

We’ll discuss the new usability concept for the openSUSE wiki. Everyone interested is welcome to join us. The agenda (working draft) is available here.

Not familiar with IRC? A good overview can be found at irchelp.org. This site is not affiliated with openSUSE.