PorteuX 2.8 has been released

[porteux]

This release is built around two new in-house projects: aufs-ng and xfwm4-gl.

aufs-ng is our new union filesystem, written from scratch to replace `aufs`, which PorteuX has relied on since day one. It keeps the same on-disk format and the same mount command grammar, so everything keeps working as before. It's around 5,000 lines instead of aufs's 28,000, and it uses the kernel's modern I/O passthrough, which means much less filesystem-wide locking, considerably faster copy-up thanks to in-kernel splice instead of page-by-page buffering, and it tracks inodes only, so a warm system uses about a third of the memory. It's the default from now on.

xfwm4-gl is our fork of `xfwm4` that finally brings OpenGL compositing to Xfce in X11, with XRender kept as an automatic fallback. Compared to XRender it draws about a third less power and delivers roughly 10% more frames per second to applications. It also adds adaptive vsync, automatic compositor suspension when an application goes full screen, inactive button highlighting in window themes, and a long list of fixes. It's the default window manager and compositor in Xfce from now on. For Wayland sessions in Xfce, `labwc` continues to be the default.

And a big one for gamers: `ntfs` driver now accepts colons (`:`) in filenames, allowing Wine and Proton to work on NTFS.

As usual there are many upstream updates too, including kernel 7.2, GCC 16.2.0, FFmpeg 9.0.1, Mesa 26.2.1, etc.

Finally, a big shout out to Slackware.uk which now is hosting PorteuX at https://slackware.uk/porteux/

1. Fixed `transmission` crashing
2. Fixed the wifi password dialog not showing in GNOME (thanks to LFd3v)
3. Fixed missing test sounds in GNOME and KDE Plasma
4. Fixed the PorteuX packages download in the App Store (thanks to PrakharKhokhar)
5. Fixed some App Store issues: wrong version detection, failures being reported as success, scripts written before the download finished, and the progress window not closing
6. Fixed the AppImage desktop entry in App Store so it receives files and shows its icon
7. Fixed the timezone tool crashing when /etc/localtime is a broken symlink
8. Fixed missing `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` when running graphical applications as root
9. Fixed NTFS units not being ejected properly (thanks to arleson)
10. Fixed `xpdf` not reading its config file
11. Fixed the `flatpak` wrapper not accepting the storage path in any position
12. Fixed screen locking in LXDE, which was opening a new session instead of locking the current one
13. Fixed wayland/x11 session detection in LXQt
14. Fixed the Xfce compositor bypass hint, which never worked for normal windows
15. Fixed the version shown in the login screen message
16. Fixed a typo in the `mopt` cheatcode documentation
17. Improved `ffmpeg` startup
18. Improved build and linker flags for even more performance
19. Improved stripping across many modules
20. Improved pipewire startup
21. Improved initrd -- all binaries were updated and `uclibc` lib was dropped (now embedded statically), making it ~30% smaller
22. Added `aufs-ng`, our own union filesystem, now used by default
23. Added `xfwm4-gl`, our own OpenGL compositor, to Xfce
24. Added support for filenames with a colon (:) on NTFS -- Wine and Proton now work on NTFS partitions
25. Added the bootlog cheatcode to save everything the initrd prints during boot
26. Added `cosmic-monitor` to COSMIC
27. Added `gnome-session-sysvinit` and a patch to disable systemd in GNOME
28. Added `appstream-qt`, `qtkeychain` and `zint` to KDE
29. Added `gcc15-compat`, which restores a C++ symbol dropped in GCC 16 -- this fixes applications like VirtualBox that stopped working after the update
30. Enabled VirtualBox shared folders support in the kernel
31. Enabled dead code elimination in the kernel
32. Changed NTFS handling so both `ntfs` and `ntfs3` drivers work, with `ntfs` preferred when both are present (thanks to arleson)
33. Deleting a file and then its whiteout now brings the file back
34. Removed `xfwm4` from Xfce (replaced by `xfwm4-gl`)
35. Removed `gnome-system-monitor` from COSMIC (replaced by `cosmic-monitor`)
36. Removed `bluez` daemon auto-start
37. Removed `opus` -- `libopus` is enough and less buggy
38. Removed `faac` and `faad2` -- `ffmpeg` handles AAC on its own
39. Updated kernel to 7.2
40. Updated NVIDIA driver to 610.57.04
41. Updated Cinnamon to 6.6.9
42. Updated COSMIC to 1.6.0
43. Updated GNOME to 50.4
44. Updated KDE Plasma to 6.7.4
45. Updated many packages based on upstream updates

Downloads available at: https://github.com/porteux/porteux/releases/latest

[spa_time]

Many appreciations and thanks for the team's effort...just a mention that some programs like
Openshot , Shotcut , Opensnitch ( very necessary firewall ) work only in old versions..missing some libraries

[porteux]

Which libs?

Keep in mind PorteuX is a minimalist distro, and the libs it ships are the minimum for the experience we provide out of the box. If we start adding libs because of program X, Y and Z, we will end up not being a minimalist distro anymore.

[jk9]

Brilliant work once again lads!
Thank you very much indeed.

[spa_time]

Which libs?

Keep in mind PorteuX is a minimalist distro, and the libs it ships are the minimum for the experience we provide out of the box. If we start adding libs because of program X, Y and Z, we will end up not being a minimalist distro anymore.

Yes, I understand, and I appreciate...but in version 2.3 it works..
A few extra mb doesn't really matter..I think the functionality is more necessary...and without a good
firewall (like opensnitch) it's like a beautiful girl ( PorteuX) walking naked on the street..

[johndoe16444]

Hey guys, I have one question, is there a way to get automatic updates for browsers only installed from porteux-app store?

[Vic]

Hey there johndoe16444

I think you should start a new topic with that question.

I try a new version of Firefox and half of the Addons break. Still on 128 until websites stop working.

Would be good to hear what others say.

Vic

[johndoe16444]

I created it, feel free to join conversation there, to check with them if there is any solutions for our problems...
You should also report that bug on their github page on issues page.

[johndoe16444]

Self-Updating Mullvad Browser Self-Updating Mullvad Browser
there is a one simple solution for the mullvad browser, and it is working for me, it has autoupdates, maybe you should check this, for now this is only solution except making scripts for updates with slackpkg or getpkg or slapt-get.

[fu11m00n]

@ porteux... thanks.

Do you have a module that loads aufs-ng?

Thanks in advance for any solutions that you contribute.

[porteux]

@ porteux... thanks.

Do you have a module that loads aufs-ng?

Thanks in advance for any solutions that you contribute.

Aufs-ng is the default filesystem since PorteuX 2.8. The kernel build script is available here: https://github.com/porteux/porteux/blob ... -module.sh

[fu11m00n]

@ porteux... thanks.

I do not understand kernels yet.
If you have a module based on Slackware 15.0... I can make that work.

Thanks in advance for any solutions you contribute.

[Majestic]

Hi!
I understand this is probably not a global bug, but changes=EXIT: does not save changes on shutdown/reboot in this release.
Tested on VirtualBox, native ext4 partition, Lxdm.

changes=/porteux works normally (saves data).
changes=EXIT:/porteux does not save any changes after reboot or shutdown.
I tried recreating the virtual machine several times from scratch with this new release, but the issue persists. Am I missing something?

[settled]

Can confirm. I assumed this kinda issue someone gotta have noticed already, but heres some extra info just in case:

I have PorteuX 2.8 running from HD with changes=EXIT: cheatcode active with no issue, but when running it portable nothing persists on shutdown.
/opt/porteux-scripts/dump-session still works.
I've tried different USBs and host PCs, both saving to .dat or folder.
I've also tested version 2.7, no problem there.
When booting with persistence empty livedbg-verbose.log shows:

tar: empty archive
tar: can't open '/tmp/.whiteouts.tar': No such file or directory
rm: can't remove '/tmp/.whiteouts.tar': No such file or directory

[porteux]

Thanks for reporting this, guys. It was already fixed in 2.9 dev branch, but for those who want a fix right now, take a look here:

https://github.com/porteux/porteux/issu ... 5927846889