This question is from curiosity more than need, but...

It's reported on Distrowatch that Mepis is releasing a new antiX Mepis 8.2, with a 2.6.27 kernel and tweaks on different packages. I installed Antix-M8 some months back, and have updated it since from both the Debian stable and testing repositories. Uname -r shows kernel 2,6.27. insserv is available.

I'm wondering if maybe I don't already have the new Mepis 8.2 for Antix??? Is there anything additional I'd get from downloading the iso file and installing it?

Thanks.

In faith, Dave
Viva Texas

Windows 7, from the people who invented EDLIN!

If you have been upgrading regularly, then you have antiX-M8.2 except for a few apps I included and a few adjustments to the control centre etc. If antiX-M8 is working well for you, no need to install the latest. Just keep upgrading. antiX is a rolling release.

I didn't realize this either. Are the new apps listed in the wiki page or the live cd docs? And is there anyway to get the newer control center without upgrading?
I was just going to do a new install, saving /home this time, but maybe I don't really need to?
Thanks! antiX just keeps getting better and easier to use.

The new apps are mentioned in the full release notes on main site.
I have almost finished the antiX-M8-M8.2 upgrader script.
A fresh antiX-M8-M8.2 will download 385MB!
Now if you have been regularly upgrading, it will be much less.

You can comment out sections of the script you do not want to run.
If you want the newest control centre, you'll still need to add a couple of apps.

Looking at the V8.2 announcement on the Antix main page, there are these differences between V8.2 and v8 updated from debian stable and testing repos (hope I saw them all):

ME v8.2
--------- ----------
Kernel 2.6.27-1 2.6.27-25
pidgin 2.5.6-1 2.5.8
ceni 2.4 2.5
X.org 7.3+19 7.4
dillo 2.0-1 2.1-1
ibreakout2 no yes
ted no yes
gnormalize no yes
mountbox mountpy yes
gnuchess yes removed
gxine yes removed
xpdf reader yes removed

(I tried to make a table here but couldn't figure how. It can be figured out with a little looking. There is only one space between elements of the table, and nothing lines up. Sorry. The format is ,app name><My updated><V8.2>)

So, I'll watch for your upgrade script.

In faith, Dave
Viva Texas

Programmers are tools for converting caffeine into code.

Thanks, anti. I'll try out the upgrader script again then. I can always write over if something goes wrong. __{{emoticon}}__
I appreciate all the work you do to make this so easy.

anticapitalista wrote:If you have been upgrading regularly, then you have antiX-M8.2 except for a few apps I included and a few adjustments to the control centre etc. If antiX-M8 is working well for you, no need to install the latest. Just keep upgrading. antiX is a rolling release.

I've done both recently. In the past week, I've updated antiX M8.0 from my existing installed instances, and I have also installed each of the test versions, either to my systems or to Virtualbox OSE instances; both bases are therefore covered in my tests. Both worked great.

I notice that there was some caveat about not switching back and forth between IceWM and Fluxbox. I see that the switch works OK but is not 100% clean, so I am assuming that is the reason for this recommendation for the time being. I'll try to keep my eyes out for discussions about this, but feel free to Email or PM me when you are ready to test a proposed fix for whatever problem exists at the present time: I'd be glad to check it out and report back. That's about the only very minor issue I've even seen. Most stuff works real well. I have not had any of the wireless issues that some of our other regular testers have encountered.

Dave and Mariel,

The script is ready, but before you use it,

#apt-get update
#apt-get dist-upgrade

will give you some idea of how much will be downloaded.

There are a few 'difficulties' with the upgrade that the script solves.
This is basically what the script does.
1. mepis-init needs to be removed (but its various sections saved)
2. install new apps (no apps are removed)
3. install luckybackup
4. install newer debs of ceni, Ted and dillo
5. install newer antiX 'stuff' ie control centre, themes, wallpaper, meta-installer, grub screen image
6. upgrade MEPIS components (to prevent MEPIS server from having timeouts)
7. dist-upgrade
8. install cheese (has to be done after the dist-upgrade)
9. Downgrade icewm and icewm-common to stable and set them on hold
10. Set up fast boot (optional)
11. Clean up.

What the script doesn't do and needs (wo)manual intervention.
You will need to decide whether to use your existing icewm/fluxbox menus and toolbar and antiXcc or if you want to use the new ones, you need to copy over from /usr/share/antiX/localisation the files to the correct place for your language.
antiXcc, antiXfirewall and exit scripts go to /usr/local/bin
The others to the icewm and fluxbox folder in /home. (you need to rename the menu and toolbar to remove the language name at the end ie menu-en to menu. Save your old menu in case you want to use it.
(I did not automate this as there are too many variables of what people may have already done to their existing antiX-M8 install)
The second issue will be to rename all the files in /etc/modprobe.d to have .conf suffix on the end if it doesn't exist. eg pcsp.conf This gets rid of the boot messages.

The script should be run from your homeuser folder as root.
Don't forget to make it executable. (antiX-upgrader3.sh )


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/antiX-upgrader8.0-8.2/"
linktext was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/antiX-upgrader8.0-8.2/"
====================================
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

Good luck!

Added: When you are asked to install gnormalize, just keep hitting the Y button. Don't worry about any messages saying failed and just continue. This bit takes quite a while, but is perfectly safe.

On mine, anyway, the apt-get update and dist-upgrade commands show I have 0 to upgrade or install; however, the script installed a BUNCH of stuff! It was about like downloading the original CD.

BTW, the script specified that I needed the source servers from Germany (.de) instead of the US servers so I changed my /etc/apt.sources.list; the German servers are terribly slow for me - would it have been OK to use the US servers which are much faster for me?

I was confused by the instructions for changes which need to be made manually. The menus appear to have been already changed; the menu file was already named menu without the .en before the upgrade. Adding .conf to the modprobe files made the boot much shorter and did remove a lot of messages __{{emoticon}}__ .

Then I rebooted, changed the repositories back to the .us ones, and reloaded synaptic; it shows updates available for icewm and icewm-common, but refuses to mark them. ?????

Otherwise, everything seems to be AOK. __{{emoticon}}__

In faith, Dave
Viva Texas

For every complex computer problem there is a solution which is simple, neat, and wrong.