First Lubuntu 18.04 LTS based images available

Submitted by Rhein-Ruhr-Hub on Mon, 04/30/2018 - 06:11

Team(s):

Please note that you need an actual Parted Magic (PM) Release 2018 ff. to clone Labdoo images https://partedmagic.com/downloads/. Please contact your local Labdoo hub to get further support. Using older PM releases, e.g. from 2012 or 2013, will cause an error (disc drive to small to clone to this drive)

Hi Labdoo team,

We are pleased to inform that a few days ago, in April, 2018 (L)Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and a new MATE desktop were released, First tests were made by helpers of the hub Rhein-Ruhr (German). Some results and first images are available now http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/images/.

Wendy from hub Irvine contributed Labdoo-specific wallpapers for LXDE and MATE desktops, thank you.

18.04 LTS comes with a lot of new and improved features, developers invested 2 years work. But we also have to drop some things, we are used to. As it is so new please be aware of bugs. There will be frequently fixes and patches delivered and we'll upload new 18.04 LTS images often.

But it is hot from the oven, so it might last some weeks, until bugs are fixed. Look at the 18_04_LTS images as a beta version for the near future. We will update and upload 18_04_LTS images asap, so we hope to offer stable images soon. You don't have to rush. The 16_04_LTS images will be maintained for some time, even the frequency of updating 16.04 LTS images will decrease. But the Linux community will patch Lubuntu 16.04 LTS until 2020.

We prepared images to the known bundles based on Lubuntu + LXDE desktop + MATE desktop + content, as known for 16_04_LTS. We added to 18.04 LTS images also Look & Feels similar to Windows 10 (default) and OSX (Apple).

Please download and test the new images, look for "18_04_LTS" in the names of image archivess here http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/images/ and in the sub-directories (FR, ES etc.). Please send us your feedbacks, ideas and bugs found. Please check, if there were new images uploaded in the meantime. Please test and report based on the latest version available. Please send your feedback to Labdoo-DACH@Labdoo.org. Thank you.

Here are some of the lessons learned so-far

There is no swap partition anymore; swap is now a swap file within the main partition; this will make installation and handling easier for you (internally: will need adaption to autodeploy script and to update wiki pages)
There will be a 32 bit version and image available, but support for 32 bit Linux will be reduced more and more by the Linux community in the future. Lubuntu is one of the few Linux distros, offering a 32 bit variant, but this might end in the next years. Programs like Skype are only available for 64 Bit.
Hardware requirements: similar to 16.04 LTS
- Hardware: Ubuntu asks for 2 GB RAM, DualCore CPU https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements, that is why we decided to use Lubuntu (1 GB RAM, needing min. fast Pentium M CPU or higher)
- Disc space: in the past we recommended to use 30/40 GB as minimum size. This can be confirmed, but as the size of content and wikis is increasing, the more disc space available the better.
Support for nonPAE CPUs was already stopped years ago by (L)Ubuntu. Labdoo used a trick (fake-PAE) to enable older Pentium M laptops (before 2004/2005) to run Lubuntu. But now it is time to say Good Bye to nonPAE CPUs, as they are too slowly. Fast PAE Pentium M CPU or even Core2-CPUs are better :) Forget laptops being older than 12 years (2006 and earlier).
18.04 is using the format ext4 for disc-drives; so 18.04 LTS images can only be cloned using the actual Parted Magic version dated 2018 or younger (contact your local hub or national super-hub to get support); the former Parted Magic releases can only handle disc formats up to ext3.
Maybe we have to fork some installscripts / autodeploy in version up to 16.04 and from 18.04 upwards?
4 of about 300 programs did not start under 18_04_LTS (Anki, Geogebra, Tuxguitar, PDFsam); we have to wait for fixing by the developer teams.
The modules and layout of MATE panels changed. The "Menu" (left upper corner) was improved, but user will have to learn about the new design first. So we are working on 3 customer designer panels (16_04, 18_04, osx using Mate Tweaks. This will (hopefully) offer users an easy switch between the MATE layouts of 16.04 and 18.04 and OSX (similar to Apple with a docker panel).
Some minor problems, e.g. unpacking multiple archives in one process will not working, unpacking each archive in a process of its own works well.
The size of an image for cloning grew by ca. 700 MB (16.04. -> 18.04.). About half of that due to more content and the other half by OS and software.