Icaros Desktop Live! 1.5.2 ========================== Welcome to this Icaros Desktop Live! release, the leading AROS Reasearch Operating System distribution. This version of Icaros Desktop provides both the live DVD image to burn and a Qemu emulator to run it, straight into your Windows x86 or x64 operating system. It also provides a blank hard drive image to install Icaros Desktop into. Please notice that, after Icaros Desktop installation under the provided virtual machine, you'll need to modify Win32-START.bat script to get rid of the DVD-ROM image, or you won't probably be able to boot the system properly, save preferences and so on. This can be achieved by changing this switch: -boot d To: -boot c Users of a 64 bit Vista/Win7 machine should use and modify the Win64-START.bat script instead. Yes, this is for Windows only this time. Sorry. If you'd like to propose start files and executables of QEMU for other architectures, just contact me on the Icaros Desktop official forum. EMULATOR SPEED WARNING! ----------------------- Icaros Desktop under Qemu will run CONSIDERABLY SLOWER than on real hardware. Operations that normally need a few seconds on real hardware, may take serveral minutes to complete under Qemu. For istance, reading PDF manuals straight from the DVD under Qemu will need a LOT of time. Don't ever take Qemu times as indicative of the overall Icaros Desktop speed: it isn't. To gain speed in 32 bit environments, please use the kqemu driver provided with this distribution, you'll find it in the \emulator drawer, in the \kqemu sub-directory. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS --------------------- Any pentium-class x86 or x64 processor from AMD or Intel; any AGP or PCI Exress card; PS/2 mice and keyboards are best, but USB ones should work too; a EIDE or SATA DVD-ROM drive; 64 MB of RAM for the minimum full-featured experience (256 Mb or more recommended); EIDE/PATA hard drive with 4 GB of free (unpartitioned) space; Many SATA chipsets are already supported. SATA drives in IDE mode may either work or not. But.. To get the most of Icaros Desktop, please use a modern Pentium4 or Athlon64 processor with at least 2 GHz of speed, 1 GB of RAM and a speedy 7.200 RPM ATA or SATA hard drive. Even if Icaros Desktop can run very well on old hardware, a modern computer is the best way to enjoy it. A GeForce card is warmly suggested, in order to gain access to 3D acceleration and screen dragging advanced features. UPDATES TO MANUAL ----------------- Deadwood ported some boot code from ABI_V1 to V0 and now you can more easily select boot device. First option is to add "bootmenu" command in grub kernel command line. This will bring up early startup menu. Click on "Boot Options..." and using letters A-J select the device. When you select the device a "*" will appear left to it (in place of "+" or space"). Then click "Use" and "Boot" on next screen. Second option is to add "bootdevice=" command in grub kernel command line. This will force booting from , for example bootdevice=DH0. Please note that in both cases, the kernel is already loaded from your initial bootmedium (that is selected via BIOS) and both options only impact: a) from which medium the disk-base libraries will be loaded b) which partition the SYS: will be pointing too EDIT: This will be available starting with tomorrows nightly build. EDIT2: If you experience problems booting after this change, please let us know in this thread. http://aros-exec.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&type=&topic_id=7862&forum=4 CALLING SCOUT TO RESCUE SYSTEM ------------------------------ Pressing lAros+Esc will launch the Scout task manager in its own screen. AMC DEMO -------- Icaros Desktop Live 1.5 provides a feature-limited demo version of AMC, the media-center application for Amiga-like operating systems. It works only after installation to the hard drive or a pendrive. Installation files for AMC are in the "Extras/Demo" drawer, on the root of Icaros Desktop DVD. In order to run it, Icaros Desktop must be already installed on a writable media, and Demo package should have been selected during installation. KNOWN ISSUES OF THIS VERSION ---------------------------- - NEW KERNEL MAY HAVE INTRODUCED REGRESSIONS Changing the heart of a operating system is always a sensible operation which will improve things but, on the other side, it may also break things which worked before. Here at Icaros Desktop we tried to run all programs and look for regression on the hardware at our disposal, but the fact that things work for us, unluckily, does not automatically mean it will also work for you. In this case, we suggest you to contact our support forum to send all problems you may encounter running Icaros Desktop on your system, with a complete description of the issue and, if you can send logs, with outputs from PCI Tool and Sashimi. - BOOTING MAY STOP ON PCI HARDWARE DETECTION It may occasionally happen. It this case, just reset or restart your computer. - LODEPAINT IS SLOW IN VESA AND ATI MODE LodePaint uses OpenGL to render its output on the screen. So you'll need a supported 3D GeForce card to use it at right speed. If you don't have any, try using LunaPaint or AmiFig instead. - BOCHS SETTING UP ENGLISH KEYBOARD Bochs emulator won't work with ant international keyboard layouts but english. So, when the emulator is launched by pre-made scripts, keyobard will turn to english/USA layout. Please use the setkeyboard command to switch kb layout back to your favourite one after use. - SCREEN DRAGGING WORKS WITH A SINGLE RESOLUTION ONLY Only screens using the same resolution can be dragged flawlessly. Dragging of screens at different resolutions is still limited, at this stage. - OWB DOESN'T SUPPORT MY FAVOURITE WEBSITE There is still no flash support under AROS and OWB is at its very first releases. Please be patient: all these nice web technologies will be hopefully added in future, so maybe your site will be available some day... - LOCALIZATION FAULTS Many applications are in english only. Sorry for this. Services, ConfigIP, AmiBridge, PoorPDF, PoorARC and the first run configuration script are in English only. - MYTHOLOGIC WARNING Please don't use our distribution on the Aegean Sea. It might fly too high and crash really hard on your computer. ;-) RECENT UPDATES -------------- New from Icaros Desktop 1.5.1 - Kernel and system files from May 1st, 2013 - updated Nouveau driver: it should fix screen corruption on many Nvidia cards - updated audio and network drivers - new Boot preference program to customize first Grub menu entry - wireless manager should now have proper icon - wireless manager GUI can now be disabled - fixed many regressions, bugs and quirks - updated FlexCat, codesets library and additional Zune classes - added Pushover to games - updated AROS shell manual with version 0.81 - added HELP utility to show CLI commands online-help - updated libgtk-mui - added ntpsync to network CLI utilities (sync time with internet time servers) - fixed icon for system/CLI - fixed icon tooltypes for many emulators in extras/emu New from Icaros Desktop 1.5 - Kernel and system files from January 22nd, 2013 - new key combo: press Ctrl+Alt+Del to cold reset computer - fixed warm reboot (Ctrl+lAros+rAros) on VMware and other configurations - updated Nouveau driver: it should fix issues with some motherboards - updated HDAudio driver and config file: it should work on more hardware - fixed many new kernel regressions and quirks - added a new game: Ri-Li - added a new utility: FileBackup - reverted VICE to more reliable version 2.3 - updated fpc New from Icaros Desktop 1.4 - System files from Dec 25th, 2012 - kernel from Jan 1st, 2013 with selectable boot device - files layout completely overhauled + most important programs are now placed in tools and utilities drawers + other applications and games are now zipped into archives + system-functionality software is now placed in SYS:system - faster installation procedure, with area-based macro-packages system - new ABIv0 kernel, backported from ABIv1 by Krzysztof Smiechowicz - new GRUB 2.0 with better compatibility - improved AmiBrige, providing a reliable M68K environment for classic Amiga™ software + updated Janus-UAE to version 1.3 + fixed tearing issue with some AROS M68K screenmodes + AROS M68K configured to run classic Workbench M68K applications + No need to manually set guest M68K screen resolution anymore + presets for full-screen, integration and partial integration + updated AROS KickStart replacement to run games from ADF files + Added AmiBridge preferences tool in Prefs to customize M68K environment + Improved environment for AmigaOS™ 3.X, once integrated from Amiga Forever + no more ugly "Z" icon for Janus-UAE when iconified + latest Amiga Forever releases finally supported by setup script - added some classic M68K applications under kind permission + Real3D (last release for Amiga platform) + TVPaint (last release for Amiga platform) - updated and improved user manual with clickable table of contents - added a script to create USB installation pendrives - new "Pixblue" default decoration theme by Drea - updated XAMOS, AMOS interpreter for AROS, to latest release - changed default applications in AmiStart to reflect new entries - added HarmonyPlayer and uade to Multimedia - added Candy Crisis to games - added Cave Story to games - added Neverball, Neverputt and Hurrican to Games-Gallium3D - added many development libraries + libmng + libtiff + libjasper + physfs + libpng + libexif + ZLib + popt + ...and others! - updated pforth, FlexCat and irrxml in development tools - updated several custom Zune classes to latest version - updated YAM to version 2.8 - removed useless 'USE' button from Theme preference - added several CLI utilities for graphics, sound and file manipulation - almost all CLI commands and programs are now located in C drawer. - updated OpenURL to latest release - updated DiskImage device to latest release - updated Annotate to latest release - updated LiveUpdater - fixed the "memory=debug" problem during boot - fixed a bug which corrupted graphics when scrolling detail-view windows - added Mupen64 to emulators - added a new video from Josh Woodward - fixed OWB's YouTube script SPECIAL THANKS TO ----------------- - Our beta testing team: Krzysztof "Deadwood" Smiechowicz Yannick Erb Steve Jones Neil Cafferkey Like Jerry Antonio Barba William Molducci Martin T. Erik Magnusson Raffaele Buggins ...and many others! Thanks for your hints and support, and also for your patience. You have been really precious and I hope you'll be also for future releases. - all the software houses which brought great application software for the Commodore Amiga two decades ago, and today kindly grant us permission to freely include it in our distribution: these include, but don't limit to, TVPaint Developpment, Realsoft, AcidSoft, Clickteam and others. - Andreas Magerl and other nice people at Amiga Future, Massimiliano Zagaglia at Linux Pro, Mayank Sharma at Linux Format, Cesare di Mauro at Appunti Digitali and all the editors in the IT market who spent some time of their lives to test Icaros Desktop and talk about it on their respective publications and websites. - Josh Woodward: your music is inspiring and it's great to use with our videos. Thank you for providing it free of charge on your website, www.joshwoodward.com. - Everyone that will try Icaros Desktop and will enjoy it, even if it is not perfect. Everyone that will try Icaros Desktop and will remove it from his PC istantly, but will come again to see how it growing version after version. Everyone that will contribute with his enthusiasm or his criticism. And, obviously, anyone who downloaded and actually installed it. - The AROS development team: without AROS, there wouldn't be any Icaros Desktop to do. AROS is a huge beast, there are many things to do and many things to improve. People come and go but, piece after piece, this operating system is reaching its completion. We should be thankful to them, since they are bringing the Amiga magic back to any platform, for free. - Authors of third party applications included in Icaros Desktop: they provided the meat and helped me when necessary, with no exceptions. You are too many for individual credits. - Michele Battilana from Cloanto: their Amiga Forever package is amazing and gets even better at every release. Icaros Desktop supports AF directly with AmiBridge, and Cloanto supports our work giving us all the informations we need to keep AmiBridge aligned with the latest releases of AF. - Anyone who will decide to donate some bucks to Icaros Desktop. We aren't here for the money, but receiving some makes us happy, and being happy helps development too. SUPPORT ADDRESS --------------- Good luck and enjoy Icaros Desktop. If you have any doubt and need support, please contact Icaros Desktop forum. http://support.icarosdesktop.org Regards, p.bes