WARNING The ISO image and software packages provided in this directory are provided for testing purposes. Do not use that on a production machine yet if you can't take any risk. However installation anew or upgrade of a praperly backed-up Slint system should be safe. This version, and its package repository, are tentatively named slint-testing. After a transition period this repository will become the "new" 14.2.1, then upgrading or installing anew will become mandatory. This will be announced in the Slint mailing list: https://www.freelists.org/list/slint https://www.freelists.org/list/slint and on our forum: https://forum.salixos.org/viewforum.php?f=44 WHAT'S NEW A lot of software packages are updated or upgraded. This include an upgrade of pretty much all accessibility packages to the most recent version, a fairly recent kernel (version 2.19.20), many added packages (cf. the file ADDED in this directory) and an enhanced installer. What's new in the installer: . It includes a kernel version 2.19.23 with its speakup drivers. This should allow to get speech in all installation languages. Caveat: Ukrainian is not spoken, because espeak-ng does not include an Ukrainian voice yet. . If a hard synthesizer is used to install, espeakup is not started as it needs the speakup_soft driver. . The sound cards are probed at the beginning of installation, so that a working one be used during installation and set as default in the installed system. . GRUB is used to boot the installer if the machine is then in UEFI mode at time of installation. GRUB will also be installed to boot Slint, in UEFI as well as in Legacy modes. . The detection of the ESP (EFI System Partitions) and "DOS" partitions (actually partitions used by Microsoft systems) has been enhanced. It is based on the UEFI specification for the ESP, and on the file system type detected by lsblk for DOS partitions. WHAT TO TEST AND HOW. In this early testing phase, testing the new installer is the priority. We will describe how it is expected to work, please check. As a reminder, the ISO in this directory can be written on DVD as on an USB stick. First, download the ISO and check its integrity: wget http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-testing/iso/slint64-4.2.1.2t2.iso sha256sum slint64-4.2.1.2t2.iso The output should be: (to be completed) Then, boot off the installation media. You willk know that the machine is ready for booting seeing the booting screen, and hearing either beep (if in Legacy or BIOS mode) or an arpeggio (if in UEFI mode). You can then just press Enter to boot. Sighted users can select a boot entry with their preferred language to use for installation, however this is not necessary as the language can be chosen (and changed) later. In UEFI mode only, the last boot entry allows to boot an already installed system, instead of installing Slint. If you need to enter an additional kernel parameter, before pressing Enter do this (the procedure differs whether in UEFI or Legacy mode): In UEFI mode (you heard an arpeggio): Press the e key Press the down arrow three times Press the End key Press the space bar Type the kernel parameter (like e.g. speakup.synth=apollo) Be aware that the US keyboard map will be in use when typing. Press Ctrl+X to boot (do not press Enter!) In Legacy or BIOS mode (you heard just one beep): Press the Tab key Press the space bar Enter the kernel parameter Be aware that the US keyboard map will be in use when typing. Press Enter to boot. The installer will then probe you sounds cards. Press enter as soon as hear a tune, to confirm that this sound card is working. This card will be used during installation and the setting saved in the installed system in /etc/sound.conf. IMPORTANT If this probing seems to fail and you heard no tune, maybe sound still works, if you have only one sound card. I have had reports that on some hardware then speech doesn't start automatically. So: If you need speech and don't hear anything after one minute, just press S and speech should begin. The next step allows to confirm (typing s) or deny (just pressing Enter) using speech during installation. If you pressed s you will be proposed to display keyboard shortcuts for reviewing the screen with speech. You will then choose, confirm or change the language used during installation. After the the dialog will be in the chosen language. parted, gdisk, fdisk, cfdisk and cgdisk are available in the installer. But you can also test the auto-partitioning. To do that, just type auto after having logged in as root, when mentioned by the installer. Important recommendations to consider when partitioning a new drive. 1. If you booted in UEFI mode and you need to partition a hard drive or an SSD, set a GPT partition label for it, and include a partition of size at least 100M, of type EFI System (type ef00). If such a partition already exists on another drive this is not necessary, unless you plan to move the drive where Slint is installed in another machine. 2. If you booted in Legacy or BIOS mode and you need to partition a hard drive or an SSD, set a DOS partition label for it. You can still set a GPT partition label, but you will then include a small (2M) partition of type BIOS boot among your partitions, else GRUB will be unable to boot the new system! The corresponding partition type is ef02. Only GRUB will use this partition. 3. If you want to install Slint alongside Windows, you should use the same boot mode as Windows, i.e. if you machine boots Windows in UEFI mode (almost certainly the case if your firmware allows UEFI booting), you should set the firmware to boot in UEFI mode too before booting the installer. At end of installation, you will be asked if you want to make an USB boot stick. Accept, as this will allow you to boot Slint in case there be issue when installing GRUB. So, have a small (64M is enough) USB stick at hand when beginning the installation, that you can will dedicate for this usage.