Here is the Release Candidate (RC) of Mageia 4 (released on Jan. 18). Release Candidate software is software that has graduated Beta testing, and should be a release-ready product suitable for advanced users and reviewers. However, beginning users and critical-applications users may wish to wait for the final release.
The RC is a test release to identify any remaining bugs or missing packages, in anticipation of the official release planned for February 2014. More info about Mageia 4 Development.
Contents
Download it
You can download it by selecting your mirror from http://mirrors.mageia.org/ and going into iso/cauldron or from http://www.mageia.org/4/ directly (easiest way).
Classical installer
- 2 DVDs 32 and 64 bits
- Mageia-4-RC-i586-DVD.iso
- md5: 8377797be15a187de9154427e09dd1da
- sha1: 2d6f037422c65aa3de02d69eb46da3644fda16b8
- Mageia-4-RC-x86_64-DVD.iso
- md5: ec1ce42c4b003b5e9bea6911968195c8
- sha1: 3e544cf20473eeddf92dab97a9a8cb0bd0418767
- Mageia-4-RC-i586-DVD.iso
- dual arch DVD: one single iso with both 32 and 64bits
- Mageia-4-RC-DVD.iso
- md5: 6575cde7a1e14e5ba8df020e2c4617b2
- sha1: 91d91b518da4dc2c7139dbc4e28b1aa7dd98b51e
- Mageia-4-RC-DVD.iso
Live
- 2 Live CDs 32bits only in English
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveCD-GNOME-en-i586-CD.iso
- md5: 02143c02df5ca339172b35e7f1b4d48f
- sha1: 829289434044841cd10b0eaa6868f521ae703583
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveCD-KDE4-en-i586-CD.iso
- md5: bc7ccf5b6e9fa6fe0d8b153f2bd5bfec
- sha1: 894e682b5ffc2f9b067936423a0442625b127bc8
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveCD-GNOME-en-i586-CD.iso
- 4 LiveDVDs (32 and 64bits) multilingual
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveDVD-GNOME-i586-DVD.iso
- md5: a71ec8f6d3cb69b521aef9ca1cbde695
- sha1: 287cb1f130a321c5a60f615f3a99d8810a81f597
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveDVD-KDE4-i586-DVD.iso
- md5: 650438a9cef65e05930211d569f61805
- sha1: cc693fab8b3828459111c8f5420ab08182f2e7e5
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveDVD-GNOME-x86_64-DVD.iso
- md5: f5851a814d66fffca9b73d7422e25092
- sha1: 47097d93525d759e32bf15b90a1330b1da63a958
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveDVD-KDE4-x86_64-DVD.iso
- md5: c3103c731b26337942a121ba5f22f5f4
- sha1:c38d7b89726e767ff4fc983318362e3572896796
- Mageia-4-RC-LiveDVD-GNOME-i586-DVD.iso
Major new features
Switch from Gtk+-2 to Gtk+-3
Most tools have been ported to Gtk+-3:
- drak3d
- drakpxelinux
- drakx-finish-install
- draklive-installer (the live installer)
- drakwizard
- drakxtools
- drakx (the classic installer)
- gurpmi
- mgaonline
- net_monitor
- rpmdrake
- transfugdrake
- userdrake
They now use more modern components and have access to all widgets through introspection or be used with Broadway.
Some related changes:
- diskdrake: now display ellipsized partition labels (the full labels are displayed through tooltips)
- net_applet: notifications work again for
- drakxservices: uses tooltips for service descriptions instead of an "info" button
Installation
- Stage 1
- Stage1 has been converted from a custom initrd image to a dracut generated one
- Stage1 is now dynamically linked
- when building, a BOOT_AUTOMATIC_METHOD env variable enables to alter default boot options for easier debugging
- Stage 2
- Work was done on RAID management during installation. This was quite buggy in previous releases and should now be usable at last.
- GDM is no more automatically used for XFCE
- logs now explain why updates are not offered when that happens
- open-vm-tools are automatically installed on VMware hypervisor
- network interfaces are renamed by udev during installation too
- default entry is read & written back for Grub2
- basic support for eMMc block devices (Luc Menut, mga#11812)
- stage2 can be build with debug option in order to run installer from gdb, ...
- drakx-in-chroot adds a new --depth option in order to force eg: 16bit colors mode
Package management
RPM has been upgraded to 4.11.1. Urpmi has a new option --deploops that enables to debug circular dependencies.
Tools
Authentication
All tools have been ported from deprecated usermode to polkit when needing root privileges. Draksec now supports polkit rules editing for permissions and overrides restarts polkitd when needed.
Hardware support
On first boot, finish-install will no longer remove radeon-firmware or any network related firmwares as we don't know when some hw gets plugged that needs it.
Hardware detection has seen fixes: - a couple WiFi cards were misdetected - RAID devices are better handled
draksound no longer offers to switch from ALSA to OSS drivers.
drakclock will now configure chrony by default instead of ntpd for Network Time Synchronisation.
Other
Drakboot now write and read back the default entry when using Grub2.
Various bug fixes were done:
- LDAP configuration (bug #10005),
- firewall configuration not being applied (bug #9941)
Base system
syslinux
- syslinux has been updated to 6.02. This allows to get rid of very old patches and then use upstream version. Some fixes are in progress to fix localboot.
kernel
- Mageia 4 RC ships with kernel 3.12.7
systemd
- Mageia 4 RC comes with systemd 208
GRUB
- Mageia 4 RC still comes with GRUB as a default. But we also provide GRUB2.
Perl
- Perl has been upgraded to 5.18.1
Mesa
- Mesa has been upgraded to 10.0.2
Network interfaces naming scheme
- Mageia has switched to the network interface naming scheme available in systemd v197+ to ensure they are predictable. A lot of bugs have been fixed to improve integration. We are looking for any feedback that could help to improve more if needed.
Graphical environments
MageiaWelcome
MageiaWelcome is now proposed as a default when opening a session in graphical environments. The main goal is to help new comers on Mageia but also give some information about the community and the project.
X Window System (X11)
The X.org server has been updated from 1.13 to 1.14.5.
KDE
- KDE 4.11.4 (stable release) is now available in RC.
- KDE screen management: we are now using kscreen as the tool to manage screen
- Qt 4.8.5
GNOME
GNOME environment is also provided. currently 3.10.1.
LXDE
XFCE
RazorQt
Mate
Mate is now inside the repositories.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is now inside the repositories.
Office apps
- RC comes with Libreoffice 4.1.3.2
Games
The open-sourced game Andy Super Great Park is included.
FreeOrion : turn-based space empire and galactic conquest.
Unknown Horizons : real-time strategy.
Noiz2sa is an bstract shootem up game.
Cube Escape! is a somewhat 3D maze.
Race Into Space is the computer version of the Liftoff! board game.
As before, the meta package task-games allows the install of all games in one click (warning : at least 30GB disk space needed!)
Education
Software Development
- Mono 3.2.1
- Monodevelop 4.0.9
- Gambas3 3.4.2
Artwork and design
New artwork is now fully integrated in this release.
Known issues
See Errata page
Tests wanted!
If not done yet, you can confirm or invalidate the currently reported (by the QA or other people) bugs: (see here or here a biggest list )
Bug reporting
You can find our bugzilla here, but please read the Errata before reporting any bugs. If you don't already have a Mageia account, you can create one on https://identity.mageia.org/. If you don't know, see how to report a bug.