Development Release: openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4 Now Available

Hot on the heels of openSUSE 11.1 beta 3, the openSUSE Project is happy to announce the availability of openSUSE 11.1 beta 4.

This release includes a number of important bugfixes since the last beta, as well as a few new bugs that need to be squashed before the final release. Read on for details about this release and how to get involved with testing.

Screenshots

If you're curious about what openSUSE 11.1 will look like, have a look at the rest of the screenshots on the openSUSE wiki. Thanks to Kevin Dupuy and Martin Schlander for taking the time to put up the screenshots!

Important: Call for Testing

We all want openSUSE 11.1 to be the best release yet, and we need your help to get there. This release is ready for widespread testing, and we're encouraging everyone to download and test the beta release. Please run the release through your usual routine, and let us know about any bugs or other issues that you find. Remember that this is a beta release, and is not suitable for use on production systems, however.

We have a page of new features specific to openSUSE 11.1 here: http://en.opensuse.org/Testing:Features_11.1 This is a definitive list of new features added into 11.1 that need testing.

Please use this page to identify and test new features -- and then mark them complete when you've finished testing.

See openSUSE.org/Testing for more information on Testing.

To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

What's changed since beta 3?

Major changes in this release include:

Inclusion of Nomad, a set of components that provide an unmatchable remote desktop experience to openSUSE. See more at: http://en.opensuse.org/Nomad

Timo Hoenig reports that fingerprint reader support is now feature complete, and he's accepting bugs. The most common fingerprint readers on the market should "just work," and users can register their fingerprint using the YaST module. Once registered, users can log in using their fingerprint. Console, GDM, 'su - $USER', gnome-screensaver, and gnomsu should all work with fingerprint support. KDE status is unknown.

• Linux 2.6.27.4 kernel
• Mono 2.0.1
• GNOME 2.24.1
• VirtualBox 2.0.4
• Evolution 2.24.1
• Banshee 1.3.3

See DistroWatch for an expanded list of packages being shipped in the Factory distribution.

Webcam Support Re-enabled

Some Webcam and framegrabber drivers had been removed from the kernel, but are now re-enabled in beta 4. The list of supported drivers includes:

Mediavision Pro Movie Studio
Quickcam BW
QuickCam Colour
W9966CF Webcam (FlyCam Supra and others)
CPiA
CPiA2
Stradis 4:2:2 MPEG-2
Zoran ZR36057/36067
Sony Vaio Picturebook Motion Eye
Siemens-Nixdorf 'Multimedia eXtension Board'
Conexant cx23416/cx23415 MPEG encoder/decoder (aka ivtv)
USB 3com HomeConnect (aka vicam)
USB IBM (Xirlink) C-it Camera
USB Konica Webcam
USB Logitech Quickcam Messenger
OmniVision Camera Chip
USB W996[87]CF JPEG Dual Mode Camera
USB OV511 Camera
USB SE401 Camera
USB STV680 (Pencam) Camera
USB Philips Cameras
ForteMedia FM801 + TEA5757 tuner

Thanks to Jean Delvare for the report.