New live/install iso images of Sparky 5.8 RC are out. Sparky 5.8 RC is a release candidate of the next stable line and is based on upcoming Debian stable Buster.

Changes between Sparky 5.7.x and 5.8 RC:
• Debian repo set to buster now, not to testing
• Sparky repo still points to testing, and will be updated automatically soon
• usrmerge set dirs symlinks (can be removed after)
• added inxi tool to all iso images
• all packages updated from Debian Buster repos as of July 3, 2019
• due to a few feedbacks I got, some of you are not happy with switching from LXDE to LXQt edition, so there is the Xfce edition re-built and ready to use
• due to problem with sparky5 theme in the Xfce edition, a new sparky6 theme is set as default (Xfce only)
• many Sparky apps have gotten Russian translations, thank’s to ChourS
• Calamares updated up to 3.2.9
• Firefox replaced by Firefox ESR

Please test the new iso images and report whatever you find.
The 5.8 release candidate iso images can be downloaded from the download/development page.

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects!
Your donations help keeping them alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in June too, please

The 5th monthly report of 2019 of the Sparky project:

• Sparky 4.10 based on Debian stable Stretch has been released
• Linux kernel updated up to version 5.1.6 & 5.0.20 & 5.2-rc2
• Lumina Desktop 1.5.0 re-compiled on Buster/Sparky5 and works fine so moved back to Sparky testing repos; Sparky 4 still uses Lumina 1.4; the Lumina been also put back to APTus and Sparky Advanced Installer
• added to repos: Draco Desktop (a fork of Lumina), QtFM file manager

There is a new tool available for Sparkers: QtFM

What is QtFM?

Lightweight desktop independent Qt file manager for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and macOS.

Features:
– XDG integration
– Customizable interface
– Powerful custom command system
– Customizable key bindings
– Drag & drop functionality
– Tabs support
– Removable storage support
– System tray daemon
– Extensive thumbnail support

Installation:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install qtfm
The package is built and tested on Sparky 5/Debian Buster 64 and 32 bit only.

Make sure this is the first build of QtFM on Sparky so let me know if you find any problem, please.

The QtFM GitHub page: github.com/rodlie/qtfm
The project developes: Ole-André Rodlie, Michal Rost, Wittfella; it is licensed under the GNU GPL-2.

There is a new desktop available for Sparkers: Draco

What is Draco?

Draco is a simple and lightweight desktop environment. While small still features XDG integration, freedesktop services and integration, power and storage management, desktop, panels, multi-monitor support and much more. Draco does not include any user applications.

Installation:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install draco-desktop
The package is built and tested on Sparky 5/Debian Buster 64 and 32 bit only.

Make sure this is the first build of Draco on Sparky so let me know if you find any problem, please.

The Draco GitHub page: github.com/rodlie/draco
The project developer is Ole-André; it is licensed under the BSD-3, LGPL-2.1 and GPL-2.

The first release of Linux kernel of the new 5.1 line just landed in Sparky “unstable” repository.

Build status:
– amd64 – build and installed OK -> uploaded
– 686-pae – build and installed OK -> uploaded

The Sparky’s Linux kernel is available in Sparky “unstable” repository, so enabled it to upgrade (if you have older version already installed) or to make fresh installation:
https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/repository

Follow the Wiki page: https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/linux_kernel to install the latest Sparky’s Linux kernel.

Then reboot your machine to take effects.

To quick remove older version of the Linux kernel, simply run APTus-> System-> Uninstall Old Kernel tool.

New live/install images of SparkyLinux 4.10 “Tyche” are available to download.
Sparky 4 is based on Debian stable line of “Stretch”.

Sparky 4.10 offers a fully featured operating system with a lightweight LXDE desktop environment; and minimal images of MinimalGUI (Openbox) and MinimalCLI (text mode) which lets you install the base system with a desktop of your choice with a minimal set of applications, via the Sparky Advanced Installer.

Sparky 4.10 armhf offers a fully featured operating system for single board mini computers RaspberryPi; with the Openbox window manager as default; and a minimal, text mode CLI image to customize it as you like.

No big changes, new images feature security updates and small improvements, such as:
– full system upgrade from Debian stable Stretch repos as of May 2, 2019
– Linux kernel 4.9.168 (PC)
– Linux kernel 4.14.98 (ARM)

There is no need to reinstall existing Sparky installations of 4.x line, simply make full system upgrade. Make sure you have ‘sparky-apt’ & ‘sparky4-apt’ packages installed, before performing the full upgrade.

Sparky PC:
user: live
password: live
root password is empty

Sparky ARM:
user: pi
password: sparky
root password: toor

New iso/zip images of the stable edition can be downloaded from the download/stable page.

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects!
Your donations help keeping them alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in the May too, please

The 4th monthly report of 2019 of the Sparky project:

• added to repos: alacritty, qt-fsarchiver, strawberry
• Sparky group has been activated at MeWe by lami07, so welcome everybody if you’d like to join us
• Linux kernel updated up to version 5.0.10 & 5.1-rc7
• Sparky 4.10 is on the way, stay tuned
• new Lumina Desktop 1.5.0 popped up so should be build soon on Buster

There is a new tool available for Sparkers: Strawberry

What is Strawberry?

Strawberry is a music player and music collection organizer. It is a fork of Clementine released in 2018 aimed at music collectors, audio enthusiasts and audiophiles. The name is inspired by the band Strawbs. It’s based on a heavily modified version of Clementine created in 2012-2013. It’s written in C++ and Qt 5.

Installation:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install strawberry
or via the Sparky APTus (with Sparky APTus Extra >= 0.2.16).
The tool is available for Sparky 4/Debian Stretch and Sparky 5/Debian Buster.

The Stawberry GitHub page: github.com/jonaski/strawberry
The project developer is Jonas Kvinge; it is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0

There is a new tool available for Sparkers: qt-fsarchiver

What is qt-fsarchiver?

Back up and restore partitions for Debian,Ubuntu, Linux-Mint, Suse and Fedora. qt-fsarchiver a program with a Qt based graphical interface for easy operation the archiving program fsarchiver. qt-fsarchiver has been split into a program with a graphical user interface and a terminal program.

Installation:
If you have a deb package of qt-fsarchive downloaded from the project page and installed – uninstall it before installing a new one from Sparky repos:
sudo apt purge qt-fsarchiver qt4-fsarchiver qt5-fsarchiver
sudo apt update
sudo apt install qt-fsarchiver
or via the latest version of Sparky APTus 0.4.18.
The tool is available for Sparky 4/Debian Stretch and Sparky 5/Debian Buster 32 and 64 bit.
Let me know if you find any problem with installation or using the new tool, please.

The qt-fsarchiver project page: github.com/DieterBaum/qt-fsarchiver
Copyright (C) 2008-2018 Francois Dupoux and Dieter Baum; it is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0

New live/install iso images of SparkyLinux 5.7.1 “Nibiru” are available to download.

This is a minor update of live images of Sparky 5 based on Debian testing “Buster”.

This update provides:
– full disk encrypting via the Calamares installer back
– Linux kernel 4.19.28 as default
– all packages updated from Debian testing repos as of April 02, 2019
– added qCamera and removed Camorama (LXQt iso)
– added qCalculator and removed Galculator (LXQt iso)
– and uGet download manager replaced by Persopolis (LXQt iso)

System reinstallation is not required.
If you have Sparky 5.x installed, simply make full system upgrade.

New iso images can be downloaded from download/rolling page.

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects!
Your donations help keeping them alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in the April too, please

The 3rd monthly report of 2019 of the Sparky project:
• Sparky Tube received a few improvements
• Advanced Installed has a new option which lets you choose autologin without password (suggested by Elton)
• Sparky 5.7 released (LXQt, MinimalGUI/Openbox, MinimalCLI)
• Sparky 5.7 Special Editions released (GameOver, Multimedia & Rescue)
• Linux kernel updated up to version 5.0.5 & 4.20.17 (EOL) & 5.1-rc2
• Added to repos: mkusb, qCalculator, qCamera, Sway, tbsm, mako, bemenu
• Updated sddm-theme-sparky: replaced existing theme by a new one, which doesn’t need plasma as a dependency any more; added another sddm theme to a new ‘sddm-theme1-sparky’ package

There is a new, small desktop available for Sparkers: Sway

What is Sway?

Sway (SirCmpwn’s Wayland compositor) is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3’s features, plus a few extras. This means it is a minimalist, tiling window manager.

Sway is available for users of Sparky 5/Debian Buster amd64 only (in this moment).

Installation:
Make sure you have Sparky Unstable repo enabled, then:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sway
To launch Sway in Wayland session, you need GDM3, SDDM or tbsm to be installed and set as default display manager.
If you don’t want to install gdm3 (and gnome-shell), you can use other display managers, such as LightDM, LXDM, XDM, etc., but they can run Sway in Xorg session with Xwayland (xwayland package has to be installed).

The Sway project page: swaywm.org

There is a new tool available for Sparkers: mkusb

What is mkusb?

The mkusb tool was developed to make it simpler and safer to create boot drives with the method to flash or clone an iso image or a compressed image file. It is using dd under the hood.The target is a mass storage device, often but not always a USB drive, sometimes an internal drive or an eSATA drive.

Installation:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb
or via APTus (+ sparky-aptus-extra 0.2.15).

The mkusb Launchpad repo: launchpad.net/~mkusb/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

New live/install iso images of SparkyLinux 5.7 “Nibiru” special editions: GameOver, Multimedia & Rescue are available to download. Sparky 5 follows rolling release model and is based on Debian testing “Buster”.

The latest iso images follow changes implemented at the Sparky 5.7, and offer additional small changes, such as:
– system updated from Debian testing repos as of March 11, 2019
– a password strength in Calamares installer changed from 8 to 6 signs (minimum)
– torrent files use the DistroWatch tracker as default now (thank’s a lot), but can be found at LinuxTracker service too, as before

System reinstallation is not required. If you have Sparky 5.x installed, simply make full system upgrade to be working in the latest version.

New iso images can be downloaded from download/rolling page.

There are new live/install iso images of SparkyLinux 5.7 “Nibiru” available to download. This is the 1st this year iso image releasing of the rolling line, which is based on Debian testing “Buster”.

Changes:
– system updated from Debian testing repos as of March 4, 2019
– Linux kernel 4.19.16 (5.0 & 4.20.14 available at Sparky “unstable” repos)
– the Calamares installer updated up to version 3.2.4
– user’s folders such as: Documents, Music, Download, etc. are automatically created now in your home dir in Openbox and other, small window managers
– Yad reinstalled to the default Debian’s version + removed old libs (html mode doesn’t work now)
– Linux kernel has been reverted to Debian’s version from testing repos (amd64 / 686 non-pae) as default
– added very small and very simply Sparky Player to MinimalGUI edition; it lets you open almost all known multimedia formats, from a context menu sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/sparky_player
– the system identifies itself with a release number 5.7 now instead of a line number 5
– APTus enlarged off two new sections of applications: AudioTool & VideoTool
– a few small fixes

Additional, small changes at the main, LXQt edition:
– Yarock audio player changed by a lightweight QMMP player with a simply QSUI interface as default
– Xarchiver changed by LXQt-archiver
– Simple Scan changed by SkanLite

System reinstallation is not required.
If you have Sparky 5.x installed, simply make full system upgrade.
New iso images can be downloaded from download/rolling page.

Known issues
Installation Sparky via Calamares (Sparky Installer):
– the full disk encryption in autopartitioning mode is temporary disabled, due to a problem with generating a cryptkey
– encrypting other dirs than root, such as: home, data, etc. in manual mode is possible.

The first release of Linux kernel of the new 5.0 line just landed in Sparky “unstable” repository.

Build status:
– amd64 – build and installed OK -> uploaded
– 686-pae – build and installed OK -> uploaded

The Sparky’s Linux kernel is available in Sparky “unstable” repository, so enabled it to upgrade (if you have older version already installed) or to make fresh installation:
https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/repository

Follow the Wiki page: https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/linux_kernel to install the latest Sparky’s Linux kernel.

Then reboot your machine to take effects.

To quick remove older version of the Linux kernel, simply run APTus-> System-> Uninstall Old Kernel tool.

Many thanks to all of you for supporting Sparky!
Your donations help keeping Sparky project alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in the March too, please