Arch based Charka final released today.

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06251


Phil Miller has announced the release of Chakra GNU/Linux 0.2.0, an Arch-based live and installation CD featuring the KDE desktop: "The Chakra development team is proud to announce the availability of 'Jaz', our first live image using our stable repositories. We've been working hard since March 2010 on Chakra GNU/Linux. Ten developers hacking, packing and writing documentations for our new distribution. Chakra is a fork of Arch Linux. We are using Pacman but working on our own package management called 'akabei'. Since the split we created some confusion but we are going in the right direction. Over 5670 packages are now available for our new distribution and over 500 get installed by this media. Features: Linux kernel 2.6.33.7 with LZMA support, KDE SC 4.4.5, X.Org Server 1.7.7, Catalyst 10.6, NVIDIA 256.x and NVIDIA legacy series.

 

Been waiting for this to pop up.
I tested the alpha and beta in VM: ran great.
Lots of work.
Time to try again.

LOL; one "holy grail" a potted Arch with some user friendly tools Heh heh.
--ducking for cover--

I've run Arch with some ..erm.. practise and liked it, but always felt there was a lot of "maintenance"; and a heightened sense of "I could really screw this up": ( similar feelings in Slack ) my geek index runs to more the user end rather than cli gurudom.

PS:
good DW this week. Nice hard edged reviews of some distros.
Some big players on shaky ground ??
AS ever, lots of action.

As ever, kudos to all the peeps who support and hold the line for Linux.

 

I am downloading as well, Rolling Release means you stay current no matter what but there is always price to pay from breakage, have to see how the package manager in this behaves, need to pull in all the dependencies on its own, specially x32 programs under x64.

After programming for years on UNIX, my geek index is all but over, its functionality and use for me so I use Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Downloading now!

 

Keep us posted on your progress with Chakra, there is another variant of this called Kahel OS which has been out for a while.

http://www.kahelos.org/

 

Well, I attempted to install Chakra this morning and the installer is freezing at 14%. I have tried 3 times and get the same. If anybody else is having this problem I would like to know. But based on the live cd it's looks appealing. I have no opinion yet, since it is still in it's early days and will wait for the next release.

 

Whats your graphic card?

 

ATI HD4670

 

Are their repositories signed ?

 

'Lo guys:
Dl'd and went for an install on VMware: remember; low geek index here:

I had installed previous Chakra releses with no real issues: had some probs here with partitioning: Installer kept locking at 24% ( heh not 14 ) Took afew tries to realise it's a nice tool. Needed to get to grips with the partitioner. Other peeps may not have the same issues.
At end of install: "Reboot" button greyed out and "configure your system" greyed out.

TG for VMs: was able to try IDE/SCSI, dump hds redo partitioning etc etc

Installer looks ok ...would be better if I could get the resolution to fit my screen real estate !!
Neither option Simple or advanced would allow me control of res.
Could be a 'feature" of VM video driver ??, but other distros don't have an issue .
I'm aint up to going beyond that.

Not really great trying to do an installation "off the screen" and I really dont want to have to redo config files straight up.
Thankfully Kate is the editor and I have always found 'her' to be most friendly

Into installed version: now: where's the beautiful Shaman...what !! not there.

I had really expected this to be the next step up from previous releases; ie: the full $$
Not so: not quite stable: not the full set of tools.
Restricted mirrors.
Very limited apps available in default install.
Could not find network applet ?? Connected, but could not see it.

Obviously KDE commited: had to 'rearrange' the pacman.conf and mirror lists to get FF from Arch extras: just checking ....
Installed with pacman updated etc etc: no launch !!
Tried a little to get the gtk tools..too much trouble.

(I'm more a gnomic than KDEick )

Do love that pacman ...with wget: a very nearly unbeatable combo...the reason I keep going back to Arch ..or at least a GUIer version..

I really admire what the Chakra team is doing..they seem to be getting a lot of interest and respect...even on the dreaded Arch forums.

After my last experience..
http://chakra-project.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=439
and I admit a very superficial read of the release note..fools rush in and all that..I was expecting the full monty.

Nonetheless, I can see real improvements and a real commitment to getting the goods out.

Frankly, if I had a message for the devs: Keep cool, don't lose heart there are a world of nerds out there who are willing to wait.
Heh.
Seriously, It's certainly not my place to give them grief...but there is a stream of interest and rather than go off too soon on the release cycle and cop some backlash: keep rolling.

Hopefully there will be some more helpful analytical and helpful feedback to the team than this.

Absolutely not fair to compare apples and cherries re the size of the team and the scope of the plan - ahem: perhaps some inertia from elsewhere -

It's frustrating that I cant offer anymore to the devs than this twaddle: have to rely on the butterfly effect
I am keen: from the pond scum perspective: just too raw for me..... yet.
Prolly lots of PEBKAU issues.
Looking forward to next releases.

I'll leave Jaz sitting for a while: and come back later maybe when some pros have had a chance to review.

 

HAd a very thoughtful and detailed reply to my post at the Chakra forums from someone who knows what's what.
http://chakra-project.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?pid=20820#p20820

Chakra road map:
http://chakra-project.org/wiki/index.php/Chakra_Roadmap

The butterfly effect is real.
Need to research this 'bundle' strategy a bit more.

 

Unfortunately I passed on this as there is no x64 version out there yet.

 

From what I read it was not clear as to what stage this new development is at from users POV:
From the Chakra Team:

Yes:

See the Road Map for detailed info.
http://chakra-project.org/wiki/index.php/Chakra_Roadmap

So I "tested" a "not even Beta release"

No problem. Looking forward to how this unfolds.

 

Interesting project. The only distro I know that really focuses on KDE, and is not SUSE (if you can't tell I loathe (open)SUSE).
I've looked into KDE again and I think it's finally reached the level of 3.5 again in terms of features and stability. It's openbox >* for me but a full blown DE has its merits too, so longs as it's not GNOME (yeah that too).

If any of their devs is reading this: I hope akabei will use signed packages. It's surely easier to implement good security right from the start than to promise to fix it later (muuuuch later, the pacman bug is still open, right?)
Bundling a MAC/RBAC system would be nice too :=)

 

If you like KDE, Kubuntu with backports ppa added using KDE 4.5.1 runs quite good actually and its close to pure KDE but gtk apps run good as well.

 

Haven't looked into that lately, I know Kubuntu always had its fans but the general opinion was it's one of the worst KDE implementations of any popular distro and always felt like a second class citizen to Ubuntu "proper".
It's not just prejudice and hearsay though, I regularly gave it a try at least in form of a live CD. I think 10.04 "RTM" was the last but KDE is moving fast, so thanks for the recommendation.

 

Wrong, Kubuntu is quite stable and best of all, the PPA is actively and promptly updated letting you run KDE latest on a stable LTS release, thats a luxury indeed.

 

There is now. Updated to version 0.2.1!

 

Thanks a lot

 

Moving right along:
02.2 ( 32 bit only ) released 26-9-10
Time for a more measured test.

 

updated to 0.2.3 today.

 

0.3-Beta1 (Ashoc) has been released!

 

Since this board stays pretty active on what is happening with the GNU/Linux distribution "Chakra", I will update some of the development here from time to time.
Chakra is still in Alpha stage, after 5 Alpha releases fully based on Arch-Linux, Chakra is moving it's base gradually to it's own. The repo structure is core, platform, desktop and apps, all four are available in "stable" and "testing" versions, all packages in those repo's are build by Chakra, that part the move from Arch is done. The package manager is still Pacman, a lot of work on a new package manager, called "Akabei" is done at the moment, once Akabei is ready, the move from Arch will be complete.
There have been three development releases so far, for the new base of Chakra, 0.1 was Phoix, it was partially based on testing repo's, partially on stable. Once all repo's were deemed ready to move to "stable", 0.2 Jaz development release came out, it is currently on version 0.2.3, and very stable, once installed.
Ashoc will be 0.3, and is currently on .0.2.75-2 http://chakra-project.org/news/inde...Linux-0.3-beta2-Respin-0.2.75.2-released.html
Features latest xorg, using kernel 2.6.36, and KDE 4.5.3, and is still in the testing repo's.

A lot of work still needs to be done for the installer "Tibe", it is very functional right now, but has a bit too much of a manual, to make sure it is used correctly.
The bundle system is functional too, the plan will be to only bundle the major GTK apps (GIMP, Firefox, Libre-office/Opne-office), since Chakra keeps it"s repo's virtually GTK free.

 

"lo abveritas...
Thx for looking in and keeping this interested group utd
Hope you keep dropping in.