Download Mandrakelinux 10.2 RC1

The Mandrakesoft development team has released the first release candidate of Mandrakelinux version 10.2. As the release notes below show us, a lot of new features have been added. This also includes the option for a full installation, after which the CDs are no longer needed for installing new packages. In addition, the ALSA library is now used for sound and Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is included. The release notes look like this:

The first Release Candidate of the Mandrakelinux 10.2 is available for computers x86 compatible via FTP or bittorrent†

The final version is due in two weeks, it is now very important for you to give the more feedback as possible.

You can post bugs with bugzilla. Please check that your bugs have not already been reported.

Now some reminder of 10.2 features:

• Full CD copy during the installation so that CDs are not needed anymore to install new packages.
• Internet sources configuration during installation.
• New drakstats tool to give statistics on installed packages.
• Sound multiplexing with new ALSA library, even with cards which do not support it.
• linux kernel 2.6.11
• KDE 3.3.2 compiled with the -fvisibility option of gcc for enhanced performance.
• Installation boot with an USB key with the all.img image.
• Mozilla-firefox 1.0.1 with several translation files
• New removable device management with Gamin/HAL/gnome-volume-manager
• Screen resolution enhanced to include a better laptop and LCD support, especially with non 4/3 screen ratio.
• ndiswrapper support in drakconnect to use Microsoft Windows drivers for WiFi cards.

[break]The first release candidate of Mandrakelinux 10.2 has also been released for the PPC platform. The release notes do look different as you can see here:[/break]The first release candidate of the Mandrakelinux 10.2 for PPC machine is available on most FTP mirrors†

Compared to the beta 1, the following changes have been made:

• sound should now work on the mac mini but the volume still cannot be changed
• packages needed for printing are on the CDs
• high memory (>1GB RAM) support enabled in default kernels
• no more ‘rs6k’ kernel images, maybe this fixes the “missing default entry” boot problem after install

New issue:
fb console may not work on mac mini, try video=ofonly as mentioned in the release notes.