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Article posted on Apr 3

apt-get Broken in 87.0

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 3, 2006, 3:17 am

A rather nasty bug in unionfs for 2.6.16 has made installing via apt-get impossible. However, there is a workaround. You must move /var/lib/apt and /var/cache/apt to /tmp and reconfigure apt to use these new directories. A script has been released that makes this easier. Simply do:

# sh <(curl http://www.finnix.org/files/scripts/apt-get-unionfs-workaround)

This requires about 15MB of memory available, and should be done before an apt-get update, otherwise it will take up another 15MB of memory.

Let this be a lesson never to use CVS development snapshots (unionfs 1.1.3 does not compile against 2.6.16), despite the maintainers assuring that it's "stable".

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Article posted on Mar 31

Finnix 87.0 Released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 31, 2006, 10:22 am

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 87.0 for the x86, PowerPC, UML/Xen, and iPod platforms.

Finnix 87.0 contains new features, including Linux kernel 2.6.16, full automatic LVM detection, console mouse support, SMP support for the PowerPC release, dynamic filesystem overlays, improved IDE DMA support, and a utility to assist with creating a bootable USB thumb drive with Finnix. Finnix can now also be installed on the popular iPod hardware, for a total of 5 platforms Finnix can be run on, though this new platform is still considered experimental.

Home page: http://www.finnix.org/
SourceForge page: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/finnix/
Download: http://www.finnix.org/Download
Release notes: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_87.0_Release_Notes
Finnix for iPod: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_for_iPod

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Article posted on Mar 28

SourceForge Downloads Pass 10,000

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 28, 2006, 2:34 am

As of right now, the number of SourceForge downloads is at 10,003. This includes all final builds from Finnix 0.03 to present. However, this does not include Finnix 0.03 downloads directly from the original site, or Finnix 86.x pre-releases. Counting those, the count is around 17,000.

Still, this is reason enough to celebrate!

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Article posted on Jan 21

New content on Finnix CDs in the store

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on January 21, 2006, 11:00 pm

In order to justify using a 700MB CDR to burn a 100MB distro (and possibly the $6 price tag), Finnix CDs bought through the store now include over 300MB of extra content not included with the downloadable version. This includes all packages needed to install Debian "sarge" via debootstrap, as well as stage 1, 2 and 3 Gentoo tarballs. Now you can effectively install either Debian or Gentoo without ever going out to the Internet.

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Article posted on Jan 15

Two small updates: finnix-scripts, finnix-3ware-install

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on January 15, 2006, 12:26 am

A typo has been found in the finnix-hwsubmit program (included in finnix-scripts) that prevents the output of "lspci -vvn" from being included with the report. If you use finnix-hwsubmit (and if not, why aren't you?), you will want to do an "apt-get update" and "apt-get install finnix-scripts" before submitting.

Additionally, a small package called finnix-3ware-install has been released. At work, we have a great number of machines with 3ware SATA RAID controllers in them, and using the 3ware CLI management program (tw_cli) can be handy. Unfortunately, the CLI is binary-only and closed-source[0x01], so it cannot be directly distributed with Finnix. Instead, I have created a script (that comes in the finnix-3ware-install package) that shows you the 3ware EULA, then downloads and installs it automatically. If you want to use this package, "apt-get update", then "apt-get install finnix-3ware-install". Enjoy!

[0x01] Why? 3ware's drivers are GPL, and the 3ware developers work with the kernel.org people so the drivers included with vanilla Linux kernels are usually identical to the version that 3ware distributes itself. However, the array management tools are closed-source.

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Article posted on Jan 8

Finnix 86.2 Released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on January 8, 2006, 2:35 am

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 86.2 for the x86, PowerPC, and UML/Xen platforms.

Finnix 86.2 contains several new features, including Linux kernel 2.6.15, improved hardware detection (using data from Fedora Core 4), improved reliability when booting from USB CDROM and thumb devices, and an expanded general-purpose task utility, aptly named "finnix". In addition, Finnix may now be installed and run directly from a hard drive. The ISO size has also been reduced, from 100MiB to 92MiB on the x86 platform, without any loss of functionality.

Home page
SourceForge page
Download: x86, PowerPC
Release notes

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Article posted on Jan 1

New website, remaster guide, upcoming release

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on January 1, 2006, 11:18 pm

To celebrate the new year, a new website has been launched. This site uses MediaWiki, and includes all content from the previous site. Since it is a wiki, if you have any info to add, just go ahead and edit!

In addition, a remaster guide has been posted. This guide shows you how to quickly edit Finnix to suit your needs.

"Hey, it's been over a month without a release! Are you going to take another 5 year vacation!" No, 86.2 is coming along well. All of my desired changes have been completed, I'm just waiting for Linux 2.6.15 to go gold. The 2.6.15-rc builds are working out very well, so a Finnix release will probably be made right after 2.6.15 is released.

New Finnix website: http://www.finnix.org/
Finnix Remaster Guide: http://www.finnix.org/Remastering_Finnix

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Article posted on Nov 22

Finnix 86.1 now available on Linode.com

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on November 22, 2005, 11:34 pm

I am pleased to announce the availability of Finnix version 86.1 as a recovery distribution for Linode customers. Linode.com provides a highly customizable Virtual Machine Management Platform using Linux, that lets you configure your own server complete with root access, without the burden of a dedicated server's upkeep, maintenance, and co-location fees.

With the addition of Finnix as a deployable distribution, you can now easily perform maintenance or recovery of your existing Linode system. Finnix can even be used to create new distribution installations, such as installing Gentoo from scratch. Linode uses User Mode Linux (UML) to provide service, and UML support is built into Finnix 86.1, so all functionality in the CD version of Finnix is automatically available when you boot Finnix through Linode.

Please see http://www.linode.com/ for more information about Linode, view available system configurations, and to sign up for new service. Existing Linode customers may go to http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1971 for instructions on how to deploy Finnix to your Linode account.

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Article posted on Nov 21

Finnix 86.1 for x86/PowerPC/UML/Xen Released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on November 21, 2005, 9:04 pm

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 86.1 for the x86, PowerPC, and UML/Xen platforms.

PowerPC Support: The largest change for version 86.1 has been the inclusion of a PowerPC port. Finnix for PowerPC (Finnix-PPC) is a 115MB ISO that functions identically to the main x86 Finnix distribution. Simply insert the CD and boot while holding down the "C" key. Finnix-PPC is well supported on G4 and NewWorld G3 hardware, including PowerMacs, PowerBooks, iBooks, iMacs and the Mac Mini. G5 support is present, but still experimental.

UML/Xen Support: Finnix 86.1 can be deployed as a guest image on User Mode Linux (UML) and Xen virtualization systems. UML/Xen administrators can go to http://www.finnix.org/uml.php for information on deploying Finnix in a UML or Xen environment. Additionally, the x86 Finnix CD includes a built-in UML demo. Once at the bash prompt, you can type "finnix create", and a UML guest session is created within the running CD session, using the same media as the CD session itself. Full networking is available in this running guest.

Other Changes: Finnix 86.1 includes Linux kernel 2.6.14.2, unionfs 1.1.1, and updated upstream packages. Many bugs have been fixed; most visibly, the CD will now reliably eject before system shutdown. For a full changelog, see the link below.

Home page: http://www.finnix.org/
SourceForge page: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/finnix/
Download:
* x86: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/finnix/finnix-86.1.iso?download
* PowerPC: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/finnix/finnix-ppc-86.1.iso?download
ChangeLog: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=3892&release_id=371261
Finnix for UML/Xen: http://www.finnix.org/uml.php

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Article posted on Nov 16

Finnix 86.1-pre1 Released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on November 16, 2005, 1:02 pm

Finnix version 86.1-pre1 has been released for x86 and PowerPC platforms today. Yes, you heard right. There is now a Finnix PowerPC ISO available for download. Documentation will be written by the time 86.1 final is released, but the short of it is:

* G4s and Blue-and-White G3s (NewWorld) are well supported, and have been tested on about a dozen machines so far, including various G4 desktops, a few G4 laptops, Mac Minis, and a G3 iMac.
* There is a G5 kernel in the distro (type "finnix64" at the boot prompt), but I do not have a G5 to test it on. Use at your own risk.
* OldWorld G3s may work as well (using the BootX method), but will not be supported, and have not been tested.

There are also some other new features, which will be announced when 86.1 is final. Look at the changelog, download the ISOs, and let me know if anything comes up.

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