
   Contents

        * 1 Introduction
        * 2 General information about new features and major changes
             + 2.1 Upgrading from previous releases
             + 2.2 Editions
        * 3 Deprecation
             + 3.1 KDE 3
             + 3.2 Icewm
        * 4 Changes regarding software packages
             + 4.1 X.org 7.4
             + 4.2 Tcl/Tk 8.6, new layout
             + 4.3 Icon on desktop for hotplug devices
             + 4.4 Gnome file manager defaults to browser mode
             + 4.5 Syslinux and HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
        * 5 Changes regarding installation and Drakxtools
             + 5.1 Use of urpmi in installer
             + 5.2 Hybrid isos
             + 5.3 EXT4 support
             + 5.4 Ability to browse partition content
             + 5.5 msec redesign
             + 5.6 drakxnet, interactive firewall
             + 5.7 drakauth
        * 6 Other technical information
             + 6.1 Faster boot
             + 6.2 New services

Introduction

   This page contains important information the Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring
   (2009.1) release.

   The following topics are covered:
     * General information about new features and major changes
     * Changes to the Mandriva installer and upgrade instructions for
       users of previous releases
     * Changes to supported hardware and drivers
     * Changes regarding software packages
     * Other technical information for experienced users

   Please also refer to Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring Errata - the Errata for
   the 2009 Spring release. The Errata page contains information on known
   bugs and problems in the release and instructions on fixing, avoiding
   or working around them.

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is not yet released. These release notes
   currently cover the pre-releases of Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring. The
   current pre-release is Mandriva Linux 2009.1 RC2.

   For a more detailed and graphical introduction to the most obvious
   user-visible changes in this release, please see the Release Tour.

General information about new features and major changes

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring includes the following versions of the major
   distribution components:
     * kernel 2.6.29,
     * X.org 7.4,
     * KDE 4.2.2 ,
     * GNOME 2.26,
     * XFCE 4.6,
     * Mozilla Firefox 3,
     * OpenOffice.org 3 (based on the Go-OO branch) including 2 new
       extensions: presentation-minimize(to reduce file size of a
       presentation) and pdfimport(to modify existing pdf)
     * Qt Creator 1

   The Release Tour contains more information on new features and changes
   in the new versions of these and other components.

Upgrading from previous releases

   Please note that if you use the Free or Powerpack editions to do an
   upgrade install from a previous Mandriva Linux release, KDE 3 - if
   installed - will be replaced by KDE 4, and your personal KDE settings
   and customizations will be lost. If you do not want this to happen, we
   recommend you either use the installer's ability to add internet
   repositories prior to doing the upgrade, or do a network installation,
   or use the newly-introduced ability of Mandriva Online (the Mandriva
   update notification applet) to perform upgrades from one release to the
   next. Using any of these methods, the upgrade process will have KDE 3
   packages available, and your upgraded Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring system
   will have KDE 3 and your personal settings preserved.

   Upgrading between releases of Mandriva always has the potential to
   cause some problems. Upgrading is supported and we do test upgrades,
   but due to the huge range of packages and hardware configurations
   possible, it is always the case that in your particular situation, the
   upgrade may cause a problem we did not anticipate. Therefore we
   recommend that you always back up your system prior to upgrading.

Editions

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is available in several different editions:
     * the One edition is an installable live CD integrating the latest
       proprietary drivers, available free of charge. six different
       versions of the One edition are available: two for GNOME and four
       for KDE, each with a different set of supported languages.
     * the Powerpack edition includes support, services, a wider range of
       packages, and third-party proprietary applications, including trial
       versions of LightZone, and a subset of the Fluendo multimedia codec
       pack, providing support for MP3, WMA and WMV files.
     * the Free edition is a pure free / open source software edition,
       without any of the non-free packages bundled with other editions,
       available as a free download.

   For more information on the various editions, see Choosing the Mandriva
   Linux edition that's right for you.

   Additional information is also available online:
     * List of Compatible/Certified Computers and The detailed Mandriva
       Hardware Database
     * The Mandriva User Forums
     * The Mandriva Wiki

Deprecation

KDE 3

   KDE 3 is no longer included as a complete desktop in Mandriva Linux
   2009 Spring. KDE 3 packages will remain in Contrib repository but
   without official maintainance. KDE3 will be completely dropped from
   repositories for 2010 version.

Icewm

   Default light environment is now LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop
   Environment) instead of icewm in all available isos.

Changes regarding software packages

X.org 7.4

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring contains a set of X.org packages most
   similar to the upstream 'X.org 7.4' release, particularly include
   version 1.6.1 of the X.org X server. This version introduces some
   significant changes, particularly input hotplugging. This involves the
   X server handling detection and configuration of input devices, rather
   than relying on the user or the distribution to do it and load the
   appropriate input driver. Most input devices will now use the evdev
   driver.

   Another significant change is that all video adapter drivers must now
   use the libpciaccess interface. All core X.org drivers have been ported
   to this interface and will continue to work as normal, but this may
   have implications for external drivers. As of Alpha 1, the sisimedia
   driver used to support SiS 670 / 671 cards has not been ported to the
   libpciaccess interface, and will not work correctly. Users of these
   cards must resort to using the vesa driver for now.

   Default behaviour for now disables Ctrl+Alt+backspace shortcut to
   restart X server. This behaviour can be reverted to the old default by
   adding 'Option "DontZap" "false"' to the Section '"ServerFlags"' in
   /etc/X11/xorg.conf .

   fglrx is now supported on recent cards. Non supported cards are
   configured to use open source driver by default.

Tcl/Tk 8.6, new layout

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring includes the newest Tcl/Tk release, 8.6. As
   of Alpha 1, 8.6 alpha 3 is included. As almost all Tcl-based packages
   have been ported to the new release and tested, end users should not
   notice any problems as a result of this change. However, please note
   that a new policy for Tcl-based applications has been adopted as a part
   of this release. Notably, it specifies that all Tcl extensions must be
   installed to /usr/share/tcl(version) (for architecture independent
   extensions) or /usr/lib/tcl(version) / /usr/lib64/tcl(version) (for
   architecture dependent extensions). If you are working with Tcl in
   Mandriva, please take note of this policy and be sure to install any of
   your own extensions in a way that complies with the policy. Extensions
   placed simply somewhere within /usr/lib will no longer be found by Tcl
   in Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring.

Icon on desktop for hotplug devices

   Starting with Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring, icons to start applications
   for hotplug devices (webcam, tvtuner) are no longer added on desktop by
   default. To get the previous behaviour, add DYNAMIC=yes to
   /etc/sysconfig/system.

Gnome file manager defaults to browser mode

   In contrast to previous Mandriva releases, the Nautilus file manager
   under Gnome now defaults to browser mode. To restore the old behaviour,
   go to System > Preferences > File manager > Behavior and uncheck the
   box 'Always open in browser windows'.

Syslinux and HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)

   Syslinux has been updated to the latest version. Syslinux 3.75 provides
   many new features.

   New module has been added in syslinux: HDT (Hardware Detection Tool).
   This module is available from the installation menu. Select it from the
   menu and you will be able to display hardware related low-level
   information for an x86 compatible system for components such as: PCI,
   DMI, CPU, Disks, Syslinux, Linux Kernel modules needed by this host,
   PXE environment.

Changes regarding installation and Drakxtools

Use of urpmi in installer

   A lot of work has been done on installer in order to use urpmi by
   default in installer. Main advantages are:
     * reduce code duplication
     * improve maintainance
     * same codepath used either by installer, urpmi or One generation
       tool

Hybrid isos

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring One editions have been built as hybrid ISO.
   These isos can be easily dumped on USB memory sticks, which is quite
   useful when your hardware does not have CD or DVD reader but also has
   faster IO.

EXT4 support

   Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring support the Ext4 filesystem, the newest and
   latest evolution of the most used Linux filesystem, Ext3. In many ways,
   Ext4 is a deeper improvement over Ext3 than Ext3 was over Ext2. Ext3
   was mostly about adding journaling to Ext2, but Ext4 modifies important
   data structures of the filesystem such as the ones destined to store
   the file data. The result is a filesystem with an improved design,
   better performance, reliability and features. Users can directly
   install Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring on Ext4 partitions as the DrakX
   installer has gained support for it.

Ability to browse partition content

   It's now possible to browse directly the partitions contents directly
   within the DrakX installer and diskdrake partitionning tool.

msec redesign

   Msec is a software framework intended to control and manage the
   security of the system. It was created and integrated first for
   Mandrake 8.0, and has been nearly totally redesigned for Mandriva
   2009.1. The new version of msec introduces support for plugins, a new
   graphical interface, support for custom security levels, desktop
   notifications for security issues, advanced logging and improved
   documentation. By default, only 2 security levels are available,
   focused on desktop and server usage, but unlimited number of additional
   levels can be created and deployed after the installation. The detailed
   project description is available here.

drakxnet, interactive firewall

   This new release comes with many bug fixes and improvements in Mandriva
   Network tools, such as support for advanced network configuration, new
   firewall options (NFS, syslog, dhcp and bacula, among many others),
   improved network monitoring application, additional pre-configured
   Internet providers, integration with new network devices and support
   for different wireless regulatory domains. Drakconnect application also
   attempts to diagnose connection errors when configuring new
   connections, determining the possible source of connectivity issues.

drakauth

   Mandriva 2009.1 introduces improved support for LDAP and winbind
   authentication in drakauth application.

Other technical information

Faster boot

   2009 Spring improves again boot time, in two ways.

   First, mkinitrd was improved to only wait for the exact devices needed
   to boot, while it used to wait for some useless devices initialization.

   Then, the boot time is improved more thanks to Speedboot. It starts all
   needed functions for the graphical system (display manager) first and
   then, continue all other actions needed for a full boot, in background.

New services

   There is now a new service named network-auth which permit to wait for
   network being ready, to start services relying on it. This is needed
   when using winbind, network filesystem for users. To use it, chkconfig
   --add network-auth is needed, or use drakauth for that.
