Release v5.1.1

Release Notes v5.1.1

This release focuses on bug fixes, improvements in Secure Boot support, and enhancements to the build system and configuration.

1. Critical Bug Fixes

• Fixed live-config component execution error that prevented proper system initialization
• Corrected session manager default size calculation and filesystem operations
• Fixed installer integration with configurator and boot menu language detection
• Resolved Ventoy compatibility issues across multiple tools

2. Build System and Code Quality Optimization

• Refined Secure Boot support with improved lockdown mode detection in minioslib and GRUB configuration
• Enhanced Dracut integration as a primary initramfs builder with automatic detection
• Improved unmounting process with lazy unmount fallback and resource release delay
• Refactored package list for XFCE desktop, removing unnecessary dependencies
• Updated ntfs3-dkms and realtek-rtl8723cs-dkms dependencies
• Added locale cleanup for Ubuntu and updated pulseaudio condition

3. MiniOS Tools (minios-tools package)

• Enhanced lightdm configuration to dynamically detect and set autologin session
• Updated lightdm-gtk-greeter configuration to set font size, add indicators, and update default user image format
• Added locale, timezone, and keyboard parameters to kernel command line in GRUB config
• Improved Ventoy compatibility across all tools with new cleanup function

4. System Components

• Enhanced live-config components to support default Debian Live paths alongside MiniOS paths
• Added conditional font loading in GRUB based on lockdown status
• Fixed execution errors in configuration scripts

5. Submodule Updates

• Updated flux.minios.dev with new translations and improved language handling
• Added app.js with download functionality
• Standardized all translation files with new structure
• Added missing translation keys across all languages

v5.1.0

v5.1.0

This release includes bug fixes for all issues discovered since v5.0.0, along with new features and improvements.

1. Build System and Code Quality Optimization

• Improved Man Page Generation: The Makefile and debian/rules have been updated to improve man page generation and localization.
• Translation Enhancements: The translation process has been improved, with updated .po files and better statistics output.
• Package Handling: The package installation logic has been refactored to streamline repository handling, especially for Ubuntu.
• Code Refactoring: Several scripts have been refactored for improved clarity, readability, and functionality.

2. User Experience (UX) and Interface Improvements

• Boot Menu: Multilingual support has been added for the SYSLINUX and GRUB boot menus.
• Boot Parameters: Added automatic timezone and keyboard layout configuration based on selected language in boot menu
• Desktop Keyboard Setup: Added automatic keyboard layout configuration in desktop environment from system settings. Now supports keyboard model, layout, variant, and options (including layout switching combinations like grp:ctrl_shift_toggle, grp:caps_toggle). Configuration is processed by live-config component 0150-keyboard-configuration and applied to XFCE/Fluxbox desktop environments. Desktop keyboard setup utility moved to minios-tools package.
• Virtual Machine Display: Added minios-virtual-resolution utility for automatic screen resolution adjustment in virtual machines without guest utilities. Supports virtres=WIDTHxHEIGHT kernel parameter and novirtres to disable. Moved to minios-tools package.
• Ventoy Compatibility: Compatibility symlinks for Ventoy have been added to improve the boot experience.

3. System and Package Management

• New Ubuntu Support: Support for Ubuntu Bionic and Focal has been added to the build configuration.
• Kernel Management: The kernel options in minios-cmd have been refactored, replacing kernel-type with kernel-flavour.
• Package Updates: Several packages have been added and removed to optimize the different MiniOS editions. Added firmware-mediatek package to improve support for MediaTek wireless adapters.
• Audio System Modernization: Transitioned from PulseAudio to PipeWire for Standard, Toolbox, and Ultra editions, providing modern audio/video routing and lower latency.

4. Applications and Tools Updates

Session Manager:

• Major update with new functionality - added session export/import to .tar.zst archives with automatic mode conversion support
• Implemented session copy and conversion between modes (native/dynfilefs/raw)
• Added full FAT32/NTFS filesystem support with fallocate for raw sessions and sync after mkfs.ext4
• Implemented disk space checking for all operations
• Fixed session size handling with proper size preservation and corrected MB/bytes conversions
• Changed default session size from 4000MB to 1000MB
• Fixed GUI SpinButton range and crash issues
• Improved reliability on FAT32 filesystems
• Added MiniOS version/edition detection helpers
• Updated bash completion for new commands
• Added experimental dracut-based initrd support with path corrections

MiniOS Installer:

• Added experimental dracut-based initrd support with automatic detection
• Implemented multilingual configuration copying and localized bootloader configs
• Enhanced SYSLINUX configuration processing with localized configs and fallback mechanisms
• Refactored bootloader detection to support multiple types
• Auto-detect boot menu language from cmdline locales parameter
• Set boot menu language combo box to value inherited from cmdline
• Remove live-config parameters from boot configs for localized installations (parameters stored in minios/config.conf instead)
• Enhanced integration with configurator - automatically passes -i flag for parameter inheritance
• User settings from current live session are automatically detected and suggested during installation
• Added French and Portuguese (Portugal) translations
• Improved Ventoy compatibility symlink handling
• Updated zero_fill_disk function to 2MB overwrite size
• Added gir1.2-udisks-2.0 dependency

MiniOS Configurator:

• Added -i/--inherit-cmdline option to automatically inherit configuration settings from kernel command line
• Configurator detects and uses settings from the running live system when launched from installer
• Configuration is pre-filled with current boot parameters for improved installation workflow
• Added support for parsing 21 unique config parameters from kernel command line (42 cmdline parameter variants)

Kernel Manager:

• Added automatic detection and support for both dracut and livekit initramfs builders
• Implemented JSON output support
• Enhanced error handling in main function
• Improved encoding detection in Syslinux config updates
• Added multilingual SYSLINUX configuration support
• Updated translations
• Improved Ventoy compatibility

MiniOS Tools (sb2iso, dir2sb, etc.):

• Implemented experimental dracut-based initrd support across all tools
• Improved Ventoy compatibility with new cleanup function and method changes
• Enhanced sb2iso script with unified menu type handling and automatic bootloader type detection
• Improved language support and refactored variable names for clarity
• Added bash completion functions for dir2sb, rmsbdir, savechanges, and sb2dir
• Suppressed error output in file searches
• Removed unnecessary source paths
• Updated documentation

Mini Commander:

• New application added to repository - simplified clone of Midnight Commander for terminal environments
• Provides dual-pane file manager interface with basic file operations

Ncurses Menu:

• New application added to repository - terminal-based menu utility
• Features multi-line title support and improved layout handling

Rescuezilla:

• Replaced nbd-server and nbd-client dependencies with nbdkit
• Updated SVG button files for improved interface

DriveUtility:

• Enhanced disk filtering logic to hide mounted disks by default for improved safety
• Renamed "Show all disks (DANGEROUS)" checkbox to "Show mounted disks"
• Added confirmation dialog for operations on mounted devices with color-coded buttons and detailed risk warnings
• Fixed mountutils to allow operations on mounted devices when explicitly confirmed by advanced users
• Added support for optical drives (CD/DVD) in Create Image mode for ISO creation
• Updated translations for new UI strings across all supported languages

Flux Tools:

• Added Session Manager and Kernel Manager integration to fbliveapp
• Implemented gettext support for translations in fbappselect, fbdesktop, and fbliveapp scripts
• Updated French translations
• Refined VLC descriptions and installation prompts
• Lowered bash dependency to 4.4
• Added manual pages

5. System Components and Documentation

Live Config:

• Enhanced configuration scripts to detect initramfs type for ISO paths
• Improved user-media configuration to check for from.log in initramfs log directory
• Updated init script to copy config.conf if it exists
• Refactored components to support default Debian Live paths alongside MiniOS paths
• Added support for fluxbox-flux alongside fluxbox-slax

Elementary MiniOS Icon Theme:

• Added new icons - media-floppy and package-x-generic at 64px size

Documentation:

• Updated with priority queue regex pattern matching support
• Added new boot parameters (including automount)
• Comprehensive Rebuilding ISO documentation
• Added curl to required packages list

6. Dracut Integration

• Dracut as a Primary Initramfs Builder: This release integrates dracut as a fully supported alternative initramfs builder. While MiniOS continues to use livekit by default as the stable and production-ready option, dracut can now be selected during system builds by setting the INITRAMFS_BUILDER variable in build.conf. This provides users with more flexibility and choice in their system configurations.
• Script and Configuration Updates: Numerous scripts have been updated to support both livekit and dracut, including minios-init, minios-shutdown, and various build scripts. The system automatically detects which initramfs builder was used and adapts accordingly.

Full Changelog: v5.0.0...v5.1.0

Release v5.1.0-rc2

Release notes for v5.1.0-rc2

Release v5.1.0-rc1

Release notes for v5.1.0-rc1

v5.0.0

v5.0.0

A Brief Overview of the Work Done

From March to August 2025, the MiniOS project underwent a fundamental modernization phase. During this period, over 600 commits were made, including more than 300 significant changes affecting all aspects of the system: from the basic architecture and build process to user applications and the visual interface.

1. Core Architecture Modernization

• Transition to live-config: Our minios-boot initialization system has been replaced by the standard Debian mechanism, live-config. This has unified the live system setup process, adding new capabilities while retaining old ones. live-config has been adapted for MiniOS needs, particularly for supporting extended configuration, settings synchronization, password setup, and options for linking/mounting user directories.

• New Codebase: The system is now based on Debian 13 "Trixie".

• Transition to the Debian Kernel: We decided to abandon our custom kernel and use the standard Debian kernel in all editions. This will simplify future updates and maintain Secure Boot support.

2. Overhaul of User Utilities and Applications

Some key applications that come with MiniOS have been significantly redesigned, enabling modern graphical interfaces and expanded functionality. At the same time, new applications have been added that further improve usability for beginners.

• MiniOS Installer: The system installer has received a new, intuitive graphical interface. The installation logic has been improved, and the console mode has been removed.
• MiniOS Configurator: The system configurator has also been rewritten, becoming more user-friendly and functional.
• Drive Utility: This utility, a fork of mintstick, has been radically redesigned. It now features a modern graphical interface and new functionality:
  • Image Writing: Supports writing image files (including .iso, .img, .bin, and their compressed variants) to block devices.
  • Image Creation: Added the ability to create an image from a block device to a file, with on-the-fly compression.
  • Secure Erase: An integrated utility for completely wiping data from storage media.
  • Improved Logic: Fixed issues with disk display in virtual machines.
• MiniOS Session Manager: A new set of utilities for managing persistent MiniOS sessions, offering graphical minios-session-manager and command-line minios-session tools for session management.
• MiniOS Kernel Manager: A new set of utilities for managing Linux kernels in MiniOS, offering graphical minios-kernel-manager and command-line minios-kernel tools that allow you to package kernels from repositories or .deb files and manage different kernels on the system.

3. User Experience (UX) and Interface Improvements

Great attention was paid to the visual component and ease of daily use.

• Appearance and Unification: Work was done to unify the visual style across different desktop environments. The Greybird theme, which is standard for XFCE, was adapted and implemented for the Fluxbox desktop. This was complemented by updated wallpapers and icon sets, as well as the addition of styles for the correct appearance of QT6 applications.
• New Icons: Over 20 new icons for applications (including Audacity, GParted, Double Commander, VSCodium) were added as part of the elementary-xfce-minios theme.
• Universal Boot Menu: GRUB is now used as the boot menu for both UEFI and BIOS. All menu items are translated into supported languages.

4. Build System and Code Quality Optimization

The process of creating the distribution has become more reliable, faster, and more transparent.

• "The Great Cleanup": A significant amount of obsolete and unused code was removed, including old scripts for Fluxbox and duplicate configurations. This has made the codebase "lighter" and easier to maintain.
• CondinAPT Implementation: A new powerful script, condinapt, was developed and implemented for conditional package installation. This allowed us to move from numerous separate package lists to a single packages.list with flexible rules depending on the edition, architecture, and other build parameters.
• Script Improvements: The main minioslib library has been enhanced with new functions and cleaned of old code.
• Configuration Expansion: The general.conf configuration file was eliminated, and the build.conf file was significantly redesigned. In addition to the existing distribution, kernel, and locale settings, new parameters were added for detailed control:
• Caching Settings: Options for flexible cache management, including the use of apt-cacher-ng and creating a local repository from the package cache.
• Interactivity and Debugging: Long operations are now accompanied by a spinner. Additionally, a VERBOSITY_LEVEL setting has been added to build.conf to flexibly control the volume of logs during the build.

5. Documentation and Localization

• Documentation: All manuals have been updated. The documentation has been significantly expanded to describe every aspect of working with the system.
• International Support: Full support for the Indonesian language has been added. Existing translations (deutsch, español, français, italiano, português, português brasileiro, русский) have been updated and improved across all system components.

Full Changelog: v4.1.1...v5.0.0

v4.1.2

v4.1.2

Added support for Ventoy-1.1.01.
Fixed autologin under root user (https://github.com/orgs/minios-linux/discussions/68#discussioncomment-12386609).

Full Changelog: v4.1.1...v4.1.2

v4.1.1

v4.1.1

• Removed /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/09-timedate script, because it does not allow user to set time zone by himself and automatically overrides it to the automatically defined one.
• Fixed a bug in minios-configurator that caused incorrect mapping of fields to variables in the config.
• Fixed the way minios/minios.conf files on the drive and /etc/minios/minios/minios.conf files are synchronized, because of which locale and other settings are not saved when the drive is in read-only mode.
• Updated the help command man minios-configurator.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a created user to be deleted in puzzle mode.
• Renamed startup.output and statrup.trace logs to minios-startup.output.log and minios-startup.output.log.
• Renamed boot.output and boot.trace logs to minios-boot.output.log and minios-boot.output.log.
• Reworked iso image file system structure, thanks to which there are no more problems with system booting from BIOS when writing to HDD using sector-by-sector copying (dd, Balena Etcher, ...).
• Added copying of ssh public keys to RAM when toram=trim.
• Improved user and group file merging in puzzle mode.
• MiniOS kernel updated to 6.1.128.
• Added a check to sb2iso that will prevent the iso from being built if the system is loaded with toram=trim.
• Fixed a bug in the builder in the install_packages function that caused packages from backports to not be installed when using the -t option.
• Added deletion of /var/cache/mandb at system build to eliminate mandb cache error when installing packages.
• Added minios-kernelpack utility to minios-tools to package kernel modules and create initrd.
• Added a hotkey to open the start menu.

Full Changelog: v4.1.0...v4.1.1

v4.1.0

v4.1

Interface Changes

• Updated the appearance of the Ultra edition to match the MiniOS 4 style.
• Updated the LXQT appearance to match the MiniOS 4 style.
• Added wallpapers for the Ultra, Minimum, and Home editions.
• Added icons for PDFShuffler and QDiskInfo to the elementary-minios theme; the HDSentinel icon has been removed.
• If the system does not support aufs, menu items for mounting and unmounting modules will be hidden.

Functional Changes

• Fixed the autologin bug in the Flux edition.
• Implemented support for storing data in raw images (similar to Ubuntu casper-rw).
• Added automatic detection of the size required for storing data in raw and dynfilefs images.
• Implemented full Ventoy support, both when storing data in images on the Ventoy partition and when using a separate partition for storing changes.
• Changed the principle of creating images for storing changes on POSIX-incompatible file systems: the size of the space in the image is now equal to the free space on the disk.
• bootinst.sh now requires root privileges to run.
• Added the ability to work with persistent storage when writing an ISO image using dd, balenaEtcher, and similar utilities. A partition for persistent changes is automatically created on the first boot.
• Added the ability to build with the C locale.
• Changed the init loading logic: copying the system to RAM now occurs before activating persistent changes.
• Added new kernel parameters that regulate copying the system to RAM (toram, toram=trim, toram=full).
• Changed the logic of running scripts at boot: startup no longer depends on the SCRIPTS variable in minios.conf.
• Improved the structure of the ISO image; added support for booting from EFI 32-bit.
• Adapted the sb2iso code for the new ISO format.
• Migrated ntfs3 and polkit management from init to systemd.
• Data cleanup during MiniOS build is moved to the build_bootstrap stage.
• The default initrd compression algorithm now depends on the system compression algorithm.
• Removed the -zstd suffix from image and module names.

Utility Changes

• Added the utilities mke2fs, e2fsck, lsblk, parted, partprobe to the initrd.
• QDiskInfo rewritten in QT5 and added to the repository.

Edition Changes

• Standard:
  • Added the MintStick utility for writing disk images and formatting flash drives.
  • Made changes to MintStick management for compatibility with Debian Trixie and Sid.
• Toolbox:
  • Added telnet, QEMU, QEMU Utils, Virtual Machine Manager, memtest, and VSCodium.
  • Replaced HDSentinel with QDiskInfo.
  • The default kernel is the standard Debian 12 kernel with no module hot-plugging support, but with Secure Boot support.
• Ultra:
  • Updated package lists, included all packages from Toolbox.
  • Removed telegram-desktop, gsmartcontrol, and ttf-mscorefonts-installer.
  • Returned to the list of available editions.
  • The default kernel is the standard Debian 12 kernel with no module hot-plugging support, but with Secure Boot support.
• Minimum: Reduced size by removing some packages.

Module Changes

• Removed the xfce-apps module; its functions are now performed by xfce-desktop.
• Graphical programs not included in the DE are moved to the apps module.
• The xorg module has been replaced by gui-base, which contains the base libraries GTK2, GTK3, QT5, icon themes, and other components necessary for all DEs.

System Changes

• Added virtres and novirtres to the kernel parameters.
• Added the ntfs3-dkms package to the repository for NTFS3 driver support in Debian kernels.
• Added quirks from the new version of libinput to support new input devices.
• Added dnsmasq-base to all editions.
• MiniOS kernel with AUFS support has been updated to 6.1.124.
• The pre-compiled wireless adapter modules have been replaced with DKMS modules.

Full Changelog: v4.0.0...v4.1.0

v4.0.0

v4.0

Visual Changes

• GRUB Splash Screen: Updated the bootloader splash screen with a new design.
• Desktop Wallpapers: Refreshed desktop wallpapers, with an added YouTube video splash screen as wallpaper.
• Icon Theme Updates:
  • The icon theme has been renamed to elementary-minios and updated to version 0.19.
  • Added new icons to ensure a uniform appearance in menus and actions, including operations for sb modules.
  • Added icons for sb module actions in Thunar's context menu, available in multiple locales (en, ru, es, pt_BR, it, fr, de).
  • Fixed icon rendering issues in older distributions.
• XFCE Bottom Panel Modifications:
  • Increased panel height to 48 pixels.
  • Adjusted application icon sizes to 32 pixels.
  • Removed application name labels for running apps.
  • Added date display alongside the clock.
  • Standardized tray icon size to 16 pixels for a consistent look.
• File Manager Enhancements:
  • Introduced context menu options in Thunar for sb module management, including actions like packing, extracting, mounting, and unmounting modules.

General Changes

• Unified Build Configuration:
  • All MiniOS editions are now built using two new configuration files: general.conf and build.conf.
• Build Script Optimization:
  • Removed rarely used options, simplifying the build process.
• Deprecated Distribution Support:
  • Support for outdated distributions Kali Linux and Astra Linux has been discontinued.
• Script and Library Overhaul:
  • Removed utilities minios-modules and minios-configure.
  • Overhauled the minioslib library to eliminate variable-related errors and improve some functions.
  • Revised the minios-startup script to fix variable-related errors.
• System Directory Script Support:
  • Support for running build scripts from system directories in Linux.
• Editions:
  • New Edition - Toolbox is a system administrator's multitool with a large set of utilities for PC maintenance and data recovery.
  • Removed editions: Flux, Minimum, Maximum, Ultra, and Puzzle.
• Improved Boot and Tool Scripts:
  • Separated MiniOS boot scripts into the new minios-boot package.
  • Transferred package management scripts into the minios-tools package.
  • Created a standalone library libminioslive for shared MiniOS utility functions.
  • The browser splash screen that is launched at first startup is allocated to the minios-welcome package.
• Other:
  • Added option to mount user folders to storage for FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT.

Utility Changes

• Utility Removal and Reorganization:
  • Removed utilities: upg2sb, minios-bundle, and pxe.
  • Renamed scr2sb to script2sb and minios-geniso to sb2iso for clarity.
  • Integrated upg2sb functionality into apt2sb.
  • Merged minios-bundle functionality into sb utility.
  • Renamed gtkdialog used in Flux to gtkask to avoid conflicts.
• New Utilities:
  • Introduced minios-configurator for configuring the minios.conf configuration file.
  • Added chroot2sb utility for creating modules via manual command input.
  • Added minios-kernelpack for replacing the standard MiniOS kernel with available kernels from MiniOS and Debian repositories.
  • Added minios-live to the repository to build MiniOS images.
  • Added eddy to the repository to install local deb packages.
  • Added eddy-handler to the repository to update the package database before running Eddy if the database is out of date.
• Enhanced MiniOS Installer:
  • Rewritten for improved reliability and user experience.
  • Added a console interface for installations from tty.
  • Supported installation on mmcblk and exFAT.
  • Added a launch of MiniOS Configurator for basic system setup post-installation.

Edition Changes

• Standard:
  • Removed the Remmina packages.
  • Added xdg-user-dirs-gtk for user directories in the Places menu.
  • Added xrdp server.
• Toolbox:
  • SSH enabled by default.
  • Added a range of utilities: gtkhash, czkawka, zulucrypt-gui, keepassxc, guymager, isomaster, unetbootin, qphotorec, zenmap, veracrypt, wxhexeditor, uget, inxi, bonnie++, iperf3, and more.
  • Included lshw-gtk, HDSentinel-GUI, and MintStick.
• Flux:
  • Fixed file associations and added translations for .desktop files.
  • Included scripts for automatic menu and .desktop file generation based on locale.
  • Added support for building Flux images on Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04.

System Improvements

• Kernel Update: The main MiniOS kernel has been updated to version 6.1.119.
• Driver Support: Added precompiled drivers (rtl8188eus, rtl8723cs, rtl8812au, and others) for the standard MiniOS kernel on amd64.
• Storage Rights: Enabled full user rights on FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT file systems, removing the need for root permissions.
• Virtual Machine Enhancements: Added automatic resolution changes in VMware, VirtualBox, KVM, and QEMU to 1280x800.

Full Changelog: v3.3.3...v4.0.0

v3.3.4

v3.3.4

• Restored the ability to build the distribution on the 3.3.x branch, due to a change in the repository structure it was not possible.
• Updated MiniOS Installer to a version similar to MiniOS 4.0 under development, added support for MMC devices (mmcblk) and exFAT support.
• Updated some scripts involved in system booting to fix the problem with package updates in Puzzle.
• Updated kernel to 6.1.90.
• Icon theme elementary-xfce-minios replaced by elementary-minios and updated to 0.19.
• All modules are zstd compressed in this release.
• Fixed GUI loading in Flux and Minimum.
• The gtkdialog utility from Slax has been renamed gtkask to avoid conflicts with the original GTKDialog utility.
• Improved detection of the required kernel for installation.

Full Changelog: v3.3.3...v3.3.4