Download

Today I'm releasing the new created and rendered logo for m23 0.6.0 rock that was created with Blender by myself. The creation took some time because I'm a greenhorn with 3D modelling. But I think it was worth the time it lasted ;-)

You can download the rendered logo, the desktop background image and the Blender file here, if you are interested to make your desktop more beautiful or if you want to re-render the logo in a even bigger resolution.

Have fun!

I want to inform you about some interesting changes since my last lifesign, even if this is not the announcement for the final 0.6.0 m23 version ;-)

m23 now includes the long time looked-for feature to use the bootloader GRUB instead of Lilo. You choose the bootloader to install at the client's creation dialog. Previously installed other operating systems should be added to GRUB's boot menu as known from Lilo.

The Linux kernel was updated to version 2.6.25.5 for the 32 and 64 bit architecture.

m23 supports the installation of partition and harddrive images that are bigger than 2 GB now. Some functions for creating and installing images were revised and in some cases corrected and complemented. There is for example the new feature that creates a file from the MBR that can be used on the derived clients instead of the generic MBR.

The update is available via the m23 user interface or via apt-get.

Have fun!

Unbelievable but true: m23 was presented to the public five years ago first. The presentation was held within the IT-Anwenderkreis in Kiel. There are still speeches about IT related themes at irregular intervals at the IT-Anwenderkreis. The m23 webpage was founded in the hosting service of SourceForge in march 2003 and the first m23 server installtion CD was published then too. The functional range of m23 was rather modestly and the version shown at the IT-Anwenderkreis was not as complete as it seemed ;-) So we hard-coded some values to show a live installation of the brand-new KDE3 desktop. In the following five years 31 server installation CDs with increasing feature ranges were released. All these images are archived at SourceForge. If you want, you can enter the time machine and install an old image in a virtual machine to get a feeling for a time passed long ago ;-) After a short interlude in the company GSS-netConcepts, that later specialised on web design, m23 was always a born-and-bred OpenSource project. Only free components are used in m23. The base was and still is the Debian distribution. First the Debian release "unstable" was used, then "Sarge" and Debian "Etch" followed. In the future will be a switch to Lenny. There were lots of presentations and workshop since the first speech about m23 amongst others at the LinuxTag, the LUG Camp 2004 or the Firmenkontakttag at the FH-Kiel. And now we hope that the next five years will be as much sucessfully as the past five.    Cheers!

The new m23 release contains a lot of updates and some new functions.

The eye-catcher in this release is the new script editor. The editor helps you to create your own scripts and offers the complete functional range of m23 to generate the client-side executable BASH code. You can use any BASH command and all command line utilities installed on the clients. You can for example change the screen resolution of some clients or start a hard disk diagnostic tool and write the result to the m23 client's log. But this is not all: The editor contains an easy function to share your scripts with other m23 users and open it for a bigger audience. All scripts are published on the m23 webpage under the category "Scripts of m23 users" and can be imported into your local m23 server installation.

Now the pool builder allows to download packages for 64 bit computers for offline installation with native 64 bit packages.

Ubuntu clients can now be integrated if there is a running SSH daemon. A working root account isn't needed any more. The normal Ubuntu user and its password is sufficient for the integration.

There were reported freezes on Pentium D computers during the server installation. To eliminate this error the Linux kernel was updated to 2.6.24.2. This kernel is now used in client bootimages too. The server installation CD contains a self-compiled kernel 2.6.24.2 to support a broader variety of hardware. The old 2.6.18 kernel shipped with Debian Etch is included and integrated in the boot loader too. So it is easy to switch back to the older kernel if errors are occurring.

phpMyAdmin was updated to version 2.11.4.

The complete list of changes is available in the ChangeLog. The server installation CD can be downloaded from here and the files for the virtual machines VirtualBox and VMPlayer from here. An update from the m23 interface or via APT-GET is possible too.

Have fun!

I will visit the CeBit (Hannover/Germany) on 6th of march again. There are some talks I have to attend and some booths i have to see, but I think I will have the time to meet some of you m23 users.

Send me an eMail, use my contact formular (https://www.goos-habermann.de/seite.php?s=Kontaktformular) or contact me via ICQ (109585783) or Jabber (dodgerm23@jabber.org) if you want to meet me (in real life) or if
you want to invite me to your booth.

Maybe we will meet at CeBit ;-)