wiki:ReleaseNotes/Mainline

Version 237 (modified by Jiri Svoboda, 3 weeks ago) ( diff )

OK / Cancel in message dialog

Release Notes for HelenOS mainline

Note: This document is a draft describing a future HelenOS release and is subject to change. The software described here has not been released yet. To get these latest and greatest features now, check out our Git master. (But you will also get the latest bugs).

HelenOS version (codename) was released on date.

This document contains a summary of changes made to HelenOS since release previous release.

Special Notes for this Release

Features Introduced in This Release

General

  • Configuration file persistence
    • When installed to disk (using sysinst), HelenOS can now hold persistent configuration (in /w/cfg)
    • It is possible to deliver initial configuration files (in /cfg)
    • Supported persistent configuration:
      • Taskbar configuration (start menu entries)
      • Display configuration (seats and input device assignments)
      • Task monitor configuration (enable/disable writing core files)
      • Volume configuration (partition mount points)
      • Network configuration (IP addresses and routes)

Kernel

User Interface

  • The system can now be shut down
    • using the Shut Down dialog
    • or using the command-line shutdown command
    • (previously the user would have to manually eject volumes and remove power)
  • In console (non-GUI) mode switch virtual consoles using Alt-Fn or Shift-Fn
    • Originally just Fn was used, which prevented Fn to be used by applications
  • Terminal now supports scrollback
  • Terminal window can be resized
    • text is reflown

Services and Drivers

  • ATA/ATAPI disk driver
    • Allow transferring more than one block in a single I/O operation
    • Added IRQ support
    • Generic ATA code factored out to new libata library
    • Renamed from ata_bd to isa-ide
  • Added PCI IDE disk driver
    • Supports DMA (much faster in virtualization/emulation than PIO)
  • Added PC floppy disk driver
  • Display Server
    • Fix mouse press being delivered to focused window when obscured by popup window
    • Coalesce pointer move events it they are coming in faster than we can redraw
  • Networking
    • DHCP can be disabled for a network interface by configuring any static IP address on it
  • Remote console (i.e. telnet server)
    • Added support for cursor and color control (can be disabled using option --no-ctl)
    • Added support for RGB colors (can be disabled using option --no-rgb)
    • Added support for multiple instances on different ports (option --port <port-number>)
    • Added support for decoding of special keys
    • Added support for mouse tracking
    • Added support for setting the terminal title
    • Implemented telnet Window Size option to detect window size and resize
  • Output server
    • Serial console now supports RGB colors
  • New system server
    • Takes over performing startup tasks from /app/init once root filesystem is mounted
    • Performs system shutdown tasks based on IPC request

File Systems

Networking

Applications

  • HelenOS benchmark tool (hbench)
    • Added random disk read (rand_read) benchmark
    • Added sequential disk read (seq_read) benchmark
  • Fixed mkfat to correctly set volume label on FAT32
  • Text editor
    • Hide cursor when menu is activated
    • Added File / New (Ctrl-N)
    • Added File / Open (Ctrl-O)
  • Unfinished contacts application was removed

Libraries

  • Device driver library (libdrv)
    • Driver can now specify argument to IRQ handler
      • To help distinguish between different interrupts on the same device
  • Internet library (libinet)
    • Fixed bug where most IPv6 addresses failed to parse
  • Dynamic linker
    • Main executable's relocations are now processed last
  • Disk label library (liblabel)
    • Fixed GUID encoding in GPT labels (use MS encoding instead of RFC 4122)
  • Disk management library (libfdisk)
    • Fixed deletion of partitions that are currently mounted
  • Structured Information Format (SIF) library
    • Simplified interface - removed transactions, changed to load/save model
    • Make the storage format more XML-like
  • User interface library
    • Message dialog can display different button choices than just OK
    • Added OK / Cancel
  • New virtual terminal control library (libvt)
    • Code moved out of output server
    • Added support for setting RGB colors
    • Added decoding of special key escape sequences
    • Added mouse tracking support
    • Added support for setting the terminal title

Miscellaneous

Regressions in This Release

  • For the list of regressions since the previous release, see this report.
  • Notable regressions

Fixed Logged Bugs & Enhancements

  • For the list of all logged defects fixed in this release, see this report.
  • For the list of all logged enhancements integrated in this release, see this report.

Known Bugs

  • For the list of known bugs still not fixed in this release, see this report.
  • For the list of all open tickets, see this report.

Attachments (2)

  • edit.png (4.0 KB ) - added by Jiri Svoboda 3 years ago. Text Editor ported to UI library (with menu bar and dialog window)
  • nav.png (13.9 KB ) - added by Jiri Svoboda 3 years ago. Navigator (HelenOS file manager)

Download all attachments as: .zip

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