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)
• Log files in /log now have .txt extension

Kernel

User Interface

• The system can now be shut down or restarted
  • using the Shut Down dialog (Start / Shut Down…)
  • 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
• Added progress bars

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
  • Support ejecting CD/DVD-ROM media
• Added PCI IDE disk driver
  • Supports DMA (much faster in virtualization/emulation than PIO)
• SATA disk driver
  • Fixed crash in ahci driver and in sata_bd server
  • sata_bd server folded into ahci driver (avoids the need to start it manually)
• Added PC floppy disk driver
• Device Manager
  • Devman will now wait for the device enumeration to finish before allowing the system to continue booting
• 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
• Console
  • Carriage return character is now properly handled
• 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
• Partition server (vbd)
  • Fixed a couple of use-after-free bugs.
• 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

• Fixed failure when deleting entire directories on tmpfs.

Networking

• DHCP can be disabled for a network interface by configuring any static IP address on it
• Added support for network packet capture (pcapctl and pcapcat)

Applications

• HelenOS benchmark tool (hbench)
  • Added random disk read (rand_read) benchmark
  • Added sequential disk read (seq_read) benchmark
• Navigator
  • uses the new file management library
  • Added File / Edit (Ctrl-E) to open selected file in text editor
  • Added File / New File (Ctrl-M) to create new empty or zero-filled file
  • Added File / New Directory (Ctrl-N) to create new directory
  • Added File / Verify (Ctrl-V) to verify that files/directories can be read
  • Added File / Copy (Ctrl-C) to copy files/directories
  • Added File / Rename (Ctrl-R) to rename files/directories
  • Added File / Move (Ctrl-X) to move files/directories to different location
  • Added File / Delete (Ctrl-D) to delete files/directories
  • Opening a .txt file starts the text editor
  • Fall back to parent directory if current directory is gone
• New file management utilities
  • based on new file management library
  • display progress if operation takes a long time
  • operation can be aborted using Ctrl-C
  • on I/O error the user can choose whether to abort or retry
  • newfile creates a new empty or zero-filled file
  • newdir creates a new directory
  • verify checks that files can be read
  • copy copies files/directories
  • rename renames files/directories
  • move moves files/directories to different location
  • delete deletes files/directories
• Fixed mkfat to correctly set volume label on FAT32
• Fdisk partition editor
  • Fixed handling of extended partitions
• Text editor
  • Hide cursor when menu is activated
  • Added File / New (Ctrl-N)
  • Added File / Open (Ctrl-O)
• Tester
  • Added deadlock detection test (deadlock)
• Removed unfinished contacts application
• Volume management tool (vol)
  • Physically eject CD/DVD-ROM using vol eject -s
• System Instaler (sysinst)
  • The installer now has a user interface
  • Added installer to start menu
  • Switched to new file management library for better progress updates
  • You can now install to an existing MBR label if partition slot 1 is free

Libraries

• Async framework
  • Interfaces now exist below ports (and not vice versa)
• 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
    • Fixes ticket #871
• 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
• New file management library (libfmgt)
• C library
  • Fixed incorrect blocking chain printed by fibril deadlock detector
  • Fixed reader-writer lock to prevent writers from starving
  • Addded capa_format_buf() to format capacity in pre-allocated buffer
  • Added capa_blocks_format(), capa_blocks_format_buf() to simply convert number of bytes to capacity string (e.g. 1.02 MB)
  • Added debug memory allocator
    • double free detection
    • buffer overrun detection
    • use after free detection
    • detect use of uninitialized memory
    • enabled globally in build configuration with CONFIG_DEBUG_MALLOC

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.