FreedomBox 0.9 Images Available

July 15th, 2016

A week ago we have completed building FreedomBox images for 0.9 as 0.9-rc2 and made them available for release testing. No major issues have been found in the images and they are now the 0.9 final release images.

• http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/freedombox/0.9/
• http://ftp.freedombox.org/pub/freedombox/0.9/

Transition to Debian testing:

With this release, we have completed the transition to Debian "testing" from Debian "unstable". From now on, for regular users, images will be based on "testing". When using these images, upgrades will happen to only packages that end up in Debian "testing".

If you are already using FreedomBox, you are advised to switch to "testing" distribution manually for higher stability. This can done by replacing "unstable" with "testing" in /etc/apt/sources.list and waiting for a few weeks for all packages to settle down or by freshly setting up using "testing" images.

Images based on Debian "unstable" will still be built and available as "nightly" images so that contributors can test early and prevent the regular users from facing issues. If you wish to contribute to FreedomBox by finding and reporting early problems, please stick with "unstable" images.

FreedomBox 0.9 Released

April 25th, 2016

We're pleased to announce that FreedomBox 0.9 has been released! This release comes 9 weeks after the previous release (0.8).

The FreedomBox packages are available in Debian testing: freedombox-setup 0.9 and plinth 0.9.1-1.

We are planning to build new images for this release. However, there is an issue with building images for armel/armhf boards at the moment. We should have a workaround for this issue soon, and then the images will be built and uploaded.

More information on this release is available on the wiki:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ReleaseNotes

Major FreedomBox 0.9 Changes:

• Fixed Wi-Fi AP setup.
• Prevent lockout of users in 'sudo' group after setup is complete.
• Improved setup mechanism for Plinth modules. Allows users to see what a module is useful for, before doing the setup and package install. Also allows essential modules to be setup by default during FreedomBox install.
• Added HTTPS certificates to Monkeysphere page. Reorganized so that multiple domains can be added to a key.
• Added Radicale, a CalDAV and CardDAV server.
• Added Minetest Server, a multiplayer infinite-world block sandbox.
• Added Tiny Tiny RSS, a news feed reader.

Known Issues:

• ownCloud has been removed from Debian testing, and is not installable through Plinth.
  • If you are using ownCloud on FreedomBox, please know that it will not be maintained.
  • We are looking for applications to replace the main functionality that was provided by ownCloud.
  • Radicale is an alternative for the contact and calendar sync features.
  • We still need to find and integrate a good alternative for the file sync feature.

Thanks to all who helped to put this release together!

Please feel free to join us to discuss this release on the mailing list, IRC, or on the monthly progress calls:

• List: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/

• IRC: <irc://irc.debian.org/freedombox>

• Calls: https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ProgressCalls

FreedomBox 0.8 Released

January 20th, 2016

I'm pleased to announce that FreedomBox 0.8 has been released! This release comes 9 weeks after the previous release (0.7).

We did not build new images for this release. However it is available in Debian (unstable) as 2 packages, freedombox-setup 0.8 and plinth 0.8.1-1.

If you are using Freedombox 0.7, you can upgrade to 0.8. (If you have automatic upgrades enabled, this should have happened already!) But first, please read the "Known Issues" section below.

More information on this release is available on the wiki:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ReleaseNotes

Major FreedomBox 0.8 Changes:

• Added Quassel, an IRC client that stays connected to IRC networks and can synchronize multiple frontends.
• Improved first boot user interface.
• Fixed Transmission RPC whitelist issue.
• Added translations for Turkish, Chinese, and Russian. Fixed and updated translations in other languages.
• Added Monkeysphere, which uses PGP web of trust for SSH host key verification.
• Added Let's Encrypt, to obtain certificates for domains, so that browser certificate warnings can be avoided.
• Added repro, a SIP server for audio and video calls.
• Allow users to set their SSH public keys, so they can login over SSH without a password.

Known Issues:

There is an issue in Plinth 0.7.x that can affect those trying to upgrade to 0.8.1. The issue happens when the manual upgrade is started (by clicking the "Upgrade now" button) and it tries to upgrade Plinth. The Plinth upgrade can fail during this manual upgrade process started through Plinth.

There are 2 workarounds for those trying to upgrade from 0.7.x: - Turn on Automatic Upgrades, and wait (up to 24 hours). Plinth will be automatically upgraded to 0.8.1, and the issue is avoided. - Or, you can SSH into the box, and run "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade".

Thanks to all who helped to put this release together. There were several new contributors for this release. The wiki has a full list of contributors to the project:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Contributors

Please feel free to join us to discuss this release on the mailing list, IRC, or on the monthly progress calls:

• List: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/

• IRC: <irc://irc.debian.org/freedombox>

• Calls: https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ProgressCalls

This page is also available in the following languages, thanks to our translation team:

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