Pisi Linux Is Out!

Pisi Linux 2.0 was released a few days ago, and I did not realize about it.  Too bad, because I really liked this distribution and was fairly active in the community before everything went totally Turkish.

Well, it's time to download this little kitten, the heir of the old Pardus.  I want to see the result from the hard work of Pisi developers (they are a small team), and I have high expectations.

I can't wait for my download to finish (it's 1.7 GB).

News about Pisi Linux

Being a fan of former Pardus Linux (the new Debian-based version has somehow let me down lately), I cannot help following Pisi Linux, which keeps the PiSi packages and other exclusive tools that Pardus abandoned.

Even if Pisi is small and little known, and although I feel it has neglected its international helpers and user base, I am very pleased at the efforts of its few developers.

For example, Pisi 2.0 is said to bring two features that I've always appreciated: a live disk (it was about time!) and an iso image writer to USB.

If I'm not mistaken, the latter will mean one can make a customized iso, although this still needs to be confirmed.  If that is so, both features will mean a big step forward for the Linux kitten!

Of course, Pisi will bring newer packages, including KDE 5 (which is not precisely my cup of tea), and other system improvements.

Here you can check a video of KDE 5 running on Pisi.

Pisi Linux 2.0 Beta 1 Released!

Pisi Linux 2.0 Beta 1 has been released.

What does it have?  According to the announcement, these are the important changes:
 
kernel: 4.4.4
Grub2 Version: 2.02 _ Beta2
Display Server: X.Org version 1.17.2
Kde plasma version: 5.6.2
Qt version: 5.6.0
Gcc version: 5.3.0
Firefox: 44.02
Chromium: 50.0.2632.0
Gimp: 2.8.16
Mpv-Player: 0.14
Vokoscreen: 2.4.19
Qt creator: 3.5.1
 
And as an interesting detail, Pisi-Linux-2.0-Beta-Kde5-Crocus ancyrensis comes WITHOUT systemd.

Where to get it? HERE. Please remember that Pisi Linux is a 64-bit-only distro. 

A Pisi Video!

This is an animated short video featuring some known characters from Pisi Linux.  What does it mean?  I've no idea!

COMING SOON: Pisi Linux 2.0

Apparently, the final release of Pisi Linux 2.0 will be ready quite soon.  As far as I can tell, the devs are working on its documentation and polishing some rough edges.  They also have made a set of banners for those who want to help spread the word.  I like this one:

Of course there are many others here in case you'd like to add one to your blog or site.

Never Alone...Thanks to Pisi Linux!

I had bought the game Never Alone: Kisima Inŋitchuŋa last December.  However, it was impossible for me to download the game for Steam in spite of all my efforts.  Then, after some more struggle, I got my money back.  It was too bad because I really wanted to play that game.

Then, my brother sent me a copy as a gift.  However, I ran into the same problem: although I tried to download the game on several of my distros, I got 0 kb of 0 kb downloaded and my client reported the process as completed.

I got the impression that the problem was with the architecture of my distros: all are Debian based.  That was weird because Ubuntu, the distro that Steam supports, is also from the Debian family.

My last card was Pisi Linux, my only current distro that is not from the family of Debian.  But I hit another obstacle: Pisi 1 does not have Steam among its packages!

Fortunately, there is a way to install it: You open a terminal and enter:


sudo pisi bi https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pisilinux/pisilife/master/steam/pspec.xml

Then, you type your admin password.

To install the package:

 sudo pisi it *pisi

Soon enough, I got Steam downloaded.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't start from the icon.  Before giving up hope, I tried running Steam from a terminal...

Great!  It showed me that Steam was asking for permission to download updates.  Once the permission was granted, a big download took place.  

Then, crossing my fingers, I clicked on the button to download the game...

BINGO!!!  The 2.5 GB download started!!!!

After that download finished, could I play the game?

YES!!!  This is the screenshot:

THANKS A LOT, PISI!!!

Pisi Linux 2.0 Alpha7 (New Cat) has been Released!

Developers keep working on Pisi 2.0 and some days ago they released another alpha:  New Cat.

Pisi will switch to Qt5 and to KDE 5. 

Here's a video of Pisi running desktop effects.

If you want to test it, you can download it here (1.3 GB.) Remember: Pisi is a 64-bit distro.

It's good to hear they are still keeping the little cat alive!

I Found the Lost Cat! Pisi Linux 2.0 Is now an Alpha 6

I realized two days ago that Pisi Linux 2.0 is on development and right now it reached the state of alpha 6.

I downloaded the test ISO and installed it on a virtual machine (no live DVD unfortunately).

What does it have?

See this video of the previous alpha (alpha 5), posted by Groni, one of the members of the team:

This is what the Pisi GRUB bootloader looks like:

And this is the log in screen.  Not very impressive, but I don't expect to be impressed at this stage anyway.
 

The first thing I noticed of Pisi Linux Alpha 6 is that it comes with Plasma 5.  To be honest, I don't like the flat look of Plasma 5.  Another aspect of the new KDE desktop that I don't like is the fact that they got rid of the possibility to set different wallpapers and plasmoids for each virtual desktop.


The good part is that some window themes and desktop themes like Ghost are still supported.  For those of us who are not happy looking how a desktop mimics a tablet or a phone, that theme is a life saver. In my opinion, the panel looks a lot better indeed if Ghost is set.

This is the log out screen.  Again, thanks to Ghost, Plasma it is not so painful to look at.

So far, my complaints are not directed to Pisi but to KDE.  But what about Pisi concretely?

I did notice that VLC fails to load.  Also, I realized that an old bug causing the system not to be fully localized when one chooses Spanish is still present...apparently.

Well, this is an alpha.  Expecting full functionality and polish at this level is asking too much, especially because Pisi has few developers. In this light, I am actually very pleased.  Pisi's developing team may lack members but not hard work and enthusiasm.

Hopefully, Pisi 2.0 will surprise all of us. I am very happy that Pisi is still in development.

I Upgraded to Pisi 1.2 without Noticing It!

Thanks to Mechatotoro, I realized that the release of Pisi Linux 1.2 was officially published on Distrowatch.

Apparently, I've upgraded all the way from 1.0 to 1.2 without even knowing about it.  The only problem I found was with the package Fotoxx, which caused an error whenever I wanted to update it.  The issue was solved by deleting the package and then reinstalling it.

So, what's new with Pisi Linux 1.2?

Linux Kernel: 3.19.8
KDE: 4.14.3
Mate: 1.8.0
Firefox 38.0.5 Firefox 39 (The newest version was part of a new batch of updates I applied today)
LibreOffice: 4.3.5.1
GIMP: 2.8.14
Calligr A: 2.8.7
Clementine: 1.2.3
Qt: 4.8.6
Qt5: 5.4.1 * New
glibc: 2.20
binutils: 2:24
coreutils: 8.23

So far, I've found no problems.  I'm posting this from my recently upgraded Pisi install. Pisi 1.2, the last one of the Pisi 1 series, is doing great.

Thanks to all the devs for their hard work.

Pisi Linux...Still Alive!

Yesterday, I found lots of updates for my Pisi Linux install.  I applied them to see if everything went fine after a total 200~MB download...

Well, to be honest, apart from Firefox 38.0.5 (still one release behind), my untrained eye did not catch anything.  And that's great because if something had gone wrong, I'm pretty sure I'd notice it!

I'm happy that Pisi is still with us.  It has become too silent and almost secluded, but I still hope Pisi does not go extinct.

Will MEPIS Come Back to Life Again?

The development of MEPIS, my favorite distro, has been in a long hiatus.  While I have MEPIS 12 Beta installed and it works very well, I wonder if I'll ever be able to see a new release.

I'm not the only one.  Many at the MEPIS forum have waited and waited...and waited.  Some have shifted to a different distro, some have stayed.

In the past, other distros I like have been shaken, too.  Mandriva, for example, seemed to become extinct.  But the turmoil produced two great distros instead: Mageia and OpenMandriva.


Pardus was another one.  When they decided to drop their unique PiSi packaging to go to a Debian base, such idea actually made a group of tenacious members to create the Anka Team, and their effort paid off when their project, Pardus-Anka, became Pisi Linux.

In the MEPIS tents, something similar is happening. The lack of news about MEPIS development lead several members of the community to join antiX, and together they put together a very interesting project:  MX Linux.

MX-14.3 is pretty robust and the developers constantly add new interesting features.  It has inherited the stability of MEPIS and the power and flexibility of antiX; I couldn't complain!

Still, whenever I boot into any of my MEPIS systems, I ask myself if a new MEPIS will ever see the light...

Updating to Pisi 1.1!

I was surprised to learn that Pisi Linux released a 1.1 version.  My Pisi 1.0 has been working pretty well, but I wanted to see if I could go to the new version through the updates.  As instructed by Groni, I opened a terminal and typed

sudo pisi up -dy

Soon enough, I was presented all the packages that were about to be downloaded and installed.  The process seemed to go well, but at the end I got an error.

I rebooted my computer and realized that both GRUB and the kernel had been updated.  However, the rest of the updates didn't seem to be installed.

I opened PiSi (the package manager) and saw around 70 packages to be updated.  I proceeded with the update (which was surprisingly fast thanks to PiSi's delta features), hoping to be lucky at the end.

Unfortunately, when applying the changes, I got a weird error:

"it is a folder /usr/share/appdata"

I noticed that the issue happened as soon as the package Fotoxx was to be installed.  Thus, I deselected that one and tried to update once again.

Success: the Packages Installed Successfully as Intended!  :P

Just to double check, I selected Fotoxx and tried to update it.  Yes, I got the error again.

Now I have a Pisi 1.1 system, albeit my old version of Fotoxx.

Bye Pisi Linux World!

I learned today that Pisi Linux World and its great forum are being discontinued due to "unifying technical reasons."

So, from now on it will be its official Turkish site.  I must say I'm baffled by the decision...

Hope this is for the best.

Still, my sincere thanks to all those good people at Pisi Linux World Forum.

Having Fun with Pisi Linux 1.0

This is my customized desktop with the Ghost theme.

I installed Pisi Linux 1.0 KDE two days ago and I've been exploring and customizing it to my heart's content.  This has been my experience so far:


1.  Yali did not let me use a partition I had prepared previously.  It was necessary to use Yali to delete my partition and create it again for Pisi to start installing on it.  That has happened since my old times with Pardus. 

2. Once installed, Pisi greeted me with a new color at the boot-up.  I like the black background on both GRUB and the booting screens.  The log-in window looks better, too.

3.  Unfortunately, the bug that causes glibc-locales-es not to be installed is still there.  As a result, a Spanish localization throws an "unsupported locale settings" warning and the system ends up being in both English and Spanish.
   The problem can be solved by opening a terminal and typing
    

    sudo pisi ur && sudo pisi it glibc-locales-es

However, unlike with the previous releases, I realized that this time I also needed to manually download kde-l10n-es.  I used the package manager, but that can also be done by entering this in the terminal: 

    sudo pisi ur && sudo pisi it kde-l10n-es

After that, I had to go to system preferences, locale, language, and there I had to set Spanish as my preferred language.  That took care of the problem.

I set a panel as an auto-hiding launcher of my favorite applications

4.  LibreOffice and the other applications have not let me down.  Pisi comes equipped with most of the software I use.  I just had to install VLC and a few games and accessories.  I customized Firefox with a cat theme (and set it to Spanish thanks to the add-on "Language Pack Install Helper 2.5").  I also used the same Firefox theme on LibreOffice.

5.  Now VLC handles sound of .MP4 files better.  Still, some sound funny.  The same goes for .mkv files: there is an improvement but there are still sound glitches that do not occur if I play the files with other applications.

6.  I am very pleased to see that all the KDE glitches I encountered in the previous release are gone!  Now there are no Kwin rendering problems with the desktop cube, nor with the background while rotating the cube.  Also, now my log-in sound works all the time.

 I did notice a small rendering glitch, however.  It happens on the Ghost window decorator when you resize a maximized window: the left and lower left sides of the window glow are incorrectly displayed, but that only lasts until you move your mouse.  This is it:

What about wireless connections?  Mine worked flawlessly from the start.  Youtube videos?  No problem.  Even my bank's page with its annoying plugins (designed for Internet Explorer) works.  I've also plugged it to a TV screen and it has been up to the job

Compared with the testing releases, the final version of Pisi is absolutely an improvement: the system is fast, responsive and very stable.  It is still lacking software (it has  6325 packages at the moment), but it has pretty much what I need, especially if we remember that this distro is made by a very small team.  I will use my Pisi system at work next week and I'll keep having fun with it.  Pisi, in spite of its limitations and all the obstacles that have delayed its release, is truly a little jewel and seems very promising.

Pisi Linux 1.0 Is Finally Here!!!!! :)

This is great!  Pisi Linux 1.0 has just been released!  I'm downloading it at the moment.

It comes in four flavors:
a- KDE
b- LXDE (RC2)
c- XFCE (RC2)
d- minimal (RC2)


Here's a note from the developers, the Anka Team:

Dear Linux friends,


Pisi Linux, born new from the ashes.Pisi Linux stable version is now for download available.
Go to the Download section at this Homepage
This is the result of a dedicated effort:
- Clean and immaculate work; because we refuse to use certain technologies, we will reject,
We will not use questionable packages.
- Fast, very fast operating system; moreover, do not damage the equipment when you
have a configuration.
- Stable, and even quite a stable distribution; frequently than to format
We hope you'll get rid of, we aim.
- Powerful but elegant work; stitch by stitch touched, were prepared.
- Hmmm, if they did targets, for all distros? So dear to us
Of course it is. Our every move, our every move towards this. Yes, yes, quite a few were able to also.
A little bit of "Let the dust" as ...
Yeah, pretty nice, very nice work, nice yes, despite missing one of ...
Get better!
"The next version, 1.1, 2.0 .. will be arrived when? .." That is a good question!
But it was a good idea when you will step in and help us when you ask:
- "What can I do for pisilinux?"
- "I know how to fix this error, how Etsen you?"
- "Farm to build servers have something to do, if I know where to go?"
etc. ...
We need more Personal and institutional support for Pisi Linux, you are more than welcome to help us with our work!
If you will be help us please write a mail to us with a short description from you to: admins@pisilinux.org
With Love and respect and Thanks for be Patient 
The Anka Team

I can't wait for my download to finish!  Go Pisi!!!  All the way!!!

Just Wait a Little More: Pisi Linux 1.0 Is almost Here!

Although Pisi Linux 1.0, the heir of Pardus, has not yet seen the light of the sun and its development has been slow, it does have a base of fans waiting for it (I'm among them!).

The release of the long awaited Pisi 1.0 is coming nearer each month; my kudos to the Anka Team that, although small, have been working tirelessly to make their dream come true.

Here is the latest update at Pisi Linux World:

Hey everybody, here some news about the Pisi Linux project. The work still continue and we are close to an official 1.0 release. We appreciate your patience, but we are a small team so things go slow. The development of Pisi Linux is good and it is very stable. The team is now testing the last ISO before the official 1.0 release ...

Video: The First Look at Pisi Linux 1.0!

Thanks to Pisi World, I realized about this video showing how Pisi Linux 1.0 is evolving.

According to Groni, one of its developers, changes include:

Grub 2.0 Theme
Plymouth Theme
Splash screen

Yes, among other details, now they sport a solid black background.  Nice change!

News about My Favorite Linux Cats

I am a supporter of two little-known distros that are named after cats: Pisi Linux and GalPon MiniNo Linux ("pisi" means "kitty" in Turkish and "minino" is the same word in Spanish).

What has happened with these two Linux cats lately?

Pisi developers are working hard squashing bugs and polishing the distro for its first release.  The process has been slow, but steady.  Right now, Pisi is 92% ready.  Go, Pisi!!!

Minino, similarly, is baking a new Release Candidate of its Artabros version.  The new 2.1 release candidate will be based on Debian 7.5 Wheezy and will come in two flavors: minimal, (that fits on a CD) and full (that must be placed on a DVD).   The minimal release will include a script which, once the distro is installed, will let you upgrade to full.

I'll wait for both, then...

An Encounter with Pisi Linux 1.0 RC2

I downloaded and installed the second release candidate of Pisi Linux, the distro that kept the heritage of oldschool Pardus.

Right now, I'm typing this entry on Pisi.  I've been testing it from the eye of a user whose Linux experience and knowledge are far from abundant.

I really liked the installer.  It is polished and while installing, you get to know lots of information about Pisi. 

My only problem during the installation was--as it used to be with old Pardus--when choosing the partitions.  Yali (the installer) wants a clean partition to perform the installation and I wanted to overwrite my old Pisi partition directly.  I had to ask Yali to delete the partition first and then to use it for the RC2.

Soon enough, I was greeted by Kaptan, who let me choose my initial desktop configuration.  That worked flawlessly.

By the way, I noticed that this version's PiSi (the package manager from which the distro took its definitive name) is faster than the one of my previous version.  It has more packages, too.

I did find some bugs and glitches, though.

The first one is a bug affecting the Spanish installation of the system.  Fortunately, Yoyo Fernández, former Anka-Team member, had found a solution for it with this command:
 

sudo pisi ur && sudo pisi it glibc-locales-es

I also discovered some KDE glitches that are harder to describe, so I'd better use images:

Kwin's rotating cube at times shows a rendition issue resulting in a number of transparent triangular areas on the top and bottom sides.  Also, the desktop name is sometimes covered by a white line.  This, however, doesn't seem to happen when Oxygen themes are being used.

If an image is used as background for the cube, it will not be remembered after logging out of the session. Instead of the image, the background will be the selected color (black by default)

When used Ghost window decorations, a maximized window will show a color rendering issue on the top side of such window when active.  This does not seem to happen with other window decorations.

Another problem I noticed was sound on VLC.  VLC would not play sound at all for certain .mp4 files and some .mkv files did not sound well.  Still, that is not a big deal because Gnome Mplayer and SMplayer, the two players that Pisi comes with, did play the problematic files without hassles.

As it can be seen, Pisi is doing very well. I am very satisfied with this distro so far.  No crashes, no ugly surprises, no serious problems.

Many thanks to the Anka-Team for their great effort in making this little distro what it is now.

Pisi Linux 1 Goes RC2 at Last!!

Yes, Pisi Linux is moving forward.  Here is the entry from Pisi Linux World:


Hello to all,
the version Pisi Linux 1.0 RC2 Erdinc (Release Candidate 2) is finally finished.

After a long and difficult process to eliminate errors and to update software
we are now able to produce a new release candidate to Present.
Of course we can not say it's perfect,
but by your feedback, we can make it perfect then.
 
With on board are:
Pisi, Çomar, Yalı, Kaptan, Panda, Management Tools
(Package Manager, Service Manager, Firewall Manager, User Manager)
Linux Kernel: 3.12.13
KDE: 4.12.3
Mate: 1.6.2
Mozilla Firefox: 27.0
LibreOffice: 4.2.1.1
GIMP: 2.8.10
Calligra Suite: 2.7.5
Clementine: 1.2.1
Qt: 4.8.5
glibc: 2.18
binutils: 2.32.2
coreutils: 8.21
and 6000 other packages.
 
Pisi Linux is translated into 14 languages​​:
English, Dutch, German, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Croatian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Polish and Portuguese (Brazilian).
Translations into other languages ​​will follow.
 
System Requirements:
64-bit processors
At least 2 GB of memory and 12 GB of disk space (during installation disk partitioning step "Manual partitioning" option is recommended)
Create a kitty for Linux swap space is recommended. (Can be done during setup, you use twice the amount of memory is recommended.)
 
An upgrade from Pisi Linux 1.0 RC1 to RC2 version, here the safest method to update;
using the console commands:
sudo pisi ur
sudo pisi rm espeak - ignore-dep
sudo pisi up
sudo pisi it espeak
restart
Finally the version of Pisi Linux 1.0 Rc2 able to see this dream together ... We're dedicated to Gültekin Erdinc
To download it go to the Download Menu
Greetings to you all and thank you for your patience.

The Anka Team
 
What can I say?  It's DOWNLOAD TIME!!!!