Hey there!

I'm happy to announce Redcore Linux 1908 (codename Mira) is now ready for prime time. This release is mostly about fixing bugs and some more polishing, however new features are not left out. Thousands of packages got updated, as this release is based on Gentoo's testing branch, unlike previous releases which were based on a mix of Gentoo's stable and testing branches. As such, you'll find the system to have very up-to-date packages. In adition, this release is focused of bringing the power of Gentoo to the masses like no other Gentoo based distribution ever attempted.

Changelog :

• resync with Gentoo tree on 02.08.2019 followed by a two week of testing and stabilisation period, updates will flow down soon enough
• linux kernel 5.1.20 fully hardened, as default
• linux kernel LTS 4.19.60 fully hardened, available in the repository
• apparmor is now enabled by default
• samba can now access Win10 shares by default
• qt5 updated to v5.12.4, KDE Plasma updated to v5.16.4, LXQT updated to v0.14.1, KDE frameworks updated to v5.60.0, KDE apps updated to v19.04.3
• graphics stack updated with mesa v19.1.3, libdrm v2.4.99, xorg-server v1.20.5
• sound stack updated with alsa v1.1.9, pulseaudio v12.2
• web browsers are updated as well with firefox v68.0.1, google-chrome v76.0.3809.87, opera v62.0.3331.99, vivaldi v2.6.1566.40
• vasile (versatile advanced script for iso and latest enchantments) utility used in previous Redcore Linux releases is now considered deprecated, and as such was dropped from this release...most of it's features we're rewriten and merged in sisyphus
• sisyphus package manager :
  • CLI interface is now hybrid by default (will install binaries if found, otherwise will compile from sources) ... this way one can install anything Gentoo itself has to offer, out of the box
  • GUI interface gained a dedicated progress box so you can see what happens in realtime. GUI is binary only, and it will stay this way. If you want a package not in our binary repository, use the CLI interface
  • is now able to detect how many CPU cores are active on a system, and adapt itself, out of the box...this way you can use the full potential of your CPU when you install something from Gentoo
    • this feature is implemented deep into sisyphus's backend and as such :
    • if you upgrade your CPU with a powerful one (with more cores), sisyphus will adapt itself right away and use the extra CPU cores
    • if you downgrade your CPU or disable some cores, sisyphus will adapt itself right away and use fewer CPU cores
  • it is now able to switch between Redcore Linux's branches (master -> stable and next -> testing)
  • better integration with KDE Plasma (breeze widget style is used if found, fallback to fusion if not)
  • many bugs got fixed :
    • bugfix : fix extraction error when two (or more) binary packages have the exact same name but they are in different categories (e.g.: acct-group/mail-0.tbz2 && acct-user/mail-0.tbz2)
    • bugfix : fix a race condifion in the dependency solver
    • bugfix : fix a potential UI loading issue
    • bugfix : fix stdoud capture and redirection when application is launched from the menu
    • bugfix : make it more space efficient when changing branches, by using git shallow clones
• the installer requires at least 20GB space (for a few releases now), however we recommend at least 30GB space for fresh installs. Just in case you wanna play around with sisyphus's hybrid options. You'll need that extra space

Known issues :

• Virtualbox performance is really slow and somewhat broken, integration sometimes work, sometimes doesn't, seems Virtualbox6 related, so fingers crossed if you plan to test the new release in a Virtualbox6 machine. Virtualbox5 and Qemu/KVM are known to work much better. Also, you may wanna create a rather performant virtual machine if you wanna play around with sisyphus's hybrid features.
• sisyphus's dependency solver fails sometimes, specially when performing large upgrades, if it happens just run the same command again and it will work (I'm trying to debug and fix this for months without success)

Other changes :

Starting with this release, Redcore Linux is based on Gentoo Linux's testing branch and as such it is now a cutting edge distribution. However, to avoid the cutting part as much as possible we have our own testing branch and testing binary repository. We do our resync with Gentoo on a weekly basis, in our testing branch, then after a while of testing we push the changes to our master branch. This works under the following scheme : Gentoo testing -> Redcore testing -> Redcore stable. One can ride on our testing branch (sisyphus can change the branch for you), and if you do so, please report any issues you find so we fix them before merging to master.

Requests :

It's been almost 3 years since I started this distribution, and I'm working on it on my own with little help from outside. I won't ask for donations, as I can support it financially myself, however, if you can provide a mirror for it, it would be greatly appreciated. Please get in contact, and I'll send you the rsync details.