Tag Archives: dvd

Kororaa 15.1 (Squirt) released

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The second release of Kororaa 15 (codename “Squirt”) has been released. Version 15.1 is available for download, in 32 and 64 bit with KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3.

This release includes a number of fixes and enhancements, as listed below. A special thanks to Prashanth for the review of Kororaa 15 which outlined many of these shortcomings.

Major changes:

  • Fixed KDE crash in live mode (prelink wasn’t properly disabled)
  • Fixed Kdenlive bug which stopped it from running
  • Fixed KPackagekit crash in live mode
  • Bypass the login screen and load straight to desktop
  • Disable screensaver and locked screen in live mode
  • Renamed desktop switcher to “Switch between Shell and Fallback desktops”
  • Added Google Talk Plugin repo for easy installation
  • Added a wrapper package (skype-helper) for Skype dependencies (can’t ship Skype though)
  • Added more GNOME Shell themes
  • Removed Gloobus preview (not complete in Fedora)
  • Removed GNOME Appearance Properties link (deprecated in GNOME 3)
  • Removed Synaptic package manager
  • Removed Miro (currently broken upstream)
  • Updated to Firefox 7
  • Updated to Openshot 1.4

Kororaa 15.1 comes with an RPM metapackage to install and configure Adobe Flash, now that Add/Remove Extras is gone. To get flash, install the flash-plugin-helper package. To remove flash, uninstall the flash-plugin package.

Kororaa 15.1 also comes with an RPM metapackage to install the dependencies for Skype (but not Skype itself). Simply install the skype-helper package, then download the Skype package for Fedora from their website and install using the package manager.

Upgrade
Existing Kororaa 15 users need not upgrade to 15.1 as these changes mostly affect live mode, while others have been pushed out via system updates.

Users still on Kororaa 14 may wish to upgrade to 15.1 and should do so via a new install (backup your data if necessary). Users who wish to stay with GNOME 2.x should not upgrade to 15.1, as it comes with GNOME 3. However, Kororaa 15.1 does include a desktop switcher for GNOME 3, so that users can switch between the new Shell interface and the 2.x style Fallback mode using the “Switch between Shell and Fallback desktops” link on the desktop.

Desktops
The GNOME 3 desktop has a custom theme available, as well as several extensions to provide an enhanced user experience (and help ease the transition from GNOME 2.x). It also comes with the GNOME Tweak Tool to allow further customisation.
Kororaa 15 desktop - GNOME

The KDE desktop has a custom layout with specific default applications, such as Firefox for the web and VLC for media, etc. It now also comes with Linphone for those wanting a SIP client.
Kororaa 15 desktop - KDE

Features
Derived from Fedora 151, this updated release comes with the usual Kororaa extras out of the box, such as:

  • Tweaked KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3 base systems
  • Third party repositories (Adobe, Chrome, RPMFusion, VirtualBox)
  • Firefox 7 as the default web browser (with integration tweaks for KDE)
  • Firefox extensions included (Adblock Plus, DownThemAll, Flashblock, Xclear)
  • Microblogging client (Choqok for KDE, Gwibber for GNOME)
  • Full multimedia support (excluding Flash, see next)
  • Installer for Adobe Flash plugin
  • Jockey device manager to handle drivers such as AMD/ATI and NVIDIA
  • Video editor (Kdenlive for KDE, OpenShot for GNOME)
  • VLC as the default media player
  • SELinux enabled (particularly worthwhile for Flash)
  • English (Australian/British) support & dictionaries
  • and more..

Feedback
We’d love to hear your feedback on the forums, so download it today and let us know! 🙂

Thanks!

Note: Kororaa is not provided or supported by the Fedora Project. Official, unmodified Fedora software is available through the Fedora Project website.

Kororaa 14 (Nemo) Beta3 released

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Kororaa 14 (Nemo) Beta3 has been released for download, in 32 and 64 bit with KDE and GNOME.

It is recommended to back up your data and perform a fresh install as this fixes several important bugs.

New features:

  • Latest packages including updated kernel, latest KDE, and GNOME
  • Added Kdenlive video editor to KDE
  • Added HandBrake ripper
  • Set previews for various file types in Dolphin (KDE)
  • Added Fedora printer configuration tool to KDE
  • Added deja-dup backup tool
  • Replaced PiTiVi with OpenShot in GNOME
  • Fixed Elementary theme issue under Nautilus in GNOME
  • PolicyKit tweaks for printing, should be seamless (please test!)

Bug fixes:

  • Lots 🙂
  • Problem with new users being added to wheel group
  • Dropped Livna repository due to unreliability
  • Fixed bugs in add-removes-extras script

We’d love to hear your feedback on the forums, so download it today! 🙂

Thanks!

Kororaa Lite (KDE) beta released

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Kororaa Lite (KDE) has been released and is now available for download in 32 and 64 bit.

Kororaa Lite 14 (Nemo) desktop

Kororaa Lite is a minimal KDE based system which provides a smaller footprint for users to then install the programs they want. It disables various services and cuts out some hefty KDE features by default, to reduce the resource footprint. It might be useful for netbooks and lower-end systems, or users who want to start with a solid base and build up from there.

It is designed to provide Internet connectivity out of the box and focuses on the following:

  • CD size (<= 700MB)
  • Smaller resource footprint
  • Network-ability (wireless, VPN, dial-up)
  • Internet browsing and social networking
  • Multimedia support
  • Broad hardware support
  • Uses KDE Netbook interface by default (changeable)

As with the full Kororaa release, it includes:

  • Third party repositories (Adobe, Google Chrome, Livna, RPMFusion)
  • Firefox as the default web browser
  • VLC as the default media player
  • Installers for Adobe Flash and NVIDIA drivers
  • SELinux enabled (particularly worthwhile for Flash)

Unlike the full Kororaa, it does not provide these out of the box:

  • Full range of applications (no office suite, PIM, java, or graphics tools, etc)
  • Build tools required for building external modules
  • Extra fonts
  • Printing support

Please test it out and provide any feedback you might have, especially if you have ideas on how to further tweak KDE to reduce resource footprint!

Thanks,
Chris

Kororaa is back!

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That’s right folks, Kororaa is back.

I know that you’ll be looking for something Linux related to do over your Christmas holidays and New Year 😉 so I’ve just released the first installable Live DVD x86_64 beta for testing. The final release will be Kororaa 14 (derived from Fedora 14), codenamed Nemo. As with the original Kororaa, it’s based on KDE.

If you can find the time, I would really appreciate some feedback. Tell me it’s crap, tell me I suck, but tell me something 🙂 I’m really looking for suggestions on how to improve it and make sure that everything works. If you’re interested in contributing to a project like this, then here’s your chance!

Essentially, Kororaa has been re-born as a Fedora Remix, inspired by Rahul Sundaram’s Omega GNOME based Remix. I switched to Fedora about a year and a half ago, and I love it. Kororaa has re-emerged out of a desire to see others using Fedora, and so aims to provide a system which sets up a lot of the magic for you, out of the box. This is something I want my family (and all my friends) to be able to install and use. There are lots of things still to do, but I hope you’ll try it out and let me know what you think!

Kororaa aims to provide all general computing uses out of the box (well, as much as possible anyway). It aims to include the software packages that most users will want (this means Firefox for KDE, GIMP over Krita, VLC over DragonPlayer, and OpenOffice.org over KOffice Calligra, etc). Adobe’s Flash plugin and NVIDIA’s graphics drivers are each installable with a double click.

See the About page for a list of what Kororaa aims to achieve, and see the Changes page for a list of customisations and their status.

Here’s a look at the desktop, running from the Live DVD.
Kororaa 14 (Nemo) Desktop

Thanks,
Chris

Encrypted DVDs and Fedora

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The well known RPMFusion repository contains a lot of the useful software which Red Hat doesn’t ship by default (for licensing, patent or legal reasons). It is the amalgamation of several other repositories, including Dribble, Freshrpms, and Livna.

One helpful package that RPMFusion does not package however, is libdvdcss, the free software library which enables Linux to play encrypted DVDs.

Most users keep Livna around for this single purpose, but it is often offline (especially recently). So, here’s another solution – use ATrpms – another third party repository that includes lots of handy software.

The problem is, ATrpms has lots of other software which you might not want to update and which could conflict with the packages from RPMFusion. The solution? Tell yum to only include libdvdcss* packages from that repository. Easy.

To do this, simply add a new repo file (/etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo) for Yum to configure it.
[atrpms]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1
includepkgs=libdvdcss*

Now, just run the following to update the repo and install libdvdcss (you may wish to remove the old package first, if you have it).
sudo yum check-update
sudo yum install libdvdcss

That’s about it!

-c