Hackable:1, rev5rc1, at last!

Dear Hackable:1 users,

We are glad to announce that, after long & thorough efforts from the development team, after a bunch of testing hours, after a long time spent on arguing whether we should include this or that feature, we made it: hackable:1 rev5rc1 (Codename: Chuck) is there!


Here is a changelog of corrected bugs and added features from rev4.

Changelog

+ End users matters

• Most of the software stack now runs under the 'hackable1' user, for security purposes.
• SMS proper implementation
• The contact list bug has been found and fixed!
• Power management improvements, suspend works (well almost each & every time, sadly we're still hunting GSM issues for that matter)!
• An application called 'h1settings' can be used to configure phone features, (enable / disable GSM / Wireless / GPS, power management, ...)
• We created a new theme to celebrate this new release!
• We got a splashscreen! It features a Chuck figure to reflects the rev5 codename: Chuck
• Boot time seems to have been improved a bit

+ Power users / developers matters

• This RC1 and the upcoming final rev5 release are now built from the automatic build system.
• A Linux kernel is now packaged in hackable:1, in order not to rely on fso-pkg anymore.
• Debugging has been disabled (boot time improvement)
• Easier kernel upgrade when using an ext2 partition to store the kernel on µSD cards
• Separation of kernel modules in three sets: essential (comes with the kernel), common modules and "more modules"
• You can read a bit on http://zecrazytux.net/Embedded/Hackable1/Custom_Kernel.html

Where can I find it? Where can I get it? What is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything?

As ever, you can download hackable:1 on http://download.hackable1.org/rev5rc1.
All the necessary information can be found on http://trac.hackable1.org as ever, that is documentation, installation instructions as well as known issues.
It's obvious that the answer to the aforementioned question is "Chuck".

Who should I thank for all that stuff?

Among the people who worked on this release, the most notorious are (alphabetically):

• Marcus Bauer (mbauer)
• Jérome Blondon (jbl2024)
• Sébastien Bocahu (zecrazytux)
• Pierre Pronchery (khorben)
• David Wagner (Deubeuliou)

We'd also like to thank all the testers, among them most notably Bearstech employees, and regular contributors/users of hackable:1, who kept us going forward.

What should I expect next?

Due to a very good number of good reasons, which could all of them be summed up by a minute of one of khorben's rants against libgsmd, we'll switch to Freesmartphone.Org for rev6.
All in all, more reliable GSM & suspend, and almost all the features one may need. Stay tuned!