12.Feb.2024
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Blog: The Infocom logo
The blog "Zarf Updates" deals with the design and history of the Infocom logo in an article. (dr)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2024, 09:43] [Comments: 0]
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12.Feb.2024
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Music: Piano arrangements of Amiga game music
Grazia Pizzuto is a church musician in Bonn and teaches piano and improvisation. She also runs a YouTube channel where she presents piano arrangements of game music, including Amiga games. She has recently published the following songs:
When asked how she came to arrange and play Amiga game music, Grazia kindly replied:
"I have never had an Amiga myself. It all started when my husband introduced me to Chris Hülsbeck's Piano Collection. These are sheet music and CD/mp3s that we had supported as a Kickstarter project. When I heard this music for the first time, it immediately appealed to me and since then I've always been looking for good music in (retro) computer games.
Several factors play a role in the selection of the pieces: First and foremost, I consider the recommendations/tips from my viewers. Another decisive factor is how much the pieces appeal to me personally. I also talk to my husband about how much a piece of music evokes nostalgia in him (he had a C64 and knew the Amiga from friends). Next, I check whether there is already sheet music available, for example on Musescore, or whether I have to arrange the piece myself.
For the Amiga songs I often work with MOD files in an MOD file tracker. If I have neither notes nor MODs, I often listen to the originals and then write the notes from what I hear. Of course, I also have a look at longplays to get an idea of the game. Occasionally I play one or two games on emulators (Vice, WinUAE, RetroArch) to get a feel for the gameplay."
Thank you very much, Grazia. We look forward to many more Amiga titles! (dr)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2024, 08:37] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.7.7
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 13.1 with the bundled WinUAE/FS-UAE and GDB." (YouTube video). Changes of version 1.7.7:
- FIX: Resource bitmap colors red & blue swapped
- FIX: auto-reload .size.amigaprofile, .shrinklerstats if changed on disk
- CHG: changed shrinkler output name from a.exe.config.shrinkler to a.shrinkler_config.exe so you can use EXE2ADF on the resulting shrinkled file
- CHG: Makefile: don't strip symbol names (-s) in elf2hunk so Shrinkler can display nicer shrinklerstats
- FIX: fixed/optimized memclr
- NEW: ELF disassembly: move cursor with Shift to show accumulated cycle counts
- FIX: flashing document when Show Source has been disabled in Profiler Assembly view
(dr)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 19:51] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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Shoot'em Up: BreakThru V1.1
Since the beginning of last year, 'acidbottle' has been working on the amiga version of the horizontal shoot'em up Breakthru, which was originally released by Data East in 1986 (YouTube video). Following the release at the beginning of March, there is now a first update
- Tweaks to fire tank, flame vanishes immediately when destroyed.
- Fixed occasional crashing when helicopter is onscreen.
- Fixed scores now register if game beaten on 2nd loop.
- Fixed powerup properly deactivating after game over.
- Added sound effects.
(dr)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 15:46] [Comments: 4 - 24. Feb. 2024, 19:35]
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11.Feb.2024
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AROS: CAMD MIDI driver (update)
In our (German) news item on the release of version 1.0 of the multimedia MIDI sequencer BarsnPipes for Amiga OS4.1, Alfred Faust stated: "Before I made the OS4.1 FE version, I worked intensively on the AROS version. Unfortunately, AROS lacks a usable MIDI transfer. Without this, BarsnPipes is NOT usable. I had tried very hard to write a CAMD driver for USB MIDI transmission. Unfortunately, this did not lead to the success I had hoped for."
In a thread on AROS World, help was sought in this regard, which Franck 'hitchhikr' Charlet has now provided using his CAMD-MIDI driver under the title link.
Regarding the installtion he has written:
- Delete any file present in the devs:midi directory (probably just "debugdriver")
- Copy the file "mididriver" into devs:midi directory.
- Reboot.
In the archive there are two tools:
- "ShowClusters" will show the midi ports of the driver.
- "MidiWatch" will monitor a given port as argument (usually mididriver.in.0 or mididriver.out.0).
Update: (16.02.2024, 06:18, dr)
A new version is available on Franck 'hitchhikr' Charlet's website: it fixes a bug that caused AROS to crash. He has also added the shell commands MidiThru (forwards messages from one port to another) and MidiSendC (sends a middle C to a specific port).
Charlet also found out that there are two bugs in camdusbmidi.class.c that prevent the sending of multiple midi messages in the nParseMidiOut() function. A corrected version is now also included in the archive. The following must therefore be installed:
- Copy "mididriver" into devs:midi (and remove any file that may be there before).
- Replace "camdusbmidi.class" from SYS:Classes/USB with the one included in the archive.
- Reboot.
(dr)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 13:06] [Comments: 3 - 17. Feb. 2024, 13:31]
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11.Feb.2024
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Aminet uploads until 10.02.2024
The following files have been added until 10.02.2024 to Aminet:
LuettjeBookholler.lha biz/misc 1.7M OS4 Little Personal Finance program
Leu.lha biz/spread 8.0M ALL Simple spreadsheet application
SonosController_MOS.lha comm/misc 2.5M MOS Control Sonos speakers with y...
SonosController_OS3.lha comm/misc 2.1M 68k Control Sonos speakers with y...
SonosController_OS3fp... comm/misc 2.0M 68k Control Sonos speakers with y...
SonosController_OS4.lha comm/misc 2.9M OS4 Control Sonos speakers with y...
SonosController_WOS.lha comm/misc 2.4M WOS Control Sonos speakers with y...
strange_src.lha comm/www 204K source of strange'
Rebuild.lha dev/gui 158K 68k Amiga Reaction GUI Builder
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 5.6M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 4.3M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MahjongScore.lha game/misc 47K 68k Accounting of a Mahjong game ...
SudokuSolverE.lha game/misc 129K 68k Sudoku solver written in AmigaE
TunnelsAndTrolls.lha game/role 18M 68k Implementation of Tunnels & T...
AmiDuke_RTG.lha game/shoot 662K 68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
wcs.lha gfx/3d 3.2M 68k recompiled World Construction...
ReportPlus.lha util/misc 660K 68k Multipurpose utility
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 765K MOS Multipurpose utility
ReportPlus-OS4.lha util/misc 832K OS4 Multipurpose utility
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 18M 68k Versatile Amiga Testprogram
(snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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OS4Depot uploads until 10.02.2024
The following files have been added until 10.02.2024 to OS4Depot:
sonoscontroller.lha aud/mis 3Mb 4.1 Control Sonos speakers with your...
snes9x.zip emu/gam 128Mb 4.1 Super Nintendo / Super Famicom e...
leu.lha off/spr 8Mb 4.0 Simple spreadsheet application
reportplus.lha uti/mis 832kb 4.0 Multipurpose utility
amiupdate_deu.lha uti/wor 20kb 4.0 German catalog files for AmiUpdate
(snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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AROS Archives uploads until 10.02.2024
The following files have been added until 10.02.2024 to AROS Archives:
ptk_v2.6.4.i386-aros.zip aud/tra 23Mb Tracker program with advance fea...
acidwarp.i386-aros.zip dem/mis 168kb Colour cycling eye-candy
badapple.i386-aros.zip dem/mis 3Mb The famous Bad Apple animation w...
void-fb11-aros.i386-aros.zip dem/mus 4Mb Music-disk
void-fb8-aros.i386-aros.zip dem/mus 3Mb Music-disk
dosbox.i386-aros.zip emu/com 2Mb Dosbox a PC Emulator
boh.i386-aros.lha gam/act 28Mb game released upon humanitarian ...
jetpac.i386-aros.zip gam/act 1Mb Remake ZX Spectrum classic game
wcs.multi-aros.lha gra/ray 6Mb World Construction Set
mcc_thebar-26.22.zip lib/mui 2Mb Mui Custom Class
owb-1.26.i386-aros.zip net/bro 45Mb Odyssey Web Browser
wput-0.3.4c.i386-aros.zip net/ftp 58kb Wput is a command-line ftp-client.
(snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 10.02.2024
The following files have been added until 10.02.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:
Protrekkr_2.6.4.lha Audio/Tracker A hybrid of modern day ...
SDL_2.30.0_Libraries.lha Dependencies/Library/SDL All Libraries SDL : SDL...
strange-src-0.22.lha Development/Sources source of strange'
SonosController_1.3.lha Devices/Speakers Control your Sonos spea...
MCE_14.60.lha Games/Editor Multi-game Character Ed...
SonicMania_1.0.1.lha Games/Platform A complete decompilatio...
fheroes2_1.0.12.lha Games/Strategy fheroes2 is a recreatio...
ReportPlus_8.47.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
Wayfarer_7.3.lha MorphOS-update Wayfarer is the latest ...
(snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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WHDLoad: New installers until 10.02.2024
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 10.02.2024:
(snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
Alisha Stutz (ANF)
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Event: AUGS meeting 2024 in Zurich (Switzerland)
The Amiga User Group Switzerland is hosting this year's meeting on March 16 and 17, 2024 at the Centrum Čechů a Slováků in Zurich.
Admission is free for visitors, but registration is mandatory for participation with hardware and subject to a stand fee for non-members of AUGS. Further information can be found at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 08:55] [Comments: 0]
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11.Feb.2024
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AmigaOS 4: Finance management LüttjeBookholler 1.87
"Lüttje Bookholler" is a German dialect and means "little accountant". The program is capable to import account data via csv-import. Now Achim Pankalla has released version 1.87. Changes:
- Bug: Report account-flow has not offer the last years, only last 12 month.
- Bug: Long catogory names are not shown in ignition tables.
- Changes: Now also the values are shown in ignition pie-graphics.
- Bug: Corrects some little bugs in ignition-sheets.
(dr)
[News message: 11. Feb. 2024, 07:02] [Comments: 0]
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10.Feb.2024
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Blog: Well-known Secrets of AmigaDOS
As Carl Svenssons writes in his blog entry "Well-known Secrets of AmigaDOS", most consumer models of the Amiga series were shipped with heavily watered-down documentation. The Amiga 500 was an exception to this rule, but owners of later machines - such as the A1200 - may not have received any documentation for the command line portion of AmigaOS at all.
Furthermore, the normal end user had no access to the official developer documentation. His present essay is dedicated to hidden or even completely undocumented or unfinished features of AmigaDOS versions 2 and 3. (dr)
[News message: 10. Feb. 2024, 15:15] [Comments: 0]
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10.Feb.2024
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Terrain models: World Construction Set 2.031 (Emerald-Berta), AmigaOS 3 and AROS
As can be read in the history of the development of their software products, Gary Huber of Questar Productions recognized the potential of the graphics capabilities of the personal computers of the time in the late 1980s and began researching and developing software for his Amiga computer to combine 3D terrain data and landscape/vegetation information into a computer-generated synthetic 3D view with colored trees (coniferous and deciduous), ground cover patterns, sky and haze.
Other software companies had developed similar software for the Amiga, including VistaPro from Virtual Reality Labs and the "Scenery Generator" (later "Scenery Animator") from Naturalgfx and Panorama. All included a basic method of automatically placing one or more types of vegetation based on local terrain criteria, usually using elevation and slope. However, none of the available commercial tools could handle large, detailed regions, making them unusable for commercial and industrial terrain mapping.
In 1992, Huber began developing algorithms and programs to meet the requirements he had predicted. Originally written in an advanced BASIC language and later rewritten in C for speed reasons. Chris Hanson joined Questar and Huber and helped develop the user interface, language conversion, optimization and graphics. The result, announced in August 1994, was World Construction Set 1 (WCS) for the Amiga with a host of advanced features (and a name inspired by the popular Electronic Arts audio tool of the time, "Deluxe Music Construction Set"). WCS V1 extended the land cover and vegetation placement techniques of earlier software to include the placement of so-called "ecosystems".
WCS V2 (video) for the Amiga was released in late 1995, followed by a Windows version in January 1996. Version 2 introduced oceans with waves and reflections, DEM buildings, realistic looking clouds, sun and moon, better vegetation and OpenGL support.
Both versions 1.25 and 2.04 are available as packed ADF files on the 3DNature.com website. The corresponding source files were published on GitHub some nine years ago. Alexander Fritsch began working on the source files containing the penultimate version 2.03 ("Emerald") in 2017. As he tells us, the project first had to be made gcc-compatible. The aim of his new compilation using Bebbo's gcc was and is to achieve the highest possible speed. This required very extensive tests with various compiler options and lengthy test calculations on a real Amiga, always under the same boundary conditions. As Bebbo also continued to work on gcc, it had to be tested again and again to see whether a new compiler version with new optimizations would bring a speed advantage. Since WCS as a complex program is also a test case for the compiler itself, Alexander reports, WCS also revealed errors in the compiler over time, especially with various optimizations and floating point calculations.
As a result, the new version of WCS now available on Aminet on a 25MHz 68040 Amiga only needs 4 hours instead of 5 hours for a "Canyon Sunset" example image. A nice result that would not have been possible without Bebbo's work, as Alexander says, and his gcc. An AROS version is also included in the archive. (dr)
[News message: 10. Feb. 2024, 15:03] [Comments: 0]
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10.Feb.2024
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Podcast: The Retro Hour talked to Matthew Leaman (AmigaKit)
The podcast The Retro Hour spoke to Matthew Leaman, Managing Director of AmigaKit, about his latest project, the A600GS gaming computer, among other things. (dr)
[News message: 10. Feb. 2024, 14:36] [Comments: 0]
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10.Feb.2024
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Linux: Stable long-term kernel 5.10.208 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000
Parallel to the current kernels (amiga-news.de reported), Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky also provides the latest version of the stable long-term kernel for the AmigaOne X1000 and X5000. It is suitable for old Linux distributions that do not work with the latest kernels, such as Ubuntu 10.04, or if users have problems with the latest kernels. PowerPC-relevant changes:
- powerpc: update ppc_save_regs to save current r1 in pt_reg
- powerpc/ftrace: Fix stack teardown in ftrace_no_trace
- powerpc/ftrace: Create a dummy stackframe to fix stack unwind
- powerpc: Don't clobber f0/vs0 during fp|altivec register save
- powerpc/perf: Fix disabling BHRB and instruction sampling
- powerpc/pseries: fix potential memory leak in init_cpu_associativity()
- powerpc/imc-pmu: Use the correct spinlock initializer
- powerpc/xive: Fix endian conversion size
- powerpc/40x: Remove stale PTE_ATOMIC_UPDATES macro
- powerpc/mm: Fix boot crash with FLATMEM
- powerpc/64e: Fix wrong test in __ptep_test_and_clear_young()
- powerpc/8xx: Fix pte_access_permitted() for PAGE_NONE
- powerpc/watchpoints: Disable preemption in thread_change_pc()
- powerpc/perf/hv-24x7: Update domain value check
- powerpc/pseries: fix possible memory leak in ibmebus_bus_init()
- powerpc/iommu: Fix notifiers being shared by PCI and VIO buses
- powerpc: Don't include lppaca.h in paca.h
- powerpc/perf: Convert fsl_emb notifier to state machine callbacks
- powerpc/fadump: reset dump area size if fadump memory reserve fails
- powerpc/kasan: Disable KCOV in KASAN code
- powerpc/rtas_flash: allow user copy to flash block cache objects
- powerpc/mm/altmap: Fix altmap boundary check
- drm/radeon: possible buffer overflow
- drm/radeon: Use RMW accessors for changing LNKCT
- drm/radeon: Fix integer overflow in radeon_cs_parser_init
- Support for Microsoft devices that are not fully compliant with HID standard (CONFIG_HID_MICROSOFT=y)
Download: linux-image-5.10.208-X1000_X5000.tar.gz (71,5 MB) (dr)
[News message: 10. Feb. 2024, 07:34] [Comments: 0]
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09.Feb.2024
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AmigaOS 4: AmiUpdate V2.53 (update 2)
AmiUpdate, the update programme for system components and programmes, was first updated to version 2.50 on 04/02/2024 and then, after some problems, to version 2.51. The changes:
AmiUpdate 2.50
- The http transfer routines did not consider a filename with spaces in it. All filenames
are now run through an encoder prior to the HTTP request being sent. This fixes issues like
the MUI update failing to download.
- update.library 53.19: Added more internal vectors.
- RebootDeamon 2.4:
- Reworked the source to avoid some duplication of code.
- Changed the timer.device handling to avoid memory leaks.
- Removed the pointless cancel button from the countdown requester.
- If update.library could not be loaded, it tried to open an intuition
requester for notification, but intuition had not been opened yet!
AmiUpdate 2.51
- Some internal changes, but nothing functional (unless I added some bugs, of course).
- It seems the http request headers did NOT include the version info in the User-Agent
field, which the server uses. I could have sworn it was included ages ago!
- Added better logging in the case of [405] errors.
- The status bar will now show correctly if no servers are selected.
- RebootDeamon 2.5: Seems there was a long standing bug which just popped up, which could lead to a crash
dealing with the time requests.
Update: (11.02.2024, 14:18, dr)
Meanwhile the author Simon Archer has released version 2.52, which currently cannot be downloaded from the program itself, but from "Downloads" under the title link. Many users had reported problems when they used the program iconified in the background. This now should be fixed. Changes:
- Unfortunately, trying to keep compatibility with OS 4.0 led to problems with the docky part
of application.library, as it always opens V2 of the library interface. As the program is
using the old V1 tags, this threw up an error reported by multiple users. As it is highly
unlikely anyone is still using 4.0, it should not be a problem a huge problem. My aplologies
to any 4.0 users, but now is the time to upgrade!.
- As the ongoing saga with connections to "amiupdate.net" is still ongoing, despite my best
efforts to resolve it, I have now added a simple NSLookup to AmiUpdate in order to put rest
to this issue once and for all. Accesses to "amiupdate.net" and "wwww.amiupdate.net" are now
registered on "my" lookup server and are now redirected to the correct place without any
intervention from the great wide internet.
Update 2: (13.02.2024, 22:01, dr)
And once again AmiUpdate has been updated, now to version 2.53. Users had tried to search for updates from within the prefs program, which caused errors. However, the new AmiUpdate V2.53 only updates the update prefs to version 53.17. The final version 53.18 can then be accessed via a separate update of the prefs program. (dr)
[News message: 09. Feb. 2024, 18:17] [Comments: 4 - 13. Feb. 2024, 17:48]
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09.Feb.2024
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Demoparty: Lovebyte 2024
This year's edition of the Lovebyte demo party will take place on Discord and Twitch from Friday to Sunday. In addition to various intro competitions, seminars, intro shows and many other events are also planned (timetable). (dr)
[News message: 09. Feb. 2024, 12:46] [Comments: 0]
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09.Feb.2024
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Text adventure: The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor 1.2
Stefan Vogt has released another update to his text adventure with graphics, "The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor" (amiga-news.de reported). It contains minor bug fixes and improvements as well as a comprehensive hint system in the game that does not spoil anything. (dr)
[News message: 09. Feb. 2024, 11:50] [Comments: 0]
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09.Feb.2024
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Blog: Modding the Amiga boot hand
Alexander Grupe recently discovered the Amiga start screen redesigned by AndroidArts on X and wondered whether the standard screen designed by Sheryl Knowles could actually be changed or replaced. In a current article on his website heckmeck! he shows that it works and how it works. (dr)
[News message: 09. Feb. 2024, 10:12] [Comments: 0]
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09.Feb.2024
Krzysztof 'deadwood' Śmiechowicz
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AROS x86: Update of ABI-v0 developer branch and Odyssey Web Browser
Press release: This new version 20220318-1 of AROS ABIv0 for 32-bit systems introduces updates to a few libraries as well as multiple bugixes. If you are a developer, please take note of switch to new C library and update your SDK installation. The download of binary packages and full changelog is available on GitHub.
Additionally, with this release the list of recommended hardware has been extended with two inexpensive motherboards: ASUS P8Z68V LX and Gigabyte GA-MA770T UD3P.
As a reminder, the above list includes hardware that is well supported, easily obtainable second hand, cheap and will be re-tested for each future release to maintain compatibility.
And to make things ever better, Odyssey Web Browser for 32-bit x86 AROS has also been refreshed. It was last released in 2016 and this new version 1.26 brings re-compilation with newer SDK and a number of bugfixes. It requires this release of AROS base system to work.
If you enjoy AROS and would like to get in touch with wider AROS community, be sure to visit new AROS community forum. (dr)
[News message: 09. Feb. 2024, 09:04] [Comments: 0]
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