Announcing PING Updates / Stable releases

[pyter]

where is that so called 2.01.11 version?

I'm anxious about it

[Natan]

Well, release for Sat evening, I think.
Natan

[Natan]

Hi people,
the new release of PING is finally available, at the usual place.

A real announce will be made tomorrow. Some new files are available on the browsable directory => http://ping.windowsdream.com/dl/PING_2.01/ .

Regards
Natan

[Alberto Maria]

* 2.01.11 2007-02-29
- Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.23.12 to 2.6.23.17.
- Bug fix: tries all cifs possible syntaxes before giving
smbfs a try.
- Added SSHFS-Fuse 1.9.
- Added zip and unzip 5.52.
- Updated ATL2 drivers from 1.0.40.2 to 2.0.4.
ASUS Eee PC Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet should now work fine.
- Bug fix: sub Delete_All_Parts() failed when there was only
one part to delete and when it was extended. One pop() too much...
- Consider SFS (type 42) (Windows Dynamic Volumes) as NTFS.
- New ping.conf/kernel params: Cmd_1, Cmd_2 and Cmd_3.
Cmd_1 is a command for PING to execute before the first blue
welcome screen, Cmd_2 is a command for PING to execute after
the mounting of SMB shares and Cmd_3 is a command for PING to
execute at the end (before giving a shell or reboot or shutdown).
Think of it as a tool to combine with a possible add-on.
- Preliminary test to add: mount -t ntfs-3g vs.
mount -t ntfs-3g ... -o ro. Means, need to shutdown windows
properly (not hibernating), and/or run checkdisk (tks elonderin).
- If addon-*.tar.gz files are found in the CD/DVD, untar them
into the root. First use: adding CLAM AV as an optional add-on.
Note: these addons can also be present in the network share
containing the image directories.
- Logs dd-commands' outputs.
- Now sleeps 2 seconds before restoring with partimage. On some
configs (DELL 745 Optiplex), this helps.
- If ntfs label's length is greater than 8 chars, trim it.
Otherwise, partimage will bug (seg fault). (Thks Dwfa & Curtis).
- hda1.fir can be looked for as well as hda1.first_sectors (so
uncorrectly-built ISOs can still be used).
- Now defaults to CIFS rather than SMBFS.
- Howto: updated the syslinux section concerning USB devices
(tks Fubar Bundy).
- Howto: updated to explain about VMWare SCSI (Tks tahussle).
- Maybe bug fix: replaced "mount -t smbfs / cifs" by "mount.smbfs/cifs".
Seems to work much better (no real idea why).

for the last point!

[Natan]

lol, the samba part gets more and more tricky, these days...

[Natan]

Finally, just re-released it. Only two things have changed, in fact :

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  - Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.23.12 to 2.6.24.3.
  - Upgraded the e1000 driver module from 7.6.9 to 7.6.15.4.

It might help some people out here having hard times with new H/W.

Natan

[Natan]

Hi there !
I'm glad to announce a small update...

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* 2.01.12 2008-03-12
  - New ping.conf/kernel param: Restore_Only.
    Set it to Y if you don't want the user nor to be proposed
    to create a new image, nor to be able to do so.
  - Added the driver ServerWorks / Apple K2 SATA in the kernel.
    This should bring support for some specific Dell servers'
    SATA drives.
  - Upgraded dhcpcd from 3.1.8 to 3.2.3.
  - Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.24.3 to 2.6.24.4.
  - Added combined_mode=libata to the standard isolinux.cfg's
    kernel parameters. Permits linux to see intel's SATA
    controllers as SATA and not as IDE even if the BIOS
    settings are set to legacy mode. This ensures PING will
    create sda* files and not hda*, and improves speed a lot.

As always, it can be downloaded here.

Regards
Natan

[Alberto Maria]

Hi Natan!

I don't know if it's a typo, but in the 2.01.12 release the date written by the .iso is 2007-03-12, which by the way has nothing to do even with the release date of 31.3.2008...

[Natan]

Hi there !

It has been some time since last version has been released, so I've thought it was time for a new one.
=> PING 2.01.13 is out !

No revolution, yet, but many components upgrades, and a few bug fixes.

Regards
Natan

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* 2.01.13 2008-06-20
  - Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.24.4 to 2.6.25.7.
    Added new SATA (Marvell) and NIC (i82575, intel
    Pro/1000 + express) drivers.
  - Bug fix => typo on the ipconfig/dhcp handling part. Tks, mondo!
  - Added 'ide0=noprobe' to the standard isolinux.cfg's kernel params.
    Will make some SATA devices go *much* faster (just like
    'combined_mode=libata') -- thanks jss.
  - Added 'nomce' to the standard isolinux.cfg's kernel parameters.
    Prevents "Kernel Panic - CPU context corrupted" messages in the
    following situation:
      Some newer processors have the ability to self-monitor and detect
      inconsistencies that should not regularly happen. If an inconsistency
      is detected, a Machine Check Exception will take place and the system
      will be halted (rather than plundering forward and corrupting your
      data). You can use this argument to disable this feature, but be sure
      to check that your CPU is not overheating or otherwise faulty first.
    Reported to successfully change things with a Dell Vostro 1000.
  - Upgraded chntpw from 070923 to 080526.
  - Upgraded clamav from 0.92.1 to 0.93.1 (virus defs as well).
  - Upgraded devmapper from 1.02.08 to 1.02.26.
  - dhcpcd still version 3.1.8; upgrade to 3.2.3 planned (mid-term);
    version 3.2.3 seems hard to compile.
  - Upgraded dvd+rw-tools from 7.0 to 7.1.
  - Upgraded intel e1000 drivers from 7.6.15.4 to 8.0.1 -- as a module.
    Note that the new kernel has been built with native, static, new
    e1000 drivers as well. Looking for any error report from the user
    community.
  - Upgraded et131x drivers from 1.2.3-2 to 1.2.3-3 -- as a module.
  - Upgraded fuse from 2.7.2 to 2.7.3.
  - Upgraded grub from 1.95 to 1.96.
  - Upgraded lftp from 3.5.11 to 3.7.3.
  - Upgraded LVM2 from 2.02.26 to 2.02.38.
  - Upgraded ntfs-3g from 1.1120 to 1.2531.
  - Upgraded samba from 3.0.28 to 3.0.30.
  - Upgraded sshfs-fuse from 1.9 to 2.0.

[Natan]

Hi there !
I'm glad to announce a small update...

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* 2.01.14 2008-08-01
  - Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.25.7 to 2.6.26.
    Reverted kernel's config to what it was in PING 2.01.12. New
    (and rare) SATA devices were identified, but several PATA
    controllers have been reported to become unknown. VMWare's IDE
    controller was in this case, too. We keep the NIC new drivers.
  - Explain the meaning of the "No HDD device could be found. Will
    do nothing" message better.
  - Added a way to have a locally-stored image restored with no
    interactivity. The param to use is still Server, but it can
    now be set with local devices names rather than an IP. Look at
    ping.conf or at the Howto for details and samples.
  - When browsing folders containing images, we won't show anymore
    folders which names start with 3 underscores (ex.: ___MyBetaImage),
    so to provide admins with an easy way to hide some images.
  - New ping.conf/kernel param: Compression_Type.
    Can be set to 'gzip', 'bzip2' or 'no compression'. If set, won't ask.
    Still quite useless, but we plan to make the creation of a new image
    entirely automatizable some day.

As always, it can be downloaded here.
Old versions are now stored here.

Regards
Natan

[Alberto Maria]

Wow... a new one!

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* 2.01.15 2008-08-03
  - Added the possibility to write 'skip' at the PING welcome screen.
    This will erase all params passed to the kernel or through the
    ping.conf and asks all questions. Useless except for testing...
  - Small fix to sub Read_Dir(), so it will re-order correctly files
    of images containing cciss|rd|ida subdirs.
  - One bug occurred with images spanned in several CD/DVDs. If you
    had, for example, hda1.* files on CD #1 and hda2.000 on CD #2,
    CD #2 would not be loaded for the restoration to complete. If
    you had hda1.* files on CD #1 and other hda1.* files on CD #2,
    it would work fine. This has been fixed.

[Natan]

Was to announce it... you're damn fast !

[Alberto Maria]

Thanks Natan (for the update)!

[mrralan]

I downloaded it but it still says its 2.01.14.

[Alberto Maria]

When it runs it says .15, where did you notice .14 mrralan?