Release | Endless OS 3.6.3

[wjt]

Endless OS 3.6.3 was released to existing users today. Images for new installations will be available soon.

Restrict Access to Web Browsers

It is now possible to restrict users’ access to web browsers via parental controls. This will prevent the user from running the built-in web browser, or any of the browsers available through the app centre (including Chrome and Firefox).

Parental Controls for Administrators

It is now possible to apply parental controls to administrator users, as well as standard users. This allows you to (for example) hide violent games from the app center, or prevent yourself from running certain installed apps (similar to “digital wellbeing” features on other platforms). If your administrator user has a password set, the password is required to change these settings.

Startup and login errors fixed

Between 3.6.0 and 3.6.2, there were two known issues which could prevent you from booting or logging into your computer. Both are addressed in this release.

Certain types of disk corruption would prevent the computer from booting at all; instead, they would show the message “Entering emergency mode. Exit the shell to continue.” In this release, the boot process will continue, although you may not be able to create new files until the problem is fixed. Please follow these instructions to recover if you are stuck at this error.

Between 3.6.0 and 3.6.2, if the file on disk which saves notifications was corrupted, the desktop would never appear after you choose a user at the login screen. This problem has been resolved in this release. If you are affected by this problem, you have three options:

• Sign in as another user, and upgrade to this version of Endless OS
• If you cannot sign in as another user, try following these instructions to switch back to an old version of Endless OS, then update the OS
• If all else fails:
  • Press Ctrl + Alt + F2 to switch to text mode
  • Type your username – which is normally your real name in lowercase letters, or “user” if your real name is written in non-Latin characters – and press Enter
  • If you have a password, type it, and press Enter
  • Type the following command to remove the problematic file, and press Enter:

rm .local/share/gnome-shell/notifications

• Take a photograph of the screen
• Type the following command, and press Enter:

exit

• Press Ctrl + Alt + F1 to switch back to graphical mode
• Now try to log into your computer again

If you continue to have trouble starting your computer, please contact customer support.

Updated hardware support

A number of hardware-specific issues have been resolved.

• The screen now correctly switches on after suspending and resuming some AMD platforms that would previously hang on a black screen.
• Realtek RTL8723BS WiFi devices should now more reliably connect to wireless networks.
• A recent compatibility issue with Realtek 8822CE WiFi connectivity has been resolved.

Other Improvements and Changes

• The built-in Chromium web browser has been updated to version 76.0.3809.132, for new features and important security fixes.
• The desktop no longer freezes when you try to run certain games, including SuperTuxKart and Minetest.
• “Get Spotify”, “Get Skype”, and other launchers that just open the App Center are no longer shown in Settings → Applications.
• The Croatian keyboard layout has been fixed to type the § symbol when you press AltGr + M.
• The service which displays software licenses now only responds to requests from the local system. The deprecated “xapian bridge” service has been removed.