Release | Endless OS 3.7.4

english releases
1

Endless OS 3.7.4 was released today (18th November 2019).

Hack 2

This release of Endless OS adds a destination for kids to learn how to code. With this app, kids have the tools available to develop creative problem-solving skills and build confidence in a fun and safe environment.

image
image.jpg1600Ă—900 686 KB

The 5 Hack characters will walk you through the various pathways: Games, Art, Web, Maker and Operating System.

image
image.jpg1600Ă—900 508 KB

image
image.jpg1600Ă—900 520 KB

You can dive into the world of Hack using the pinned app icon on your desktop.

canvas
canvas.png1024Ă—768 1.44 MB

(Hack is not currently supported on ARM-based devices like Endless Mini.)

GNOME 3.34 updates

In this release, GNOME Shell (the desktop, taskbar and window manager) and Evolution (the email client) were also updated to the versions from GNOME 3.34, bringing the latest features, improvements and bug fixes.

The desktop received many optimizations in different areas, which includes reducing the amount of data that programs have to send to the monitor, doing a lot less calculations, better algorithms to update the screen more efficiently, and even an improved animation framework. This should result in smoother animations, longer battery life, and a more fluid experience overall. These improvements also settle important cornerstones for future enhancements and optimizations.

This version also ships with a new default background, showing the Sahara desert photographed from the International Space Station.

Updated hardware support

A number of hardware-specific issues have been resolved. Notably, audio output is now expected to work on machines using the Conexant CX2072X codec, shipped with a few Intel Atom Bay Trail and Cherry Trail CPUs, and headset jack detection has been fixed on Asus MJ401TA systems. Additionally, on some machines with NVIDIA discrete GPUs, a white tint would appear on the desktop background after resuming from suspend, and this is no longer the case on the systems where this was previously reported.

Finally, thermald is now being shipped as part of the OS, bringing better thermal management and improved performance on some machines.

Other Improvements and Changes

  • Updated Chromium. We’ve updated to Chromium 78.0.3904.97 to bring the latest security fixes to Endless’ built-in web browser.
  • Updated the Exploration Center extension for Chromium and Chrome. The extension was updated in this release to fix an issue with high CPU usage.
  • Flatpak was updated to keep compatibility with latest features and bug fixes.
  • Improved App Center stability and startup performance. The App Center has gained a series of updates this version, bringing more stability in general as well as an improved startup performance. Some users have also reported that the App Center stopped showing applications after upgrading to Endless OS 3.7.0 - this should also be fixed in this version.
  • USB app updates work more reliably. Supported applications can be copied to a USB drive using the “Copy to USB” button in the App Center, and inserting such a drive causes the App Center to open showing the apps available on the drive (this functionality was broken for a few releases). Note that there is still an issue that prevents USB updates (although app installs should work) from working without an internet connection.
  • ISO-based live USB sticks now support data persistency. Live USB sticks created by writing an ISO image directly to a USB flash drive now support data persistency, meaning that documents created by the user and new app installations will still be available after a reboot. This does not apply to USB sticks created with the Endless Installer for Windows.
  • Netflix supported in Chromium. Endless OS 3.7.0 introduced a problem which prevented Netflix from working in the built-in web browser. This is resolved in this version, but the fix may not be applied immediately. If you still have problems after upgrading to Endless OS 3.7.4, follow these steps:
    • Open Terminal
    • Copy the following command, paste it into the terminal, and press Enter: pkexec rm -f /var/lib/chromium-plugins-extra/eos-chrome-plugin-updater/Widevine_VERSION.txt
    • Reboot your computer

Known Issues

  • Progress bar for app installs in the App Center is not accurate. When installing applications, the progress bar stays at 0% until the app is fully installed in most cases. A fix is being developed for a future release.
  • App Center shows “Pending installation…” after an app is installed. In some circumstances, after installing an app in the App Center, the app’s status is shown as “Pending installation…” even once installation is complete. The workaround is to close and reopen the app center.
  • Desktop crashes when logging out. In some circumstances, choosing Log Out from the user menu causes the desktop to crash, or to restart as the same user. The workaround is to restart the computer.
2 Likes
2

Please correct the date to 18th November 2019

3

Great catch – thanks!

4

Minha versao do Endless e a 3.7.3. Como fazer para atualizar para 3.7.4?

5

Atualizando pela Central de Aplicativos

1 Like
6

Hi guys
I’m quite new to Endless OS. After last boot, I’ve been notified of this new update, great !
My question is : will this update install automatically or should I have to trigger it from app center (like Fedora does) ?
I’m looking for automatic updates both minor and major.
In settings, “automatic updates” are on but not “programmed update” (terms are translated back from french to english using my little english skills)

7

If “Automatic Updates” is enabled in the settings, the OS and applications will update automatically as soon as new versions have been released. Please note, that it could take a little while until the updates are being downloaded and installed.

To trigger the download manually (if you are in a hurry), use these commands:

flatpak update --appstream --assumeyes 
flatpak update --assumeyes #  this will actually download all application updates
eos-updater-ctl update
8

Thank you for taking time to answer.

9

How to install it without persistence?
Can you download previous version?

10

The persistent data storage only applies to the USB booted Endless session - it doesn’t affect the actual installation that you perform, the installation is the same as before.

Are you saying that you would prefer that when using the USB disk for trying Endless (rather than installing it), you would prefer for all documents & settings to be lost on reboot as before? Can you give us a bit more context/explanation on the behaviour you view as ideal and why?

To give some background on our goals, we’re trying to make the USB-booted Endless increasingly effective and useful as a means of new users evaluating and enjoying Endless, before they make the larger decision to click Reformat and install it on their hard disk, which usually involves replacing their existing OS.

11

I love endless os I use it live usb every day on a low requirement PC without a hard drive and I try all the versions. but being persistent live usb works too slow!

12

Thanks for the feedback. It’s a little surprising to hear that you can observe a speed difference. Please bear in mind that the first boot of the newly flashed USB disk may take a few minutes to finish creating the persistent storage area, during which time things might be a bit slower than normal.

Beyond that point though, I would expect it to perform basically as well as before. Most of the I/O at that point should data reads from the USB disk, which remain exactly the same as before - using a compressed filesystem on the USB disk for max performance on slower/older devices.

Writing data will now write to the USB disk (rather than RAM as before) and that would indeed be a bit slower, but I would hope that we don’t do too many writes unless you are explicitly requesting that kind of thing (e.g. through the copying or saving of files).

Anyway, if you would like to disable the data persistence and go back to live mode, I think the easiest way is to boot the USB disk once, then shut down. At this point a 3rd partition will have been created on the USB disk with filesystem label “endless-live”. Rename this partition to any other name, and boot up again, now you should be back in fully live mode.

The filesystem label can be changed with the Disks app. I’m not sure if you can do this while that USB disk is actually booted, or if you’ll have to use another OS or another computer to rename it while booted from another OS - feel free to experiment and let us know!

13

and had the same problem in other computers and distributions ubuntu example
change the partition name as you said without using another os and it works perfect
I am very grateful for your answer a simple solution
and I will continue testing future updates without persistence
thank you very much excellent work team endless os
greetings from Argentina

14

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.