Endless OS 3.8.0 was released for existing users today, April 27th, 2020.
Downloadable images for new users will be available in the next few days.
GNOME 3.36
In this release the desktop and most of its components were updated to the versions from GNOME 3.36, bringing new features, performance improvements and bug fixes.
Some highlights:
The improved lock screen, including a new password-peeking functionality
The user menu options have been slightly reorganized, including a visible suspend option to make it easier to suspend your computer
The Settings app was also improved in several places, making it easier to navigate
Parental Controls
On new installations, parental controls can now be enabled when you first start the computer, at the same time as creating the main user account.
Once configured, there is now a dedicated Parental Controls application to make it easier to find and adjust the parental controls settings.
Downloadable VM images
We are now producing ready-to-go images that can be imported directly into any virtual machine software that supports OVF files (for example, VirtualBox or VMWare Player) and 64-bit virtual machines. These images will be available for download from the Try or Install on your Computer tab on the Downloads section of our website in the next few days.
After the download finishes, you will have a file with the .ovf.zip extension. After uncompressing that file you will be left with a few different files, one of which with the .ovf extension. This .ovf file can then be imported into your virtual machine software. To import it on VirtualBox (recommended, as we have guest support on Endless for VirtualBox pre-installed), select File → Import Appliance and follow the instructions on screen. To import it on VMWare Player, select Player → File → Open and follow the instructions on screen (see the Known Issues section if you are using VMWare).
Please note that due to the image size, it may take several minutes for the import process to complete. After the import process is finished the file with the .ovf.zip extension and all extracted files can be removed.
Updated hardware support
We have updated our low-level software platform, which should improve stability and hardware compatibility.
- Linux kernel 5.4, bringing support for the latest PC hardware and several fixes to existing drivers and core kernel code, including security fixes;
- NVIDIA driver 440.64, adding support for new NVIDIA graphics cards;
- VirtualBox Guest Utils 6.1.4, improving support when running as a guest in VirtualBox;
- GRUB 2.04, making us closer to upstream and in turn more stable and secure, due to shipping a more widespread codebase;
- Low-level userspace components were updated, bringing in new features and bug-fixes: systemd 244, PulseAudio 13, Mesa 19.3.3, among others.
In addition, a number of hardware support bugs were fixed for this release, improving the and expanding the hardware compatibility of Endless OS. We are also collaborating with Linux developers to improve our Raspberry Pi 4 edition, currently released in preview form.
Other Improvements and Changes
- Updated Chromium. We’ve updated to Chromium 80.0.3987.163 bringing new security fixes to Endless’ built-in web browser.
- Other general improvements and bugfixes.
Known Issues
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When you unlock your screen, sometimes the icons may disappear from your desktop. If this happens, clicking the desktop should make the icons reappear.
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The configuration steps for parental controls during the initial setup process always appear partly in English, even if you have selected a different language. Once you have completed Initial Setup, the Parental Controls application is correctly translated.
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We do not ship VMWare Guest Tools on our images, and it cannot be manually installed. When running Endless OS on VMWare you will not be able to use advanced features like shared folders. We are looking into improving the situation here in the future.
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When importing our virtual machine into VMWare Player, you may receive an error message saying that the file does not pass their virtual appliance conformance checks. Clicking on Retry here should clear this message and get the import process started.
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If you remove the password from an administrator user account by choosing “Do not require a password when logging in” in Settings → Users, you may be unable to log in as this user or unlock the screen after locking it. If you end up in this situation, follow these steps to completely remove the user’s password and restore the ability to log in:
- Switch on the computer
- Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to open a text mode session
- Type the username of the affected administrator user, and press Enter
- When asked for a password, just press Enter
- Type the following command and press Enter. Again, when asked for a password, just press Enter:
$ sudo passwd -d $USER
- Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to return to graphical mode - you should now be able to login again or unlock the screen
(If you have a bootable USB stick, you can also follow the instructions in this FAQ article.)
