Amicygnix-base
Description:	An Unix/X11 environment for AmigaOS 4
Download:	amicygnix-base.lha       (TIPS: Use the right click menu if your browser takes you back here all the time)
Size:	148Mb
Version:	1.7r2
Date:	13 Mar 2023
Author:	X Consortium, Inc. (http://www.x.org/) and others, OS4 port by Edgar Schwan
Submitter:	Edgar Schwan
Email:	eds/amicygnix de
Homepage:	http://www.amicygnix.de
Requirements:	AmigaOS 4.1
Category:	network/misc
Replaces:	network/misc/amicygnix-base.lha
License:	GPL
Distribute:	yes
Min OS Version:	4.1
FileID:	12458
Snapshots:
Comments:	45
Snapshots:	9
Videos:	0
Downloads:	346  (Current version)
	6093  (Accumulated)
Votes:	14 (0/0)  (30 days/7 days)

  Welcome to the ninth release of my Unix environment AmiCygnix!

  AmiCygnix offers a directory structure as it is present on Unix systems. All
  programs available for AmiCygnix run natively on AmigaOS 4 and do not require
  an emulator.

  The version 1.7 brings some innovations around the topic "start of external
  programs" (remote start). In addition, a Unix shell and an Amiga shell adapted
  to AmiCygnix are now available.
  By the complete revision of the utility library "libaos4util" for AmiCygnix
  some bugs have been fixed again.
  The addition of the coreutils package also removes some dependencies on the
  OS4 SDK.


New in 1.7r2:
-------------

  * The English gui file for the prefs editor "XServer-Access" was broken.
    Is fixed now.

  * The "echo" command of coreutils was buggy. Is fixed now.

  * Slightly bugfixed AmiCygnix Unix shell (acxsh, a special version of the
    abc-shell).

  * The integrated root certificates for GnuTLS and OpenSSL have been updated.

  * Updated Italian translations. Thanks to Samir Hawamdeh!

  * Fixed a minor bug in the Install script.


New in 1.7:
-----------

  * All display drivers for the Workbench now have a menu for starting a Unix or
    an Amiga shell. The environment of these shells is specially adapted to
    AmiCygnix. A further menu item can be used to open a preference editor for
    changing the access rights to the X server.

    Following display driver are affected:

    - picasso96wb
    - picasso96wb2
    - picasso96pip
    - workbench
    - workbench2

    You can also launch these shells through the "System Tools" menu of the
    desktop panel.

  * Until AmiCygnix 1.6 there were some dependencies to the OS4-SDK. The
    commands of the coreutils package needed by some shell scripts were not
    included in AmiCygnix. Especially the ROX-Filer was affected by this.
    These commands are now included and can also be used in the shells.

  * Due to an error in Newlib the arguments of some shell commands were not read
    correctly. Especially the backslash "" was affected. This has now been
    fixed.

    Especially the following packages were affected:

    - fileutils
    - coreutils
    - sed
    - grep
    - flex

  * The shell commands of AmiCygnix compiled with Newlib did not have wildcard
    support (resolution of "*" in filenames). The versions of the OS4-SDK
    compiled with Clib2 did. This has now been implemented so that no Unix shell
    is required anymore for the affected shell commands.

  * Contains now a special version of the ABC shell adapted to AmiCygnix called
    "acxsh" for better compatibility with AmiCygnix.

  * In the new directory "Prefs" is a preference editor to edit the access
    rights to the X server. Important for the call of remote applications.

  * A script named "Start_XServer_Only.bat" allows to start an X server without
    starting an application. Is mainly intended for starting external programs.

  * Update of the SSL/TLS layer "GnuTLS" to version 3.7.3. Fixes some problems
    with certificates.

    The following packages are affected:

    - NetSurf
    - Claws-Mail
    - Pidgin
    - uGet
    - Audacious (scrobbler plugin)
    - Gimp (file-uri plugin)
    - UFRaw (FITS Saver)

    Therefore please pay attention to updates of these programs!

  * The integrated root certificates for GnuTLS and OpenSSL have been updated.

  * Now includes the new GTK default theme "Adwaita", which is now also the
    default theme for GTK+ 2 and GTK+ 3 programs.

  * Support for GTK+ 3 programs was buggy. Bug has been fixed.

  * Revised version of the preference editors "myX11Setup" and
    "myX11SetupLight".

  * When using the window manager "dwm" (Dynamic Window Manager) introduced with
    AmiCygnix 1.5, key combinations with ALT could not be used. For key commands
    of "dwm" the left Amiga key is now used.

  * The library "libaos4util" used in all AmiCygnix programs has been completely
    revised and all programs have been re-linked to it.

  * The support of the old "threads.library" has been removed. This is no longer
    needed by any of the current programs.

  * The printer tool "lpr" could crash. Has been fixed.

  * The data for the time zones has been updated.

  * With installed AmigaOS4 SDK the commands of the SDK are preferred now with
    the environment variable "PATH" of the ABC Shell. Basically general
    environment variables are set at the start of AmiCygnix only if they are not
    present in ENVARC:.

  * Many more bugfixes...


New in 1.6:
-----------

  * Update to version 2.24.32 of GTK+, the latest version of GTK+ 2. In addition
    to some new features, the drag 'n drop in GTK+ 2 applications now finally
    works. The corresponding programs have to be linked again. Programs like
    Rox-Filer or Gimp benefit greatly from this. Therefore, please pay attention
    to updates of these programs!

  * Full support for Unix locale strings. So you can now select the country, the
    encoding and special variants in addition to the language. You can also
    select multiple locales.
    All drivers, all AmiCygnix tools and the X server have been revised for
    this.
    See the documentation "README.Language.pdf" in the directory "Cygnix:Docs"!

  * With the following display drivers for the Workbench, the size of the window
    can now be reduced:

    - workbench
    - workbench2
    - picasso96wb
    - picasso96wb2

    The content can then be moved using a scroller.
    This function can be deactivated via myX11Setup!

  * Support for version 3.16.3 of GnuTLS, the latest version of the SSL/TLS
    layer. Support for SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.3 is new. The Trusted Certificates
    included have also been updated. Problems with programs like NetSurf or
    Claws-Mail should be solved with it. However, the corresponding programs
    must be relinked.

    The following packages are affected:

    - NetSurf
    - Claws-Mail
    - Pidgin
    - uGet
    - Audacious (scrobbler plugin)
    - Gimp (file-uri plugin)
    - UFRaw (FITS saver)

    Therefore, please pay attention to updates of these programs!

  * Support for LDAP through OpenLDAP 2.4.49. Is now integrated in libcurl and
    will also be used in Claws-Mail.

  * Support for AISS in the menus of the Workbench display drivers. The size of
    the icons can be set using the "MenuImageSize" environment variable.

  * Revised myX11Setup with improved help function. Thanks to Michael Christoph!

  * Italian translation updated in many AmiCygnix scripts. Thanks to Samir
    Hawamdeh!

  * New Spanish translation of the texts in the Workbench display drivers.
    Thanks to Javier de las Rivas!

  * New catalog in Russian language for myX11Setup. Thanks to Eugene Sobolev!

  * The topic "Clearlooks" is now the standard topic for GTK+ 2 and the window
    manager "Openbox". The old themes "Amiga-BlueTabs-xxx" or "AmigaOS4" are
    still included.

  * Fixed a problem when starting the AmiCygnix desktop via myX11Setup.


New in 1.5:
-----------

  * The following new display drivers are now available:

    a) Driver for a display on a separate screen:
       - customscreen
       - customscreendb
       - customscreendb2
       - picasso96clonewbdb2

    b) Driver for a display in a workbench window:
       - workbench
       - workbench2
       - picasso96wb2

    All drivers that do not use Picasso96 require graphics.library V54!

    This brings the number of display drivers to 13. Why this variety of
    drivers? It has been shown that the different variants of the drivers have a
    different performance depending on the system. In addition to the pure
    processor performance and the graphics card driver used, the graphics card
    used plays a role. Unfortunately I cannot test every system. Therefore only
    trying out which driver works best helps.

    Further information can be found in the new documentation file
    "Display-Driver.pdf" in the "Docs" directory!

  * This release now includes a new Window Manager called "Dynamic Window
    Manager" (dwm), recommended for use with programs launched from the
    standalone scripts.
    This window manager maximizes the main window of the program and does not
    add frames to the windows. This avoids duplicate frames, as in a workbench
    display and the use of the window manager Openbox.

  * If a workbench display is iconized, the name of the icon now indicates the
    program started in it, if it was started with a standalone script.

  * The X server did not support special keys like "Page Up" or "Home" found on
    a PC keyboard. Also the NumLock key was not supported. This has now been
    implemented (thanks to Stefan Juhas for his hint!).

  * Under certain circumstances, the X server could freeze the entire system
    when starting or exiting. This particularly occurred in programs that were
    started with a standalone script. All display drivers have been revised for
    this and the problems should be resolved.
    Thanks to Samir Hawamdeh, Michael Christoph, George Sokianos, Stefan Juhas,
    Helge Kvalheim and MR2 for the tips and help with the removal!

  * Fixed some bugs in myX11Setup and myX11SetupLight (thanks to Michael
    Christoph!).

  * For the following programs, the Italian translation has been updated
    or recreated:

    - For the adjusters myX11Setup and myX11SetupLight
    - The installer script
    - For the desktop panel "lxpanel"
    - For all display drivers and some tools

    Thanks to Samir Hawamdeh!.

  * The "lxpanel" desktop panel could crash under certain circumstances. Has
    been fixed. Also thanks to Samir for the hint!

  * A bug in the GTK + themes "Amiga-BlueTabs-Light" and
    "Amiga-BlueTabs-Brushed" has been fixed, which showed up in the selection
    of menu items.

  * The display drivers xpicasso96clonewb and xpicasso96wb were revised for
    better performance, especially on 32bit screens.

  * The included "Trusted Certificates" have been updated.

  * The documentation in the "Docs" directory is now predominantly in PDF
    format.

  * Several internal tools were revised.


New in 1.4:
-----------

  * All display drivers and the X server binary were revised to fix the
    following problems:

    - With newer graphics cards like the Radeon HD 7xxx the colours of the
      display were wrong.

      This was completely fixed in following drivers:

      - picasso96clonewbdb
      - picasso96wb

      For the following drivers, the problem has been resolved only partially
      therefore only recommended for older graphics cards:

      - picasso96clonewb
      - picasso96
      - cybergraphx

      The driver picasso96pip works only with older graphics cards like the
      Radeon 9200.

    - Since AmigaOS 4.1 final Update 1 it came to program crashes, if the
      graphic driver picasso96clonewbdb was used. Is fixed now.

  * The display driver picasso96clonewbdb can now also open 32 bit screens
    internally, however, the data is still processed in 16 bits.

  * The print command "lpr" now supports the printout via Turboprint whereby
    the print quality is increased.

  * The window manager "Openbox" is now available in version 3.6.1.
    The context menu of Openbox has been revised.

  * Updated SSL support over OpenSSL and GnuTLS. The included Trusted
    Certificates have been updated.

  * The tool "chown" did not work. Has been fixed

  * The experimental mode "Quick Transfer" - available since release 1.1 - has
    been removed. The benefit was unfortunately too low.

  * The start scripts of AmiCygnix has been revised.

  * The standard height of the panel has been increased for better readability.

  * Many minor improvements and bug fixes.


New in 1.3 r2:
--------------

  * The support of dead keys was revised again. In 1.3 r1 this feature didn't
    work properly. Additionally all dead keys - except "DeadDialytikaTonos" -
    defined in the keymap files in "KEYMAPS:" are now supported.


New in 1.3:
-----------

  * A new display driver, which opens its display on a separate screen.
    It is an enhanced version of the driver "picasso96clonewb", but offers
    a better performance, especially when moving windows and also while
    scrolling. But it needs twice the amount of RAM.
    This driver is now enabled by default.

  * The X server did not supported dead keys. Has been resolved. Support of key
    combinations with Alt key, however, is still implementented in the clients.
    This makes an update of these programs necessary.

  * Keyboard layouts that do not conform to ISO-8859-1 standard (eg Polish or
    Greek keyboards) are now better supported. This is also implemented in the
    clients. An update of the previously published packages becomes necessary.

  * The preferences programs "myX11Setup" and "myX11SetupLight" were revised and
    an Italian and a Swedish catalog has been added.
    Additionally it is now possible to switch on/off the experimental "quick
    transfer" mode.

  * Some programs had problems with file names containing umlauts or other
    special characters. Has been largely eliminated.

  * It was reported, that some systems freezed while opening the X server dis-
    play. The bug is fixed now.


New in 1.2:
-----------

  * The whole system could freeze when the X server was finished (version 1.1
    and 1.1r2). This should now be fixed. Additionally the clients are stopped
    more clearly.

  * The whole system could freeze, if the existing assigns were listed in a
    file requester. The problem was fixed and the affected binaries were
    revised. (thanks to Paolo Vanni!)

  * The preference editors "myX11Setup" und "myX11SetupLight" were revised and
    a spanish catalog was added. (thanks to Michael Christoph!)

  * The printing tool "lpr" did not open a status window anymore since version
    1.1 of AmiCygnix. The window is opened again.
    Additionally it is now possible to stop the printing process.

  * The content of USB mass storage devices were not displayed in the file-
    requesters. Fixed now. (thanks to Thomas Blatt!)

  * It was possible, that the system mouse pointer was not removed in a
    X server display, so both mouse pointers were visible. Fixed now.


New in 1.1:
-----------

  * Support of programs compiled for GTK+ 2.24 and GTK+ 3.x. Ports of current
    software projects are possible now. All new packages for AmiCygnix will
    depend on it. As an advantage these programs do have a better performance,
    for example because of the now working icon cache.

  * A new (experimental) display driver is included, which opens a X11 display
    in a workbench window: "picasso96wb". Compared to the older driver for this
    purpose "picasso96pip" (overlay windows), this driver uses standard intui-
    tion windows. Because of this, more than one display can be opened on the
    workbench at the same time.
    As a disadvantage the performance of the driver sometimes a bit low, but on
    the other hand moving windows is faster compared to the other drivers.

  * The X server and the display drivers were revised. The server can now be
    launched several times without problems. Especially with the new driver this
    is an interesting feature. But also with the other drivers applications can
    be opened on it's own screen without the desktop environment.

  * All new programs with an own directory in the AmiCygnix "Software" directory
    will have two start scripts: One for opening the application on the desktop
    (just like before) and a script, which opens the program in an own display.

  * With a special version of the settings editor "myX11Setup" you can select
    the display driver and the window manager for every application, which is
    launched with the new start script. Many thanks to Michael Christoph
    (Meicky-Soft)!

  * A new icon theme in AmgaOS 4.1 style is included. It is conformable to the
    "Freedesktop Icon Theme Specification".
    Nearly all icons of this theme were created by Martin Merz (Mason). Many
    thanks for the permission to include them in my package.

  * The workbench icons are now all in AmigaOS 4.1 style. Nearly all of them
    were created by Martin Merz (Mason) and Thomas Blatt (tommysammy). Also
    many thanks for this!

  * On every start of an applications the main dependencies are checked. If
    something is missing, it will be installed or the user will be noticed about
    the problem.

  * Version 1.0 of AmiCygnix could not be installed on partitions formatted with
    the filesystem JXFS. This is now solved.

  * Most of the programs and libraries used in this package were replaced by
    current versions.

  * Better support of the MIME system.

  * The X server supports a special "Quick Transfer" mode. Refer
    "AmiCygnix-en.guide" for this.

  * The X server includes now the MIT screensaver extension.


What is X11?
------------

  The X Window System is the base for the all graphical user interfaces on unix
  or Linux systems. No matter which GUI-toolkit is used, on the lowest level
  works X11.
  The system is splitted into a server and in a client part, which is typical
  for Unix like systems. The server is responsible for processing the graphics
  and handles the user events like mouse-moves or key-events. The client finally
  is an application (e.g. a paint-program or a text-editor), which is using this
  system for displaying his windows.

  What is the advantage to have this on an Amiga system? It makes it easier to
  port open source software to the Amiga, because the sources for the GUI part
  can be compiled without any (or at least very few) changes.


Installation
------------

  1. Doubleclick on the "Install" icon in the unpacked AmiCygnix package.
     Everything will be installed automatically. Please follow the
     instructions of the installer script.

     An already installed AmiCygnix package version 1.0 - 1.6 will be recognized
     and updated. An installation of Cygnix Prerelease cannot be updated.
     An existing installation of AmiCygnix 1.7 will be overwritten.
     I recommend to install AmiCygnix from scratch to avoid problems.

     Please do not install by hand!!

  2. Afterwards you should reset your Amiga.


Donations
---------

  If you like to support my work, you can make a donation by using Paypal:

   http://www.schwan-clan.de/amiga/Donate.html

  Thanks!


Thanks to...
------------

  ... Hans Verkuil for his initial port of X11R6.3 to OS 3.x
  ... Michael Christoph for his support
  ... more greetings in "Docs/AmiCygnix-en.guide"