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:	121Mb
Version:	1.5
Date:	02 Mar 2020
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:	11194
Snapshots:
Comments:	22
Snapshots:	5
Videos:	0
Downloads:	239  (Current version)
	4894  (Accumulated)
Votes:	3 (1/0)  (30 days/7 days)

  Welcome to the seventh release of my Unix environment "AmiCygnix"!

  In version 1.5 some bugs were fixed that were noticed in version 1.4. Many
  thanks to all who pointed out the mistakes and helped me with the removal!

  In addition, a total of seven new display drivers and a new window manager
  have been added to the package, which is very useful for standalone programs.
  In the future, this will be the standard for many of these programs.


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 package of AmiCygnix 1.0 - 1.4 will be recognised and
     updated. An existing installation of AmiCygnix 1.5 will be overwritten.
     An installation of Cygnix prerelease cannot be updated.
     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"