Contents

     * 1 Introduction
          + 1.1 Available installation media
          + 1.2 The Mageia online repositories
     * 2 Release highlights
          + 2.1 KDE Plasma 5 replaces KDE SC 4
          + 2.2 DNF 2 as alternative package manager
          + 2.3 AppStream support
          + 2.4 ARM support
          + 2.5 GRUB 2 as default bootloader
          + 2.6 Xfce Live DVDs
     * 3 Major developments
          + 3.1 Installation
               o 3.1.1 Stage 1
               o 3.1.2 Stage 2
               o 3.1.3 UEFI
               o 3.1.4 Hardware support
               o 3.1.5 Bootloader
          + 3.2 Localisation (l10n) / Internationalisation (i18n)
               o 3.2.1 Manuals
               o 3.2.2 Software translations
               o 3.2.3 Input methods
          + 3.3 Package management
               o 3.3.1 New RPM
               o 3.3.2 New alternative package manager: DNF
               o 3.3.3 New graphical frontend using DNF: dnfdragora
               o 3.3.4 PackageKit
               o 3.3.5 AppStream
               o 3.3.6 New package building tool: Mock
               o 3.3.7 Support for Fedora COPR
               o 3.3.8 Support in the openSUSE Build Service
               o 3.3.9 perl-URPM and urpmi
          + 3.4 Tools
               o 3.4.1 Mageia Control Center
               o 3.4.2 ManaTools
               o 3.4.3 Other
                    # 3.4.3.1 MageiaWelcome
                    # 3.4.3.2 Isodumper
                    # 3.4.3.3 Docker
                    # 3.4.3.4 LiveCD Tools
          + 3.5 Base system
               o 3.5.1 Kernel and hardware support
               o 3.5.2 X Window System (X11)
               o 3.5.3 NVIDIA drivers
                    # 3.5.3.1 Optimus laptops
               o 3.5.4 AMD video drivers
               o 3.5.5 Input Drivers
          + 3.6 Desktop environments
               o 3.6.1 Plasma
               o 3.6.2 GNOME
               o 3.6.3 LXDE
               o 3.6.4 Xfce
               o 3.6.5 LXQt
               o 3.6.6 Mate
               o 3.6.7 Cinnamon
               o 3.6.8 Enlightenment
               o 3.6.9 Light window managers
                    # 3.6.9.1 IceWM
          + 3.7 Office apps
          + 3.8 Multimedia apps
          + 3.9 Editors
          + 3.10 Games
               o 3.10.1 New in Mageia 6
               o 3.10.2 Updates spotlight
               o 3.10.3 Gaming platforms and tools
               o 3.10.4 Game development tools
          + 3.11 Education
          + 3.12 Software Development
               o 3.12.1 Compilers and tools
               o 3.12.2 Language stacks
          + 3.13 Miscellaneous
     * 4 Upgrading from Mageia 5
          + 4.1 Upgrading via the Internet
               o 4.1.1 Upgrading online, using mgaonline (GUI)
               o 4.1.2 Upgrading online, using urpmi (CLI)
          + 4.2 Using the traditional Mageia 6 DVD to Upgrade
     * 5 Known issues
          + 5.1 Deprecation of shared security in Samba
          + 5.2 Obsoleted packages
          + 5.3 Bug reporting

                                  Introduction

   Mageia is a Free Software operating system of the GNU/Linux family,
   which can be installed on computers either as the main operating
   system, or as an alternative system to one or several pre-installed
   systems (dual boot). It is a community project supported by the
   non-profit Mageia.Org organization of elected contributors. Mageia is
   developed by and for its community of users, and is suitable for all
   kinds of users, from first-time GNU/Linux users to advanced developers
   or system administrators.

   Mageia 6 is a stable release of the Mageia project, which was developed
   for over two years before being released officially in July, 2017.

Available installation media

   Mageia has two distinct installation media types:
     * Classical ISOs (DVD 32-bit, DVD 64-bit), which use the DrakX
       traditional installer. The 32-bit and 64-bit DVD ISOs contain all
       supported locales, a great variety of packages to choose from
       (including most supported desktop environments) and all non-free
       drivers. The use of non-free packages can be disabled during the
       installation.
     * Live ISOs, which can be used to preview the distribution, are an
       installation alternative to place Mageia on your hard drive. Live
       media come with either the Plasma (64-bit), GNOME (64-bit) or Xfce
       (32 or 64-bit) desktop environments. The Live DVDs contain all
       supported locales and a preselection of software, making one of
       them a faster way to get started working with Mageia.

   All ISO images can be burned to a DVD or dumped on a USB flash drive.
   Please note the file and device size limits as, for example, a 4 GB ISO
   image can be too big for some "nominally" 4 GB USB drives, due to their
   actual capacity being slightly lower than the marketed one.

   For more information, please have a look at our installation media
   manual page.

   You will find the different download options on the Mageia 6 download
   page: direct (FTP and HTTP) and BitTorrent downloads are available.

The Mageia online repositories

   The software packages that are included in Mageia sit in three
   different repositories/media, depending on the type of license applied
   to each package. Here's an overview of those repositories:
     * Core: The Core repository includes packages with
       free-and-open-source software, i.e., packages licensed under a
       free-and-open-source license. The set of the "Core" media along
       with "Core Release" and "Core Updates" are enabled by default.
     * Nonfree: The Nonfree repository includes packages that are
       free-of-charge and free to redistribute, but that contain
       closed-source software (hence the name - Nonfree). For example,
       this repository includes NVIDIA and AMD/ATI proprietary graphics
       card drivers, firmware for various WiFi cards, etc.

   The Nonfree media set is enabled by default but can be disabled, if
   necessary, during the installation.
     * Tainted: The Tainted repository includes packages released under a
       free license. The main criterion for placing packages in this
       repository is that they may infringe on patents and copyright laws
       in some countries, e.g., multimedia codecs needed to play various
       audio/video files; packages needed to play a commercial video DVD,
       etc.

   The Tainted media set is added by default but not enabled by default,
   i.e., it's completely opt-in; so, check your local laws before using
   packages from this repository.

   Please also note that on a 64-bit system, the 32-bit repositories are
   also added. If the Nonfree or Tainted 64-bit repositories are enabled,
   the corresponding 32-bit repositories should also be enabled (both in
   Release and Updates flavors), as they are needed by some packages, such
   as PlayOnLinux or Steam.

                               Release highlights

KDE Plasma 5 replaces KDE SC 4

   Mageia 6 ships with the current LTS (Long Term Support) version of the
   KDE community's desktop environment, Plasma 5.8. The desktop
   environment goes together with KDE Applications 16.12 and KDE
   Frameworks 5.32 (KF5).

   All packages of the KDE ecosystem were updated to their KF5 version
   whenever available. KDE 4 as a desktop environment is no longer
   available in Mageia 6, as it is deprecated upstream and cannot be
   efficiently maintained next to its successor Plasma 5. See the detailed
   section about Plasma 5 further down in these release notes for more
   details.

DNF 2 as alternative package manager

   DNF (Dandified Yum) has been introduced as an alternative to urpmi in
   Mageia 6. Mageia is pleased to be one of the first major Linux
   distributions to offer DNF 2 on release! This version of DNF comes with
   enhanced problem reporting, advanced tracking of weak dependencies,
   support for rich dependencies, and more detailed transaction
   information while performing actions. All fresh installations via the
   classical and live media will have DNF installed. Depending on the
   upgrade method, it may need to be manually installed after upgrading to
   Mageia 6.

   To support use of DNF in a desktop environment, a new frontend tool is
   now available: dnfdragora. This new tool is based on the rpmdrake tool,
   but offers native user interfaces (UIs) for Qt-based and GTK+-based
   desktop environments, as well as offering an ncurses frontend for
   server or cloud environments, as well as for managing packages through
   an SSH session.

   It is now possible to offer third-party free and open source software
   through Fedora COPR and the openSUSE Build Service targeting Mageia 6
   and up. Through COPR or OBS, it is now possible for anyone to easily
   offer free and open source software built and tailored for Mageia, as
   well as free and open source software that is broadly compatible with
   Mageia along with other popular Linux distributions.

   See the detailed section about package management further down in these
   release notes for more details.

AppStream support

   Our RPM repositories now provide AppStream metadata. Tools like GNOME
   Software and Plasma Discover leverage AppStream metadata to provide a
   rich experience when searching, identifying, and managing applications.

   AppStream is a cross-distribution effort for enhancing software
   repositories by standardizing software component metadata. It provides
   an application-centric view on package repositories and specifications
   for things needed to create user-friendly application centers.

   See the detailed section about package management further down in these
   release notes for more details.

ARM support

   The ARM (Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) Machine)
   port initiated during Mageia 1 days has been rebooted and completed.
   The core is available for ARMv5 and ARMv7, which includes Raspberry Pi.

   There is no traditional installer for now, and it is still considered
   experimental, but most of the distribution was built successfully on
   both architectures (see our ARM status overview for details). The plan
   is to provide installation images for popular ARM devices in the coming
   months. There is no ETA for those as of Mageia 6's release.

GRUB 2 as default bootloader

   GRUB 2 is the default bootloader for new Mageia 6 installations, and
   its integration in the DrakX tools has been greatly improved.

   GRUB legacy and LILO are no longer offered as alternatives, as they are
   not compatible with Mageia 6's default ext4 file format. They are,
   however, preserved during upgrades from Mageia 5, as they stay
   compatible with pre-existing file systems (created with Mageia 5 or
   earlier). More details are available in the "Bootloader" section of
   these release notes.

Xfce Live DVDs

   Xfce Live DVDs are now available to offer a lightweight, live
   environment for testing and use on older systems, or for those who
   prefer a lighter-weight system. These are available as both 32 and
   64-bit images, with the 32-bit image taking the place of the 32-bit
   GNOME and KDE 4 Live DVDs of past Mageia releases. GNOME and Plasma
   Live DVDs are still available as 64-bit images, and those desktop
   environments can be installed on 32-bit systems using the classical ISO
   or through a network installation.

                               Major developments

Installation

  Stage 1

     * Hardware support was extended to be able to start the installer on
       very recent computers.

  Stage 2

     * We now use the mutter window manager instead of the matchbox window
       manager.
     * Help has been ported from WebKit1 to WebKit2.
     * The default window size for the installer was increased from
       800x600 to 1024x768.
     * We now support non-volatile memory devices with NVMe device
       interface
     * Lots of bug fixes and improvements in the partitioner, especially
       for automatic partitioning such as the "Use entire disk" option.

  UEFI

   UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) support has been greatly
   improved since Mageia 5, especially regarding the partitioning step.
   For further details on UEFI installations of Mageia, please refer to
   the wiki page Installing on systems with UEFI firmware.

  Hardware support

     * New architectures:
          + ARM v5 support is back (based on initial Mageia 1 port).
          + ARM v7 support is added.
     * Input devices:
          + Input devices, such as the keyboard, mouse, touchpad, and
            others, are now handled though the libinput library by default
            (version 1.7.3 at release time).
          + The X.org vmmouse driver is no longer installed and used
            because it has been obsoleted by a kernel input driver.

  Bootloader

   The default boot loader (and also the only selectable bootloader during
   a new install) is now GRUB 2 and no longer GRUB legacy. GRUB legacy has
   known limitations and does not support:
     * Ext4 file systems formatted with e2fsprogs 1.43 or later (used in
       Mageia 6),
     * XFS V5 file systems.

   Since LILO and GRUB legacy are no longer maintained upstream, we only
   offer GRUB 2 for new installations. For upgrades, we still offer GRUB
   legacy and LILO if they were previously installed and used. The older
   file systems did not use the new metadata which GRUB legacy does not
   support. Legacy bootloaders will not be replaced automatically by GRUB
   2 on upgrade; if wished for, it can be done manually post-install via
   the Mageia Control Center.

   GRUB 2 integration within the DrakX tools has been greatly improved to
   support this change:
     * It is now possible to enable/disable the os-prober tool which tries
       to detect already installed OSes. In some heavy configurations
       (many partitions and/or installed OSes), it is known to be quite
       slow and the installation process may appear stalled for up to 10
       minutes.
     * On non-UEFI machines (aka BIOS), if the boot disk needs a GUID
       (globally unique identifiers) partition table (GPT) , the installer
       will now create a BIOS boot partition.

   For a new Mageia 6 installation (without a Mageia distro upgrade), if
   you want to use a bootloader other than GRUB 2, such as the Microsoft
   Windows bootloader, take a look at Retaining an existing third party
   bootloader and Using an existing bootloader.

   If, during installation of Mageia 6, you wish to avoid overwriting the
   master boot record (MBR) (BIOS), and you have, for example: a hard disk
   (name /dev/sda), a USB key with Mageia 6 ISO DVD (name /dev/sdb), and
   another USB key with FAT32 format (name /dev/sdc), a workaround is to
   install the GRUB 2 bootloader on the USB key with FAT32 format (name
   /dev/sdc) at this step and when your computer starts, boot on the USB
   key and load Mageia's Linux kernel.

Localisation (l10n) / Internationalisation (i18n)

  Manuals

     * The manuals for the traditional installer and for the Mageia
       Control Center have been (partially) translated into many more
       languages. See our official documentation
     * An English screenshot is used when a localised screenshot is
       unavailable for an HTML manual.
     * PDF and EPUB manuals are created only when more than half of the
       needed localised screenshots for those manuals are available.

  Software translations

   New translations have been added, while others were improved. Thank you
   to our dedicated community of translators for your reliable work.

  Input methods

   Due to migration to Qt 5 for Mageia 6, changes have been made in
   localedrake to install Qt5 plugins for the input method platform if the
   user's desktop is Plasma 5. However, sometimes manual installation is
   still required:
     * To use fcitx, gcin, hime with Qt5 applications, the Qt5 plugin
       packages may need to be installed manually if not using plasma 5:
       fcitx-qt5, gcin-qt5, hime-qt5.
     * To use ibus, fcitx, gcin, hime, scim with Qt4 applications, the Qt4
       module packages must be installed manually: ibus-qt4, fcitx-qt4,
       gcin-qt4, hime-qt4, scim-qt4.
     * Scim and uim will not work with Qt5 applications due to their lack
       of Qt5 plugin support.
     * Due to the lack of a more recent stable release from upstream, uim
       may not work under various circumstances.

   Gnome now uses Wayland by default. Therefore, ibus is the only
   supported input method platform.

Package management

  New RPM

   RPM has been upgraded to version 4.13.0.1.

   RPM 4.13 offers key improvements to RPM as a whole, including:
     * Standardized file triggers
     * Boolean/rich dependencies
     * Several changes to improve the correctness of generated packages
     * More secure handling of signatures and passphrases during package
       build by offloading to Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG)
     * GPG signature handling is done with GnuPG 2 now

   More information on changes from RPM 4.12 (which shipped with Mageia 5)
   to RPM 4.13.0.1 is available from the RPM website:
     * RPM 4.13: http://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.13.0.html
     * RPM 4.13.0.1: http://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.13.0.1.html

  New alternative package manager: DNF

   DNF (Dandified Yum) has been introduced as an alternative to urpmi in
   Mageia 6.

   DNF is a next generation dependency resolver and high-level package
   management tool that traces its ancestry to two projects: Fedora's Yum
   (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) and openSUSE's SAT Solver (libsolv). DNF
   was forked from Yum several years ago in order to rewrite it to use the
   SAT Solver library from openSUSE and to massively restructure the
   codebase so that a sane API would be available for both extending DNF
   (via plugins and hooks) and building applications on top of it (such as
   graphical frontends and system lifecycle automation frameworks).

   Mageia is pleased to be one of the first major Linux distributions to
   offer DNF 2 on release! This version of DNF comes with enhanced problem
   reporting, advanced tracking of weak dependencies, support for rich
   dependencies (see the RPM release notes for more on this), and more
   detailed transaction information while performing actions.

   Mageia 6 ships with DNF v2.5.1, along with v2.1.1 of the core plugins
   and v2.0.1 of the extra plugins.

   With fresh installations via the classical and live media, DNF will be
   installed in parallel with urpmi. Depending on the method used to
   upgrade to Mageia 6, it may be necessary to install the dnf package to
   have it available.

   For information on how to use DNF, please refer to the wiki page: Using
   DNF.

  New graphical frontend using DNF: dnfdragora

   In order to offer a user-friendly graphical experience using DNF,
   Mageia has created a new tool: dnfdragora. This new cross-distribution
   frontend to DNF offers an intuitive experience for managing packages.

   Unlike rpmdrake, dnfdragora offers native user interfaces (UIs) for
   Qt-based and GTK+-based desktop environments, as well as offering an
   ncurses frontend for server or cloud environments and for managing
   packages through an SSH session.

   To install the Qt or GTK+ frontends, install dnfdragora-qt or
   dnfdragora-gtk, respectively. If you wish to just use the ncurses UI,
   install dnfdragora.

  PackageKit

   PackageKit has been upgraded and switched to a new backend that
   dramatically improves the reliability and usability of PackageKit-based
   frontends, such as Apper (Plasma Desktop) and GNOME Software (GNOME).

   The new PackageKit backend is completely independent from urpmi, and
   can be managed through PackageKit frontends such as Apper or through
   DNF (which shares repository configuration settings with it).

  AppStream

   Our RPM-MD (RPM MetaData) repositories (used by DNF and PackageKit)
   provide AppStream metadata. Tools like GNOME Software (GNOME Desktop)
   and Plasma Discover (KDE Plasma Desktop) leverage AppStream metadata to
   provide a rich experience when searching, identifying, and managing
   applications.

   AppStream is a cross-distribution effort for enhancing software
   repositories by standardizing software component metadata. It enables
   an application-centric view on package repositories and provides
   specifications for things needed to create user-friendly application
   centers.

   See the AppStream website for more information:
   https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/

  New package building tool: Mock

   Starting with Mageia 6, Mock is now supported as a package building
   tool. Mock allows easy automation of building packages within container
   environments, and in Mageia, can be used to build Mageia, Fedora, and
   CentOS/RHEL packages.

   For more information on using Mock, please refer to the wiki page:
   Using Mock.

  Support for Fedora COPR

   Starting with Mageia 6, it is now possible to offer third-party free
   and open source software through Fedora COPR targeting Mageia. Through
   COPR, it is now possible for anyone to easily offer software built and
   tailored for Mageia, as well as software that is broadly compatible
   with Mageia along with other popular RPM-based Linux distributions.

   The DNF package manager also has integration with COPR and allows for
   easy searching, identifying, enabling, and disabling repositories from
   COPR to use on Mageia systems.

   For more information on Fedora COPR, please refer to the wiki page:
   Fedora COPR

  Support in the openSUSE Build Service

   Starting with Mageia 6, it is now possible to offer third-party free
   and open source software through the openSUSE Build Service targeting
   Mageia. Through OBS, it is now possible for anyone to easily offer
   software built and tailored for Mageia, as well as software that is
   broadly compatible with Mageia along with other popular Linux
   distributions.

   In addition, private Open Build Service instances interconnected with
   the openSUSE Build Service will automatically have support for building
   software for Mageia 6 and newer.

   For more information on the openSUSE Build Service, please refer to the
   wiki page: OpenSUSE Build Service

  perl-URPM and urpmi

     * Thanks to the new RPM 4.13, urpmi has improved tracking of package
       errors.
     * urpmi now prefers http mirrors when using the Mageia MIRRORLIST.
       This avoids selecting an rsync mirror automatically, which prevents
       aria2 from being used as a downloader.
     * The default transaction size was increased from 8 to 50 packages.
     * kernel-firmware-nonfree is whitelisted as a needed package if
       installed, to prevent seeing it removed by urpme --auto-orphans
     * Various bug fixes have been made.

Tools

  Mageia Control Center

   The Mageia Control Center (MCC)'s help has been ported from WebKit1 to
   WebKit2.

  ManaTools

   ManaTools is a collection of configuration tools that allows users to
   configure most of their system components in a very simple, intuitive
   and attractive interface. It consists of some modules that can be also
   run as autonomous applications. It comes with MPan, a generic launcher
   application that can run internal or external modules, such as system
   configuration tools.

   ManaTools started as a port of the Mageia Control Center (MCC) to
   libYui (SUSE widget abstraction library), but its aim is to give an
   easy and common interface to develop and add new modules based on
   libYui. Each module, including MPan, can be run using either the Qt5,
   GTK+3 or ncurses interface.

   Available tools are:
     * dragoraUpdate, a RPM update manager
     * mana, a command-line interface to launch ManaTools modules
     * manaclock, a date/time manager
     * manadm, a login manager configuration
     * manahost, a hosts manager
     * manalog, a journalct log reader
     * manaproxy, a proxy manager
     * manaservice, a service manager
     * manauser, a user manager
     * manawall, a firewall manager
     * mpan, the main control panel to load modules (much like the MCC)
     * rpmdragora, an RPM install manager using urpmi (see also dnfdragora
       for a DNF interface, packaged separately)

  Other

    MageiaWelcome

   MageiaWelcome has been ported to Python 3 and GTK+3.

    Isodumper

   Isodumper, a tool to write ISO images on memory devices, comes with a
   new graphical interface, using libyui. Thus, Isodumper can use either
   GTK+ or Qt as graphical library. You have to choose which one you want
   to use, either isodumper-gtk or isodumper-qt. Isodumper also comes with
   an ncurses interface, which can be used even if no X session is
   available. For an upgrade, only the ncurses version will be available.
   You have to complete the installation of the graphical flavor manually.

    Docker

   The Docker ecosystem has been augmented (based on the 17.03 version of
   the engine) with many additional tools such as docker-compose
   (orchestration with v3 support), containerd (daemon controlling runC),
   docker-registry (share of images), docker machine (install docker on a
   remote system), and python-docker (python 2 and 3 libraries for engine
   API management).

    LiveCD Tools

   With Mageia 6, the LiveCD Tools have been rebased to the latest version
   (v24.4), leveraging DNF and can make working images based on Mageia 6.
   This can be used for creating custom live media for personal use as
   well as custom media for sharing with others.

   For information on how to use the LiveCD Tools, please refer to the
   wiki page: Using the LiveCD Tools

Base system

  Kernel and hardware support

     * Mageia 6 ships with kernel 4.9, which is a "long-term maintenance"
       release, with a currently-projected end-of-life (EOL) in January,
       2019.

   All hardware managed by this kernel version is enabled. The kernel
   provides better graphics with Mesa 17.1, which brings, among other
   features, increased performance for Intel hardware, and experimental
   reclocking in the nouveau driver.
     * Other kernel flavors are included, particularly, kernel-tmb and
       kernel-linus (a vanilla stock kernel without any extra patchset).
       See the wiki page Kernel_flavours for more information.

  X Window System (X11)

   Mageia 6 ships with X.Org 1.19.

  NVIDIA drivers

     * The packages for the latest NVIDIA (long-lived branch, release
       375.66 as time of writing) proprietary drivers are provided in the
       nonfree media repositories. CUDA 8.0.61 is also included in the
       same nonfree repositories and can be used out of the box after
       proprietary drivers are correctly configured.
     * For older graphics cards, the proprietary NVIDIA drivers of the 304
       and 340 branches are also still provided.
     * The current libre Nouveau drivers are also provided. Their
       performance was greatly improved during Mageia's release cycle, and
       they might satisfy most owners of Nvidia hardware for casual usage.

    Optimus laptops

   Owners of NVIDIA Optimus laptops (integrated Intel graphics processor
   and discrete NVIDIA GPU) now have three ways to benefit from the power
   of their discrete GPU:
     * As in Mageia 5, the Bumblebee package can be used to bridge the
       monitor to the NVIDIA GPU, allowing to access its processing power
       albeit with some overhead.
     * A new experimental tool named mageia-prime can be used to configure
       the NVIDIA Prime supported by recent Linux kernels and Xorg
       servers. It allows to fully switch to using the NVIDIA GPU without
       the overhead of Bumblebee, and is particularly suited for use with
       CUDA.
     * The free Nouveau drivers support Prime GPU offloading out of the
       box, which can be used via the DRI_PRIME=1 environment variable
       (unless the proprietary NVIDIA driver is in use by, e.g.,
       mageia-prime). Refer to the Nouveau documentation to see how to
       configure Xorg to use NVIDIA Prime with DRI3.

   In all three cases, when configuring the graphics drivers, one must
   only configure the Intel card (at least in most Optimus
   configurations), as it is typically the only one physically connected
   to a monitor.

  AMD video drivers

     * Mageia 6 uses the free video drivers for AMD/ATI graphics cards,
       AMDGPU for newer cards and radeon for older graphics cards. The
       free drivers also use the current, with Mageia 6 provided, Mesa
       17.1.
       Compared to Mageia 5, the support was highly increased and improves
       the performance and compatibility for working and gaming under
       Linux.
     * AMD no longer supports the proprietary fglrx driver, and it doesn't
       work with the latest Linux kernel, so it cannot be used in Mageia
       6. The proprietary AMDGPU-PRO driver currently only works with
       X.org 1.18, so it cannot be used in Mageia 6.

  Input Drivers

   The keyboard and mouse drivers have been obsoleted by the generic evdev
   driver. The evdev driver has been used by default for a long time in
   Mageia and has replaced the former options. We packaged the keyboard
   and mouse drivers as fallbacks for years, but they are no longer
   included in Mageia. If someone is still relying on specific entries
   using those obsolete drivers, those sections should be removed. (Note
   that XFdrake has not written such sections since 2009.)

   The libinput driver is now the default generic input driver instead of
   evdev. The latter is still packaged in case it is needed. Libinput also
   replaces the synaptics driver. The synaptics driver is no longer
   automatically installed when there is a touchpad.

Desktop environments

   All the desktop environments mentioned below are included in Mageia's
   online repositories, and can be installed in parallel on any Mageia 6
   system. Some of them are also included on the physical media, LiveDVDs
   and Classical DVDs, as specified in each section.

  Plasma

   Plasma, the new desktop environment of the KDE community, is provided
   in version 5.8 LTS. Plasma replaces the KDE SC 4 desktop environment,
   which is not maintained upstream anymore. Almost all KDE 4 applications
   were ported to Plasma, so you will benefit from a nice unified
   experience.

   If you want to try Plasma under Wayland, just install
   plasma-workspace-wayland, and it should appear in your favorite display
   manager's list of desktop environments.

   The default display manager (DM) for the Plasma environment is SDDM,
   and replaces the now obsolete KDM.

   Plasma has a specific 64-bit LiveDVD and it can also be installed from
   the Classical DVD ISO (traditional installer).

  GNOME

   GNOME 3.24 is provided. It now defaults to running on Wayland, but also
   provides an alternative "GNOME on Xorg" session.

   For those preferring the GNOME 2 look and feel, GNOME 3 also provides a
   "Gnome Classic" session.

   GNOME has a specific 64-bit LiveDVD and it can also be installed from
   the Classical DVD ISO (traditional installer).

  LXDE

   The very lightweight GTK+2-based desktop environment is still
   available, and continues to receive improvements from upstream and our
   Mageia maintainer, even though its community has partly refocused on
   LXQt.

   LXDE can be installed from the Classical DVD ISO (traditional
   installer).

  Xfce

   XFCE 4.12 is provided.

   XFCE has dedicated 32-bit and 64-bit LiveDVDs and it can also be
   installed from the Classical DVD ISO (traditional installer).

  LXQt

   LXQt 0.11.0 is provided.

   LXQt cannot be installed out of the box from the Classical DVD ISO
   (traditional installer) due to space constraints on the ISOs. Online
   media need to be added to enable more options during the initial
   installation - this is explained in the installer documentation.

  Mate

   MATE 1.18.0 is provided. MATE Desktop was fully ported from GTK+2 to
   GTK+3.

   MATE can be installed from the Classical DVD ISO (traditional
   installer). Due to DVD space considerations, some applications such as
   mate-screenshot (screenshot application) are not included in Classical
   DVD ISO. For a full MATE Desktop experience, users are suggested to
   install task-mate package after initial installation.

  Cinnamon

   Cinnamon 3.2 is provided.

   Cinnamon can be installed from the Classical DVD ISO (traditional
   installer).

  Enlightenment

   The Enlightenment task package comes with E21.8 and Enlightenment
   Foundation Libraries (EFL). EFL now includes the previously separate
   Elementary, Evas-generic-loaders and Evas-generic-players packages.
   Also included are the connman connection manager for use with the E's
   Econnman UI, the Enlightenment authentication agent, and the EFL-based
   Terminology advanced terminal emulator and Ephoto 1.0, E's greatly
   improved image viewer. Mageia 6 also returns to having a Mageia-branded
   theme as the default.

   As always, E does not automatically include the applications from
   /etc/xdg/autostart. After installation, go to Main menu > Settings >
   Startup Applications and add needed system processes (e.g., a policy
   kit authentication agent) and desired applications to be started on
   boot up. If your installation includes the ICE windows manager, you may
   choose between Polkit EFL and the MATE authentication polkit agents.

   At the time of the release, there are a few known issues. First, the
   conflict between connman and Mageia's network center has not yet been
   resolved. Note that network center is fully functional and netapplet
   does not need to be added to the startup applications. Second, the E17
   themes still in the repository do not work with E21. Updated themes are
   in the pipeline. Third, E21's system tray, based on SNI notification,
   seems not to be be fully functional and, since E20, has not supported
   Xembed notifications. If you need Xembed notifications, you can try
   installing the wmsystemtray.

  Light window managers

   You can also keep your Mageia 6 installation very light and we provide
   for this a plethora of small and efficient window managers. You can
   find afterstep, awesome, dwm, fluxbox, fvwm2, fvwm-crystal, i3, icewm,
   jwm, matchbox, openbox, pekwm, sugar, swm, and windowmaker. After
   installation, they appear in the login menu of your display manager.

    IceWM

   You will find now both "icewm" and "icewm-session" in the login menu of
   your display manager.

   Beginning with IceWM 1.2.13, there is a new binary named
   "icewm-session". This binary helps you to handle all IceWM subparts
   (icewmbg, icewm, icewmtray, startup, and shutdown, started in this
   order). Therefore, you should use icewm-session to start a complete
   IceWM session. Choosing "Icewm" will only start the window manager
   itself.

Office apps

   LibreOffice has been updated to 5.3. See official release notes for
   details.

Multimedia apps

   Since the last patent expired in April, 2017, mp3 encoding is now
   available in the core media. Tainted medias are still needed for H.264
   and AAC encoding.

   Video editor Kdenlive now brings Movit GPU accelerated effects if you
   have OpenGL 3 compliant hardware.

   Mixxx 2.0, which was also backported to Mageia 5, is more professional,
   with very good real-time music database handling, beat and note
   detection, and AutoDJ mode.

Editors

   Vim has the "persistent undo" feature enabled by default, which is the
   new upstream default. "Persistent undo" enables undoing even if the
   file was saved many times, by storing all changes in .<filename>.un~
   files. If you prefer the old default behaviour, then add the following
   to your ~/.vimrc :
 set noundofile
 set backup

Games

   In the Mageia community, our love for free software extends to open
   source games. A huge effort has been made during the Mageia 6 release
   cycle to package many new games, making Mageia 6 a very good platform
   for intensive and casual gamers alike. You can check Mageia App DB to
   see a list of all the new and updated games in Mageia 6. The following
   section will only give some cherry-picked examples for each game
   category.

  New in Mageia 6

   The following list is non-exhaustive.
     * Adventure/Role-playing: Gearhead, KeeperRL, NetHack, RogueBox
       Adventures
     * Arcade: CaveExpress, Goat Attack, Jump 'n Bump, Lugaru, ReTux
     * Boards/Cards: Pentobi
     * Puzzles: CavePacker, FreeTumble, JAG, Minilens, The Butterfly
       Effect, Wizznic
     * Shooter: No Gravity, The Battle for the Solar System, Word War vi
     * Simulation: Endless Sky, Sar 2
     * Strategy: Advanced Strategic Command, LorsAWar!, Tanks of Freedom,
       Wyrmsun

  Updates spotlight

   The following list is non-exhaustive.
     * Adventure/Role-playing: Angband, Crawl, HyperRogue, OpenMW, Tales
       of Maj'Eyal
     * Arcade: C-Dogs SDL, Emilia Pinball, Extreme Tux Racer, OpenClonk,
       SuperTux
     * Boards/Cards: Auale, Auralquiz, Crafty, GnuChess
     * Puzzles: Gottet, Hexalate, Sudokuki, Tanglet
     * Shooter: FreeDoom, Red Eclipse, Warsow, Xonotic
     * Simulation: FlightGear, Minetest, Naev, Speed Dreams, Stunt Rally,
       Trigger Rally
     * Strategy: 0 A.D., Battle for Wesnoth, ColoBot, Freeciv, MegaGlest,
       OpenDungeons, OpenTTD, Pioneer

  Gaming platforms and tools

   Mageia 6 comes with a set of nice gaming platforms and tools, among
   which:
     * Lutris, a free and open source gaming platform for Linux. It lets
       you install and manage your games in a unified interface, e.g.,
       Linux games from Desura or Steam, Microsoft Windows games in Wine,
       open source games statically compiled, etc.
     * Steam, the well-known (non-free) distribution platform for
       commercial games
     * Many modern emulators for almost all consoles

  Game development tools

   For Mageia 6, a strong effort was made on packaging free and open
   source tools for game developers, among which:
     * Blender, a leading 3D modelling tool (and much more!)
     * Godot Engine, a state-of-the-art 2D and 3D game engine with a
       steady community development pace
     * Krita, a digital painting application for 2D art
     * Love2D, a Lua framework for 2D games
     * Panda3D, a 3D framework to develop Python and C++ games
     * RenderDoc, a debugging tool for graphics rendering

Education

   Mageia 6 comes with both old and new versions of gcompris. The old is
   based on the GTK+ toolkit and has more activities. The new uses Qt and
   brings some new activities. We were [1] among the donors in February,
   2015, to improve the graphical interface of this very important
   project.

Software Development

  Compilers and tools

   GCC has been updated to 5.4.0, GDB to 7.12 and Valgrind to 3.12.0. LLVM
   has been updated to 3.9.1. LLDB is now packaged as well.

   libvirt and virt-manager now support UEFI in VMs (one needs to install
   edk2-ovmf-x64).

   Firebird has been updated to 3.0.1.

   IPython has been updated to 5.0 (LTS version).

   Most libraries were updated to recent stable versions (long term
   support when available), such as Qt 5.6.2 and GTK+ 3.22.16. Tcl/Tk is
   at version 8.6.5.

  Language stacks

   Python 3 has been updated to 3.5.3, Python 2 to 2.7.13, and when
   possible, all Python modules are provided for Python 2 and Python 3.

   Perl has been updated to 5.22.3.

   Some important effort has been made to simplify the Java stack which
   was hard to maintain in Mageia 5.

   Ruby has been updated to 2.2.5p319.

   Rust is at version 1.18.0 and its packaging is now synced with Fedora's
   Rust SIG, where Mageia packagers contribute directly. It will be
   updated during Mageia 6's support life to follow new developments.

Miscellaneous

   Nextcloud 11 replaces ownCloud. This is both migration and several
   steps of upgrade. This software has limited ability to skip
   intermediate versions, so some iterative installs from MGA5 backports
   must be done *BEFORE* upgrading Mageia. See OwnCloud#Upgrading for
   details.

                            Upgrading from Mageia 5

   Please also read the known issues page, chapter "Upgrade Issues".

   Upgrading from Mageia 5 is supported, and has been fine-tuned over the
   past few months, so it should work. But, as always, it is very
   advisable to back up any important data before upgrading and make sure
   you have made all updates of Mageia 5 (such as rpm and urpmi).
   Upgrading directly from Mageia 4 or another distribution is not
   supported.

   If you want to upgrade a 64-bit system, it may contain 32-bit software.
   This is not a problem provided it does not include development
   libraries. You can identify these by the word "devel" in the name. To
   know if your system houses such libraries you can use the command:

          rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{version}-%{RELEASE}-%{ARCH}\n"
          |grep i586 |grep devel

   You must un-install these libraries before upgrading.

   If 3rd party repositories, such as Google, have been added during the
   use of Mageia 5, be sure to make a backup/copy of /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg.

   If you have an ownCloud server or client on Mageia 5, do check
   OwnCloud#Upgrading before upgrading to Mageia 6!

   There are several ways to upgrade from Mageia 5:

   Warning: Upgrading an existing install using any of the Live images is
   NOT supported due to the Live image being copied "as is" to the target
   system.

   If you want to upgrade a previous Mageia installation which was NOT in
   UEFI, towards an UEFI-mode Mageia 6, you have to do a complete
   installation. Direct upgrade is not supported.

Upgrading via the Internet

   The Mageia Update notification applet, Mageia Online, will notify you
   that a new Mageia release is available, and ask if you wish to upgrade.
   If you agree, the upgrade will be carried out from within your Mageia
   installation without any further steps being necessary.

   If you have disabled the applet or it is not automatically running for
   some reason, you can upgrade manually either using the GUI (mgaonline)
   or the CLI (urpmi). Both methods are outlined below.

   Fully update your system and check you have enough free space (at least
   2 GB, depending of your configuration) before starting upgrade.

  Upgrading online, using mgaonline (GUI)

   If Mageia Online does not display a blue icon in the system tray
   offering you the option to upgrade to the new Mageia release:

   1. Make sure that your system is fully up-to-date by applying all
   available updates.
   https://doc.mageia.org/mcc/6/en/content/MageiaUpdate.html

   2. In Mageia Control Center - Software Management - Configure Updates
   Frequency, make sure that the option "Check for newer default releases"
   is selected.
   https://doc.mageia.org/mcc/6/en/content/mgaapplet-config.html

   3. Look in your home folder for a hidden directory, /.MgaOnline. If
   there is a file mgaonline in that directory, then delete that file.

   After a re-boot, the blue upgrade icon should appear when Mageia Online
   next checks for updates.

   Alternatively, you can launch the upgrade process by entering in a
   terminal:

          su
          mgaapplet-upgrade-helper --new_distro_version=6

   It will notify you of the availability of the new Mageia 6
   distribution, configure Mageia media sources and start migration.

  Upgrading online, using urpmi (CLI)

   This method is useful when the root partition is encrypted as the
   booted system is already decrypting the partition.

   There are multiple ways of getting a Command Line Interface (CLI).

   The best method for performing an upgrade is to use run-level 3 so that
   the X server and graphical environment is not running.

   Therefore, the upgrade should be cleaner using run-level 3 than using a
   terminal application as fewer programs are running which could
   potentially mess-up the upgrade.

   Run-level 3 can be enabled by appending "3" to the kernel command line
   in grub's menu.lst file and then rebooting the system to get a login
   prompt.

   It is recommended to run "script upgrade_log.txt" to capture the
   upgrade messages just in case a failure occurs. Use "exit" to quit out
   of "script".

   Here are the general upgrade steps:
     * Remove all of the existing media sources on your system by
       executing this command as root in terminal:

          su
          urpmi.removemedia -a

     * Add the Mageia 6 online sources, either:
          + Using the MIRRORLIST method (which will select a mirror
            automatically based on your geographical location):

                su
                urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist
                'http://mirrors.mageia.org/api/mageia.6.$ARCH.list'
                (urpmi knows what to substitute for $ARCH)

          + Using a specific media mirror:

                su
                urpmi.addmedia --distrib <mirror_url>
                You can get the mirror_url using the Mageia mirrors web
                application.

     * Finally start upgrading:

          su
          urpmi --replacefiles --auto-update --auto

     * It's best to run the above command twice because in the first run
       some packages may be downloaded but not installed.

   Please note!

   It is sometimes a good idea to test the upgrade before carrying it on.
   With this command: urpmi --replacefiles --auto-update --auto
   --download-all --test all the packages are downloaded and the upgrade
   simulated only.
   If the result is good, then upgrade for real with the command urpmi
   --replacefiles --auto-update --auto --download-all

Using the traditional Mageia 6 DVD to Upgrade

   You can use the traditional (so, non-Live) Mageia 6 DVD to do clean
   installs, but also to upgrade from Mageia 5.

   To upgrade:
     * Download the ISO from the Mageia download page and burn it on a
       DVD, or dump it on a USB stick. For more details, have a look at
       this Available installation media article.
     * Boot the DVD and make sure it booted in the same mode (legacy/BIOS
       or UEFI) as Mageia 5 was installed in.
     * Select "Install Mageia 6" from the GRUB (the bootloader) menu.
     * Select the upgrade option.

   It is recommended that the online repositories be set up during the
   upgrade as the DVD only includes a subset of the complete set of Mageia
   online repositories. This is especially important if you use important
   32-bit packages in an otherwise 64-bit install, because the 64-bit ISO
   will only contain the 64-bit packages, so the upgrade is likely to fail
   if you do not add online repositories.

   Moreover, it is possible that a particular Mageia 5 installation may
   have received an update to a later version of software than that
   available on the ISO. When this happens, an upgrade may fail to
   complete. At the time the ISOs are tested, it is impossible to
   anticipate which Mageia 5 packages may be updated in the future, so
   offline upgrades (i.e., upgrades attempted without setting up the
   online repositories) are not supported.

   On the first reboot, use the command 'urpmi --auto-update' to make sure
   all packages were updated.

                                  Known issues

   See the Errata page.

Deprecation of shared security in Samba

   If the samba server fails to start after upgrading to Mageia 6, you may
   change security=share to security=user in /etc/samba/smb.conf and
   restart the samba service.

Obsoleted packages

   get-skype is now obsolete, as the classic Skype versions for Linux
   ceased to be supported by Skype on 1 July 2017. There is a new
   web-based Skype version which may be installed directly from the Skype
   web site by selecting the rpm version here. Note that only 64-bit
   systems are supported.

Bug reporting

   We have a bug tracker, but please read the Errata before reporting any
   bugs. If you don't already have a Mageia account, you can create one on
   https://identity.mageia.org/. If you don't know, see how to report a
   bug.
