I am pleased to announce the release of version 0.9.7 of the OpenISR 
system.  This release includes the following changes:

- Add support for Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10
- Add support for kernel 2.6.31
- Support the version of KVM shipped with RHEL 5.4
- Add server-side tools to convert a parcel to/from a flat disk image
- Add parcel resizing support
- Add new, more user-friendly interface for KVM
- Add "isr poweroff" command to delete a parcel's memory image
- Fix "isr_admin makeparcel" breakage introduced in 0.9.6
- Other changes; see changelog below


UPGRADE NOTES
-------------

This release adds a dependency on the gtk-vnc Python bindings.  Please 
check the README for the current list of dependencies.

The user interface presented by the KVM virtual machine monitor has 
changed significantly.  You can now use RightCtrl-F or the window's 
maximize button to toggle fullscreen mode, and RightCtrl-Q or the close 
button to suspend the parcel.  It is no longer necessary to return to 
the terminal window and type Ctrl-C in order to suspend a KVM parcel.

The client no longer allows ~/.isr to be a symlink.  If you wish to 
place your ISR cache outside your home directory, you can set the new 
"isrdir" configuration variable in ~/.openisrrc.

If you install the server from source, note that the default path to the 
content root is now relative to the local state directory specified to 
the configure script.  You will need to add --localstatedir=/var to your 
configure invocation to retain the default path used by previous 
versions of the server.


SUPPORTED LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS
-----------------------------

As of this release, we are producing binary packages (both 32-bit and 
64-bit) for the following Linux distributions:

- Debian Etch (4.0)
- Debian Lenny (5.0)
- Ubuntu Hardy (8.04)
- Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10)
- Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04)
- Ubuntu Karmic (9.10)
- Fedora 10
- Fedora 11
- Fedora 12
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

If your Linux distribution is not listed above but is sufficiently 
recent to meet the system requirements (see the README for details), you 
should still be able to build from source.


Release 0.9.7 of the OpenISR system is available for download at:

http://isr.cmu.edu/download.shtml

As always, if you have any questions or problems, please contact me.

--Benjamin Gilbert


CHANGELOG
---------

------ Client changes

- Support kernel 2.6.31
- Add "isr poweroff" command to delete a parcel's memory image
- Add -D/--dirtometer option to launch dirtometer at resume time
- Show extra parcel information in "ls -l" output (requires 0.9.7
   server)
- Complain if --rollback specified but parcel already checked out
- Only permit "resume -d" if the parcel has been prepared with
   "checkout -d"
- Check parcel lock at resume time unless running disconnected
- Make path to user data directory configurable with "isrdir" option
- Fix small leak of kernel memory at parcel suspend
- Work around udev bug leading to resume failures on Fedora 12
- No longer require a reboot after initial install on some Linux
   distributions
- Various minor fixes and cleanups

------ VMM driver changes

- virtualbox: Fix failure to resume a new parcel on VirtualBox >= 3.0.2
- kvm: Use our own VNC viewer rather than SDL.  RightCtrl-F will now
   toggle full-screen mode and RightCtrl-Q will suspend the parcel.  The
   window's maximize and close buttons now work as expected.
- kvm: Work with KVM version shipped with RHEL 5.4
- Add "none" driver that just waits for SIGINT

------ Server changes

- Place default content root under --localstatedir specified to
   ./configure
- Create content root during "make install"

------ isr_admin changes

- makeparcel: Fix breakage introduced in 0.9.6
- import/export: New commands to convert a parcel from/to a flat disk
   image
- copyparcel: Resize copied parcel when -s specified (first resume
   requires client >= 0.9.7)
- makeparcel: Allow specifying memory image contents with -C/--cfgdir
- Add -f/--force option to skip prompting in deluser, delparcel, and
   prune
- Fix error when a user's first parcel is created by the user instead of
   root
- Various minor fixes and cleanups