Sorry for the long delay between the news, but I'm heavily working on the RC2 release of PulsarOS. Today I'd like to announce the change from BTRFS to the long supported MD software raid technology in linux. The change was necessary because BTRFS isn't stable enough for PulsarOS. All storage operations (disk remove, add, switch, grow) should be possible with a few clicks within the PulsarOS frontend. This isn't working right now with BTRFS and that's the cause why I decided to switch to a more mature technology. So, in the last few weeks I adapted PulsarOS to MD and LVM2 and I'm quite happy with the outcome.

What does this mean for RC2:

• Creation of Volumes (with Size)
• Operational check of the Pool (depending on the raid level the pool will stay operational also with disk failure(s))
• Usage of EXT4 as filesystem

The pre-release is intented for testing and preview purposes only. Not everything is working right now, but I'll give you the opportunity to take a look at the system and give me your thoughts, suggestions and also bug requests. You can download the prerelease in the "Download" section on the top. Right now you can create a working Samba fileshare. That's all!. The pre-release is based on:

• Linux Kernel 2.6.33
• Buildroot 2010.02
• Monit service watchdog 5.0.3
• Busybox 1.15.3
• BRTFS-Tools "unstable-git"
• Samba 3.4.6
• Codeigniter 1.7.1 (PHP Framework for the frontend)

and vodoo stuff done by myself *joking*

Please write your problems/bugs/suggestions/thoughts to the appropriate section of the forum.

Update: The PulsarOS administration is completely web-based. You don't need a user login on the system. But if you like to take a look under the magic hat, please see this "post".

Update2: The installation documentation can be found under the link "documentation" ;-)

Sure, many of you are actually excited about the new Apple Ipad, but I've also some quite exciting news (at least for me ;-)) about the PulsarOS frontend. I must admit that I'm not a designer nor a developer. I'm doing this because I like to learn new things and to create something unique and new. That means it takes some time to get the basic frontend out in the wild, but I'll give my best to get this starting. What actually works are the following things:

• Pool creation
• Pool List
• Volume creation
• Volume delete
• Volume list
• Overview Information

I'm sitting in front of my computer, thinking about the plugin system of PulsarOS. Personally, I like the way how Apple integrated the Appstore into the IPhone (of course without the extremely bad limitations). What do you think about such an integration into PulsarOS?

Main Features:

• Writing Plugins with connection to a future PulsarOS API (GUI, installation, deinstallation, upgrade....)
• Approval process to ensure high quality standards
• Only one repository for all plugins and upgrades - every plugin can be installed within the PulsarOS Gui
• Plugin configuration accessible through the GUI