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IIAB 6.4 Release Notes

George Hunt edited this page Apr 25, 2020 · 1 revision

Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 6.4 (Wiki, GitHub) was released on October 5th 2017.

What's New?

  • Search across all your offline (ZIM) content files with an entirely new Kiwix engine under the hood, watch out Google here we come :-)
  • 1-line installers for different server app suites — pick small, medium or large immediately at the moment you start downloading. Would you like your IIAB with... ~6, ~12 or ~20 server apps? After you pick your favorite 1-line installer, Internet-in-a-Box will fully install itself!
  • Support for Raspbian Stretch and Debian 9.2 anchoring a solid LTS (long-term support) foundation for years to come, in addition to support for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and the new CentOS 7.4, which shares the same code base as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4.
  • A major house cleaning deprecating unmaintained server apps, so IIAB installs faster and is more understandable, introducing a tighter default_vars.yml for system-wide defaults.
  • A brand new Contributors Guide for software developers especially, and our new Jenkins and Travis CI test automation systems thanks to Arky and George Hunt, that you'll be hearing a lot more about soon!

What's Upgraded?

  • KA Lite (LMS for Khan Academy videos & exercises) is upgraded to 0.17.3 including easy subtitles very popular in developing countries.
  • WordPress is upgraded to 4.8.2+ and now auto-upgrades when your Internet-in-a-Box is online!
  • Nextcloud is upgraded to 12.0.3.
  • Sugarizer is upgraded to 0.9.
  • Offline Social Network Elgg is upgraded to 2.3.4.
  • Moodle is upgraded to 3.1.8 LTS.
  • Internet-in-a-Box's own Admin Console (http://box/admin) has been made more resilient.
  • Ansible 2.4.x (pre-built PPA or rpm) helps future-proof Internet-in-a-Box configuration management.
  • Extraneous red warnings during bootup and 1st run of Ansible are...gone at last!
  • Important Known Issues in IIAB 6.3 now fixed!

How do I try it?

TL;DR! Try our 1-line installer for Raspberry Pi 3:

 curl download.iiab.io/6.4/rpi/load.txt | sudo bash

Be sure your Raspberry Pi 3 is running a recent Raspbian Stretch OS, has a microSD card large enough for content, and is connected to the Internet with an actual Ethernet cable. Installation usually completes within two hours, if your Internet speed is very fast. See download.iiab.io/6.4/rpi for other/faster options!

Finally to install onto Ubuntu, Debian or CentOS, use our Do Everything from Scratch install instructions — which quickly get you to the most important part — where you can add content!

People Who Busted Their Ass

Thank you e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e for building your own DIY Library of Alexandria. To serve One & All.

Not just in your own community — but by keeping in touch with our global volunteer community network (http://OFF.NETWORK) each of you are providing the lifeblood "fieldback" — that keeps us motivated enabling Internet-in-a-Box's quality content collaborations across ALL communities!

IIAB Development Team: George Hunt, Tim Moody, Jerry Vonau, Josh Dennis, Reno McKenzie, Arky, Anish Mangal, Joshua Kanani, German Ruiz, César Natarén, Curt Thompson, Blondel Mondésir, Rick Castorani, Samuel Zidovetzki, María González, Adam Holt.

Join our Monday/Thursday calls if you want to meet any of the people above: MINUTES.IIAB.IO

Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ.IIAB.IO

Known Issues

  • IIAB 6.4 does not install on Raspbian Stretch With Desktop. Please instead install on Raspbian Stretch Lite, or try one of our IIAB 6.5 pre-releases which include fix #399.
  • OpenStreetMap does not work until you apply #453. Or please try one of our IIAB 6.5 pre-releases.
  • Sugarizer will occasionally fail to install (blocking the installation of Internet-in-a-Box) as explained in #193. The workaround is generally to restart "./runansible" — or safer yet: restart a hands-free installation using one of our 1-line installer scripts on a clean OS.
  • Be sure to set "calibre_install: False" and "calibre_enabled: False" within local_vars.yml before installing IIAB 6.4 on CentOS 7.4.
  • Nextcloud (http://box/nextcloud) sometimes takes far too long to login/logout on Raspberry Pi 3 (more than a minute, instead of the usual couple seconds). If this affects you (typically during the first hours after installation, speeding up later) please help everyone isolate the pattern and root cause, by reviewing & posting to #401 so an upstream bug might be filed.
  • USB memory sticks sometimes need to be removed and re-inserted into your Internet-in-a-Box before Teacher Content appears at http://box/usb (if stick was inserted just prior to a cold boot).