Haiku R1Beta5 Release Notes

The fifth beta release of Haiku introduces a wide range of updates, bug fixes and feature enhancements. This release includes significant improvements across various components: developer tools, hardware support, system performance, and user experience with contributions from the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2023 projects.

Important Notice: This is beta-quality software, which means it is feature-complete but may contain known and unknown bugs. Users should exercise caution as there remains a risk of data loss.

System Requirements

This release is available for both x86 32-bit and x86_64 platforms. BeOS R5 compatibility is only supported on the 32-bit platform. The 64-bit version is recommended unless BeOS compatibility is required.

Minimum (32-bit):

• Processor: Intel Pentium II; AMD Athlon
• Memory: 256MB
• Monitor: 800x600
• Storage: 2GB

Recommended (64-bit):

• Processor: Intel Core i3; AMD Phenom II
• Memory: 2GB
• Monitor: 1366x768
• Storage: 16GB

SSE2 support is required for the WebPositive web browser. For systems without SSE2, the NetSurf browser is recommended.

Key Highlights

Installation Process:

• Improved installer interface with better error handling and feedback mechanisms to ensure a smoother user experience during installation.
• Lowered inital memory usage.

Package Management:

• Enhanced package management system with improved dependency resolution and conflict handling, contributing to overall system stability.

User Interface:

• Assisted color theme configuration in Appearance preferences for more intuitive customization.
• Improved dark mode support, adjustments to logos in AboutSystem.
• Consistent font usage across DeskBar menus for a unified look and feel.
• Icon-O-Matic Enhancements: Significant updates to Icon-O-Matic: new features like perspective transformations, enabling users to apply complex 3D-like transformations to vector icons. This functionality enhances the tool's versatility and creativity. Additional improvements were made to the handling of icons and shapes, along with bug fixes and performance enhancements. These updates were part of the GSoC 2023 project focused on enhancing this key application.
• PowerStatus improvements: new battery status notifications for low and critical levels, automatic integration into DeskBar, improved recognition of "not charging" states, and persistent performance mode settings across reboots.
• Localization improvements with BNumberFormat, ensuring consistent numerical formatting across applications.
• Tracker file manager enhancements: better handling of read-only folders and improved media rating displays with "half star" symbols.
• DeskBar improvements: increase the Twitcher team icon size from 32 to 48 pixels, make twitcher font sensitive. New other workspace window icons.
• Consolidated AboutSystem information removing inaccessible memory.

app_server:

• Major overhaul of window update validation logic to reduce screen tearing, flickering, and empty areas, significantly enhancing visual performance.
• Switched default system font from Noto Sans Display to Noto Sans for improved readability.
• Added support for variable fonts and dynamically loaded web fonts, enhancing typographic flexibility.

Web Positive:

• Updated WebKit engine powering the WebPositive browser, delivering enhanced performance, security, and compatibility with modern web standards.

APIs:

• Enhanced BMessageRunner to support intervals shorter than 50ms, improving application responsiveness.
• Proper size management of recent applications and document lists in the registrar.
• BMenu improvements, keyboard navigation.
• Enhanced BSpinner control now sends accurate messages upon value changes, fixing a previous issue.
• RGB color brightness calculation updated to use a perceptual brightness algorithm, improving color rendering accuracy.
• Introduction of BBufferedIO and BAdapterIO classes for more efficient data handling.

Storage and File Systems:

• Full read-only support for FreeBSD UFS2, expanding file system compatibility.
• Replaced FAT driver with a more robust implementation from FreeBSD improving stability and performance.
• RAMFS improvements for better file handling including proper preallocation implementation and clearing of trailing spaces.
• Unified query parser code across RAMFS, packagefs and BFS for consistent file system behavior.

BeOS Compatibility:

• Updated to FFmpeg 6 for better multimedia support.
• Multiple Media Kit fixes addressing rounding errors and other issues, enhancing compatibility with BeOS applications.
• Reintroduction of the list view auto-scroll feature.

POSIX Compatibility:

• Added support for various POSIX functions, such as getentropy, static_assert (C11), stpncpy, and better handling of symbolic links and memory mapping.
• Improved pthread_sigqueue and other functions to meet POSIX standards more closely.

BSD and GNU Extensions:

• Implemented arc4random for more secure random number generation.

System Performance:

• DNS resolver synchronized with NetBSD, enhancing network performance and reliability.
• Various network stack improvements: TCP optimizations, finalized SACK implementation, and window sizing fixes. Reduced buffer copies between drivers and the stack for better efficiency.
• Kernel Debugger Land (KDL) event loop now uses the PAUSE instruction, reducing power usage during debugging sessions.
• Kernel page allocator improved to maintain free pages in order, enabling larger contiguous memory blocks for more efficient DMA transfers.
• New APIs for setting CPU affinity for threads, optimizing performance in multi-core environments.

Internationalization:

• Enhanced BNumberFormat functionality with customizable numeric separators, improving localization and internationalization support.

Developer Tools:

• .NET Port: As part of GSoC 2023 Haiku has introduced initial support for the .NET platform porting core components of the .NET runtime to run .NET applications natively on Haiku. This addition opens up Haiku to a wider range of developers and software applications.
• Debugger Improvements: Enhanced support for DWARF-4 and DWARF-5 debugging formats providing better debugging capabilities.
• Git Integration: Updated Git version bundled with Haiku to offer better compatibility with recent Git features and improvements.
• Package Build Improvements: Improved support for building packages from source, better error reporting and handling.
• Compiler Toolchain: Updated GCC toolchain and better integration with Haiku's build system providing developers with a more robust and up-to-date environment.
• New Developer Utilities: Introduction of new tools and utilities to aid in software development, debugging and performance profiling.

Network and Connectivity:

• TUN/TAP Driver Support: Development of TUN/TAP driver support has been completed as part of GSoC 2023 enabling virtual network interface functionality. This is crucial for VPN support, tunneling, and various other networking applications, expanding Haiku's networking capabilities significantly. This update reflects a focused effort on improving network virtualization and security features.

Hardware Compatibility:

CPUs and Chipsets:

• Added new PCH thermal driver support for more Intel devices, improving thermal management.
• Implemented mitigations for the AMD Zenbleed vulnerability, enhancing security for AMD systems.
• Updated ACPICA (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Component Architecture) to the latest release, improving system compatibility and stability.

Sound:

• New USB Audio driver added, expanding support for more audio devices.
• Refactored PCI audio drivers to share more code, improving maintainability and compatibility.

Mass Storage:

• Added virtio_block driver for better storage support in virtualized environments.
• Improved enumeration of SDHCI devices (SD card readers) over both ACPI and PCI, expanding compatibility.

Network:

• Synchronized FreeBSD network drivers with the latest FreeBSD release supporting more network hardware.
• Integrated OpenBSD drivers to expand support for additional network devices.
• Expanded TUN/TAP driver support for VPNs and other networking applications, significant improvements in network security and virtualization.

USB:

• Improved support for USB HID report descriptors with the "minimum" attribute enhancing device compatibility.
• Added support for the 6th button on Elecom trackballs and improved user experience.

Graphics:

• Added support for virtio_gpu enhancing graphics capabilities in virtualized environments.

Debugging Tools:

• Enhanced Debugger with DWARF-4 and DWARF-5 support and better integration with system libraries.
• Expanded strace support for iovec and other structures, enhancing system call tracing.

Known Issues and Workarounds

There are currently no major bugs reported. This is a beta release, users should report any issues to help improve future versions.