Blender-boot beta bug fix: Making a USB with persistence

 USB making applications are not recognizing Blender-boot as being based off Ubuntu, so no persistence option is available. This is a temporary solution, hopefully I will come up with a better soluttion by final

you need to change the name of the .iso files to:

change the 64bit versions name to ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso

change the 32bit versions name to ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso

How to Blender-boot quick tips

This tutorial will just be a few quick useful tips.

Tip 1 Auto hide the panel 
If you like your panel to auto hide then right click on the panel choose panel, panel preference then click the box next to "Automatically show and hide the panel"

Tip 2 check for additional drivers
Its always a good idea to check for additional drivers when you first use Blender-boot even though almost all the time everything will work with no hassle. To check for additional drivers open the menu and under settings there is an entry called Additional Drivers. This application will scan your system looking for hardware that may need drivers that were not included in the Blender-boot install. Almost always there will be a graphics driver, my suggestion is to try it out and see how it runs on your system for some people they work great but a lot of people have trouble with them. If the drivers don't work out you can disable them using the same application.

Tip 4 Try learning to work with multiple workspaces.
Blender-boot is set up with two workspaces, you can change between them using the applet on the panel or by going to your desktop and scrolling the mouse wheel. Its a great way to spread out your work and keep workspaces tidy, for instance you can have Blender open in one workspace and Gimp in another. If you right click on the panel applet you can access the workspace settings dialogue (also found under settings in the menu) you will see that you can increase or decrease the number of workspaces you would like to use.
For quick workspace navigation you can use the ctrl alt and number pad keys. Workspace 1 would be ctrl+alt+1 workspace 2 would be ctrl+alt+2 etc

Blender-boot reviewers preview

The Blender-boot reviewers preview is in the works its going to have most the improvements the final will have.  Its kind of like beta 2 but only for reviewers. If you would of the reviewers contact me and I will add you to a list of people who get access to the reviewers preview edition.(mention if you would like 64 bit or 32bit)
Changes include:
The new look as things like the orange icons were not very popular, so new theme, new icons, new wallpaper, new logo, new login screen, new boot screen, new grub screen and an improved panel.
New applications added none removed
All known bugs fixed (hopefully some really might take until final to fix depending on what bugs get reported in next few weeks)
And other as yet unannounced features(only because they are still being made and tested)

Introducing the new Blender-boot logo!

Here it is the new shiny logo for Blender-boot version 1 Suzanne. It was created by Casio23 over at blenderartists.org He will be doing a little bit more art for the final release as well. Don`t forget Blender-boot is open and your artwork (wallpapers, logos etc) could make it in to either the final version 1 or the next version.

How to Blender-boot Advanced Customization Part 1

This tutorial is for customizing Blender-boot there is some basic customization tips here, this one is getting in to the more advanced customization.

Themes


Changing themes in Blender-boot is easy not many are included but installing more is easy. To check out the themes that come with Blender-boot you need to click on the appearance entry under settings in the main menu. The first tab will be style, this is the tab for changing themes. Just click on them to try them out. Nothing you like well that is OK to get some more you should go to Gnome-Look This website is very useful for customizing and worth bookmarking. You need to click on GTK 2.x this will take you to themes that will work with Blender-boot. Have a good browse and when your ready download one., by default it will be saved in the Downloads folder. It will more than likely (in fact almost definitely) be an archive file you need to double click it, this will open File Roller which you can use to extract the them folder. Now press the insert key on your keyboard to bring up the terminal and type in:

sudo thunar


It will prompt you for your password then open Thunar file manager as root. A warning will show up at the top and basically just don't delete anything if you don't know what is, that way you wont do any damage :D Open up your Downloads folder and right click on the theme folder select copy. Now click on file system, then navigate to the usr folder, then the share folder and then finally the theme folder. Right click and paste your theme here, close Thunar and open your appearance settings again your new theme will be there!


Further theme customization


You can change them further using the Window manager under settings In the menu. The styles here change the look of your them open Thunar to compare the differences between each one theres lots of options. You also change the Window title position and font here. Also you can rearrange the button layout here, maybe move them all to the left If you like the Mac button layout. The second tab is for setting keyboard window shortcuts and the third tab is for adjusting focus.


Icons


Changing the icons is very similar to changing the theme. You can get them from Gnome-Look just like the themes you can change them using the appearance settings and you use the same process. With one main difference, you copy and paste the icons into usr/shar/icons instead of usr/share/themes :D


System Font


Also under the appearance setting there is a font tab this is for changing the system font. Browse through and choose one that is easy to read or just looks cool. You can also adjust settings like anti-aliasing and hinting for making the font clearer.

Blender-boot 1 Suzanne Beta release announcement!

Blender-boot 1 suzanne is now officially in beta. The alphas were about testing and implementing some basic functions. Beta is finalizing the features for this release, as in the software and settings that the final release will have. You will find a list of changes below and the link to the 64bit version, the 32bit version will hopefully be released later today if not tomorrow.

List of features and changes:Blender 2.6 with almost daily SVN builds from trunk (update using update manager or terminal, no need to reinstall etc overwrites current version but keeps your settings)
Gimp 2.74 this is the one piece of software that has the most likelihood of changing, to a newer version of course. Chromium browser fast and syncs your setting from main system when you sign in.The Ubuntu software center the easiest way to install new software (Blender-boot also includes synaptic package manager or you can use the terminal too, see the more software page on the blog for more details)
Thunar file manager lightwieght and easy to use (pcman file manager has been removed as Alpha 2 had both, decided its just as easy to open thunar as root in a terminal see Terminal commands page on blog)
Evince document viewer for viewing tutorial or over PDF`sVLC player for tutorial videos (all other players have been removed as VLC plays almost anything)
Gedit text editor(decided to remove Abiword as it was  not needed for Blender work really and not as useful as a good text editor (getting Abiword back is easy see the more software page on the blog)
Guake a great drop down terminal shows and hides with the Ins(insert) key very customizable and you can have multiple tabs.
Update manager has been kept in for people who like to update using a gui rather than a terminal.
The artwork has had feedback overnight and I realize not everyone is keen on it now, the logo and the artwork across the whole of Blender-boot will be going through a big change during the two months between beta and final.

Plans for final which will be releasing June 12thOther than the artwork I am hoping not many changes are needed but as always I will listen to any feedback and fix any bugs or problems. This way I can focus on cleaning the sytsem up and shrinking the ISO size more. Also trying to remove the need to login on the live session I have left username and password the same from Alpha 2 for now. Also there is pink sections in the installer, I know what is causing this and will fix it if I can. Will also be adding more driver support.
Big note to everyone I am a one man team who has put countless hours into this but I am not perfect at all lol. So if you would like any changes or you would like to submit art etc for the project let me know :D
Downloads here https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderboot/files/beta/
Live session login username: custom password: (there is no password leave it blank)

To burn to USB using Windows I recommend using Linux Live Usb Creator, very easy to use and you can set persistence to  use Blender-boot as a portable distro. (please say bug page for persistence problem)
To burn to USB using Ubuntu based distro use Startup Disk Creator, also very easy to use and you can set persistence to  use Blender-boot as a portable distro. (please say bug page for persistence problem)

To burn to USB using other Linux distro`s use Unetbootin or similar, there is alot of software for this purpose.

Beta released tomorrow.....

So Blender-boot 1 Suzanne beta is coming tomorrow seems soon after alpha 2 but there will be at least 2 months between beta an final for testing, bug fixing and polishing. I will be releasing the 64bit version first and then hopefully if I get it uploading it early enough (very slow connection where im living at the moment) the 32bit version will be released later on the same day. There has been many changes from Alpha 2 and I really hope you guys are going to love this as much as I do. Full detailed release announcement tomorrow!