Linux deployment tool m23 is now supporting Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

With m23's new version 12.3 rock, it is now possible to install and administer Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Different desktop environments which should suit everyone's taste are available. Ubuntu's new standard desktop environment Unity is included in its 3D and 2D variants. Those who do not like Unity, are confronted with the agony of choice and have to decide between a classical Gnome environment (which is optically based on Gnome 2), Xfce, KDE (now with a brighter theme), LXDE or the pure text mode. The new login manager LightDM accompanies the list of new desktop environments.

m23 is a free software distribution system that installs and administrates clients with Debian, (X/K)Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora and Linux Mint. It allows network installation, integration of existing clients, updates, package installation, grouping of clients, mass installation, client and server backup and offers a wide range of configuration options.

In addition to the main feature Ubuntu, there were many changes and improvements made: The first thing to notice is the output of the m23 client monitor in the client's realtime status of the web interface implemented with AJAX. This way, administrators can always keep their client in view, even without using an SSH direct connection. When adding a new client, m23 now automatically suggests an unused IP address, which saves the work of the tedious trial-and-error method or the invention of an algorithm to find free IPs. For German-speaking administrators (or all those who would like to become one), there is now the integrated BAfH daily excuse, that conjurs a new, humourous excuse into your web browser every day, which provides a plausible and absolutely logical reason, why the user's problem (unfortunately, regrettably) cannot be solved right now ;-). Besides this really useful (and possibly life saving) tool, a simple calculator has also found its way into the interface.

The internal, VirtualBox-based virtualisation of m23 was also improved: Now the newer VirtualBox 4.x (as it is contained in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) can be used as a basis and for the first time, the hardware acceleration (PAE, NX and "Nested Paging") of the processor is used (if available), to install 64-bit operating systems or to allow the operation of virtual guests in virtual machines. In a graphical VNC session, the restart (e.g. when restituting a client) or the shutdown of a virtual client work now. The boot method is now changed automatically after the installation of the operating system is finished, for example from network boot to boot from a virtual harddrive.
For use with other virtualisation solutions like KVM, the script VirtualBox-networking-setup.sh (which was originally created for use with VirtualBox) for the creation of network bridges was modified to be able to run in Ubuntu 12.04.

The m23-xorg-configurator for the setup of the graphic card was upgraded by the ability to run in Ubuntu 12.04, this ability also has benefits for other distros. New upstart scripts ensure that the m23-xorg-configurator is executed before the login manager and that no X11 session is running. Otherwise, problems with the detection and recognition of the hardware could occur. A correction now makes sure that the configuration made by XOrg is found in the correct directory.

Some details of the m23 interface and also 'behind the scenes' were improved to accelerate and facilitate your work processes.

To get more info on the changes, read on here:
http://m23.sourceforge.net/PostNuke-0.750/html/index.php?id=1000000411

The new version is available as update via the m23 interface, via APT, as ISO to burn the m23 server installation CD/DVD or as preinstalled virtual machine (the last two can be found in the Download menu).

  Linux deployment tool m23 12.3 now with support for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS!