This report covers hrev57364 through hrev57428.
Last month’s highlight is probably the addition of a TUN/TAP driver, which is now included on nightly builds. TUN mode definitely works, while TAP mode has not been tested as much.
Kudos to all involved, another month with nice progress! 
As usual, thanks for all who contributed.
It prompted me to look at the bug tracker, and I noticed there are only 20 open tickets for R1/Beta5. Good progress!
I also see that we have exceeded the fund-raising target for this year. That’s great news. It prompts the question, can we set a higher target for next year, and if so, what do we need to do to achieve it?
Once again, thank you everyone for all your hard work.
Thank you everyone for all your great work!
This was a quite busy month as I can see/tell!
We are near to Beta 5 or very close to it!
For new year it could be reached!
There are Christmas and New Year holidays soon,
so there will be some extra time to develop for some!
Special thanks to Humdinger for his visual work, michel/Clasqm and Lelldorin for their video-tutorials on YouTube!
EDIT: John Scipione did a lot of visual changes to desktop as well, for the “About System” and much more…
Small correction: The fix to make saving work in ShowImage was originally found by Stefano Ceccherini. I just put the change on Gerrit and reworked it a bit until it could be merged.
This was a good month!
@waddlesplash, in the line
openvpn --config <CONFIG FILE>
is the <CONFIG FILE> a ovpn file that’s provided by your VPN provider or something else?
Hmmm… you forgot:
This makes modern day web browsing on Haiku possible for both platforms - x86 and x86-64…
Not really, for some there may be more time but for the majority there won’t be. We won’t be able to make a release in two weeks, especially with nobody having started the release process yet.
Sure, what I wanted to say is: In 2024 there will be a Beta 5 release!
Not on New Year or Silvester!
After that!
There are Christmas and New Year holidays…
I think that’s more than there were initially when we released beta 4. There isn’t really a fixed roadmap, we add things as we decide if they are needed or not, and often, at some point we decide to do a release anyway and move the remaining items to the next release.
So, it’s more relevant to look at the number of closed tickets to gauge progress.
Both of these happened in december, not in november. So they will be in the next report. Also, the haikuwebkit updates are routinely done (every few weeks or months) and not particularly interesting.
We had quite a generous donation last week that pushed us over the $20,000 goal. We have talked about increasing the goal amount but I do not want to make it seem unachievable. But probably going up to $25,000 is reasonable.
It is a small change in the website code to increase that amount.
It’s always a delight to read through these progress reports.
Thanks, Ryan. I am sure it’s easy to change the target figure. What I meant was, what do we need to do to ensure we hit a higher target?
One thing I would say is that, from a PR perspective, it’s important to maintain the momentum of releases. Beta 4 came out a year ago, and it would be great if we (by which I mean the developers, of course!) could get Beta 5 out in the near future. Preferably before the end of February, and ideally before the end of January.
If releases can then become a regular annual event it will help to reinforce the impression that Haiku is a living, growing, focused, project that deserves attention and support. What I am talking about is just a perception but perceptions are very important. We all know that a lot is happening, but Joe Public doesn’t.
Haiku needs money, and money will come if we can interest more people in Haiku. It’s obvious, of course, but it does no harm to repeat the obvious occasionally.
nice, just saw the thumbnail fix by @waddlesplash - I had a PR in the making but that might be obsolete now, will check. It was a fix to not override thumbnails that Tracker does not create in the first place, so static thumbnails created outside of Tracker would not be overridden (book cover icon in my case, could also be used for album cover art).
Great to see such progress! Will update to latest nightly and check… my personal blocker is just the trackpad on my Starlabs laptop which is not recognised:( I think there’s already at least 1 issue on this, but will check and update there.
We aim for yearly releases but it looks like we have missed the target again this time, so it will take a few more months.
I would like to see them a bit more frequent than that even, but it is a lot of work to ship a release, and then they would be smaller and maybe less of an event.
We’ll see what the christmas break allows us to achieve, maybe some of us will be able to spend some time on Haiku in that period and help with some of the blocking items on the release TODO list.
A month or two here or there is of no consequence, and probably Christmas is a bad time because many people will have other things on their minds.
Although it’s nice to be able to announce all sorts of improvements when making an official release, I think the important thing is simply the publicity that will flow from the announcement, whether or not there is much to get excited about.
Put another way, the absence of a regular release looks bad.
Anyway, it’s going well.
“When it’s finished” is always better than “when it’s time”. If there’s a couple more awesome features or better hardware compatibility on the horizon, it may be worth delaying a release for that.
Dear Bruno ,
However I use your words as a quote, I do not answer to you personally,
but I would highlight some points if we talk about new Haiku Beta release - R5 - in the row actually
the targeted Haiku is which does basic functions reliably - those who want still missing or under development features
will turn to Nightlies … they are constantly available.
Also who prepared their development environment in Haiku or some cross platform development … they can “pimp their Haiku” from source.
Haiku Betas generally for those who would use it primarily, those who avoid frustration and all newbies who are not devs as well.
So expect things : just work.
Haiku - with Beta4 - improved a lot to boot it on a machine
especially if the user understands
what should do and expect
if he would boot installer media :
of 32bit Haiku : it’s better for BIOS boot,
however UEFI exists, your firmware can be only EFI … I mean such firmwares were not standardize in the beginning.
@davidkaroly started to work on to does not bother which version is in your machine … my machine is working only with 64bit bootloader
and bios version to do it in CSM. Boot media with 32bit Haiku esp had enlisted under EFI part of device list but was not able to boot it.
I boot Haiku using to generate a boot list with F12 on my Dell Precision,
As my firmware setting is still CSM, but if I generate the list - it does not matter at all - I can boot UEFI (but only the 64bit).
Also improved to use it daily - thanks to many bugfixing and new drivers (I think here all the network - wired and wireless - and Intel VGA drivers )
these nowadays at least not require for me to set any boot option on/off .( ok I use now a built in 2012 machine, not in 2004, 2005 so that also helps a lot).
My network connection is more reliable and thanks to app developers / porters the Web experience is more widely usable both native and ported.
This way - now Haiku covers my basic daily usage of a PC.
Some under discovery.
it still has some interesting issues.
If you check TRAC in Roadmap view, you can find at Beta5 section
the “just” 20 active tickets (as it was written recently)
and amongst them there is one that contains issue since earlier,
one that I faced recently
I was red about in the past , as it was on Youtube video as well in that time , was discussed in the forum, but
I met personally when I wanted to re-create my 32bit Haiku install onto an USB key just as it was earlier - but using a different USB key.
Another difference is … actually I had not tried to put a Live image first, but install one, as I used a 32GB to have a 14 GB BFS partition instead of 1,4 GB which I would use later an installer USB too.
So it wouldn’t be the final target for 32bit,
but an enhanced installer that is
tailored for my settings as well,
also includes the progs/tools I had identified as “must have”.
Anyway it failed - as the BFS partition had not set bootable - the kind feather icon never appeared and set and the partition flag - it was such way unbootable.
I used also the DriveSetup in my 64bit Haiku – plugged in the created 32bit installer USB -, but the Haiku disk utility (DriveSetup, I assume- in my Haiku its name is translated) was also had not done it.
I could create such tailored Haiku USB installer (14GB size) - once - in case 64bit Haiku … the iteration fails from the end resulted Haiku installer.
Finally I had to use it as an installed Haiku as I could not repeat the 64bit Haiku intall onto a 128 GB USB3 pendrive - the main target - however this 32 GB pendrive should have been the spare installer drive with intact Beta4 … no configuration , just the base install but with 14 GB partittion - so BFS size - to be able to clone it later.
&
Install Haiku 64bit fails everytime at file copies. On target USB pendrive … there are following partititons …
a 14 GB enhanced tailored installer partition - label HaiQ64_R1B4 - BFS partition
a 128 MB Haiku ESP partition - label haiku esp - FAT partition, I copied its content from the ISO image
a 114 GB Haiku 64bit final target partition - label HaiQ64_Inst - BFS partition
I detailed them here to you to understand pics below
I load now to prove it - install fails at filecopy (???) it had never happened to me in case Haiku install.
I tried to install Haiku 64bit onto both BFS partition : the Installer - as had not finish successfully the filecopy part , interrupts - as the error message says …
Also do not quit or enables to iterate it on the other BFS parition,
and I have to use Process Monitor’s ‘Force Reboot’ to be able to quit and restart the Installer in a rebooted Haiku.
Install onto BFS partition HaiQ64_R1B4
Install onto BFS partition HaiQ64_Inst
With careful eyes you can discover :
the just copied files are not regular part of the Beta4
Finally I gave up on that – besides the furious frustration ( I just call such “Frustration Derby”) – to simply use Haiku at least as I can …
Then I started tailoring - my Haiku “installer” and use it.
The above pics created to open a ticket about it. I just had not get another type of error message
‘General fault’
again,
but only
‘Bad file descriptor’
until now.
Hunt for that is paused …
Honestly I became really tired of installing issues - especially after what happened in case 32bit Haiku installer pendrive too.
So for Haiku R1/Beta5
I hope Installer but especially DriveSetup
The above ticket would be resolved, and Haiku won’t picky about the storage drive - in case USB …
(For me it is a bit strange it is an enhancement ticket … I understand it is probably as not everytime happens - I just met it with first personally.
Although I think if an Installer end result is an unbootable install , and the person who executes does everything as what as in the guide …
then the main goal fails and the fix is not an option like “oh yeah, if we work on it will be more convenient for ya”
This is my opinion - not more, please do not look at more in it.)
This post is not about criticism
of how actually Haiku is
or
its development – Haiku and apps.
I’m quite satisfied generally.
I just shared some facts
to cool down R1B5 expectations
AGAINST the keep on happening good news
related to Haiku usability.
Those always turns on the enthusiasm,
and seeing the bright future
and moreover the shiny present …
MORE CLOSER THAN IN THE REALITY
… mostly in case for whom : they have no fundamental issues .
But others can have.
And not always due to as they are not enough well informed or as they are newbies.
Thanks for understanding.
EDIT : fixed 1 typo
Completed 12 months ago (Dec 24, 2022, 9:33:29 AM)
Actually, Haiku R1B5 is not due until Xmas Eve… 
