FOG 1.6.0-RC-20 Avaialble

[Tom Elliott]

The twentieth release candidate for FOG 1.6.0 is available on the rc-1.6.0 branch. It reports version 1.6.0-RC-20.

Test it on a lab or non-production server first. The upgrade from 1.5 to 1.6 is one-way: it changes the database schema, and there is no down-migration.

Changed since RC-19

These fixes come from #2000, a test of the upgrade from 1.5.10.2518. Thanks to cepadugato, who reported it and contributed the first fix.

• The 1.5 upgrade completes on the first installer run (#2001, #2002). A 1.5 server’s schema count skipped the step that creates fileDeleteQueue, so step 290 failed with error 1146 and the installer printed Failed!. A second run finished the upgrade. Now the updater repairs the schema when a step names a missing table, and it retries that step once.
• An installer rerun keeps the 1.5 web backup (#2003, #2004). A second installfog.sh run after the upgrade replaced the only 1.5 web-tree backup, so bin/revertfog.sh had no web tree to restore. The installer now renames a backup of another release to fog_web_<its version>.BACKUP and keeps it. The release notes now name the backups correctly.
• User names longer than 40 characters fit on upgraded servers (#2005, #2006). On a server upgraded from 1.5, users.uName and users.uCreateBy stayed VARCHAR(40). A long LDAP or OIDC login, such as a full email address, did not fit. Schema step 446 widens both columns to VARCHAR(255).
• The schema updater repairs column types that cannot lose data (#2007, #2008). A skipped 1.6 step that changed a column type was only reported before. The updater now applies a longer string type, a wider integer, or NOT NULL to NULL. Any other type drift is still only reported. A new required CI check upgrades a real 1.5 database with each pull request.

FOS (kernel and init), from the Latest FOS release

An RC install or update downloads the Latest FOS release. Latest is still EXP_20261027-181357, unchanged since RC-18:

• Kernel 6.18.59, the current 6.18 LTS release.
• FOS verifies TLS, which is the client half of #1978.
• The Performance Test task.
• x64 and x86 boot an initramfs, not an ext2 initrd (FOGProject/fos#75). The file names stay init.xz and init_32.xz, and the boot menu does not change. /tmp is now a real RAM disk with a size limit: FOG_KERNEL_RAMDISK_SIZE sets the size, kept between 64 MB and half of the client’s memory.
  • Warning: a customized init can no longer be loop-mounted. Add your files as an overlay cpio appended to init.xz instead: https://docs.fogproject.org/en/latest/kb/how-tos/customize-the-fos-init/ . A post-init script needs no rebuild at all: https://docs.fogproject.org/en/latest/kb/how-tos/post-init-scripts/
  • If a client fails to boot with this init, go to FOG Configuration > Initrd Update and install the init from EXP_20261027-155909, the last ext2 init. Then report it on FOGProject/fos#75.

API documentation: https://docs.fogproject.org/en/latest/1.6/kb/integrations/api

Before you upgrade

• Back up your database and /opt/fog/.fogsettings.
• Read the release notes: https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/blob/rc-1.6.0/docs/release/1.6.0-release-notes.md
• 1.6 removes Display Manager, Directory Cleaner, User Cleanup, Client Updater, Green FOG and the persistentgroups plugin. Their data is dropped. The site and accesscontrol plugins move into core.
• PHP 7.4 or later is required. Plugins built for 1.5 do not load.

Install or update (as root)

• A 1.6 beta or RC server: run bin/updatefog.sh --channel rc from your FOG checkout.
• A 1.5 server installed from git: update to the current 1.5 stable, then run bin/updatefog.sh --channel rc from the checkout.
• A new server, or a 1.5 server installed from a tarball:
  curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FOGProject/fogproject/working-1.6/bin/bootstrap.sh | bash -s -- --channel rc

Report problems

Open an issue at https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/issues. Include your FOG version, your OS, and the installer log from bin/error_logs/. Report a security problem through “Report a vulnerability” on the same repository, not in a public issue.