GnackTrackR6 is now officially released

R6 has recieved support from some new DEVs so we now have more fingers working on GnackTrack. We have added patches to the compat-wireless modules so R6 has better support for injection and monitor mode. We have also now added an XP Theme so you can quickly emulate an XP box; see the video below. For support questions please use the forums.

BackTrack 5

As BackTrack 5 development rolls on full steam ahead, we’ve been getting numerous questions about the future release. We thought we’d publish a blog post with general information about BT5 for the impatient. The codename of this release will be “revolution”, for a bunch of reasons.

BackTrack 5 will be based on Ubuntu Lucid (10.04 LTS), and will (finally) support both 32 bit and 64 bit architectures. We will be officially supporting KDE 4, Gnome and Fluxbox while providing users streamlined ISO downloads of each Desktop Environment (DE). Tool integration from our repositories will be seamless with all our supported DE’s, including the specific DE menu structure.

Perhaps most importantly BackTrack 5 “revolution” will be our first release to include full source code in it’s repositories. This is a big thing for us, as it officially joins us to the open-source community and clears up any licensing issues which were present in BackTrack 4.

The absence of source code availability in BT4 was mainly due to lack of resources when we initially structured the BT4 development environment. Newly armed with our support from Offensive Security, we have  now built a *proper* development environment, which allows us to do some pretty awesome things.

Our tool list has completely been revamped and refreshed. Each tool’s functionality was assessed and decided upon before inclusion to BT5. Obviously, we are constantly staying up to date with interesting new tools and are adding them to our repositories when appropriate. In addition, our menu structure has been much optimized – streamlined with both the PTES and OSSTMM standards. This will make finding and using the right tools much easier.

We are finally able to update our roadmap and pin down a date for the release – May 10th, 2011. If you have a tool request for a tool that does not already exist in BackTrack, please use this form to request it. This form will be active for 4 weeks.

Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 3 has Release

Kate Stewart has announced that the third alpha release of Ubuntu 11.04 and its family of products is now available for download and testing: "Welcome to Natty Narwhal alpha 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 11.04. Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Natty development cycle. New packages showing up in this release include: LibreOffice 3.3.1, Unity 3.6.0, Linux Kernel 2.6.38-rc6, Upstart 0.9, dpkg 1.16.0-pre + multi-arch snapshot. The alpha images are known to be reasonably free of show-stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Natty." See the release announcement and release notes for a detailed list of changes and new features. Download (SHA256): natty-desktop-i386.iso (661MB, torrent), natty-desktop-amd64.iso (681MB, torrent). Alpha 3 CD/DVD images for Kubuntu (download, release notes), Xubuntu (download), Ubuntu Studio (download), Edubuntu (download, release announcement) and Mythbuntu (download) are also available.

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 has Release

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0, code name "Squeeze", has been released: "After 24 months of constant development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 6.0 (code name 'Squeeze'). Debian 6.0 is a free operating system, coming for the first time in two flavours. Alongside Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is introduced with this version as a 'technology preview'. Debian 6.0 includes the KDE Plasma Desktop and Applications, the GNOME, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments as well as all kinds of server applications. It also features compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.2 of the LSB. Debian runs on computers ranging from palmtops and handheld systems to supercomputers, and on nearly everything in between. A total of nine architectures are supported by Debian GNU/Linux." Read the release announcement and release notes for details. A total of 693 ISO images have been prepared for this release; here are the quick links for the first of the eight installation DVD images for the i386 and amd64 architectures (installable live CD/DVD images are available here): debian-6.0.0-i386-DVD-1.iso (4,475MB, SHA256, torrent), debian-6.0.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso (4,446MB, SHA256, torrent).