Gentoo-Based Porteus Kiosk 5.5 Released with Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS, exFAT Support

This release also brings MD5 authentication support on 802.1x wired networks and the ability to enable the watchdog timer.
Porteus Kiosk 5.5

Tomasz Jokiel announced today the general availability of Porteus Kiosk 5.5 as the latest stable update to this Gentoo-based GNU/Linux distribution for kiosks, digital signage, and public computers.

Coming a year after Porteus Kiosk 5.4, the Porteus Kiosk 5.5 release is powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel series to support new hardware and features and includes upgraded userland packages from Gentoo Linux portage snapshot 20230318.

New features in Porteus Kiosk 5.5 include support for exFAT formatted storage devices, MD5 authentication support in 802.1x wired networks, support for monitoring the battery capacity of connected clients, as well as the ability to enable the watchdog timer to automatically restart the computer when something fails.

This release also adds support for downloading new packages and system updates from official server mirrors, adds support for the zoommtg protocol in the Google Chrome web browser by default to allow Zoom connections using a web client, and updates Google Chrome to version 108.0.5359.124 and Mozilla Firefox to version 102.9.0 ESR.

The boot process was optimized to offer users a faster and smoother experience by starting the X session on TTY1/VT1 rather than on VT7 to avoid flipping between VTs. In addition, this release addresses a UEFI firmware boot bug to improve compatibility with old kiosk systems.

Various other smaller fixes and improvements are present as well in Porteus Kiosk 5.5, which is available for download right now from the official website in four editions, including Live (Standard), Cloud, Server, and Thin Client.

Porteus Kiosk works on systems powered by either AMD or Intel processors. It doesn’t support ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi.

Last updated 12 months ago

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