Release Notes 2.5

New Features and Improvements #

With eBlockerOS 2.5 we have reached a major milestone. All eBlocker devices are now based on the same source code and we have eliminated many “legacy” issues and implemented numerous automatizations. This lays the foundation for a better and faster cooperation with the community. We have summarized the changes essential for users here.

Important note for Raspberry Pi 3 users: Due to a bug in the underlying Linux OS, the device freezes sporadically. The bug can be reproduced without any eBlocker software installed and it cannot be fixed by us unfortunately. Until the bug has been fixed by raspberrypi.org we do not recommend to use a Rasberry Pi 3 for eBlockerOS. All other supported Raspberry and Banana Pi models are not affected and run eBlockerOS smoothly. We’ll update the release notes and the forum as soon as we have news.

eBlockerOS 2.5.8 #

• Fix: DNS Firewall responds to requests of all types, e.g. MX, PTR, TXT, etc.
• Fix: The function test in the dashboard shows the correct results in Safari
• Fix: Menus with many entries are scrollable in the settings again
• Other: The time window for updates has been extended to two hours in order to reduce the load on our servers
• Other: The update progress bar is now updated during download as well
• Other: The filter list updates have been shrunk to avoid freezing due to low memory condition

eBlockerOS 2.5.6 #

• New: First public release for Raspberry Pi 2, 3 and 4 and update for Banana Pi M2+ (“white cube eBlocker”)
• New: Based entirely on open source code (from github. com/eblocker)
• New: Revised source code is fully compatible with Java 11
• New: Underlying operating system updated to latest version (debian Linux 10 Buster, Linux Kernel 5.4 Raspi or 5.7 M2+)
• New: Security updates of all used Linux components (including Squid Proxy 4.6)
• New: eBlocker Monitoring Feature (beta) to make blocking and the used blocking rules more transparent. Available in eBlocker under Settings>Blocker>Analysis Tool
• New: Improved initial setup. Users can choose whether all devices should be activated for eBlocker immediately or whether individual devices should be activated manually one after the other.
• New filters: Malware Patrol, German Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Children and other lists in addition to the public lists used so far have been added. Thus, the same level of protection of the commercial eBlocker has now been restored (except for the fragFINN children’s white list, for which no one has donated)
• Update: DNS server list and trusted apps have been updated (based on user feedback)
• Update: Device cloaking with current distribution of device identifications (UserAgents)
• Fix: Stability for devices with little memory (1GB RAM) improved
• Fix: Bugfix for macOS Catalina & iOS certificate validity (24 months or less)
• Fix: Improved OpenVPN compatibility for various VPN providers (update to OpenVPN 2.4)
• Miscellaneous: DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar is available in Easylist format. So eBlocker can use the extensive set of filters from DuckDuckGo: see forum for integration and details
• Other: iOS App for the discovery of the eBlocker when first installed on an open source basis available in the Apple Appstore
• Other: The release includes a first experimental implementation of surrogates. Here, individual tracking scripts are not blocked, but exchanged for harmless scripts (the surrogates). This ensures a better compatibility with certain websites.