The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.8.1 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads .
This is a bugfix release for 2.8.0, which has introduced a huge overhaul and created a few new issues. Many users had problems with login after upgrading to 2.8.0. This won’t change with 2.8.1. It is not a bug, but rather an incorrect setup. Admittedly, this was introduced because of lack of security check in older Spark\Smack versions. But we can’t leave Spark blind to bad or forged certificates (in the age of security breaches and moving all the web to TLS). So, if you have this problems, please read Login issues since Spark 2.8.0 . 2.8.1 is introducing an option “Disable certificate hostname verification (not recommended)” in the Advanced settings of the Login screen. If you can’t fix your setup or want a temporary workaround, you can use it. But be warned, that you will make yourself (or your users) less secure. 2.8.0 also introduced new setting “Accept all certificates” in the same place. It was enabled by default for those upgrading from 2.7.7. It automatically accepts self-signed and some other incorrect certificates (expired, etc.). This was done to make 2.8.0 backwards compatible, if you were using self-signed certificates provided by Openfire. This setting will stay enabled after 2.8.1 update. But there is a plan to make it disabled by default for new installations in 2.8.2 version.
For a complete list of changes please check Spark Changelog
As usually we encourage new developers to join Spark project and provide patches. Those familiar with Smack can join the development easier, as we are now using the latest version. Patches can be attached in the forums or submitted as PRs on GitHub.
Here are the contributors to this release (besides myself):
nicoben (Nico Ben) · GitHub updated Italian translation
@speedy added option to login with not matching certificate’s hostname, fixed showing incorrect errors when logging in and empty profile fields issue
Alexander198961 (Aleksander Kovtunenko) · GitHub fixed links opening in KDE environment
@Guus der Kinderen fixed various parts of Spark to behave correctly or log errors
Important information for SSO (Single Sign On) users, if they are using SRV records: SSO (Single Sign On) configuration changes since Spark 2.8.0
[SIP phone] SIP plugin is not working since the Smack 4 update.
[Voice Chat] Jingle (PC to PC) calls are not working at this point.
[Linux] Flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
7ab1df8764529b8bfc070b259878470ccbd7640c spark_2_8_1.dmg
bbd029caeb12fc4d9ea6e87b37a5f0377c6a1c29 spark_2_8_1.exe
41b485146393a38966b2eecb832c795b0f0915a8 spark_2_8_1_online.exe
6c68f083d2e6e303e679b614f10536e4563d272c spark_2_8_1.tar.gz
751721d241d880d9b7772038ec030230b4ccbb38 spark-2.8.1.rpm
c264ccb4e16b401a1814c43342f31a0a3cf36cc6 spark-2.8.1.src.rpm
91a6dfaaf63ca96a5c69b4eb825d2539adffc1b1 spark_2.8.1.deb