● 09.30.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 30/09/2022: Fedora Seeks Wallpapers

Posted in News Roundup at 6:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Linux Around The World: Norway – LinuxLinks

• We cover events and user groups that are running in Norway. This article forms part of our Linux Around The World series.

=> ↺ [Exclusive] Tuxedo Makes Ubuntu-based ‘TUXEDO OS’ Available For All

• Yet another Ubuntu distro?

• Not exactly! TUXEDO Computers is a hardware manufacturer famous for its Linux-focused laptops and computers.

• There are some interesting differences between TUXEDO OS and Ubuntu.

• While they already had TUXEDO OS as a choice to have pre-installed on their laptops/computers, it was not available for everyone.

=> ↺ 9 Useful Ways to Reuse an Old Mac

• 4. Install Linux on It

• Installing Linux on an old Mac can breathe new life into it while giving you a lightweight yet powerful operating system to work with. The best part is that since Linux is much more lightweight than macOS, it runs better on older hardware, boots faster, and even helps eliminate the annoying spinning wheel of death.

• And that’s just scratching the surface, as there’s so much more you can do with Linux. For starters, Linux has a reputation for being one of the most secure operating systems—even more so than macOS. This is because there are fewer vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malware and hackers.

• Another advantage of using Linux is that it offers alternatives to office suites, photo editors, mail clients, and a host of other software that is not available on macOS, especially on older macOS versions. Check out our complete guide on how to install Linux on any computer.

Server

=> ↺ Cloud-Native Apps Driving Major IT Data Crisis – Container Journal

• A global survey of 1,303 CIOs and senior IT practitioners finds 71% of respondents believe the explosion of data produced by cloud-native technology stacks is beyond humans’ ability to manage.

• Conducted by the market research firm Coleman Parkes on behalf of Dynatrace, the survey also finds more than three-quarters of respondents report that their IT environment changes once every minute or even more frequently.

=> ↺ Server And Storage Spending Moves The Sticks Out Through 2026

• There is a very interesting technical side to IT infrastructure, which we are obviously very keen on exploring here at The Next Platform. But there is an economic side that we also watch like a hawk.

• We have always believed at server and storage spending are leading indicators of the global economy, and that if spending is boisterous then companies are optimistic or terrified about the future – or both at the same time. The dot-com boom was one such bubble that combined optimism about the possibilities for transforming applications as well as giving companies anxiety about not being able to compete with their compute. The AI revolution is another one.

• And so, when we can get our hands on some infrastructure spending data, we pull it apart and plot out the trends. We have just done this with the cloud and bare server and storage spending numbers released by IDC today to give you a sense of what is happening, how it compares with the past, and what the most recent spending forecast is from the market researcher.

=> ↺ Containers Vs. Virtual Machines: Why Containers are More Popular

• Imagine a ship carrying cars wrapped with different layers of packaging materials. Now imagine that same ship, but the cars are not wrapped and are just stacked on top of each other. Which ship would be more efficient?

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Fedora patent trolls itself, RIP Stadia, PopOS goes yearly – Linux – Open Source News – Invidious

=> ↺ How to install SpiralLinux 11.220925 – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show how to install SpiralLinux 11.220925

=> ↺ Upgrade to Fedora 37 from Fedora 36 using DNF – If Not True Then False

• This is guide, howto upgrade Fedora 36 to Fedora 37 using DNF. This method works on desktop and server machines. You can also upgrade older Fedora installations (example Fedora 35/34/33) directly to Fedora 37.

• I have tested this method on several machines, but if you have problems, please let me know. Always remember backup, before upgrade!

=> ↺ World’s Weakest Linux User – Invidious

• We only get more powerful from here.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ How Citrix dropped the ball on Xen … according to Citrix

• What’s the difference between the Citrix Hypervisor and Xen? Well, one has quite a big crowd of upset current and former community members.

• One of the more interesting talks at the Open Source Summit was from Jonathan Headland, software development manager at Citrix, with the unusual title “How to Disengage the Open-Source Community: The Citrix Hypervisor Experience.” Given all the usual fist-pumping so many companies’ marketing teams like to engage in, especially at an event like the Open Source Summit, The Reg FOSS desk was intrigued.

=> ↺ Intel Invokes Linus Torvalds to Push Software Tools

=> ↺ Intel bribed Linus Torvalds recently (fake new award, made up for him)

• A visibly uncomfortable appearance by Linux legend Linus Torvalds at Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger‘s keynote was headline news at the company’s Innovation conference this week.

• In a conversation with Gelsinger, Torvalds recalled using a PC with a 386 chip in 1991 to create an OS that eventually became Linux. The conversation had the desired effect — it showed that software development on x86 mattered back in 1991, and it still does now.

Applications

=> ↺ qBittorrent 4.5.0 Beta 1 – NeowiqBittorrent 4.5.0 Beta 1

• The qBittorrent project aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µtorrent. qBittorrent is an advanced and multi-platform BitTorrent client with a nice user interface as well as a Web UI for remote control and an integrated search engine. qBittorrent aims to meet the needs of most users while using as little CPU and memory as possible. qBittorrent is a truly Open Source project, and as such, anyone can and should contribute to it.

=> ↺ FOSS Weekly #22.36: Ubuntu 22.10 Beta, KDE Theming, Loop Devices and More

• Speaking of distributions, you get a word search puzzle centered around distro names in this edition. The answers for the previous week’s crossword are also here.

=> ↺ Gizmo makes overly silent computers noisy again • The Register

• The best way to make a sluggish old computer quicker is to replace spinning rust with some flash chippery. The snag is that loses part of the experience: the sound.

• It doesn’t need to be a purpose-made SSD. In fact, right now, The Reg FOSS desk has a smallish CF card and an adapter to turn it into a 2.5″ drive, waiting for a window in the diary so it can give an Amiga 1200 a new lease of life. While the speed boost is very gratifying, part of the authentic retro computing experience is the sound effects – such as hearing the hard disk head seeking.

• But German hacker Matthias Werner has come up with a solution: the HDD Clicker. He designed a tiny PCB that attaches to the connector for the disk-access LED, and which uses a tiny piezo-electric buzzer to emit a brief click every time the LED flashes. An output connector allows it to drive the original LED in turn. The device is demonstrated in the video below by root42.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Using Chmod Recursive to Change File Permissions on macOS and Linux

• When you need to manage file permissions on Linux or macOS, the chmod command is the way to go. However, the chmod recursive option lets you apply the chmod command to all files inside a directory and its subdirectories.

• In this article, we’ll explain how to use chmod recursive to easily change file permissions on macOS and Linux. We’ll also explain how to use the “X” argument to preserve file execution privileges and show you everything you need to know to use the chmod command like a pro.

=> ↺ Kmail Message List Tabs – CubicleNate’s Techpad

• Kmail has been my email application for almost 20 years. Even before I started using openSUSE I have been happily using this email application. I find it to be the most feature rich of all the email management applications and far better than any web client I have ever used. I can shape the layout just the way I like it. I have spent a lot of time over the years tweaking it to the point where I am super happy with it.

• I love message list tabs, it is an incredibly useful feature. Since I live in my email quite a lot, I will keep multiple open at various times for different “mailboxes” for various reasons. I inadvertently closed the second tab and suddenly realized I didn’t know how I opened the series of tabs some many months back. I had forgotten where the option was activated are and it took me quite some time to find this one again.

=> ↺ How to Fix GRUB Not Showing in a Dual-Boot Setup

• Dual-booting is an easy way to try Linux without giving up the convenience of Windows. However, sometimes you might run into troubles with the GRUB bootloader.

• A rare but difficult to deal with issue that dual-boot users may face is the GRUB bootloader not showing up during boot-up. Here’s how you can fix this quickly.

=> ↺ How To Install Foxit PDF Reader on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Foxit PDF Reader on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Foxit PDF reader is a free, feature-rich, and very fast PDF Reader that enables you to view, annotate, fill out forms, and securely sign PDF documents no matter where you are or what device you’re on. It is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Foxit PDF Reader on Rocky Linux. 9.

=> ↺ How to install ONLYOFFICE Docs 7.2 on Fedora Linux

• ONLYOFFICE Docs is an open-source office suite distributed under GNU AGPL v3.0.

=> ↺ How to Install Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP on Rocky Linux 9

• This step-by-step guide walks you through installing and configuring Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP (LEMP Stack) on Rocky Linux 9.

• The LEMP software stack consists of a group of server-side software that serves dynamic web pages and web applications. It is an acronym representing four separate components: (L) Linux OS, (E) Nginx Web Server, (M) MySQL/MariaDB Database, and (P) PHP Scripting Language.

• Rocky Linux, one of the most popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux replacements, is a reliable, secure, and stable Linux distribution, ensuring your server’s seamless operations. Because of these qualities, it is a reasonable and often favored choice of system administrators for Linux-based servers.

=> ↺ How to Use Encrypted Passwords in Shell Scripts on Linux

• Bash scripts are an important part of a system administrator’s job. They allow you to automate both mundane and critical tasks.

• One of the best things with scripts is that they can run independently without human intervention, but sometimes it can be challenging to automate tasks that require user passwords. Let’s look at how you can securely automate scripts that require passwords without compromising security.

=> ↺ How To Install Okular on Linux Mint 21 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Okular on Linux Mint 21. For those of you who didn’t know, Okular is a free and open-source multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community. It can be used to visualize and modify professional-level documents very conveniently. The application is available for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Windows, and Android.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of an Okular pdf editor on Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).

=> ↺ Share files fast and easy on Linux with VServer

• If you’ve ever needed to share a file to another computer on your Linux PC but don’t feel like dealing with complicated file-sharing tools, VServer is for you. Learn how to use VServer to quickly and easily share files on Linux.

=> ↺ How to try out Ubuntu 22.10 early

• Ubuntu 22.10 is slated for an October release. It’s packed with all kinds of new and exciting updates and features. However, did you know that you can try it out early? Follow this guide to download and install Ubuntu 22.10 before release.

=> ↺ How to install Only Office 7.2 on Linux

• The newest version of Only Office is out. With it comes even better Microsoft Office compatibility and great new features. If you’re dying to try version 7.2, follow along to learn how to get Only Office 7.2 working on your Linux PC.

=> ↺ How you can benchmark your Linux Mint PC

• Are you curious about how powerful your Linux Mint PC is? Want to benchmark it but unsure how to do it? With Hardinfo, benchmarking Linux Mint is incredibly easy. Here’s how to do it on your system.

=> ↺ How to Remove Files, Diresctories, and Links in Linux

• Linux users need to work with files, directories, and links for various purposes. Files are used to store the data permanently. Directories are used to store one or more files that help to keep the data in a more organized way. The links are used to create the reference to a file or folder. Two types of inks can be created in Linux: one is a symbolic link and another is a hard link. The users may require to delete the files, directories, and links at any time. Many options exist in Linux to remove the files, directories, and links. Different commands and scripts to remove the files, folders, and links are explained in this tutorial.

=> ↺ How To Install and Use Eclipse IDE for Java

• One of the popular open-source Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) for Java programming is Eclipse. It can be used for other programming languages, such as PERL, Python, and C++. This application is not installed on Ubuntu by default. It is a Java-based IDE that requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to install and run. So, you have to install OpenJDK with JRE before installing Eclipse. It can be installed on Ubuntu by using a snap or manually. The way of installing Eclipse for Java programming and using this application for Java programming has been shown in this tutorial. This tutorial is divided into various parts, which are mentioned below.

=> ↺ How to Mount a USB Drive in Debian 11

• Removable USB drives allow you to easily transfer the files from one system to another. When you plug in a USB drive to your system’s USB port, it automatically mounts it. In Linux, it is mounted usually under the “/media” directory and can be accessed using the File Manager. However, in some scenarios, your system may not mount the USB drive automatically after you plug it in and you will be required to mount it manually in order to transfer the files between systems. In this post, we will describe how you can mount a USB drive in a Debian OS in case it is not detected by the system automatically.

• We use the Debian 11 OS to describe the procedure mentioned in this article. This procedure is also applicable to the previous Debian releases.

=> ↺ How to Use the Bash Cut Command

• Bourne Again Shell (Bash) comes available for all the GNU and Linux operating systems. The best part about using Bash is the flexibility that you get in navigating the menus and working with files and directories on the command line. Bash offers various helpful commands, and one of them is the cut command which helps print the selected sections of a given line. Ideally, if you want to split a given line, your best option is to use the cut command.

=> ↺ How to Install GNS3

• The Graphical Network Simulator-3 (GNS3) is an open-source program designed to help in network emulation, and it offers more features than Cisco’s packet tracer. With the GNS3, you can easily configure your router and switches, and the best part is how it allows you to design even complex networks easily. This guide offers a step-by-step guide on how to install GNS3 2.0 on Ubuntu.

=> ↺ How to Install Cockpit on CentOS, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux – OSNote

• Cockpit is a free, open-source web-based admin GUI. It’s modular and extensible to meet your specific needs, with a lot of customization options across the board.

• Cockpit is released under the MIT license and is completely free to use on any project. There are no limitations to how many projects you can host, but note that your ISP may limit the number of open ports you can run in order to handle high volumes of traffic, which could cause performance issues. If you’re unsure about hosting Cockpit on your website, chat with your host provider or support for more information about this. If you want to host Cockpit yourself, we recommend using Haproxy or a similar in-memory load balancer, which can handle a large number of simultaneous client requests without affecting your server’s performance.

=> ↺ How to Install Docker Swarm Cluster on Debian 11 | Mark Ai Code

• Docker Swarm is a tool for managing Docker hosts. We can build a high-availability, high-performance Docker cluster with apps deployed across many servers.

• Docker swarm is built with a management host and worker nodes. In your docker swarm cluster, you can have one or more manager nodes. The manager nodes use the native Docker API and share the Docker Swarm cluster’s database with the worker nodes. The management hosts are in charge of maintaining the cluster status, scheduling jobs, and handling HTTP API endpoints.

• Worker nodes are Docker engine instances that run containers.

=> ↺ How to Install Foxit PDF Reader on Ubuntu – VITUX

• PDF is one of the most popular and preferable file formats when it comes to reading, printing, and sharing files.

=> ↺ How to automate Linux patching with Ansible | Enable Sysadmin

• Use automation to reduce the time IT teams spend deploying patches and apply updates consistently across systems.

=> ↺ Limine resolution fix in initrd

• …there are some questions left unanswered, but anyway, “RESOLUTION=800×600″ works.

• I wondered why appending “x32″ works, but none of “x4″, “x8″, “x16″ or “x24″.

• Also, my understanding is that many very old video cards to not support 32 bit-depth. What then, does Limine know and use what is available as reported by the video card?

=> ↺ What Is Apptainer and How Do You Install It on Ubuntu Server? – The New Stack

• The Apptainer/Singularity package has become one of the most widely-used container deployment systems for High-Performance Computing (HPC). This container system is designed to execute applications with bare-metal performance while retaining a high level of security, portability, and reproducibility.

Games

=> ↺ Stadia joins huge list of Google services in the graveyard

• Google consumer gaming service Stadia is to shut down due to poor take-up, the company has announced.

• In a blog post, Phil Harrison, vice-president and general manager of Stadia, said though Stadia had been built on a strong technology foundation, “it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service”.

=> ↺ Doom Playthrough E1M1 – E1M9 on Ultra-Violence // Brutal Doom

=> ↺ dbrand’s MILLION DOLLAR Steam Deck blunder. (Plus other Deck news) – Invidious

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Akademy IRL at Last! – ervin

• Today is a great day! I’m in Barcelona (typing this from my hotel room) to meet a good chunk of KDE for Akademy 2022. I can’t wait… it’s been a long time since the last edition was in person.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ This Extension Adds Bluetooth Management to GNOME Quick Settings

•  The new ‘Quick Settings’ UI in GNOME 43 makes it easier to switch audio output, swap power plan, and change Wi-Fi network than in earlier builds of the desktop environment.

• But it doesn’t (yet) do the same for Bluetooth connections — which is where the Bluetooth Quick Connect GNOME extension comes in.

• As-is, with Quick Settings in GNOME 43 you can enable/disable bluetooth by clicking on the bluetooth “pill” but you can’t do anything else, like see a list of bluetooth devices you can connect to. To do that, you still have to the full-fat Settings app, head to Bluetooth section, and do it from there.

=> ↺ 5 Nautilus Extensions to Enhance Your GNOME File Manager

• GNOME is the default desktop environment for many major Linux distributions. It comes with a suite of useful applications, including a file manager. The file manager was called Nautilus until GNOME renamed it to GNOME Files in September 2012.

• Today, GNOME Files meets the everyday user’s needs for browsing and opening files and folders. The file manager also gives users many options for customization.

=> ↺ #63 Experiments and Prototypes – This Week in GNOME

• Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from September 23 to September 30.

Distributions and Operating Systems

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2022/39

• This week’s been a little different from Tumbleweed as our regular release wrangler, Dominique, has been sick. Therefore I’ve stepped in and picked things up without our usual handovers which made things a little challenging, but I’m proud to be able to say we still released 5 snapshots in the last 7 days, including some pretty big changes.

Fedora / Red Hat

=> ↺ Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2022-39

• Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)!

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: CPE Weekly Update – Week 39 2022

• This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

• We provide you with both infographics and text versions of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly look at what we did, just look at the infographic. If you are interested in more in-depth details look at the infographic.

=> ↺ IT leadership: What to prioritize for the remainder of 2022

• As the calendar year winds down, you may be looking at your IT agenda and wondering what to chip away at in the remaining months. I encourage you to stay locked on the obvious, daunting as it may seem, and modernize, modernize, modernize.

=> ↺ Hybrid intelligence: Bridging the skills gap

• With IT spending projected to total $4.5 trillion in 2022, it’s clear that cutting-edge technology is on every IT executive’s wish list this year. However, while investing in emerging technology is essential, businesses can’t beat the competition by simply increasing tech spending. IT leaders must create foolproof strategies that consider what these new technologies will do and how they will upskill workers to use them.

• Additionally, inflation will severely impact IT budgets as vendors adjust prices for the current market. Consequently, CIOs must be selective when choosing digital solutions.

• So which technologies will win in 2022 and beyond? Those that empower businesses to capitalize on existing technology infrastructure. Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and a hybrid intelligence (HI) approach can bridge skills gaps in a workforce and help workers fundamentally change how they work and interact with technology.

=> ↺ Fedora 38 Wallpaper in motion! — Madeline Peck

• That’s right!!! We are officially ready to start brainstorming for Fedora 38 Wallpaper ideas because our candidate with an M last name has been chosen (drum roll please) and it’s Samuel Massie!!!

• Ideas and progress are going to be documented on gitlab here!

• Thank you to everyone who voted and gave comments on the candidates! It’s greatly appreciated! After choosing our inspiration, we had a brainstorming session for figuring out different paths we could go down together. We met on Wednesday, September 21st at the design team meeting which was 1:30-2:30 PM EST*

• *This is our usual time slot which we will continue to use for most of the future sessions. If you can’t make this time of the week, feel free to tune into the recording or are nervous about participating, join the Livestream to watch only.

=> ↺ TheEvilSkeleton: The Fedora Project Remains Community Driven

• Recently, the Fedora Project removed all patented codecs from their Mesa builds, without the rest of the community’s input. This decision was heavily criticized from the community. For that decision, some even asked the Fedora Project to remove “community driven” from its official description. I’d like to spend some time to explain why, in my opinion, this decision was completely justified, and how the Fedora Project remains community driven.

• [...]

• Massive organizations, like the Fedora Project, must comply with laws to avoid lawsuits as much as possible. Patent trolls are really common and will target big organizations. Let’s not forget that, in 2019, GNOME was sued by a patent troll. Unfortunately, patent trolling is quite common. And even worse, patent trolling against open source projects has considerably increased since early this year. So, this decision had to be acted quickly, to avoid potential lawsuits as soon as possible.

• Complying with laws is not up to the community to decide. For example, Gentoo Linux, another community driven distribution, cannot and will not redistribute proprietary software at all. And this is not something that can be voted on, but must be complied with. This doesn’t mean that Gentoo Linux is not community driven whatsoever; it only means that it’s legally bound, just like how the Fedora Project cannot ship these patented codecs.

=> ↺ PHP version 7.4.32, 8.0.24 and 8.1.11 – Remi’s RPM repository – Blog

• RPMs of PHP version 8.1.11 are available in remi-modular repository for Fedora ≥ 35 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 8 (RHEL, Alma, CentOS, Rocky…) and in remi-php81 repository for EL 7.

• RPMs of PHP version 8.0.24 are available in remi-modular repository for Fedora ≥ 35 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 8 (RHEL, Alma, CentOS, Rocky…) and in remi-php80 repository for EL 7.

• RPMs of PHP version 7.4.32 are available in remi-modular repository for Fedora ≥ 35 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 8 (RHEL, Alma, CentOS, Rocky…) and in remi-php74 repository for EL 7.

=> ↺ Stack/Unstuck: Data-baeses

• Writing data is easy. You take in the information and put it away for future use. It’s remembering exactly what you wrote and where you put it that’s the challenge. Just like having to look for your keys as you try to rush out the door, getting that data quickly makes all the difference. And when your database is your bestie, it can serve that information faster than you could imagine.

=> ↺ Qualcomm Announces New Automotive Partnerships With Mercedes-Benz And Red Hat

• As part of its first Automotive Investor Day today, QualcommQCOM announced a pair of new partnerships with Mercedes-Benz and Red HatRHT . Qualcomm has moved aggressively in recent years to diversify its business beyond mobile devices with vehicles seen as a prime hunting ground and it’s already making significant inroads.

=> ↺ Red Hat OpenStack 17 Targets Telco Stability

• Red Hat launched the latest iteration of its long-running OpenStack platform with new telecom operator-focused features that further closes the bond between that product and the vendor’s cloud-native OpenShift platform.

• Specific OpenStack 17 updates include dynamic resource allocation and director designed to support “lighter” deployments. These are applications that don’t require as many services and are targeted at a smaller infrastructure footprint like edge or resource-constrained locations.

=> ↺ Perform inference using Intel OpenVINO Model Server on OpenShift | Red Hat Developer

• In this article, you will learn how to perform inference on JPEG images using the gRPC API in OpenVINO Model Server in OpenShift. Model servers play an important role in smoothly bringing models from development to production. Models are served via network endpoints which expose an APIs to run predictions.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Linux Mint 21.1 Code Name Revealed, Coming Up on Christmas

• Looks like many significant releases are lined up for Christmas this year. First, we reported earlier that Xfce 4.18 is also planning for a release.

• And today, the Linux Mint team announced that the first point release of Linux Mint 21.0, i.e. 21.1, is arriving on Christmas 2022. Like every release, the codename of the Linux Mint 21.1 is “Vera”.

=> ↺ Linux Mint 21.1 Will Land on Christmas 2022 With Highly-Anticipated Fixes

• The new version will land around the 2022 holiday season with improved hardware support and USB stick creation.

=> ↺ Linux Mint 21.1 Codenamed ‘Vera’, Will Arrive at Xmas

• Linux Mint has confirmed we’ll be able to get our hands on the first point-release follow-up to the (well received) Linux Mint 21 release by Christmas.

• Linux Mint lead Clement Lefebvre also shares the codename for Linux Mint 21.1 is “Vera”. This continues the distro’s tradition of giving each release within a series a female name beginning with the same letter (Linux Mint 21 was ‘Vanessa’, for example).

• While we don’t know much about plans for Linux Mint 21.1 — though it will continue to be based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, ofc — a less cluttered desktop is in the offing.

=> ↺ Monthly News – September 2022 – The Linux Mint Blog

• I’d like to start the news with a big thank you to all the people who help us. Thanks you for your support and your donations.

• [...]

• We made the manager run in user mode so you no longer need a password to launch it.

• Debconf is now properly supported. This was an issue for NVIDIA drivers when SecureBoot is enabled. This scenario was fixed.

• Packagekit was patched to receive the ability to purge packages (i.e. to not only remove them but to also remove their configuration files). The driver manager now purges removed drivers. This fixes a niche issue with NVIDIA drivers when switching between different versions of the drivers.

• The user interface was improved.

=> ↺ Kubuntu Kinetic Kudu (22.10) Beta Released

• The beta of Kubuntu Kinetic Kudu (to become 22.10 in October) has now been released, and is available for download. This milestone features images for Kubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours.

• Pre-releases of Kubuntu Kinetic Kudu are not recommended for…

=> ↺ Final Beta of Ubuntu 22.10 ‘Kinetic Kudu’ is Released | UbuntuHandbook

• Ubuntu 22.10, code name ‘Kinetic Kudu’, is now in beta stage. The final release expected on October 20, 2022. See what’s new in the next release of the popular Linux distribution.

• Ubuntu 22.10 features Linux Kernel 5.19 with new hardware support. The default desktop environment is GNOME 43, that features a new flat system menu.

=> ↺ The Fridge: Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu) Final Beta released

• The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the Beta release of the Ubuntu 22.10 Desktop, Server, and Cloud products.

• Ubuntu 22.10, codenamed “Kinetic Kudu”, continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

• This Beta release includes images from not only the Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, but also the Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Unity, and Xubuntu flavours.

• The Beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper image build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of 22.10 that should be representative of the features intended to ship with the final release expected on October 20, 2022.

• [...]

• As fixes will be included in new images between now and release, any daily cloud image from today or later (i.e. a serial of 20220929 or higher) should be considered a Beta image. Bugs found should be filed against the appropriate packages or, failing that, the cloud-images project in Launchpad.

=> ↺ Don’t install Ubuntu Linux 22.10 ‘Kinetic Kudu’ Beta (unless you are a cool dude)

• Installing a pre-release version of an operating system on a production machine is downright foolish. You can run into serious bugs, and potentially, lose data too. So I urge you not to install Ubuntu 22.10 “Kinetic Kudu” Beta which was released earlier today… unless you are cool dude or “dudette.”

• Yeah, the truly cool Linux users are willing to throw caution to the wind and ruin their current Ubuntu installation in favor or living dangerously. Of course, these brave Linux users should also have their important data backed up just in case something catastrophic happens. After all, failing to backup is certainly not cool.

• Ubuntu 22.10 uses the GNOME desktop environment by default, but it can also be had with KDE Plasma (Kubuntu), LXQt (Lubuntu), Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Unity, and Xfce (Xubuntu). In other words, if you don’t like GNOME there are plenty of other great options.

=> ↺ Wow! You Can Now Use Ubuntu Desktop on Cloud

• Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed virtual desktop service that caters to enterprises and individuals looking to eliminate the hassle of maintaining, scaling, and managing specific hardware for work.

• Unfortunately, they did not have Ubuntu as one of their offerings.

• So, they partnered with Canonical to add an option for Ubuntu-based desktops.

=> ↺ Amazon lets you rent Ubuntu Pro. Yes, it’s Linux on the virtual desktop

• Amazon WorkSpaces, the company’s persistent desktop virtualization product, now offers Ubuntu as an option.

• It’s another piece of validation for penguinistas, although it will doubtless fail to convince those industry commentators who still think it’s funny to joke about the “year of Linux on the desktop.”

=> ↺ Migrating to an open-source private cloud platform: key considerations

• Private clouds combine the many benefits of cloud computing, like elasticity, scalability and agility, with the security, access control and resource customisation of on-prem infrastructure. Private clouds allow financial institutions to have greater control over hardware and software choices. They make it easier to enforce compliance with regulatory standards. Private clouds also enable financial institutions to move from a traditional IT engagement model to a DevOps model and transform their IT groups from an infrastructure provider to a service provider (via a SaaS model). But they can also entail high costs.

• One strategy that financial institutions can adopt to reduce infrastructure costs for private clouds is to move away from expensive proprietary technologies, like VMWare, to open-source platforms like OpenStack.

=> ↺ Meet Canonical at IoT Tech Expo | Ubuntu

• IoT Tech Expo is almost here! With 250+ speakers, 5,000+ attendees and dozens of sessions dedicated to IoT in the enterprise and transformational IoT and 5G, it will be an impactful gathering. Join Canonical there to discuss our IoT solutions with our experts on-site.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ T-Embed is a battery powered WiFi controller with display and rotary encoder

• LilyGo has launched yet another product based on the ESP32 family of microcontrollers with the T-Embed WiFi IoT controller powered by an ESP32-S3 dual-core processor, equipped with a color display and a rotary encoder, and powered by a battery.

=> ↺ ESP32 DevKitC V4 IoT development board ships with ESP-WROOM-DA dual antenna module – CNX Software

• The ESP32 DevKitC V4 is now selling with the ESP-WROOM-DA module with two PCB antennas that was introduced last year in order to offer a longer WiFi range and better reliability. The development kit is exactly the same as for the other ESP32 DevKitC V4 module, and the only difference is the dual antenna design.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ With the Pixel 7, ‘Pixel phone’ finally means something more than Android enthusiasm

=> ↺ How to Delete Contacts in Bulk on Android? (Full Guide 2022)

=> ↺ How to delete cookies on Android

=> ↺ android: How to schedule auto shutdown on your Android smartphone

=> ↺ How to Unlock an Android Phone – Use Any SIM | Tech Advisor

=> ↺ Android 14 will force some phones to go 64-bit-only and support modern video compression

=> ↺ 9 Tips to Customize the Call Background on Samsung Galaxy Phones

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Lyra V2 – a better, faster, and more versatile speech codec | Google Open Source Blog

• Since we open sourced the first version of Lyra on GitHub last year, we are delighted to see a vibrant community growing around it, with thousands of stars, hundreds of forks, and many comments and pull requests. There are people who fixed and formatted our code, built continuous integration for the project, and even added support for Web Assembly.

=> ↺ Penpot inks $8M as signups for its open source spin on Figma jump 5600% after Adobe’s $20B acquisition move – TechCrunch

• Penpot, an open source platform for designers and developers, got a big spike after the Adobe-Figma deal. Now it’s raised $8M in funding.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ From Infrastructure as Code to Policy as Code

• I still remember when 15 years ago, the topic of Infrastructure as Code was beginning to be discussed. At the time, the majority of tools we know and use for Infrastructure as Code did not exist. Some people and companies realized the need for such a paradigm, while many others were skeptical or against it.

• In the last few months, I had a kind of a Deja Vu when I started to have conversations with some stakeholders around Policy as Code, or as someone prefers to call it, Compliance as Code. The idea behind Policy as Code is that if it was possible to write policies in a language that is both easily readable by a human and a computer, we could better govern IT. Policy as Code is not a new concept by itself. In fact, in Infrastructure as Code software such as Ansible, it is possible to create a Playbook to assess if a system is in the expected state. The problem, though, is that a Playbook written with Ansible with this scope is not always evident if read by people that are not highly trained on the topic.

• To create a successful Policy as Code system, you should have policies for the Infrastructure as Code and the effective configuration in production. Having a set of policies for the Infrastructure as Code means preventing a change to land in the Infrastructure as Code codebase if it fails as policies. Using Policy as Code on the effective configuration in production means detecting possible nonconformities independently from the fact they were caused by the Infrastructure as Code tool or manual changes. I call the first way of working ex-ante and the second ex-post.

=> ↺ The 4 minute bug | Alejandro AR (kinduff)

• It’s time for one of those bug’s story. This one was introduced earlier but it’s related to “The story of the 20 million queries per hour”, not a consequence of that mistake, but it shares some related context.

=> ↺ Complexity and software engineering | Well, quite.

• OK, it’s definitely not just the software industry. If you’ve seen the film The Big Short you may remember the seemingly endless secondary markets, adding complexity that led to no one understanding what risks they were exposed to. The motivation there seemed to be purely making money.

• Look at the food on your plate at dinner, and try thinking about the complexity of where all the ingredients came from to make that meal. If you have meat on your plate it might have been grown in the same country as you, but maybe not for the food the animal ate. You’re probably also eating animal antibiotics (or the remains of them). Where were they made? How can you start to get a hold on the incredible complexity of the human food chain? The motivation here seems also to be to make money: if you can make the same product as your competitors, but cheaper, then you can undercut your competitors a little, have bigger margins, and make more money. Who cares if it requires enormous environmental damage, right? Products are sure as hell not priced to reflect the damage done to the environment to create, maintain, or dispose of them.

=> ↺ Guiding principle: Think Big, Work Small | by Jason Yip | Sep, 2022 | Medium

• Thanks to John Cutler for the pithiest wording I’ve seen so far to describe this phenomenon.

=> ↺ Fseek() in C

• As a daily computer user, we are always working with files and folders. These files and folders are the must-haves in any operating system like Windows or Linux. Apart from accessing the files through the operating system, we can also access these files and folders within any programming language through filing. Though it’s not as simple as using the files and folders in operating systems, it can provide us with a sufficient amount of information.

• The “fseek” function of “C” is designed to get an information regarding the specific range of text data within any type of file like the total number of characters, display the specific text data, and many more. As we have been working on the Linux platform, it’s necessary to install the C compiler through the “command-line” application. Therefore, quickly open your “terminal” application and try updating your Ubuntu 22.04 Linux system first. Use the “apt” utility with “sudo” rights in the “update” query to update it.

=> ↺ jmtd → log → vim plugins → vim-css-color

• Last year I wrote about a subset of the vim plugins I was using, specifically those created by master craftsman Tim Pope. Off and on since then I’ve reviewed the other plugins I use and tried a few others, so I thought I’d write about them.

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ Perl Weekly Challenge 184: Sequence Number and Split Array

=> ↺ Sending a simple email

• To have a secure SMTP delivery, use Email::Sender. Mail::Sendmail uses SMTP for transport and there’s no other type of transport. It does not support SMTP authentication, which my SMTP server now requires even for access from localhost. From what I read and tried once or twice in the past, the current “best practice” or recommended way is to use Email::Sender.

Python

=> ↺ Making python fast for free – adventures with mypyc – MeadSteve’s Dev Blog

Rust

=> ↺ Why Rust is actually good for your car. | by Johannes Foufas | Volvo Cars Engineering | Sep, 2022 | Medium

Leftovers

Education

=> ↺ Be critical or be corrupted

• On the surface, “The Wire” is about homicide detectives and the Baltimore drug trade. But on a deeper level, these motifs are just stage dressing for the show’s exploration of the city’s institutions and how corruption inevitably sprouts like weeds within them. I recently rewatched this series and, aside from hours of entertainment and a deeper butt-impression on my couch, I also had an epiphany about how I’ve observed this theme first-hand.

=> ↺ Learning is Remembering

• For example, on the quantum mechanics Wikipedia page we might at first not understand “subatomic particles”. We click on it and go to its page. Then on that page we don’t understand “composite particles” so we click on that, and so on, remembering where we were each time so we can come back to the right place.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Apple’s Korea Offices Raided by Antitrust Regulators Over Allegations It Charges Developers 33% Commission

Security

=> ↺ Microsoft investigating two zero-days affecting Exchange Server

• Microsoft says it is investigating two zero-day vulnerabilities reported to be affecting Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019.

• A blog post issued by the Microsoft Security Response Centre on Thursday said the first, identified as CVE-2022-41040, was a Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability

• The second, identified as CVE-2022-41082, allowed remote code execution when PowerShell was accessible to the attacker.

• British security expert Kevin Beaumont was the first to mention the issue in a series of tweets this morning that iTWire reported, wherein he said that it appeared that a new zero-day had been unearthed.

=> ↺ New Microsoft Exchange zero-days actively exploited in attacks

• Threat actors are exploiting yet-to-be-disclosed Microsoft Exchange zero-day bugs allowing for remote code execution, according to claims made by security researchers at Vietnamese cybersecurity outfit GTSC, who first spotted and reported the attacks.

=> ↺ Security updates for Friday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (libsndfile and libvncserver), Fedora (bash), Red Hat (httpd24-httpd, java-1.7.1-ibm, and java-1.8.0-ibm), and SUSE (krb5-appl, libjpeg-turbo, python310, and slurm_20_02).

=> ↺ Security Vulnerabilities in Covert CIA Websites – Schneier on Security

• Back in 2018, we learned that covert system of websites that the CIA used for communications was compromised by—at least—China and Iran, and that the blunder caused a bunch of arrests, imprisonments, and executions. We’re now learning that the CIA is still “using an irresponsibly secured system for asset communication.”

=> ↺ Albanese says Optus has agreed to pay for replacement passports

• Optus has agreed to pay for the replacement of passports of users caught up in the data breach that the telco suffered, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

• In a tweet this afternoon, he wrote: “An important update for all Australians on the Optus security breach. After actions taken by myself, @SenatorWong and @ClareONeilMP, Optus has agreed to pay for replacement passports for those affected by the data breach.

• “What has happened here is unacceptable. Australian companies should do everything they can to protect your data.

• “That’s why we’re also reviewing the Privacy Act – and we’re committed to making privacy law stronger.”

=> ↺ Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 223 released

• The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 223. This version includes the following changes:

• [ Chris Lamb ]

• • The cbfstools utility is now provided in Debian via the coreboot-utils

• Debian package, so we can enable that functionality within Debian.

• (Closes: #1020630)

• [ Mattia Rizzolo ]

• • Also include coreboot-utils in Build-Depends and Test-Depends so it is

• available for the tests.

• [ Jelle van der Waa ]

• • Add support for file 5.43.

=> ↺ Microsoft Releases Guidance on Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server

• Microsoft has released Customer Guidance for Reported Zero-day Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. According to the blog post, “Microsoft is aware of limited targeted attacks using the two vulnerabilities to get into users’ systems.”

=> ↺ CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog | CISA

• CISA has added three vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: to view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow in the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates.   

=> ↺ Drupal Releases Security Update | CISA

• Drupal has released a security update to address a vulnerability affecting multiple versions of Drupal. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to access sensitive information. For advisories addressing lower severity vulnerabilities, see Drupal’s Security advisories.

=> ↺ Mozilla Releases Security Update for Thunderbird

• Mozilla has released a security update to address a vulnerability in Thunderbird. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

=> ↺ Cisco Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

• Cisco has released security updates for vulnerabilities affecting multiple products. A remote attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. For updates addressing high and low severity vulnerabilities, see the Cisco Security Advisories page.

=> ↺ Hurricane-Related Scams

• CISA warns users to remain on alert for malicious cyber activity targeting potential disaster victims and charitable donors following a hurricane. Fraudulent emails—often containing malicious links or attachments—are common after major natural disasters. Exercise caution in handling emails with hurricane-related subject lines, attachments, or hyperlinks. In addition, be wary of social media pleas, texts, or door-to-door solicitations relating to severe weather events.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

=> ↺ New Cyber Bill Aims To Fix Open-Source Security in Government

• Federal legislators last week began the process of better securing the open-source software used by government agencies with a new bill titled “Securing Open Source Software Act of 2022.”

• Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced the legislation that seeks to address open source software risks in government. The proposed Bill, S. 4913, now awaits action by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

• The legislation comes after a hearing Peters and Portman convened on Feb. 2 to investigate the Log4j incident that was discovered in December 2021. It directs the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to help ensure that open-source software is used safely and securely by the federal government, critical infrastructure, and others.

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ Ethereum’s Software Switch Has Crypto Miners Scrambling

• The switch in underlying software protocols to mint Ethereum cryptocurrency is rendering mining equipment obsolete, and companies running server farms are now repurposing the hardware for artificial intelligence and Web3 applications.

• Ethereum recently switched over the cryptocurrency validation system to “proof of stake,” which replaces the older “proof of work” system, which became unsustainable as the energy consumed by the process became a strain on electric grids. Ethereum mining consumed more energy than Finland does annually.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Researchers in Japan see hope in method to breed hard-to-farm squid | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

• Researchers in Japan say they have successfully developed an aquaculture system for squid, which is a healthy food source for fish-loving Japan but notoriously hard to breed.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Hiems appropinquat

• I’ve been suffering from more intense abdominal pain since the

• beginning of September when the weather turned cold. So lately I’ve

• been on the consumer side and watched movies or played video games

• rather than creating something. I haven’t even written a single line

• of code outside of work nor did I care about my servers. I only

• updated my laptop and that was it.

• [...]

• The plan for next week was that my brother would visit, but he

• unfortunately caught corona and even had fever for a couple of days.

• We wanted to drive to Czechia as he also likes the good food there. I

• think we’ll do it anyway me and my wife.

• It’s been raining a lot during the last couple of weeks, but provided

• we can trust the forecast, next week will be better. We even had to

• turn on the heating, the bills are going to be horrible. I’d rather

• not write anything about the current German federal government and

• especially the Greens, it would not work without the heavy use of

• swear words.

=> ↺ Absence

• Writer’s block sucks. Though the only way to get past it is to write, which is quite paradoxical.

Politics

=> ↺ Profit above all else

• Our society actively promotes profit as the principal goal in life, placing it above all else. This isn’t only morally wrong, but produces a society without empathy or regards for the surrounding world.

• The obsession surrounding profit can rightly be traced to the current economic system. Yet, I don’t want to get into a theoretical stand point, I want to focus on the impact, the result, this primary focus has had on people’s lives around the world.

• Here children are taught in the economics class that “as an adult, profit should be valued above anything else.” This is disastrous from multiple sides, as the future adults will be less empathetic, if they have any at all, and will think of their relationship as transactions, as means for an end, in this case their monetary gains.

Technical

=> ↺ Using libsodium

• Libsodium is a wrapper around the Nacl cryptography library which simplifies the handling of buffers.

=> ↺ Patterns in noise

• Stare at any noisy image for a while, and you will see a face or some other figure in it. Once it has been seen it cannot be unseen. Pareidolia is a common and unavoidable perceptual quirk. Some artists have used it consciously, such as Dalì with his paranoiac-critical method. Beginning with some random blot any figures discovered in it can be reinforced, the image can be built up around these perceived figures that are really just random variations.

Science

=> ↺ Regarding Life Beyond Earth

• I recently read this little article laying out the various reasons, from recent research, to think that there might be life elsewhere in the universe, or rather that the odds look better than they used to look.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

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