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● Links 31/8/2021: Plasma Mobile Gear 21.08 and Giara 1.0


Posted in News Roundup at 3:02 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux


Desktop/Laptop


↺ System76’s AMD-Only “Pangolin” Linux Laptop Gets 4th Gen AMD Ryzen Mobile CPUs


First introduced in mid-March 2021, the “Pangolin” Linux laptop is System76’s first ever AMD-powered portable computer that ships with an AMD processor, as well as an integrated AMD graphics card.


The laptop was soon out of stock, but now it’s back and more powerful than ever as customers can now buy the Linux notebook with 4th Gen AMD Ryzen mobile CPUs.


Audiocasts/Shows


↺ The Aura Package Manager For Arch Linux – Invidious


Aura is a package manager for Arch Linux. Its original purpose is as an AUR helper, in that it automates the process of installing packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository). It is, however, capable of much more, including taking snapshots, restoring from those snapshots, and removing orphaned packages.


Kernel Space


↺ Linux 5.14 is here, packing boosted security protection


Days after the Linux kernel celebrated its 30th anniversary, Linus Torvalds, its creator and maintainer, put out its latest release with improvements to hardware support and security.


“The celebrations will go on for a few more weeks yet, but you all may just need a breather from them. And when that happens, I have just the thing for you – a new kernel release to test and enjoy,” wrote Torvalds as he put out the new release.


The development cycle of the 5.14 release didn’t face any major hurdles and completed on schedule in just under two months.


↺ Linux Kernel 5.14 Released


The 5.14 kernel update, which was released by Linus Torvalds on August 29th, includes notable security and performance improvements, reports Sean Michael Kerner in TechCrunch.


Specifically, Kerner says, this release “includes a feature known as core scheduling, which is intended to help mitigate processor-level vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown, which first surfaced in 2018. One of the ways that Linux users have had to mitigate those vulnerabilities is by disabling hyper-threading on CPUs and therefore taking a performance hit.”


↺ Linus Torvalds: Get ready for another 30 years of Linux


Most outside the tech industry will be unaware that Linux has reached such a milestone, even though the project has had a huge impact on everything from smartphones to cloud computing. Torvalds poked fun at that lack of recognition in his usual Sunday release note for a new stable version of the Linux kernel.


“So I realize you must all still be busy with all the galas and fancy balls and all the other 30th anniversary events, but at some point you must be getting tired of the constant glitz, the fireworks, and the champagne,” he said. “That ball gown or tailcoat isn’t the most comfortable thing, either. The celebrations will go on for a few more weeks yet, but you all may just need a breather from them.”


↺ GNU Linux-libre Was Mistakenly Including Non-Free Code, So Releases Now Re-Spun + 5.14


GNU Linux-libre 5.14-gnu was released today as the project’s re-base on the recently released Linux 5.14 upstream kernel. But prior supported GNU Linux-libre releases also had to be re-spun as it turned out this “100% free software” kernel was mistakenly leaving in some non-free kernel bits.


As for the new changes with GNU Linux-libre 5.14, the Intel “i915″ kernel graphics driver needed various alterations for its de-blobbing, the new Emulex Fibre Channel Target (eftc) driver needed to remove support for loading binary blobs, and various blob name changes were needed across various drivers from AMDGPU to others.


So now the GNU Linux-libre 5.14 kernel is all dandy and out there for use on systems that can run without depending upon any of these stripped out binary firmware/microcode blobs and other non-free software components.


↺ GNU Linux-libre 5.14-gnu, and earlier -gnu1 respins


↺ KSMBD As An In-Kernel SMB3 File Server Merged For Linux 5.15 – Phoronix


One of the earliest pull requests sent in for the now-open Linux 5.15 cycle was proposing KSMBD land as the in-kernel SMB3 file server as an alternative on Linux systems to running Samba in user-space. At the time it wasn’t clear if Linus Torvalds would pull in this file server code to the Linux kernel but now he has indeed landed it.


↺ Tachyum Boots Linux on Prodigy FPGA


↺ Tachyum Boots Linux on Prodigy FPGA


Tachyum™ Inc. today announced that it has successfully executed the Linux boot process on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) prototype of its Prodigy Universal Processor, in 2 months after taking delivery of the IO motherboard from manufacturing. This achievement proves the stability of the Prodigy emulation system and allows the company to move forward with additional testing before advancing to tape out.


Tachyum engineers were able to perform the Linux boot, execute a short user-mode program and shutdown the system on the fully functional FPGA emulation system. Not only does this successful test prove that the basic processor is stable, but interrupts, exceptions, timing, and system-mode transitions are, as well. This is a key milestone, which dramatically reduces risk, as booting and running large and complex pieces of software like Linux reliably on the Tachyum FPGA processor prototype shows that verification and hardware stability are past the most difficult turning point, and it is now obvious that verification and testing should successfully complete in the coming months. Designers are now shifting their attention to debug and verification processes, running hundreds of trillions of test cycles over the next few months, and running large scale user mode applications with compatibility testing to get the processor to production quality.


↺ Linux 5.15 Adds Another Knob To Harden Against Side Channel Attacks – Phoronix


With the Linux 5.15 kernel is a new build-time option to further harden the kernel around side channel attacks and information leakage. Enabling this option can have some (small) performance cost and a slightly larger kernel.


The new option added for Linux 5.15 to further harden the kernel is CONFIG_ZERO_CALL_USED_REGS. Enabling this option and using the GCC 11 compiler or newer to build the kernel will enable the -fzero-call-used-regs=used-gpr compiler option.


Making use of this “zero-call-used-regs” compiler option ensures any called-used register contents are zeroed prior to returning from a function. That focus is on ensuring temporary values are not potentially leaked outside of the function to reduce the chances of the register contents being used for side channel attacks or information exposures. As for the effectiveness of this new compiler option for building the Linux kernel, it reduced the number of ROP gadgets in the kernel image by around 20% and eliminating simple “write-what-where” gadgets.


Applications


↺ Giara 1.0 Released – Reddit App for Linux Desktop & Smart Phone


Giara, the Reddit app for Gnome, released version 1.0. It’s now based on GTK4.


Giara is a free and open-source client for Reddit that runs on Linux. The software is written in Python 3 programming language. With GTK framework and libadwaita (formerly libhandy), it has a modern and adaptive user interface works on both desktop and Linux mobile devices.


Instructionals/Technical


↺ Collecting process accounting logs on Linux with syslog-ng


Process accounting logs are collected into binary log files on Linux. You can turn them into human readable format locally, using various tools. You can also use syslog-ng to read those files. Syslog-ng can parse those binary logs, create name-value pairs from them and store the results.


↺ How to Set or Change Hostname in Amazon Linux EC2 Instance


am a new Amazon Linux 2 EC2 instance user. My EC2 name was set to ‘ip-172-26-7-134’ during instance creation. But now, I would like to change the EC2 hostname to ‘stats1’. Can you tell me how do I remove ip-172-26-7-134 and set it to stats1 on Amazon Linux 2? How do I change the Amazon Linux Lightsail or EC2 cloud server instance?


↺ Convert HEIF Images to JPG or PNG on Linux (With Commands) – Linux Nightly


HEIF photos (those with the .HEIC file extension) can store image data more efficiently than JPG or PNG, which yields a smaller file size. But the glaring drawback is that HEIF doesn’t enjoy widespread support. If you have some HEIF photos that you need to convert to a different format, this can be done from the Linux command line.


In this tutorial, you’ll see how to convert HEIF images to JPG or PNG with Linux commands.


↺ How to Install Steam on Debian


In PC gaming, Steam is the largest and most popular platform for video game distribution by Valve. Steam offers a native client for all major platforms to manage and play your favorite games from the Steam store.


Steam is also at the forefront when it comes to Linux gaming. Since its debut on Linux, Steam has made constant improvements to enable playing Windows games on Linux. Most of the PC games are designed for Windows. Thanks to Steam Play and Proton (Steam’s version of Wine), you can play almost any of your favorite games on Linux with the Steam client.


This guide demonstrates installing and configuring the Steam client on Debian.


↺ How to Update Debian from Terminal


Debian is a Linux distro composed of free and open-source software (FOSS). It’s developed by the Debian Project, a community-driven project. It’s one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Debian is at the core of many popular operating systems like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, MX Linux, Deepin, and much more.


This guide will demonstrate how to keep Debian’s packages up-to-date from the terminal.


↺ How to install and run traceroute on Ubuntu


Network or system administrators have to properly look after the network, as they are supposed to provide an uninterrupted service within a network or system. For this, they must undergo several network checks to continuously monitor the network performance; several diagnostic tools allow network administrators to check the connectivity over the network, such as ping. However, another command is used for network diagnostics that is “traceroute” in Linux and macOS, while the same command is named “tracert” on windows OS. Traceroute command maps the route data from the source to the destination; the traceroute command is used to trace the paths that data packets take from their source point to destination point. In this detailed guide, we will explore the use of the traceroute command in Ubuntu with several examples.


↺ How to install g++ on Ubuntu


If you are a newbie in the world of computers and programming languages then it is important to know that your computer cannot “understand” any of the programming languages. The computers interpret only machine languages (ones and zeros). In this situation, a compiler can help you. A computer utilizes compilers for “translating” programming languages into machine language, or we can also say that it converts your source code into an executable file format for your system.


↺ How to set up the Odoo business suite on Ubuntu Server


Odoo is a business suite platform that runs on Ubuntu. With Odoo, users can boost their sales, run POS, timesheets, help desks, inventory, and purchases. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install Odoo on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.


Note: Although this guide focuses on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, it is also possible to get the app working with newer releases of Ubuntu.


↺ How to use a task manager in Ubuntu to monitor the system


Ubuntu beginners frequently ask: Is there any task manager in Ubuntu? If yes, then how we can use the task manager for monitoring the system.


Firstly, you should know what a task manager does. The task manager displays all currently active processes and their memory usage. It also manages processes and provides you the option of terminating or killing a process. Although an experienced Ubuntu user prefers the command-line method of locating processes and memory use, you do not have to use it when you are just getting started with Ubuntu. Instead, you can utilize the “System Monitor” that serves as a task manager in your Ubuntu system.


In this article, we will talk about how to use a task manager in Ubuntu to monitor the system. So let’s start!


↺ How to use cd command in terminal


The task manager displays all currently active processes and their memory usage. It also manages processes and provides you the option of terminating or killing a process. Although an experienced Ubuntu user prefers the command-line method of locating processes and memory use, you do not have to use it when you are just getting started with Ubuntu. Instead, you can utilize the “System Monitor” that serves as a task manager in your Ubuntu system. This article explains how to use task manager to monitor system activities in Ubuntu.


↺ How to use strings command in Ubuntu


Checking a binary or executable file for extracting human-readable text is not something that we do in our day-to-day life, but what if you are asked for it? In Ubuntu, the “strings” command allows you to see all the human-readable characters present in a binary/executable file. The “strings” command is primarily used to determine the type of file, but it can also be utilized to extract text. For example, you have a file saved in an unusual binary format; you can extract the text you entered in this file using the “strings” command without encountering non-printable characters.


A question can come to your mind: why do we add text in the executable files? Many developers packaged the binary files when software or application is released. However, it is an excellent idea to include ASCII text in that binary file. It is beneficial for the developers and users to gain a better understanding of the executable file. As a result, the “strings” command will help them determine the content of these non-text files.


In this article, we will talk about how to install and use strings on your Ubuntu system. So, let’s move ahead!


↺ What is Tree Command in Ubuntu


The command-line interface of Linux-based distros works as a catalyst to the actions performed by the users. Like other distros, Ubuntu also supports a variety of commands, and among those, directory handling commands are used to handle the operations related to directories, such as the “cd” command is used to change the current working directory; “mkdir” command is used to make a new directory. Similarly, tree command prints directories, sub-directories, and their content in a tree-like structure. It is almost like an “ls” command, but the main difference is the print pattern of both commands: the “ls” command lists down the content, whereas the “tree” command shows the output in a tree-like hierarchical structure. In this demonstration, we will provide a deep insight into the usage of tree commands with examples. So, let’s start with the installation of the tree:


↺ How to Use Ubuntu Timedatectl


Every computing device has time and date as the very basic service provided by them. Date/time and time zone are interlinked phenomena in computing devices as date/time depends on the time zone selected by the user. The date and time are automatically fetched according to the time zone; however, the users can also change them manually.


↺ Install Laravel Framework on Debian 11


Laravel is a free and open-source PHP web framework based on the Symfony framework. It is used for the faster development of web applications. Laravel makes it easier to perform some common tasks such as authentication, routing, sessions and caching. It has several useful features including, Artisan, Object-relational mapping, Template Engine, MVC Architecture, Unit-Testing, and Database Migration System.


In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Laravel on Debian 11.


↺ How to use the netplan command on Ubuntu


In Ubuntu 17.10, a new command-line network configuration tool was introduced known as “Netplan”. Netplan makes it simple to configure and manage network settings in your Ubuntu system. It also permits you the YAML abstraction for configuring a network interface. It interacts with the kernel through the systemd-networkd and NetworkManager daemons which are also known as renderers. You have to choose any one from both of them. Netplan reads the network configurations from “/etc/netplan/*.yaml” files, which can save the configuration settings for all network interfaces.


If you use the netplan command on Ubuntu, then It becomes easy to restart and change network settings. Netplan is also good for automation (humans and programs can read YAML). This write-up is focusing on how to use the netplan command on Ubuntu.


↺ How to use Ubuntu HWClock


Linux supports two types of clocks in any system; one is a hardware clock, and the other is a software clock. The hardware clock functioning is independent of the operating system, and it keeps on running even if the system is turned off. The moment you turn on your machine, the software clock gets the information from the hardware clock and thus shows the date and time as saved in the hardware clock. In this article, we will briefly discuss the use of hwclock in Ubuntu, along with its various functions and options too.


↺ How to Install and Use PostgreSQL 13 on Rocky Linux


PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database management system focusing on extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL is an advanced and enterprise-class RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) supports both SQL (relational) and JSON (non-relational) querying.


It’s a highly stable database management system backed by more than 20 years of development by the open-source community and has a strong reputation among developers and system admins for its reliability, flexibility, feature robustness, and performance.


PostgreSQL is used as a primary database for web applications, mobile applications, and analytic applications. Some notable PostgreSQL users around the globe are Reddit, Skype, Instagram, Disqus, The Guardian, Yandex, Bloomberg, Nokia, BMW, etc.


In this guide, you will learn how to install the PostgreSQL database on Rocky Linux, securing the PostgreSQL database deployment, and basic usage of PostgreSQL queries for managing users and databases.


↺ How to Install Java 16 (OpenJDK 16) on Debian 11


Java is a general-purpose, class-based, object-oriented multipurpose programming language that is popular due to the design of having lesser implementation dependencies, meaning that the compiled Java code can be run on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation. Java is also fast, secure, and reliable, therefore. It is widely used for developing Java applications in laptops, data centers, game consoles, scientific supercomputers, cell phones, etc.


↺ How To Install ImageMagick on Linux Mint 20 – idroot


In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ImageMagick on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, ImageMagick is a free and open-source image manipulation tool. It is mainly used to create, edit, compose or convert bitmap images. Its uses include resizing, rotating, shearing images, applying various special effects, or drawing text, lines, and curves. Its flexibility can be realized from the fact that it can be used across multiple different platforms such as run on Windows and Mac OS, as well as on Android OS and iOS.


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 ImageMagick on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana).


↺ How To Install Gdu Disk Analyzer on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot


In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Gdu Disk Analyzer on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Gdu (Go Disk Usage) is very similar to Ncdu, a popular console disk usage analyzer, with one major difference: speed. Gdu makes use of parallel processing, being specially created for solid-state drives (SSD). It also works with hard disk drives (HDD), but its performance gain compared to other tools is not so great in this case.


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 Gdu Disk Analyzer on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.


↺ Amazon s3 tutorial – Creating | Managing | Listing | Deleting Simple Storage bucket


↺ You can execute commands from within the nano text editor in Linux – TechRepublic


Jack Wallen is ready to help you with the built-in Execute tool in nano when you want to make it a bit more flexible.


↺ How to Install Subversion & USVN (Apache SVN) on CentOS 8 – Unixcop


Subversion is an open source version control system. Founded in 2000 by CollabNet, Inc., the Subversion project and software have seen incredible success over the past decade. Subversion has enjoyed and continues to enjoy widespread adoption in both the open source arena and the corporate world.


User-Friendly USVN is a web interface written in PHP used to configure Subversion repositories.It’s goal is to ease the creation of new projects without having to use the command line interface, therefor, maybe without privileged access to the server. USVN will then generate the list of users allowed to access your source code. This enable the delegation of rights to administrate Subversion repositories.


↺ How To Install and Set up Yii PHP Framework on Ubuntu Linux


The Yii is the acronym of Yes It Is, which is a great free and open-source (FOSS) Model–view–controller, a PHP framework tool for PHP development. It’s a tool for developing PHP modules and applications. The Yii PHP framework is available for both Ubuntu and Windows. It can rapidly build up large PHP modules, and its component-oriented work functionalities have made it unique and user-friendly. The Yii PHP Framework works with an entry script, application, controller, filter, and model layer.


↺ What is a container image?


Containers are a critical part of today’s IT operations. A container image contains a packaged application, along with its dependencies, and information on what processes it runs when launched.


You create container images by providing a set of specially formatted instructions, either as commits to a registry or as a Dockerfile. For example, this Dockerfile creates a container for a PHP web application…


↺ Firefox Tip: turn off accessibility services to improve performance


Firefox users who are experiencing performance issues while using the Firefox web browser on desktop systems and on Android, may improve performance by disabling the browser’s accessibility services.


[...]


To make matters worse, Mozilla did remove options to control the desktop browser’s accessibility settings from the preferences some time ago. While it is still possible to turn them off using about:config, it is probably not something that most users know about or feel comfortable using.


Reports suggest that some users managed to reduce the Firefox web browser’s memory usage after disabling the service; others on the other hand reported that changing the setting did not impact memory usage. It may be a good idea to test this on the local system to find out if the local Firefox installation is affected by the issue.


↺ TCP IP header flags list Tutorial for beginners


TCP IP header refers to Transmission Control Protocol is responsible to make communication between devices and send data over the network.


It provides reliable, ordered, and error check communications. Major internet applications rely on this protocol such as World wide web, email, remote administration, file transfer, etc. Applications that don’t require reliability use UDP (User Datagram Protocol).


Games


↺ The classic gravity-reversing platformer VVVVVV from Terry Cavanagh gets a huge upgrade | GamingOnLinux


After being released for more than 10 years, VVVVVV is back with a big new version which follows on from the source code being released back in early 2020. This marks the first update to the game in around seven years too. Not something that you will see too often for a classic indie platformer.


↺ Slick free strategy game The Fertile Crescent is getting a new bigger paid version | GamingOnLinux


The Fertile Crescent has been an absolutely brilliant retro-styled Bronze Age real-time strategy game that’s currently free and the future of it has been secured.


While it’s currently free and a hobby project for the team, it’s still a very high quality game that feels like a low-res Age of Empires but with some mechanics that set them apart. Writing in a new update post on itch.io, the team shared that “TFC will be leveling up from a hobby project to a full time job for us thanks to a publishing deal we signed earlier this year”. The recent updates to the game have remained free and they’ve been pretty big, which is thanks to this publisher.


Now they’re working on a last free update to the current version of the game, to then move onto building it up into a commercial version. The good news is that this one will stick around and get bug fixes but the majority of the time will be on the upcoming paid-for bigger version that will eventually release on Steam.


↺ Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond will have you dig below the surface and on asteroids | GamingOnLinux


Releasing on September 7, Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond is the brand new expansion for the Martian city-builder from Paradox Interactive and newer developer Abstraction (who took over from Haemimont Games).


Giving the relaxed building sim some much needed expansion into other areas, Below & Beyond enhances colony management by going below the surface and beyond the horizon to build underground bases, mine asteroids, and gather rare resources.


“When we started planning out what was next for Surviving Mars, we really wanted to dive deep into the parts of the Red Planet we had not already explored. We know we had to come out swinging and Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond expands gameplay in a meaningful way,” says Magnus Lysell, Product Manager for Surviving Mars at Paradox Interactive. “The possibilities are endless and we’re eager to continue exploring the Red Planet with our players.”


↺ This upcoming indie game is basically My Little Pony meets Pokemon and I want it | GamingOnLinux


I don’t know how we missed this but Battle Gem Ponies from Yotes Games only has a few days left on Kickstarter, it’s fully funded and it’s pretty much My Little Pony styled creatures in a Pokemon style RPG. Honestly didn’t ever think I would need something like this but now I do.


According to the developer “Battle Gem Ponies is a tale of friendship with themes of unbreakable bonds, mankind’s role within nature, and healthy competition” along with magical ponies you catch and collect, which you then get to beat the crap out of other ponies.


↺ Kart Racing Game SuperTuxKart 1.3 Adds Nintendo Switch Support


The popular kart racing game SuperTuxKart 1.3 now release candidate is out!


After a year of development, the game now is ported to Switch though you need to have Homebrew installed. So the 3D open-source arcade racer now works on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS (beta), and Nintendo Switch.


↺ SuperTuxKart 1.3 Features New Karts, New Arenas, and Nintendo Switch Support


A new version of famed FOSS racing game SuperTuxKart is zipping towards release, with a release candidate build now available to download.


SuperTuxKart 1.3 features a number of exciting improvements like updated karts for several of the game’s famous FOSS faces (including Gnu); a new playable character in Pepper, from libre web comic Pepper&Carrot; plus a pair of new arenas, both of which support multiplayer online ‘capture the flag’ mode.


The Ancient Colosseum Labyrinth battle arena is inspired by the famous Roman colosseum, while the Alien Signal arena is based on the real-world location of the extra-terrestrial SETI program.


Desktop Environments/WMs


K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt


↺ KDE Plasma 5.22.5, Bugfix Release for August


Plasma 5.22 was released in June 2021 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.


This release adds a month’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include…


↺ KDE Plasma 5.23 Promises Plenty of Subtle Improvements


KDE Plasma 5.23 is set for release on October 7, 2021, and it promises several (although subtle) improvements across the board. This new release is powered by Qt 5.15 and KDE Frameworks version 5.86. Along with the improvements found in those software stacks, there’s plenty of goodness to go around within KDE itself.


Many of the new features and improvements are all about refinement, so you probably won’t see anything that’s mind-blowing or drastic. For example, one of the highlighted new features is that you can specify an alternative accent color than that which is configured by the theme. Other subtle newness includes the ability to choose list or grid view for all Kickoff items (so it no longer only applies to Favorites), a new QML-based Overview effect has been introduced that is similar to GNOME’s Workspace view, the Dolphin file manager can be configured to display hidden files/folders first, and selected items can be deleted from the clipboard popup.


↺ Plasma Mobile Gear 21.08 is Out


The Plasma Mobile team is happy to present the Plasma Mobile updates for August 2021. Read on to find out about all the new stuff included in this release…


[...]


Kasts, Plasma Mobile’s podcast app, apart from getting some minor bugfixes, now lets you change the location where the downloaded podcast episodes and cached images are saved. These files can take up a lot of disk space, so it is nice to be able to store them elsewhere on systems with limited home folder disk space. The related settings now show the disk space used by episodes and images, and allows to clear the image cache.


↺ KDE Dev-Vlog 3: The Final of the Gwenview Trilogy


For several weeks we have been working on the user interface of KDE’s standard image viewer Gwenview and now the date for the release is just around the corner. In this video five remaining problems are pointed out. We were able to implement solutions to most of them in time for the Gwenview 21.08 release.


GNOME Desktop/GTK


↺ Apps For GNOME Launched


A new website called Apps For GNOME has been launched with the intention of showcasing the best applications in the GNOME ecosystem.


Until now there has been no single listing of the apps available for GNOME, and the intention of Apps For GNOME is that it will provide potential users with a comprehensive directory.


Distributions


New Releases


↺ Here’s What’s New In The Latest EndeavourOS Release


If you’re into Linux, you might know EndeavourOS. It is an Arch-based Linux distribution that focuses on improving the Linux gaming scene. A new version of the same is out, bringing a bunch of new features and improvements. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest EndeavourOS release.


New App Versions


The Calamares installer has been updated to version 3.2.41.1-9 and Firefox to 91.0.2.1. The distro ships with Linux kernel 5.13.12.arch1-1, mesa 21.2.1-1 driver, and the latest Nvidia-dkms 470.63.-1-3.


↺ Say goodbye to Microsoft Windows 11 and wave hello to Ubuntu-based Linux Lite 5.6


Thankfully, there is an arguably better option — just switch to Linux! Yes, modern Linux-based operating systems are very well-supported and most will run great on aging hardware (unlike Windows 11). Linux Lite, which uses the Xfce desktop environment, is one of the best Linux distributions for Windows-switchers, as it is lightweight, modern, and familiar.


Today, Linux Lite 5.6 FINAL becomes available, and it is based on Ubuntu 20.04.3. The operating system uses Linux kernel 5.4.0-81, but other kernels are available too, ranging from 3.13 to 5.14. This new version of Linux Lite also comes with some excellent software packages, such as Firefox 91.0.1, Thunderbird 78.11.0, LibreOffice 6.4.7.2, VLC 3.0.9.2, and GIMP 2.10.18.


↺ Linux Lite 5.6 Final Released


Linux Lite 5.6 Final is now available for download and installation. This release includes updates to the Help Manual – our extensive, easy to follow Linux Lite guide, you can now install Linux Lite directly from Lite Welcome, an updated Papirus icon theme, 2 new features added to Lite Tweaks, the introduction of the ‘Pay what You Want’ digital download model, 7 new wallpapers, Python default version now set to Python3, and a host of bug fixes and enhancements for our target audience. If you’re coming from Windows, you’ll find this to be a solid, stable release that will help make your transition to a linux based operating system, user friendly.


↺ Linux Lite 5.6 Released


Linux Lite 5.6, based on the recently released Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS is now available for the download. Linux Lite is one of the popular lightweight Linux based operating system that runs well on low-end hardware.


SUSE/OpenSUSE


↺ Digest of YaST Development Sprints 129 & 130


For some people, vacation season is just the right time for housekeeping or for learning new skills. And that’s exactly what the YaST team has been doing in the latest two sprints.


↺ SUSE Rancher 2.6 delivers interoperability across multi-cloud environments with redesigned user experience, hosted cluster support, and improved security posture | SUSE Communities


It has been an eventful twelve months for the SUSE Rancher team. We have worked through a global pandemic, navigated a company acquisition, and successfully settled into our new home at SUSE. Today we are excited to announce the first SUSE release of Rancher, SUSE Rancher 2.6.


↺ Integration of support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Base Container Images (SLE BCI) into SUSE Rancher 2.6 | SUSE Communities


SUSE’s 28-year legacy in open source Linux operating systems has helped enterprises around the world power their mission-critical applications and systems. In December 2020, SUSE expanded its open source solution stack with the acquisition of Rancher Labs and its leading Kubernetes management platform Rancher*.


↺ Full Lifecycle Management of AKS and GKE clusters now available on SUSE Rancher 2.6 | SUSE Communities


Users have multiple choices for production-ready Kubernetes clusters when they move to the cloud, including Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). With the launch of SUSE Rancher 2.6, users now have full lifecycle management support for clusters hosted across the three major cloud providers. Teams utilizing these services traditionally had the option to either use cloud provider-specific tools or manually configure a CNCF tool on their own. With SUSE Rancher 2.6, users can now apply a standard set of CNCF tooling and configuration to manage their Day Two operations across all their clusters.


IBM/Red Hat/Fedora


↺ Subscription Manager and Simple Content Access: tagging and reviewing systems


We showed you how to enable Simple Content Access (SCA) and register your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with Insights. In this post, we will look at the use of groups in custom tags with Insights.


↺ Network Controls in the DevSecOps life cycle


Network controls and segmentation methods allow you to control, segregate, and visualize Kubernetes traffic. These methods help you isolate tenants and better secure communications flow between containerized applications and microservices.


August is “Network Controls” month in Red Hat’s monthly Security series! Since March 2021, the Red Hat Security Ecosystem team has published monthly articles and videos on DevOps Security topics to help you learn how Red Hat can help you master the practice called DevSecOps.


By explaining how to assemble Red Hat products and introducing our security ecosystem partners, we aim to aid in your journey to deploying a comprehensive DevSecOps solution.


↺ Why should I choose Quarkus over Spring for my microservices? | Red Hat Developer


As interest grows in microservices and containers, Java developers have struggled to make applications smaller and faster to meet today’s demands and requirements. In the modern computing environment, applications must respond to requests quickly and efficiently, be suitable for running in volatile environments such as virtual machines or containers, and support rapid development. Because of this, Java, and popular Java runtimes, are sometimes considered inferior to runtimes in other languages such as Node.js and Go.


The Java language and platform have been very successful over the years, preserving Java as the predominant language in current use. Analysts have estimated the global application server market size at $15.84 billion in 2020, with expectations of growing at a rate of 13.2% from 2021 to 2028. Additionally, tens of millions of Java developers worldwide work for organizations that run their businesses using Java. Faced with today’s challenges, these organizations need to adapt and adopt new ways of building and deploying applications. Forgoing Java for other application stacks isn’t a choice for many organizations. It would involve re-training their development staff and re-implementing processes to release and monitor applications in production.


↺ Building reactive systems with Node.js


If you do a web search for computing terms that go with the word reactive, you’ll find a wealth of phrases: Reactive streams, reactive systems, reactive messaging, and reactive programming are examples. The word reactive is also associated with other popular concepts like non-blocking I/O, functional programming, and backpressure.


Although those are all interesting topics, studying reactive systems is a good place to start. This concept was defined by the Reactive Manifesto as an architectural style for distributed systems that are responsive, elastic, resilient, and message-driven. Other constructs such as reactive streams (an asynchronous and non-blocking backpressure protocol) and reactive programming (such as reactive extensions) are implementation details.


Although the Reactive Manifesto is language-agnostic and framework-agnostic, Node.js is an excellent framework for carrying out its principles. This article provides general background on Node.js in reactive systems, then takes you step-by-step through a reactive service built with Node.js and Apache Kafka.


↺ Use automation to combat your increased workload


So what can you do to improve the situation and make better use of your time? The answer can be complex and, in some cases, require the company to address it systemically. For other problems, you can use your technical expertise to improve the way you work by automating these repetitive, mundane tasks.


When we think of automating an IT process, it’s normal to evaluate spending the time and effort to develop automation artifacts to address large or complex issues. There are many benefits to doing this. You can realize the same advantages by applying automation to simple and repetitive tasks, especially when you can reuse the automation to manage hundreds or thousands of systems.


Debian Family


↺ Armbian 21.08 Released with Xfce, Cinnamon, and Budgie Desktops, Debian Bullseye Builds


The Armbian 21.08 release appears to be a very important update as it comes with upgraded builds based on the latest Ubuntu and Debian GNU/Linux releases, such as Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) and Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye,” as well as new desktop environment flavors like Xfce, Cinnamon, and Budgie.


This move puts Armbian on-par with many well-known distributions that offer support for ARM devices, and, on top of that, it lets users easily create their own Linux distribution. In addition to the desktop flavors, the Armbian 21.08 release also comes with Minimal and Server editions for advanced users.


Devices/Embedded


Open Hardware/Modding


↺ MutantC V4 – DIY Raspberry Pi Handheld PC adds ESP32-S2 module – CNX Software


Earlier this year we wrote about Mutantc V3 DIY Raspberry PI UMPC after noticing a talk about it at FOSDEM 2021 online conference. MutantC V4 is a new version of the Raspberry Pi handheld PC that is both easier to build and cheaper.


The new model replaces the Arduino Pro Micro board with a more compact ESP32-S2 module and offers a Lite version with even fewer parts (notification LED, IR blaster, IMU, etc..) to make it easier to build.


↺ T-Watch 2021 ESP32 round smartwatch features ESP32 SoC, touchscreen, 500mAh battery – CNX Software


Back in May, LilyGo started selling “Paul’s 3D Things” Open-Smartwatch open-source hardware ESP32 watch as a kit with the board and a round display, but no case, wristband, or battery, although now a smartwatch kit, but still without battery, is available for around $30.


The company has now designed the T-Watch 2021 which builds upon the Open-Smartwatch but adds features like a touchscreen display, a vibration motor, a magnetometer, and ships as a devkit with board and display or a complete smartwatch kit including a 500mAh battery.


↺ Trakcore is a Nano 33 IoT-based posture correction device | Arduino Blog


Poor posture is an epidemic for nearly anyone who spends an excessive amount of time sitting, and this can lead to a whole host of problems later in life. Some of these might include back pain, limited range of motion, and muscle tightness. Recognizing that his own posture was lacking, element14 user vlasov01 got to work designing and constructing a small wearable device for element14 Design for a Cause 2021 contest, which could help him alter his posture throughout the day to a more correct one. This project was dubbed the Trakcore, and it uses the sensors on the Arduino Nano 33 IoT to sense how a person is sitting or standing and then sends an alert when it needs adjustment.


↺ Sustainable transformation of agriculture with the Internet of Things


With the urgency to prevent environmental degradation, reduce waste and increase profitability, farmers around the globe are increasingly opting for more efficient crop management solutions supported by optimization and controlling technologies derived from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).


Intelligent information and communication technologies (IICT) (machine Learning (ML), AI, IoT, cloud-based analytics, actuators, and sensors) are being implemented to achieve higher control of spatial and temporal variabilities with the aid of satellite remote sensing. The use and application of this set of related technologies are known as “Smart Agriculture.”


Free, Libre, and Open Source Software


↺ The Apache® Software Foundation Announces Annual Report for 2021 Fiscal Year


World’s largest Open Source foundation’s community rallies during pandemic; uptick in project activity, participation, and sponsor support advances Foundation to continue to provide $22B+ worth of software to the public-at-large at 100% no cost.


↺ The Apache Drill Project Announces Apache® Drill(TM) v1.19 Milestone Release


The Apache Drill Project announced the release of Apache® DrillTM v1.19, the schema-free Big Data SQL query engine for Apache Hadoop®, NoSQL, and Cloud storage.


“Drill 1.19 is our biggest release ever,” said Charles Givre, Vice President of Apache Drill. “With an already short learning curve, Drill 1.19 makes it even easier for users to quickly query, analyze, and visualize data from disparate sources and complex data sets.”


An “SQL-on-Hadoop” engine, Apache Drill is easy to deploy, highly performant, able to quickly process trillions of records, and scalable from a single laptop to a 1000-node cluster. With its schema-free JSON model (the first distributed SQL query engine of its kind), Drill is able to query complex semi-structured data in situ without requiring users to define schemas or transform data. It provides plug-and-play integration with existing Hive and HBase deployments, and is extensible out-of-the-box to access multiple data sources, such as S3 and Apache HDFS, HBase, and Hive. Additionally, Drill can directly query data from REST APIs to include platforms like SalesForce and ServiceNow.


Web Browsers


Mozilla


↺ Mozilla Security Blog: Mozilla VPN Security Audit


To provide transparency into our ongoing efforts to protect your privacy and security on the Internet, we are releasing a security audit of Mozilla VPN that Cure53 conducted earlier this year.


↺ Spidermonkey Development Blog: TC39 meeting, July 13-16 2021


In this meeting, the Realms proposal finally moved forward to stage 3. The form it will take is as what is now called “isolated realms”. This form does not allow direct object access across the realm boundary (which you can do with iframes). To address this, a new proposal is being put forward titled getOriginals.


Beyond that, the ergonomic brand checks proposal moved to stage 4 and will be published in the next specification. Intl.Enumeration also finally moved to stage 3 and implementers have started working on it.


A feature that developers can look forward to experimenting with soon is Array find-from-last. This will enable programmers to easily search for an element from the end of a collection, rather than needing to first reverse the collection to do this search.


Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra


↺ ONLYOFFICE Docs 6.4 Released With Conditional Formatting And WOPI Support


ONLYOFFICE Docs 6.4 is now available for the download. It is one of the popular open source office suite. You can see the number of improvements and features in the latest version of ONLYOFFICE Docs. The suite supports the WOPI protocol for easier integration with other software tools.


Programming/Development


Perl/Raku


↺ Rakudo Weekly News: 2021.35 Superseding


Steve Roe opened an issue in the raku.land repository: My modules are Duplicates. It describes the tricky issue the Raku ecosystem is facing in light of the migration of modules between different “repository backends”. There are currently three of them: the original git-based ecosystem, the modules uploaded to CPAN (with PAUSE), and modules uploaded to the zef repository backend (with fez) (/r/rakulang comments). This will most likely need some more careful thought in a problem solving issue.


[...]


All of the core developments of this week are either directly or indirectly a result of the extensive work that is being done on the new-disp branch, which is focussing more and more on making things faster, than making things work again!


Python


↺ Cryptography with Python


Cryptography, the science of ciphers, is made real with the help of coding. We cannot decide a programming language to be better or worse than another. However, the selection of an appropriate cryptography library makes all the difference.


Python provides some very sophisticated libraries and modules for encryption and decryption of the data. Some of them are Cryptography, hashlib, Simple-Crypt, etc. The article demonstrates the use of modern cryptographic practices in Python with the help of the cryptography library by illustrating how to encrypt and decrypt text strings and files.


↺ How to Change the Working Directory in Python


A working directory is a current directory in which we are working and from which the script is run; within this directory, we have access to many files (the ones located within it). However, we sometimes need to change directories and go back and forth between files and folders. In this tutorial, we will learn how to change the working directory in Python.


Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh


↺ Bash Remove Last x Characters From String


One might have to delete letters from either a string sometimes. Just what the case may be, Linux includes several built-in, useful tools for removing letters form such a text in Bash. This article demonstrates how to delete letters from either a string using those methods. In this post, the instructions were run on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. The very same instructions may be run on any Linux system that has the utilities mentioned above installed. To execute the instructions, we’ll utilize the usual Terminal. The Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut will open the Terminal tool.


↺ What Set –e do in Bash?


Set –e is used within the Bash to stop execution instantly as a query exits while having a non-zero status. This function is also used when you need to know the error location in the running code. Let’s continue the article to elaborate on the concept of “set –e” in different aspects of codes.


Install Bash extensions in Linux. If it is already installed, then you need to upgrade the version because the version must be above 4.


↺ How do I Sleep in a Bash Script?


When you create your Bash scripts, their functionality is such that you have to wait for some function within it to complete its processing before proceeding further. The wait within a Bash script is introduced with the “sleep” command. The sleep command in Bash allows you to wait for as long as you want before doing any further processing. This functionality finds a special use case while dealing with clients and servers in Linux.


Multiple clients can connect to a single server depending upon its request handling capacity in a client-server model. A client always initiates a connection request, whereas a server listens to this request. However, at times, a server might be busy processing other requests. Therefore, there should be a time duration defined for the client for which that client should wait before canceling the connection initiation request. This time duration can be defined while making use of the sleep command.


This was just a simple use case of the sleep command with the client-server model; however, this command can also serve other different purposes within this model. Our motive is to learn how we can sleep in a Bash script in Ubuntu 20.04. For doing that, we have designed this tutorial so that you will get the maximum benefit out of it once you follow the examples shared in it.


↺ How Do You Escape a Single Quote in Bash?


Sometimes, the scripts are written in such a dynamic manner that even the programmer does not know exactly how many arguments will be provided by the user at runtime, but he might want to use that total number somewhere later in that script. How to check the Number of Arguments in Bash is explained in this article.


↺ How Do You Check the Number of Arguments in Bash?


You can provide any desired number of command-line arguments to your Bash scripts in Ubuntu 20.04 while executing them. However, sometimes the scripts are written in such a dynamic manner that even the programmer does not know exactly how many arguments will be provided by the user at runtime, but he might want to use that total number somewhere later in that script.


In this situation, there must be a way through which you can check the total number of arguments passed to any particular Bash script. For that, Bash has a special variable, i.e., $#. To figure out how this special variable works, you will have to go through all the examples shared in this article.


↺ How Do I Count the Number of Lines in a File in Bash?


In any code or a program, sometimes such a situation exists where we need to know how big the data of the filefile’s data is. We can get this through the number of lines of a file, instead of consulting the whole data. Counting the lines manually can consume a lot of time. So these tools are used, that ease us with our desired output. In this guide, wThis guide will cover some common and uncommon ways to count the line number in a file.


Leftovers


Integrity/Availability


Proprietary


Pseudo-Open Source


Openwashing


↺ ZutaCore Joins the Open19 Foundation


Security


↺ Ransomware Disguised as Open-Source Krita Painting App Promo Video


Ransomware attacks are exponentially increasing. And, the way it gets distributed evolves every day.


One of the most effective ways is by using reputable brand names to lure users into downloading malicious files that may end up encrypting your files and demand a ransom.


And, in this case, some scammers have started using Krita’s name to deceive users through email.


↺ Security updates for Tuesday


Security updates have been issued by CentOS (libsndfile and libX11), Debian (ledgersmb, libssh, and postgresql-9.6), Fedora (squashfs-tools), openSUSE (389-ds, nodejs12, php7, spectre-meltdown-checker, and thunderbird), Oracle (kernel, libsndfile, and libX11), Red Hat (bind, cloud-init, edk2, glibc, hivex, kernel, kernel-rt, kpatch-patch, microcode_ctl, python3, and sssd), SUSE (bind, mysql-connector-java, nodejs12, sssd, and thunderbird), and Ubuntu (apr, squashfs-tools, thunderbird, and uwsgi).


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