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Links 10/11/2021: Release of RHEL 8.5, Valve Delays Steam Deck, Sailfish OS 4.3 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Sick of Windows? How to test-drive Linux

        Linux is an operating system, similar to the one you use on your Windows and Apple computers. It runs software and allows you to access the various peripherals (printers, speakers, mice, keyboards, SD card readers, etc.) you attach to the system. Without an operating system, your computer would be of no use to you

        You may or may not have ever heard about Linux and that's OK; either way, you're in for a treat. Why? Because many of the headaches you have to deal with, when using Windows, won't be an issue with Linux. Those surprise reboots to apply upgrades? Nope. The constant fear of malware or ransomware? Not on Linux. Costly software? Not an issue.

      • Christopher Davis: System76: A Case Study on How Not To Collaborate With Upstream

        Preface: the following post was written in the context of the events that happened in September. Some time has passed, and I held off on publishing in the hopes we could reach a happy ending with System76. As time has passed, that hope has faded. Attempts to reach out to System76 have not been productive, and I feel we’ve let the impression they’ve given the wider tech community about GNOME sit for far too long. Some things have changed since I originally wrote the post, so some bits have been removed.

        Recently there’s been some heated discussion regarding GNOME’s future. This has led to a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt being spread about GNOME, as well as attacks and hostility toward GNOME as a whole and toward individual contributors. This largely started due to the actions of one company’s employees in particular: System76.

        This is not the first time System76 has been at the center of a public conflict with the GNOME community, nor is it the first time it was handled poorly. At this point, I no longer feel comfortable working with System76 without some sort of acknowledgment and apology for their poor behavior, and a promise that this won’t happen again.

        You might be thinking: what sort of behavior are you talking about? What has System76 done to deserve this treatment? Well, it’s not any one incident – it’s a pattern of behavior that’s repeated multiple times over the past few years. I’ll share incidents I know of from the past, what their behavior has been like in the present, and my own thoughts on the future.

      • System76 accused of not collaborating with GNOME ● The Register

        A core member of the GNOME team has accused System76 of being "a case study on how not to collaborate with upstream" following confirmation that the Linux PC vendor is working on a new desktop built with Rust.

      • The Framework Laptop Is Great For A Linux-Friendly, Upgradeable/Modular Laptop [Ed: Now Larabel... is this an ad?]

        While many Linux users were excited years ago around EOMA68 and in part the possibility of an open, upgradeable laptop design, it has yet to ship and looking like it never will -- not to mention being very outdated specifications by today's standards. Entirely unrelated to that prior upgradeable hardware effort but continuing in similar goals is The Framework Laptop. The Framework Laptop is a thin, upgradeable notebook that is Linux-friendly and allows the user to easily upgrade their own components. I was testing The Framework Laptop for a while and from the hardware perspective is a very nice device and running well under Linux.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • OpenZFS 3.0 Could See macOS Support & DirectIO, While ZFS For Windows Continues - Phoronix

        The annual OpenZFS Developer Summit wrapped up yesterday with interesting talks on this open-source, cross-platform ZFS file-system implementation.

        ZFS co-creator Matt Ahrens kicked things off as usual, including touching on future work and possible expectations for OpenZFS 3.0. Given the annual major release cadence, OpenZFS 3.0 is up next for the project that currently has support for Linux and FreeBSD systems. Some of the possible features expressed for OpenZFS 3.0 include macOS support, DirectIO, RAIDZ expansion, Linux namespaces, ZFS on object store, FIEMAP, VDEV properties, async DMU, and more. We'll see though next year ultimately what pans out for the next ZFS release.

      • DirectIO For OpenZFS Shows Very Promising Performance - Phoronix

        Running the past two days was the annual OpenZFS Developer Summit. One of the most interesting presentations from this virtual event was on the status of DirectIO (O_DIRECT) support for the OpenZFS file-system and the performance boost it can offer in relevant areas.

        Brian Atkinson of the Los Alamos National Laboratory presented at the developer summit around the DirectIO support for OpenZFS. The work ultimately boils down to the DirectIO merge request open for OpenZFS since February 2020. This support aims to allow bypassing ZFS' ARC when issuing reads/writes with a particular focus on improving the performance for Zpools on NVMe solid-state drives as well as other cases where ARC just gets in the way.

      • Kernel 5.10.78 with legacy framebuffers

        I am having success with fixing Firefox, will post about that later. For now want to document a little experiment; the linux kernel configured to use efifb and vesafb.

      • Where Rust fits into Linux ● The Register

        Opinion To become a Linux developer, you used to need C as your passport. Now Rust can let you be an OS programmer as well.

        The joke goes: "C combines the power and performance of assembly language with the flexibility and ease-of-use of assembly language." Having programmed in both C and IBM 360 Assembler – it was a long time ago, OK – there's something to that. Because of its power, performance, and portability, C became the operating system language of choice, including, of course, Linux.

      • Improved Retpoline Code In The Linux 5.16 Kernel - Phoronix

        Merged last week into the Linux 5.16 kernel is improved Retpoline "return trampoline" code.

        Phoronix readers should be very familiar with Retpolines by now as being used for Spectre Variant Two mitigations. This improved Retpoline code in Linux 5.16 as part of the "objtool/core" changes rewrites Retpolines to indirect instructions in situations where Retpolines are not enabled. There is also a change for rewriting an indirect LFENCE for the AMD handling. The x86 BPF code is also better handled around its Retpoline behavior.

      • Kernel 5.15: A small but mighty Halloween release

        It might be smaller than the last few kernels, but with well above 10,000 non-merge changes, the latest Linux kernel still packs a punch. Released on October 31, kernel 5.15 brings lots of exciting new features. For example, ksmbd has been merged, which provides a simple SMB3 server implementation, and a potential user for the case sensitive filesystem support code Gabriel upstreamed in the 5.2 kernel. Another noteworthy highlight is the real-time preemption locking code, which finally hit mainline after 17 years! Meanwhile, in the embedded space, we expect to soon see processors hitting the market that have CPU cores with asymmetric behaviour (e.g. some cores only support 64 bit and some cores only supporting 32 bit). Scheduling a 64 bit task on a 32 bit CPU core would be fatal and the new scheduler will avoid this thanks to Arm.

        As usual, our Collabora engineers haven't been slacking either, so let's have a look at their contributions to this kernel release.

      • Graphics Stack

        • Mike Blumenkrantz: Inline 2.0

          In the course of working on more CI-related things for zink, I came across a series of troublesome tests (KHR-GL46.geometry_shader.rendering.rendering.triangles_*) that triggered a severe performance issue. Specifically, the LLVM optimizer spends absolute ages trying to optimize ubershaders like this one used in the tests:

        • Mesa 22.0 Zink Speeds Up OpenGL-Over-Vulkan On CPUs - Phoronix

          While there is already LLVMpipe Gallium3D for software acceleration of OpenGL on CPUs within Mesa, if wanting to increase the layers of abstraction you could also use Zink for OpenGL over Vulkan and by way of Lavapipe have that software accelerated on the CPU. With Mesa 22.0-devel, that route of Zink on CPUs is now faster.

        • NVIDIA 470.86 Linux Driver Released With VRR/G-SYNC Fix - Phoronix

          While since the end of October there has been NVIDIA 495.44 as the stable 495 series driver beta for Linux users, out today is their v470.86 release for those using that older long-term support branch.

          The NVIDIA 495 driver series is being treated as their new feature branch series with GBM API support and other additions while the NVIDIA 470 driver series continues to serve as their production branch version.

          Today's NVIDIA 470.86 driver release is a small one adding a new NVIDIA driver installer option and fixing a VRR/G-SYNC regression/. The variable refresh rate regression prevented DisplayPort and HDMI 2.1 VRR/G-SYNC compatible monitors from functioning correctly in the VRR mode. This yielded flickering and other problems but should now be cleared up with the NVIDIA 470.86 Linux driver.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How to Install Zoom on Ubuntu (the Easiest Way)

        Zoom works perfectly on Linux and supports variants of Linux distros. Here I will show you the simplest way to install Zoom client on Ubuntu.

        Zoom is a popular video conferencing software available for multiple operating systems including Linux. It has become a go-to software for hosting webinars, creating conference rooms, and organizing online meetings.

        Installing Zoom on Linux is as easy as installing it on Windows. Here’s a step-by-step guide how to do it easily and quickly.

      • Neil Williams: LetsEncrypt with Apache, Gunicorn and Debian Bullseye

        Upgrading an old codebase from Python2 on Buster to Python3 ready for Bullseye and from Django1 to Django2 (prepared for Django3). Everything is fine at this stage - the Django test server is happy with HTTP and it gives enough support to do the actual code changes to get to Python3. All well and good so far. The main purpose of this particular code was to support payments, so a chunk of the testing cannot be done without HTTPS, which is where things got awkward.

        This particular service needs HTTPS using LetsEncrypt and Apache2. To support Django, I typically use Gunicorn.

        All of this works with HTTP. Moving to HTTPS was easy to test using the default-ssl virtual host that comes with Apache2 in Debian. It's a static page and it worked well with https. The problems all start when trying to use this known-working HTTPS config with the other Apache virtual host to add support for the gunicorn proxy.

      • Create a simple calculator using HTML, CSS and Javascript - DEV Community

        In this tutorial we will create a fully working calculator using only HTML, CSS and vanilla Javascript. You'll learn about event handling, and DOM manipulations throughout the project. In my opinion this is a really good beginner project for those who want to become web developers.

      • Changing Grafana Legends – Small Dropbear

        I’m not sure if I just can search Google properly, or this really is just not written down much, but I have had problems with Grafana Legends (I would call them the series labels). The issue is that Grafana queries Prometheus for a time series and you want to display multiple lines, but the time-series labels you get are just not quite right.

      • Shaark: Keep your bookmarks and data in one place

        As every daily internet user, you have resources all around, which include posts, links, comments, passwords, images, and more.

        Some create a text file or a spreadsheet file to keep track of their data. Well, with Shaark, they do not need to do that.

      • How To Install Laravel on Linux Mint 20 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Laravel on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, Laravel is a very popular open-source PHP framework aimed at the easy development of applications. It is based on the Symfony framework and follows the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern.

        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 a Laravel on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana).

      • How to Build and Install RethinkDB on Ubuntu 20.04

        In this article I will be guiding you on how to install RethinkDB on Ubuntu 20.04

        RethinkDB is an open-source, scalable JSON database built from the ground up for the realtime web. It inverts the traditional database architecture by exposing an exciting new access model, instead of polling for changes, the developer can tell RethinkDB to continuously push updated query results to applications in realtime. RethinkDB’s realtime push architecture dramatically reduces the time and effort necessary to build scalable realtime apps. It is a great option when you need real time feeds to your data.

        RethinkDB is very useful when your application needs real time feeds to your data. RethinkDB query-response database access model works well on the web because it maps directly to HTTPs response request.

      • How to Change the Hostname in Linux

        There are plenty of reasons why you may want to change the hostname of your Linux system. Unfortunately, changing your hostname is not exactly an intuitive process. Don’t worry, though, we’re going to show you how you can change your machine's hostname in less than a minute with just a few clicks and commands.

        Although this guide uses Ubuntu to demonstrate the steps required to change the hostname, the commands should work on other Linux distributions as well.

      • How to install FL Studio 20 on a Chromebook in 2021

        Today we are looking at how to install FL Studio 20 on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

        This tutorial will only work on Chromebooks with an Intel or AMD CPU (with Linux Apps Support) and not those with an ARM64 architecture CPU.

        If you have any questions, please contact us via a YouTube comment and we would be happy to assist you!

      • Install and Setup i3 Windows Manager on Debian 11 - kifarunix.com

        Welcome to our tutorial on how to install and setup i3 Windows Manager on Debian 11. i3 is a tiling window manager for X11. “A tiling window manager is a window manager with an organization of the screen into mutually non-overlapping frames, as opposed to the more popular approach of coordinate-based stacking of overlapping objects (windows) that tries to fully emulate the desktop metaphor.”

      • PHP: How to fix the "Call to undefined function curl_init()" error - Anto ./ Online

        Are you using PHP's curl_exec() function and getting a "call to undefined function curl_init()" error? If so, then let's fix the undefined curl_init() function error for you on Linux.

      • How to Fix : Failed to install the Extension Pack on Linux Mint

        In this tutorial you will learn how to fix the error "Failed to install the Extension Pack" when installing the virtual box extension pack on Virtualbox.

        Virtualbox extension pack enables support for Support for USB 2.0/ USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol, disk encryption, NVMe and PXE boot for Intel cards, so this package should be installed in order to be able to use the above mentioned devices on your virtual machine.

        For example: You have an usb device which you want to plug into your virtual machine, then to do this you need to install the extension pack. However, you got the error below which doesn't allow you to install the extension pack.

      • How to change the color of active windows in Plasma

        Alternatively, the title of this article is: how to change the color of active titlebars in Plasma. So what is this all about? In the Plasma desktop, the default theme is called Breeze. Until about Plasma 5.18, Breeze shipped with a light application theme, plus dark window borders. Excellent ergonomic choice, easy separation between foreground and background windows. None of the flat, modern nonsense.

        Recently, Plasma offers distinct all-light or all-dark themes, plus a mixed theme called Twilight, which gives you the old light-dark combo. Except ... it no longer works correctly. The window borders for active windows are light-themed. This is an under-reported, not-well-understood issue. I even had people emailing me telling me how to change the colors. Which I did, and the change does nothing, as there seems to be an unresolved bug in Plasma. I've been talking about this for more than a year. It's time for a dedicated article.

      • How to Mount Bitlocker Encrypted Windows Partition on Linux [Ed: A bit misleading as Bitlocker is not proper encryption; it's back doored in the sense Microsoft steals the keys [1, 2]]

        Here’s the scenario. My system came with Windows 10 Pro and that came with BitLocker encryption. I installed Ubuntu in the dual boot mode even with the BitLocker encryption enabled for Windows.

        You can easily access the Windows files from within Linux. No hi-fi stuff here. Just go to the file manager and click on the Windows partition which is located usually under the “Other Locations” tab.

      • ssh to machine behind shared NAT - blackMORE Ops
      • What sysadmins need to know about Linux permissions | Enable Sysadmin

        Standard permissions in Linux are simple and direct, and they can be used to manage files and file shares on many different filesystems and file-sharing protocols. An access control list (ACL) adds even more functionality to Linux permissions. This article covers just a few permissions basics and provides links to other great Enable Sysadmin content that delves into permissions and ACLs in more detail.

      • Delete unused EBS (Elastic Block Storage) Volumes on AWS using a Lambda Function

        Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is an easy-to-use, high-performance block storage service. It is like an external disk that can be attached to an EC2 Instance and used to store our data on it. If the EBS Volumes are not in use and not needed and still available in the account, then you will be charged by AWS for them unnecessarily. To save some cost, we will see the Lambda function which can be used to find and delete such unused EBS Volumes.

      • Create a Free Linux VM on Your Computer | Built In

        Skip the cloud. Create a Linux VM using VirtualBox and Ubuntu for your next data science project. Here’s how to get started.

    • Games

      • Axis & Allies 1942 Online from Beamdog is out now with full cross-play | GamingOnLinux

        Beamdog, known for their RPG revamps like Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition have finally pushed Axis & Allies 1942 Online out of Early Access as a finished game with full cross-play.

        With it based on the popular Axis & Allies 1942 Second Edition board game from Avalon Hill, you will be able to play online against others across Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and iPadOS. Now that's the kind of broad support we like to see in a multiplayer title!

        "German tanks mobilize in the west, blitzing into France and pushing back the Soviet Union in eastern Europe. The United States rises in response to Japanese aggression in the Pacific. The United Kingdom rallies allies as bombers menace the skies. The year is 1942, and the world is at war!

      • RetroArch brings more emulator cores to Steam including PPSSPP | GamingOnLinux

        RetroArch, the free and open source application designed to help you manage emulators, media playback and more has a few additional emulator cores available now on Steam.

        Cores are essentially the modules that RetroArch runs to do things, like run different emulators. The Steam release for RetroArch is a little different to the normal version. Instead of grabbing these cores directly in the application, they're being put up as individual DLC to download.

      • Relaxing tropical adventure Fishing Paradiso announced for 2022 | GamingOnLinux

        Fishing Paradiso is the next title from Japanese developer Odencat, who also created Bear's Restaurant, with a release planned to arrive with Linux support in early 2022.

      • Silly platformer metroidvania Clunky Hero is now in Early Access | GamingOnLinux

        Chaosmonger Studio, developer of Encodya, has released their latest with the comedic platformer metroidvania Clunky Hero with it beginning life in Early Access.

        "Clunky Hero is a story-driven, platformer metroidvania, with a touch of RPG and tons of humor. If you’d love a platformer game where you have a funny storyline, can talk with characters, solve side quests, find and buy items, change weapons and wearables, with great hand-drawn-looking backgrounds, presented in a very comical way, then Clunky Hero might be the game of your dreams!"

      • Hacked Punch-Out Controlled With Actual Punches | Hackaday

        In a slightly safer departure away from jetpack roller-skating and flinging around bolts of lightning, [Ian Charnas] has been hacking retro video games. After a lot of hard work [Ian] has managed to add pose estimation to control the character is the NES boxing game “Punch-Out.” Surely he can’t get hurt doing that? No, but since it wasn’t fair to hurt the poor suffering characters, without taking any damage himself, he added electric-shock feedback to give the game a bit more, ahem, punch. See, you can get hurt playing video games!

        By starting with Google MoveNet, which is a pre-baked skeletal tracking model which can run in a browser using TensorFlowJS, he defined some simple heuristics for the various boxing moves usually performed with the game controller. Next, he needed to get the game. Being a all-round good guy, [Ian] bought an original copy of the game cartridge to obtain the license, then using the USB CopyNES from RetroUSB, dumped out the game binary for the next step.

      • Steam Deck Deposit - Steam Deck Shipping Update - Steam News
      • Steam Deck DELAYED! - Invidious
      • Steam Deck Release Pushed Back To February 2022 - Phoronix

        Valve just sent out an email to pre-order customers that the Steam Deck release is being delayed by two months.

        Due to the ongoing global supply chain crisis, Valve is needing to delay the Steam Deck ship date to February 2022 due to material/component shortages. Valve originally hoped to begin shipping their Steam Deck Linux-powered gaming handheld before the end of the calendar year.

      • Valve delays Steam Deck, now starts shipping February 2022 | GamingOnLinux

        Valve has announced today that their hotly anticipated handheld, the Steam Deck, has been delayed until 2022.

        Sadly, every company making computing hardware has been facing component shortages and various shipping delays and it seems that Valve has been unable to get around it. They said "The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months. We’re sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates."

      • You can grab a free to keep copy of Beholder on Steam | GamingOnLinux

        Beholder, a very well-reviewed game about being a state-installed landlord in a totalitarian country is currently available free for keeps on Steam. You might want to act fast on this one, as it seems the free to keep period ends tomorrow, November 11.

        "A totalitarian State controls every aspect of private and public life. Laws are oppressive. Surveillance is total. Privacy is dead. You are the State-installed manager of an apartment building. Your daily routine involves making the building a sweet spot for tenants, who will come and go.

      • Proton Experimental gets Age of Empires 4 working out of the box on Linux | GamingOnLinux

        Want to play Age of Empires 4 on Linux? Now you can. Another update for Proton Experimental has gone live. What is Steam Play and Proton? See our beginner's guide for more if you're unclear.

        As of November 9, Proton Experimental got fixes to allow Age of Empires 4 to work as well as Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy (although that only works on AMD GPUs currently). Additionally, a rare crash when starting up Baldur's Gate 3 was also solved for this release.

      • System76 patches APT for Pop!_OS to prevent users breaking their systems | GamingOnLinux

        There's been a huge amount of talk recently about switching to Linux for gaming, thanks to the challenge from Linus Tech Tips (YouTube) where two of their people tried the full-switch but it didn't go so well for Linus and Pop!_OS. Now, System76 are trying to improve.

        It was pretty unfortunate that as Linus was going to install Steam, Pop's packaging had some sort of breakage that wasn't quite picked up and Linus ended up hosing the Pop desktop install. You can easily do some finger-pointing on where the real blame lies here from Pop not ensuring a major package like Steam works correctly before it's pushed to users, to Linus ignoring the (what should be) pretty-clear warning message...

      • Hacking the Sony Playstation 5 - Schneier on Security

        I just don’t think it’s possible to create a hack-proof computer system, especially when the system is physically in the hands of the hackers.

      • A pair of PS5 hacks could be the first steps towards jailbreaking Sony’s latest console

        The two exploits are particularly notable due to the level of access they theoretically give to the PS5’s software. Decrypted firmware — which is possible through Fail0verflow’s keys — would potentially allow for hackers to further reverse engineer the PS5 software and potentially develop the sorts of hacks that allowed for things like installing Linux, emulators, or even pirated games on past Sony consoles.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • 7 Things You Should Know Before Switching to a Window Manager

        The idea of creating a personalized desktop compels many Linux users to install a window manager. There are ample reasons to ditch your current desktop environment and switch to a window manager instead, but since everyone comes from a different mold, it's not a "one-size-fits-all" case.

        [...]

        A window manager is a program responsible for positioning and displaying windows in a GUI. These programs can be a part of a larger desktop environment or can be used as a standalone desktop.

        A desktop environment usually consists of a window manager, widgets, and other utilities that interact with the rest of the applications to provide an interactive user experience. Some widely-used desktop environments are KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQt, Cinnamon, etc.

        i3wm, bwspm, dwm, KWin (used in KDE), and Metacity (used in GNOME) are some examples of window managers.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • This Extension Adds Your Text as Watermark in Ubuntu 21.10 GNOME

          Want to display some text on your desktop as watermark? This extension makes it possible in Ubuntu 21.10, or Fedora 34/35 with GNOME 40+.

          As I know, only Fedora so far display system logo as watermark in the bottom right of its GNOME desktop, though it’s enabled only for the default wallpaper by default.

          ‘Activate Gnome’ is the extension, which adds semi-transparent text ‘Activate Gnome – Go to Settings to activate Gnome‘ in the bottom right corner of GNOME 40+ desktop.

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

        • Sailfish OS Suomenlinna brings increased security, stability and reliability

          Suomenlinna is a Fortress built spanning four islands in the Suomenlahti (Gulf of Finland) just South of Helsinki. While Jolla just celebrated its tenth year, Suomenlinna, which literally translates to Finnish Castle, is somewhat older. Construction was started 267 years ago, with many thousands of workers building for nearly ten years before it was completed. Nowadays it’s designated as a World Heritage Site and you can visit it by ferry all year round to see it for yourself.

          It’s an appropriate codename for the Sailfish OS 4.3.0 Suomenlinna release given the emphasis we’ve placed on security improvements for this version of the operating system.

          For while we saw a tranche of new features included in the Sailfish OS 4.2.0 Verla release, in 4.3.0 Suomenlinna it’s much more about stability, bug-fixes and security improvements.

          Deeper integration and improved security

          The headline improvement is one that was already trailed by Ville in his recent Sandboxing blog post. From now on, any app that defines an application profile will be automatically sandboxed. This is currently an opt-in process; any app that isn’t updated in this way will still run outside the sandbox. As a user this means you will start to see some third party apps bring up the sandboxing dialogue on first run. You should already be familiar with this from 4.2.0, in which the Jolla apps were already sandboxed. In 4.3.0 Suomenlinna you’ll start to see this more often. Users can of course still run apps however they want, but can feel more confident when running apps inside the sandbox.

          This is an important security advancement, and follows the roadmap Ville described towards having all apps sandboxed. We’ve been careful to increase security without compromising user-control, and we think you’ll appreciate the extra peace-of-mind that sandboxing brings.

        • Sailfish OS 4.3 Released With Better Android App Support - Phoronix

          For fans of Jolla's Linux-based smartphone platform, Sailfish OS 4.3 "Suomenlinna" is out today.

          Sailfish OS 4.3 delivers on security improvements, including improved sandboxing support for applications. Jolla is still working towards having all Sailfish OS apps be sandboxed, among other ongoing security improvements.

      • SUSE/OpenSUSE

        • MicroOS Remote Attestation with TPM and Keylime

          During 2021 we have been starting to focus more in security for MicroOS. By default MicroOS is a fairly secure distribution: during the development all the changes are publicly reviewed, fixes (including CVEs) are integrated first (or at the same time) in Tumbleweed, we have read-only root system and a tool to recover old snapshots, and periodically the security team audit some of the new components. Also, the move from AppArmor to SELinux should help to standardize the security management.

          But we really want to rise the bar when it is possible. For example, we are starting to think on how to enable IMA/EVM properly in the distribution, or what alternatives we have for full disk encryption supported by a TPM. There are some evaluation on dm-verity inside the new Transactional Image Update installer.

          Another area where we make progress in MicroOS is how to measure the health of our systems, detect remotely when an unauthorized change has been made (remote attestation), and actuate over it globally and as fast as possible.

        • Accelerate Cloud Native DevOps with Erik Sterck FramES and SUSE Rancher

          Erik Sterck and SUSE deliver a “single button” approach to cloud native DevOps environments, making it easier than ever to achieve successful digital transformation and accelerate toward your cloud native goals.

        • Survey Results of Packagers, Maintainers Posted - openSUSE News

          The openSUSE Project has posted results from a recent survey that ran between Oct. 7 and Oct. 29.

          The aim was to gather more information from open-source developers, development teams, packagers and maintainers. The survey also aimed to determine the satisfaction level of contributors and better understand the complexities and challenges they encounter with the project’s development. The survey provided an area to comment and provide suggestions to improve relevant aspects of the project and its tools.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • What's new in RHEL 8.5

          Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 is now generally available (GA), and brings new features and improvements to help streamline deployments, optimize performance and help mitigate risk in your environments. Whether you're deploying RHEL on-prem, in the public cloud, at the edge -- or all of the above -- RHEL 8.5 has improvements that users will be eager to dig into.

          RHEL 8.5 continues the tradition of new features and improvements for running Linux containers. This release brings tooling that will add flexibility and reduce friction in running Podman in a wider range of environments.

        • Red Hat Announces General Availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5
          Red Hat, Inc., a leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5, the latest version of a leading enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers a common, open operating system that extends across clouds, traditional datacenter operations and out to the edge. The platform enables IT teams to lean on existing skills while they use new and expanded capabilities to build the transformative applications and services required by their business, regardless of where these workloads may ultimately live.

        • RHEL 8.5: OpenJDK 17, .NET 6, and more

          At Red Hat Summit 2019, we announced that minor releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) would be available every six months. Following the success of RHEL 8.4 in May 2021, we have completed yet another exciting release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 is now available. We recommend upgrading both your development and production systems to the new 8.5 release.

          Read on for an overview of the major highlights for developers in RHEL 8.5.

        • What Version of RHEL am I Using?

          RHEL or Red Hat Enterprise Linux is one of the many operating systems provided by Red Hat. Red Hat is a popular Linux OS and has started functioning ever since the mid-1990s. Red Hat earned a good reputation due to being stable, regularly updated, and reliable.

          If you are using RHEL and want to find its version, this article is for you. Now let’s check 7 useful methods to know what version of RHEL you are using.

        • Red Hat Satellite 6.9.7 has been released

          We are pleased to announce that Red Hat Satellite 6.9.7 is generally available as of November 10, 2021.

          Red Hat Satellite is part of the Red Hat Smart Management subscription that makes it easier for enterprises to manage patching, provisioning, and subscription management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure.

        • Toolbox is now Toolbx | Debarshi's den

          Toolbox is being renamed to Container Toolbx or just Toolbx.

          I had always been uncomfortable by the generic nature of the term toolbox and people keep complaining that it’s terribly difficult to search for. Recently, we have been trying to improve the online presence of the project by creating a website and a Twitter handle, and it’s impossible to find any decent Internet real estate with anything toolbox.

          It looks like dropping the penultimate character from words to form names is a thing these days, hence Toolbx.

        • Kafka Monthly Digest: October 2021 | Red Hat Developer

          Get the latest news from the Apache Kafka developer community, including new milestones for Kafka 3.1.0, Debezium 1.7, Strimzi 0.26.0, and more.

        • Leading from open: How military veterans view open culture at Red Hat

          Red Hat’s culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. You might not immediately think that this culture has a lot of overlap with that of the military, which may appear to be hierarchical and rely on command and control, but Red Hatters from our Military Veterans Diversity and Inclusion Community would disagree.

        • JNLP Access to BMC On Fedora | Adam Young’s Web Log

          I recently had to get in to a serial console on the machine. The IPMI address hosts a web console. From that you can get a serial console on the server, but you need JNLP, which stands for Java Net Launch Protocol. It is implemented by IcedTea in OpenJDK: icedtea-web is the name of the RPM on Fedora 34.

      • Debian Family

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • What To Do After Installing Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri

          Ubuntu 21.10, the latest release of the most popular desktop operating system from the GNU/Linux community, has been released this October and you perhaps have the system already on your computer. Once installed, you might want to know what to do after that for your daily purposes, with several configurations, additional apps and games. Enjoy Ubuntu computing!

        • Canonical Makes it Easy to Run a Linux VM on Apple M1

          Ever since Apple introduced its M1 chips, numerous efforts have been made to run Linux on it.

          [...]

          It is convenient for most developers to spin up a Linux VM instance and continue working on their system without interruptions.

          Unfortunately, getting a Linux instance up and running on M1 devices is not a straightforward task.

          While you have tools like VMware and VirtualBox to create virtual machines, it does not work on ARM-based Apple M1 silicon.

          As of now, VMware is slowly adding support for its products to work on Apple M1. However, that is still in closed beta and not feasible for users.

        • Canonical's new Multipass 1.8 runs Ubuntu Linux in a VM on M1 Macs
        • Canonical's Multipass 1.8 brings instant Ubuntu VMs to M1 Macs
        • Canonical Is Bringing Ubuntu To M1 Macs With ‘Multipass’

          There’s no denying the fact that M1 Macs are the most revolutionary devices that we’ve seen in the past decade. However, one of the many things they lack is the ability to run Linux. The recent Linux Kernel releases have improved M1 support, but Linux is still not very usable on M1.

          As of writing this, the only way to install Linux on M1 Macbooks is by using a Virtual Machine software like Parallels. Canonical has also followed the same road and is now offering ‘Multipass,’ which it claims is the fastest and easiest way to install Linux on M1 Macs.

        • Linux finally has an impressive cloud-like OS in Ubuntu Web

          Linux powers the cloud. But for the longest time, the operating system that single-handily makes the cloud possible didn't really have a desktop distribution that offered much in the way of applications that interacted well with the cloud. Yes, there's a Dropbox app and a few third-party tools that can be installed to sync your desktop to cloud storage accounts ... but not much more.

          [...]

          And then comes Ubuntu Web. This new-ish distribution promises to be the Chrome OS for Linux and, wow, does it achieve just that. To be honest, when I first heard about the remix I was doubtful. I'd seen so many distributions attempt them and, for the most part, fail. So, with trepidation, I downloaded the latest version of Ubuntu Web, spun up a VM, and gave it the test.

          Upon completing the installation, I logged in and was greeted by a window I'd never seen before in a Linux distribution. Said window required I log in. But to what account? It didn't take me long to realize it was requesting I log into an /e/ foundation account (which I already had). Logging into the /e/ account makes it possible for you to take advantage of a rather nifty trick Ubuntu Web has up its sleeve. Said trick is WayDroid, a port of Anbox which allows users to install Android apps from the /e/ store.

        • Linux overview | Xubuntu 21.10 - Invidious

          In this video, I am going to show an overview of Xubuntu 21.10 and some of the applications pre-installed.

        • SQL Server on Ubuntu Pro: bringing it all back home [Ed: Canonical sucking up to Microsoft again, instead of competing against its proprietary software]]
    • Devices/Embedded

      • Amlogic S905X based Pi lookalike starts at $35

        Geniatech’s Raspberry Pi like “XPI-S905X2/X3/X4” SBC runs Android on a quad -A53 Amlogic S905X2 or quad -A55 S905X3 or X4 with 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC, GbE, HDMI, 4x USB, 40-pin GPIO, and optional WiFi/BT.

        Geniatech has previously used Amlogic SoCs on its feature-rich DB10 dev board, which is based on Amlogic’s hexa-core -A73 and -A53 A311D, and has now returned with a Raspberry Pi pseudo clone built with a choice of three quad-core Amlogic SoCs: the Cortex-A53 based S905X2 and the Cortex-A55 based S905X3 and S905X4. The Android-supported XPI-S905X2/X3/X4 SBCs, which are also referred to as the 4K Single Board ARM PCs, go for $35 for the S905X2 model and $42 for the S905X3 version. The S905X4 model is not yet available.

      • Geniatech Unveils New 4K-Capable Raspberry Pi Alternative

        Two new boards in the Raspberry Pi form factor have appeared from Geniatech. Equipped with Amlogic processors, the XPI-S905X2 and XPI-S905X3, as spotted by CNX Software, claim 4K video playback capability.

        [...]

        All the new boards are capable of playing back 4K60 video in the VP9 Profile 2, HEVC MP-10, ACS2-P2, and H.264 AVC formats, while the most powerful (sporting an S905X4 chipset) can manage AV1 at 4K120 too.

        You get a power adapter and passive cooling fin in the box, and the boards use Android 9 as their OS, though it shouldn’t be too hard to get Linux up and running, as other Geniatech boards support that option.

      • Raspberry Pi inspired Intel SBC supports Myriad X AI accelerator, 5G connectivity

        Axiomtek KIWI310 may look like a Raspberry Pi SBC but it packs an Intel Celeron N3350 processor, an M.2 slot with support for Myriad X AI accelerator, and the company also offer a HAT with 5G cellular connectivity.

        The single board computer also comes with up to 4GB LPDDR4 memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, a Micro HDMI port, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as the ubiquitous 40-pin GPIO header. Power options are also an improvement over your typical Raspberry Pi board with USB-C PD as well as LiPo battery support.

      • CutiePi - a Raspberry Pi CM4 Linux Tablet

        It has an 8" 1280x800 multi-touch display, a 5000 mAh battery, USB 2.0, USB-C power (you can use the tablet while charging), micro HDMI for an external monitor or TV, and a microphone, speaker, and 5MP 1080p rear-facing camera.

        But my favorite thing? The rear case pops off after removing eight #2 phillips-head screws! No pentalobe here. The entire design is made to be repairable (to a certain extent), and is also open source, including the custom CutiePi Shell UI, which is so far the best custom tablet UI I've played with on a Raspberry Pi (though... that's not saying much!).

      • Lilbits: CutiePi Linux tablet, NXP i.MX 93 chips, Twitter Blue, and YouTube's Dislike button - Liliputing

        The CutiePi tablet with a built-in handle, a Raspberry Pi for brains, and Linux-based software is nearing release. Twitter is charging people willing to pay for an Undo Tweet button (and a few other perks). Google hopes YouTube might be a friendlier place if it hides the number of times the dislike button has been clicked on videos. And NXP has unveiled a new processor family.

      • Time to put this DIY absolute position encoder to work as a clock | Arduino Blog

        Being able to derive the absolute position of an object is vital in countless applications, primarily for anything that uses a motor. Instructables user holybaf had the idea to build their own rotary encoder, which has 60 degrees of resolution and utilizes a CD to act as a precise clock.

        To accomplish this, they first laid down a single circular track featuring patterns of light and dark areas that each correspond to a single value. By reading these areas with a set of six infrared emitters/detectors and comparing their current reading to the previous one, an absolute position can be determined.

      • Raspberry Pi Unveils 'Code Club World': A Way for Kids to Learn Code at Home - FOSS Force

        On Tuesday, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced Code Club World, a child-friendly website purposed with helping children aged 9 to 13 “learn to make stuff with code.”

        In a blog announcing the project, Laura Kirsop, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s head of learning experience, said the project was one result of the foundation’s efforts to create tools to help parents with homeschooling efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

        “When we spoke to parents and children about learning at home during the pandemic, it became clear to us that they were looking for educational tools that the children can enjoy and master independently, and that are as fun and social as the computer games and other apps the children love,” she said.

      • MXM modules showcase Nvidia Ampere

        Adlink’s “EGM-MXM-A” modules for edge AI bring Nvidia’s high-end Ampere graphics to MXM 3.1. The modules include RTX A1000, A2000, and A4500 graphics, with the latter offering 5,120 CUDA, 40 RT, and 160 Tensor cores for up to 17.8 TFLOPS.

        In May, Adlink announced the first MXM 3.1 modules with Nvidia Turing GPUs, ranging from the Quadro T1000 to the RTX5000. The company has followed up with the industry’s first MXM modules equipped with Nvidia’s higher-end Ampere graphics.

      • NXP's i.MX9 debuts with dual -A55, microNPU equipped i.MX93

        NXP unveiled a Linux-driven, energy-efficient “i.MX93” SoC for IoT with 1x or 2x 1.7GHz Cortex-A55 cores, 2D GPU, 250MHz Cortex-M33, NXP EdgeLock security, and options including a 1-TOPS Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU and Azure Sphere security.

        NXP announced the first of several i.MX9 processors, which offer improved security and power management and an optional 1-TOPS Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU. NXP’s first i.MX9 chip is a low-end i.MX93 model that focuses on energy efficient IoT applications, including battery-powered devices. The i.MX93 is equipped with 1x or 2x 1.7GHz Cortex-A55 cores, a 250MHz Cortex-M33, and an optional 1-TOPS, 256 MACs/cycle Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU.

        The i.MX93 is equipped with a 2D-only graphics GPU with support for up to 1080p60 encode and decode with MIPI-CSI and -DSI and 720p60 for LVDS and parallel interfaces. The GPU supports blending/composition, resizing, and color space conversion. Applications include voice-assisted smart home and building systems, low-power industrial gateways, and automotive driver monitoring systems.

      • NXP i.MX 93 processor combines Cortex-A55 cores with Ethos U65 microNPU - CNX Software

        NXP has unveiled the i.MX 93 processor family comprised of i.MX 935x, 933x, 932x, and 931x parts at this time with up to two Cortex-A55 cores, one Arm Cortex-M33 real-time core, as well as an Ethos U65 microNPU for machine learning (ML).

        We wrote about i.MX 9 family back in March with NXP telling us it would include an Arm Ethos U-65 microNPU and EdgeLock secure enclave, be manufactured with a 16/12nm FinFET class process, and includes the “Energy Flex” architecture to optimize power consumption by turning on/off specific blocks in the processor. The NXP i.MX 93 is the first family leveraging those new features, and we know have some more details.

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • 3D Printed Absolute Encoder Is Absolutely Wonderful | Hackaday

          When you need to record the angle of something rotating, whether it’s a knob or a joint in a robotic arm, absolute rotary encoders are almost always the way to go. They’re cheap, they’re readily available, and it turns out you can make a pretty fantastic one out of a magnetic sensor, a ziptie, and a skateboard bearing.

        • James Bruton built a robot that moves like an earthworm | Arduino Blog

          Self-propelling robots come in a whole host of shapes, sizes, and capabilities, with some being able to fly while other can walk on just a couple or many legs. But YouTuber James Bruton wanted to innovate on this concept even further by designing and building a robot that mimics an earthworm through extending and contracting segments at certain times to slowly inch along the ground. This class of motion is called peristalsis, and it works by constricting a ring of muscles to propagate material, such as in the case of the digestive tract, or to move an entire body.

        • Ikea PM2.5 air quality sensor's ESP8266 hack adds WiFi, MQTT, and Tasmota support - CNX Software

          Ikea VINDRIKTNING PM2.5 air quality sensor functionality can be augmented with an ESP8266 WiFi board or module, and open-source firmware adding MQTT, or the popular Tasmosta firmware for more features.

          Out of the box, Ikea air quality sensor simply shows green (good), yellow (ok), and red (not good) colors to indicate the level of pollution with PM2.5 levels. But Sören Beye (Hypfer), who also happens to have developed Valetudo firmware for smart vacuum cleaners, has added a Wemos D1 Mini board to his sensor and developed open-source firmware with MQTT support.

        • Streamline Your SMD Assembly Process With 3D-Printed Jigs | Hackaday

          Maybe it’s time to try Stencilframer, a 3D-printable jig generator created by [Igor]. This incredibly useful tool takes either a set of gerbers or a KiCad PCB file and generates 3D models of a jig and a frame to securely hold the board and associated stencil. The tool itself is a Python script that uses OpenSCAD for all 3D geometry generation. From there, it’s a simple matter to throw the jig and frame models on a 3D printer and voilà!– perfectly-aligned stencils, every time.

      • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Upcoming release - coreboot 4.15

        The 4.15 release is planned for November 5th, 2021.

        Since 4.14 there have been more than 2597 new commits by more than 219 developers. Of these, over 73 contributed to coreboot for the first time.

        Welcome to the project!

        Thank you to all the developers who continue to make coreboot the great open source firmware project that it is.

      • Coreboot 4.15 Released With New System76 Laptops, More ASUS Motherboards - Phoronix

        Coreboot 4.15 was tagged today as the latest advertised version of this open-source firmware implementation for systems. With this new version are 21 additional laptops and motherboards supported.

        With Coreboot 4.15 comes 21 new motherboard ports, 14 of which are for supporting different System76 laptops. System76 recently upstreamed a number of their laptop ports with the likes of the Oryx Pro 7 / 8, Galago Pro 2 / 3, Gazelle 14, and others being part of the growing upstream collection of supported System76 products by Coreboot.

      • Free and Online '2021 State of the Onion' Slated for November 17 - FOSS Force

        This event is aimed squarely at users and advocates of the TOR (short for The Onion Router) Project, which produces a Firefox-based browser that directs users internet traffic through a free global network of relays to conceal users’ locations from network surveillance or third party traffic analysis. This not only allows users to travel the web unseen, but the ability to conduct unmonitored confidential communications.

        Until last year’s arrival of Covid-19, the State of the Onion wasn’t a stand alone event, but consisted of a compilation of updates from different Tor projects that was disseminated at various conferences during the year. When Covid hit in 2020, resulting in mass cancellation of in-person events, the TOR project presented the State of the Onion as a standalone live streaming event.

      • Google Makes Some Major Changes To Summer of Code 2022 - No Longer Limited To Students

        Over the past nearly two decades Google Summer of Code (GSoC) has been known as an initiative for getting students involved with open-source software development over the course of a summer while receiving a stipend/grant from Google. Beginning next year, GSoC will no longer be limited to students but open to all adults. Additionally, other changes are also coming.

        This year Google shortened the GSoC length and cut the stipend amount. They made those changes this year in the name of COVID-19 while for GSoC 2022 there are even more changes.

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • How to download the latest version of Firefox

            I am taming Firefox, getting it to run nicely on my Acer Aspire 1 laptop. Over the last couple of days I posted to the blog about issues with Firefox. It even froze the desktop when attempted to do an update.

            I have managed to completely disable updating, will document how that is achieved later.

            A different update strategy: Each release of EasyOS will have the latest version of Firefox. No need for users to use the auto-update feature in Firefox. You can turn it on if you want, but no need. I am bringing out new releases of EasyOS quite frequently.

          • Firefox Nightly: These Weeks in Firefox: Issue 101
          • Personalize Firefox with colorways

            Starting with Firefox version 94, you will be able to personalize your browsing experience with 18 exciting new colorways themes. Each limited edition colorway presents its own individual bespoke characteristic. Find a color that better fits you with our palette.

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • FSFE

        • Software Freedom in Europe 2021

          Cancelling of large events, limitations in meetings, and travel restrictions: none of this stopped the FSFE from advancing software freedom in 2021. From Router Freedom to new podcast episodes to co-organising the Legal and Policy devroom at FOSDEM, we keep empowering people to control technology.

          'Public Money? Public Code!' online workshops were offered to volunteers, and an online Legal and Licensing Workshop for legal experts was organised. The FSFE assisted software projects to become REUSE compliant with our new initiative, REUSE Booster. We created a monitoring map to demonstrate the developments of Router Freedom rights in Europe. The FSFE presented suggestions and demands to support sustainable software. Meanwhile, a two-year court case initiated by FSFE supporter Luca Bonissi successfully came to an end, unequivocally recognising the right to a Windows licence refund. Overall, significant accomplishments for software freedom marked 2021, the year FSFE is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

      • FSF

        • Public Invited to Today's Online Community Planning Day for International Day Against DRM 2021 - FOSS Force

          Today the Free Software Foundation is having a community planning day today for the upcoming International Day Against DRM 2021 event, and the public is invited to attend.

          The annual event, started in 2006 by FSF’s anti-DRM initiative Defective by Design, seeks to be “a counterpoint to the pro-DRM message broadcast by powerful media and software companies,” as well as to draw attention to the anti-consumer aspects of DRM. This year, the worldwide event is scheduled to take place on December 10, 2021.

      • Programming/Development

        • Intel Updates Alder Lake Tuning For GCC, Reaffirms No Official AVX-512 - Phoronix

          Posted last year for introduction in the GCC 11 stable compiler released earlier this year was the initial Alder Lake "alderlake" target. Now that Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors are officially out, Intel engineers have updated their Alder Lake tuning for the GNU Compiler Collection to yield more efficient performance with GCC 12 due out in Q2'2022.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • 10 Image File Formats That Didn’t Make It

        From PCX to TGA to VRML, considering a number of image formats that the world forgot. Not every image standard is going to last, no matter how pretty it is.

        Around this time 30 years ago, two separate working groups were putting the finishing touches on technical standards that would come to reshape the way people observed the world. One technical standard reshaped the way that people used an important piece of office equipment at the time: the fax machine. The other would basically reshape just about everything else, becoming the de facto way that high-quality images and low-quality memes alike are shared on the internet and in professional settings. They took two divergent paths, but they came from the same place: The world of compression standards. The average person has no idea what JBIG, the compression standard most fax machines use, is—but they’ve most assuredly heard about JPEG, which was first publicly released in 1992. The JPEG format is awesome and culture-defining, but this is Tedium, and I am of course more interested in the no-name formats of the world. Today’s Tedium discusses 10 image formats that time forgot. Hope you have the right conversion tool.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • Faster IPA Recycling For Your Resin Print Workflow | Hackaday

        If you’ve printed with photopolymer resins, you know that you need alcohol. Lots of alcohol. It makes sense that people would like to reuse the alcohol both to be environmentally responsible and to save a little money. The problem is that the alcohol eventually becomes so dirty that you have to do something. Given time, the polymer residue will settle to the bottom and you can easily pour off most of the clean liquid. You can also use filters with some success. But [Makers Mashup] had a different idea. Borrowing inspiration from water treatment plants, he found a chemical that will hasten the settling process. You can see a video of his process below.

        The experimentation started with fish tank clarifier, which is — apparently — mostly alum. Alum’s been used to treat wastewater for a long time. Even the ancient Romans used it for that purpose in the first century. Alum causes coagulation and flocculation so that particles in the water wind up sinking to the bottom.

    • Hardware

      • IBM PCjr From 1984 Keeps Today’s Clocks Running In Sync | Hackaday

        We’ve gotten used to the fact that the clocks on our internet-connected computers and smartphones are always telling the right time. Time servers, provided by a variety of government agencies as well as tech giants, provide them with the exact time and date thanks to accurate atomic clocks and the clever Network Time Protocol (NTP). But it wasn’t always like this: back in the 1990s when many computers didn’t have an internet connection, we had to adjust our computers’ clocks manually. Go back one more decade, and many PCs didn’t even have a battery-backed clock at all; you either set the proper date and time when the computer booted, or just lived with the fact that all new files were timestamped 01-01-1980.

        [Michael Brutman] decided to mix today’s world of network time synchronization with the old world of batteryless PCs, and built an SNTP Time Server that runs on a DOS PC. He tried it with two different hardware setups: a 40 MHz 386 PC from 1993, and the (in)famous IBM PCjr from 1984. A standard GPS module serves as an accurate time reference; these units can often be directly connected to old hardware thanks to the eternal RS-232 standard.

      • Most FDM Printers Are Also Filament Dryers (with A Little Help) | Hackaday

        If you’ve printed with an FDM printer, you probably know there are many interrelated factors to getting a good print. One key item is the dryness of the filament. When you first crack your plastic open, it should be dry. Most filament is packed in a sealed bag with desiccant in it. But if you have the filament out for a while, it soaks up moisture from the air and that causes lots of problems. [Design Prototype Test] has built and bought filament dryers before, but now he would like to point out that every FDM printer with a heated bed can act as a filament dryer. You can see the details in the video below.

      • A Breathtaking Circuit Sculpture Clock | Hackaday

        Here at Hackaday, we pride ourselves on bringing you the very freshest of hacks. But that doesn’t mean we catch all the good stuff the first time around, and occasionally we get a tip on an older project that really should have been covered the first time around. This remarkable circuit sculpture clock is a perfect example of one that almost got away.

        [Gislain Benoit] creation is called “The Tower” for good reason: it’s built inside what amounts to a giant glass test tube. Inverted and adorned with MDF discs, the Pyrex tube stands 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, and is absolutely stuffed with electronic goodness. There are more than 2,100 discrete components mounted inside on a helical framework of carefully bent wires, forming a vertical sculpture that displays the time on three separate pairs of seven-segment displays. All the diode-transitor logic circuits are built from discrete components; nary a chip was used, and to spice things up, [Gislain] used LEDs in place of regular diodes everywhere in the circuit. The result is a constant light show as the clock goes through its paces.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Chrome OS virtual keyboard gaining dark theme, Unicode 14 emoji, Linux apps support

          Google is working on improvements to Chrome OS’s virtual keyboard, including a new dark theme, Unicode 14 emoji, and the ability to type while using Linux apps.

          For over a year now, Google has been working on a light/dark toggle for Chrome OS, which would take the current default theme and make it even darker, while also offering a massively redesigned light theme that we first showcased last September. Given how long it’s been in progress, it’s clear that Google wants to perfect all of the minor details of both sides of this light/dark theme toggle before launching it to everyone.

          To that end, the next piece of Chrome OS to get a dark theme is the virtual keyboard — the touchscreen keyboard that appears when you’re using a tablet or when your convertible Chromebook has the keyboard flipped away. According to a new flag being added to chrome://flags, the virtual keyboard will be getting a new theme that won’t be as blindingly white as its current iteration.

        • Microsoft Nov. Patch Tuesday Fixes Six Zero-Days, 55 Bugs [Ed: It's even worse than this because Microsoft admitted that it plugs some security holes without ever announcing the corresponding bugs at all]

          Experts urged users to prioritize patches for Microsoft Exchange and Excel, those favorite platforms so frequently targeted by cybercriminals and nation-state actors.

          Microsoft reported a total of 55 vulnerabilities, six of which are rated critical, with the remaining 49 being rated important. The flaws are found in Microsoft Windows and Windows Components, Azure, Azure RTOS, Azure Sphere, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), Exchange Server, Microsoft Office and Office Components, Windows Hyper-V, Windows Defender, and Visual Studio.

        • Pun-free Cylance vulnerability, fixed | Pen Test Partners

          A heap overflow resulting in a denial of service, low privilege arbitrary file delete and an elevation of privilege from limited service accounts to SYSTEM.

          It is recommended that the software is either upgraded to the latest 158x stream or version 1578 at the time of writing. Further information on the advisory can be found here.

        • Security

          • Younger generations care little about cybersecurity - Help Net Security

            According to SailPoint, 59% of workers use corporate email for personal use, but younger generations are the biggest cybersecurity offender.

          • Intel and Canonical to secure containers software supply chain

            Today, cloud-native developers benefit from an abundance of resources to compose their applications. With container images, packaging all these resources in a standard, easy-to-reuse format is now easier than ever. Unfortunately, container images also make it easier to package unneeded, vulnerable software or even malicious resources.

            Knowing which resources to use and what is a safe base layer when starting a cloud-native project is challenging. Extreme caution should go into picking these dependencies deliberately. Organisations need to provide their developers with “sane defaults”, trusted sources to underpin and support applications.

          • Security updates for Wednesday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (openjdk-8 and samba), Fedora (community-mysql, firefox, and vim), openSUSE (binutils, kernel, and tinyxml), Red Hat (annobin, autotrace, babel, bind, binutils, bluez, compat-exiv2-026, container-tools:2.0, container-tools:3.0, container-tools:rhel8, cups, curl, dnf, dnsmasq, edk2, exiv2, file, file-roller, firefox, gcc, gcc-toolset-10-annobin, gcc-toolset-10-binutils, gcc-toolset-10-gcc, gcc-toolset-11-annobin, gcc-toolset-11-binutils, gcc-toolset-11-gcc, glib2, glibc, GNOME, gnutls and nettle, go-toolset:rhel8, grafana, graphviz, grilo, httpd:2.4, jasper, java-17-openjdk, json-c, kernel, kernel-rt, kexec-tools, kpatch-patch, lasso, libgcrypt, libjpeg-turbo, libsepol, libsolv, libssh, libtiff, libwebp, libX11, linuxptp, lua, mingw-glib2, mutt, ncurses, NetworkManager, openjpeg2, openssh, openssl, pcre, pcs, php:7.4, python-jinja2, python-lxml, python-pillow, python-pip, python-psutil, python27:2.7, python3, python36:3.6, python38:3.8 and python38-devel:3.8, python39:3.9 and python39-devel:3.9, qt5, resource-agents, rpm, rust-toolset:rhel8, spamassassin, sqlite, squid:4, tcpdump, tpm2-tools, vim, virt:rhel and virt-devel:rhel, and zziplib), and SUSE (binutils and kernel).

          • WordPress 5.8.2 Security and Maintenance Release

            WordPress 5.8.2 is now available!

            This security and maintenance release features 2 bug fixes in addition to 1 security fix. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.2 have also been updated.

            WordPress 5.8.2 is a small focus security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.9.

          • Linux patching — the why and the how | TahawulTech.com

            Since the region’s governments initiated their economic-diversification initiatives, Middle East enterprises have been digitising at a robust pace, putting them squarely in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. But when COVID-19 struck, and businesses and governments flocked to the cloud for its promise of continuity, things got worse. In the UAE, for example, the nation’s top cybersecurity official revealed a 250% increase in attacks from 2019 to 2020. This is what bad actors do. They take advantage of circumstances, any circumstances, to pounce.

            And what a circumstance the pandemic turned out to be for digital malefactors. To settle quickly into their new homes in the cloud, regional organisations had to accept new, untested ecosystems. Multiple network domains that fell outside the control of IT, coupled with a mushrooming of Shadow IT, dumped alien environments on the heads of thousands of under-resourced tech teams.

          • Rust-proofing the internet with ISRG's Prossimo

            You know the non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) for its Let's Encrypt certificate authority, the most popular way of securing websites with TLS certificates. The group wants to do more. Its newest project, Prossimo, seeks to make many basic internet programs and protocols memory-safe by rewriting them in Rust.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • NFC Performance: It’s All In The Antenna | Hackaday [Ed: 'Chipping' people through cards you compel them to carry]

              NFC tags are a frequent target for experimentation, whether simply by using an app on a mobile phone to interrogate or write to tags, by incorporating them in projects by means of an off-the-shelf module, or by designing a project using them from scratch. Yet they’re not always easy to get right, and can often give disappointing results. This article will attempt to demystify what is probably the most likely avenue for an NFC project to have poor performance, the pickup coil antenna in the reader itself.

            • Civil society counters Big Tech in Massachusetts privacy debate - Access Now

              Today, Access Now and a coalition of civil society organizations are correcting the record regarding the Massachusetts Information Privacy Act (MIPA) — an important state initiative to protect people’s fundamental right to privacy and to hold Big Tech accountable, which is under fire from corporate lobbyists.

              “Massachusetts can set a standard by passing one of the strongest privacy frameworks in the country, and standing up to Big Tech,” said Willmary Escoto, U.S. Policy Analyst at Access Now. “As usual, the industry is attempting to confuse, delay, and stop any bill that would lead to real privacy protections. Our letter provides further evidence that industry’s arguments are hollow. Massachusetts should move full steam ahead with MIPA to help protect Massachusettsans’ privacy, and to influence a federal law.”

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Portugal makes it illegal for your boss to text you after work in 'game changer' remote work law | Euronews

        Remote workers in Portugal could see a healthier work-life balance under new labour laws approved by the country's parliament.

        The new rules approved on Friday are a response to the explosion of home working as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Portugal's ruling Socialist Party said.

        Under the new rules, employers could face penalties for contacting workers outside of office hours. Companies will also have to help pay for expenses incurred by remote working, such as higher electricity and internet bills.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Libya’s cybercrime law: A threat to freedom of expression

        Access Now and a coalition of civil society organizations call on the Libyan authorities to immediately rescind the new cybercrime law adopted by the Libyan House of Representatives on October 26, 2021.

        The new bill, which was leaked on social media by a number of MPs and experts, will significantly limit freedom of expression online and grant Libyan authorities the liberty to target and suppress human rights activists and defenders, and restrict press freedom. The cybercrime law will also hand Libyan authorities the power to monitor and censor content published on social media “and any other technical platform”, and to block websites without judicial orders.

        “The new cybercrime law is repressive and constitutes a real danger to fundamental rights and freedoms in Libya”, said Marwa Fatafta, MENA Policy Manager at Access Now. “Cybercrime cannot be combated by muzzling, blocking, and surveilling speech online based on broad and ambiguous definitions. We call on the Libyan authorities to rescind this law.”

      • Human rights organizations call on Libyan authorities to rescind the new cybercrime law - Access Now

        The undersigned organizations call upon Libyan authorities to rescind the cybercrime law recently adopted by the Libyan House of Representatives. The law would severely restrict freedom of expression, curtail press freedom, and legalize mass surveillance of speech online. Additionally, the law allows for warrantless blocking of websites and content.

        During the plenary session held on October 26, 2021, the Libyan House of Representatives ratified the Anti-Cybercrime Law. The vote comes at a pivotal moment for Libya with the presidential elections scheduled for December 24, 2021. In order to ensure these elections are free, fair, and transparent, it is imperative to guarantee freedom of opinion and expression as well as freedom of press, both offline and online.

        The draft bill was quickly passed, only one day after it was added to the parliament’s agenda and without public consultation with Libyan civil society, human rights defenders, or experts. This has prompted the undersigned organizations to examine the version available on social media, which was leaked by Members of Parliament and experts in the digital field.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Reborn Into a New Form (1849) – The Public Domain Review

          A second life? To live again? Fyodor Dostoevsky, famously, survived the uncanny pantomime of his own execution, and found himself, on the other side, “reborn into a new form”. These were Dostoevsky’s words, written to his brother in the wake of ordeal. Here below, those very words are themselves given a kind of second life: in this excerpt from Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life (published earlier this year), Alex Christofi stitches primary source excerpts into a “reconstructed memoir” — the memoir that Dostoevsky himself never wrote. The dream of literature made entirely of quotations reaches back across more than a century of cut-ups, remixes, centos, and collages: from Octavian Esanu’s brilliant JFL, What Does "Why" Mean? (2002), through Guy Debord’s Mémoires (1958), and over the mountain of Walter Benjamin’s landmark “Arcades” project (1927–1940). In 1990, Richard Price’s pioneering history of slave rebellion in Suriname, Alabi’s World (1990), used four different typefaces, one for each of the “voices” being woven into a single work. Here, in this re-collected episode, Christofi, too, is weaving: weaving Dostoevsky’s autobiographical fiction together with his fantastic life. — D. Graham Burnett, Series Editor

        • Laughter in the Time of Cholera – The Public Domain Review

          Political instability, popular unrest, and an impending pandemic? Welcome to France in the early 1830s. Vlad Solomon explores what made Parisiens laugh in a moment of crisis through the prism of a vaudeville play.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day