Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 08/09/2023: CircuitPython 8.2.5 and PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.8.2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Applications

      • Linux Links9 Best Free and Open Source Linux Usenet Tools

        Unlike web forums, Usenet does not have a central server or a dedicated administrator. Instead, Usenet is distributed among a conglomeration of servers that store and pass messages to each other. There are several different types of newsreaders. Some newsreaders are intended primarily for discussions, others are better suited for downloading files. Newsreaders that help users to adhere to the netiquette are evaluated by the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval (GNKSA). There are also tools which are dedicated for downloading files only.

        The ratings chart below summarizes our verdict. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • idroot

        • ID RootHow To Install OpenCV on Debian 12

          In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenCV on Debian 12. For those of you who didn’t know, In the world of digital content and SEO optimization, the role of image processing cannot be underestimated.

        • ID RootHow To Install Webmin on AlmaLinux 9

          In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Webmin on AlmaLinux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Webmin is a powerful web-based system administration tool that provides a user-friendly interface for managing Linux servers.

      • howtoforge

      • Net2How to Install Google Chrome on Ubuntu 22.04

        Google Chrome is a popular web browser that is available for many different devices, including Ubuntu 22.04. In this tutorial, we will cover three methods for installing Google Chrome on Ubuntu 22.04: using a Debian package, using Gui and using the Google repository.

      • Own HowToHow to fix " Failed to execute default terminal emulator" on Debian 12

        I was using Debian 12 today, and I had the terminal window open installing some stuff on my machine. Once I closed the terminal,

      • RoseHostingHow to Install Elgg on Debian 11

        Elgg is a free and open-source social networking engine that is easy to install and set up...

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Make File Chooser Dialog default to Current Working Directory

        This simple tutorial shows how to replace ‘Recent Used‘ with current working directory as default in GTK file chooser in Ubuntu.

      • RlangMastering Data Visualization in R: How to Plot a Subset of Data

        Data visualization is a powerful tool for gaining insights from your data. In R, you have a plethora of libraries and functions at your disposal to create stunning and informative plots. One common task is to plot a subset of your data, which allows you to focus on specific aspects or trends within your dataset. In this blog post, we’ll explore various techniques to plot subsets of data in R, and I’ll explain each step in simple terms. Don’t worry if you’re new to R – by the end of this post, you’ll be equipped to create customized plots with ease!

        Before we start, make sure you have R and RStudio installed on your computer. If not, you can download them from R’s official website and RStudio’s website.

      • University of Toronto(Unix) Directory traversal and symbolic links

        If and when you set out to traverse through a Unix directory hierarchy, whether to inventory it or to find something, you have a decision to make. I can put this decision in technical terms, about whether you use stat() or lstat() when identifying subdirectories in your current directory, or put it non-technically, about whether or not you follow symbolic links that happen to point to directories. As you might guess, there are two possible answers here and neither is unambiguously wrong (or right). Which answer programs choose depends on their objectives and their assumptions about their environment.

      • TecMintLFCS #6: How to Assemble Partitions as RAID Devices and Create System Backups

        The Linux Foundation launched the LFCS (Linux Foundation Certified Sysadmin) certification, a shiny chance for system administrators everywhere to demonstrate, through a performance-based exam, that they are capable of performing overall operational support on Linux systems: system support, first-level diagnosing and monitoring, plus issue escalation, when required, to other support teams.

        The series will be titled Preparation for the LFCS (Linux Foundation Certified Sysadmin) Parts 1 through 33 and cover the following topics:

      • OSTechNixHow To Configure SSH Key-based Authentication In Linux

        This guide provides an overview of different SSH authentication methods, with a particular focus on SSH key-based authentication. Additionally, this guide will walk you through the steps on how to configure SSH key-based authentication in Linux and Unix-like operating systems.

      • OSTechNixHow To Enable Bucklespring Keyboard Sound In Linux

        Have you ever used any good old IBM keyboards? Especially, the IBM Model-M space saver bucklespring keyboards are heavy and loud. If you are a fan of bucklespring keyboards, then Bucklespring utility is a great way to enjoy the sound of these keyboards even if you don't own one. In this brief tutorial, we will see how to enable Bucklespring keyboard sound in Linux.

      • How to Remove Inserted Horizontal Line in LibreOffice Writer

        Are you get frustrated when horizontal lines are inserted and you face trouble removing them in LibreOffice Writer? These lines can disrupt the flow and appearance of your document. But don't worry, there are ways to remove them and improve your experience with LibreOffice. This article will guide you through the steps to remove these lines and give you back control over your document's formatting.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)IBM Gaslighting: “The New Linux Technologies Work Fine. It’s Just You!” Wayland is Not Robust.

        I like to say Wayland is “Negative work.” not only because it just replaces X11 with inferior beta software-quality interfaces, sometimes missing entirely, where everyone has to rewrite the same function from scratch, but because it requires work that doesn’t involve actually improving the desktop and window management for the users.

        A lot of work has been poured into get KDE to do things it already did on X11, and with code that is new and unstable, and incomplete.

        “Negative work” was also a direct quote from IBM.

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • LinuxiacKDE Plasma 6 Roadmap Unveiled: When Can You Expect It
          The KDE Plasma desktop environment has long been a favorite among countless Linux enthusiasts and open-source advocates, known for its stunning visuals, customizability, and user-friendly design.

          The current stable release, KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS, is the last in the 5.x series and will receive bugfixes only, but no new features.

          In this light, in recent months, all developer efforts have been focused on the upcoming Plasma 6 release, which is expected to be a turning point in the evolution of this beloved desktop environment.

        • OMG! LinuxDevs Announce KDE Plasma 6 Release Date

          Development on KDE Plasma 6 kicked off (heh) earlier this year. The desktop side is now built using Qt 6 technologies. This unlock support for new features, capabilities (including enhancements to ‘convergence’ implementations), and further future-proofing.

          Earlier this KDE developers met up in Berlin, Germany to work on the next-generation of the KDE Plasma desktop. A number of interesting details came out of that sprint, including a decision to adopt a slower release cadence.

          Sadly a release date wasn’t part of that info dump, so it’s great to finally have one. Something to jot down in our calendars to look forward to.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • BSD

      • FreeBSDMeet The Summer 2023 University of Waterloo Co-Op Student: Naman Sood

        The Foundation has continued our successful partnership with the University of Waterloo Co-Op Program. Since 2017 we’ve had 15 interns, some having returned for more than one internship. We’ve also had two interns become full-fledged committers, and many continue to contribute. We sat down with this year’s Summer Co-Op Student to learn more about them and why they chose to work with FreeBSD.

    • Debian Family

      • UbuntuUbuntu at DebConf 2023 | Ubuntu

        It is safe to say that there would be no Ubuntu without Debian. Canonical is a long time supporter of Debian, and a Gold sponsor of DebConf this year. On top of the sponsorship, many Ubuntu developers and Canonical engineers are going to speak at DebConf.

        Till Kamppeter will show us The New Architecture for Printing and Scanning on Debian in a dedicated talk. He is also going to share his experience of running events and inspiring more contributors with his session Opportunity Open Source conference in the IIT Mandi, India: Motivating people to be a part of us!

      • The Register UK Linux on the Arm-based Thinkpad X13S: It's getting there
        The latest release of Armbian helps with the non-trivial problem of installing and running an arbitrary Linux distro on Arm computers.

        The Lenovo Thinkpad X13S Generation 1 which we reviewed back in March is the first mainstream Arm-powered laptop that the Reg FOSS Desk has got to evaluate. There are other Arm-based laptops out there, such as Pine64's Pinebook Pro and various Arm-powered ChromeBooks, but the X13S is closer to an ordinary X86-based laptop: it has a decent spec, with 16GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe SSD – plus PC-industry-standard UEFI firmware, which is still relatively unusual on consumer Arm computers. Better still, you can disable Secure Boot, which many Arm-powered devices don't allow. A decade ago, this was a critical problem with the original Microsoft Surface RT: Windows RT was a flop, and the firmware wouldn't let you run anything else.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • It's FOSSUbuntu 23.10 to Feature Experimental TPM-backed Full Disk Encryption

        Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds keep getting exciting new additions!

        Earlier we had covered the major PPA changes, and the new Flutter-based store (which also landed with the latest daily builds).

        Now, we have yet another major change that is set to enhance the security of Ubuntu systems; by changing how users handle the encrypting of their disks (if enabled).

        The initial support for the feature is set to arrive with Ubuntu 23.10 and will be improved in future Ubuntu releases.

      • UbuntuManage FIPS-enabled Linux machines at scale with Landscape 23.03

        You or your organisation are tasked with hardening your workstations and servers, where do you begin? Installing Ubuntu and applying all the security patches is a good place to start, but what else is needed? The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a cybersecurity agency established in 1988, has published a series of security requirements for cryptographic modules since 1993. Instead of approaching hardening from a blank slate, anyone can benefit from NIST’s ongoing work in under 5 minutes, and have the strongest cryptography and hardening posture, when using Ubuntu.

        Presented by Canonical’s VP of Public Sector, Chris Huffman, and Product Managers Rajan Patel, Ijlal Loutfi, and Henry Coggill. The webinar covers baselines, standards, and guidelines as they pertain to implementing FIPS with maximum security.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Herman ÕunapuuThe IKEA-powered homelab on a wall

        There are some improvements that I might implement to a revision of this board. The USB cables connecting the external SSD-s seem to be just small enough to be routable behind the pegboard. Other cables that are visible can probably be hidden on the other side as well, giving the setup a much cleaner look.

      • ArduinoThis bionic hand responds to motion control

        This is the newest iteration of a project that Cogley first started a few years ago. It is robotic hand meant to mimic a human hand as much as possible. Human fingers do not contain muscles. Instead, muscles in the forearms and palms pull on tendons to move the fingers. Cogley’s bionic hand works in a similar manner by using servo motors in the forearm to pull on cables that actuate the fingers. An Arduino UNO Rev3 moves the servos according to commands from a PC, but Cogley needed a way to streamline those commands.

      • PurismPureOS on Liberty Phone and Librem 5

        With the Librem 5 just hitting€ shipping parity€ and Purism holding stock for new purchases, it was time for an updated review of the tremendous progress our team has made with PureOS for the Librem 5 and Liberty Phone with Made in USA Electronics.€  Here we will talk about the good, bad, and lasting effects of PureOS on the Liberty Phone and Librem 5.

        Both the Librem 5 and Liberty Phone were a giant gamble that paid off in a big way. Prior to the Librem 5, nearly every new phone produced used the software stack from Android or iOS, both of which are fundamentally flawed around data protection and proper transparent fully released source code. Instead of using this problematic base and adopting apps that monetize your data, or where the source code is not released, or worse… both of those. We chose the much harder but proper path and built an Operating System, PureOS, using only free software thereby avoiding data collection entirely, advancing fully free software, and bonus we invented true convergence within PureOS which is a non-Android Linux OS. With PureOS, you get a full Linux Desktop on everything from servers to phones. We don’t collect user data nor provide avenues to easily incorporate ads into our ecosystem. Resulting in a pure experience free of nagging apps and unalterable defaults. The Librem 5 and Liberty Phone running PureOS do not spy on you, giving you peace of mind that you are fully protected from the hardware all the way to the apps.

        On the Liberty phone and Librem 5 the Linux kernel is kept up to date by Purism and its many investments in upstream, it needs a shrinking number of alterations from the main branch because of these advancements. This keeps kernel features up to date and makes it easy to port alternative OSs to the Librem 5 or Liberty Phone. Congratulations are in order for our Linux kernel team.

      • HackadayHow Small Can The ESP32 Get?

        At its core, the ESP32 chip is not much more than an integrated circuit, a huge mass of transistors sealed inside an epoxy resin package with some leads. Of course, most of us won’t buy discrete ESP32 chips with no support circuitry since it’s typically easier and often not that much more expensive to get them paired with development boards of some type for easy access to things like USB and GPIO. But these tiny chips need little in the way of support to get up and running as [Paul] demonstrates with this tiny ESP32 board.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • PowerDNSPowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.8.2

      In Authoritative Server 4.8, the LMDB backend gains a new Lightning Stream-compatible schema, which requires a data migration (this is automatic, and there is no migration back to the old schema). LMDB backend users should pay extra attention to the Upgrade Notes.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Quoting Wikipedia to Explain Why You Should Not Use Microsoft Office 365.

        Microsoft 365 is banned for use in classrooms in at least one German state, which has deemed it too insecure to even use at all.

        Also, this is the stuff that survived Microsoft’s PR firm “pruning” things from Wikipedia.

        None of this things can happen to you if you use LibreOffice, and store your documents on your own computer.

        Also, LibreOffice never goes into “read-only” mode if you stop paying a monthly fee. There is no fee.

    • Education

      • Carl SchwanFreedom Not Fear 2023

        Last weekend, I went to Freedom Not Fear 2023 in Brussels. Fnf is an unconference for and by European digital activists. It covers various topics, from the latest terrible European law (Chat Control) to discussing how to get more involved in our democracies.

        I usually attend more technical conferences, and it was refreshing to participate in a conference where ethical and political discussions around digital rights were a central topic. It was an occasion to meet people from different backgrounds, from a Dutch politician (and self-proclaimed student for life), to a member of various organizations (e.g. Edri, NlNet, epicenter.works, Chatons, …) and journalists from Netzpolitik.

      • Carl SvenssonThe Wachowskis and the Hacker as a progressive archetype

        To serve the positive connotation, hacker culture needs to be fairly broadly defined. It usually encompasses various in-group markers and qualities that the bad hackers lack - most often a set of morally pure values with a countercultural, often progressive twist. Early real world political markers of hacker culture were distrust of the (deep) state, safeguarding personal privacy, free speech advocacy and an opposition to predatory capitalism - a heritage from the counterculture prevalent at the time and place of its birth, the US in the late 1960:s. This has since been echoed in many a hacker tract, factual as well as fictional. WarGames (1983) pits a mischievous boy next door against the hubris and excess of the military-industrial complex. Sneakers (1992) features a group of aging hippies doing battle with foreign as well as domestic political actors, and The Lone Gunmen (2001, originally from The X-Files) are at constant odds with both megacorps and US intelligence agencies.

        Through the increased ubiquity of networked computers and the gradual reframing of hackers from criminals to freedom fighters, the connotation of the word hacker itself has gone from largely negative to largely positive. In the word hack's capacity of describing a clever solution to a problem, it's even trickled outside the realm of technology and blessed us with life hacks in general and specific ones like kitchen hacks in particular. Hence, new words must be constructed: bad hackers are now instead cyber terrorists or cyber criminals.

    • Licensing / Legal

      • The Drone GirlDrone remote ID rules apply as of September 16. Are you ready?

        As of September 16, 2023, the drone remote ID rules start applying to drone pilots, too. The final rule for remote ID is a requirement from the Federal Aviation Administration mandating that drones must provide identification and location information, which can then be read by other parties. Consider a sort of electronic licensing plate system for drones, with a built-in layer of location information.

        The FAA’s drone remote ID rules technically went into effect in September 2022, but the FAA actually gave a year for drone pilots to make sure their aircraft actually is equipped with Remote ID. That point comes on September 16, 2023 at exactly 12:01 a.m. — which isn’t far away.

        At that point, all drone pilots required to register their UAS (which is most drone operators flying outdoors with drones that weigh 250 grams or more) must operate their aircraft in accordance with the final rule on remote ID.

      • TechdirtSouth Dakota Looks Like It Might Be The Next State Asked To Explain Its Stupid Vanity Plate Laws To A Federal Court

        Governments are weird. Maybe “weird” isn’t the right word. The more accurate word may be “opportunistic.” When it comes to speech they don’t like, they move into this mode. If they think they can silence it, they will try to. And they’ll do this while still pretending the speech they’re trying to control is nothing more than their own.

    • Programming/Development

      • RlangAdding a website next to your Shiny server

        I have been off from the blog lately due to a big load of personal projects. Just lately I got a few days off and found time to work on my personal website, to be ready soon. That made me get more into Nginx configuration, where I consider myself a total rookie. However, I was mainly adding a few domains that are intended for different purposes. That is incredibly easy to do using Nginx even with minimal knowledge, and that's what I want to show here.

        Basically I want to have my shiny apps under one domain, and some other sites under different domains, but using only one server. I also decided to add my own customized 404 error page. There are different ways to accomplish that, here are just a couple of them. I hope they can be of use.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 27/03/2026: Studying Whale Births, Apple is Cancelling Products, Cambodia Arrests Journalists Over Photographs
Links for the day
Perpetual Strikes to Begin at European Patent Office (EPO), Large Majority Votes for Strikes Any Day of the Week
Approved industrial actions [...] Notice how none of the media or even so-called 'IP' blogs write about it
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 26 Out of 200: Asking for Documents and Information You Already Have, Even Letters and E-mails That You Yourself Sent!
barristers are expensive
Gemini Links 28/03/2026: Echo Delay and 0x0.st
Links for the day
Rumours of More IBM Mass Layoffs at Beginning of April
IBM is not doing well
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 27, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 27, 2026
"Headcount" as Distraction From Mass Layoffs and Salary Reductions
Things aren't looking well when one considers revenue is acquired, not earned
"Linux" Slop Turning Rarer, New York Times Nowadays Contaminated With LLM Slop
Another day has passed without much slop about "linux"
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: GTD, Gopher Catchup, Gemini Crawlers, and "Slop Everywhere"
Links for the day
Mozilla Was Ruined Like Sirius Open Source Was Ruined - From the Top Down
Mozilla will never return to its Free software roots
Nokia Could Never Recover From Microsoft
It's very important to remember what really happened
Why Techrights and Many Other Sites Stopped Doing April Fools’ Day Articles
Well before slop (made by LLMs) it was "bad optics" to have satire or humour in a site, irrespective of the day of the year
President Not-Cocaine Campinos Notified of Historic EPO Strikes (Thousands of Workers Not Coming Back to the Office)
Please do pay attention to how the media treats these strikes in Europe's second-largest institution
Slides From the Presentation Discussing EPO Strikes Until End of June or Until End of 2026 (Maybe Next Year Too)
More to come soon (later today)
IBM Cuts Are Everywhere (Global), the Aim is to Lower the Pay
Because the revenues keep falling (IBM buys other companies' revenues using borrowed money)
Mozilla is Not a Privacy Company, Mozilla is Run by GAFAM Executives and Managers Who Came From American Surveillance Companies
Would you trust a VPN they claim to be "free"?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 25 Out of 200: That Time Matthew J. Garrett Got Temporarily Banned/Suspended From Twitter
That he gets banned from large social control media platform is hardly surprising given his combative communications
Ubuntu Started as Free With ShipIt, Now It Becomes Payware That Exploits Debian Volunteers (Slaves)
"Ubuntu" the distro now replaces the GNU components inherited from Debian with a bunch of Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) things that reject reciprocal licences
Last Night The Register MS Published a Fake Article. It Mentioned "AI" 27 Times.
Paid-for nonsense! [...] What's left of once-respectable news sites actively harms society
Links 27/03/2026: Google Executive (GAFAM, US, Surveillance) "Named the New BBC Head", Prominent Climate Scientist Resigns From NASA
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: "Being Busy" and "Posting Again"
Links for the day
GNOME Has No "Real" Executive Director, Only an IBM (Perma)'Interim' One With No Openings in Sight
GNOME is having financial problems
Microsoft Experiencing "Leadership Exodus"
Microsoft's current position is no better than Meta's (Facebook)
GNU/Linux Distros Should Reject "Age Verification" and Uphold Software Freedom for Users
It's not about protecting children
Slop Plunge
we can already "smell the blood" of the so-called 'AI industry'
IBM Media Puff Pieces While Layoffs Go On and On
Has the PR industry absorbed the press?
Media Says Microsoft Hiring Freezes, But There Are Already Microsoft Layoffs
They want the public to talk about Microsoft as if it's just not hiring when it is actually firing
Richard Stallman lynchings: Sruthi Chandran splitting Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 26, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 26, 2026
Links 26/03/2026: Tor Relay at National Taiwan Normal University, Copyright Hammers Fall
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2026: "The War of the Worlds" and "sometimes science is just the dumbest thing"
Links for the day
The World Wide Bots
The shape of the Web is so bad that bots exceed humans in some places
Links 26/03/2026: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Closes 101 Law Firms in 2 Years, "Please Compensate the Work You Appreciate"
Links for the day
Regaining Software Freedom Means Regaining Control Over Programs That Run on Our Devices
Richard Stallman will speak in Italy
Microsoft Secure Boot Removes Users' Choice
Has Greenland banned Microsoft and 'secure' boot yet?
IBM Pushes Workers Out, It Does Not Count Them as "Layoffs"
The number of IBM layoffs can be as large as tens of thousands per year
Hard to Find a Job After Working for Microsoft (Back Doors Giant, Bribery Hub)
It generally looks like people who chose to serve Microsoft's agenda don't end up too well
Microsoft Lost 31% Of Its Alleged "Value" in Five Months, Then It Got Downgraded
In 2026 Microsoft focuses on keeping the layoffs silent
Altering Perceived Reality to Make It Seem Like Microsoft is Thriving, Not Failing
pretend XBox did not die
SLAPP Censorship - Part 24 Out of 200: The Failed Effort by Brett Wilson LLP to Strike Out My Lawsuit and My Wife's Lawsuit Against Garrett (the Master Allowed Our Lawsuits to Proceed)
This is lawfare
Official New Figures Show That Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Sees Rise in Dishonesty Among Law Firms Forcibly Shut Down ('Euthanised' Due to Misconduct)
It's rather if in our little country as many as 16 law firms were found to be so dishonest that they needed to be shut down
Back to Normalcy
In our datacentre at least
IBM is "Increasing Its Temporary and Part-time Headcount" While Net Headcount Falls (Despite Buying Many Companies and Their Workforce)
Headcount is a rather superficial yardstick.
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Off Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
EPO Union Decides to Continue Industrial Actions, Next Strike in Four Days
The latest strike had the highest participation rate
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Microsoft's "Silent Layoffs" in Slop Clothing
"AI-powered transformation" is just a euphemism for mass layoffs
Where and How to Spot LLM Slop
Many people correctly perceive LLMs as a site's downfall, a step towards the abyss
Public Talk by Richard Stallman in Half a Day "at the Engineering and Architecture Campus of Cesena of the University of Bologna"
He'll probably attract a fairly large crowd
Gemini Links 26/03/2026: Buying a House, Stargazing, OFFLFIRSOCH 2026
Links for the day