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Links 1/3/2022: Zoë Kooyman as FSF Executive Director, MPlayer 1.5, and Nitrux 2.0.1



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • MPlayer 1.5 Video Player Comes with Built-in Skin Support

        MPlayer 1.5 comes with small fixes to make sure it still compiles against modern versions of FFmpeg.

        MPlayer (The Movie Player) is a very popular movie player available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. In the past, MPlayer was the best video player for a long time.

        It has built-in support for the most common video and audio formats, as well as having a powerful filter system for video and audio manipulation. In addition, MPlayer has an onscreen display (OSD) for status information, nice big antialiased shaded subtitles, and visual feedback for keyboard controls.

      • 2022-02-27, Sunday :: MPlayer 1.5 released

        MPlayer 1.5 "Hope" is out.

        We are happy to share this release with the world.

        MPlayer 1.5 is compatible with the latest FFmpeg release (5.0) and current FFmpeg development version (FFmpeg master). The tarball already includes an FFmpeg snapshot, so you don't need to fetch it separately.

        If you want to follow the latest improvements in MPlayer and FFmpeg, you are strongly encouraged to use the development version (latest Subversion trunk) and benefit from the latest features and bug fixes. You can find a short summary of the user visible changes in the included Changelog file.

        The tarballs are compressed with xz, for compatibility they are available with gzip compression too. Please get the xz variant if you can, to save bandwidth.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Scala on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Scala on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Scala is a relatively modern high-level language that supports object-oriented programming and functional programming capabilities. Scala’s static types help avoid bugs in complex applications, and its JVM and JavaScript runtimes let you build high-performance systems with easy access to huge ecosystems of libraries.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Scala programming language on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • Mip22- A Phishing Tool for Linux and Android - Latest Hacking News

        Mip22 is a modern and advanced cyber security program for use with Linux and Android. Simply install and select manual or automatic attack and you can select what types of phishing methods to use.

      • Boost your home network with DNS caching on the edge | Opensource.com

        If you've been hearing a lot of talk about "the cloud" over the past several years, then you may also have heard rumblings about something called "the edge."

        The term edge computing reflects the recognition that the cloud has boundaries. To reach those boundaries, your data has to connect with one of the physical datacenters powering the cloud. Getting data from a user's computer to a cluster of servers might be quick in some settings, but it depends heavily on geographic location and network infrastructure. The cloud itself can be as fast and powerful as possible, but it can't do much to offset the time required for the roundtrip your data has to make.

      • 4 Vim features to use to improve productivity | Opensource.com

        There's always Vim. Vim is one of the most popular text editors in use today. This is in large part because it's available everywhere. When you SSH into another system, you may not find Emacs, Nano, or VSCodium installed, but you can rest assured that Vim is there for you.

        In this article, I cover some intermediate things that you can do with Vim to speed up your workflow and generally make your day easier. This article assumes that you have used Vim before, already know the editor's basics, and are looking to take your Vim skills up a notch. Vim is full of useful tricks, and no one ever truly masters it, but the five tips in this article can boost your skills and, hopefully, make you fall just a bit more in love with one of the most popular and loved text editors.

      • How to Install OTRS Ticketing System on Alma Linux 8

        OTRS stands for "Open Source Trouble Ticket System" is a free and open-source service management suite. It is one of the most popular ticketing tools used by help desks, call centers, and IT service management teams. It is written in the PERL programming language and uses MariaDB as a database backend. OTRS is made from three components including, an admin dashboard, agent portal, and customer portal. It has intuitive mechanisms that allow you to easily migrate from popular solutions to OTRS. In this post, we will show you how to install OTRS Ticketing Software on Alma Linux 8.

      • Linux Security Auditing with Lynis

        Linux undoubtedly has an unmatched security structure. In fact, it is the epitome of performance and security. The general consensus is that Linux is not vulnerable to malware or viruses, but this is not really true. The "Bash" bug virus, Troj/SrvInjRk-A, Linux/Rst-B, etc. are malware and viruses that target a Linux system. Now we understand how important it is to think about Linux security and use tools that allow us to scan our system for such threats.

        Lynis is one such tool developed to take Linux security to the next level. Lynis is a free and open-source security checker released under the GPL license and available for Linux and Unix-based operating systems such as MacOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc.

      • Avoid errors in your Ansible playbooks with ansible-lint | Enable Sysadmin

        Lynis is a free and open-source security checker released under the GPL license and available for Linux and Unix-based operating systems such as MacOS...

    • Games

      • Dying Light gets a cross-play update | GamingOnLinux

        Techland might have their shiny new Dying Light 2 now available but they're apparently not even finished with the first Dying Light with a big update out now.

        Not another content upgrade though, this time they upgraded their networking. This allows for cross-play between all PC platforms including Steam, Epic, GOG across Windows, Mac OS, and Linux! You really do have to hand it to Techland on how long they've supported this one for now, as it released back in 2015.

      • Squeezing A Wordle Clone Onto The Game Boy | Hackaday

        The popular word game Wordle is both an addictive brain teaser for some and a perpetual social media annoyance for others. Its runaway success has spawned a host of clones, among them one created for the Nintendo Game Boy with a reduced vocabulary. [Alexander Pruss] took on the challenge of improving it by fitting the entire 12972-strong 5-letter-word vocabulary as well as the 2315-word answer list into a 32K cartridge along with the code. The challenge in compression on a platform of such meager resources is to devise an algorithm which does not require more computing power or memory than the device has at its disposal. His solution is both elegant and easy to understand.

      • Valheim updated with full gamepad and Steam Deck support | GamingOnLinux

        Time to wander through the Black Forest from your bed, as Valheim now has a fresh update available that was previously in a public Beta to add in gamepad support and work nicely with the Steam Deck. It's the same Beta we wrote about previously but it's now available for everyone.

      • Web store Fanatical offers up Steam Deck categories to buy games | GamingOnLinux

        While the simplest way to get games for the Steam Deck will be direct from Steam, there's a few other stores out there that do give some amazing deals and Fanatical is one of the best. Note: we're not currently affiliated in any way.

        Originally called Bundle Stars, Fanatical (like Humble Store) offers up Steam keys and they also do bundles too. Seems they've been keeping a close eye on the industry, and they've tweaked their store now to offer up proper Steam Deck categories.

      • Steam Deck - using Luxtorpeda for Morrowind, Warzone 2100 and X-COM | GamingOnLinux

        The Steam Deck is clearly great with a lot of modern titles and plenty of AAA games, but what about the classics? For that Luxtorpeda can provide a great experience on Deck.

        It's a tool I've covered a number of times for Linux desktop users, however it works beautifully on the Steam Deck too. Luxtorpeda is a tool to run native Linux game engines for various classics like Morrowind, Warzone 2100, X-COM and quite a lot more. Why would you want to use it? Well, a lot of these game engines are vast improvements over the original games and get around a lot of their limits along with improving them for modern platforms.

      • Godot Engine - Maintenance release: Godot 3.4.3

        In parallel to our work on the upcoming feature releases Godot 3.5 (with a first beta) and 4.0 (now at alpha 3!), we backport important fixes to the stable 3.4 branch for use in production.

        A number of such fixes have been queued in the two months since the 3.4.2 release, and we after a couple of Release Candidates (thanks to all testers!), we're now ready to release Godot 3.4.3-stable as a maintenance update to the current stable branch.

      • New Steam Games with Native Linux Clients - 2022-03-01 Edition - Boiling Steam

        Between 2022-02-22 and 2022-03-01 there were 24 New Steam games released with Native Linux clients. For reference, during the same time, there were 252 games released for Windows on Steam, so the Linux versions represent about 9.5 % of total released titles.

    • Distributions

      • Genode - Release notes for the Genode OS Framework 22.02

        The 22.02 release is dominated by three topics, the tightening and restructuring of the code base, device-driver infrastructure, and the transition of Sculpt OS towards a versatile toolkit for building specialized operating-system appliances.

        Regarding the house-keeping of the code base, the release introduces a clean split between hardware-specific parts and the generic framework foundation. In particular, the various supported SoCs are now covered by distinct Git repositories shepherded by different maintainers, which improves the clarity of the code base and eases the addition of SoC support by 3rd parties. The framework foundation underwent a major spring cleanup including the tightening of several APIs and a raised default warning level. The changes are covered by Section Base framework and OS-level infrastructure.

        The reorganization of the code base went hand-in-hand with intensive device driver work for several platforms (Section Device drivers). In particular, we started to apply our new method of porting Linux driver code to PC drivers such as our new USB host controller driver. The Intel GPU driver received welcome performance optimizations and became usable for guest operating systems running in VirtualBox 6. On the Pinephone, Genode has started interacting with the modem.

        From a functional perspective, the highlight of the release is the extension of Sculpt OS towards a highly customizable toolkit for building special-purpose operating systems defined at integration time (Section Framework for special-purpose Sculpt-based operating systems). This new level of flexibility cleared the path to running a bare-bones version of Sculpt OS on the Pinephone, or directly on a Linux kernel.

      • ExTiX DDS Delivers Decent Deepin Alternative

        Unlike other Linux desktops, Deepin is also limited to the handful of plugins described above. There are no widgets or desklet apps to install on the panel bar or the desktop screen.

        You also get a slightly bare-bones inventory of programs. That leaves Linux newcomers at a disadvantage in not knowing what to download from the bundled app catalog.

        The DDE environment is a pleasant alternative to other computing options. DDE’s easy-to-use interface and impressive performance puts this computing platform in a class of its own.

        Developer Exton calls his ExTiX OS “The Ultimate Linux system.” Especially with the Deepin desktop edition, he is close to living up to that assessment. However, ExTiX could use a bit more polish and fine-tuning of the desktop features to make it truly an ultimate computing choice.

      • 10 Best Portable Linux OS/Distros To Install & Run From USB



        Undoubtedly, Linux is one of the most used and trusted systems for security and stability. But in some cases, if you’re using an old configuration of a PC or a very tiny notebook, you might face the urgency to have a Linux OS or distros that is lightweight and portable. There are many portable Linux OS out there on the web developed by expert software engineers that you can use.

        When we’re talking about the plug-and-play type Linux distro, there is no reason to be afraid of losing all the files and applications every time you power off the system. The portable Linux OS or distro is designed so that the OS is totally capable of storing all the applications, configurations, and files on the portable drive.

      • New Releases

        • Hyperbola - News: Milky Way v0.4 release

          After a long and continuous period of tests and development, we are happy to announce a new release of Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre. With version 0.4, we have reached yet another major milestone: With it Hyperbola will be able to start the groundworks, per say of HyperbolaBSD. This release will serve as a transitional platform, for the continued effort to create a copyleft BSD based alternative kernel and system. For more information on this check.

          Many of the commonly used frameworks that we identified as definitely not being wanted were dropped, and alternatives where packaged and included. Lumina is one example of that, when it comes to desktop enviroments, given its nondependence on D-Bus. Bluetooth is another, support has also been dropped, mostly because of the huge complexity of this codebase and derived and well-known vulnerabilities. In addition, Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre v0.4 stays further oriented towards INIT-Freedom. Therefore we have also added now experimental support for runit with the option to add also more alternatives (potentially S6). Please note at this point: This is for sure not finished and is for now marked as unstable while HyperRC stays our major focus. Again for further alignment with current roadmap. Continued direction in packaging, while previous versions used a snapshot-model the new release is now build from scratch with all packages included following the File System Hierarchy Standard.

        • Nitrux 2.0.1 Switches to Mesa 22.1 by Default for Linux Gaming, Adds KDE Plasma 5.24 LTS

          The monthly Nitrux release cycle continues with Nitrux 2.0.1, which looks to be a small point release to last month’s massive Nitrux 2.0 update. It mostly contains updated core components and applications, starting with the kernel, which has been updated to Linux 5.16.11 in a XanMod flavor.

          Nitrux continues to use the XanMod flavored kernel by default to provide users with a more stable, responsive, and smooth desktop experience, especially on newer hardware. XanMod is a general-purpose Linux kernel with custom settings and new features.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • A minimalist syslog-ng package is heading to EPEL 9

          Last week, the ivykis library, the most important core dependency of syslog-ng landed in EPEL 9 successfully. There are still plenty of dependencies missing, but this way, I could submit a slightly cut down version of syslog-ng to EPEL 9. Hopefully the rest of the dependencies will arrive in EPEL 9 as well. I plan to update the syslog-ng package as soon as the dependencies arrive. Luckily, these are only needed to enable some less frequently used syslog-ng destination drivers, no core functionality is affected.

      • Debian Family

        • Don't Like Ubuntu? Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 5 Beta is Here! - It's FOSS News

          Do you like Linux Mint, but don’t want Ubuntu as its base?

          Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is for you. If you did not know, LMDE is primarily meant to act as a replacement if Ubuntu ever disappears.

          LMDE is an excellent offering to ensure that you get to use Linux Mint, irrespective of its base.

          A new version upgrade for LMDE is around the corner. So, if you want to switch away from Ubuntu, you will have the chance soon!

          LMDE 4 was announced in 2020 with plenty of new features and improvements.

          Now, the beta version for LMDE 5 is here, meaning, it is almost ready to release soon. Here, let me mention the key highlights for the release.

        • Linux Mint Debian Edition LMDE 5 Beta Arrives to Revive Your Old hardware

          The Linux Mint team announced the beta availability of Linux Mint Debian Edition LMDE 5 "Elsie". Here are what's new and the download details.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Pacific Textiles drives digital transformation with new infrastructure for legacy and cloud-native applications | Ubuntu

          Canonical announces that Pacific Textiles chose Canonical Charmed OpenStack for its infrastructure upgrade. The new private cloud environment allows keeping the legacy workloads running continuously and launching new cloud-native services simultaneously.

          The professional services team from Canonical helped Pacific Textiles during this migration, from making architectural choices to launching the live cloud. Ultimately Charmed OpenStack provides an excellent infrastructure for legacy workload and cloud-native experience. Pacific Textiles will have a vendor and technology they can rely on for continuity and flexibility for their workloads with ten years of support.

          Pacific Textiles knew they needed to give their developers easy access to technologies like cloud-native apps, Kubernetes, AI/ML, and others alike. Canonical therefore provided them with an enterprise-grade containerization technology solution: Charmed Kubernetes. This could not come at the expense of their VM-based legacy workloads. With Charmed OpenStack adoption, Pacific Textiles can now leverage the Ubuntu platform’s technical advantage to cloud-native apps and services with Kubernetes on their OpenStack private cloud. The combination reduced the cost and complexity of their infrastructure and increased their effort on new application development and management.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • FSF

        • Free Software Foundation announces new executive director, Zoë Kooyman — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

          The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom, today announced the appointment of Zoë Kooyman as executive director of the FSF.

          Kooyman was appointed by the FSF board following a careful selection process that included a review by a FSF staff committee and evaluation criteria such as management, fundraising, business and finance, legal, and technical skills. She succeeds John Sullivan, who served as executive director for twelve years. Sullivan will remain with the FSF for several months to assist the transition.

          "I appreciate the board and staff support, and I am excited to work with them, FSF associate members, and the broader free software community to advance FSF's commitment to user autonomy, freedom, and empowerment," she said. "As technology continues to evolve and our lives increasingly depend on software, software freedom is more relevant than ever to computer users, and to society as a whole."

          Kooyman, 38, joined the FSF as program manager in early 2019. She has a diverse background as a highly experienced international project manager and event producer with demonstrated skills in successfully organizing and executing technology and social justice initiatives.

        • Zoë Kooyman is the new FSF executive director

          The Free Software Foundation has announced that Zoë Kooyman will be the organization's new executive director.

      • Programming/Development

        • Android Multi-ABI builds for user projects are back

          In Qt 6.3, we have restored support for multi-ABI builds for user applications that use CMake. The build procedure for Qt 6 has undergone significant changes, especially with regards to Qt for Android. Let's have a look at how to work with the multi-ABI builds in Qt 6.

          First of all, it's recommended to use the recent CMake version to support latest features. As you probably noticed, Qt for Android uses DEFER calls, so multi-ABI builds rely on this feature as well. If you are stuck on CMake versions older than 3.19, check out the note at the end of this post.

  • Leftovers

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Master Key for Hive Ransomware Retrieved Using a Flaw in its Encryption Algorithm [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

          It was first observed in June 2021, when it struck a company called Altus Group. Hive leverages a variety of initial compromise methods, including vulnerable RDP servers, compromised VPN credentials, as well as phishing emails with malicious attachments.

        • Decrypting Hive Ransomware Data
        • Wladimir Palant: Skype extension: All functionality broken? Still exploitable!

          One of the most popular Chrome extensions is Skype, a browser extension designed as a helper for the Skype application. Back when I reported the issues discussed here it was listed in Chrome Web Store with more than 10 million users, at the time of writing more than 9 million users still remain. What these users apparently didn’t realize: the extension was unmaintained, with the latest release being more than four years old. All of its functionality was broken, it being reduced to a bookmark for Skype for Web.

          Yet despite being essentially useless, the Skype extension remained a security and privacy risk. One particularly problematic issue allowed every website to trivially learn your identity if you were logged into your Microsoft account, affecting not merely Skype users but also users of Office 365 for example.

          Last week Microsoft, after a lengthy period of communication silence, finally published an update to resolve the issues. In fact, the new release shares no functionality with the old extension and is essentially a completely new product. Hopefully this one will no longer be abandoned.

    • Environment

      • Overpopulation

        • Discussion on water being a right to life set for Namibia Scientific Society | Namibia Economist

          The Namibia Scientific Society will be hosting a backyard talk, on the book, ‘Re-invigorating Ubuntu Through Water: A Human Right to Water under the Namibian Constitution,’ by Dr Ndjodi Ndeunyema on 2 March at 19:00.

          Ndeunyema said the subject matter of water is of self-evident critical importance in Namibia, Africa and globally.

          Ndeunyema will share an overview of the contents of his book which is based on his doctoral work with the society and argue for the existence of a court-enforceable human right to water that is implied from the right to life in Article 6 of the Namibian Constitution while invoking the African value of ubuntu as the normative basis.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Reddit r/Russia Quarantined For Huge Falsehoods

        As the Russian government faces widespread condemnation from throughout the world and within its own country, all major websites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google, are expressing their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine by placing sanctions on the country. Reddit has now blocked the /r/Russia subreddit, citing a substantial volume of false information contained within the community.

        Subreddits that have been quarantined do not simply disappear. Communities are quarantined in order to prevent their material from being discovered by those who do not wish to see it. Communities that have been quarantined are no longer visible in search results or recommendations, and Reddit has placed restrictions on other features such as the ability to create a custom header or background for the community.



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