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Links 30/07/2023: AMD-Based FreeBSD Desktop, Rocky Linux Targets Red Hat, PostgreSQL Barman 3.7.0 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • mintCast PodcastmintCast 417 – All Hail Avrecon

        First up in the news: Mint 21.2 Victoria released, Canonical’s Leading LXD Engineer Quits, Ubuntu Plans to Ditch its ‘Minimal’ Install Option, a new BlendOS v3, SUSE forks Red Hat

        In security and privacy, Avrecon malware affects 70,000 Linux servers, turns them into a botnet, and we meet RCE Flaw and PyLoose Malware

        Then in our Wanderings Joe has a bad reaction, Moss forgot to write something here, Bill more of the same, Majid pretends to be a socialist

        Download
    • Kernel Space

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Beginner’s Guide: How to Install Java on Ubuntu in Easy Steps

        Some programs/tools/utility on Ubuntu required java/JVM, without java these programs are not working. Are you facing the same problem?

      • It's FOSSUnderstanding Ubuntu’s Repository System

        Learn the underlying mechanism of the repository system in Ubuntu to better handle the package management and avoid common update errors.

      • How To Remove Windows from UEFI Boot Menu After Installing Ubuntu

        In this article, we will walk you through the process of removing Windows from the UEFI boot menu after installing Ubuntu. This might be necessary if you have decided to completely switch over to Ubuntu and no longer need the Windows boot option.

        [...]

        To remove Windows from the UEFI boot menu after installing Ubuntu, you need to access the terminal, identify the Windows boot entry using the efibootmgr command, remove the boot entry using the efibootmgr -b -B command, delete the Windows folder from the EFI partition, and update GRUB to hide the GRUB menu.

      • APNICDon’t leave network blind spots

        In this post, I discuss recent research by Hassan Habibi Gharakheili, Vijay Sivaraman, and myself from the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales that presents a solution for monitoring the enterprise hosts with fine-grained visibility into their network behavioural profiles.

        This research passively analyses network traffic from/to all connected hosts in an enterprise network, regardless of their SOE configuration status. By constructing specialized network behavioural profiles with AI-based classifications, real-time inference on the network behavioural patterns of hosts and potential anomalies are generated for IT departments.

      • Chris HannahI Use Neovim

        I usually tend to write about the tools that I use, whether it’s programming, or writing for my blog. Well, this time, I guess it’s a bit of both. As I’m now using Neovim for practically any task that involves writing text.

      • Terence EdenShakespeare Serif - an experimental font based on the First Folio

        Now, before setting off on a journey, it is worth seeing if anyone else has tried this before. I found David Pustansky's First Folio Font. There's not much info about it, other than it's based on the 1623 folio. It's a nice font, but missing brackets and a few other pieces of punctuation. Also, no ligatures. And the long s is in the wrong place.

        So, let's try to build a font!

      • MediumOperating a SOC Analyst Home Lab

        The cybersecurity industry is vast and entails many specialized topics. No one person can learn or know everything and the breadth of concepts to learn can seem overwhelming. Admittedly, I spent a considerable amount of time looking at the different types of cybersecurity career paths out there. On that note, one of the best decisions I’ve made regarding cybersecurity education and career insights was joining the WreckItmech Oxvmx TechHub server on Discord. It’s a safe supportive space where seasoned and aspiring cybersecurity professionals can communicate with each other.

      • Make Use OfHow to Fix the Ubuntu 23.04 Login Error on VMware

        Ubuntu 23.04 was released to the public in April 2023 with support until April 2024. Although an interim release, major updates such as a better GUI with GNOME 44, GPU support with Mesa 23 drivers, and overall faster performance through the Linux 6.2 kernel had many people trying it out as a virtual machine.

        However, if you try installing Ubuntu 23.04 on VMware, you'll likely face a login problem even if you've configured your machine correctly.

        If you're having trouble with the login screen when trying to install "Lunar Lobster" on VMware, below is a step-by-step on how to fix the problem.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • KdenliveKdenlive 23.08 beta available

          After an inspiring participation to Akademy, where we presented some of the actions we want to take to improve Kdenlive’s stability and reliability, we are announcing the first beta version for the upcoming Kdenlive 23.08.0 version.

          The Kdenlive 23.04.x version was unfortunately affected by major regressions related to the new timeline nesting feature.

          We are now working on major improvements to our test suite pipeline to ensure such things don’t get unnoticed before a release. In the meantime, all major issues related to nesting, as well as many other bugs, are now fixed in this new beta and we encourage all interested users to test this version to ensure we have the best possible experience for the final release.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • HaikuOS[GSoC 2023] VPN Support Project Update #4

      So we are just past the midway point for GSoC and last update I told you guys that I had a working (albeit somewhat buggy) TUN Driver working. I had gotten great feedback from Pulkomandy, Axel, and Korli to help with a more efficient driver and to make it more human-readable because it made no sense the way I had written it. I have very good news to bring to everyone in that all of the 3 main problems that I talked about last time are all solved! I think most of them got solved after I fully understood creating semaphores and imposed execution order by adding a write semaphore. While this new code made the driver much more efficient and less error-prone, there were two new errors that popped up during testing: [...]

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Jonathan RiddellJonathan Riddell: OpenUK Awards 2023 Open for Nominations

      The OpenUK Awards are open for nominations for 2023.

      • Nominations open 28th July 2023
      • Nominations close midnight UK 19th September 2023 (this will not be extended)
      • Shortlist of up to 3 nominees per category announced 18th October 2023
      • Winners Announced 20th November 2023: Black Tie Awards Ceremony and dinner at House of Lords sponsored by Lord Vaizey, 6-10.30pm, tickets limited€ 

      Self nominations are very welcome. If you know fit into the categories or have a project or company which does or know anyone else who does then fill in the form and say why it’s deserved. You might get fame and glory or at the least a dinner in the house of lords.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • GeshanHow to Use PostgreSQL COALESCE effectively with examples

        In the world of database management systems, PostgreSQL (Postgres) is a popular choice due to its robust features and flexibility. One powerful function it offers is COALESCE, which allows you to handle null values effectively. In this blog post, you will explore what PostgreSQL COALESCE is, learn when it is useful, and see examples to demonstrate how to use it effectively. Let's get going!

      • PostgreSQLBarman 3.7.0 Released

        EDB is pleased to announce the release of Barman 3.7.0. This release expands support for the snapshot backup_method, which creates full backups by taking snapshots of cloud storage volumes, by adding support for AWS using EBS volume snapshots. Support for Google Cloud disk snapshot and Microsoft Azure managed disks were added in previous Barman releases.

        Highlights of this release

        Version 3.7.0 - 25 July 2023

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • ccache for a 5 minute LibreOffice build!ccache for a 5 minute LibreOffice build

        If you have ever tried to build LibreOffice code, you know that it can take a lot of time. LibreOffice has ~6 million lines of C++ and some Java code (<280k). But, there are tools that can help you build LibreOffice from source code much faster, if you do it repeatedly! Here I discuss how.

        Even with a fast computer, compiling huge amount of C/C++ code takes a lot of time. Compiling 6 million lines of C/C++ code in LibreOffice will take you several minutes (if not hours) with a decent computer with fast CPU and a lot of RAM.

        But, people who work on developing LibreOffice need to build it from the source repeatedly. Because only a fraction of the code changes each time, there is a big chance that one can re-use the compiled objects, and that’s where ccache (and similar tools) come in. It caches the compiled objects, and before trying to re-compile the code, searches inside the cache to see if a previously compiled objects are usable.

    • Education

      • ArduinoUNO R4 Stars: Meet Greta Galli

        Greta Galli is a 20-year-old maker – as well as a content creator, student and teacher! – focusing her high energy levels on robotics and 3D printing. If you think that’s a lot, it is. But keep in mind she got her first taste of making at the young age of 11, when she took part in a kids’ workshop at a tech fair. Fast forward a few years and she heard her high school would start teaching with Arduino, so she jumped the gun and bought her first board.

    • Programming/Development

      • Linux Links10 Excellent R Natural Language Processing Tools

        Natural language processing (NLP) is a set of techniques for using computers to detect in human language the kinds of things that humans detect automatically.

      • Pedro Sader Azevedo: 1st Contribution Hackathon, by LKCAMP

        Thank you for coming to the the 1st Contribution Hackathon at GUADEC 2023. As the name implies, in this event, we’ll teach you how to make your first code contribution to GNOME. Buckle up!

        Setup

        There are three components that we need for making the contribution: flatpak, flathub, and GNOME Builder. Here’s how to get each of them:

        Flatpak

        Flatpak is a packaging format for graphical applications that works on any GNU/Linux distribution. It is the most widely embraced packaging format for GNOME applications. To get flatpak on your distro of choice, run:

        [...]
      • Matt RickardGit Merge Strategies and Algorithms

        How does git merge one or more branches? A look at the different merge strategies and algorithms.

      • Tim BradshawNumerical prediction

        In late 2018, when I still worked at the Met Office, I sent a document to some people there which explained why I thought AI would come to dominate weather forecasting, and why weather forecasting organisations should be looking at AI, urgently. Today, the 28th of July 2023, there is a leader on the subject in The Economist as well as an extended article in its Science and Technology section.

      • RlangQuantum programs

        Remember, quantum programming can seem daunting at first, but with practice and patience, you'll start to grasp these new concepts and begin to appreciate the immense potential that quantum computing offers. Happy coding!

      • Bruno RodriguesReproducible data science with Nix, part 3 -- frictionless {plumber} api deployments with Nix

        This is the third post in a series of posts about Nix. Disclaimer: I’m a super beginner with Nix. So this series of blog posts is more akin to notes that I’m taking while learning than a super detailed tutorial. So if you’re a Nix expert and read something stupid in here, that’s normal. This post is going to focus on R (obviously) but the ideas are applicable to any programming language.

        This blog post is part tutorial on creating an api using the {plumber} R package, part an illustration of how Nix makes developing and deploying a breeze.

      • Bruno RodriguesReproducible data science with Nix, part 1 -- what is Nix

        This is the first of a (hopefully) series of posts about Nix. Disclaimer: I’m a super beginner with Nix. So this series of blog posts is more akin to notes that I’m taking while learning than a super detailed tutorial. So if you’re a Nix expert and read something stupid in here, that’s normal. This post is going to focus on R (obviously) but the ideas are applicable to any programming language.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
In Norway, Android/Linux Has Just Hit All-Time High (First Time Since 2020), GNU/Linux Already Very Prevalent
Despite its small population size, Norway gave us Qt and many other things
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Very Wide-Ranging, Media Focused on Gaming Though Microsoft Mass-Firing Lawyers and "AI" Staff (Contradicting Its Supposed "Investment" in "AI")
Microsoft plans to fire almost half a thousand people in legal roles
2012 Article About the Free Software Foundation Blasting Canonical/Ubuntu Over Adoption of "Secure" Boot (Microsoft's Remote Control Over GNU/Linux Since PCs' Power-on)
By Katherine Noyes (article has since then became 404, not found)
 
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: Git For Authors and Filtered Antenna
Links for the day
UEFI 'Secure' Boot Abuses by Microsoft to be Brought Up in the UK High Court in 3 Months
we'll seek compensation
Next Year It'll Be Half a Decade Since the Fall of Freenode (and IRC is Still Doing OK)
Our IRC network is still accessible using the exact same software that ran in Windows 3.x
Lupa Will Soon Know of 3,100+ Active Gemini Capsules
And some people in the "Small Web" try to tell us that Gemini is dying?
The Slopfarms Are Taking Real News Articles and Replacing Them With Lies Generated by Machines
Bluntly speaking, Fagioli is nothing short of an online scammer
Links 19/07/2025: Techtarget to Cull 10% of Staff, New Threats to Free Press in the US (Home of Dangerous and Violent Stranglers From Microsoft)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: "Climate Justice” and Forking Programs
Links for the day
What Wayland and Microsoft/IBM systemd Have in Common
focus on what IBM (Red Hat) is pushing while running over critics.
Linux Already Has About 60% of the "Market"
"When mentioning the client side," opines an associate, "it is essential to recite the list of other markets where Microsoft is negligible or a no-show. It is repetitive to do so, but it needs saying -- often."
Finland (and NATO) Must Move to GNU/Linux and Dump Microsoft Even Faster
"Microsoft is not a technology problem, it is a staffing problem."
The Microsofters We Sued Helped Microsoft Make GNU/Linux 'Expire' This Year
"Linux and Secure Boot certificate expiration"
linuxconfig.org Joins linuxtechlab.com and Others, Becomes a Slopfarm With Fake Linux 'Articles' (LLM Slop)
They contain "linux" in their domain names, but they are just slopfarms
Links 19/07/2025: Microsoft Cuts in China and Wall Street Journal Sued for Reporting on Jeffrey Epstein
Links for the day
Debian Can Dump Blind Users Because I am Not Blind
the sort of mentality we're up against
Fascistic Policies Got 'Normalised' in 'Public Office'. Let's Not Let the Same Happen in 'Tech'.
Political discourse typically guides what's "normal" and what "good citizens" should believe/feel
The European Patent Office Cannot Attract Proficient Patent Examiners Who Master Their Domain
They are enablers and facilitators of corruption
Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse
The Demise of GAFAM Necessitates Greater and Broader Awareness
Morale at Microsoft is really bad
Free Software Foundation Reaches 75% of Funding Goal
Not bad for this "Fosschild"
Slopwatch: 7 New Examples of Fake 'Linux' Slop Pieces (Plagiarism With Misinformation)
Serial Sloppers need to be shunned
Links 19/07/2025: Kapo-berg Settles, Software Patents Challenged
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 18, 2025
Links 18/07/2025: Peace With PKK and Connie Francis Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: Alhena 5.1.8 and Bornhack 2025
Links for the day
How to Top Up a "Limited Liability" With Even More Limitations (Dodging Accountability in the UK)
Some people call it a "shell game". Sometimes it's done for tax evasion purposes.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Inches Towards 75% of Fund-Raising Target
Will the cutoff date be extended again?
Gemini Space (or Geminispace) Grows, But Usage of Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops Further
Ideally, all Gemini capsules should use self-signed certificates
Links 18/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs in Activision, The New Stack (Sponsored by Microsoft) Complains About Openwashing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: OCC25 Gnus for Reading Usenet and RSS Feeds, Small Web Updates
Links for the day
[Meme] 9AM Meeting at Brett Wilson LLP
Brett Wilson LLP in space
Listing as Staff People Who Left the Company More Than Six Years Earlier
There are apparently no laws against that
Brian Fagioli Shovels Up LLM Slop (Plagiarism) Onto Slashdot, Then Uses Slashdot for Affirmation or as Badge of Honour
Notice how some of his latest slop is presented ("as featured on Slashdot")
Social Control Media Productivity
Snapping photos of the bone
The Law Firm SLAPPing Us For the Microsofters Lost 72% of Its Tangible Assets in the Past Year, According to Its Own Reports
That might help explain why they're willing to tolerate serial stranglers from Microsoft as clients
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com Slopfarm and Slopfarms Propped Up by Google News
"As LLM slop is foisted onto the WWW in place of knowledge and real content, it now gets ingested and processed by other LLMs, creating a sort of ouroboros of crap."
Links 18/07/2025: Weather Events and Health Hazards
Links for the day
Microsoft's All-Time Low in Finland
Microsoft is in a freefall
Security: Shane Wegner & Debian statement of incompetence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 17, 2025