11.07.22

GNU/Linux

• Hacker Noon ☛ How Linux Became So Popular | HackerNoon

  Linus Torvalds made the first version of the Linux kernel available in 1991. Once it was released, it was picked up by the community and got notable traction from the developers working on the GNU Operating system who already had all the components of building an operating system ready but did not have a kernel. From 1991 to 1993, Linux was still in its beta phase where it was not ready to go out as a complete operating system. During its initial years, Linux was still an operating system used mainly by enthusiasts, but something was about to change.

• Linux Made Simple ☛ Linux Weekly Roundup #208

  Welcome to this week’s Linux Weekly Roundup. We had a good week in the world of Linux releases with Linux Lite 6.2, Peppermint OS 11-06-2022, and Nitrux 20221101.

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Open Source Security (Audio Show) ☛ Episode 348 – OpenSSL is the new lead paint

    Josh and Kurt talk about the recent OpenSSL nothingburger. OpenSSL got everyone whipped into a frenzy over a critical vulnerability, then changed the severity to high. The correct solution to this whole problem is to stop using a TLS library written in C, we need to be using memory safe languages. Don’t migrate from OpenSSL 1 to 3, migrate from OpenSSL 1 to Rustls.

  • JupiterMedia ☛ Chris Is Done With Raspberry Pi | LINUX Unplugged 483

    We surprise each other with three different topics, and Chris has a big update on the ODROID H3+.

  • Video ☛ Freedom Toaster: The Weirdest FOSS Invention – Invidious

    Have you ever wondered how you might distribute foss to people with no or a terrible internet connection, well maybe you could try out a freedom toaster an invention from the early 2000′s to solve exactly this problem

• Kernel Space

  • Linux mailing lists ☛ Linux 6.1-rc4

    So as hoped for (and expected), things seem to be starting to calm
    down, and rc4 is a pretty normal size for this stage in the process.
    
    The diffstat looks fairly normal too - mostly nice and flat (so small
    changes spread out), with a spike for a FW update for drm/amdkfd. The
    other thing that stands out is some stricter xfs refcount checking and
    related fixes (. And some new clx tests. But even those aren't huge,
    they just do show up in the stats.
    
    The shortlog (appended) doesn't look scary either. It's all the usual
    stuff - drivers, filesystems, architecture updates, some networking,
    and random small things elsewhere.
    
    So hey, please jump right in, the water is fine. But more testing
    always appreciated,
    
                        Linus
    

  • LWN ☛ Kernel prepatch 6.1-rc4 [LWN.net]

    The 6.1-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for testing. “So as hoped for (and expected), things seem to be starting to calm down, and rc4 is a pretty normal size for this stage in the process”.

• Applications

  • TecMint ☛ Best Linux RDP (Remote Desktop) Clients for Desktop Access

    Sometimes, you might be required to remotely access your PC in order to carry out a few tasks. You may want to view a few files, make a few tweaks or run any other tasks.

    In most cases, remote desktop connections are used by IT support to provide technical support to far-flung staff members and even by regular desktop users to connect to their remote PCs or share their desktops with their friends.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • DebugPoint ☛ How to Boost Speaker Volume in Ubuntu and Other Linux [Tutorial]

    Have you ever felt that your Ubuntu Laptop’s volume is too low, despite you selected the volume to 100%? I’m sure you had. The primary reason is – obviously, laptop speaker output intensity is lower than large speakers.

    Here’s how you can boost your Laptop and desktop’s volume more in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.

  • DebugPoint ☛ How to Install OpenOffice in Arch Linux [Beginner’s G DebugPoint

    OpenOffice is the oldest free and open-source office productivity suite which has been under maintenance for some time. It was developed by Apache and is still a sought-after suite, although it has been forked as LibreOffice.

    This tutorial is for those who want to install OpenOffice for their work and other needs.

  • LinuxTechi ☛ How to Install Node.js on RHEL 9

    In this post, we will explain how to install Node.js on RHEL 9 system step-by-step.

    Built on Google’s V8 Javascript engine, Node.js is a free and opensource, cross-platform JavaScript runtime that is mostly used for building server-side applications. It uses an event-driven and asynchronous model that helps developers build highly scalable, data-intensive real-time applications (RTAs ). You can use NodeJS to build both front-end and back-end applications.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How to install ODBC on Debian 11?

    ODBC is a specification for a database API. This API is independent of any DBMS or operating system; although this manual uses C, the ODBC API is language-independent.

    By using ODBC statements in a program, it is possible to access files from different databases, including Access, dBase, DB2, Excel and Text.

    The main sponsor and promoter of ODBC is Microsoft, who uses it to access SQL server. One of the advantages is that we can include it in Linux and get the benefits of it.

  • Video ☛ How to install MEGASync on Linux Mint 21 – Invidious

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Upgrade to Fedora 37 Linux

    Fedora is one of the most popular Linux distributions, and Fedora 37 is set to be another great release. For Workstation users, GNOME 43 and Linux Kernel 6.0 are featured. The tutorial below will teach you how to successfully upgrade Fedora 36 to Fedora 37 using the command line terminal.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Skype on Fedora 37/36/35 [Ed: This is Microsoft eavesdropping, not end to end. Look into Mumble instead.]

    Skype is a proprietary telecommunications application software owned and developed by Microsoft. Skype is one of the most known and recognized software for video, audio, and text communication app available across multiple platforms. For the most part, free to use and is an excellent tool for keeping in touch with friends or working remotely with colleagues.

    In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Skype on a Fedora workstation desktop using the command line terminal and optional version builds of stable and unstable, along with how to maintain and remove from your system altogether or switch to an alternative Skype version.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Vivaldi Browser on Fedora 37/36/35

    Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies. It has become one of the most popular alternative Internet Browsers amongst the big three Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Vivaldi promotes itself as a leading browser with faster navigation, clever bookmarking, more intelligent browsing, extensive tab management, easy to select themes such as dark, pink, orange, and more.

    In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Vivaldi on the Fedora workstation desktop using the command line terminal with tips about maintaining and removing the browser versions if required.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install MakeMKV on Debian 11/10

    MakeMKV is a powerful tool for converting video files from one format to another. It is especially useful for converting files from disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray, to the MKV format. MKV is a flexible format that can store multiple video or audio tracks with all meta-information intact. This makes it ideal for archiving and sharing video files. In addition, the MKV format preserves chapters, which is essential for long videos such as movies and TV shows and it is an essential tool for anyone who needs to convert video files on a regular basis.

    In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install MakeMKV on Debian Linux desktop using a recommended repository by the MakeMKV team to provide the most up-to-date version.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Steam on Debian 11/10/Sid

    Steam is a video game cross-platform that Valve created. It was launched as a standalone software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games and expanded to include games from third-party publishers. It now boasts a library filled with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of games across all gaming consoles.

    In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Steam Launcher on your Debian 11 Bullseye desktop using the command line terminal and APT package manager utilizing importing the official steam repository, which you can then install the stable branch, or for users that want to see the next version release of Steam’s launcher, you can install the beta branch.

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install RPG Maker MV on a Chromebook

    Today we are looking at how to install RPG Maker MV on a Chromebook.

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

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Norbert Preining ☛ Norbert Preining: KDE/Plasma for Debian – Update 2022/11

      Short summary of recent changes and updates:

      Frameworks updated to 5.99.0
      Plasma 5.24 LTS (repo plasma524) has been updated to the latest patch level 5.24.7
      Plasma 5.25 updated to the latest patch level 5.25.5
      KDE Gears 22.08 updated to latest patch level 22.08.3
      Krita updated to 5.1.3
      (hopefully) everything recompiled against new Qt from Debian

      If you see some strange behavior, please report.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Reviews

  • Distro Watch ☛ Review: Static Linux

    While it is possible to work with this manual approach to persistence, I feel it worth noting Static Linux does not appear to be intended to be used across reboots. It’s not an operating system which we install or on which we set up users. Static Linux is specifically geared toward accessing and rescuing data from local disks. Typically without many tools or conveniences. It’s super light, highly portable, and (despite a weird setup process) is pretty easy to get started using.

    The distribution offers virtually no documentation, no package manager, and on the Wayland edition there is no web browser. This makes the distribution quite limited. However, its small size and performance are appealing and I’m intrigued by the idea of the entire operating system booting from a single file. This is an unusual approach, but it seems to be working. While I had a few issues with the X.Org session, the Wayland edition worked well and, if the project would add a web browser (even a text-based one) to the Wayland session I could see it being a handy rescue tool that can be dropped on any thumb drive.

• Red Hat

  • Red Hat ☛ Build reactive apps on Kubernetes using Camel K | Red Hat Developer

    A reactive application meets modern requirements for customer-facing services. Reactive applications are message-driven, elastic, responsive, and resilient.

  • Video ☛ Technically Speaking (E16): Composable infrastructure – the CPUs new groove – Invidious

  • Introducing the New Red Hat Device Edge

    Red Hat just announced Red Hat Device Edge, which delivers an enterprise-ready and supported distribution of Kubernetes named MicroShift, combined with an edge-optimized OS built from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It expands where users of Red Hat’s platforms can run edge computing workloads to the space of field-deployed devices such as IoT gateways, point-of-sales terminals, robots, and drones. Let me unbox that for you.

  • The (open) source of cutting-edge innovation

    One possible answer is the corporate research lab. More long-term focused than most company product development efforts, corporate labs have a long history, going back to Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey. Perhaps most famous of all was Bell Labs for its invention of the transistor—although software folks may associate it more with Unix and the C programming language.

• Devices/Embedded

  • CNX Software ☛ Giveaway Week – NanoPi R5S router – CNX Software

    We’ll start the giveaway with NanoPi R5S router based on Rockchip RK3568 SoC with 2 GB DDR4 RAM, 8GB eMMC flash plus an M.2 socket for NVMe SSD, two 2.5GbE Ethernet ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, as well as HDMI 2.0 video output and two USB 3.0 ports.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Linux On Mobile ☛ LINMOB.net – Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (44/2022): RISCy Experiments

    Also: A bug in VVMd, text prediction for phosh-osk-stub, and Maemo Leste has phones for you!

  • Android Police ☛ There’s a good chance Android 14 will support a new file format

    The format wars are nearly over — no, it’s probably not the one you’re thinking about. For as long as they could, Android phone owners have been plugging in external drives to move files about for one reason or another. But if your disk was formatted in anything other than FAT32, they were most likely out of luck. Nowadays, Google is helping Android make a determined comeback to tablets and other large form factors that might get hooked up to those external drives with those difficult formats. Part of that comeback means getting over the NTFS hump.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• GNU Projects

  • GNU ☛ GNU sed – News: sed-4.9 released [stable] [Savannah]

    This is to announce sed-4.9, a stable release.
    
    There have been 51 commits by 9 people in the nearly three years since 4.8.
    
    See the NEWS below for a brief summary.
    
    Thanks to everyone who has contributed!
    The following people contributed changes to this release:
    
      Antonio Diaz Diaz (1)
      Assaf Gordon (5)
      Chris Marusich (1)
      Jim Meyering (28)
      Marvin Schmidt (1)
      Oğuz (1)
      Paul Eggert (11)
      Renaud Pacalet (1)
      Tobias Stoeckmann (2)
    
    Jim [on behalf of the sed maintainers]
    ==================================================================
    
    Here is the GNU sed home page:
    
    http://gnu.org/s/sed/
    
    For a summary of changes and contributors, see:
    
    http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=sed.git;a=shortlog;h=v4.9
    
    or run this command from a git-cloned sed directory:
      git shortlog v4.8..v4.9
    
    To summarize the 2383 gnulib-related changes, run these commands
    from a git-cloned sed directory:
      git checkout v4.9
      git submodule summary v4.8
    
    ==================================================================
    Here are the compressed sources:
      https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.9.tar.gz   (2.2MB)
      https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.9.tar.xz   (1.4MB)
    
    Here are the GPG detached signatures:
    
    https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.9.tar.gz.sig
    
    
    https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.9.tar.xz.sig
    
    Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth:
    
    https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html
    
    Here are the SHA1 and SHA256 checksums:
    
    69ad1f6be316fff4b23594287f16dfd14cd88093  sed-4.9.tar.gz
    0UeKGPAzpzrBaCKQH2Uz0wtr5WG8vORv/Xq86TYCKC4  sed-4.9.tar.gz
    8ded1b543f1f558cbd5d7b713602f6a8ee84bde4  sed-4.9.tar.xz
    biJrcy4c1zlGStaGK9Ghq6QteYKSLaelNRljHSSXUYE  sed-4.9.tar.xz
    
    The SHA256 checksum is base64 encoded, instead of the
    hexadecimal encoding that most checksum tools default to.
    
    Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
    .sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
    and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:
    
      gpg --verify sed-4.9.tar.gz.sig
    
    The signature should match the fingerprint of the following key:
    
      pub   rsa4096/0x7FD9FCCB000BEEEE 2010-06-14 [SCEA]
            Key fingerprint = 155D 3FC5 00C8 3448 6D1E  EA67 7FD9 FCCB 000B EEEE
      uid                   [ unknown] Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
      uid                   [ unknown] Jim Meyering <meyering@fb.com>
      uid                   [ unknown] Jim Meyering <meyering@gnu.org>
    
    If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
    or that public key has expired, try the following commands to retrieve
    or refresh it, and then rerun the 'gpg --verify' command.
    
      gpg --locate-external-key jim@meyering.net
    
      gpg --recv-keys 7FD9FCCB000BEEEE
    
      wget -q -O- 'https://savannah.gnu.org/project/release-gpgkeys.php?group=sed&download=1' | gpg --import -
    
    As a last resort to find the key, you can try the official GNU
    keyring:
    
      wget -q https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-keyring.gpg
      gpg --keyring gnu-keyring.gpg --verify sed-4.9.tar.gz.sig
    
    
    This release was bootstrapped with the following tools:
      Autoconf 2.72a.65-d081
      Automake 1.16i
      Gnulib v0.1-5550-g0524746392
    
    NEWS
    
    * Noteworthy changes in release 4.9 (2022-11-06) [stable]
    
    ** Bug fixes
    
      'sed --follow-symlinks -i' no longer loops forever when its operand
      is a symbolic link cycle.
      [bug introduced in sed 4.2]
    
      a program with an execution line longer than 2GB can no longer trigger
      an out-of-bounds memory write.
    
      using the R command to read an input line of length longer than 2GB
      can no longer trigger an out-of-bounds memory read.
    
      In locales using UTF-8 encoding, the regular expression '.' no
      longer sometimes fails to match Unicode characters U+D400 through
      U+D7FF (some Hangul Syllables, and Hangul Jamo Extended-B) and
      Unicode characters U+108000 through U+10FFFF (half of Supplemental
      Private Use Area plane B).
      [bug introduced in sed 4.8]
    
      I/O errors involving temp files no longer confuse sed into using a
      FILE * pointer after fclosing it, which has undefined behavior in C.
    
    ** New Features
    
      The 'r' command now accepts address 0, allowing inserting a file before
      the first line.
    
    ** Changes in behavior
    
       Sed now prints the less-surprising variant in a corner case of
       POSIX-unspecified behavior.  Before, this would print "n".
       Now, it prints "X":
    
        printf n | sed 'sn\nnXn'; echo
    

• Programming/Development

  • Medevel ☛ YuranPad: An Advanced Text Editor for Developers

    YuranPad is a free text editor, for Windows and Unix/Linux platforms. It was released on 2020 as an alternative for Notepad.

  • Medevel ☛ Next Generation Programming: Free NoCode Cross-Platform Programming System

  • Medevel ☛ Bio7: A Free IDE for Ecological Modelling

    he application Bio7 is a free and open-source integrated development environment for ecological modeling, scientific image analysis and statistical analysis

    It contains powerful tools for model creation, scientific image analysis and statistical analysis.

    The application itself is based on an RCP-Eclipse-Environment (Rich-Client-Platform) which offers a huge flexibility in configuration and extensibility because of its plug-in structure and the possibility of customization.

  • Medevel ☛ memLab: An open source Framework for finding JavaScript memory leaks

    memlab is an E2E testing and analysis framework for finding JavaScript memory leaks and optimization opportunities.

  • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppCCTZ 0.2.12 on CRAN: Maintenance

    RcppCCTZ uses Rcpp to bring CCTZ to R. CCTZ is a C++ library for translating between absolute and civil times using the rules of a time zone. In fact, it is two libraries. One for dealing with civil time: human-readable dates and times, and one for converting between between absolute and civil times via time zones. And while CCTZ is made by Google(rs), it is not an official Google product. The RcppCCTZ page has a few usage examples and details. This package was the first CRAN package to use CCTZ; by now several others packages (four the last time we counted) include its sources too. Not ideal, but beyond our control.

  • Perl / Raku

    • Perl ☛ WC 189: Saving your Degree by Great Character!

      In which we achieve Single Pass and Single Expression, respectively.

    • Perl ☛ Array Degree

Leftovers

• IT Jungle ☛ As I See It: Second Responder – IT Jungle

  If a thousand people were asked to complete the sentence: “The world could sure use more …” they would doubtless come up with a variety of thoughtful and compelling answers. But I’m willing to bet not one in a thousand would say “cockroaches.”

  Nonetheless, advances in technology and miniaturization all but guarantee robotic roaches will be part of our supporting cast in what is rapidly becoming a sci-fi-esque future. Apparently, researchers have long had a keen interest in what insects do and how they do it, although one would think what roaches do shouldn’t be much of a mystery. They hide out during the day and spread disease by night. If food poisoning, diarrhea, and aggravated asthma are your thing, you’ll love cockroaches. Happily, robotic roaches will provide none of those benefits.

• Hardware

  • GSM Arena ☛ Flashback: a look back at Intel-powered smartphones and tablets – GSMArena.com news

    Intel is completely out of the mobile game now, but it had bigger issues to worry about in the recent years (its foundry progress had stalled, giving TSMC the lead). Android still supports x86, though you are unlikely to see this in action. Windows 11 can run Android apps, even ones meant for ARM devices, but that is enabled by emulation – the Intel Bridge Technology, which was developed by (you guessed it) Intel.

• Security

  • IT Wire ☛ Optus denies breach data led to user losing money from bank

    Telecommunications provider Singtel Optus has denied that data which was leaked during a massive breach of its network is in any responsible for a cafe owner losing about $10,000 from his ANZ bank account.

    The company told iTWire, in response to a query, that “No customer payment details, including any direct debit or credit card information, nor passwords, including My Optus app logins, have been compromised in the cyber attack on Optus customers.”

    The Age had claimed in an article published on 6 November that a cafe owner in Elsternwick, a Melbourne suburb, had close to $10,000 withdrawn from his ANZ account. Jim Marinis was one of those affected by the Optus leak. Additional withdrawals had brought his losses up to $40,000, the newspaper alleged.

  • IT Wire ☛ Medibank now says data of 9.7m current, former customers accessed

    Medical insurer Medibank Group has increased its estimate of the number of customers who could be affected by the theft of data from its networks, saying the attacker(s) accessed data of some 9.7 million current and former subscribers.

    In a statement issued to the ASX on Monday, the company said the attacker(s) had “accessed the name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address for around 9.7 million current and former customers and some of their authorised representatives. This figure represents around 5.1 million Medibank customers, around 2.8 million ahm customers and around 1.8 million international customers”.

    When it first announced its systems had been breached, Medibank said there was no indication of any sensitive data having leaked. Later, it said the data stolen was limited to ahm and international students. Even later, it said data of all its 3.9 million customers could have been taken.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • IT Wire ☛ ABC’s Trioli wants to know if IT systems can do without admin users

    Given the spate of data breaches that have been affecting Australian companies in recent times, one would think that journalists, who often have to query officials about these incidents, would be brushing up a bit on their tech knowledge in order to avoid looking foolish.

    Alas, that does not seem to be the case. On Monday morning, the ABC’s Virginia Trioli, who hosts the morning program, actually asked the chief executive of Medibank, David Koczkar, whether it was necessary to have an admin user on an IT network.

    Her question followed Koczkar’s statement that whoever attacked Medibank’s systems had gained access by using credentials belonging to an admin user.

    And so, in all seriousness, Trioli wanted to know if it was possible to avoid having these pesky admin users on IT systems. She followed up with a vague question about two-factor authentication.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Technical

  • Pro Tip: Easy optimizing PDF files

    I’m buyng the 2600 Magazine in a digital format. It’s a simple PDF with few images and fancy frames. But for some reasons it is super heavy to render for slow devices.

    I tried to convert it to diffrent formats like ePUB and MOBI. But due to the hacky way that PDF is created makes it impossible to convert. The text is all mixed.

    Searching online got me nowhere in terms of a simple application. All I wanted was a big button to push and get smaller file. And in some way I found the solution!

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Mental Barrier and Culture of Gemini

      I’ve saw may posts on Cosmos replying to the “Mayan and Gemini priests” post in the past week. And I want to add a points to the discussion. Hopefully not disrupting the flow of the conversation. I mostly want to add points from a (non-tech) user and user support perspective.

      Also, to avoid further claims of this is us Gemini user’s bubble. My capsule has a HTML renderer (that I wrote my self, I’m proud of that). So this post is also accessible from the common Web. There’s a link on the home page that will take you there. With that out of the way..

    • Public Capsule

      I’ve finally finished the capsule setup. As with all spaces it’s never done but mature enough to show the world!