Lubuntu Plucky Puffin is the current development branch of Lubuntu, which will become 25.04. Since the release of 24.10, we have been hard at work polishing the experience and fixing bugs in the upcoming release. Below, we detail some of the changes you can look forward to in 25.04. Two Minute Minimal Install When installing […]

04 Feb 2025 8:32pm GMT

Following a bug in ubuntu-release-upgrader which was causing Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS to fail to upgrade to 24.04 LTS, we are pleased to announce that this bug has been fixed, and upgrades now work.

As of this writing, this update is being propagated to the various Ubuntu mirrors throughout the world. The version of ubuntu-release-upgrader needed is 24.04.26 or higher, and is automatically pulled from the 24.04 repositories upon upgrade.

Unfortunately, while testing this fix, we noticed that, due to the time_t64 transition which prevents the 2038 problem, some packages get removed. We have noticed that, if upgrading from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS, the following applications get removed (this list is not exhaustive):

• Blender
• Kdenlive
• digiKam
• GIMP
• Krita (doesn't get upgraded)

To fix this, immediately after upgrade, open a Konsole terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and enter the following:

sudo apt -y remove ubuntstudio-graphics ubuntustudio-video ubuntustudio-photography && sudo apt -y install ubuntustudio-graphics ubuntustudio-video ubuntustudio-photography && sudo apt upgrade

If you do intend to upgrade, remember to purge any PPAs you may have enabled via ppa-purge so that your upgrade will go as smooth as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience that may have been caused by this bug, and we hope your upgrade process goes as smooth as possible. There may be edge cases where this goes badly as we cannot account for every installation and whatever third-party repositories may be enabled, in which case the best method is to back-up your /home directory and do a clean installation.

Remember to upgrade soon, as Ubuntu Studio 22.04 goes End Of Life (EOL) in April!

04 Feb 2025 8:01pm GMT

There's good news in the US federal compliance space. The latest FedRAMP policy on the use of cryptographic modules relaxes some of the past restrictions that prevented organizations from applying critical security updates.

There has long been a tension between the requirements for strictly certified FIPS crypto modules and the need to keep software patched and up to date with the latest security vulnerability fixes. The new guidance goes a ways to resolving this tension - and best of all, it aligns perfectly with how we've already been approaching FIPS module updates for Ubuntu.

In this post we cover the basics of FIPS certification along with the new FedRAMP guidance that prioritizes security updates.

What is FIPS 140-3?

FIPS 140-3 is a NIST standard for ensuring that cryptography has been implemented correctly, protecting users against common pitfalls such as misconfigurations or weak algorithms. All US Government departments, federal agencies, contractors, and service providers to the Government are required to use FIPS validated crypto modules, and a number of industries have also adopted the FIPS 140-3 standard as a security best practice. A FIPS-compliant technology stack is therefore essential in these sectors, and Ubuntu provides the building blocks for a modern and innovative open source solution.

The latest FedRAMP guidance

A major use-case for FIPS-validated cryptography is for FedRAMP-accredited service providers. Up till now, the FedRAMP guidelines have mandated a strict adherence to using certified modules. This approach is changing, however, and new FedRAMP policy is now in place, aimed at giving cloud service providers and their independent assessors a more modern risk-based approach to security and compliance:

• https://www.fedramp.gov/cryptographic-module/

These requirements highlight the fact that whilst using FIPS-certified crypto is important, there is greater risk facing organizations who deploy code that contains known vulnerabilities. This new approach balances the use of FIPS-certified modules with vendors supplying critical security fixes, which matches exactly what Canonical provides with our module updates.

FIPS 140-3 certification

For Ubuntu, we have chosen a set of cryptographic libraries and utilities that have the widest usage and converted them to operate in FIPS mode. This means that we have disabled various disallowed algorithms and ciphers from the libraries, and made sure that they work by default in a FIPS compatible mode of operation. The exact modules may vary between LTS releases, though we currently include the userspace libraries OpenSSL, Libgcrypt & GnuTLS, along with the Linux kernel, which also provides the validated source of random entropy data.

In order to ensure that we have implemented the FIPS specifications correctly, we work with an accredited Cryptographic and Security Testing Laboratory (CSTL) which validates the implementation through a rigorous series of functional and operational tests. Our current lab partner is atsec information security, who we have engaged since 2016 for this work.

The final certification step is for NIST's Cryptographic Module Validation Program to perform their own checks; when they are satisfied they will publish the official certificates and policy documents.

How we apply patches

Ubuntu packages are built up of layers: we start with the upstream source code, and then apply subsequent patch sets. The first patches comprise any modifications we choose to make for compatibility - the changes that we apply in order to make the software package operate seamlessly with the rest of the software in the distribution. Security patches for fixing vulnerabilities are then applied on top of this.

When we convert the crypto packages to operate in FIPS mode, we make a set of patches that are applied after all the rest of the previous patches. In particular, the FIPS changes sit on top of the security fixes (where the security fixes don't affect the FIPS-specific code, which is the majority case). This means that we can have a high degree of certainty that the FIPS functionality remains unchanged and the security fixes won't affect the FIPS status of the modules, and hence why we can offer the updated modules to our customers for deployment in their FIPS environments.

Strict versions and updates

NIST assesses a particular version of the cryptographic module and issues the FIPS 140-3 certificates and security policy documents for this specific set of binary files. For Ubuntu, that means that we submit versions of the packages for certification and these versions then remain effectively frozen in time from the moment that they are handed over for certification. In particular, these packages don't receive any further security updates to fix any vulnerabilities that are discovered in the time after submission. The certification process can take months, or even years, and then the certificates are valid for 5 years henceforth. Even at the point when the certificates are issued, the modules may well contain unpatched vulnerabilities, and the longer the period since they were frozen in time the more vulnerable they become.

In order to address this obvious shortcoming, Canonical also provides updated versions of the FIPS 140-3 modules that include all the relevant security fixes. These modules are therefore no longer the exact same set of binary files that were submitted for validation, but we assert that the FIPS functionality that was assessed by the testing lab and by NIST remains unchanged, and we strongly recommend that everybody uses these updated versions so that your systems remain fully secure.

Which FIPS to use? -updates, -preview, strict

Canonical has provided FIPS modules in several forms up till now:

• "fips" - strict certified modules
• "fips-updates" - certified modules with security updates
• "fips-preview" - the strict modules prior to certification

We recommend that everyone uses the "fips-updates" modules to remain fully secure against security exploits. In the past, we have provided "fips" modules, which are not updated and likely contain known vulnerabilities, for customers who had a strong need to satisfy strict regimes - such as FedRAMP - that required exact binary versions of the certified modules. Now that the new FedRAMP guidance is being updated to take a more integrated view of security, we will be deprecating the strict "fips" modules, and encouraging everyone to use the "fips-updates".

With Ubuntu 22.04 we introduced another version of the modules called "fips-preview", which contained the strict binary packages that were submitted to NIST for validation, again without the security fixes applied. This will also be deprecated in favour of "fips-updates".

Conclusion

Canonical welcomes the holistic approach to security espoused by the latest FedRAMP guidelines, which aligns perfectly with the FIPS 140-3 modules update strategy that we have already been supporting to provide our customers with the best possible security posture. This combines the NIST-validated crypto implementation needed to meet the strictest government standards with Canonical's 10+ years of security patching, all within the popular Ubuntu ecosystem.

For questions, contact us here.

Register for the webinar: Taking advantage of FIPS 140-3 Certification for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

04 Feb 2025 6:30pm GMT

Good news in the US federal compliance space. The latest FedRAMP policy relaxes past restrictions that prevented organizations from applying critical security updates.

04 Feb 2025 6:30pm GMT

Right on schedule, a new update to the Mozilla Firefox web browser is available for download. Last month's Firefox 134 release saw the New Tab page layout refreshed for users in the United States, let Linux go hands-on with touch-hold gestures, seeded Ecosia search engine, and fine-tuned the performance of the built-in pop-up blocker. Firefox 135, as is probably intuit, brings an equally sizeable set of changes to the fore including a wider rollout of its new New Tab page layout to all locales where Stories are available: It's not a massive makeover, granted. But the new layout adjusts the […]

You're reading Firefox 135 Brings New Tab Page Tweaks, AI Chatbot Access + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

04 Feb 2025 10:10am GMT

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 877 for the week of January 27 - February 1, 2025. The full version of this issue is available here.

In this issue we cover:

• Ubuntu developer discussion moving to Matrix
• Ubuntu Stats
• Hot in Support
• Other Meeting Reports
• Upcoming Meetings and Events
• FOSDEM 2025: How Ubuntu Entered the Matrix
• Ubuntu Nepal's First Official Meetup After Reboot : Focus on UbuCon Asia 2025
• LoCo Events
• Linux App Summit 2025 announcement and CFP!
• Canonical News
• In the Press
• In the Blogosphere
• In Other News
• Other Articles of Interest
• Featured Audio and Video
• Updates and Security for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, and 24.10
• And much more!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Krytarik Raido
• Bashing-om
• Chris Guiver
• Wild Man
• And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

.

03 Feb 2025 9:45pm GMT

The latest thing circulating around people still blogging is the Blog Questions Challenge; Jon did it (and asked if I was) and so have Jeremy and Ethan and a bunch of others, so clearly it is time I should get on board, fractionally late as ever.¹

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Some other people I admired were doing it. I think the person I was most influenced by was Simon Willison, who is also still at it², but a whole bunch of people got on board at around that same time, back in the early days when you be a medium-sized fish in a small pool just by participating. Mark Pilgrim springs to mind as well -- that's a good example of having influence, when the "standard format" of permalinks got sort of hashed out collectively to be /2025/02/03/blog-questions-challenge, which a lot of places still adhere to (although it feels faintly quaint, these days).

Interestingly, a lot of the early posts on this site are short two-sentence half-paragraph things, throwaway thoughts, and that all got sucked up by social media... but social media hadn't been invented, back in 2002.

Also interestingly: the second post on this here blog³ was bitching at Mozilla about the Firefox release schedule. Nothing new under the sun.⁴

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Cor. When it started, this site was being run by Castalian, which was basically "classic ASP but Python instead of VBScript", a thing I built. This is because I was using ASP at work on Windows machines, so that was the model for "dynamic web pages" that I understood, but I wasn't on Windows⁵ and so I built it myself. No idea if it still works and I very much doubt it since it's old enough to buy all the drinks these days.

After that it was Movable Type for a bit and then, because I'd discovered the idea of funky caching⁶ it was Vellum, that model (a) in Python and (b) written by me. Then for a while it was "Thort", which was based on CouchDB⁷, and then it was WordPress, and then in 2014 I switched from WP to a static build based on Pelican, which it still is to this day. Crikey, that was over ten years ago!⁸ I like static site generators: I even wrote 10 Popular Static Site Generators a few years ago for WebsiteSetup which I think is still pretty good.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?

In my text editor, which is Sublime Text. The static setup is here on my machine; I write a post, I type make kryogenix, and it runs a whole little series of scripts which invoke Pelican to build the static HTML for the blog, do a few things that I've added (such as add footnote handling⁹, make og:image links and images¹⁰, and sort of handle webmentions but that's broken at the moment) and then copy it up to my actual website (via git) to be published.

It's all a bit lashed together, to be honest, but this whole website is like that. It is something like an ancient city, such as London or Rome; what this site is mostly built on is the ruins of the previous history of the city. Sometimes the older bits poke through because they're still actually OK, or they never got updated; sometimes they've been replaced with the new shiny. You should see the .htaccess file, which operates a bewildering set of redirects through about six different generations of URLs so all the old links still work.¹¹

When do you feel most inspired to write?

When the muse seizes me. Sometimes that's a lot; sometimes not. I do quite a lot of paid writing as part of my various day jobs for others, and quite a lot of creative writing as part of running a play-by-post D&D campaign, and that sucks up a reasonable amount of the writing energy, but there are things which just demand going on the website. Normally these days it's things where I want them to be a reference of some kind -- maybe of a useful tech thing, or some important thought, or something interesting -- for myself or for others.

Alternatively you might think the answer is "while in the pub, which leads to making random notes in an email to myself from my phone and then writing a blog post when I get home" and while this is not true, it's not not true either. I do not want to do a histogram of posting times from this site because I am worried that I will find that the majority are at, like, 11.15pm.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

Always post immediately. I have discovered about myself that, for semi-ephemeral stuff like posts here or projects that I do for fun, that I need to get them done as part of that initial burst of inspiration and energy. If I don't get it done, then my enthusiasm will fade and they will linger half-finished for ever and never get completed. I don't necessarily like this, but I've learned to live with it. If I think of an idea for a post and write a note about it and then don't do it, when I rediscover the note a week later it will not seem anything like as compelling. So posts are mostly written as one long stream-of-consciousness to capitalise on the burning of the creative fire before it gets doused by time or work or everything going on in the world. Carpe diem, I guess.¹²

What's your favourite post on your blog?

Maybe It's Cold Outside, or Monkey Island 2, for about the fifth time, or Charles Paget Wade and the Underthing for writing, although each of them have little burrs in the wording that I want to polish when I re-read them. The series of birthday posts have been going on since the beginning, one every year, which probably wins for consistency. For technical stuff, maybe Some thoughts on soonsnap and little big details (now sadly defunct) or The thing and the whole of the thing: on DRM in HTML. I like my own writing, mostly. Arrogant, I know.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

Not really at the moment, but, as above, these things tend to arrive in a blizzard of excitement and implementation and then linger forever once done. But right now... it all seems to work OK. Ask me when I get back from the pub.

Next?

Well, I should probably point back at some of the people who inspired me to do this or other things and keep doing so to this day. So Simon, Remy, and Bruce, perhaps!

1. In my defence, it was my birthday. ↩
2. although no longer at simon.incutio.com -- what even was Incutio? ↩
3. I resisted the word "blog" for a long time, calling it a "weblog", and the activity being "weblogging", because "blog" is such an ugly word. Like most of the fights I was picking in the mid 2000s, this also seems faintly antiquated and passé now. Sic transit gloria mundi and all that. ↩
4. or "nihil sub sole novum", since we're doing Latin quotes today ↩
5. and Windows's relationship with Python has always been a bit unsteady, although it's better these days now that Microsoft are prepared to acknowledge that other people can have ideas ↩
6. you write the pages in an online form, but then a server process builds a static HTML version of them; the advanced version of this where pages were only built on request was called "funky caching" back then ↩
7. if a disinterested observer were to consider this progression, they might unfairly but accurately conclude that whatever this site runs on is basically a half-arsed system I built based on the latest thing I'm interested in, mightn't they? ↩
8. tempus fugit. OK, I'll stop now. ↩
9. like this! ↩
10. an idea I stole shamelessly from Zach Leatherman ↩
11. Outgoing links are made to continue to work via unrot.link from the excellent Remy Sharp ↩
12. I was lying about not doing this any more, obviously ↩

03 Feb 2025 7:17pm GMT

Canonical Ceph with Intel^Ⓡ Quick Assist Technology (QAT)

In our last blog post we talked about how you can use Intel^® QAT with Canonical Ceph, today we'll cover why this technology is important from a business perspective - in other words, we're talking data storage costs.

Retaining and protecting data has an inherent cost based on the underlying architecture of the system used to store it. In the public cloud this is very easy to understand, as each GB stored incurs a per unit fee, with additional costs based on how frequently the storage is accessed (read more about that in our blog post on cloud storage costs here).

On premise solutions are typically more complex to calculate a cost-per-gigabyte value as you also need to take into account the power, cooling, physical space, as well as the hardware including networking, and ongoing maintenance. For simplicity's sake, in this post we will examine a typical storage server configuration, focusing on the hardware components themselves, as environmental costs can vary widely across the globe, but would remain constant if either configuration was deployed.

The most important aspect is to understand the impact of a hardware decision and how it can affect the total cost of ownership (TCO), as we'll explore below.

Diving in: hardware comparisons

Using a well known vendor's online configuration tool we can examine the cost differences between similar server configurations. As we are focusing on compression the only difference between the configurations will be the CPUs, with and without hardware offload (QAT).

However, it should be noted that the largest driver of cost in any storage system are the disks themselves, for example the list price of a 15.36TB NVMe drive is $9,396.63, which means that in a single cluster node just the cost of disks is over $225,000, with the remainder of the components costing approximately $20,000.

By swapping out the CPU in a server configuration we can explore how much additional cost would be introduced by adding QAT offload engines, in the examples below we have selected equivalent CPUs with and with and without QAT. Both server configurations provide 368.64TB of raw storage space, and the per GB costs below assume a 3-Replica protection scheme.

What savings does compression bring to data storage costs?

Based on the undiscounted list prices we can see that adding QAT does indeed increase the cost of a Ceph storage server by $560, or an increase of 0.25%, but this can easily be justified when considering a dataset that can be compressed. As can be seen below, even data that is already stored in a compressed format such as JPEG, can benefit from inline compression in a Ceph storage system, with other data types seeing greater compression and thus space savings.

Using the server configuration that includes QAT offload engines, the effective cost to store a single GB of data is $1.90. As the compression ratio increases so do the savings as can be seen below:

Key takeaways

While initially, it is natural to think that if you add additional hardware, or change a processor model for another with additional features, there will be additional costs. Which as we can see in these server examples is technically true, at first glance. However, in the scenario above changing the CPU model is just 0.25% of the total upfront cost, but once we start to take into account the savings provided by the hardware offload compression to actual TCO per GB stored can fall dramatically, and with some types of data, like raw video over 50% is possible!

Even so, for data sets that can be compressed the additional cost is easily mitigated, and for data that has the greatest compression ratios the cost savings become significant.

The greater the compression ratio, the less capacity required, which in turns reduces the number of storage servers required, and less network ports, which leads to a reduction in power consumption and facility costs too! These savings apply to all types of disks, including lower cost NL-SAS, as the compression is applied inline as the object storage damon (OSD) processes client IO.

Be sure to read our previous blog post if you want to try out Ceph with QAT.

Join our webinar

Find out more about how Ceph and QAT can be used to improve storage efficiency in our upcoming webinar, Maximize your storage efficiency with Ceph, on 12th February 2025, at 5PM CET, 11AM ET.

Additional resources

• What is Ceph?
• Blog - How to utilize CPU offloads to increase storage efficiency
• White paper - A guide to software-defined storage for enterprises
• White paper - Cloud storage cost optimization
• Webinar - Storage for AI

03 Feb 2025 10:32am GMT

Canonical Ceph with IntelⓇ Quick Assist Technology (QAT) In our last blog post we talked about how you can use Intel® QAT with Canonical Ceph, today we'll cover why this technology is important from a business perspective - in other words, we're talking data storage costs. Retaining and protecting data has an inherent cost based […]

03 Feb 2025 10:32am GMT

Do you use the official Spotify DEB on Ubuntu (or an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution like Linux Mint)? If so, you'll be used to receiving updates to the Spotify Linux client direct from the official Spotify APT repo, right alongside all your other DEB-based software. Thing is: if you haven't checked for updates from the command line recently you might not be aware the that security key used to 'sign' packages from the Spotify APT repo stopped working at the end of last year. Annoying, but not catastrophic as it-thankfully-doesn't stop the Spotify Linux app from working just pollutes terminal output […]

You're reading How to Fix Spotify 'No PubKey' Error on Ubuntu, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

03 Feb 2025 2:48am GMT

Fans of the Papirus icon theme for Linux desktops will be happy hear a new version is now available to download. Paprius's first update in 2025 improves support for KDE Plasma 6 by adding Konversation, KTorrent and RedShift tray icons, KDE and Plasma logo glyphs for use in 'start menu' analogues, as well as an assortment of symbolic icons. Retro gaming fans will appreciate an expansion in mime type support in this update. Papirus now includes file icons for ROMs used for emulating ZX Spectrum, SEGA Dreamcast, SEGA Saturn, MSX, and Neo Geo Pocket consoles; and Papirus now uses different […]

You're reading Linux Icon Pack Papirus Gets First Update in 8 Months, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

02 Feb 2025 7:54pm GMT

Most of my Debian contributions this month were sponsored by Freexian. If you appreciate this sort of work and are at a company that uses Debian, have a look to see whether you can pay for any of Freexian's services; as well as the direct benefits, that revenue stream helps to keep Debian development sustainable for me and several other lovely people.

You can also support my work directly via Liberapay.

Python team

We finally made Python 3.13 the default version in testing! I fixed various bugs that got in the way of this:

• dnarrange (contributed upstream)
• docker-compose
• ionit (contributed upstream)
• nbclassic
• pymilter
• pyspf (contributed upstream)
• python-django
• python-handy-archives
• sinntp
• wireless-regdb

As with last month, I fixed a few more build regressions due to the removal of a deprecated intersphinx_mapping syntax in Sphinx 8.0:

• jupyter-console (contributed upstream)
• python-ewmh (reviewed patch from a contributor)
• python-gplearn (contributed upstream)

I ported a few packages to Django 5.1:

• django-sitetree (thanks to an Ubuntu patch)
• python-django-parler (thanks to an Ubuntu patch

I ported python-pypump to IPython 8.0.

I fixed python-datamodel-code-generator to handle isort 6, and contributed that upstream.

I fixed some packages to tolerate future versions of dh-python that will drop their dependency on python3-setuptools:

• cerealizer
• pyinotify
• pyspf
• python-holidays

I removed the old python-celery-common transitional package from celery, since nothing in Debian needs it any more.

I fixed or helped to fix various other build/test failures:

• awesomeversion
• django-graphiql-debug-toolbar
• django-iconify
• flask-sqlalchemy (contributed upstream)
• freezegun
• napari (somewhat inconclusive, but I contributed fixes upstream to napari and npe2)
• pyglet
• python-construct-classes
• python-django-guid
• python-pyfakefs
• python-ring-doorbell
• recommonmark
• spectral-cube
• sphinx (helped with an upstream fix)
• sphinxcontrib-openapi (contributed upstream)
• sqlfluff
• terminator (contributed upstream)
• trac-wikiprint
• vcr.py (investigated and reported findings upstream, confirming that disabling these tests in the Debian packaging seems reasonable for now)

I upgraded these packages to new upstream versions:

• buildbot
• cloudpickle
• dask (fixing a Python 3.13 failure and working around a build failure due to sphinx-book-theme
• distributed (fixing a Python 3.13 failure; also contributed a fix upstream)
• importlib-resources (fixing a test failure on s390x and a test failure on all architectures)
• isort
• nbconvert
• psycopg3
• pydantic
• pydantic-settings
• pydoctor
• pypandoc
• python-argcomplete
• python-cai
• python-colormap (fixing a build failure with poetry-core 2.0, for which I contributed a fix upstream)
• python-django-guid
• python-easydev (fixing a build failure with poetry-core 2.0)
• python-holidays
• python-launchpadlib
• python-limits
• python-model-bakery
• python-openapi-schema-validator
• python-pathvalidate
• python-pyftpdlib
• python-quart-trio
• python-urllib3 (contributed a test fix upstream)
• python-telethon
• python-webob (fixing CVE-2024-42353)
• responses
• restrictedpython (fixing CVE-2024-47532 and CVE-2025-22153)
• sqlfluff
• vcr.py (fixing a build failure with python-urllib3 2.3.0
• xonsh (fixing a Python 3.13 failure)

Rust team

I fixed rust-pyo3-ffi to avoid explicit Python version dependencies that were getting in the way of making Python 3.13 the default version.

Security tools packaging team

I uploaded libevt to fix a build failure on i386 and to tolerate future versions of dh-python that will drop their dependency on python3-setuptools.

Installer team

I helped with some testing of a debian-installer-utils patch as part of the /usr move. I need to get around to uploading this, since it looks OK now.

Other small things

Helmut Grohne reached out for help debugging a multi-arch coinstallability problem (you know it's going to be complicated when even Helmut can't figure it out on his own …) in binutils, and we had a call about that.

I reviewed and applied a new Romanian translation of debconf's manual pages.

I did my twice-yearly refresh of debmirror's mirror_size documentation, and applied a contribution to improve the example debmirror.conf.

I fixed an arguable preprocessor string handling bug in man-db, and applied a fix for out-of-tree builds.

02 Feb 2025 7:48pm GMT

GNOME has announced a change to its default UI and monospace fonts ahead of the upcoming GNOME 48 release - a typographic turnabout that won't impact Ubuntu users directly, though. Should you feel a sense of deja vu here it's because GNOME trialled a font switch last year, during development of GNOME 47. Back then, it replaced its home-grown Cantarell font with the popular open-source sans Inter font (trivia: used by Zorin OS). The change was reverted prior to the GNOME 47 due to various UI quirks, coverage issues, and compatibility (thus underlying the importance of testing things out prior […]

You're reading GNOME Introduces New UI & Monospace Adwaita Fonts, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

02 Feb 2025 4:42pm GMT

Want to find out if the text you're reading online was written by an real human or spat out by a large language model (LLM) trying to sound like one? Mozilla's Fakespot Deepfake Detector Firefox add-on may can help give you an indication. Similar to online AI detector tools, the add-on can analyse text (of 32 words or more) to identify patterns, traits, and tells common in AI generated or manipulated text. It uses Mozilla's proprietary ApolloDFT engine and a set of open-source detection models. But unlike some tools, Mozilla's Fakespot Deepfake Detector browser extension is free to use, does […]

You're reading Try Mozilla's New AI Detector Add-On for Firefox, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

01 Feb 2025 7:52pm GMT

When it comes to the Linux desktop experience, one thing remains constant: the occasional frustration with mouse scrolling. Whether you're navigating through web pages, sifting through documents, or coding in your favorite editor, smooth and predictable scrolling is essential. Unfortunately, not all Linux desktop environments handle mouse scroll events gracefully. This is where imwheel steps in to save the day.

The Scrolling Conundrum on Linux

Despite the significant strides in Linux desktop environments like GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce, inconsistencies in mouse scroll behavior persist. Users frequently encounter issues such as:

• Slow or Unresponsive Scrolling: Certain applications, particularly web browsers and terminal emulators, often exhibit sluggish scroll speeds that can make navigation a chore.
• Inconsistent Behavior Across Applications: Some programs adhere to the system-wide scroll settings, while others stubbornly ignore them, leading to an uneven user experience.
• Lack of Customization: The default settings provided by many desktop environments rarely offer the granular control needed to fine-tune scrolling to individual preferences.
• Hardware Compatibility Issues: High-DPI mice and those with tilt-scroll functions sometimes don't play well with the underlying system, resulting in erratic or hyper-sensitive scrolling.

These issues can be a significant hindrance, especially for users who demand precision and efficiency in their workflow.

Enter imwheel

imwheel is a lightweight utility that intercepts and modifies mouse wheel input on the fly, giving users the power to adjust the scroll behavior at a granular level. Here's why it remains an indispensable tool:

Customization at Your Fingertips

With imwheel, you can tailor your mouse scroll settings to perfectly suit your needs. Whether you need to ramp up the speed for faster navigation or dial it down for precision work, imwheel allows you to modify scroll sensitivity with ease. You can even set up custom scrolling profiles for different applications, ensuring that every piece of software behaves just the way you want it to.

Bridging the Gap

While modern desktop environments offer various settings to adjust scroll behavior, they often fall short of providing the detailed control that imwheel offers. Many of these environments have default configurations that may work well for most users but leave little room for customization when things go awry. imwheel bridges this gap by giving you a simple yet powerful way to tweak scroll acceleration and sensitivity, enhancing compatibility across a wide range of applications and hardware.

Wide-Ranging Compatibility

Even as Linux transitions toward newer display protocols like Wayland, a significant number of users still rely on X11. imwheel continues to be a vital tool for X11 users, ensuring that even on legacy systems, you can achieve consistent and smooth scrolling. Its ability to work across various distributions and desktop environments further cements its relevance.

Installing and Configuring imwheel

Getting started with imwheel is straightforward. Here's a quick guide to installation and configuration on some popular Linux distributions:

Installation

• Debian/Ubuntu-based distros: sudo apt install imwheel
• Fedora: sudo dnf install imwheel
• Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S imwheel

Configuration

Once installed, you can customize imwheel by editing the ~/.imwheelrc file. Here's an example configuration that increases vertical scroll speed:

".*"
None, Up, Button4, 4
None, Down, Button5, 4

In this configuration, the number 4 specifies the scroll acceleration. Adjusting this value allows you to fine-tune the scrolling speed to your liking. After updating the configuration, apply the changes by restarting imwheel:

imwheel -kill

For convenience, you can add the imwheel -kill command to your startup applications to ensure that imwheel is automatically launched when you log in.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving landscape of Linux desktop environments, the need for precise control over hardware behavior remains paramount. imwheel continues to be a relevant and invaluable tool for those who find themselves frustrated by inconsistent mouse scroll behavior. By offering detailed customization options and bridging the gap left by default system settings, imwheel ensures that your scrolling experience is as smooth and responsive as it should be.

If you've ever found yourself fighting with your mouse scroll settings on Linux, give imwheel a try. It might just be the fix you need to enhance your workflow and reclaim the fluidity of your desktop experience.

The post Why imwheel Is Still Relevant for Linux Users in 2025 appeared first on Hamradio.my - Amateur Radio, Tech Insights and Product Reviews by 9M2PJU.

01 Feb 2025 7:47am GMT

The sum of the digits of the square of 49 (2401) is the square root of 49.

49 is the first square where the digits are squares. In this case, 4 and 9 are square numbers.

It seems that 49 is an age of squares.

I find myself increasingly OK with this.

It is interesting, although really quite disillusioning, reading through the series of posts I've done on my birthday (follow the links back from last year for 22 years now) and seeing the trend in recent years. The world has got more worrying. A lot more. I hate this.

So I've tried to find joy where I can get it. I'll give you an example. I looked up the number 49 for this, the same as I always do, and apparently 49 is the smallest discriminant of a totally real cubic field. Now, I'm sure that there are maths people out there who understand this. But to me, it is impossible to read this without putting on a mock Valley bro accent: yeah brah, this field is todally real, yah? And that made me smile. Bill dropped a birthday message on me at half seven this morning. Yesterday, I remembered a throwaway joke line that popey dropped on me in 2015 and I literally laughed out loud in my own living room at the thought of it. Two days ago Jess and I went to see Murder on the Orient Express on stage at the Alexandra Theatre. Tonight I've been for beers with Bruce and Matt. My D&D group are about to confront Harazos to let them perform a ritual they've made up. Everyone in my team at Barnardo's was really nice about my birthday. None of this helps fix the world crashing down around us, but all of it certainly makes it easier to cope with, because all of it is a little bit of joy, of niceness, in the midst of unjoy and unniceness. Thank you, all of you.

This has been not a great year. There's been ups and there's been downs. I'm still a lot better off than almost everyone -- I'm not under threat, I'm not more under threat than I was before, I can afford to do what I like as long as what I like isn't too extravagant. But it has nonetheless been tough. Maybe 2025 will be better, although to be honest I doubt it. And I have this sense of regret, not about the world getting worse, but that the idea that the world might get better has basically gone away. When I was younger, the thing was that the world would get better, year on year, as time passed. And I am 100% sure that this was a thing that I got to think because I was privileged to not be being screwed over by the world. But I still had that thought, that things were OK today and would be slightly more than OK tomorrow, and at some point that went away. Things probably won't be better tomorrow. If they're the same, that probably in itself is a victory. This isn't really my tragedy; it's for people younger than me, who haven't experienced this change, who assume that things getting steadily more grey and sad and worse is just the way the world is; that's just normal.

So I look for little bits of joy. Hopefully you have some little bits of joy yourself, as I do. Happy birthday to you, even if it's not your birthday. Eat some cake.

30 Jan 2025 11:04pm GMT

Linux users hunting for a native client to stream music from TIDAL will want to keep an eye on a promising new open-source app called High Tide. High Tide is an unofficial but native Linux client for the TIDAL music streaming service. It's written in Python, uses GTK4/libadwaita UI, and leverages official TIDAL APIs for playback. TIDAL, often positioned as the 'pro-artist music streaming platform', isn't as popular as industry titan Spotify (likely because it doesn't offer a 'free' ad-supported tier) but is nonetheless a solid rival to it in terms of features and catalogue breadth. Windows, macOS, Android and […]

You're reading High Tide is a Promising New Linux TIDAL Client, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

30 Jan 2025 6:54pm GMT

ZRAM relies on compression algorithms to reduce the size of data stored in memory. These algorithms take raw data, analyze patterns within it, and encode it in a more compact form. The compressed data is then stored in a portion of RAM designated as a "compressed block device." When the system needs to access the data, it decompresses it back to its original form.

The choice of compression algorithm directly impacts:

1. Compression Ratio: How much the data is reduced in size.
2. CPU Overhead: The computational resources required to compress and decompress data.
3. Latency: The time taken to compress and decompress data, which affects system responsiveness.
4. Memory Fragmentation: How efficiently the compressed data is stored in memory.

Now, let's explore the most commonly used compression algorithms in ZRAM in detail.

1. LZ4

Overview

• Type: Fast compression algorithm.
• Developer: Yann Collet.
• Characteristics: LZ4 prioritizes speed over compression ratio. It achieves moderate compression ratios but excels in low-latency compression and decompression.

Key Features

• Speed: LZ4 is one of the fastest compression algorithms available. Its design minimizes CPU overhead, making it ideal for systems where performance is critical.
• Compression Ratio: Moderate (typically around 2:1 for general-purpose data).
• Use Case: Best suited for systems with limited CPU power or workloads that require fast access to compressed data, such as real-time applications or embedded systems.

Example Use Case

• A Raspberry Pi running a lightweight desktop environment can benefit from LZ4 because it reduces memory usage without significantly taxing the CPU.

Pros

• Extremely fast compression and decompression.
• Low CPU overhead.
• Predictable performance.

Cons

• Lower compression ratios compared to other algorithms like ZSTD.

2. ZSTD (Zstandard)

Overview

• Type: High-performance compression algorithm.
• Developer: Facebook (now Meta).
• Characteristics: ZSTD offers a wide range of compression levels, allowing users to balance between speed and compression ratio. At higher levels, it achieves excellent compression ratios but at the cost of increased CPU usage.

Key Features

• Compression Ratio: Excellent (up to 3:1 or higher for general-purpose data).
• Speed: Configurable. At lower levels, ZSTD is comparable to LZ4 in terms of speed. At higher levels, it sacrifices speed for better compression.
• Flexibility: ZSTD supports multiple compression levels (from 1 to 22), giving users fine-grained control over performance and efficiency.

Example Use Case

• A server running memory-intensive applications (e.g., databases or virtual machines) can use ZSTD at a moderate compression level to maximize memory savings without overwhelming the CPU.

Pros

• High compression ratios at higher levels.
• Configurable trade-off between speed and compression.
• Modern and actively maintained.

Cons

• Higher CPU overhead at higher compression levels.
• May not be suitable for systems with weak CPUs.

3. LZO (Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer)

Overview

• Type: Fast compression algorithm.
• Developer: Markus Oberhumer.
• Characteristics: LZO is similar to LZ4 in that it prioritizes speed over compression ratio. However, it is slightly less efficient than LZ4 in terms of both speed and compression.

Key Features

• Speed: Very fast, though not as fast as LZ4.
• Compression Ratio: Moderate (similar to LZ4).
• Use Case: Suitable for legacy systems or environments where LZ4 is not available.

Example Use Case

• An older Linux distribution that does not support LZ4 might use LZO as a fallback option.

Pros

• Simple and reliable.
• Low CPU overhead.

Cons

• Slightly inferior to LZ4 in terms of performance and compression ratio.
• Less commonly used today due to the availability of better alternatives.

4. Deflate (via zlib)

Overview

• Type: General-purpose compression algorithm.
• Developer: Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
• Characteristics: Deflate is the algorithm used by gzip and zlib. It provides good compression ratios but is slower than LZ4 and LZO.

Key Features

• Compression Ratio: Good (better than LZ4 and LZO but worse than ZSTD).
• Speed: Slower than LZ4 and LZO, especially during decompression.
• Use Case: Rarely used in ZRAM due to its higher CPU overhead compared to modern alternatives.

Example Use Case

• Systems with abundant CPU resources and a need for better compression than LZ4 or LZO might consider Deflate.

Pros

• Well-established and widely supported.
• Good compression ratios.

Cons

• Higher CPU overhead.
• Slower than LZ4 and LZO.

5. LZ77 and LZ78 Variants

Overview

• Type: Foundational compression algorithms.
• Developer: Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv.
• Characteristics: LZ77 and LZ78 are the basis for many modern compression algorithms, including LZ4, ZSTD, and Deflate. They identify repeated patterns in data and replace them with references to earlier occurrences.

Key Features

• Compression Ratio: Varies depending on the implementation.
• Speed: Generally slower than specialized algorithms like LZ4.
• Use Case: Rarely used directly in ZRAM but forms the foundation for many other algorithms.

Example Use Case

• Research or custom implementations may experiment with LZ77/LZ78 variants.

Pros

• Fundamental to understanding compression theory.
• Flexible and adaptable.

Cons

• Not optimized for modern hardware.
• Outperformed by newer algorithms.

Choosing the Right Algorithm for Your Use Case

The choice of compression algorithm depends on your system's hardware capabilities and workload requirements. Here are some guidelines:

For Speed-Critical Applications:

• Use LZ4 if you need minimal CPU overhead and fast compression/decompression.
• Avoid algorithms like ZSTD at high compression levels.

For Memory-Constrained Systems:

• Use ZSTD at moderate compression levels to achieve a balance between memory savings and CPU usage.
• Consider LZ4 if CPU resources are extremely limited.

For Legacy Systems:

• Use LZO or Deflate if newer algorithms like LZ4 or ZSTD are unavailable.

For Servers with High Memory Pressure:

• Use ZSTD at higher compression levels to maximize memory savings, provided the server has sufficient CPU resources.

Conclusion

The choice of compression algorithm is a critical factor in optimizing ZRAM's performance. Each algorithm has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice depends on your specific use case. For most users, LZ4 strikes an excellent balance between speed and efficiency, while ZSTD offers superior compression ratios for systems with sufficient CPU resources.

By understanding the characteristics of these algorithms and experimenting with different configurations, you can tailor ZRAM to meet the unique demands of your system. Whether you're managing a memory-constrained embedded device or a high-performance server, ZRAM's flexibility ensures that you can find a solution that works for you.

The post The Role of Compression Algorithms in ZRAM appeared first on Hamradio.my - Amateur Radio, Tech Insights and Product Reviews by 9M2PJU.

30 Jan 2025 3:25pm GMT

The Thunderbird email client is making its monthly 'release channel' builds the default download starting in March. "We're excited to announce that starting with the 135.0 release in March 2025, the Thunderbird Release channel will be the default download," Corey Bryant, manager of Thunderbird Release Operations, shares in an update on the project's discussion hub. Right now, users who visit the Thunderbird website and hit the giant download get the latest Extended Support Release (ESR) build by default. It gets one major feature update a year plus smaller bug fix and security updates issued in-between. The version of Thunderbird Ubuntu […]

You're reading Thunderbird Email Client Moving to Monthly Feature Drops, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

30 Jan 2025 12:41am GMT

Continuamos a conversa com Sofia «Soficious» e Rafael Gonçalves sobre o mundo do desenvolvimento de jogos: porque é que os sistemas operativos Livres são muito mais espectacularmente superiores em tudo, maravilhosos, incríveis e inexcedíveis na sua magnificência radiosa? E porque é que é muito melhor trabalhar com Software Livre e regras de acessibilidade no desenvolvimento de jogos? Como é que o Ubuntu combinado com Proton pode libertar os prisioneiros de SO proprietários? E porque é que há pessoas que ainda são reféns da Adobe e imploram por misericórdia? Tudo isso e muito mais, neste episódio! .

Já sabem: oiçam, subscrevam e partilhem!

• https://www.altaccess.tech/
• https://masto.pt/@Soficious
• https://Instagram.com/soficious_
• https://twitch.tv/soficious
• https://x.com/Soficious_
• https://linktr.ee/soficious
• https://tiktok.com/@soficious
• https://youtube.com/@soficious
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/2645830/Stunt_Xpress/
• https://godotengine.org/
• https://www.threads.net/@gonzelviz
• https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@Gonzelvis
• https://x.com/gonzelvis
• LoCo PT: https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-pt/
• Nitrokey: https://shop.nitrokey.com/shop?aff_ref=3
• Mastodon: https://masto.pt/@pup
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/PodcastUbuntuPortugal

Apoios

Podem apoiar o podcast usando os links de afiliados do Humble Bundle, porque ao usarem esses links para fazer uma compra, uma parte do valor que pagam reverte a favor do Podcast Ubuntu Portugal. E podem obter tudo isso com 15 dólares ou diferentes partes dependendo de pagarem 1, ou 8. Achamos que isto vale bem mais do que 15 dólares, pelo que se puderem paguem mais um pouco mais visto que têm a opção de pagar o quanto quiserem. Se estiverem interessados em outros bundles não listados nas notas usem o link https://www.humblebundle.com/?partner=PUP e vão estar também a apoiar-nos.

Atribuição e licenças

Este episódio foi produzido por Diogo Constantino, Miguel e Tiago Carrondo e editado pelo Senhor Podcast. O website é produzido por Tiago Carrondo e o código aberto está licenciado nos termos da Licença MIT. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A música do genérico é: "Won't see it comin' (Feat Aequality & N'sorte d'autruche)", por Alpha Hydrae e está licenciada nos termos da CC0 1.0 Universal License. Este episódio e a imagem utilizada estão licenciados nos termos da licença: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), cujo texto integral pode ser lido aqui. Estamos abertos a licenciar para permitir outros tipos de utilização, contactem-nos para validação e autorização.

30 Jan 2025 12:00am GMT

Ubuntu's key developers have agreed to switch to Matrix as the primary platform for real-time development communications involving the distro. From March, Matrix will replace IRC as the place where critical Ubuntu development conversations, requests, meetings, and other vital chatter must take place. Developers asked to ensure they have a presence on the platform so they are reachable. Only the current #ubuntu-devel and #ubuntu-release Libera IRC channels are moving to Matrix, but other Ubuntu development-related channels can choose to move -officially, given some projects were using Matrix over IRC already. As a result, any major requests to/of the key Ubuntu […]

You're reading Confirmed: Ubuntu Dev Discussions Moving to Matrix, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

29 Jan 2025 4:17pm GMT

A new beta release of open source graphics editing app Pinta is available for testing. Pinta 3.0 (beta) gives fans of this cross-platform raster image editor, which is directly inspired by the iconic Paint.NET Windows app, an early opportunity to try out the changes it brings - and there's a fair few! The most impactful change in Pinta 3.0 is the most obvious one: it's revamped UI. Newly ported to GTK4 and libadwaita, Pinta 3.0 swaps a traditional window frame and text-based menu bar for a button-based header bar. Long-time users may might themselves taking a bit of time to […]

You're reading Pinta 3.0 Beta Released with New GTK4/Libadwaita UI, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

28 Jan 2025 6:52pm GMT

Did you ever own (or covet) one of those e-ink Pebble smartwatches of yore? Well, good news if you did: Google today open-sourced the PebbleOS operating system it used (minus proprietary bits) having acquired Pebble's assets when buying Fitbit in 2021 (and Fitbit bought Pebble in 2016, but more on that in a mo'.) More open source code in the world is good news, and it means anyone can reuse PebbleOS to build their own smartwatches, or learn from perusing the code how the former Pebble team tackled building a solid real-time OS on such limited hardware. What made Google […]

You're reading New Pebble Smartwatch Planned After Google Open Sources the OS, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

27 Jan 2025 11:46pm GMT

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 876 for the week of January 19 - 25, 2025. The full version of this issue is available here.

In this issue we cover:

• Ubuntu Stats
• Hot in Support
• LXD: Weekly news #379
• Other Meeting Reports
• Upcoming Meetings and Events
• SOOCon 2025
• Barcamp Surrey
• LoCo Events
• Ubuntu Summit 2024 Reflections
• Canonical News
• In the Blogosphere
• Other Articles of Interest
• Featured Audio and Video
• Updates and Security for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, and 24.10
• And much more!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Krytarik Raido
• Bashing-om
• Chris Guiver
• Wild Man
• Din Mušić - LXD
• And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

.

27 Jan 2025 10:40pm GMT

The Incus team is pleased to announce the release of Incus 6.9!

This is a bit of a lighter release given the holiday break, but it features some nice feature additions on top of the usual health dose of bugfixes.

The highlights for this release are:

• Instance network ACLs on bridge networks
• Enhancements to QEMU scriptlet
• VM memory dumps
• Uplink addresses in OVN network state
• Creation of storage volumes through server preseed file
• Setting description in create commands

The full announcement and changelog can be found here.
And for those who prefer videos, here's the release overview video:

You can take the latest release of Incus up for a spin through our online demo service at: https://linuxcontainers.org/incus/try-it/

Some of the Incus maintainers will be present at FOSDEM 2025, helping run both the containers and kernel devrooms. For those arriving in town early, there will be a "Friends of Incus" gathering sponsored by FuturFusion on Thursday evening (January 30th), you can find the details of that here.

And as always, my company is offering commercial support on Incus, ranging from by-the-hour support contracts to one-off services on things like initial migration from LXD, review of your deployment to squeeze the most out of Incus or even feature sponsorship. You'll find all details of that here: https://zabbly.com/incus

Donations towards my work on this and other open source projects is also always appreciated, you can find me on Github Sponsors, Patreon and Ko-fi.

Enjoy!

27 Jan 2025 6:19pm GMT

Canonical Ceph with IntelⓇ Quick Assist Technology (QAT) When storing large amounts of data, the cost ($) to store each gigabyte (GB) is the typical measure used to gauge the efficiency of the storage system. The biggest driver of storage cost is the protection method used. It is common to protect data by either having […]

27 Jan 2025 9:11am GMT

A new version of the Varia download manager was released at the weekend - an update described by its developers as probably the "biggest since the first release". I've written about Varia before and, as I said then, I appreciate that the idea of using a dedicated download manager app on the desktop isn't as obvious today as it was a decade ago. Most people have fast internet connections, meaning even large downloads complete in seconds, and the built-in download tools in web-browsers are sufficient. Plus, we all tend to use streaming media services these days thus negating the need […]

You're reading Varia Download Manager Adds yt-dlp Support, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

26 Jan 2025 12:21pm GMT

Fixed a major crash bug in our apps that use webengine, I also went ahead and updated these to core24 https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/2095418 andhttps://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=498663

Fixed okular
Can't import certificates to digitally sign in Okular https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=498558 Can't open files https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421987 and https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=415711

Skanpage won't launch https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=493847 in -edge please help test.

Ghostwriter https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=481258

New KDE Snaps!

Kalm - Breathing techniques

Telly-skout - Display TV guides

Kubuntu: Plasma 5.27.12 has been uploaded to archive -proposed and should make the .2 release!

I hate asking but I am unemployable with this broken arm fiasco. If you could spare anything it would be appreciated! https://gofund.me/573cc38e

24 Jan 2025 8:00pm GMT

Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS is scheduled for release on February 13th - in time for Valentines Day, aww. Canonical's Florent Jacquet shares the date on the Ubuntu Developer mailing list today along with a note to developers to be mindful of their package uploads to noble in the coming weeks. As a result, if you're using the latest long-term support release you may notice a slightly drop-off in the number of non-essential updates Software Updater bugs you to install between now and February 13. This allow devs to create a snapshot and test it properly. Ubuntu point releases rarely deliver new […]

You're reading Ubuntu 24.04.2 Arrives Feb 13 with Linux Kernel 6.11, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

24 Jan 2025 4:37pm GMT

Vivaldi web browser has just released its first major update of the year - a corker it is, too! Fans of the Chromium-based browser-though Vivaldi Technologies doesn't appear to be part of the new Linux Foundation-led Supporters of Chromium Browsers project-will discover a bunch of improvements to the Dashboard feature Vivaldi 7.0 delivered. A new weather widget can be added to see current conditions and hourly and weekly weather forecasts for custom locations, plus the ability to set a preferred temperate, precipitation and wind speed unit (celsius, mm, and mph ftw). Keeping things scandi-cool, the Norway-based browser makes use of […]

You're reading Vivaldi 7.1 Delivers Speed Dial Buffs, New Search Engine, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

23 Jan 2025 7:19pm GMT

Recebemos dois convidados - Sofia «Soficious» e Rafael Gonçalves - para nos falarem do mundo dos jogos: em particular, da acessibilidade, desenvolvimento com Software Livre e Tinta Amarela. Como assim, tinta amarela? É verdade, tinta amarela! A conversa foi tão interessante, que vai ser dividida em dois episódios; esta é a primeira parte.

Já sabem: oiçam, subscrevam e partilhem!

• https://www.altaccess.tech/
• https://masto.pt/@Soficious
• https://Instagram.com/soficious_
• https://twitch.tv/soficious
• https://x.com/Soficious_
• https://linktr.ee/soficious
• https://tiktok.com/@soficious
• https://youtube.com/@soficious
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/2645830/Stunt_Xpress/
• https://godotengine.org/
• https://www.threads.net/@gonzelviz
• https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@Gonzelvis
• https://x.com/gonzelvis
• LoCo PT: https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-pt/
• Nitrokey: https://shop.nitrokey.com/shop?aff_ref=3
• Mastodon: https://masto.pt/@pup
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/PodcastUbuntuPortugal

Apoios

Podem apoiar o podcast usando os links de afiliados do Humble Bundle, porque ao usarem esses links para fazer uma compra, uma parte do valor que pagam reverte a favor do Podcast Ubuntu Portugal. E podem obter tudo isso com 15 dólares ou diferentes partes dependendo de pagarem 1, ou 8. Achamos que isto vale bem mais do que 15 dólares, pelo que se puderem paguem mais um pouco mais visto que têm a opção de pagar o quanto quiserem. Se estiverem interessados em outros bundles não listados nas notas usem o link https://www.humblebundle.com/?partner=PUP e vão estar também a apoiar-nos.

Atribuição e licenças

Este episódio foi produzido por Diogo Constantino, Miguel e Tiago Carrondo e editado pelo Senhor Podcast. O website é produzido por Tiago Carrondo e o código aberto está licenciado nos termos da Licença MIT. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A música do genérico é: "Won't see it comin' (Feat Aequality & N'sorte d'autruche)", por Alpha Hydrae e está licenciada nos termos da CC0 1.0 Universal License. Este episódio e a imagem utilizada estão licenciados nos termos da licença: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), cujo texto integral pode ser lido aqui. Estamos abertos a licenciar para permitir outros tipos de utilização, contactem-nos para validação e autorização.

23 Jan 2025 12:00am GMT

I won't lie: it's easy to add or remove startup apps, commands, and scripts in Ubuntu. Just open the Startup Applications tool, click 'Add', and away you go. But while Ubuntu's utility is adequate, it's not as user-friendly as similar tools available elsewhere. Sure, Startup Applications is equipped with the critical customisation fields a user will need to curate a set of software/services to start at login - SSH agent, VPN app, password manager, backup script, resolution tweaks, and so on - but it's rather rote. Take the way you add an app to start at login: Ubuntu's Startup Applications […]

You're reading Ignition is a Modern Startup Applications Utility for Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

22 Jan 2025 9:18pm GMT

Over the past 5 years, Canonical has been contributing to Flutter, including building out Linux support for Flutter applications, publishing libraries to help integrate into the Linux desktop and building modern applications for Ubuntu, including our software store. Last year we announced at the Ubuntu Summit that we've been working on bringing support for multiple […]

22 Jan 2025 10:00am GMT

VirtualBox 7.1.6 is out, the third maintenance release to the VirtualBox 7.1 stable series first released in September of last year. Headline offering in this update is initial support for the recently released Linux kernel 6.13 in Linux Guest Additions, plus improved support for the Linux 6.4 kernel to fix graphics freezing when using VBoxVGA adapter, and Linux 6.12 fixes for vboxvideo. Linux guest screens no longer flicker when using VMSVGA graphics adapters, Windows 11 24H2 guests no longer throw BSODs, and entering a custom proxy server in a guest OS' settings will now take effect, which some will be […]

You're reading VirtualBox Update Adds Support for Linux Kernel 6.13, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

22 Jan 2025 2:30am GMT

A fresh stable release of Wine - the open-source compatibility layer that makes it possible to run Windows apps and games on Linux and macOS - has been uncorked. More than 6,000 thousand changes were distilled in Wine 10.0, changes collected, collated, and curated over the past 12 months of Wine 9.x development releases. For those who've supped the dev cycle builds, the bulk of what's new in Wine 10.0 will be familiar. Wine is not the 'everyday essential' it was in years past. Back then, web-based services weren't as capable, so folks were wedded to specific pieces of Windows software, […]

You're reading Wine 10.0 Release Brings New Drivers, Features & Changes, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

21 Jan 2025 8:48pm GMT

As we move into 2025, we wanted to reflect on the crowning event of the year: the Ubuntu Summit. Just over two months ago, we celebrated Ubuntu's 20th birthday in The Hague, the Netherlands. We're still buzzing from the electric atmosphere you all brought to this event, as we came together to showcase what open […]

21 Jan 2025 4:54pm GMT

In this third and final part of the series, I'll provide some tips on how to set up your roadmap and effectively demonstrate compliance without overburdening your teams. If you're just joining the fun now, in our two previous editions we covered who NIS2 applies to and what requirements it sets out. Be sure to […]

20 Jan 2025 5:29pm GMT

Open source is one of the most exciting, but often misunderstood, innovations of our modern world. I still remember the first time I installed linux on my laptop, saw the vast array of packages I could install on it, all the utilities and libraries that make it work, all the forum threads filled with advice […]

20 Jan 2025 10:40am GMT

With the release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) and Ubuntu Core 24, Canonical introduced a 12-year Long Term Support commitment for 32-bit Arm® processors, addressing the critical time_t overflow issue, commonly known as the "Year 2038 problem." These processors, essential for critical IoT devices requiring a smaller DRAM footprint and optimised cache usage, can […]

20 Jan 2025 9:12am GMT

For several years, DigitalOcean has been an important sponsor of Ubuntu Budgie. They provide the infrastructure we need to host our website at https://ubuntubudgie.org and our Discourse community forum at https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org. Maybe you are familiar with them. Maybe you use them in your personal or professional life. Or maybe, like me, you didn't really see how they would benefit you.

Source

19 Jan 2025 5:27pm GMT

In my previous blog, we ran through what NIS2 is and who it applies to. In this second part of the series, I'll break down the main requirements you'll find in NIS2 and help translate them into actionable and practical measures you can take to achieve NIS2 compliance. Join me in this post and start understanding what NIS2 is all about.

17 Jan 2025 7:18pm GMT

The EU NIS2 directive, which calls for strengthening cybersecurity across the European Union, is now active in all member states. Join me for this 3-part blog post series in which I'll explain what it is, help you understand if it is applicable to your company and how you can become NIS2 compliant. In this first […]

15 Jan 2025 8:42pm GMT

Canonical's security team has released updates of the rsync packages for all supported Ubuntu releases. The updates remediate CVE-2024-12084, CVE-2024-12085, CVE-2024-12086, CVE-2024-12087, CVE-2024-12088, and CVE-2024-12747.

14 Jan 2025 6:41pm GMT

Introducing trusted open source database containers It's time to stop proclaiming that "cloud native is the future". Kubernetes has just celebrated its 10 year anniversary, and 76% of respondents to the latest CNCF Annual Survey reported that they have adopted cloud native technologies, like containers, for much or all of their production development and deployment. […]

14 Jan 2025 10:40am GMT