Can the Raspberry Pi 500+ work as a standalone Bluetooth keyboard? Yes, using the open-source btferret project - but not without limitations, as I report.

You're reading The Raspberry Pi 500+ Works as a Standalone Keyboard (Well, Kinda), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

21 Nov 2025 11:12pm GMT

What if you could work on real-world projects, shape cutting-edge technology, collaborate with developers across the world, make a meaningful impact with your design skills, and grow your portfolio… all without applying for an internship or waiting for graduation?

That's what we aim to do with open design: an opportunity for universities and students of any design discipline.

What is open design, and why does it matter?

Before we go further, let's talk about what open design is. Many open source tools are built by developers, for developers, without design in mind. When open source software powers 90% of the digital world (PDF), it leaves everyday users feeling overwhelmed or left out. Open design wants to bridge that gap.

We aim to introduce human-centred thinking into open source development, enhancing these tools to be more intuitive, inclusive, and user-friendly. Most open source projects focus on code contributions, neglecting design contributions. That leaves a vast number of projects without a design system, accessibility audits, or onboarding documentation. That's where designers come in, helping shape better user experiences and more welcoming communities.

Open design is about more than just aesthetics. Open design helps to make technology work for people; that's exactly what open source needs. Learn more about open design on our webpage.

We want to raise awareness for the projects, the problems that currently exist, and how we can fix them together, and encourage universities and students to become advocates of open design.

We want universities to connect their students to real-world, meaningful design opportunities in a field that is currently lacking the creativity of designers. Our goal is to help and motivate students to bring their design skills into open source projects and become advocates, to make open design accessible, practical, and empowering!

How Canonical helps universities access open design

We want to help universities help students to access:

• Real-world experiences: Students apply their design skills to global projects to create valuable, demonstrable outcomes, beyond hypothetical briefs
• Interdisciplinary growth: Empower students to gain collaborative experience with developers, and navigate real tech workflows
• Accessible opportunities: No interviews, no barriers; just impact, experience, and learning

We have provided universities with talks and project briefs, enabling them to prepare students to utilise their expertise and design a brighter future for open source. If you're a department leader, instructor, or coordinator, exploring open source and open design will help you to give your students unique access to industry-aligned experiences, while embedding values of collaboration, open contribution, and inclusive design.

Why should students care?

If you're a student in UX, UI, interaction, service, visual, HCI design, or any other field with design influence, you've been told how important it is to build your portfolio, gain hands-on experience, and collaborate with cross-functional teams. Open design is your opportunity to do so.

The best part is, you don't have to write a single line of code to make a difference! Open source projects are looking for:

• UX/UI improvements
• Accessibility and heuristic audits
• User research and persona development
• User flows and wireframes
• Information architecture reviews
• Design documentation and feedback systems

If you're in a design course, you already have, or are developing, the skills that open-source projects need.

Open design is an opportunity to develop by collaborating across disciplines, navigating ambiguity, and advocating for users: skills employers value. With open design, you'll gain confidence in presenting ideas, working with international teams, and handling feedback in a real-world setting, growing in ways that classroom projects and internships often don't offer.

If you're aiming for a tech-focused design career, open design is one of the most impactful and distinctive ways to stand out!

How can you start?

Getting started is easier than you think, even if GitHub looks scary at first. Here's how:

1. Learn the basics of GitHub

We've made a video guide to understanding GitHub, and curated a list of other videos to get to grips with GitHub.

2. Find a project on contribute.design

It's like a job board for design contributions. These projects are waiting for you.

3. Understand the project's needs

Most projects on contribute.design list what they're looking for in .design file or DESIGN.md guidelines.

4. Pick an issue, or propose your own

Navigate to the Issues tab of the project repo, where you can filter for issues labelled for design. You can also use this tab to propose any issues you discover in the project.

5. Contribute, collaborate, grow

Start adding your ideas, questions, and solutions to issues. You'll be collaborating, communicating, and making meaningful contributions.

You can explore more projects through the GitHub Explore page, but not every project will have a design process in place; that's where your skills are especially valuable. If you don't see design issues, treat the project as a blank canvas. Suggest checklists, organise a design system, or improve documentation. The power is in your hands!

Reach out to maintainers, join community discussions, and don't hesitate to introduce design-focused thinking. Your initiative can spark meaningful change and help open source become more user-friendly, one project at a time.

View every project as an opportunity; you don't need an invitation to contribute, just curiosity, creativity, and the willingness to collaborate.

Interested?

We're looking for universities and departments interested in introducing open design to their students. Whether that's through a talk, module project briefs, or anything else you'd like to see, we're excited to find ways to work together and bring open design to campus.

Are you a program director, a design department, a student group, or an interested student? Let's talk!

Reach out at opendesign@canonical.com

21 Nov 2025 9:39am GMT

What if you could work on real-world projects, shape cutting-edge technology, collaborate with developers across the world, make a meaningful impact with your design skills, and grow your portfolio… all without applying for an internship or waiting for graduation? That's what we aim to do with open design: an opportunity for universities and students of […]

21 Nov 2025 9:39am GMT

Enhanced Android device simulation, smarter diagnostics, and OIDC-enforced authentication

The Anbox Cloud team has been working around the clock to release Anbox Cloud 1.28.0! We're very proud of this release that adds robust authentication, improved diagnostic tools, and expanded simulation options, making Anbox Cloud even more secure, flexible, and developer-friendly for running large-scale Android workloads.

Let's go over the most significant changes in this new version.

Strengthened authentication and authorization

Our OpenID Connect (OIDC)-based authentication and authorization framework is now stable with Anbox Cloud 1.28.0. This new framework provides a standardized approach for controlling access across web and command-line clients. Operators can now assign permissions through entitlements with fine-grained control, define authorization groups, and create and manage identities.

Configuring user permissions, understanding the idea of identities and groups, and looking through the entire list of available entitlements are all thoroughly covered in the new guides that come with this release. This represents a significant advancement in the direction of a more uniform and standards-based access model for all Anbox Cloud deployments.

Simulated SMS support

This is one of our most exciting new features: developers testing telephony-enabled applications in Anbox Cloud can now simulate incoming SMS messages using the Anbox runtime HTTP API.

This new functionality allows messages to trigger notifications the same way they would on a physical device, generating more realistic end-to-end scenarios. A new how-to guide in our documentation provides detailed instructions on how to enable and use this feature.

Protection against accidental deletions

Because we know accidents happen (especially in production environments…), in order to reduce operational risk, this release introduces the ability to protect instances from accidental deletion. This option can be enabled directly in the dashboard either when creating a new instance or later from the Instance details page under the Security section.

Once this protection option is turned on, the instance cannot be deleted, even during bulk delete operations, until the configuration is reset. This simple safeguard helps operators preserve important data and prevents costly mistakes in busy environments.

Improved ADB share management

Working with ADB (the Android Debug Bridge) has also become more flexible. Anbox Cloud now allows up to five ADB shares to be managed directly from the dashboard. For those who prefer the command line, the new amc connect command provides an alternative to the existing anbox-connect tool. Together, these improvements make it easier for developers to manage and maintain multiple debugging or testing sessions at once.

New diagnostic facility for troubleshooting

With version 1.28.0, we're introducing a new diagnostic facility in the dashboard. This tool is designed to simplify troubleshooting for both the instances and the streaming sessions themselves.

This feature helps collect relevant diagnostic data automatically, thereby reducing the work needed to identify and resolve issues. It also makes collaboration with our Canonical support teams more efficient, as users can now provide consistent and accurate diagnostic information in a structured, standard format.

Sensor support in the Streaming SDK

Here's another hotly anticipated feature: the Anbox Streaming SDK gains expanded sensor support in this release. Our SDK now includes gyroscope, accelerometer and orientation sensors, allowing developers to test applications more interactively.

Sensor support is disabled by default but can be easily enabled in the streaming client configuration. This addition opens up new possibilities for interactive use cases, such as gaming.

Upgrade now and stay tuned!

We think that Anbox Cloud 1.28.0 is our best release to date, and we are pleased to keep providing a feature-rich, scalable, and safe solution for managing Android workloads on a large scale.

This latest version makes it easier than ever for developers and operators to create and test Android apps by introducing more precise device simulation, improved troubleshooting tools, and stricter access controls, as we've explained above.

Try it now and stay tuned for further developments in our upcoming releases. For detailed instructions on how to upgrade your existing deployment, please refer to the official documentation.

Further reading

Official documentation
Anbox Cloud Appliance
Learn more about Anbox Cloud or contact our team to discuss your use case

---

Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Anbox Cloud uses assets available through the Android Open Source Project.

21 Nov 2025 8:00am GMT

Enhanced Android device simulation, smarter diagnostics, and OIDC-enforced authentication The Anbox Cloud team has been working around the clock to release Anbox Cloud 1.28.0! We're very proud of this release that adds robust authentication, improved diagnostic tools, and expanded simulation options, making Anbox Cloud even more secure, flexible, and developer-friendly for running large-scale Android workloads. […]

21 Nov 2025 8:00am GMT

LibrePods brings AirPods Pro features to Linux desktops, including active noise cancellation, transparency mode, ear detection and accurate battery levels.

You're reading Use AirPods Pro Features on Linux with LibrePods, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

20 Nov 2025 11:58pm GMT

But what if we could write something that would take a static binary, replace at least the direct syscalls with ones going through libc and load it with the dynamic linker? We are in luck, because the excellent QEMU project has a user space emulator! It can be compiled as a dynamically linked executable, honors LD_PRELOAD and uses the host libc's syscall - well, at least sometimes. Sometimes syscalls just bypass libc.

The missing piece was a way to make QEMU always take the interposable path and call the host libc instead of using an arch-specifix assembly routine (`safe_syscall_base`) to construct the syscall and going directly to the kernel. Luckily, this turned out to be doable. A small patch later, QEMU gained a switch that forces all syscalls through libc. Suddenly, our static binaries started looking a lot more dynamic!

$ faketime '2008-12-24 08:15:42'  qemu-x86_64 ./test_static_clock_gettime
2008-12-24 08:15:42.725404654
$ file test_static_clock_gettime 
test_clock_gettime: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, ...

With this in place, Firebuild can finally wrap even those secretive statically linked tools. QEMU runs them, libc catches their syscalls, LD_PRELOAD injects libfirebuild.so, and from there the usual interposition magic happens. The result: previously uncachable build steps can now be traced, cached, and shortcut just like their dynamic friends.

There is one more problem though. Why would the static binaries deep in the build be run by QEMU? Firebuild also intercepts the `exec()` calls and now it rewrites them on the fly whenever the executed binary would be statically linked!

$ firebuild -d comm bash -c ./test_static
...
FIREBUILD: fd 9.1: ({ExecedProcess 161077.1, running, "bash -c ./test_static", fds=[0: {FileFD ofd={FileO
FD #0 type=FD_PIPE_IN r} cloexec=false}, 1: {FileFD ofd={FileOFD #3 type=FD_PIPE_OUT w} {Pipe #0} close_o
n_popen=false cloexec=false}, 2: {FileFD ofd={FileOFD #4 type=FD_PIPE_OUT w} {Pipe #1} close_on_popen=fal
se cloexec=false}, 3: {FileFD NULL} /* times 2 */]})
{
    "[FBBCOMM_TAG]": "exec",
    "file": "test_static",
    "// fd": null,
    "// dirfd": null,
    "arg": [
        "./test_static"
    ],
    "env": [
        "SHELL=/bin/bash",
 ...
        "FB_SOCKET=/tmp/firebuild.cpMn75/socket",
        "_=./test_static"
    ],
    "with_p": false,
    "// path": null,
    "utime_u": 0,
    "stime_u": 1017
}
FIREBUILD: -> proc_ic_msg()  (message_processor.cc:782)  proc={ExecedProcess 161077.1, running, "bash -c 
./test_static", fds=[0: {FileFD ofd={FileOFD #0 type=FD_PIPE_IN r} cloexec=false}, 1: {FileFD ofd={FileOF
D #3 type=FD_PIPE_OUT w} {Pipe #0} close_on_popen=false cloexec=false}, 2: {FileFD ofd={FileOFD #4 type=F
D_PIPE_OUT w} {Pipe #1} close_on_popen=false cloexec=false}, 3: {FileFD NULL} /* times 2 */]}, fd_conn=9.
1, tag=exec, ack_num=0
FIREBUILD:   -> send_fbb()  (utils.cc:292)  conn=9.1, ack_num=0 fd_count=0
Sending message with ancillary fds []:
{
    "[FBBCOMM_TAG]": "rewritten_args",
    "arg": [
        "/usr/bin/qemu-user-interposable",
        "-libc-syscalls",
        "./test_static"
    ],
    "path": "/usr/bin/qemu-user-interposable"
}
...
FIREBUILD: -> accept_ic_conn()  (firebuild.cc:139)  listener=6
...
FIREBUILD: fd 9.2: ({Process NULL})
{
    "[FBBCOMM_TAG]": "scproc_query",
    "pid": 161077,
    "ppid": 161073,
    "cwd": "/home/rbalint/projects/firebuild/test",
    "arg": [
        "/usr/bin/qemu-user-interposable",
        "-libc-syscalls",
        "./test_static"
    ],
    "env_var": [
        "CCACHE_DISABLE=1",
...
        "SHELL=/bin/bash",
        "SHLVL=0",
        "_=./test_static"
    ],
    "umask": "0002",
    "jobserver_fds": [],
    "// jobserver_fifo": null,
    "executable": "/usr/bin/qemu-user-interposable",
    "// executed_path": null,
    "// original_executed_path": null,
    "libs": [
        "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libatomic.so.1",
        "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6",
        "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0",
        "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6",
        "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcre2-8.so.0",
        "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2"
    ],
    "version": "0.8.5.1"
}

The QEMU patch is forwarded to qemu-devel. If it lands, anyone using QEMU user-mode emulation could benefit - not just Firebuild.

For Firebuild users, though, the impact is immediate. Toolchains that mix dynamic and static helpers? Cross-builds that pull in odd little statically linked utilities? Previously "invisible" steps in your builds? All now fair game for caching.

Firebuild 0.8.5 ships this new capability out of the box. Just update, make sure you're using a patched QEMU, and enjoy the feeling of watching even static binaries fall neatly into place in your cached build graph. Ubuntu users can get the prebuilt patched QEMU packages from the Firebuild PPA already.

Static binaries, welcome to the party!

20 Nov 2025 8:56pm GMT

Mozilla's new TABS API helps developers build AI agents to automate web tasks, as the company continues to bet on AI as its future. Details, pricing, and links inside.

You're reading TABS API is Mozilla's Latest Bet on the Agentic Web, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

19 Nov 2025 4:11pm GMT

A new Linux Foundation report reveals how organizations worldwide are adopting, using, and perceiving open source software. The Linux Foundation's latest report, The state of global open source, has just been released in collaboration with Canonical. The report follows the Linux Foundation's European spotlight report, released earlier this year, and confirms that many of the […]

18 Nov 2025 4:10pm GMT