Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Linux Magazine

Open source software development happens so rapidly that the distributions can’t keep pace and often still have older versions in their repositories. Or, even if you don’t have old software, running multiple services or applications on the same operating system sometimes results in compatibility issues. If your goal is to run a couple of services in a reliable way, you’ll likely find yourself using a container-based solution like Docker or Podman. But even then, you still need to manage that underlying Linux distribution. In an ideal scenario, you would want to only deal with the containers and forget about the host system. Several Linux distributions have introduced minimal systems that offer only the packages necessary for running containers. You can’t install any software directly on such a system; you can…

Debian’s modern package manager got its start in 1994 when dpkg became the front end for libapt-pkg. Since then, it has evolved over several generations of front ends. Apt-get provides more detailed feedback than dpkg. The subsequent apt concentrates on apt-get’s most common use cases, as well as the most often used apt utilities, and adds a progress bar to installations. Along with these changes, graphical installations have evolved from the original nearly impenetrable app to countless userfriendly tools. In the past three years, Nala [1] has become the next generation in this evolution, making package management from the command line even easier than before by reorganizing feedback and adding new features such as parallel downloads, selecting the fastest mirrors, and a history that can be used to repeat commands.…

Malware can occasionally become an issue for Linux users. If you download software package from thirdparty providers then install them manually rather than relying on a distribution’s official standard repositories, you need to trust the provider. If you aren’t sure, you can monitor these programs to check which files they open and which network connections they establish. Starting these tests in a sandbox also denies the program access to your physical system and private configuration files. This article looks at strace as a monitoring tool and Firejail as a sandbox. Finding Traces The strace [1] system call tracer can be used to discover which software accesses which files. As an example, I’ll show you how to use strace to find out which files the passwd command opens when you change…

Computer screens constantly offer a different view, but computer keyboards? They’re always the same, right? You can choose an ANSI or ISO layout or, if you want to splurge, you can get an ergonomic model with a built-in tracking ball, but those keys really just look like keys – that is, until you enter the exotic world of artisan keycaps, where a key on your keyboard could look like a skull, a flying saucer, or a Pokémon figure. This month we take you inside the strange realm of artisan keycaps. Also in this issue, get some tips for better security with the easy-enough-for-everyone ufw firewall, and learn about a pair of alternatives to the standard directory tool ls: lsd and eza.…

Some people who rely on the command line may not be aware that some of the commands they type were introduced 40, 50, or even 60 years ago. They often date back to Unix or the early days of GNU. Of course, modernized versions of many of these frequently used commands from the Unix era are now available. Early versions of the Unix ls command from the coreutils package have existed since the early 1960s. Later on, ls was revised by Richard Stallman and added to the GNU tools. The abbreviation ls stands for “list”, because the command lists files and directories on the terminal. Along with cd, ls is definitely one of the most frequently used commands under Linux. Alternatives Previous Linux Magazine articles have looked at some of…

elementary OS 7.1 64-bit Elementary OS is one of the leading distributions focused on improving the user experience. It bills itself as “The thoughtful, capable, and ethical replacement for Windows and macOS” and release 7.1 is no exception. Specifically, one focus of elementary OS 7.1 is personalizing the graphical interface and making it more accessible. The Housekeeping app has added the option of deleting screenshots that are more than 30 days old, while the installer makes options for the vision-impaired more prominent. Similarly, the settings for Guest accounts have been made clearer, and Guest accounts are erased as soon as a guest logs out. Another focus in elementary OS 7.1 is security and privacy. The 7.1 release introduces the Background & Autostart Portal, which lists apps running in the background…

Like other modern operating systems, Linux is multitasking, meaning that it can manage multiple running processes at the same time. With that great capability, though, comes great responsibility. Linux must ensure that no process can meddle with the memory used by another process. Historically, a vast number of security vulnerabilities were caused by malicious code being executed from a memory area that was intended for ordinary data storage only and not for executable code. The operating system also must ensure that enough memory is available for the needs of all running processes and must take steps to make memory available if there is not enough. All these responsibilities must be fulfilled as quickly as possible, or otherwise performance will suffer. Fortunately, Linux provides a way to manage the memory resources…

For years, CentOS was the operating system of choice for users who needed a free enterprise Linux solution. CentOS offered a predictable life cycle and a long lifespan for each release, making it a reliable alternative to the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution. That all changed in 2020 when Red Hat replaced CentOS 8 with CentOS Stream and announced that CentOS 7 would reach end of life on June 30, 2024. Despite its name, CentOS Stream does not serve as a replacement for CentOS. While CentOS sat downstream of RHEL, making it a reliable replacement for RHEL, CentOS Stream sits upstream and serves as a developmental platform for RHEL contributors. As a result, Red Hat has warned that CentOS Stream is not considered stable for production environments [1].…

The good citizens of the Internet are frequently reminded that their passwords should contain a sufficiently complex combination of alphanumeric and special characters and, of course, meet or exceed a minimum length. Confusingly, the precise criteria for both is entirely dependent on which online service you use. While security is everybody’s responsibility, what should you be most concerned about if an online service lets you down and leaks your credentials, either through a malicious attack or simply through incompetence? The answer is twofold. The first part of the answer depends on whether the online vendor informs you of the data breach straight away. I had my credentials stolen about a decade ago from a website that I had used once (around 2010, I think). The vendor reported the leak to…

A variety of solutions are available for tracking the location of things, such as locating “lost” items (e.g., smart dog collars) or locating your luggage (e.g., Apple AirTags). All these devices have to balance functionality, size, weight, and time of battery life (rechargeable or otherwise). A mobile phone makes a pretty good location device, because it has a GPS receiver and a radio transmitter. However, they are relatively large, are expensive, have unnecessary components (e.g., displays), and rely on a cellular network that might not be available in remote areas. Apple AirTags rely on Bluetooth communication with other Apple devices in the vicinity to provide position information and relay that data to iCloud, which the user can access with the Find My app. This useful function allows the tags to…

If you want to build some fun Pi projects but are still working on your Python skills, then mixing low-code Node-RED with Python might be an option for you. Node-RED [1] is a low-code drag-and-drop interface that is extremely powerful for the creation of Raspberry Pi robotic and Internet of Things (IoT) projects. Node-RED’s custom scripting is JavaScript; however, you can also use Python, which offers a platform to play and learn Python basics for high-level tasks such as scheduling and web dash-boards while taking advantage of Node-RED’s lowcode interface. In many cases, Raspberry Pi features are only available in Python, so even diehard Node-RED users could benefit from knowing how to integrate Python into their projects. In this article, I look at two examples that mix Python and Node-RED.…

The keyboard has a long history. Though the first typewriter was made in 1867, the concept dates back to a 1714 patent for a “Machine For Transcribing Letters.” And it was more than 100 years after the first typewriter that the modern keyboard appeared, 1986’s IBM Model M. A mere 21 years after the Model M, the mechanical keyboard community took flight with the birth of the geekhack forum. This was by all accounts the beginning of the keyboard renaissance that ushered in today’s highly customized keyboards: those with patterned colors, hot swappable switches, and so many variations of the keyboard’s classic click clack. By 2009 keyboards had become more than a tool; for some, customizing them became a hobby. And within the beating hearts of this hobby’s diehards, two…

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