Innehållsförteckning för December 2022 från Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, When Facebook renamed itself Meta in honor of its new vision of a virtual reality metaverse, I knew they were taking their initiative very seriously. I will admit, though, it was a little difficult to figure out what they were talking about. The visionaries describe a metaverse as a virtual-reality-driven, totally immersive, unified Internet experience – which seems quite bold and revolutionary, but still a little vague. You can always look for clues in science fiction, such as Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, which is credited with coining the term metaverse, but of course, the desire to interact with people who are far away goes back for centuries. Meta’s Horizon Worlds metaverse platform was in the news this past month, and the news it was in wasn’t…

The Asahi Linux Project (https://asahilinux.org/) has taken a giant leap toward getting full-blown graphical Linux running on Apple Silicon M1/M2 chips. Although not ready for mainstream usage, thanks to a developer who goes by Asahi Lina (https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi), the project is getting very close to releasing a Rust-based GPU driver for Linux. Asahi Lina only joined the project a couple of months ago and immediately began working on a prototype driver that would allow running GUI apps on Linux. According to the Asahi Linux news from back in July 2022, "Asahi Lina joined our team and took on the challenge of reverse engineering the M1 GPU hardware interface and writing a driver for it." The announcement continues, "In this short time, she has already built a prototype driver good enough to…

Carl Richell, CEO of System76, had an epiphany. He says, “I was waiting in line for a COVID test and I was staring at the wood trim in my car, wondering how long it would all take. I stared hard enough to the point where I started thinking about the wood-to-metal ratio, and how modern the design felt with only a little bit of wood.” This inspiration led Richell to cutting down on the wood veneer on System76’s Thelio, not only for a sleeker, more modern look, but also to make the build process of the chassis more efficient. With a slimmer piece of wood veneer, the process takes much less precision to accomplish, which results in greater consistency and reduces the number of extrusions from four to two. The…

Crystal Linux (https://getcryst.al/) is a new operating system, based on Arch Linux, that hopes to become the Fedora of Arch Linux by bringing new “stuff” to the Linux desktop while being user-friendly. Crystal Linux has been released on the GPLv3.0 and uses its own GUI installer to make installing the distribution a snap. This new Linux distribution features an easy-to-use package manager, Btrfs snapshots, zRAM support, and a choice between Gnome, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Mate, Budget, Onyx, Xfce, Sway, LXQt, i3-gaps, bspwm, AwesomeWM, and herbstlufwm. The installer the developers have created is nothing short of brilliant. Not only is it beautiful, it makes installing this Arch-based Linux distribution something anyone can do. Out of the box, Crystal Linux doesn’t include a large swath of installed applications, but it does include…

Package management is one of the enduring achievements of the Unix/​Linux environment. Thousands of applications are available with a single command or a few simple mouse clicks. A Linux package repository is like the Apple App store, only no one asks for your credit card. (And, by the way, Unix/​Linux packages have been around a good deal longer than the Apple App store.) Despite the many benefits of Linux packages, the restless hearts of the open source community have been busy with some innovations that could make packages even better. A new generation of package tools and formats is gradually replacing the DEB and RPM packages of old. This month we look at the portable package tools that are becoming ever more common in the Linux space: AppImage, Flatpak, and…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at https://www.linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to info@linux-magazine.com. NOTICE Be sure to check the event website before booking any travel, as many events are being canceled or converted to virtual events due to the effects of COVID-19. Open Source Summit Japan Date: December 5-6, 2022 Location: Yokohama, Japan Website: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-japan/ Open Source Summit Japan is the leading conference in Japan connecting the open source ecosystem under one roof. This event provides a forum for technologists and…

Over on the Linux Kernel Mail List (https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/10/2/255), Linus Torvalds announced the availability of the latest kernel by saying, "So, as is hopefully clear to everybody, the major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes." That doesn't mean, however, there aren't any changes and new editions to be found in the 6.0 release. In fact, with regards to the number of commits, the 6.0 kernel is one of the biggest releases in a while. The new additions to the Linux kernel include a new graphics driver for the AMD RDNA 3 GPU, a new audio driver for AMD’s "Jadeite" systems, support for PCI buses on Open-RISC and LoongArch systems, improved cache block management for RISC-V, new…

Linux Magazine www.linux-magazine.com ADMIN HPC http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/ Log Management • Jeff Layton One of the more mundane, perhaps boring, but necessary administration tasks is checking system logs – the source of knowledge or intelligence of what is happening in the cluster. ADMIN Online http://www.admin-magazine.com/ Automating network hardware • Martin Loschwitz Automation of network devices can be accomplished in a number of ways: with the official approaches recommended by the manufacturers; by Cumulus Linux, an open network operating system; and with the Ansible automation platform, which can communicate with devices from any vendor. Tracking down problems with Jaeger • Martin Loschwitz The various components of cloud-native applications are always exchanging information, which makes troubleshooting difficult. The Jaeger tracing framework helps hunt down the perpetrators. Network access control with Cisco’s Identity Services Engine…

Author The Linux kernel mailing list comprises the core of Linux development activities. Traffic volumes are immense, often reaching 10,000 messages in a week, and keeping up to date with the entire scope of development is a virtually impossible task for one person. One of the few brave souls to take on this task is Zack Brown. The Little Links That Bring Us Closer The Linux kernel development process continues to change over time in little ways that are fun to observe. Over the past year, one such change has centered around the information included in patch submissions. It may not always make sense to talk about the exact moment a given series of events began, but once upon a time, Steven Rostedt submitted a patch to help the kernel…

The Nibble kit by CircuitMess [1] comes with everything you need to build a portable game console. It even includes a soldering iron to solder the buttons. The lead-free solder included in the kit will easily last for several more projects. The kit also includes a simple screwdriver for assembling the case, and you won’t hear this very often: The batteries are included (Figure 1). The kit is suitable for children from nine years up, but as my test shows, older users can have fun with the kit, as well. The very detailed and easy-to-understand instructions explain all the build actions step by step. In some places, links to online videos lend further help. The assembly instructions are available for download on the manufacturer’s site in several languages [2]. The…

Jon “maddog” Hall is an author, educator, computer scientist, and free software pioneer who has been a passionate advocate for Linux since 1994 when he first met Linus Torvalds and facilitated the port of Linux to a 64-bit system. He serves as president of Linux International®. Language “efficiency” Last month I discussed the importance of portability across cloud architectures, which allows you to move your application and data if the costs of a particular vendor become too high or that cloud vendor goes bankrupt. This month’s article was inspired by a conversation on LinkedIn about a whitepaper that was published comparing the efficiency of various languages, with the claim (by the paper) that Python was very inefficient in execution as opposed to languages like C and C++. Various people made…

Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software Prototyping and design Akira When Adobe announced it was going to acquire Figma (the go-to tool for designers) for $20 billion, there was initial shock followed by a mad dash to find alternatives, which isn’t an easy task. Designers are an exacting bunch. They don’t want something that simply helps them explore and iterate over user-interface proposals. If they did, they’d use Inkscape. Instead, they want something that appeals to both their own sense of design and their desire to share and collaborate. They trusted Figma to do this because its drawing tools live right alongside its social features, including comments, notes, and a whiteboard. These all help make designers a central part of the app…

Preview Newsletter The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/Linux-Update Approximate UK / Europe Dec 03 USA / Canada Dec 30 Australia Jan30 On Sale Date Please note: On sale dates are approximate and may be delayed because of logistical issues.…

TUXEDO Computers Releases TUXEDO OS TUXEDO Computers is well known for selling Linux-powered laptops that ship with their own Ubuntu-based, in-house operating system, known as TUXEDO OS. However, recently the company made that operating system available to the general public, and it can be downloaded (https://os.tuxedocomputers.com/) and installed on just about any computer. Although TUXEDO OS was designed specifically for TUXEDO hardware, it does work on general hardware and even as a virtual machine. The OS uses a customized version of KDE Plasma and allows for running in live mode, dual booting, or a standard installation. The installation of TUXEDO OS is fairly standard, however, when you install it on non-TUXEDO hardware, you will get a warning that states software such as Tomte or the TUXEDO Control Center will not…

ExTiX is a KDE Plasma-based Linux distribution that has recently enjoyed a new release, 22.9, which adds something special into the mix … the ability to easily install Android apps. The ExTiX developers have added Anbox into the mix with support for Google Play Services pre-installed. Because this take on Anbox comes complete with Google Play Store integration, not only is the installation of Android apps simplified on Linux, but the apps should run more dependably and predictably. But Android app support isn’t the only bit of news for ExTiX. Before this release, the distribution was based on Deepin (which is a Chinese Linux Distribution). As of 22.9, ExTiX is now based on Ubuntu and includes a new Refacta installer along with Refracta snapshot. The version of KDE Plasma shipping…

A community-driven software store, named Ubuntu Software Store, has been written in Flutter and received so much positive attention that Canonical (according to this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/xcuw55/canonical_seemingly_begins_process_to_replace/) is considering it as a replacement for Gnome Software. The features found in Ubuntu Software Store include Snap support, dpkg/rpm support, an adaptive layout, install from file manager, remove and update software, permission manager, and search. But the most impressive aspect of Ubuntu Software Store is its speed. Unlike Gnome Software (on Ubuntu), which can be quite slow, Ubuntu Software Store is fast. At the moment, the best way to test the new Ubuntu Software Store is via an AppImage that can be downloaded from the official Software GitHub page (https://github.com/ubuntu-flutter-community/software/releases). Because this is very much in Alpha, users shouldn’t consider this new…

Order online: https://bit.ly/Linux-Newsstand #264/November 2022 Artificial Intelligence Machine learning remains shrouded in mystery even though it is now an integral part of our everyday world. This month we look behind the curtain at some popular techniques for supervised and unsupervised learning. On the DVD: Debian 11.5 and Rocky Linux 9.0 #263/October 2022 Build an IoT Linux The most amazing thing about Linux is its flexibility. Linux systems run on the biggest computers in the world – and on many of the diminutive devices that populate your home environment. If you’ve always wondered how developers adapt Linux to run on tiny tech, you’ll appreciate this month’s stories on Buildroot and the Yocto project. On the DVD: Linux Magazine Archive issues 1-262 #262/September 2022 Beyond 5G Behind the scenes, the cellular phone network…