● 08.12.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 12/08/2022: End of JingPad A1/JingOS, Russia Makes GNU/Linux Laptops

Posted in News Roundup at 5:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

• Bitblaze, a Russian brand specializing in servers, storage systems, and workstations, has demonstrated its pre-production Bitblaze Titan BM15 laptop based around the Baikal-M1 processor designed in Russia. The notebook, designed primarily for government agencies and enthusiasts, is said to enter mass production in November. The only question is whether the company can indeed mass produce the machine now that TSMC does not produce advanced chips for any company in Russia.

• “I have a legend in my hands: a pre-production Bitblaze Titan (opens in new tab) laptop based on the Baikal-M processor is ready,” said Yana Brush, commercial director of Prombit, the company behind Bitblaze, in a blog post (opens in new tab). “A very decent built quality, thin aluminum case, light weight. I have tested some mainstream software applications: office programs and YouTube. Works great, lasts five hours on the battery. We continue testing in various workloads, getting ready for the official release.”

• [...]

• Keeping in mind that the company does not disclose which Linux distributions the machine will run, it should be testing various software.

• How closely did you follow the news about Linux and free and open source software this week? You can get an idea about how well informed you are (and have some fun in the process) by taking our Open Source News Quiz. Once you’re done, scroll down to the comments section and let us know how you did!

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

• Daniel Vetter put together a pair of intriguing blog posts entitled Locking Engineering Principles and Locking Engineering Hierarchy. These appear to be an attempt to establish a set of GPU-wide or perhaps even driver-tree-wide concurrency coding conventions.

• Which would normally be none of my business. After all, to establish such conventions, Daniel needs to negotiate with the driver subsystem’s developers and maintainers, and I am neither. Except that he did call me out on Twitter on this topic. So here I am, as promised, offering color commentary and the occasional suggestion for improvement, both of Daniel’s proposal and of the kernel itself. The following sections review his two posts, and then summarize and amplify suggestions for improvement.

Instructionals/Technical

• Today we are looking at how to install OpenSCAD on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

• It’s surprisingly easy to enable WebP support in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, letting you see image thumbnails in the file manager and open WebP images in the default image viewer.

• It’s made possible but the wonderful open source webp-pixbuf-loader library. You install it, restart any/all apps that can use it, and bam: WebP images appear right in front your window peepers (aka your eyes – I could’ve just said eyes).

• Whether you’re an embedded systems vet, high school scientist, or some curious cat from some human-filled continent, there’s always a place to start your electronic explorations. If it turns out the manual wasn’t enough, then check out this beginner’s guide to Arduino.

• Laptop computers let you work where ever you want. Well, just so long as there is life in your laptop’s battery. Here’s how to check your battery on the Linux command line.

• Algo VPN is a set of scripts which help you to deploy your own Virtual Private Network (VPN) on a rented Virtual Private Server (VPS).

• Setting up Algo VPN is simple, but how do you connect to it using the most popular desktop and mobile clients?

• Managing packages and apps seems sophisticated to first-time Manjaro users. But with so many different options to choose from, it’s actually a breeze.

• Myths shroud Linux distros, and often deter people from migrating from Windows and Mac. Over the years, many things have changed, encouraging people to take the leap of faith and allowing users to see what’s on offer.

• One of the common Linux myths revolves around software downloads and installations on Arch-based distributions. Installing software has become easier since many options have evolved, making software download a cinch.

• If you are using Manjaro Linux, here are six easy ways to install and remove applications.

• Tidal is a high-quality audio streaming service. It offers a wide variety of music of lossless quality. Here’s how you can use the Tidal streaming service on your Linux PC with the Tidal Hi-fi app.

• In this tutorial, we’ll refer to a practical example of the Linux dd command that can be used to migrate or clone a Windows Operating System.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• Android fans pining after Material You-inspired personalisation on their Linux desktop need look no further than the following new GNOME Shell extension.

• The MATE Desktop for Linux installs a Dictionary app by default (a fork of the retired GNOME Dictionary app). The apps don’t protect your pricacy, and you might want to stop using them.

• With the apps’ default configuration, your word queries are looked up online via an arcane old internet protocol called DICT (RFC 2229). The protocol was standardized in 1997 and it doesn’t include any encryption or other privacy protections.

• So, why is this a problem for dictionary lookups?, you might ask. Some knowledge is forbidden knowledge, depending on your local authorities. For example, it is inadvisable to look up information about abortion from within some U.S. states, war crime in Russia, or democracy and human rights in China.

• The apps don’t warn you about their privacy implications when you launch them. They’re technically required to inform you about whom they share data with (the dictionary server providers) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the E.U.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Firstly, thank you so much for your patience this month! I’ve been out sick with COVID for about 3 weeks, so I haven’t been able to contribute much or organize releases this month. I want to give a special thanks to our volunteer community who has continued to make improvements and move forward on projects in my absence. I’m excited to catch up and get back to work to make the most of the rest of this month. Having said that, this is going to be a very brief updates post.

• [...]

• A ton of energy in the community has gone into Gtk 4 porting for OS 7 and beyond. The team is making steady progress on porting System Settings and we landed the Gtk 4 port for Sideload. We’ve also uncovered some style issues and gaps in style constants, so if you’re working on porting your app to our Flatpak Platform 7, know that we’ll be releasing some fixes soon.

• I want to give some special acknowledgment to Owen Malicsi who has taken a lot of ownership over Gtk4 porting. Owen started contributing to elementary to improve his development skillset in preparation for college, and he’s done an amazing job both in successfully porting components to Gtk 4 as well as identifying blockers and creating discussions around refactoring for Gtk 4 paradigms. I’m super proud of his growth and contribution and we wish him well in his studies! Thanks Owen!

Fedora Family / IBM

• There are two upcoming test weeks in the coming weeks. The first is Sunday 14 August through Sunday 21 August. It is to test Kernel 5.19. The second is Monday 15 August through Monday 22 August. It focuses on testing GNOME 43 Beta. Come and test with us to make the upcoming Fedora 37 even better. Read more below on how to participate.

• Portability is relative. When former Texas Instruments employees Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto created a portable version of the IBM PC in 1982, it was a hulking device that weight 28 pounds and was roughly the size of a sewing machine. If you sold a desktop computer that weighed 28 pounds in 2018, you’d be laughed off the block. But the device, called the Compaq Portable, was revolutionary for its time and thrust the company that made it into the mainstream. It wasn’t too long before then that a portable computer was so embarrassingly large that you would probably break your legs if you used it as a laptop. Tonight’s Tedium ponders a time when portable computing meant something just a little bit bigger.

• The Fedora Sway SIG is working to create an immutable version of the Sway Spin (also work in progress) using OSTree.

• Those immutable spins of Fedora are becoming more common following Silverblue and Kinoite’s success.

• As it often happens, one of the most challenging things to do in creating something is to come up with clever names. This task is made even more complex by the relatively small amount of people active in this conversation. For this reason, during the last SIG meeting, it was decided to socialize this decision so that more people could suggest their ideas.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• The first point-release of the newest Ubuntu is here, which marks the stage it formally becomes the new long-term-support release.

• As we mentioned last week, there were some last-minute delays in the 22.04.1 release process. The release was delayed until August 11. But now it’s here, as Canonical announced on its official blog. The release notes list the changes.

• The first point release of Ubuntu 22.04 is finally out! Users of Ubuntu 20.04 will receive notification to upgrade to the new LTS.

• For users who are still running Ubuntu 20.04, the new LTS features Linux Kernel 5.15, GNOME 42 desktop with built-in 3-finger gestures, new screenshot UI, horizontal workspace view, and RDP remote desktop sharing, and more.

• Linux is always evolving and improving. So Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, releases point upgrades about twice a year to deliver the latest software, improvements, and security fixes. Now you can easily update your Ubuntu release or download and install Ubuntu 22.04.1.

• British Linux distributor Canonical is releasing security updates to the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (“Jammy Jellyfish”) and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (“Focal Fossa”), patching vulnerabilities in its operating systems. The vulnerabilities fixed could lead to a Denial of Service (DOS) lead.

Devices/Embedded

• Welcome back, everyone! It’s Friday and you know what that means? New products! This week, we have three new kits to show off to you and we’ll start it off with the new Essential Sensor Kit V2. This kit includes all of the most vital sensors currently available and only changes out a few parts that have been most effected by the supply chain issues plaguing our community. Following that, we have two new PIR Breakout Kits that require absolutely zero soldering! These kits are great for detecting motion in a small area and optimized for small movements to offer motion-sensing options for battery powered applications. Now, let’s take a closer look at this week’s new products!

• Apple has long dominated the tablet space, but that hasn’t stopped companies from releasing hundreds of Android, Windows, or Chrome OS tablets in recent years. The JingPad A1 was supposed to be something different: it shipped with JingOS, a Linux-based operating system optimized for touchscreen input but capable of running full-fledged desktop apps.

• At least that was the idea. But when Jingling, the company behind the tablet, began shipping units to customers last year, many found the software to too buggy for the general public and not as open as Linux enthusiasts would like. Eventually the company ran out of money, laid off staff, and did provide a way to replace the operating system with Android or something else (like Ubuntu Touch). While Liliputing has covered the rise and fall of Jingling, but we never actually got to spend any time with the JingPad A1 tablet itself. Now TechHut has put together a video documenting the highs and lows… with some hands-on demonstrations of wha the tablet could and could not do.

Open Hardware/Modding

•  Starting at the hardware level, the Librem 5 USA has Made in USA electronics, where the mainboard PCBA and type-c PCBA are manufactured at the Purism facility in the United States of America.

• That means we use a secure hardware supply chain. The Librem 5 USA has three hardware kill switches that sever the power to various circuits: Cellular Modem, WiFi-Bluetooth, and Microphone-Cameras. In this state, your phone is safely cut off from any outside attackers; when the power is severed these devices do not exist.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Programming/Development

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• The first lesson I would like everybody to know and have is to buy two machines, especially a machine to check low blood pressure. I had actually ordered one from Amazon but they never delivered. I hope to sue them in consumer court in due course of time.

Security

• CERT-In on Wednesday issued alerts for multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft products including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool, and Red Hat Linux Kernel. The vulnerabilities are said to be used by remote attackers to access sensitive information and execute arbitrary code on Microsoft products while in Red Hat Linux Kernel they can be exploited to gain elevated privileges and access sensitive information

• We noticed a server hosting both a HyperBro sample and a malicious Mach-O executable named “rshell.” HyperBro is a malware family used by Iron Tiger (also known as Emissary Panda, APT27, Bronze Union, and Luckymouse), an advanced persistent threat (APT) group that has been performing cyberespionage for almost a decade, and there have been no reports of this group associated with a tool for Mac operating systems (OS). We analyzed the Mach-O sample and found it to be a new malware family targeting the Mac OS platform. We also eventually found samples compiled for the Linux platform that belongs to the same malware family.

Privacy/Surveillance

• On August 9, 2022, Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert appeared before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics to speak on the human rights, public, and national security risks associated with spyware and the unregulated nature of the mercenary spyware industry. As well, he provided initial recommendations for how the Canadian government should begin to address the use of spyware by government agencies like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Federal Communications Commission’s November 2020 Report and Order to reclaim part of the 5.9 GHz spectrum band from the auto industry in the case, ITS America v. FCC. Public Knowledge filed an amicus brief in support of the FCC and commends the court for reinforcing the FCC’s authority over spectrum, marking a major victory toward closing the digital divide.

• In 1999, the FCC gave the auto industry 75 MHz of spectrum exclusively for “Dedicated Short-Range Communications” (DSRC) for the purpose of improving public safety. After more than 20 years of waiting for the industry to deploy DSRC, in 2020 the FCC approved an Order to phase out DSRC and replace it with a new, more efficient technology called Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X).

• As explained in our brief, the 30 MHz of spectrum the auto industry retained is more than sufficient for collision avoidance and safety purposes. Rather than allowing the auto industry to retain excess spectrum for commercial uses such as location-based advertising, the FCC repurposed the lower 45 MHz for unlicensed use which will enable next-generation Wi-FI.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

• Walking on 6th ave in midtown, in the 50′s I heard a really strange sound moving towards me. A closer inspection revealed a man riding a bike… without any tires. Right on bare rims.

Technical

Science

• During their lessons on science, school children are eventually taught about two models of our Solar System.

• The geocentric model, they are taught, was devised by the silly, irrational people from our distant past. These ancient peoples thought that planets were “wandering” in the sky, or following complex epicycles. They were either too superstitious, or they simply lacked the imagination and intelligence, to understand that planetary motion was much simpler and more elegantly explained by a better model of the solar system.

• The heliocentric model, children are taught, is what our solar system is Really Like. The planets have elliptical orbits around the Sun, which is a “star” and not a “planet”, and the Moon orbits the Earth, and is not a “planet”, but instead “a moon”. Only brave iconoclastic geniuses of the Renaissance were willing to stand up against the oppressive and irrational orthodoxy of their day, children are taught.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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