 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 140, 27 February 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Written entirely by Robert Storey, this week's issue looks ahead at the upcoming 64-bit Mini-ITX processors, passes on a link to a freely downloadable copy of The Complete FreeBSD, and investigates "bcrypt" and "dm-crypt", the much-loved encryption utilities for the paranoid. In the first looks section, Robert investigates the newest OpenBSD-based live CDs - OliveBSD. Happy reading!
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Content:
Whither the 64-bit Mini-ITX?
Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
- Henry Kissinger
 There are times when having less means having more. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the issue of energy consumption.
VIA Technologies - the Taiwanese company best known for its chip sets - is also manufacturer of the ultra-low-power x86-compatible Eden CPUs and their accompanying Mini-ITX motherboards. I previously covered the Mini-ITX in the 18 April 2005 edition of DistroWatch Weekly.
Since that time, I've learned that one popular distribution, Damn Small Linux (DSL), is now selling Mini-ITX components and complete systems as a means of financing their software project. Aside from the financial angle, the fit between DSL and the Mini-ITX makes sense since Eden CPUs are relatively slow. Furthermore, some people build Mini-ITX boxes with no hard drive (DSL can boot from a USB flash drive). Vector Linux would also make sense for this type of hardware, though it will require a hard disk. Details for purchasing the Mini-ITX can be found on the DSL website. Let it be noted that neither I nor DistroWatch have any economic stake in DSL or VIA.
Some people get around the slowness issue by purchasing a dual-processor Mini-ITX. However, the really exciting news will be when VIA finally releases their 64-bit CPU, code-named Isaiah. It's expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2006, but VIA has been strangely silent since the initial announcement in October, 2004. In addition to low power consumption, Eden processors boast a built-in hardware-based security system known as the
VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite. VIA has assured us that the Isaiah CPUs will have this same feature.
Personally, I think that VIA prefers to keep quiet now about the Isaiah in order to avoid collapsing sales of their existing 32-bit stock. This is always an issue in the fast-moving computer hardware industry.
The Mini-ITX runs on 12-volt DC (5 amps) power, making it ideal for use with a car battery (actually, if the battery is not in a car, you should use a deep-cycle battery - car batteries wear out too fast with frequent discharge/recharge use). It also works well with solar panels (which output either 12 or 24 volts) and wind generators. As long as your electrical source has a 12-volt voltage regulator (mandatory on cars, solar and wind generators) you can plug in the computer directly without needing a power supply. Since the mini-ITX draws 5 amps, the in-line fuse leading to the computer should be rated at least 10 amps (a 5-amp fuse will probably blow). If you're going to add a CD-R or DVD-R drive, it's probably best to connect it externally through the USB port using a case like this one.
In this age of peak oil and ever rising energy prices, a desktop computer that can run off a car battery, solar panel or windmill could be just the ticket. Anyone with a green philosophy or survivalist mentality should give this careful consideration.
* * * * *
The Complete FreeBSD - Now Completely Free
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.
- Thomas Paine
 Almost anyone who has spent serious time with the FreeBSD operating system has a copy of The Complete FreeBSD by Greg Lehey (affectionately known as "Grog"). First published in 1996 under the title Installing and Using FreeBSD, this classic techie tome is now in its 4th edition. In the fast-moving world of software development, most books start to look dated after one or two years. The 4th edition was published in April 2003, and is now starting to get long in the tooth. Unfortunately, Greg is a busy man - too busy to continue updating his fine book (though he was nice enough to give me a few hours of his time to help me when I wrote this article).
Faced with this dilemma, Greg has made the unusual decision to offer his book for download (also available from here) under the Creative Commons License. This allows the author to continue owning the copyright while sharing non-commercial copies with all and sundry.
Although it was extremely nice of Mr. Lehey to do this, there is one catch - the book remains out-of-date. In order to deal with this issue, Greg is asking for volunteers to help with the updating. In keeping with the tradition of the BSD license, contributors can't expect money for this effort, but instead recognition (in this case, in the book's preface).
While The Complete FreeBSD, 4th edition, remains in print, it is still uncertain whether or not dead-tree copies will continue to be available in the future. Note that there are some tough competitors in this space, including FreeBSD 6 Unleashed. There is also The FreeBSD Handbook, available free online or in a somewhat dated print edition.
* * * * *
Bcrypt & DM-Crypt
Tips, Tricks & Hints
Some of you may recall that in the past I've talked about encryption on Linux, notably steganography and loop-AES. However, in keeping with the philosophy that "there's more than one way to do it," I'd like to introduce two other encryption tools - bcrypt and dm-crypt.
Comparing the two, bcrypt resembles steganography in the sense that it can be used to encrypt a single file or group of files, whereas dm-crypt is more like loop-AES which can be used to encrypt an entire hard disk partition. As for which one is better, that depends entirely on your needs.
As a long-term computer addict, I have a large number of files on my hard drive. However, the vast majority of my data would be of no use whatsoever to a thief and therefore does not need to be encrypted. The few files I want to keep secret contain mostly financial data, and I only need to open these files occasionally. Thus, bcrypt works fine for me.
Bcrypt uses a 448-bit blowfish file encryption algorithm. This should be nearly impossible to crack as long as you use a secure passphrase (which can be anywhere from 8 to 56 characters in length). Bcrypt will overwrite input files with random garbage - this is important because there are now inexpensive, widely-available hard disk scanning devices which can easily recover deleted files.
Another good feature of bcrypt is that it is portable across numerous platforms. You can download the source code from SourceForge and compile it yourself. The code has very little in the way of dependencies and should compile without a hitch on practically any Linux, BSD or other Unix-like system. Pre-compiled binaries are available for many distributions. There is even a Windows version, though the developers imply that the code is "ugly."
Once you've encrypted a file, you could back it up to a portable device such as a CD-R or USB flash drive, or even email it to yourself. This is a major advantage that dm-crypt doesn't offer.
Using bcrypt is pretty simple. See "man bcrypt" for details. Just be sure you don't forget your password.
While bcrypt has its advantages, it also comes with some built-in drawbacks. Bcrypt works fine for encrypting a small number of files that you only need to read occasionally, but it would be terribly inconvenient to use with hundreds of files that you need to access frequently. For example, you might have hundreds of sensitive emails in your ~/mail directory, or your company's accounting records, or perhaps a huge porno collection (wait, I didn't say that, did I?). The point is, if you need to secure a large amount of data, and especially if you need to access it often, then you really should use a tool that can encrypt an entire partition.
The already-mentioned loop-AES is an excellent partition-encryption tool for Linux (though not for the BSDs, which have their own proprietary encryption schemes). In the past, Linux users also had cryptoloop, but this has been deprecated in the 2.6 kernel. The new improved version is dm-crypt. Its chief advantage over cryptoloop is speed, cleaner code, and better security. Some also claim that it is easier to use than loop-AES, but I personally feel that neither is especially intuitive.
There is a better than even chance that your favourite distro already has support for dm-crypt compiled into the kernel. If not, take a look at this Gentoo wiki.
To proceed further, you will need to have a spare empty partition. You can create one with the cfdisk command (of course, you need root privileges to do this). It's wise to reboot whenever you modify the partition table.
OK, let's say we've created a new partition, /dev/hda5, and rebooted. Next, we need to create a mapper device for the new partition - we can call it whatever we like, so I'll call mine "secret." The syntax for doing this is as follows:
cryptsetup -y create secret /dev/hda5
Now let's test to see if it worked:
dmsetup ls
It should display the name of the /dev/mapper device followed by some numbers in parentheses - in my case: secret (253, 0).
Next we have to create a filesystem (or what Windows refugees call "formatting a partition." I suggest using the ext2 filesystem. The command for doing this is as follows:
mke2fs /dev/mapper/secret
All that remains to be done is to mount our device. We can mount it on any mount point we choose - create a new directory if you like:
mkdir /data
mount /dev/mapper/secret /data
The encrypted /data directory is ready for use. It should contain only one file, lost+found. You can copy all the data you want to it. When you've finished your work, you should unmount the /data mount point and remove the secret device so that unauthorised individuals cannot access the data:
umount /data
cryptsetup remove secret
If we like, we can go ahead and shut down the computer now. Next time we boot up and we want to access the encrypted data, the procedure is very similar to our original effort except that we won't make a new filesystem:
cryptsetup -y create secret /dev/hda5
Be sure you type the correct passphrase. Then mount:
mount /dev/mapper/secret /data
If you type the wrong passphrase, you'll get an error message saying mount: you must specify the filesystem type. If you do create a new filesystem, you'll wipe out all of your previously saved data! Instead, type cryptsetup remove secret and start over again, this time using the correct passphrase.
It would be nice to have some user-friendly graphical tools to do all of the above, but as yet I am not aware of any.
One final thought. Many laptop computers now come with a hardware-based encryption scheme that can encrypt the entire hard drive. If you want to enable this, poke around in the BIOS configuration. As is often the case in geekdom, there is indeed more than one way to do it.
* * * * *
Just for Fun
It's always nice to end the news portion of our weekly news on a light note. With that in mind, I'd like to call our readers' attention to a couple of stories posted on DivisionTwo.com:
Building a Linux System Even Your Grandmother Could Use
One Child Dead, 3 Wounded in Daycare Piracy Raid
There are, of course, many other articles posted on this humorous site, but most of these are irrelevant to our obsession (open source software). All the articles are the work on one individual, whose name I know but won't reveal. Apparently, the author has received some nastygrams from "dissatisfied customers" and has removed his name from the site. At least, that's what I assume. You can, however, send fan mail to d2mailbag@divisiontwo.com.
As a historical footnote, some of you may recall that in 2003 we did publish a link to this site. It caused quite a ruckus because some individuals didn't realize it was a joke. In the 27 October 2003 edition of DWW, we had to publish this clarification:
"It is hard to believe how many people got caught by a fictitious story about the imminent release of BarbieOS, a Debian-based Linux distribution for adolescent girls. Let's spell it out clearly once and for all: it's a joke, guys! There is no such thing as "BarbieOS" or "Barbie Linux" and you certainly cannot download it, so please stop looking for it. Nevertheless, it's a great story and we have added the link to our Fun Distributions page."
So this time you've been warned in advance. I am, of course, heartbroken that I cannot download BarbieOS.
|
| First Looks: OliveBSD |
First Looks: OliveBSD
Look ma, no hard disk!
A totally free network operating system with ironclad security might seem like a pipe dream, yet it does exist. OpenBSD, the brainchild of Canadian hacker Theo de Raadt (and friends), is so secure that at one time the project received a US$2 million grant from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). That funding was suddenly terminated in 2003 under very peculiar circumstances, but the OpenBSD developers have continued to turn out an impressive new release once every six months. In recognition for his contribution to open security standards, Theo received the 2004 Free Software Award from the Free Software Foundation.
OpenBSD, which came into existence nine years ago, started out life in the finest Unix tradition as a text-mode-only operating system geared primarily toward geeks wanting to run a secure server. However, it wasn't long before it acquired the X Window graphical user interface, and developers started porting the graphical applications that Linux users know and love. Nowadays, you could sit a Linux addict in front of an OpenBSD box and he or she could play for hours without ever noticing that this is not "just another distro." (Note: never call OpenBSD a "distro" on the OpenBSD mailing list, unless you want to be flamed into charcoal).
Although OpenBSD now boasts all the user-friendly features of KDE and other window managers, the installer program is nothing short of user-hostile. Furthermore, system administration tasks (like configuring ADSL or building a firewall) are not for the faint-hearted. If you're hooked on the point-and-click opium of Fedora or SUSE, a sudden plunge into the cold waters of the Unix command line can be a shock.
Enter OliveBSD, created by Gabriel Paderni. OK, it's not OpenBSD for grandma. However, it does greatly simplify the task of installation, mainly because you don't install it - this is a live CD. Just boot the disk and before you can finish your cappuccino, you'll have a working desktop system. OliveBSD is based on OpenBSD 3.8, which is the most up-to-date release.
Of course, these days live CDs have become so common that they no longer elicit the oohs and aahs they once did. However, compared to the cornucopia of Linux live CDs, BSD offerings are still relatively rare. First there was FreeSBIE, soon followed by Frenzy - both are FreeBSD variants. OliveBSD is the second OpenBSD live CD after the recently announced Anonym.OS project.
I first tested OliveBSD on my laptop, an IBM X31 ThinkPad. Booting up took a long time, mostly due to a lengthy search for the network, which failed. I was somewhat distressed to see this message scroll by the screen:
ipw0: could not read firmware
DHCPDISCOVER on ipw0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 2
send_packet: Network is down
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping
Interface ipw0 is for my wireless device. Perhaps it's not surprising that OpenBSD doesn't have native support for it since it's an Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 (that is, a Centrino CPU with built-in wireless). There's been a big heated discussion about wireless chipset licensing on the OpenBSD mailing list and forums, and Intel has earned considerable wrath for its lack of cooperation. If you're interested in the topic, take a look here.
In fact, I seldom use wireless and could almost live without it, but more disturbing was the failure to activate my Ethernet port. In Linux this is detected as eth0, but in OpenBSD it would be called fxp0. On the plus side, OliveBSD did detect the port - on the down side, it did not find the network. I was plugged into a router and its built-in DHCP server should have given me an IP address straight away. To put it bluntly, OliveBSD failed to provide me with any network connection whatsoever, the first time I have encountered this problem on any BSD OS.
Once I had a graphic screen, I found a menu called "Network card configuration." I tried this in the hope that I would be able to bring my network to life, but no luck. Opening an Xterm and running the ifconfig command showed the MAC addresses of ipw0 and fxp0, but no IP addresses were assigned and therefore I had no connectivity.
One of the first things I noticed about the OliveBSD desktop is that it uses IceWM, a lightweight window manager (at least compared to the usual behemoths, KDE and GNOME). Another distinguishing feature is the selection of applications. Since CD space is limited, Gabriel wisely chose to have just one of each kind of application, including some that I've never heard of (AxYftp, Abs). As for the question that philosophers have asked throughout the ages - Vi or Emacs? - the surprising answer in this case is SciTE. This is a very user-friendly text editor with pull-down menus, syntax-highlighting support for numerous programming languages, and good online documentation (look for it in the "Help" menu).
I was pleased to find that my USB keyboard worked with OliveBSD. Previous attempts to get this keyboard to work with OpenBSD (and FreeBSD and NetBSD) have failed. I admit though that I have not tested it with OpenBSD 3.8. It has always worked with Linux.
As for the overall appearance of the desktop, I must say that I found the default pure white background to be annoying. It's rather like looking into a light bulb, and it also wastes battery power. IceWM has a menu for "Themes" - I tried this in hopes of finding something better than the default IceQua theme. Unfortunately, all the other themes suffer from the same white background problem.
OliveBSD - a new OpenBSD-based live CD using the IceWM desktop.
(full image size: 118kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Another gripe I have with OliveBSD is that it logs you in as root. This surprised me, especially given OpenBSD's emphasis on security. Most live CDs log you in as an unprivileged user, and if you want root privileges then you must use the sudo or su command.
After about 30 minutes of playing around on my laptop, I decided to try OliveBSD on my desktop machine (an AMD64). Unfortunately, the results were even more disappointing. OliveBSD failed to boot at all. I got as far as the boot> prompt, and the machine would go no further. End of experiment.
To judge from the comments of other OliveBSD users, at least some people had no problems whatsoever. However, on my hardware I found OliveBSD to be disappointing. The inability to make a network connection on my laptop was a nearly fatal flaw. The inability to boot my desktop was even more lethal. To be fair, this was a first release, and it wouldn't be right to expect perfection. Certainly, I couldn't produce a better OS myself, so I don't want to sound like I'm whining. I applaud Gabriel for the hard work he put into this project, and I hope that he will continue to expand on this fine first effort.
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| Released Last Week |
Devil-Linux 1.2.9
Devil-Linux has been upgraded to version 1.2.9: "I'm
proud to announce v1.2.9 of Devil-Linux. The changes include lots of
software updates, addition of ipset, PAM, some missing netfilter
modules and netfilter L7 classifier." Among the many update
packages are Linux kernel 2.4.32, Apache 2.2.0, iptables 1.3.5, OpenSSH
4.3p2, Perl 5.8.8, PHP 4.4.2, Postfix 2.2.8, PostgreSQL 8.1.2 and Samba
3.0.21b. Read the brief release announcement and the comprehensive changelog for more details.
INSERT 1.3.6
A new version of INSERT (Inside Security Rescue Toolkit) has been released: "Here
we go! Finally a new version of INSERT emerges from the depths of the
build machine. The size has grown to near 60MB, since our supplier of
credit-card sized CDs promised me to be able to squeeze 60MB on the
thing; the Linux kernel was updated to 2.6.12.5; Captive was updated to
1.1.7 and can now use the Windows XP driver files from SP2; the native
NTFS driver and tools have write support; a custom build of the latest
version of the great graphical partitioning GUI GParted was added;
Reiser4 is supported." Read the rest of the release notes for further details.
Puppy Linux 1.0.8
Puppy
Linux version 1.0.8 is released. The biggest news item is the move from
OSS to ALSA sound. A modified version of the alsaconf script is used to
auto-configure the sound at boot-up. Puppy 1.0.7 has the Xvesa and
X.Org X servers, but the latter is stuck on 'us' keyboard layout as the
xkb component of X.Org is missing. Puppy 1.0.8 has a reduced xkb
component that will now give correct keyboard layout and characters for
the major countries. Lior Tubor has greatly improved the original
Blinky taskbar network monitor, and we now have Lior's version 0.6 of
Blinky...." Continued reading the release notes for more details.
GoblinX Mini 1.2.2
A new version of the Slackware-based GoblinX Mini distribution has been released. "Released
GoblinX Mini 1.2.2, the small special edition of GoblinX. GoblinX Mini
1.2.2 is an upgraded release with the addition of new features. The
most special feature is 'liveupgrade' - by using this script you can to
re-master a new distribution, also from RAM memory. We also made a few
changes to the 'goinstall' script, corrected some small errors, and
added several more corrections and upgrades to make this a very nice
release, even though it can be less stable because of Unionfs." Read the rest of release announcement for further information.
ParallelKnoppix 2006-02-20
The ParallelKnoppix live CD has been updated. What's new? "Open
MPI at version 1.0.1, the pi example for C shows how to use it;
mpich.tar.gz is included in the 'Examples' directory, this shows how to
compile and install software on a running cluster, and lets you run a
very cool parallel Mandelbrot set plotter; Ganglia removed for the time
being; missing MPITB source included; montecarlo.m does dynamic load
balancing and is robust to node failure; tutorial updated." Visit the project's home page to read the release announcement and to learn more about the distribution.
Gentoo Linux 2006.0
The first official Gentoo Linux release of the year is out: "The Gentoo Release Engineering team proudly announces the release of Gentoo Linux 2006.0. Gentoo Linux 2006.0, the first release in the 2006 series, represents improvements across many architectures since the 2005.1 release. Major highlights in the release include KDE 3.4.3, GNOME 2.12.2, XFCE 4.2.2, GCC 3.4.4 and a 2.6.15 kernel. This is also the first release with the Gentoo Linux Installer officially debuting on the x86 LiveCD, which will fully replace the Universal and PackageCD set. The LiveCD also features a fully-fledged GNOME environment." Read the full release announcement for more details.
The main new features of Gentoo Linux 2006.0 are enhanced live CD functionality and graphical installer.
(full image size: 439kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to the waiting list
- Kaboot. Kaboot is a new Gentoo-based live CD/USB distribution. A number of different editions are available, two optimised for size or speed, one for functionality, and one science-based. All contain a host of useful programs able to boot virtually any computer.
- Minimax. Minimax is a Linux mini-distribution based on Arch Linux. Because it fits entirely to an initrd image, it can boot on every system imaginable. It is ultra small (32 MB), but very powerful; it contains a 2.6 kernel with all modules and a balanced set of console utilities, but no X server.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 6 March 2006. See you then :-)
Robert Storey
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Amarok Live
amaroK Live was a stripped-down live CD of the GNU/Linux operating system, based on PCLinuxOS, with a fully functional amaroK music player. It was meant to display the features and power of amaroK. The goals of this project are: create something cool to promote amaroK, offer an easy way to introduce people to amaroK, provide a way to demonstrate the new features of amaroK when a suitable Linux installation was not available, and make it easy to remaster the live CD.
Status: Discontinued
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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