Full Circle Magazine #181

Thismagazinewascreatedusing:

WELCOMETOTHELATESTISSUEOFFULLCIRCLE

Wehaveafullquotaforyouthismonth:Python,Latex,Inkscape,Blender,andlotsofother goodness.

Thebignewsthismonthis,ofcourse,thereleaseofUbuntu22.04(andit'scloserelatives).And, asperpreviousreleases,wehaveasuiteofreviewsfromAdam.Butthistimewithatwist.Each monthhe'sgoingtoreviewanofficial22.04flavour,butalsoacompletelynon-Debianbaseddistro. Thismonth:PuppyLinuxSlacko7.Itdoesn'tuseDebian.Itdoesn'tuseapt/apt-get.Itdoesn'tuse GNOME.It'sverydifferent,andIhopeyouenjoythereview,andchangeofscenery.

YoumayalsonoticethereturnofLatexHowTo's?ReaderRobertistakingoverfromthismonth. Inotherseriesnews:sorryaboutthelonggapbetweenGUIarticles.Theauthorhascheckedinand isabitbusyatthemoment,butitwillreturn.Honest!

Thenewwebsiteseemstobeholdingupwellsofar.I'mhopingthatwecansoonswitchoffthe oldWordpresssite,giveitaretirementpartywithagoldwatch,andswitchthebetasitetobeing therealdeal.It'sat:https://beta.fullcirclemagazine.org

Don'tforget:ifyou'relookingforsomehelp,advice,orjustachitchat: remember,wehaveaTelegramgroup:https://t.me/joinchat/24ec1oMFO1ZjZDc0. Ihopetoseeyouthere.Comeandsayhello.

Anyway,allthebest,andstaysafe!

Ronnie ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

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N

EWWS S

CANONICALINTRODUCES

STEAMSNAPFOREASIER ACCESSTOGAMESON

UBUNTU: 04/30/2022

Canonicalspokeaboutplansto

expandthecapabilitiesof Ubuntuasaplatformforrunning gamingapplications.Notethatthe developmentoftheWineand Protonprojects,aswellasthe adaptationoftheBattlEyeandEasy Anti-Cheatanti-cheatservices, alreadyallowmanygamesthatare availableonlyforWindowstorun onLinux.Afterthereleaseof Ubuntu22.04LTS,thecompany intendstoworkhardtomakeit easiertoaccessgamesinUbuntu andimprovetheeaseoflaunching them.ThedevelopmentofUbuntu asaconvenientenvironmentfor runninggamesisoneofthe priorities,andthecompanyintends tohireadditionalstafftoachieve thisgoal.

Thefirststeptowardsmaking gameseasiertoaccessonUbuntu wastopublishapre-releasesnap

packagewiththeSteamclient.The packageprovidesaready-made environmentforrunninggames, whichdon'tallowyounottomix thedependenciesnecessaryfor gameswiththemainsystemand getapre-configuredactual environmentthatdoesnotrequire additionalconfiguration.

https://ubuntu.com//blog/level-uplinux-gaming-new-steam-snap UNITY7.6.0CUSTOMSHELL

RELEASE: 05/01/2022

ThedevelopersoftheUbuntu

Unityproject,whodevelopan unofficialeditionofUbuntuLinux withtheUnitydesktop,have publishedthereleaseofUnity7.6.0, whichismarkedasthefirstmajor releasein6yearsafterCanonical ceaseddevelopmentoftheshell. TheUnity7skinisbasedontheGTK libraryandisoptimizedforefficient verticalspaceuseonwidescreen laptops.Thecodeisdistributed undertheGPLv3license.

ThelastmajorreleaseofUnity7 waspublishedinMay2016,after whichonlybugfixeswereaddedto thebranch,andsupportwascarried outbyagroupofenthusiasts.In Ubuntu16.10and17.04,inaddition toUnity7,theUnity8shellwas included,translatedtotheQt5 libraryandtheMirdisplayserver. Canonicaloriginallyplannedto replacetheUnity7shell,whichuses GTKandGNOMEtechnologies,with Unity8,butplanschangedand Ubuntu17.10returnedtothe regularGNOMEwiththeUbuntu Dock,andthedevelopmentof Unity8wasdiscontinued.

ThedevelopmentofUnity8was pickedupbytheUBportsproject, whodeveloptheirownforkunder thenameLomiri.TheUnity7shell wasabandonedforsometime,until in2020itwasagainindemandin theunofficialeditionofUbuntuUbuntuUnity.TheUbuntuUnity distributionisbeingdevelopedby RudraSaraswat,a13yearoldfrom India. https://ubuntuunity.org/

FWUPD1.8.0,FIRMWARE DOWNLOADTOOLKIT

AVAILABLE: 05/01/2022

RichardHughes,thecreatorof thePackageKitprojectwhois activelyinvolvedinthe developmentofGNOME,has releasedthefwupd1.8.0package, whichoffersabackgroundprocess forfirmwareupdatesandthe fwupdmgrutilityformanaging firmware,checkingfornew versions,anddownloading firmware.Theprojectcodeis writteninCanddistributedunder theLGPLv2.1license.Atthesame time,itwasannouncedthatthe LVFSprojecthadreachedthe milestoneof50millionfirmware updatesdeliveredtousers.

Theprojectprovidesaservice forOEMsandfirmwaredevelopers touploadfirmwaretoaspecial centralizedLVFS(LinuxVendor FirmwareService)directorythat canbeusedonLinuxdistributions usingthefwupdtoolkit.Currently,

SubmittedbyErikTheUnready

thecatalogoffersfirmwarefor829 typesofdevices(morethan4000 firmware)from120manufacturers. Theuseofacentralizeddirectory eliminatestheneedfor manufacturerstopackage distributionsandallowsthe transferoffirmwareina".cab" archivewithadditionalmetadata, whichisalsousedwhenpublishing firmwareforWindows.

fwupdsupportsboththe automaticfirmwareupdatemode, withouttheneedtoperformany actionsonthepartoftheuser,and theoperationafterconfirmationor userrequest.FwupdandLVFSare alreadyusedinRHEL,Fedora, Ubuntu,SUSE,Debianandmany otherdistributionsforautomated firmwareupdates,andarealso supportedinGNOMESoftwareand KDEDiscover applications.Reminder,fwupdisnot limitedtodesktopsystemsandcan alsobeusedtoupdatefirmwareon smartphones,tablets,servers,and IoTdevices. https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/ 2022/04/28/fwupd-1-8-0-and-50millionupdates/

RELEASEOFTRINITY

R14.0.12DE: 01.05.2022

TheTrinityR14.0.12desktop

environmenthasbeenreleased, continuingthedevelopmentofthe KDE3.5.xandQt3codebase.Binary packageswillsoonbeavailablefor Ubuntu,Debian,RHEL/CentOS, Fedora,openSUSEandother distributions.

KAOS2022.04

DISTRIBUTIONRELEASED: 02.05.2022

AmongthefeaturesofTrinity, onecannoteitsowntoolsfor managingscreenparameters,a udev-basedlayerforworkingwith devices,anewinterfacefor configuringdevices,switchingto theCompton-TDEcomposite manager(aforkofComptonwith TDEextensions),improvednetwork configuratoranduser authenticationmechanisms.The Trinityenvironmentcanbeinstalled andusedatthesametimeasmore recentreleasesofKDE,including theabilitytousealreadyinstalled KDEapplicationsinTrinity.There arealsotoolsforcorrectly displayingGTKprogramswithout violatingtheuniformdesignstyle.

https://www.trinitydesktop.org/

KaOS2022.04,arollingrelease aimedatprovidingadesktop basedonrecentreleasesofKDE andapplicationsusingQt.Ofthe distributionspecificdesign features,onecannotethe placementofaverticalpanelonthe rightsideofthescreen.The distributionisdevelopedwithArch Linuxinmind,butmaintainsitsown independentrepositoryofmore than1500packages,andalsooffers anumberofitsowngraphical utilities.Thedefaultfilesystemis XFS.Buildsarepublishedfor x86 64systems(2.8GB). https://kaosx.us/news/2022/ kaos04/ MICROSOFTHASJOINEDTHE

WORKONTHEOPEN3D

ENGINE: 02.05.2022

TheLinuxFoundationhasannouncedthatMicrosofthas joinedtheOpen3DFoundation (O3DF),whichwasestablishedto continuetheco-developmentof

theOpen3DEngine(O3DE)afterit wasdevelopedbyAmazon.Onehas towonderhowmanybackdoors andtrackingsystemswillnowbe covertlybuiltintoit.Microsoftwas amongthetopcontributors,along withAdobe,AWS,Huawei,Intel, andNiantic.AMicrosoft

representativewillserveonthe GoverningBoardoftheO3DF.The totalnumberofmembersofthe Open3DFoundationhasreached 25. Sincethesourcecodewas opened,about14,000changeshave beenmadetotheO3DEengine, coveringabout2millionlinesof code.Everymonth,350-450 commitsfrom60-100developers arefixedintheprojectrepositories. Themaingoaloftheprojectisto provideanopen,high-quality3D engineforthedevelopmentof modernAAA-classgamesandhighfidelitysimulatorsthatcanworkin realtimeandprovidecinematic quality.

TheOpen3DEngineisarevised andimprovedversionofAmazon Lumberyard'spreviouslydeveloped proprietaryenginebasedon CryEnginetechnologieslicensed fromCrytekin2015.Theengine includesanintegratedenvironment

forgamedevelopment,amultithreadedphotorealisticrendering systemAtomRendererwith supportforVulkan,Metaland DirectX12,anextensible3Dmodel editor,acharacteranimation system(EmotionFX),aprefab developmentsystem,areal-time physicssimulationengine,and mathlibrariesusingSIMD instructions.Thevisual programmingenvironment(Script Canvas),aswellastheLuaand Pythonlanguages,canbeusedto definegamelogic.

Theengineisalreadyusedby Amazon,severalgameand animationstudios,androbotics companies.Somegamesbasedon theengine;NewWorldand DeadhausSonata.Intotal,more than30modulesareoffered, suppliedasseparatelibraries, suitableforreplacement,

integrationintothird-partyprojects anduseseparately.Forexample, thankstomodularity,developers canreplacethegraphicsrenderer, soundsystem,languagesupport, networkstack,physicsengine,and anyothercomponents. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/ press-release/the-open-3dfoundation-welcomes-microsoft-asa-premier-member-to-advance-thefuture-of-open-source-3ddevelopment/ DEBUGGERRELEASEGDB

12 02.05.2022

GDB12.1debuggerreleased(firstreleaseof12.xseries,12.0 branchusedfordevelopment).GDB supportssource-leveldebugging forawiderangeofprogramming

languages(Ada,C,C++,D,Fortran, Go,ObjectiveC,Modula2,Pascal, Rust,etc.)onvarioushardware (i386,amd64,ARM,Power,Sparc, RISC-V,etc.)andsoftwareplatforms (GNU/Linux,*BSD,Unix,Windows, macOS). https://sourceware.org/pipermail/ gdb/2022-May/050077.html

ORACLEPUBLISHESSOLARIS 10TOSOLARIS11.4

APPLICATIONMIGRATION

TOOL 02.05.2022

Oraclehaspublishedasysdiff

utilitythatmakesiteasyto portlegacyapplicationsfrom Solaris10toaSolaris11.4-based environment.DuetoSolaris11's transitiontotheIPS(Image

PackagingSystem)packaging systemandtheendofsupportfor SVR4packaging,directportingof applicationswithexisting dependenciesisdifficult,despite maintainingbinarycompatibility,so untilnowoneoftheeasiest migrationoptionshasbeentoruna separateisolatedenvironment Solaris10insideaSolaris11.4 system. Thesysdiffutilityallowsyouto selectapplication-relatedfilesand movethemtoaSolaris11.4 environmentwithoutwasting resourcesonmaintaininga separateisolatedzonewithSolaris 10.Sysdiffparsesthespecified Solaris10environmentand generatesIPSpackagesfor executables,libraries,data,files configurationandother componentsnotrelatedtothe operatingsystem.ThepreparedIPS packagesarenativelyadaptedto runinaSolaris11.4environment andaccessfilesusedinaSolaris10 environment.Theutilityonly supportsrunningfromSolaris11.4, soifyouneedtomigrateindividual installationsfromSolaris10 runningontopofthehardware, theymustfirstbeconvertedtothe isolatedsolaris10environment runningonSolaris11.4.

https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/ post/sysdiff-moving-legacy-oraclesolaris-10-3rd-party-apps-to-114

TAILS5.0RELEASED: 03.05.2022

Thereleaseofaspecialized distributionkitTails5.0(The AmnesicIncognitoLiveSystem), basedonDebiananddesignedto provideanonymousaccesstothe internet,hasbeenannounced. AnonymousexittoTailsisprovided bytheTorsystem.Allconnections, excepttrafficthroughtheTor network,areblockedbydefaultby thepacketfilter.Encryptionisused tostoreuserdatainthesaveuser databetweenrunsmode.Aniso imagehasbeenpreparedfor download,capableofworkingin Livemode,1GBinsize.

https://tails.boum.org/news/ version _5.0/index.en.html

RELEASEOFSEAMONKEY

2.53.12,TORBROWSER

11.0.11ANDTHUNDERBIRD

91.9.0: 05/04/2022

TheSeaMonkey2.53.12setof Internetapplicationshasbeen released,whichcombinesaweb browser,anemailclient,anews feedaggregationsystem(RSS/ Atom)andaWYSIWYGhtmlpage editor,Composer,withinone product.TheChatzillaIRCclient, theDOMInspectorweb developmenttoolkit,andthe Lightningcalendarareofferedas preinstalledadd-ons.Thenew releasebringsfixesandchanges fromthecurrentFirefoxcodebase (SeaMonkey2.53isbasedonthe Firefox60.8browserengine, portingsecurity-relatedfixesand someimprovementsfromcurrent Firefoxbranches).

Atthesametime,anewversion ofTorBrowser11.0.11was released,focussingonanonymity, securityandprivacy.Thereleaseis insyncwiththeFirefox91.9.0ESR codebase,whichfixes11 vulnerabilities.Updatedversionof NoScriptadd-on11.4.5.Hidingthe "What'sNew"linkintheAbout dialog.Removedthebuilt-inobfs4bridge.

Additionally,thecorrective releaseoftheThunderbird91.9.0 mailclient,withthereturnof supportfortheSHA-1algorithmfor

OpenPGPdigitalsignatures.In Thunderbird91.8.0,theRNPlibrary usedintheOpenPGP implementationwasupdatedto version0.16.0,whichdisabled supportfortheMD5andSHA-1 algorithms.SinceOpenPGPkeys basedonSHA-1arestillinuse,and realattacksonOpenPGPdigital signaturesareproblematic,itwas decidedtoreturntheabilitytouse SHA-1inThunderbird.Tofurther enhancesecurity,RNP0.16.0 includescodefordetecting collisionsinSHA-1.Notableamong otherchangesinThunderbird 91.9.0istheadditionofawarning whenignoringunsafeattributes specifiedintheOpenPGPkey,such asfieldsbasedontheMD5 algorithm. https://www.seamonkeyproject.org/ https://blog.torproject.org/newrelease-tor-browser-11011/ https://www.thunderbird.net/enUS/thunderbird/91.9.0/ releasenotes/

ENTHUSIASTSHAVE

PREPAREDASTEAMOS3

BUILDFORREGULARPCS: 04.05.2022

AnunofficialbuildoftheSteam OS3operatingsystemhas beenpublished,adaptedfor installationonregularcomputers. ValveusesSteamOS3onSteam Deckgameconsolesandinitially promisedtopreparebuildsfor regularhardware,buttherelease ofofficialSteamOS3buildsfor non-SteamDeckdeviceshasbeen delayed.Enthusiaststookthe initiativeintotheirownhandsand, withoutwaitingforValve, independentlyadaptedthe recoveryimagesavailablefor SteamDeckforinstallationon conventionalequipment. Afterthefirstboot,theuseris offeredaSteamDeck-specificinitial setupinterface(SteamOSOOBE, OutofBoxExperience),through whichyoucansetupanetwork connectionandconnecttoyour Steamaccount.Throughthe "Switchtodesktop"menuinthe "Power"section,youcanlaunchthe fullKDEPlasmadesktop.

Intheproposedtestbuild,the

initialsetupinterface,thebasic DeckUIinterface,switchingtothe KDEdesktopmodewiththeVapor theme,powerconsumptionlimit settings(TDP,ThermalDesign Power)andFPS,proactiveshader caching,installingpackagesfrom SteamDeckpacmanrepositories mirrors,Bluetooth.Forsystems withAMDGPUs,AMDFSR (FidelityFXSuperResolution) technologyissupportedtoreduce imagequalitylosswhenscalingto highresolutionscreens.

Thepackagessuppliedaspartof theoriginalpackagehavebeenleft unchangedasfaraspossible.Inthe differencesfromtheoriginalbuilds ofSteamOS3,therewereinclusion ofadditionalapplications,suchas theVLCmultimediaplayer, Chromium,andtheKWritetext editor.Inadditiontotheregular LinuxkernelpackageforSteamOS 3,analternativeLinux5.16kernel fromtheArchLinuxrepositoriesis offered,whichcanbeusedincase ofbootproblems.

Fullsupportiscurrently providedonlyforsystemswith AMDGPUsthatsupporttheVulkan andVDPAUAPIs.Toworkon systemswithIntelGPUs,afterthe initialboot,youneedtorollbackto

thepreviousversionsofthe Gamescopecompositeserverand MESAdrivers.Forsystemswith NVIDIAGPUs,youneedtoloadthe buildwiththenomodeset=1flag, disableSteamDecksessionlaunch (removethe/etc/sddm.conf.d/ autologin.conffile)andinstall proprietaryNVIDIAdrivers. https://github.com/bhaiest/holoiso/ releases/tag/beta2

MICROSOFTOPENSOURCES

THEBASICALLYOBSOLETE3D

MOVIEMAKER: 04.05.2022

Microsofthasopen-sourced3D MovieMaker,aprogramthat allowschildrentocreatemoviesby placing3Dcharactersandpropsin pre-configuredenvironments,as wellasaddingsoundeffects,music, anddialogue.Thecodeiswrittenin C++andpublishedundertheMIT license.Theprogramwas developedin1995,butremainsin demandbyenthusiastswho continuetopublishfilmsin3MM format,aswellasdevelopmods andexpansionswiththe implementationofnewscenes, charactersandprops.

Thecodeisrestoredfromthe Microsoftarchiveandpublishedas is,withoutadaptationforassembly withcurrentcompilers(VisualC++ 2.0isrequiredforassembly)and workonmodernhardware. Microsofthasalsoreceivedconsent toopensourcethecodeusedinthe BRender3Dengineprogram.The BRendercodeinthe3DMovie Makerrepositoryispublishedasof 1995,butnewerversionsare availablefordownload-BRender1997andBRender-v1.3.2,open sourceunderMITlicenses.

However,theSoftImageSDKisnot included,whichmustbeobtained separately. https://github.com/microsoft/ Microsoft-3D-Movie-Maker https://3dmm.com/ CISCOHASRELEASED

CLAMAV0.105: 04.05.2022

Ciscohasreleasedamajornew releaseofthefreeantivirus suiteClamAV0.105.0andhasalso publishedpatchreleasesofClamAV 0.104.3and0.103.6with vulnerabilitiesandbugfixes.Recall thattheprojectpassedintothe handsofCiscoin2013afterthe

purchaseofSourcefire,which developsClamAVandSnort.The projectcodeisdistributedunder theGPLv2license. https://blog.clamav.net/2022/05/ clamav-01050-01043-01036released.html

RELEASEOFPROXMOXVE

7.2: 04.05.2022

ProxmoxVirtualEnvironment7.2 isreleased,aspecializedLinux distributionbasedonDebianaimed atdeployingandmaintaining virtualserversusingLXCandKVM, andcapableofactingasa replacementforproductssuchas VMwarevSphere,MicrosoftHyperVandCitrixhypervisor.Thesizeof theinstallationiso-imageis994MB.

ProxmoxVEprovidesthemeans todeployaturnkey,web-managed industrialgradevirtualserver systemformanaginghundredsor eventhousandsofvirtualmachines. Thedistributionhasbuilt-intools forbackingupvirtualenvironments andoutoftheboxclustering support,includingtheabilityto migratevirtualenvironmentsfrom onenodetoanotherwithout

stoppingitsoperation.Some featuresoftheweb-interface: supportforsecureVNC-console; accesscontroltoallavailable objects(VM,storage,nodes,etc.) basedonroles;supportforvarious authenticationmechanisms(MS ADS,LDAP,LinuxPAM,ProxmoxVE authentication). https://forum.proxmox.com/ threads/proxmox-ve-7-2released.108969/

OPENMEDIAVAULT6IS

AVAILABLE: 05/05/2022

Twoyearssincetheformationof thelastmajorbranch,astable releaseoftheOpenMediaVault6 distributionhasbeenpublished, whichallowsyoutoquicklydeploy networkstorage(NAS,Network AttachedStorage).The OpenMediaVaultprojectwas foundedin2009afterasplitinthe FreeNASdistributioncamp,along withtheFreeBSDbasedclassic FreeNAS,aforkwascreated,the developersthensetthemselvesthe goalofmovingthedistributionto theLinuxkernelandtheDebian packagebase.OpenMediaVault installationimagesforx86 64

architecture(868MB)areavailable fordownload. https://www.openmediavault.org/? p=3201

APACHEOPENOFFICE

4.1.12RELEASED: 05/05/2022

Aftersevenmonthsofdevelopmentandeightyears sincethelastmajorrelease, ApacheOpenOffice4.1.12hasbeen releasedwith10fixes.Ready-made packagesarepreparedforLinux, WindowsandmacOS. https://cwiki.apache.org/ confluence/display/OOOUSERS/ AOO+4.1.12+Release+Notes

GITHUBWILLSWITCHTO MANDATORYTWO-FACTOR

AUTHENTICATION:

05/05/2022

GitHubhasannouncedadecision tomoveallusersofthe GitHub.comserviceinvolvedincode developmenttothemandatoryuse oftwofactorauthentication(2FA) bytheendof2023.Accordingto GitHub,gainingaccessto

repositoriesbyattackersasaresult ofaccounthijackingisoneofthe mostdangerousthreats,sincein theeventofasuccessfulattack, hiddenchangescanbemadein popularproductsandlibrariesused asdependencies.

Thenewrequirementwill increasethesecurityofthe developmentprocessandsecure repositoriesfrommalicious changesduetoleakedcredentials, usingthesamepasswordona compromisedsite,hackingthe developer'slocalsystem,orusing socialengineeringmethods. AccordingtoGitHubstatistics,only 16.5%ofactiveusersoftheservice currentlyusetwofactor authentication.Bytheendof2023, GitHubintendstodisabletheability tosubmitchangeswithoutusing two-factorauthentication.

https://github.blog/2022-05-04software-security-starts-with-thedeveloper-securing-developeraccounts-with-2fa/

KUBERNETES1.24

RELEASED: 05/05/2022

AnewreleaseoftheKubernetes 1.24containerorchestration platformisavailable,whichallows youtomanageaclusterofisolated containersasasingleentityand providesmechanismsfordeploying, maintainingandscaling applicationsrunningincontainers. Theprojectwasoriginallycreated byGoogle,butthentransferredto anindependentsitecuratedbythe LinuxFoundation.Theplatformis positionedasauniversalsolution developedbythecommunity,not tiedtoindividualsystemsandable toworkwithanyapplicationinany cloudenvironment.TheKubernetes codeiswritteninGoand distributedundertheApache2.0 license.

Featuresareprovidedfor infrastructuredeploymentand management,suchasDNS databasemaintenance,load balancing,distributionof containersacrossclusternodes (migrationofcontainersdepending onchangesinloadandservice needs),application-levelhealth checks,accountmanagement,

updatinganddynamicscalingofa runningclusterwithoutstoppingit. Itispossibletodeploycontainer groupswithupdateandundo operationsfortheentiregroupat once,aswellaslogicalsplittingof theclusterintopartswithresource sharing.Thereissupportforlive migrationofapplicationsthatcan bestoredonbothlocalstorageand networkstoragesystems.

https://kubernetes.io/blog/ 2022/05/03/kubernetes-1-24release-announcement/ NEXTCLOUDHUB24

COLLABORATIONPLATFORM

AVAILABLE: 05/06/2022

NextcloudHub24platformis

out,whichprovidesaselfsufficientsolutionforcollaboration betweenemployeesofenterprises andteamsdevelopingvarious projects.Atthesametime,the Nextcloud24cloudplatform underlyingtheNextcloudHubwas published,whichallowsyouto deploycloudstoragewithsupport forsynchronizationanddata exchange,thatprovidestheability toviewandeditdatafromany deviceanywhereinanetwork

(usingawebinterfaceorWebDAV).

TheNextcloudservercanbe deployedonanyhostingthat supportsPHPscriptingand providesaccesstoSQLite,MariaDB/ MySQLorPostgreSQL.Nextcloud sourceisdistributedunderthe AGPLlicense.

Intermsoftaskstobesolved, NextcloudHubresemblesGoogle DocsandMicrosoft365,butallows youtodeployafullycontrolled collaborationinfrastructurethat operatesonitsownserversandis nottiedtoexternalcloudservices. NextcloudHubcombinesseveral openadd-onapplicationsoverthe Nextcloudcloudplatformintoa singleenvironment,allowingyouto worktogetherwithoffice documents,filesandinformation forplanningtasksandevents.The platformalsoincludesadd-onsfor emailaccess,messaging,video conferencingandchats.

changesallowsyoutotrack changesinfiles,comments,sharing rulesandtags. https://nextcloud.com/blog/ nextcloud-hub-24-is-here/ APPLEHASPUBLISHEDTHE

CODEFORTHEKERNELAND SYSTEMCOMPONENTSOF MACOS12.3: 05/06/2022

Afewdaysago,public componentsusedintheiOS15.4 mobileplatformwerealso published.Thepublicationincludes twopackages-WebKitandlibiconv. https://opensource.apple.com/ releases/ RELEASEOFTHEGCC12

COMPILERSUITE:

05/06/2022

Userauthenticationcanbe performedbothlocallyandthrough integrationwithLDAP/Active Directory,Kerberos,IMAPand Shibboleth/SAML2.0,including usingtwo-factorauthentication, SSO(Single-sign-on)andlinking newsystemstoanaccountentries byQRcode.Versioncontrolof

Applehaspublishedthesource codeforthelow-levelsystem componentsofthemacOS12.3 operatingsystem(Monterey)that usefreesoftware,includingDarwin componentsandothernon-GUI components,programs,and libraries.Atotalof177source packageshavebeenpublished. TheXNUkernelcodeis available,thesourcepublishedin theformofcodeslicesassociated withthenextreleaseofmacOS. XNUispartoftheopenDarwin projectandisahybridkernelthat combinestheMachkernel, componentsfromtheFreeBSD project,andtheIOKitC++APIfor writingdrivers.

fullcirclemagazine#181 10 contents^ NEWS Afterayearofdevelopment,the releaseofthefreeGCC12.1 compilersuitehasbeenannouced, thefirstmajorreleaseinthenew GCC12.xbranch.Underthenew releasenumberingscheme,version 12.0wasusedduringdevelopment, andshortlybeforethereleaseof GCC12.1,theGCC13.0branchwas alreadyforked,fromwhichthenext majorreleaseofGCC13.1willbe rolled.OnMay23,theprojectwill celebrate35yearssincethe formationofthefirstreleaseof GCC. https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gccannounce/2022/000171.html

THEDEB-GETUTILITY, OFFERINGAPT-GET-LIKE

FUNCTIONALITYFORTHIRDPARTYPACKAGES:

05/06/2022

MartinWimpress,co-founderof theUbuntuMATEedition,a memberoftheMATECoreTeam, haspublishedadebgetutilitythat offersapt-get-likefunctionsfor workingwithdebpackages distributedthroughthird-party repositoriesoravailablefordirect downloadfromsitesprojects.In deb-get,typicalpackage managementcommandssuchas update,upgrade,show,install, remove,andsearchareavailable, butthepackagesthemselvesare notdownloadedfromthe distribution'srepositories,but directlyfromrepositoriesandsites maintainedbysoftware manufacturers.

Infact,deb-getisabashscript thatdefinestherulesfor downloadingandupdatingmore than80popularprograms distributeddirectlyorthroughtheir ownrepositories.Someofthese programsarenotincludedinthe regularrepositoriesof

distributions,forexample,dueto licensingrestrictions.Anotherpart oftheprogramsfromthelistis availableintheregularrepositories, buttheversionspresentedinthe repositoriesmaybefarbehindthe actualreleasesdistributeddirectly.

Thedebgetutilityallowsyouto usetheusualcommandstoinstall andupdatetheseprograms,making itpossiblenottolookforthe downloadlocationofeach program,nottomanuallyinstalla debpackage,andnottoworry aboutkeepingtrackofupdates. APTrepositories,packageson GitHubreleasepages,PPA repositories,anddownloadsections onwebsitesaresupportedas installationsources.

https://twitter.com/m_wimpress/ status/1521806830707560448

CHINAINTENDSTO

TRANSFERSTATE

INSTITUTIONSANDSTATEOWNEDENTERPRISESTO

LINUX: 05/06/2022

AccordingtoBloomberg,China intendstostoptheuseof computersandoperatingsystems offoreigncompaniesinstate institutionsandstateenterprises withintwoyears.Itisexpectedthat theinitiativewillrequirethe replacementofatleast50million foreign-brandcomputers,whichare orderedtobereplacedwith equipmentfromChinese manufacturers.

Accordingtopreliminarydata, theprescriptionwillnotapplyto componentsthataredifficultto replace,suchasprocessors.Despite thedevelopmentofChina'sown chips,mostChinesemanufacturers continuetouseIntelandAMD processorsinPCs.Microsoft softwareisrecommendedtobe replacedwithLinuxbasedsolutions developedbyChinese manufacturers.

Aftertheinformationaboutthe

initiativeoftheChinese government,thesharesofHPand Dell,whichoccupyasignificant shareoftheChinesemarket,fellby about2.5%.Whilesharesof Chinesemanufacturerssuchas Lenovo,Inspur,Kingsoftand StandardSoftware,roseinprice. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/2022-05-06/china-ordersgovernment-state-firms-to-dumpforeign-pcs

RELEASEOFNEWSTABLE

BRANCHTOR0.4.7

05/06/2022

ThereleaseoftheTor0.4.7.7 toolkitusedintheanonymous Tornetworkispresented.Tor 0.4.7.7isrecognizedasthefirst stablereleaseofthe0.4.7branch, whichhasbeenindevelopmentfor thepasttenmonths.The0.4.7 branchwillbemaintainedaspartof theregularmaintenancecycleupdateswillbediscontinued9 monthslateror3monthsafterthe releaseofthe0.4.8.xbranch. https://blog.torproject.org/ congestion-contrl-047/

RELEASEOFTOYBOX0.8.7:

07.05.2022

ThereleaseoftheToybox0.8.7

systemutilitiessethasbeen published,BusyBoxdesignedasa singleexecutablefileand optimizedforminimalconsumption ofsystemresources.Theprojectis beingdevelopedbyformer maintainerBusyBoxanddistributed undertheBSDlicense.Themain purposeofToyboxistoenable manufacturerstouseaminimalistic setofstandardutilitieswithout openingthesourcecodeof modifiedcomponents.Intermsof capabilities,Toyboxstilllagsbehind BusyBox,but299basiccommands (220fullyand79partially)have alreadybeenimplementedoutof 378planned.

https://github.com/landley/toybox/ releases/tag/0.8.7

PATCHESFORTHELINUX

KERNELWITHRUST

LANGUAGESUPPORT:

08.05.2022

MiguelOjeda,authorofthe Rust-for-Linuxproject,has

proposedthereleaseofv6 componentsforRustdevicedriver developmentforLinuxkernel developerstoconsider.Thisisthe seventheditionofthepatches,if weincludethefirstversion, publishedwithoutaversion number.Rustsupportisconsidered experimental,butisalready includedinthelinux-nextbranch andmatureenoughtostart workingoncreatingabstraction layersoverkernelsubsystems,as wellaswritingdriversandmodules. Thedevelopmentisfundedby GoogleandtheISRG(Internet SecurityResearchGroup),whichis thefounderoftheLet'sEncrypt projectandpromotesHTTPSand thedevelopmentoftechnologies toincreasethesecurityofthe Internet.

https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/5/7/13

THEWERONPROJECT DEVELOPINGVPNBASEDON

THEWEBRTCPROTOCOL:

08.05.2022

ThefirstreleaseofWeronVPN hasbeenpublished,which allowsyoutocreateoverlay networksthatcombine geographicallydispersedhostsinto

onevirtualnetwork,thenodesof whichinteractdirectlywitheach other(P2P).Thecreationofvirtual IPnetworks(layer3)andEthernet networks(layer2)issupported.The projectcodeiswritteninGoand distributedundertheAGPLv3 license.Readybuildsareprepared forLinux,FreeBSD,OpenBSD, NetBSD,Solaris,macOSand Windows.

Thekeydifferencefromprojects suchasTailscale,WireGuardand ZeroTieristheuseoftheWebRTC protocolfortheinteractionof nodesinavirtualnetwork.The advantageofusingWebRTCasa transportisthehigherresistanceto blockingVPNtraffic,sincethis protocolisactivelyusedinpopular videoandaudioconferencing programssuchasZoom.WebRTC alsoprovidesout-of-the-boxtools foraccessinghostsrunningbehind NATsandbypassingcorporate firewallsusingtheSTUNandTURN protocols.

Weroncanbeusedtocreate singletrustednetworksthat connectlocalhostswithsystems runningincloudenvironments.The lowoverheadofusingWebRTCin lowlatencynetworksalsomakesit possibletocreatesecurehome

networksbasedonWeronto protecttrafficbetweenhosts withinlocalnetworks.AnAPIis providedfordeveloperstocreate theirowndistributedapplications withfeaturessuchasautomatic connectionresumptionandthe establishmentofmultiple communicationchannelsatthe sametime. https://github.com/pojntfx/weron/ releases

PHOTOFLARE1.6.10IMAGE

EDITORRELEASED: 09.05.2022

fullcirclemagazine#181 12 contents^ NEWS Afteralmostayearofdevelopment,thereleaseof thePhotoflare1.6.10imageeditor hasbeenpublished.Thedevelopers aretryingtofindtheoptimal balancebetweenfunctionalityand user-friendlinessoftheinterface. Theprojectwasoriginallyfounded asanattempttocreateanopen andmulti-platformalternativeto theWindowsPhotoFiltre application.Theprojectcodeis writteninC++usingtheQtlibrary anddistributedundertheGPLv3 license. Theprogramisaimedatawide

rangeofusersandprovidestypical featuresforeditingimages, paintingwithbrushes,applying filters,applyinggradientsandcolor correction,aswellasadvanced featuressuchasprocessingagroup ofimagesinbatchmode.For example,Photoflareallowsyouto changetheformatandsize,apply filters,rotatetheimage,equalize brightnessandsaturationinseveral selectedfilesatonce.(bulkediting)

Thenewversionaddsatoolfor preciseimagerotation.Addedan optiontoturnoffaspectratio snappingwhenresizingthecanvas. Improvedrenderingperformance. Fixedanissuewithshowingan indicatorintheKDEsystemtray.

https://github.com/PhotoFlare/ photoflare/releases/tag/v1.6.10

GNOMEPROJECT

STRATEGYIN2022: 05/10/2022

RobertMcQueen,CEOofthe

GNOMEFoundation,unveiled newinitiativesaimedatattracting newusersanddeveloperstothe GNOMEplatform.Itisnotedthatin thepast,theGNOMEFoundation focusedonincreasingthe

relevanceofGNOMEand technologiessuchasGTK,aswellas acceptingdonationsfrom companiesandindividualscloseto thefreeandopensource ecosystem.Newinitiativesare aimedatattractingpeoplefromthe outsideworld,gettingtoknowthe projectfromthirdparties,and lookingfornewopportunitiesto attractinvestmentintheGNOME project.

https://discourse.gnome.org/t/ evolving-a-strategy-for-2022-andbeyond/9759

processthattrackschangesinfiles fromthedatabaseandtransfers themtoanotherfileortoexternal storage.Theprojectcodeiswritten inGoanddistributedunderthe Apache2.0license.

THELITESTREAMPROJECT, IMPLEMENTINGA REPLICATIONSYSTEMFOR

SQLITE: 10.05.2022

BenJohnson,authorofBoltDB

NoSQLstorage,introducedthe Litestreamproject,whichprovides anadd-onfororganizingdata replicationinSQLite.Litestream doesnotrequireanychangesto SQLiteandcanworkwithany applicationthatusesthislibrary. Replicationishandledbya separatelyexecutedbackground

Allinteractionwiththedatabase isdonethroughtheregularSQLite API,i.e.Litestreamdoesnot directlyinterferewithwork,does notaffectperformance,andcannot damagethecontentsofthe database,whichdistinguishes Litestreamfromsolutionssuchas RqliteandDqlite.Changesare trackedthroughtheinclusionofa WAL-log("Write-AheadLog")in SQLite.Tosavestoragespace,the systemperiodicallyaggregatesthe flowofchangesintoslices (snapshots)ofthedatabase,ontop ofwhichotherchangesbeginto accumulate.Thetimeforcreating slicesisspecifiedinthesettings,for example,youcancreateslicesonce adayoronceanhour.

Asthemainareasofapplication ofLitestream,theorganizationof securebackupsandthedistribution ofthereadloadonseveralservers arementioned.Youcanmigrate yourchangestreamtoAmazonS3, AzureBlobStorage,BackblazeB2, DigitalOceanSpaces,Scaleway

ObjectStorage,GoogleCloud Storage,LinodeObjectStorage,or anyexternalhostthatsupports SFTP.Incaseofdamagetothe contentsofthemaindatabase,the backupcopycanberestoredfrom thestatecorrespondingtothe specifiedpointintime,acertain change,thelastchange,oragiven slice. https://fly.io/blog/allinonsqlite litestream/

MICROSOFTRELEASESCBL-

MARINER2.0: 10.05.2022

fullcirclemagazine#181 13 contents^ NEWS Microsofthaspublishedthefirststableupdateofthenew branchoftheCBLMariner2.0 (CommonBaseLinuxMariner) distribution,whichisbeing developedasauniversalbase platformforLinuxenvironments usedincloudinfrastructure,edge systemsandvariousMicrosoft services.Theprojectisaimedat unifyingtheLinuxsolutionsusedin Microsoftandsimplifyingthe maintenanceofLinuxsystemsfor variouspurposesuptodate. Thenewreleaseisnotablefora majorupdateofsoftwareversions.

Thisincludesupdatedversionsof theLinuxkernel5.15(kernel5.4 wasusedinthe1.0branch), systemd250,glibc2.35,GCC11.2, clang12,Python3.9,ruby3.1.2, rpm4.17,qemu6.1,perl5.34, ostree2022.1.Thebaserepository includescomponentsforbuildinga graphicalinterface,suchas Wayland1.20,Mesa21.0,GTK3.24 andX.OrgServer1.20.10,which werepreviouslyshippedina separatecoreuirepository.They alsoaddedkernelbuildswith PREEMPT RTpatchesforuseon real-timesystems.

(AArch64)architecturesandvarious deviceswith32-bitARMprocessors. PublishingofFedoraSilverblue buildsaredelayed. https://fedoramagazine.org/ announcing-fedora-36/ REDHATENTERPRISELINUX

9: 10.05.2022

RedHathasreleasedtheRed

https://github.com/microsoft/CBLMariner/releases/tag/ 2.0.20220426-2.0

FEDORALINUX36

DISTRIBUTIONRELEASED: 10.05.2022

FedoraWorkstation,Fedora Server,CoreOS,FedoraIoT EditionandLivebuildsarereadyfor download,deliveredintheformof spinswithdifferentdesktop environments,likeKDEPlasma5, Xfce,MATE,Cinnamon,LXDEand LXQt.Buildsaregeneratedfor x86 _64,Power64,ARM64

HatEnterpriseLinux9 distribution.Ready-made installationimageswillsoonbe availabletoregisteredusersofthe RedHatCustomerPortal(youcan alsouseCentOSStream9iso imagestoevaluatethe functionality).Thereleaseisbuilt forthex86 64,s390x(IBMSystem z),ppc64le,andAarch64(ARM64) architectures.Thesourcesforthe RedHatEnterpriseLinux9rpm packagesarelocatedintheCentOS Gitrepository.Inaccordancewith the10-yearsupportcycleforthe RHEL9distribution,itwillbe maintaineduntil2032.Updatesfor RHEL7willcontinuetobereleased untilJune30,2024,RHEL8until May31,2029.

https://www.redhat.com/en/about/ press-releases/red-hat-definesnewepicenterinnovationredhat enterprise-linux-9 DOCKERDESKTOPIS AVAILABLEFORLINUX: 11.05.2022

DockerIncannouncedaLinux

versionoftheDockerDesktop application,whichprovidesa graphicalinterfaceforcreating, runningandmanagingcontainers. Previously,theappwasonly availableforWindowsandmacOS. Linuxinstallationpackagesare preparedindebandrpmformats forUbuntu,DebianandFedora distributions.Additionally, experimentalpackagesfor ArchLinuxareofferedandpackages forRaspberryPiOSarebeing preparedforpublication.

DockerDesktopallowsyouto create,testandpublish microservicesandapplications runningincontainerisolation systemsonyourworkstation throughasimplegraphical interface.Itincludescomponents suchasDockerEngine,CLIclient, DockerCompose,DockerContent Trust,Kubernetes,Credential

Helper,BuildKit,andVulnerability Scanner.Theprogramisfreefor personaluse,foreducation,for noncommercialopenprojects,and forsmallbusinesses(lessthan250 employeesandlessthan$10 millioninrevenueperyear).

https://www.docker.com/blog/the magic-of-docker-desktop-is-nowavailable-on-linux/

PALEMOONBROWSER31.0

RELEASED: 11.05.2022

PaleMoon31.0webbrowserhas beenpublished,whichforked fromtheFirefoxcodebaseto providehigherperformance, preservetheclassicinterface, minimizememoryconsumptionand provideadditionalcustomization options.PaleMoonbuildsare generatedforWindowsandLinux (x86andx86_64).Theprojectcode isdistributedundertheMPLv2 (MozillaPublicLicense).

Theprojectadherestothe classiclayoutoftheinterface, withoutswitchingtotheAustralis interfaceintegratedinFirefox29, andwiththeprovisionofextensive customizationoptions.Removed

componentsincludeDRM,Social API,WebRTC,PDFviewer,Crash Reporter,statisticscollectioncode, parentalcontrols,andpeoplewith disabilities.ComparedtoFirefox, thebrowserretainssupportfor XULtechnologyandretainsthe abilitytousebothfullfledgedand lightweightthemes.

https://forum.palemoon.org/ viewtopic.php? t=28245&p=227357#p227357

EUROLINUX8.6RELEASED, COMPATIBLEWITHRHEL:

12.05.2022

TheEuroLinux8.6distribution

hasbeenreleased,preparedby rebuildingthesourceofRedHat EnterpriseLinux8.6distribution packagesandbeingfullybinary compatiblewithit.Installation imagesarepreparedfordownload, 11GB(appstream)and1.6GBin size.Thedistributioncanalsobe usedtoreplacetheCentOS8 branch,whichwasdiscontinuedat theendof2021.

sametime,includethefullsetof systemfeatures,andallowyouto receiveupdates.Thedifference betweenapaidsubscriptioncomes downtotheprovisionoftechnical supportservices,accesstoerrata filesandtheabilitytouse additionalpackages,includingtools forloadbalancing,highavailability andcreatingreliablestorage.

https://en.euro-linux.com/blog/ eurolinux86released/ NVIDIAOPENSOURCE VIDEODRIVERSFORLINUX

KERNEL:

12.05.2022

EuroLinuxbuildsaredistributed bothforapaidsubscriptionandfor free.Thepaidandfreesubscription buildsareidentical,builtatthe

NVIDIAhasannouncedtheopen sourceofallkernelmodules suppliedinitsproprietaryvideo driversuite.Thecodeisopen sourceundertheMITandGPLv2 licenses.Theabilitytobuild modulesisprovidedforthex86_64 andaarch64architectureson systemswiththeLinux3.10kernel andnewerreleases.Firmwareand user-spacelibrariessuchasthe CUDA,OpenGL,andVulkanstacks remainproprietary.

Itisexpectedthatthe publicationofthecodewillleadto

asignificantincreaseinthe usabilityofNVIDIAGPUsonLinux systems,enhanceintegrationwith theoperatingsystem,andsimplify thedeliveryofdriversand debuggingproblems.The developersofUbuntuandSUSE havealreadyannouncedpackages basedonopenmodules.Having openmoduleswillalsomakeit easiertointegrateNVIDIAdrivers withsystemsbasedonnonstandardcustombuildsoftheLinux kernel.ForNVIDIA,opensourcewill improvethequalityandsecurityof Linuxdriversthroughgreater communityengagementandthe abilityforthirdpartyreviewand independentaudits. https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/ nvidia-releases-open-source-gpukernel-modules/ MULTIPASS1.9,ATOOLKIT

FORDEPLOYINGUBUNTUIN

VIRTUALMACHINES: 13.05.2022

Canonicalhaspublishedthe releaseofthemultipass1.9 toolkit,designedtosimplifythe installationofdifferentversionsof Ubuntuinvirtualmachinesrunning onLinux,WindowsandmacOS

fullcirclemagazine#181 15 contents^ NEWS JoinourhostMossBlissas hepresentsyouwithashort podcast(<10min)withjust thenews.Nochitchat.No timewasting.Justthelatest FOSS/Linux/Ubuntunews. RSS:http:// fullcirclemagazine. org/feed/podcast

virtualizationsystems.Multipass allowsadevelopertorunthe desiredversionofUbuntuina virtualmachinewithonecommand withoutadditionalsettings,for example,toexperimentortestthe operationoftheirapplication.Linux usesKVMtorunavirtualmachine, HyperVonWindows,andHyperKit onmacOS.Itisalsopossibletouse VirtualBoxtorunvirtualmachines. TheprojectcodeiswritteninC++ anddistributedundertheGPLv3 license.Foraquickinstallationof multipassinUbuntu,asnap packagehasbeenprepared.

Multipassindependently extractstherequiredoperating systemimageandkeepsitupto date.Cloud-initcanbeusedfor configuration.Itispossibletoboth mountdiskpartitionsinavirtual environment(the"multipass mount"command)andtransfer individualfilesbetweenthehost systemandthevirtualmachine(the "multipasstransfer"command).Full integrationoftheinstalledvirtual machinewiththemaindesktopis supported(applicationicons, systemmenuandnotificationsare added.

Thenewversionimplementsthe abilitytoauthenticatetheclientto

runmultipassasanunprivileged user.ForthemacOSplatform, supportforputtingvirtual machinesintosleepmodehasbeen addedandtheabilitytolauncha localmini-cloud(bindingrunning virtualenvironmentswithnetwork interfacesofthehostsystemgiving accesstovirtualmachinesfrom externalnetworks)hasbeen provided.

https://ubuntu.com//blog/linux-onmacwithmultipass19

GOOGLELAUNCHESTEAMTO

HELPOPENSOURCE PROJECTSIMPROVE

SECURITY: 13.05.2022

Googlehasannouncedthatit

hasjoinedtheLinux Foundation'sOpenSSF(Open SourceSecurityFoundation) initiativetoimprovethesecurityof opensourcesoftware.Aspartofits involvement,Googlehascreated andwillfundaseparate"Open SourceMaintenanceCrew"of engineersthatwillworkwith maintainersofcriticalopensource projectsonsecurityenhancements.

Theworkwillusethe"Know, Prevent,Fix"concept,which definesmethodsformanaging vulnerabilityremediation metadata,patchcontrol,sending notificationsofnewvulnerabilities, maintainingadatabaseof informationaboutvulnerabilities, trackingthelinkingof vulnerabilitiestodependencies, andanalyzingtheriskof exploitationofvulnerabilities throughdependencies.

https://blog.google/technology/ safety-security/shared-success-inbuilding-a-safer-open-sourcecommunity/ RELEASEOFONLYOFFICE DOCS7.1OFFICESUITE: 13.05.2022

ONLYOFFICEDocumentServer

7.1hasbeenpublishedwith theimplementationofaserverfor ONLYOFFICEonlineeditorsand collaboration.Editorscanbeused toworkwithtextdocuments, spreadsheetsandpresentations. Theprojectcodeisdistributed underthefreelicenseAGPLv3.

builtonasinglecodebasewith onlineeditors.Desktopeditorsare designedasdesktopapplications thatarewritteninJavaScriptusing webtechnologies,butcombine clientandservercomponentsin oneset,designedforself-sufficient useontheuser'slocalsystem, withoutresortingtoanexternal service.Forcollaborationatyour ownfacilities,youcanalsouse Nextcloud,whichprovidesfull integrationwithONLYOFFICE.

https://www.onlyoffice.com/blog/ 2022/05/discover-onlyoffice-docsv7-1/ DEADBEEF1.9.0: 13.05.2022

Atthesametime,ONLYOFFICE DesktopEditors7.1wasreleased,

DeaDBeeF1.9.0musicplayeris availablefordownload.The playeriswritteninClanguageand canworkwithaminimalsetof dependencies.Thecodeis distributedundertheZliblicense. TheinterfaceisbuiltusingtheGTK library,supportstabsandcanbe extendedthroughwidgetsand plugins. Amongthefeatures:automatic transcodingoftextencodingin tags,anequalizer,supportforcue

files,aminimumofdependencies, theabilitytocontrolviathe commandlineorfromthesystem tray,theabilitytoloadanddisplay covers,abuilt-intageditor,flexible optionsfordisplayingthedesired fieldsinthelistsofsongs,support forstreamingInternetradio, playbackwithoutpauses,the presenceofaplug-infor transcodingcontent. https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/ posts/deadbeef 1.9.0 is out.html

ALTWORKSTATIONK10.0: 13.05.2022

ThereleaseAltWorkstationK10, suppliedwithagraphical environmentbasedonKDEPlasma, isout.Bootimagesareprepared forx86 64architecture.Thebuild basedonKDEwasthefinalonein updatingtheentirelineofAlt distributionstothetenthbranchof theplatform.InDecember2021, "AltServer","Workstation", "Education",SimplyLinux, "VirtualizationServer"distributions werereleased. Animportantfeatureisthe abilitytobootfromtheAlt WorkstationKdiskinLivemode.

Likeotheroperatingsystemsfrom theAltOSfamily,thedistributionis equippedwiththeAlterator graphicalinterfaceforsystem configuration,whichallowsyouto manageusersandgroups,view systemlogs,addprinters,configure network,andmuchmore.The systemsuccessfullyworkswith ActiveDirectory.Supportfor applyinggrouppoliciesis implementedusingtheSamba4.14 server.AltWorkstationK10 containsallthetoolsfor performingofficetasks-aweb browser,anofficesuiteoftext editorsandspreadsheets,aswellas playersandeditorsforsoundand video. https://lists.altlinux.org/pipermail/ altlinux-announce-ru/ 2022/000033.html

etc.)aredevelopedwithintheir owndevelopmentcyclesbutwork wellwithNetworkManager. https://networkmanager.dev/blog/ networkmanager-1-38/ IPTABLESPACKETFILTER

RELEASE1.8.8: 14.05.2022

RELEASEOFTRUENAS

13.0: 14.05.2022

NETWORKMANAGER1.38.0

RELEASED: 05/14/2022

AstablereleaseofNetworkManager1.38.0is availabletosimplifynetwork settingsfortheuser.Pluginsfor VPNsupport(Libreswan, OpenConnect,Openswan,SSTP,

Theclassiciptables1.8.8packet filtermanagementtoolkit releasehasbeenpublished,the developmenthaslatelybeen focusedoncomponentstomaintain backwardcompatibility-iptablesnftandebtables-nft,whichprovide utilitieswiththesamecommand linesyntaxasiniptablesand ebtables,buttranslatingthe resultingrulesintothenftables bytecode.Theoriginaliptables softwaresuite,includingip6tables, arptables,andebtables,was deprecatedin2018andhasalready beenreplacedbynftablesinmost distributions. https://www.mail-archive.com/ netfilterannounce@lists.netfilter.org/ msg00241.html

fullcirclemagazine#181 17 contents^ NEWS Afterayearandahalfof development,iXsystems introducedTrueNASCORE13,a distributionfortherapid deploymentofnetworkstorage (NAS,Network-AttachedStorage). TrueNASCORE13isbasedon FreeBSD13,featuringintegrated ZFSsupportandweb-based managementbuiltusingtheDjango Pythonframework.FTP,NFS, Samba,AFP,rsyncandiSCSIare supportedtoorganizestorage access,softwareRAID(0,1,5)canbe usedtoincreasestoragereliability, LDAP/ActiveDirectorysupportis implementedforclient authorization.Thesizeoftheiso imageis900MB(x86_64). Alongsideths,theTrueNASSCALE distributionisbeingdeveloped, usingLinuxinsteadofFreeBSD. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/ meet-truenas-13-your-datas-newhome/

SERIOUSSAMCLASSICGAME

ENGINEUPDATEDFORLINUX: 16.05.2022

ThegameengineforSeriousSam Classic1.10hasbeenpublished, allowingyoutorunthefirstand secondpartsofthefirst-person shooterSeriousSamonmodern systems.TheoriginalSerious Enginecodewasopen-sourcedby CroteamundertheGPLin2016to celebratethegame's15th anniversary.Atlaunch,youcanuse gameresourcesfromtheoriginal game.Inthechanges,thereis supportforscreenmodesof16:9, 16:10and21:9,aswellasasolution totheproblemwiththetimerin64 bitmode.

Additionally,theSeriousSam AlphaRemakeengineisbeing developedwiththe implementationofanalternative modificationofthegame"SeriousSamClassicTheFirst Encounter".Portedadditionstothe gameinclude:SE1ParseError,SE1 TSE-HNO,SE1-TFE-OddWorld,SE1TSE-DancesWorld,se1-parseerror, se1-tse-hno,se1-tfe-oddworld, se1-tse-dancesworld.Theauthor alsopromisestopublishanumber ofotheradditions,ifthereis

interest.

https://github.com/tx00100xt/ SeriousSamClassic RELEASEOFROCKYLINUX

8.6: 05/17/2022

RockyLinux8.6hasbeenreleased,aimedatcreatinga freeRHELbuildthatcantakethe placeoftheclassicCentOS,after RedHatstoppedsupportingthe CentOS8branchaheadofschedule attheendof2021,andnotin2029, asoriginallyintended.Thisisthe thirdstablereleaseoftheproject, recognizedasreadyforproduction deployments.RockyLinuxbuilds arepreparedforx86 64and aarch64architectures.

Theprojectisbeingdeveloped undertheleadershipofGregory Kurtzer,founderofCentOS.CtrlIQ, a$26millioncommercialcompany, wascreatedtodevelopadvanced productsbasedonRockyLinuxand supportthedevelopment communityofthisdistribution.The RockyLinuxdistributionitselfis promisedtobedeveloped independentlyofCtrlIQ,under communitycontrol.Companies

suchasGoogle,AmazonWeb Services,GitLab,MontaVista, 45Drives,OpenDrivesandNAVER Cloudalsojoinedthedevelopment andfinancingoftheproject.

https://rockylinux.org/news/rocky linux-8-6-ga-release/

RELEASEOFINKSCAPE1.2: 17.05.2022

Afterayearofdevelopment,

Inkscape1.2hasbeen published.Theeditorprovides flexibledrawingtoolsandprovides supportforreadingandsaving imagesinSVG,OpenDocument Drawing,DXF,WMF,EMF,sk1,PDF, EPS,PostScript,andPNGformats. ReadybuildsofInkscapehavebeen preparedforLinux,macOS,and Windows. https://inkscape.org/news/ 2022/05/16/inkscape-12/ FREEBSD13.1RELEASE: 17.05.2022

Afterayearofdevelopment, FreeBSD13.1hasbeen released.Installimagesare availableforamd64,i386,powerpc, powerpc64,powerpc64le,

powerpcspe,armv6,armv7, aarch64,andriscv64architectures. Additionally,buildshavebeen preparedforvirtualizationsystems (QCOW2,VHD,VMDK,raw)and AmazonEC2,GoogleCompute EngineandVagrantcloud environments. https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/ releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.1/

QTCOMPANY'SCTOAND

QTLEADMAINTAINERLEAVE

THEPROJECT: 05/18/2022

fullcirclemagazine#181 18 contents^ NEWS LarsKnoll,thecreatorofthe KHTMLenginedevelopedfor KDE,whichwasbasedofftheSafari andChromebrowserengines, announcedhisresignationasCTO ofQtCompanyandchief maintainerofQtafter25yearsin theecosystemofthisproject. AccordingtoLars,afterhis departure,theprojectwillremain ingoodhandsandwillcontinueto developinaccordancewiththe sameprinciples.Themotivefor leavingisthedesiretotrytodo somethingotherthantheQt framework,whichhehasbeen doingsincehisstudentdays.

Hisnewplaceofworkwillbea startupcreatedtogetherwithone ofthefoundersofTrolltech.Details aboutthenewprojectarenotyet given,itisonlymentionedthatitis notrelatedtotheC++language anddevelopertools.Untiltheend ofJune,Larswillcontinuetowork onQtatthesamepace,butthenhe willswitchtoanewprojectandwill devotemuchlesstimetoQt,buthe willnotcompletelyleavethe community,hewillremainavailable onmailinglistsandisreadyto adviseotherdevelopers.

Inadditiontothepositionof CTOofQtCompany,Larsalso announcedhisresignationasthe leader(chiefmaintainer,Chief Maintainer)oftheQtproject.He willcontinuetomaintaintheQt Multimediamodule.Volker Hilsheimerisproposedtobe appointedasthenewleaderofQt, whoisengagedinQtfull-time, knowsallthetechnicalnuances,has connectionsintheQtCompany, enjoysauthorityamongdevelopers andisasupporterofthe developmentofQtasanopen project.VolkerisDirectorof ResearchandDevelopment(R&D), GraphicsandUserInterfaceatQt Company.

https://lists.qt-project.org/ pipermail/development/2022May/ 042477.html

FIRSTRELEASEOFTHE OPENSUSELEAPMICRO

DISTRIBUTION: 05/18/2022

ThedevelopersoftheopenSUSE projecthaveannouncedthe firstreleaseofaneweditionofthe openSUSEdistribution,"Leap Micro",basedontheworkofthe MicroOSproject.TheopenSUSE LeapMicrodistributionismarketed asacommunityversionofthe commercialSUSELinuxEnterprise Micro5.2,whichexplainsthe unusualfirstversionnumber,5.2, whichwaschosentosynchronize releasenumbersinboth distributions.TheopenSUSELeap Micro5.2releasewillbesupported for4years.

Buildsforx86 _ 64andARM64 (Aarch64)architecturesare availablefordownload,supplied bothwithaninstaller(Offline builds,370MBinsize)andinthe formofready-madebootimages: 570MB(preconfigured),740MB (withReal-Timekernel)and820MB. ImagescanrununderXenandKVM

hypervisors,orontopofhardware, includingRaspberryPiboards.For configuration,youcanusethe cloud-inittoolkittopasssettingson everyboot,orCombustiontoset settingsonfirstboot. https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/ list/project@lists.opensuse.org/ thread/ Q7Q54ZGTLFHRAHD43I7KWQ2CX KNHM5OB/ REDHATENTERPRISELINUX 9AVAILABLEFOR

DOWNLOAD: 19.05.2022

RedHathasannouncedthatitis readytouploadtheinstallation imagesandrepositoriesoftheRed HatEnterpriseLinux9distribution. Thereleaseofthenewbranchwas officiallyannouncedaweekago, butthebuildswerepublishedwith aslightdelay.Thesourcesforthe RedHatEnterpriseLinux9rpm packagesarelocatedintheCentOS Gitrepository.Ready-made installationimagesareavailable onlytoregisteredusersoftheRed HatCustomerPortal,butyoucan alsousetheisoimagesofthe CentOSStream9project,whichis usedasthebaseforbuildingRHEL

9,toevaluatethefunctionality.An overviewoftheinnovationsin RHEL9canbefoundinthetextof theinitialannouncement;'new branch'. https://access.redhat.com/ announcements/6958409 ORACLELINUX8.6RELEASE

ANDUNBREAKABLE

ENTERPRISEKERNEL7BETA: 05/19/2022

OraclehasreleasedtheOracle Linux8.6distributionbasedon RedHatEnterpriseLinux8.6.An8.6 GBiso-imagepreparedforx86_64 andARM64architectures(aarch64) isdistributedfordownloadwithout restrictions.ForOracleLinux, unlimitedandfreeaccesstothe yumrepositorywithbinarypackage updateswithbugfixesandsecurity issuesisopen.Separately supportedApplicationStream modulesarealsoavailablefor download. ThenewversionofOracleLinux proposesthereleaseofthe UnbreakableEnterpriseKernel R6U3kernel,whichstabilizes supportfortheWireGuard protocol,expandsthecapabilities

oftheio uringasynchronousI/O interface,improvessupportfor nestedvirtualizationonsystems withAMDCPUs,andexpands NVMesupport.Otherthanthat, thefunctionalityoftheOracle Linux8.6andRHEL8.6releasesis completelyidentical(thelistof changesinOracleLinux8.6repeats thelistofchangesinRHEL8.6).

https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/ announcing-the-release-of-oraclelinux-8-update-6

RELEASEOFMESA22.1: 05/19/2022

Aftertwomonthsof

development,thereleaseof thefreeimplementationofthe OpenGLAPIandVulkan-Mesa 22.1.0waspublished.Thefirst releaseoftheMesa22.1.0branch hasanexperimentalstatus after thefinalstabilizationofthecode,a stableversion22.1.1willbe released. InMesa22.1,supportforthe Vulkan1.3graphicsAPIisavailable intheanvdriversforIntelGPUs, radvforAMDGPUs,andthe lavapipesoftwarerasterizer.Vulkan 1.2issupportedinemulatormode

(vn),Vulkan1.1inQualcommGPU driver(tu),andVulkan1.0in BroadcomVideoCoreVI(Raspberry Pi4)GPUdriver.Mesaalsoprovides fullOpenGL4.6supportforthe 965,iris(Intel),radeonsi(AMD), zink,andllvmpipedrivers.OpenGL 4.5supportisavailableforAMD (r600)andNVIDIA(nvc0)GPUs,and OpenGL4.3forvirgl(Virgil3D virtualGPUforQEMU/KVM)and vmwgfx(VMware). https://lists.freedesktop.org/ archives/mesa-dev/2022-May/ 225791.html

MYBEE13.1.0,HASBEEN PUBLISHED: 05/19/2022

Thereleaseofthefree

distributionMyBee13.1.0,built onFreeBSD13.1technologiesand providinganAPIforworkingwith virtualmachines(viathebhyve hypervisor)andcontainers(based onFreeBSDjail),hastakenplace. Thedistributionisdesignedtobe installedonadedicatedphysical server.Installationimagesize1.7GB

ThebasicMyBeeinstallation providestheabilitytocreate,

destroy,startandstopvirtual environments.Bycreatingtheir ownmicroservicesandregistering theirendpointsintheAPI(for example,microservicesof snapshots,migrations,checkpoints, cloning,renaming,etc.canbeeasily implemented),userscandesignand extendtheAPIforanytaskand createspecificsolutions.

Inaddition,thedistribution includesalargenumberofprofiles ofmodernoperatingsystems,such asDebian,CentOS,Rocky,Kali, Oracle,Ubuntu,FreeBSD, OpenBSD,DragonflyBSDand NetBSD,readyforimmediateuse. Networkandaccessconfiguration iscarriedoutusingthecloud-init (for*UnixOS)andcloudbase(for Windows)packages.Also,the projectprovidestoolsforcreating yourownimages.Oneexampleofa customimageisaKubernetes cluster,alsorunviaanAPI (Kubernetessupportisprovidedby theK8S-bhyveproject).

Thehighspeedofdeployment ofvirtualmachinesandthe operationofthebhyvehypervisor allowsthedistributioninthesinglenodeinstallationmodetofind applicationinapplicationtesting tasks,aswellasinresearch

activities.Inthecaseofcombining severalMyBeeserversintoa cluster,thedistributioncanbeused asabaseforbuildingprivateclouds andFaaS/SaaSplatforms.Despite thepresenceofthesimplestAPI accesscontrolsystem,the distributionisdesignedtowork onlyintrustedenvironments. https://myb.convectix.com/ APACHEOPENMEETINGS6.3

WEBCONFERENCINGSERVER

AVAILABLE: 20.05.2022

fullcirclemagazine#181 20 contents^ NEWS TheApacheSoftwareFoundation hasannouncedthereleaseof theApacheOpenMeetings6.3web conferencingserver,whichallows youtohaveaudioandvideo conferencingovertheWeb,aswell ascollaborationandmessaging betweenparticipants.Both webinarswithonespeakerand conferenceswithanarbitrary numberofparticipants simultaneouslyinteractingwith eachotheraresupported.The projectcodeiswritteninJavaand distributedundertheApache2.0 license.

Thenewreleasefocusedon

fixingbugsandpreparingforthe transitiontoJDK17(JRE11willbe deprecatedinthefutureandJRE 17willbecomemandatory).

Problemswiththenewversionsof theSafaribrowseraresolved.The librariessuppliedhavebeen updatedtothelatestversions.Of thevisiblechanges,theunification ofdialogsforconfirming operationswasadded.

https://blogs.apache.org/ openmeetings/entry/ openmeetings-v6-3-0-fixes

TheVirtualBoxNetworkingPrimer

ConnectingandConfiguringVirtualMachines

TheVirtualBoxNetworkingPrimerisano-nonsenseguideforthe VirtualBoxusertakingtheirnextstepsintovirtualnetworks.

WhileOracleVMVirtualBoxisagreatfreetool,therealpowerof virtualisationcomeswhenyoustartconnectingvirtualmachinesto eachotherandtothewiderworld.Softwaredevelopment,sales, educationandtrainingarejustsomeoftheareasinwhichnetwork accesstovirtualmachinesoffersendlessopportunities.Buttheworld ofcomputernetworksisfilledwithcomplextechnicaljargon.

Completewithprinciples,practice,examplesandglossary,The VirtualBoxNetworkingPrimertakesthefrustrationandconfusionout ofconnectingreal-worldprojects.

Author:RobinCatling

Publisher:ProactivityPress ISBN13:9781916119482

AmazonUSlink: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916119484? ref =pe 3052080 397514860

AmazonUKlink:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VirtualBox-Networking-PrimerConnecting-Configuring/dp/1916119484/ref=sr 1 1? dchild=1&keywords=virtualbox+networking+primer&qid=16002536 99&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-virtualbox-networkingprimer

C COOMMMMAANNDD&&CCOONNQQUUEER R

Forthisissue,Iwouldlikeusto lookatsoftware.Notjustany software,butUbuntusoftware. WhenIgetsoftwareforUbuntu,I preferittobepackagedinthe.deb format.ManyyearsagoIhadsucha badexperiencewithRedHat and.rpmanddependencyhell,that hasputmeoffrpmtothisday.That waswhen afriendintroducedme toDebianandthesimplicitythat wasitspackagemanager.Iwasso impressedthatIwouldusealiento convertthepackagestorpm, believingtheyweresuperior.You see,backinthedaythepropaganda hadyoubelieveRedHatwasthe goldstandard.(Andwewereall younganddumb.)

gettingaheadofmyself.Thisis supposedtobeawhistlewetter.

Fornow,Iwouldlikeyoutoopen a.debfilewithfilerolleroryour favouritearchiver.Thisiswhereyou willnoticeslightdifferencesinthe same.debpackageforpureDebian andUbuntuandotherDebian derivatives.Thisisthereasonwhy peopletellyounottoinstall UbuntupackagesinDebian.There

issomehomeworkforyou-graba pureDebianfileandanUbuntufile ofthesamepackage,something small,likesoundconverterora terminalemulatorandcompare thembyopeningthemwithyour archiverandwecantalkboutthem inthenextissue?

Mostofyouwouldhaveknown onlythesoftwarecentre,asby default,thatiswhatUbuntu

For.debfiles,myfavouritetool isgdebi.Theamountof informationatyourfingertipsis amazing.Ifyouneverusedgdebito inspecta.debfile,whathaveyou beendoingwithyourlife?

HereIhaveanexample,andyou cansee4tabs,Description,Details, IncludedfilesandLintianoutput. Thisallowsyoutodrilldownand see“inside”thepackage,butIam

opens.debfileswith.Nowyoucan addanothertooltoyourarsenal, namelySynapticpackagemanager. Thiswillalsogladlyinstallyour.deb files.LastlyIwanttobring packagekittoyourattention.As youcansee,youhavealotof optionswhenworkingwith.deb files. Fromthecommandprompt, mostofyouwouldknowapt(or apt-get)toinstallyoursoftware.I amheretotellyouthatdpkgisjust aseasy,with:dpkg i<.debfile>and Bob'syouruncle.Itisintuitivewith -iforinstalland-rforremove. Thoughthesoftwarecentreiseasy, itabstractsfrominstallation messages.Sincethe.debfilesare standardized(toanextent)youcan writeyourownbashscriptsto updateyoursystem.Examplesof thisarenothardtofind.(https:// www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu linux-tips/make-updating-ubuntusimpler/)

WhenIfirststartedwithDebian packages,youusedthetooldpkgto installthem.Istillhavenightmares aboutdpkg--reconfigurethough...

WrittenbyErik

COMMAND&CONQUER

Thedifferenceinallofthese packagemanagersarethewaythey handledependencies.Aptbeing the‘topdog’atthemoment.

Toseethedependenciesyou wouldneedtousetheterminal instead,yousee,softwarecentre justgoesaheadwith-yinstall option.AGUItoollikegdebiallows youtoseethatyour.debfilemay needmore.(NoticetheDetailsbutton)

Thisiswhere“new”package formatslikeSnapandAppImage makeworryingaboutthesethings obsolete.Iliketoseeboot messageswhizzby,Iliketosee whatelsemy.debfileneeds.Ilike tolookatmyLintianoutput,before installinganything,asIdonot installafilewhenIseethingslike this:W:jellyfin-server:executablenotelforscriptusr/lib/jellyfin/bin/ Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration .Xml.dll-butImayjustbe‘old skool’.

Torealisethatallofthis informationcomesfroma simple.debfileisnothingshortof amazing.Whenyoustarttreating your.debfilesasinformation carriersandnotjustinstallers, thereisanotherworldopeningup

toyou.

Nowwecouldtalkaboutallthe commandlineoptionsforthese packagemanagerstohandlethe humble.debfile,butIamsureyou arefamiliarwiththeman command,besidesIwilllinkyouat theendofthearticleasthereisno pointinreinventingthewheel.

IsupposeIcannotleaveyou withonlythistitbitofinformation. Youhavethepoweratyour fingertips!Youcanbuildyourown

deb-files.Youneedtoinstall some.debfilestobuildsome.deb files.HEH!Typethefollowingina terminal:sudoaptinstalldpkg-dev andsudoaptinstalldevscripts to start.Iwon’tbewalkingthrough makingadeb-filethisissueasI havetakenupenoughspace,but whydon’tyou?

HopefullyIhavesettheball rollingonmultiplefrontsandifyou wouldliketotakeasidetripdown thisroad,whynotletusknow: misc@fullcrclemagazine.org

FURTHERREADING: https://www.digitalocean.com/ community/tutorials/ubuntu-anddebian-package-managementessentials

ars.He dgo. inesized and scaling

contents^

WrittenbyGregWalters

DuringthecreationofPAGE7.4, Ihadcreatedawidgetdemo thatincludedalmosteverywidget thatPAGEsupports.Thisincludes theTkwidgets,thettkthemed widgets,theenhancedwidgets, andevenademonstrationofusing thecustomwidget.Idecidedtouse aTNotebookwithfourtabs,one foreachtypeofwidget,andone thathasafewtricks.

Duringmycreationofthedemo, IrealizedIreallydidn’thavealowlevelgraspofStylesandThemes. Thesubjectispoorlydocumented, evenintheTcl/Tkworld,andwhere thereisdocumentation,many timesthedocumentationis incorrect.

Manyprogrammerswhouse Tkintereitherloveorhatethettk widgets,stylesandthemes.Many, likeme,avoidthettkwidgets unlessit’sanabsolutenecessity. WhenIamdesigningaGUI,more timesthannot,Iwillusethe

“standard”Tkwidgetsanduseonly theTCombobox,TNotebook, TNotebook,andtheTreeview. Dealingwiththemesandstylesis

justtootimeconsuming,atleastin mymind,tobeproductive.

Partoftheconfusionformany programmersiswhatexactlyare ThemesandwhatareStyles.

Stylesconcernthelookandfeel ofasinglewidget.AThemeisa collectionofStylesthatshare attributeslikebackgroundcolors andforegroundcolors,acrossmany ttkwidgets.

Whilethatisprettyeasyto understand,forLinux,thereare onlyfourpredefinedThemesfor thettkwidgets.TheyareAlt,Clam, ClassicandDefault.Thosewhouse Windowshaveacoupleofextra themes,buttheyaren’tavailableto LinuxorMacusers,andtheMachas itsownThemesthataren’tavailable toLinuxorWindowsusers.Andif youwanttomakeyourown,orat leastmodifyoneofthedefaults, thedocumentationthatexistsisSO convolutedthatitisofteneasier andmoreproductivetojustignore thettkwidgetsanddealwiththe Tkwidgets.Thereareextra packagesthataprogrammercan

usetoaddmoreThemes,butmany ofthemdon’tseemtotakemany attributesofthewidgetsinto consideration,sowhiletheylook goodingeneral,thingslikethe backgroundoftheTLabeldoesn’t matchthebackgroundofthe container(orform)andthere’sno obviouswaytochangeit.Tomake mattersworse,someofthe containers,liketheTFrameor TLabelframe,oftendon’tgeta visibleborder.

Oneofthemostfrustrating partsofcreatingthewidgetdemo wasfightingtheTNotebookcolors forthetabs.Takealookatthis image:

me,it’snotalwaysobvious. Wouldn’titbebettertobeableto presentyouruserwithsomething likethis:

YoucanseethatTab2isthe currentorselectedtab,Tab3issort ofhighlightedwhenthemouseis overthetab,andtheothertwoare somewhatobviousthatyouaren’t dealingwiththematthemoment. Butifyouarecolorchallenged,like

Itisimmediatelyobviousthat Tab1isthecurrenttab,Tabs2,4 and5arejust“hangingout”,and Tab3istheonethatthemouseis hoveringover.Youmightnotlike thecolorselection,butitmakesa bigvisualdifference.Buthowtodo it?

DiggingintotheGUI.pyfilethat PAGEcreatesgavemethefirstclue (seethecode,nextpage,bottom right).

Thestyle.configuremethod allowsyoutosetthebasic backgroundandforegroundcolors, butwhatdoesthestyle.map methoddoandwhywouldIdoit?

fullcirclemagazine#181 25 contents^ H HOOWW--TTO O Well,withabunchmoredigging aroundinvariousdocumentation andwebsites,Ifoundoutthat

HOWTO-PYTHON

the.mapmethodallowsyoutoset differentcolorstodifferentstates forthewidget.Sointheabove code,the“selected”stateiswhen thetabisactuallyselectedandthe “active”stateiswhenthemouseis hoveringoverthetab.Noticethat forthemoment,weareonly talkingabouttheTNotebooktabs. Butwhatabouttheothertabsthat are“justhangingout”.Thattook somemorediggingtoanswer.It turnsoutthatthereisanother statecalled“!active”thatcovers thosetabs.OnceIfiguredthehex codesforthecolorsIwantedIwas ready.

WhenIwenttocodeit(shown topright),beingthelazy programmerIam,Ithrewtogether aquicktestprograminPAGEwith justaTNotebookonitandthen createdastartupfunctiontoset thecolorsandassignthemtothe widget.

WhenIrantheprogram,Iwas disappointed.

Iquicklywentbacktothe documentationandvarious websitestotrytofigureoutwhatI wasmissing.Itturnsoutthatjust settingtheTNotebookmapapplies onlytotheactualNotebook portion.IfIwantedtosetthe colors,Ihadtospecifythatthemap wasforthetabs(shownmiddle right).

WhenIranitthistime,lowand behold,itworked!

def startup():

style = ttk.Style()

bg1 = '#5c3d2e'

bg2 = '#e0c097'

bg3 = '#B85c38'

fg1 = 'white' fg2 = 'black' fg3 = 'black' style.map('TNotebook', background=[('selected', bg1), ('active', bg2), ('!active', bg3)], foreground=[('selected', fg1), ('active', fg2), ('!active', fg3)])

mplelowleyTButton(nextpage, pright).

def startup():

style = ttk.Style()

bg1 = '#5c3d2e' b 2 '# 0 097' ' tebook.Tab', nd=[('selected', bg1), ('active', bg2), ('!active', bg3)], nd=[('selected', fg1), ('active', fg2), ('!active', fg3)])

9' # X11 color: 'gray85'

0' # X11 color: 'black'

40' # X11 color: #666666

3c3' # Closest X11 color: 'gray76'

e' # X11 color: #f5f5dc

TheTclcodeshowsthatthe Buttondoeshaveamapmethod,

tyle() y p "win32": self.style.theme_use('winnative') self.style.configure('.',background= bgcolor) self.style.configure('.',foreground=_fgcolor) self.style.configure('.',font="TkDefaultFont") self.style.map('.',background= [('selected', _compcolor), ('active',_ana2color)])

HOWTO-PYTHON

butthevariousstatesarefar differentfromtheTNotebookTabs. Thereisanactivestate,adisabled state,andareadonlystate.(Why wouldaTButtonneedareadonly state?Idon’tknow,butit apparentlydoes.)SoIreworkedthe codeabitfortheTButtonand cameupwiththis(bottomright).

WhenIthenranmyprogram,I wasdisappointedagain.The TButtonhadthedefaultgray backgroundandblacktextcolor set.WhenImovedthemouseover theTButton,itdidchangeto background#2.IknewIwasclose, soIlookedatthedocumentationa bitmoreclosely.Iremembered thatIhadtosetthebackground andforegroundseparatelyfrom themapstatement.

_w1.TButton1.configure(backgr ound=bg1, foreground=fg1)

MexicoTechTkinter documentation.ItturnsoutthatI cancreateaspecialstyleandapply thattomybuttonbyusingthestyle attribute(shownbottomleft).

Thatworked!

Formoreonthe“Trialsand Tribbleations”ofmylongand arduousjourneylearninghowto masterStylesandThemeswithttk widgetsinTkinter,pleaseseenext month’sarticle.I’llsavethecode portionsforthen.

Untilnexttime,asalways;stay safe,healthy,positiveandcreative!

ttk::style configure TButton -background color ttk::style configure TButton -foreground color ttk::style configure TButton -font namedfont ttk::style configure TButton -focuscolor color ttk::style map TButton background \ [list active color disabled color readonly color]

ttk::style map TButton foreground \ [list active color disabled color readonly color]

ttk::style configure TButton -bordercolor color ttk::style configure TButton lightcolor color ttk::style configure TButton -darkcolor color

That,however,didn’tdoit either.ThenIrememberedthatI havetooverridethestyledefaults (dullgraybackgroundandblack foreground).Thisis

“explained”(somewhat)intheNew

style.configure('MyTButton.TButton', background=bg1, foreground=fg1)

_w1.TButton1.configure(style='MyTButton.TButton')

style.map('TButton',

background=[('active', bg2), ('disabled', 'gray76'), ('readonly', 'firebrick2')],

foreground=[('active', fg2), ('disabled', fg1), ('readonly', fg3)])

GregWaltersisaretired programmerlivinginCentralTexas, USA. Hehasbeenaprogrammer since1972andinhissparetime,heis anauthor,amateurphotographer, luthier,fairmusicianandapretty darngoodcook.Hestillistheowner ofRainyDaySolutionsaconsulting companyandhespendsmostofhis timewritingarticlesforFCMand tutorials.Hiswebsiteis www.thedesignatedgeek.xyz.

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyErik

FireupBlenderandlet’sstart!If yousavedyourprojectfromthe lastissue,openthat,ifnot,grab thepreviousissueandquicklymake ourbasicshape.Withanycartoon character,theeyesarevery important.Theyconveyalotmore thanyourealize.Inblender,ifthe eyesarethesame,wecansimply maketwofromone,bymirroring. Wewillusethesamerecipefrom thelastissuetomakeaneye(oneBecausewewillmirrorit).Make sureyouareinobjectmode(topleft)beforecontinuing.

Tip:Ifyouseepointswithlines betweenthem,youareinedit mode.

So,add>mesh>uvsphere.

Thesphereiscreatedinsideour body-shape.Ohno!(youknowitis there,becauseoftheorangecircle thatappeared-shownbottomleft).

Lastissue,Itoldyouthe‘four arrows’symboltotheleftismove, ifyouhoveryourmouseoverit,you willseetheshortcutkeyisG.

Tip:ifyouwanttomovethe selectedobjectinoneofthe planes,youpressG,followedbythe direction,X,Y,Z,anditwillmove onlyonthatplane.Imovedmineon theX-axis,butitdoesnotmatteras wehaveanall-roundsameshape.

Movethesphereoutandresize itbyright-clicking.Erm.Noresize. Youneedtolookatthebaronthe leftandusescaletoresize.Click insidethesphereanddrag.Untilit ismore-or-lesseyeballsize.Isay thisascartoonshavevaryingsized eyes.Nowforthemagic.Position theeyeoutsideofyourbody object,and,onthebottom-right, findthespanner.“Modifiers”and clickaddmodifier.Findmirrorand clickonthat.Youshouldsee somethingliketheimageshown bottomright.

NowIknowthislooksconfusing, butsoonitwon’t.Youmaysay,butI clicked“mirror”anditdidnot

B BlleennddeerrP

mirror?

Tip:Anytimeyoumakeamistake onanobject,gotothescene collectioninthetop-rightand deleteit.

Itdidnotseemtohave mirrored,asitmirrorsaroundthat centerpointinsideyourobject.The originorpivotpointshouldbe outsideoftheobjectforyoutoget aphysicalmirroroftheshape.So, howdoesonemoveanobject withoutmovingtheorigin?Simply, youdon’t againpayattentionto theterminologyused.Youneedto movethemesh,nottheobject.So changefromobject-modetoedit-

HOWTO-BLENDER

modeandmoveyourmesh.Now repeatthemirror.

Tip:Ifyouhavemovedthemesh, andmirroredit,andyoustilldonot seethesecondmesh,mirroriton anotheraxis.

Ifyoumovedyourmeshon green,whichistheYaxis,youneed tomirroritonthesameaxis.Ifyou moveditonred,whichistheX-Axis, youneedtomirroritonthat.

Changetomove(G),andmove theeyesintoplace(more-or-less). Soyouknowtheyareeyeballs later.

instance,grabtheblue–Z-axisline andelongatebotheyesatonce,if youdonotwantthemround.These areallthingsyoucantryonyour own.

messagesayingyoulikethisandwe shouldnotcutit–misc@fullcirclemagazine.org)

Youcanthenselectthewhole meshandresizeittobeabeak.

Youcanalsousethescalenow again,andnoticehowthescale worksfromthespotbetweenthe twomeshes.Youcanalso,for

Iwantyoutomovetheeyesinto thebodyandpositionthemsothat justtherightamountsticksout thatmakesitlookgoodtoyou.Ifat anypointyouareunsure,usethe middlemousebuttontorotate yourcameraandusethearrowsto slidetheeyesinwards.(Remember wejustslidthem(it)out,sothey canjustslidebacknicely).

Nowforthebeak,wecanalso sticktoasimpleshape,acone.OrI couldteachyouabitaboutshaping meshes.Let’sgowiththelatter.(IfI goovermyallottedspaceinthe magazine,pleasesendtheeditora

[Whatallotedspace? Wedon'thave alimit!He'stryingtostitchmeup readers-Ronnie].Youarewelcome tousetheconeforabeak,ifit pleasesyou;nothingissetinstone. Thefistmethodyoucanuseto makeabeakshape,istoselectthe front-facingsquareonthecubeand simplyresizeitreallysmall.This createsapyramid-likeshape.You simplygointoeditmode,selectthe fourdotsoneachofthecornersof thecube,whilstholdingdownshift andresizeitonceyouhaveselected allfour.Actuallygoaheadandtry thatnow.Holddownshift,select thefourblackdots,theywillturn orange.Oncedone,clickonscale anddragyourmouseinsidethe shape.

OR...

Wecanselectthefrontfour dotsonthemesh,andzipthem downtothecenterpointonthe mesh.WhenIsaycenterpoint,I meantheorangedotyoucanseein themiddleofthecube.Nowthe mergecommandwillbenewto you.Itiseasytoremember,you presstheM-key.Hoveryourmouse overtheveryfirstoption,itsays

“mergeselectedverticesat center”.Clickthatandyouwillbe leftwithapyramid.Holditright there.

Ifyouhaveseentheangrybirds movie,orseentheadvertsforit,

HOWTO-BLENDER

youwillknowwhatIamtalking about;ifnot,finditonthe interwebs.Theredbirdinthe posterhasadiamondshapedbeak. Adiamondissimplyapyramidat45 degrees.Wecansplititintwolater. Torotateamesh,wepresstheRkey,buthereiswhereyouneedto payattention.Youneedtoassess whichaxisyouneedtorotateit around.Inourcaseitissimple,if yourotateitaroundthewrongaxis, simplypressundoandtryagain. However,trytolearntopay attentiontothecolorofthelinesin yourmesh.

barandclickonyourmesh.Now presstheA-key.Thewholemesh shouldchangecolor.PresstheRkeyforrotateandtypein45and pressenter.Thepyramidshould haveturnedintoadiamondshape. NowhereisthatcatchIwastalking about.Ifyouwerelookinghead-on likeme,therotationwillbecorrect, ifnot,youneedtopressX,Y,Z beforetypingintheangle.

Now,let’sscalethissuckerand plonkitonitsnose.Now,because mybodyisegg-shapedandnot quitepear-shaped,Iwillhaveto pushtheseshapesintothebodya littlefurther,soImayneedtoscale themupabittohavejustthe amountstickingoutthatIwant.

usknow: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org UPDATE:Thisserieswasdone duringQ2of2020,andBlenderhas jumpedafewversions,butIputit tothetestanditisstill100%valid.

Backtothetutorial.Youneedto changemodes clickonthelittle mousepointerontheleft-handside

Youcanalsomakeyourviewlike mine,simplybyclickingonthecolor oftheaxisyouareworkingonin thetop-rightviewsphere.Ifthisis toodifficultforyou,useaconefor abeak-itworksjustaswell.Ijust wantyoutobecreating,havingfun andlearningatthesametime.

Iamgoingtoleaveyouhere,asI amovermyspaceandIwantto leavespaceforothersinthe magazine.(Thoughthisissomuch fun,Icouldgoonfordays!).

Joinusinthenextissuefor moreblendershenanigans.

Complaints?Compliments?Let

ErikhasbeeninITfor30+years.He hasseentechnologycomeandgo. Fromrepairingwashingmachinesized harddriveswithmultimetersand oscilloscopes,layingcable,toscaling 3Gtowers,he'sdoneit.

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyRobertBoardman

Erikcoveredalotofground

quicklyinthepreviousnine articlesaboutLatex.Bythewaythe “X”inTeXispronouncedinthe samewayastheGermanor Scottish“ch” verysimilartothe English“k”.Itisquitedifferent fromthe“x”inTexas.SoLatex soundslike“latek”,anddoesnot rhymewiththesyntheticfabric Spandex.

Tostartmypartinthisseries,I amgoingtostepbackabitfrom typingcodeanddefinesomebasic Latexterms.Ifyouhaveevertyped HTMLcode(notjustusedsome softwaretogenerateHTMLcode), youshouldnoticesomesimilarities betweenHTMLandLatex.Latex predatesHTMLbymorethanten years,perhapsBerners-Leewas familiarwithLatexwhenhe designedHTML.

matching\end{...}forevery \begin{...}.Oneadvantageofusing anIDElikeTeXstudioisitcompletes orclosestheenvironmentforyou soyoudonotgetacompilingerror.

Erikhasalreadyintroducedyou totheseenvironments:document, figure,table,tabular,abstract, equation.Environmentscanbe calledwithineachother.For example,youcanputafigure environment,insideatabular environment,insideatable environment.Environmentshaveto beclosedinthereverseorderthey areopened.Usingthisexample, figurewasopenedlast,andsoit mustbeclosedfirst,thentabularis closed,thentableisclosed like this(topright).

\begin{table}

\begin{tabular}

\begin{figure}

some figure or graphic

\end{figure}

\end{tabular}

\end{table}

“look”.PeopleuseLatexbecauseof thisbuilt-inconsistency.Two documentswithidentical preambleswillhaveexactlythe samelook.Thathasenormous benefitsfororganizations.Ifyou arewritinganotetoyourfavourite aunt,thisconsistencyprobably doesnotmatter.Ifyourwriting representsyouremployer,itis(or shouldbe)veryimportanttoyour employerthatyourdocumentslook thesameasthedocuments producedbyyourcolleagues.

otherchangesinyourdocument. Doingthesamethinginaword processorisalmostalwaysmuch morework.

InPart7,FCM#174,Erikalready showedaC.V.stylefrom latextemplates.com.Wewilldo somemoreworkwithstyleslaterin thisseries.Thistime,Iamgoingto introducetwootherenvironments, theonesusedforlists.Inword processors(andinwebpages),you mayhavebuilttwotypesoflists: numberedlistsandbulletedlists.

Environment:Therecanbemany workingenvironmentsinaLatex document.Anytimeyouuse \begin{something}youareworking inanenvironment.Environments arelikecontainerelementsin HTML.Theremustalwaysbea

Asyouknow,ifyouhave followedthisseries,everyLatex projecthastostartwiththe documentenvironment.Allother environmentsareusedwiththe documentenvironment.

Unlikewordprocessors,Latex forcesadocumenttohaveone consistentstructureorstyleor

Thisconsistencyalsomeans that,ifyouchangethepreamble, thenthelookofyourdocument changes.Ifyouwriteanarticlefor JournalA,youwilluseJournalA’s Latexstyle.IfJournalAdecidesnot topublishyourarticle,youcan changethepreambletomatch JournalB’sLatexstyleandsubmitit toJournalBwithoutmakingany

InLatexnumberedlistsarebuilt inthe“enumerate”environment. Thecodelookslikethis: \begin{enumerate} which must be closed with \end{enumerate}

Togetanumberedlist,each itemstartswiththecommand

HOWTO-LATEX

\item.Itdoeswhatyouwould expect:startsaniteminthelist. Itemsareenumeratedbynumbers bydefault.Ifyouwishtouse numberingotherthanstandard Arabicnumerals,theninsert \usepackage{enumerate}inthe preambleofyourdocument,the blockbetweendocumentclass[]{} andbegin{document}.Thenyoucan useavarietyof“numbers”forthe itemsinthelist:forexamplelower andUppercaseRomannumerals,or lowerandUppercaseletters.You canalsoaddparentheses,or periods,ortext,[Examplei].The modificationtothenumbering schemeisplacedbetweensquare bracketsafter\begin{enumerate}

[...]

Theenvironmentfortheother typeoflistis“itemize”.Itisused forwhatarenormallycalled “bulletedlists”.Italsousesthe command\itemforeachiteminthe list.\itemcanhavethetypeof bulletinsquarebracketsifthe writerwishestousesomething otherthanthedefaultbulletwhich isasmallblackcircle.Forexample tohaveadashinfrontofeachitem use\item[](shownseconddown ontheright,andintheimage bottomright)

Rememberthe%signstartsa commentwhichisvisibleinthe LatexcodebutnotinthefinalPDF.

\begin{enumerate}

%Start the outside list

\item This is the first outside list item

\item This is the second outside list item

\begin{enumerate} %Start the inside list. Indent is for clarity, not required by LaTex

\item First inside list item

\item Second inside list item

\end{enumerate} %Close the inside list

\item This is the third outside list item \end{enumerate} %Close the outside list

\begin{itemize}

\item This is the first outside list item

\item This is the second outside list item

\begin{itemize} %Start the inside list. Indent is for clarity, not required by LaTex

\item First inside list item

\item Second inside list item \end{itemize} %Close the inside list

\item This is the third outside list item \end{itemize}

Asinwordprocessorsand HTML,Latexlistscanbenested.If youdonesttwoormorelists, remembertherule:nested environmentsmustbeclosedinthe reverseordertheyareopened. Environmentsareopenedfromthe outsidetotheinside,theymustbe closedfromtheinsidetothe outside.

Bulletedlistsandnumberedlists canbenestedineachother.Ifyou

add\usepackage{enumerate}to thepreambleofyourdocuments (theblockbetween documentclass{...}and begin{document}),youcanvarythe numberingusedinlists(seecode nextpagetopleft,andimage bottomleft).

HOWTO-LATEX

\begin{enumerate}[a)]

%Start the outside list

\item This is the first outside list item

\item This is the second outside list item

\begin{itemize} %Start the inside list. Indent is for clarity, not required by LaTex

\item First inside list item

\begin{enumerate}[i.]

\item sub-list item one \item sub-list item two \end{enumerate}

\item Second inside list item

\end{itemize} %Close the inside list

\item This is the third outside list item

\end{enumerate} %Close the outside list

Roberthasbeeninvolvedwith computerssincedBaseIVandNovell Netware2.Herecentlyretiredfrom overtwentyyearsteachingcomputer skillstocollegestudents.

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyMarkCrutch

Althoughit’snotyetoutasI

write,bythetimeyoureadthis articleInkscape1.2willhavebeen released.Thisversionisamajor updatethatcontainsahuge numberofchangesandadditions, andwilllikelyprovideplentyof topicsforthiscolumnformany monthstocome.Butlet’snotget aheadofourselves–wehaven’t evenfinishedlookingatallthenew LivePathEffects(LPEs)thatwere addedto1.0and1.1yet!

CORNERS(FILLET/CHAMFER)

Considertwoperpendicular linesmeetingtoforma90°corner. Oftenthatsharptransitionfrom onelinetotheotherisexactlywhat youwant.Butsometimesadesign callsforsomethingmoregradual: anintermediatestraightline segmentat45°,orarounded sectionthatseamlesslyjoinsthe twolines.Creatingsuchgradual cornertransitionsisknownas chamferingorfilleting, respectively,withthenewly insertedpathbeingreferredtoas thechamfer(forstraightpath segments)orfillet(forcurved

lines).Unsurprisingly,the“Corners (Fillet/Chamfer)”LPEisthetoolto usewhenyouwanttoquicklyadd suchshapestoyourpaths.

Asalways,let’stakealookatan exampleofthiseffectinaction.Of coursethatmeanswe’llneeda suitablepathtoworkon,suchas thisshapewhichhasaselectionof obtuse,acuteandrightanglesso youcaneasilyseehowInkscape appliestheLPEinthesedifferent cases.

TheUnitpop-upisprettyselfexplanatory,thoughthereisone omissionthatwe’llcomebackto shortly.TheMethodpop-upallows youtoexplicitlydeterminewhether filletsarerenderedasarcsor Béziercurves,shouldyoucare aboutthatdistinction.Mostpeople won’t,andshouldprobablyjust leavethisas“Auto”.

isthebestcontroldevicefor seriousInkscapework),clickinthe fieldtofocusitthenrollthewheel toadjustthevalueinintegersteps. Bydoingthisyoucanwatchthe effectchangethepathonthe canvasinreal-time,makingiteasy toadjustthestrengthtothevalue thatgivestherightappearance. Here’sourtestshapewitharadius of15px.

Addingtheeffecttoapathlike thisprobablywon’tproducean immediatelyobviousresult,but that’sjustdowntothevaluesthe parametershavebydefault.Let’s takealookattheUIandexamine eachoftheparametersindividually, asusual.

fullcirclemagazine#181 34 contents^ Thefilletingeffectisobviouson theright-angledcornersattheleft, andcompletelyroundsoffthe acuteanglesattheright.The obtuseanglesatthetopand bottomright,however,arebarely roundedatall.Thismakessense duetotheradiusbeingsettoa specificvalue:asthetwosidesof theangleapproach180°sothe tangentpointsgetcloserand closer,andthecurvingeffectisless

It’stheRadiusfieldthatisthe firstreallyimportantone.While thisissettozeroyouwon’tseeany filletingorchamferingeffect,so thefirstthingtodoistocrankthis uptoasuitablevaluefortheresult youwant.Ifyou’reusingamouse withascroll-wheel(whichIcontend

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

pronounced.Thiscanbeseenmore clearlybyaddingcircleswitha radiusof15pxtoeachcornerofour shape,todemonstratehowthe filletshapesareconstructed.

Ifyouwantasmoother transitioninyourobtuseangles thereareseveralsolutions.The firstissimplynottousearadius definedinexplicitunitsatall,but makeitvarybasedonthe geometryofthepatharoundeach corner.Thisiswhatthe“Radiusin %”checkboxisfor.Enablethis and…nothinghappens.Acommon problemwiththisandotherLPEsis thatsomecontrolsdon’t immediatelytriggeranupdateon thecanvas.Inthiscasetheeasiest optionistonudgetheRadiusvalue upbyone,thenbackdownbyone, usingtheplusandminusbuttonsat theendofthefield.Withthat refreshforced,ourshapenow lookslikethis.

Clearlytheobtuseanglesarea lotsmoothernow,thoughtheacute oneshavebecomesharper,witha smallerradius.Thisraisesthe obviousquestionastowhat “Radiusin%”actuallymeans. Percentageofwhat?It’sclearlynot thesamethingbeingusedforall thecorners,soitcan’tbe “percentageofboundingbox width”oranythinglikethat.Isit basedonapercentageofthe segmentlength?Theangleatwhich thelinesmeet?ThepriceofBitcoin? Whoknows!?Icertainlydon’t,and thetooltipsaren’tgivingany insight.

OnethingIdoknow,however,is thatthepercentageoptiontends tobemoreresilienttodesign changes.Considerwhathappens whenyouscaleyourshapeupor down:ifyou’vesetaspecificradius inpixelsormillimetres,theLPEwill changetheoutputpathinorderto maintainthatdefinedsize.Inthe

caseofourexampleshapethis causesthe“prongs”tobecome longerorshorter.Conversely,when usingthepercentageoptionyou’ll findthatscalingthepathresultsin nosignificantchangestoitsshape. Forthisreasonalone,unlessyou haveaspecificrequirementthat demandsafixedvalueradius,I suggestenablingthe“Radiusin%” checkbox.

RememberthatIsaidthatthere wasanomissionintheUnitspop-up thatIwouldcomebackto?It’s simplythis:whyisn’tthereanentry for“%”inthepop-up,insteadof alsohavingthischeckbox?Withthe UIasitstands,itwouldbeveryeasy tomisreadtheparametersas indicatingafixedradiusratherthan apercentage,byoverlookingthe checkbox.Asoftenseemstobethe casewithInkscape’sLPEs,someof theparametersandandtheir positionsdoratherleaveme scratchingmyhead.

IfyouswitchtotheNodetool (F2)whileyourpathisselected, you’llseeapairofhandlesforeach node.Onmysetuptheyare renderedasparticularlysmall shapes,soyoumaywantto increasethesizeofthehandles throughoutthewholeInkscapeUI

viaEdit>Preferences>Interface. Thesespecifichandlesarereferred toas“knots”intheCornersLPE interface.Theycanbehiddenby enablingthe“Hideknots”

checkbox,soifyoudon’tseethem whenswitchingtotheNodetool, double-checktoseeifthatboxis enabled.Thesearealso, presumably,theknotsreferredto inthelabelforthe“Useknots distanceinstead[of]radius”

checkbox thoughI’mnotcertain becausethebehaviourofthat controlislessthanobvious,andI’m notevenconvincedthatit’sneeded atall!

Checkingthatbox(andnudging theRadiuscontrolupanddown) modifiestheshapeonceagain.The positionsoftheknotsmove,and withitthecurvatureofthevarious filletschange.Thethingis,youcan actuallydragtheknotsonthe canvasinordertomanuallyadjust thecurvatureforeachfillet–and thisworksregardlessofthestate ofthecheckbox.I’mthereforeata lossastowhatthischeckboxis meanttoachieve,somyadviceisto simplyleaveitun-ticked,enablethe “Radiusin%”option,andmanually adjustanyfilletsyouneedto.

fullcirclemagazine#181 35 contents^ It’sworthreiteratingthefact

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

thatyoucanchangeeachpairof knotsindividually.Thisisthefirst LPEtosupportstoringper-node data,allowingdifferentparameters toapplytodifferentnodeswithin thepath.Thisallowsyoutonot onlysetadifferentradiusorknot positionforeachcorner,butalsoto mix-and-matchbetweenfilletsand chamfers,aswe’llseelater,allwith justasingleinstanceoftheLPE. Comparethiswiththeneedfor multipleLPEseachwithitsown blacklistorwhitelistthatwehadto usetoachievesomethingsimilar withtheMeasureSegmentsLPE, andI’msureyou’llagreethatthe newmethodisalotmore straightforwardtouse.

Nowthatyouknowhowtoset thefilletradiusonaper-nodebasis, youshouldbeabletoreproducea pairofcornerslikethese.

Thetopcornerhasaradiusof zero,whereasthebottomcorner’s radiusissettoamuchlargervalue simplybydraggingoneofthe knots.It’simportanttonotethe distinctionbetweenazeroradius nodeandonewitharadiusgreater thanzeroaswetakealookatthe nexttwocheckboxesinthisLPE.

Herewehaveanotherpairof controlsthatare,inmyopinion, practicallyuseless.Whenwefirst begantoapplyfilletstothisshape weincreasedtheradiusvalueand allthecornersresponded.Suppose, however,you’vemanuallyreset someofthemtoaradiusofzero, anddon’twantthemtobeaffected byfurtherchanges.Uncheckingthe firstboxwillmeanthatanychanges youmakeintheLPEinterfacewon’t affectthosezeroradiuscorners.In otherwords,ifyouwanttokeep yoursquarecornerssquarewhile adjustingalltheothersthen uncheckthisbox.

Theproblemiswhathappensif youdowanttoadjustthesquare cornersaswell.Obviouslyyouneed

tohavethisboxchecked,butthat’s notreallyenough.Assoonasyou nudgetheradiusparameterup, thosecornersceasetobezero radiuscorners,sothatcheckboxno longerapplies.Thisiswherethe secondcheckboxcomesin:withthis checkedyourchangesalsoaffect non-zerocorners.Uncheckingthis wouldmeanthatyourchangesonly affectthezeroradiuscorners, whichisalmostneverwhatyou want especiallyifit’stheradius parameteryou’replayingaround with.Myadvice,therefore,isto alwaysleavethesetwocheckboxes ticked. Ifyouwanttoprotectyour sharpcornersfromchanges,there’s abetterwaytoachievethatwhich I’lldescribeshortly.

PersonallyIthinkthesetwo parametersshouldbecollapsed intoasinglecheckboxlabelled “Protectzeroradiuscorners”.When checked,thetightcornerswouldbe leftunmolestedbyanychangesto theparameters,butinits uncheckedstateyourchanges wouldaffectallofthecorners,as usual.Inrealityeventhisprobably isn’trequired,giventhenext checkboxinthisdialog.

Whatifyoudon’twanttoaffect allofthecorners,butperhapsthe

fullcirclemagazine#181 36 contents^ onesyouwantleftuntouched alreadyhaveanon-zeroradius? We’veseenthattheradiuscanbe adjustedonaper-cornerbasisusing theknotsonthecanvas,butwhat abouttheotherparameters?The checkboxlabelled“Changeonly selectednodes”istheoptionfor you.Withthisenabledanychanges youmaketotheLPE’sparameters willonlybeappliedtocornersthat you’veselected.Thisrendersthe previouscheckboxesrather redundant.Ifyouwanttomodifyall thecornersthenjustensurethatall ofthemareselected.Wanttoleave thezeroradiusonesuntouched? Justmakesurethey’renotselected (buttheothercornersare)when youmakeyourmodifications. Importantly,however,youcanalso chooseanysubsetofcornersto adjustatonce,regardlessoftheir currentradius. Intheunlikelyeventthatyou’re notfamiliarwithselectingnodesin Inkscape,here’saquickrecap.First, youneedtobeusingtheNodetool (F2).Youcanclickonindividual cornernodestoselectthem,oron apathsegmenttoselectthenodes ateitherend.Youcanalsodragthe mouseovermultiplenodesto selectthem(aso-called“marquee” or “rubberband”selection).

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

HoldingtheShiftkeywillletyou addnodesto,orremovenodes from,anexistingselection.Most usefully,Ctrl-Awillselectallthe nodesinthepath,providingaquick waytoalterallthenodesatonce. TheEscapekeywilldeselectthem all,shouldyouwishtostartagain withafreshselection.Ifyouhave difficultyseeingthepathnodes duetotheplacementoftheLPE’s knots,don’tforgetthatyoucan checkthe“Hideknots”control whileyoumakeyourselection. Withthosebasicsatyourfingertips you’llsoonfindthatit’squickand easytoselectexactlywhichcorners shouldbeaffectedbyyourLPE changesatanytime,without havingtoconsidertheirexisting radiusorotherattributes.

Nowweknowhowtoapply parameterchangestospecific nodes,butsofaralltheexamples we’velookedathavebeenfillets. Whataboutchamfers?Itdoesn’t takeageniustofigureoutthat’s whatthebuttonsatthebottomof theLPEparametersarefor.

Dependingonthestateofthe “Changeonlyselectednodes” checkbox,clickingononeofthese buttonswillchangeeitherthe selectednodes,orallnodes,tothe appropriatetypeofjoin.For chamfersandinversechamfersthe “Chamfersteps”parameteralso playsitspart,dictatinghowmany straightlinesegmentsshouldbe usedtomakeuptheconnecting shape.Notethatwhenthisissetto 1thereisnovisualdifference betweenachamferandinverse chamfer.Here’sanexampleofhow thedifferenttypesofjoinare renderedwithourtestshape.

Inconclusion,Ithinkthisisa verycapableandusefulLPEthatis onlyletdownalittlebyoffering toomanynon-intuitiveoptionsin theUIwhichdon’tseemtoreally providemuchbenefit.Myadviceis toenablethe“Radiusin%” checkbox,boththe“Apply changes…”checkboxes,andthe “Changeonlyselectednodes” checkbox.ThatwillgiveyouanLPE thatbehavespredictablywhenyou resizeyourobjects,andwhich allowsyoutotriviallyalterallofthe nodes,orjustasubsetofthem, dependingonwhatyouselecton thecanvas.

MarkusesInkscapetocreatecomics fortheweb(www.peppertop.com/) aswellasforprint.Youcanfollow himonTwitterformorecomicand Inkscapecontent: @PeppertopComics

RY

WrittenbyRichardAdams

Evenifwe’rerunningUbuntu

withUnityorGNOME,wecan stillinstallandrunKDEbased applications.FromtheSynaptics PackageManagerstore,wecan installKalzium,KGeography,KStars, KDEMarble,andKIG.Lastmonth welookedathowtoinstallthe KDEbasedscienceprograms,and tookaquicklookatKalzium,the appheolpingustounderstandand explorethePeriodicTableofthe Elements.Then,wealsobriefly exploredKDEMarble,theglobe/ mapprogram.Ifyouneedhelp gettingKGeography,KStars,orKIG onyoursystem,pleasereferback tolastmonth’sEverydayUbuntu.

Thismonth,we’regoingtocheck outKGeography,KStars,andKIG.

KGEOGRAPHY

Belowisthemaininitial interfaceforKGeography.

Youcanselectamapfora countryintheboxontheleft.Let’s benon-cosmopolitanandpickUSA, soIatleasthaveashotatknowing thestatesandcapitals.Notmuch chanceI’llknowthecantonsof Switzerland,althoughIactuallydo haveafriendwholivesthere.

Here’sthemapoftheUSA:

Now,onthisscreen,youcan clickonastatetogetmore informationonthatstate:

So,whenyouclick,yougetthe statenameandcapital,thestate flag,andasmallletteriinsidea bluedot.Clickingthatisymbolwill openyourwebbrowsertothe Wikipediapageforthatstate. Prettycool!

Finally,youcanseeontheleft

handsideanumberofoptionsto testyourself.Thisbringsupadialog boxallowingyoutoselecthow manyquestionsyouwant,then you’llgetaseriesofmultiplechoicequestions: Spoileralert:Montpelier.

EVERYDAYUBUNTU

KSTARS

KStarsistheKDEastronomy package.Itsinitialstartupwizard screenlookslikethis:

KStarsthengivesyouanoption todownloadadditionaldatafilesto enhanceyourastronomical experience:

Youcanadv time,Findspe orout,change orstoptheclo uptop.Let’sfi easilyrecogniz nightsky,the ClickFindObje OrionandhitO

PressNext,andyoucanselect yourlocation.Mylocationisabout 50milesfromAtlantaGA,and about100milesfromBirmingham AL.Selectingeitheroneprobably givesmeaprettydecent representationofthenightsky whereIam,butAtlantaisobviously moreaccurate:

Onceyou’vecompleted KStarswillstarttheprogra properandwillbydefault aTipoftheDay.Onceyou that,you’llgetarepresent thenightskyinyourcurre locationatyourcurrenttim

Orion’seasilyrecognizable thinformationonthe othercelestial enathatmakeupthe tion.Verynifty.

KIGisageometry/drawing program.Itstoolsactuallyremind mequiteabitofMicrografx

Designer,avectorbaseddrawing programfromtheearlyWindows days.IworkedforMicrografxfor about2years,andphoto-editing, flowcharting,presentations,and vectorbaseddrawingwere definitelycomputeractivitiesI learnedaLOTaboutduringthat2

yearspanintheearly90’s.

KIG’sinitialinterfacealsohasa TipoftheDaybydefault.Once you’vedismissedtheday’stip, you’llgettheblankinitialXY coordinatescreen(shownabove).

Asyoucansee,thereareaLOT oftoolsfordrawinggeometric figures.Let’strythefifthoneinthe left-handcolumnjustto getanideaastohow theprogramworks: Thisisthetoolfordrawingaline usingtwopointstodefinethe slopeandlocation.Clickonceto ‘stampdown’thefirstpoint(shown

right).

Movethemousetoanother pointonthedesiredline,thenclick todefinetheline.KIGwilldrawthe fulllinebasedonyourinput(shown

topright)

KIGsavesinitsownproprietary format.

Nextmonth:Maybetimefor anotherretro-gamingcolumn?Be hereandsee.

Richard'Flash'Adamslivesinrural northAlabamaandhasbeena computersupporttechnician,a businessanalyst,asoftware salesman,asalesanalyst,aQCteam lead,andisnowdisabled/retired.He enjoysreading,NFLfootball, computerandvideogames,cooking, andplayingwithBaby,hiscockatiel. Feedbackandsuggestionsare welcomeat acer11kubuntu@gmail.com.

M MIICCRRO

OTTHHIISSMMIICCRROOTTHHAAT T

WrittenbyGregW.Walters

First,pleaseallowmeto

apologizefornothavingaMicro ThisMicroThat.Iwashavingvery badissueswithmyvisionanditwas allIcoulddotogetthe“normal” Pythonarticledone.It’snotmuch betterrightnow,especiallywhen tryingtowireupacircuit.However, wewillpressonwardasbestaswe can.

Thinkbacktwomonthstopart 13(whichwasinFCM#179).We wereusingLSM303withthe RaspberryPiPicotocreateadigital compass.Thefinalproductwas obtaininganormalizedinteger valuethatgaveusthenumberof degreesoffofNorth.Soifwewere standingwiththebreadboardand sensorpointingtotheEast,we wouldget90asourheading.

Thismonth,wewillusea24 pixelNeoPixelring. Sincethereare360degreesin ourcircleandwehave24LEDs,that wouldmeanthateachofourLEDs wouldrepresent15degrees.Soif LED[0]representsNorth,East wouldthenbeLED[6],Southwould

while True:

# Get the heading from the sensor (0 to 359 degrees)

# and if it is evenly divisible by 15 (remainder 0)

If (heading modulo 15) == 0:

# Convert the heading into a value from 0 to 23 angl = int(heading / 15)

# Use this value to decide which pixel to turn on pixels_set(angl,ColorToUse)

# Actually turn on the pixel pixels_show()

# Wait a few seconds and get another heading (if one available)

Nap a bit

# Rinse and repeat

beLED[12]andWestwouldbe LED[18].

Thebasicalgorithm(inpseudo code)issomethinglikeshown above.

We’llhavetoaddtheNeopixel ringtothebreadboard.Remember, wewillalsohavetohavea3xAA rechargeablebatterypacktopower theNeopixelring.Pleasenotice thattheimageshowsusinga3AAA batterypack,butitisreallya3AA batterypack.

Alsonoticethatthereisa groundconnectionbetweenthe Neopixelring,thebatterypackand theRPiPico.

MICROTHISMICROTHAT

Thismonth,wewillcreateatest programthatwillverifythelogic thatwewillusetointegratethe headingfromtheLSM303tothe NeoPixelring.

Ofcourse,wehavetostartwith theimports.Wewillalsocreate somevariablesthatwillbeneeded fortheNeopixelring.

import array, time from machine import Pin import rp2

# Configure the number of WS2812 LEDs, pins and brightness.

NUM _ LEDS = 24

PIN _ NUM = 16 brightness = 0.1

Nowweneedtocreatethe driver.Wewillembedthis(right) intoourprogram.

Rememberthatwesetwhich NeoPixel,anditscolor,usingthe pixels_set()function,butuntilthe pixels_show()functioniscalled,the NeopixelLEDdoesn’tactuallylight.

Nowwesetafewconstantsthat providetheRGBvaluesforsome

@rp2.asm_pio(sideset_init=rp2.PIO.OUT_LOW, out _shiftdir=rp2.PIO.SHIFT_LEFT, autopull=True, pull_thresh=24)

def ws2812(): T1 = 2

T2 = 5 T3 = 3 wrap_target() label("bitloop") out(x, 1) .side(0) [T3 - 1] jmp(not_x, "do _zero") .side(1) [T1 - 1] jmp("bitloop") .side(1) [T2 - 1] label("do_zero") nop() .side(0) [T2 - 1] wrap()

# Create the StateMachine with the ws2812 program, outputting on Pin(16). sm = rp2.StateMachine(0, ws2812, freq=8_000_000, sideset _base=Pin(PIN_NUM))

# Start the StateMachine, it will wait for data on its FIFO. sm.active(1)

Nowthatthat’soutoftheway,wecancreateacoupleofsupportroutines.

# Display a pattern on the LEDs via an array of LED RGB values. ar = array.array("I", [0 for in range(NUM LEDS)])

def pixels show(): dimmer _ ar = array.array("I", [0 for _ in range(NUM_LEDS)]) for i,c in enumerate(ar):

r = int(((c >> 8) & 0xFF) * brightness)

g = int(((c >> 16) & 0xFF) * brightness) b = int((c & 0xFF) * brightness)

dimmer _ar[i] = (g<<16) + (r<<8) + b sm.put(dimmer_ar, 8) time.sleep_ms(10)

def pixels_set(i, color): ar[i] = (color[1]<<16) + (color[0]<<8) + color[2]

predefinedcolors.

BLACK = (0, 0, 0)

RED = (255, 0, 0)

YELLOW = (255, 150, 0)

GREEN = (0, 255, 0)

CYAN = (0, 255, 255)

BLUE = (0, 0, 255)

PURPLE = (180, 0, 255)

WHITE = (255, 255, 255)

Now(nextpage,topright)we

cancreateafewsupportfunctions thatwewillneedtomakeourlife easier. WewillusetheRedcolorto

MICROTHISMICROTHAT

markNorth(LED[0])andBlueto markEast,SouthandWest. When wegettoit,thecolorthatmarks theheadingwillbeinGreen(shown bottomleft).

Theturn _ off _all()function simplysetsallthepixelsonthering toBLACK(oroff).

We’veputthemarkers(which shouldprettymuchstaylitunless theheadingisoneofthose directions)forNorth,South,East andWestintoalistsowecancheck toseeifweareonamarkerLED. NorthwillsetLED[0]toRedand theotherthreearesettoBlue.

Nowtherealworkerfunctionis set _heading().Thisfunction(shown middleright)embodiesthelogic fromthepseudocodewecreated earlier.

Finally,wecreatethelogicto controleverything(shownbottom right).Tosimulatemovingaround inacircle,weuseaforloop,

steppingfrom0to361,andpass thatvalueintoourset _heading() functiontolightthecorrectLED. Thenwereversetheforloopto simulatemovinginananti clockwisecircle.

Savethisprogramas CompassDisplay1.py.Whenyourun it,youshouldseethefourmarker LEDsthenafterashortdelay,you shouldseethegreenLEDmarking ourheadingmovearoundthering thenmovebackaroundto0(the redLED).It’ssomewhatkludgy,but itdoesthejob.

Youcanfindtheprogramcode onmyrepositoryathttps:// github.com/gregwa1953/FCM181 MicroThisMicroThat.

Nexttime,we’lladdinthecode thatsupportstheLSM303to finalizeourproject.

def turn _ off _all(): for cntr in range(NUM_LEDS): pixels_set(cntr,BLACK) pixels_show() markers=[0,6,12,18]

def set markers(): for m in markers: if m == 0: pixels_set(0,RED) else: pixels_set(m,BLUE) pixels_show()

Untilnexttime,asalways;stay safe,healthy,positiveandcreative!

def set heading(heading): global last _led,last_marker if heading >= 360: heading = 0 if heading % 15 == 0: which = int(heading/15) if last _ marker != which: set _markers() pixels_set(which,GREEN) pixels_set(last_led,BLACK) last _ led=which if which in markers: last _ marker = which pixels_show()

# The code to test everything… turn _ off _all() set _markers() time.sleep(1) global last _led,last_marker last _ led=0 last _ marker=0 for cntr in range(0,361): set _heading(cntr) time.sleep(1) turn _ off _all() set _markers() for cntr in range(361,0,-1): set heading(cntr) print('Finished!') time.sleep(2) turn _ off _all()

U

WrittenbyBrianBogdan

LetmestartbysayingthatIam strictlyaLongTermSupport (LTS)person.Ihavebeenusing Ubuntusince10.04.Overtheyears Ihavedabbledintousinginterim releases,but,totellyouthetruth,I don’thavethatmuchfreetimeto beforevermuckingaboutwithmy OS.

EnterOracleVirtualBox.Ilove thisapplicationandcannotbelieveI waitedsolongtostartusingit. WithVirtualBox,Iamableto‘play’ withnewinstallationsofUbuntu (andotherDesktopEnvironments), allthewhileleavingmydailydriver alone.IamusingUbuntu20.04and donothingtomessupthat installation.Ikeepituptodate,and installsomethirdparty applications,butforthemostpartI leaveitalone.

Irecentlydownloadedadaily buildof“JammyJellyfish”and installedthisinavirtualmachine.I runsudoaptupdate/upgradeat leastonceaday.Runninganalpha version(maybeit'sabeta?),isnot foreveryone,evenifit’sdonefrom avirtualMachine(VM).Ihavefound

thatupdatesdosometimesbreak theinstall,andIhavehadto reinstallintheVMtwicesofar.This iswhyIwouldneverusethedaily buildasmydailydriver.Toomuchat stake.

Butit’sthrillingtometohavea glimpseintothefutureofUbuntu

byhavingJammyinstalledinthe VM.InadditiontofilingbugsIfind inJammy,Ialsoinstallmyfavourite appsandthemesetc.Afterall,what Ireallyamdoingisseeingintothe future,andwhetherornotallmy favouritethingsaboutUbuntustill work.Therearestillmanymonths ofdevelopmentbeforeUbuntu

22.04isreleasedinApril,somuch funtobehadwithnewfeatures andnewapplicationsonaregular basis.Iamverypleasedsofar,andI thankthedevswhoworkon

UbuntutomakeittrulyaWorld classLinuxdistribution.

H

OWW--TTO O

WrittenbyRonnieTucker

GUIDELINES

Thesingleruleforanarticleis thatitmustsomehowbe linkedtoUbuntuoroneofthe manyderivativesofUbuntu (Kubuntu,Xubuntu,Lubuntu,etc).

RULES

•Thereisnowordlimitforarticles, butbeadvisedthatlongarticles maybesplitacrossseveralissues.

•Foradvice,pleaserefertothe OfficialFullCircleStyleGuide: http://bit.ly/fcmwriting

•Writeyourarticleinwhichever softwareyouchoose,Iwould recommendLibreOffice,butmost importantly-PLEASESPELLAND GRAMMARCHECKIT!

•Inyourarticle,pleaseindicate whereyouwouldlikeaparticular imagetobeplacedbyindicating theimagenameinanewparagraph orbyembeddingtheimageinthe ODT(OpenOffice)document.

•ImagesshouldbeJPG,nowider than800pixels,anduselow compression.

•Donotusetablesoranytypeof boldoritalicformatting.

REVIEWS GAMES/APPLICATIONS

Whenreviewinggames/applicationspleasestateclearly:

• titleofthegame

• whomakesthegame

Ifyouarewritingareview, pleasefollowtheseguidelines: Whenyouarereadytosubmit yourarticlepleaseemailitto: articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

TRANSLATIONS

IfyouwouldliketotranslateFull Circleintoyournativelanguage pleasesendanemailto ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.organd wewilleitherputyouintouchwith anexistingteam,orgiveyouaccess totherawtexttotranslatefrom. WithacompletedPDF,youwillbe abletouploadyourfiletothemain FullCirclesite.

• isitfree,orapaiddownload?

• wheretogetitfrom(givedownload/homepageURL)

• isitLinuxnative,ordidyouuseWine?

• yourmarksoutoffive

• asummarywithpositiveandnegativepoints

HARDWARE

Whenreviewinghardwarepleasestateclearly:

• makeandmodelofthehardware

• whatcategorywouldyouputthishardwareinto?

• anyglitchesthatyoumayhavehadwhileusingthehardware?

• easytogetthehardwareworkinginLinux?

• didyouhavetouseWindowsdrivers?

• marksoutoffive

• asummarywithpositiveandnegativepoints

Youdon'tneedtobeanexperttowritean article-writeaboutthegames,applications andhardwarethatyouuseeveryday.

R

WrittenbyAdamHunt

EverytwoyearsinAprilcomesa daythatisabitlikeChristmas forUbuntuusers.Thisistheday thatthenewlongtermsupport (LTS)versionisreleasedand, becausemostUbuntuusersstickto theLTSversions,thisnewversion meanslotsofgreatnewthings arrive.

Ubuntu22.04LTSwasreleased on21April,2022and,beinganLTS version,issupportedforfiveyears untilApril2027.Thisisthe36th Ubuntureleaseandthetenthwith theGnome3desktop.

thelaststandardrelease.Thisis generallytrueforUbuntu22.04 LTS,butitdoesbringoneortwo newsurprises-andgoodonestoo.

INSTALLATION

IdownloadedtheISOfilefor Ubuntu22.04LTSfromtheofficial

websiteviabittorrentandcarried outanSHA256sumtestonitfrom thecommandlinetomakesureI hadagooddownload.

Thefirstthingnotedwasthat thedownloadishalfagigabyte biggerthanthelastrelease, Ubuntu21.10.Ubuntu22.04LTS

weighsinat3.4GBversus2.9GB forthepreviousrelease,whichis 17%bigger.Thereleasenotesgive noclueastowhythisis,though.It alsomeansthat,whentheISOis unpacked,itprobablywon’tfitona 4GBUSBstick.Itisprobablyjust mynostalgicthinkingbutIcan’t helprememberingthatthe

ThenextLTSreleasewillbeout inanothertwoyears,inApril2024, andwillbeUbuntu24.04LTS.

ThereismuchinUbuntu22.04 LTSthatwillmakeUbuntufans happyandoughttokeepthemthat wayforthenextfewyears,atleast.

Ingeneral,thethree“standard” releasesin-betweentheLTS versions,arewheremostofthe developmentandchangeshappen, andthatmeansthatLTSversions areoftennotmuchdifferentfrom

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versionsofUbuntufromaround

2007actuallyfitona700MBCD withroomtospare.

Fortesting,IranUbuntu22.04 LTSfromaUSBstickthatwas equippedwithVentoy1.0.73. Ventoymakesbootingtoalmost anyLinuxdistributionreallyeasy justcopyandpastetheISOfile ontotheVentoyUSBstick,and Ventoymakesitallworkatbootup.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

Thesystemrequirementsfor Ubuntu22.04LTShaven’tchanged sincethelastLTSreleaseandare still:

• 2GHzdual-coreprocessor

• • 4GiBRAM

25GBofhard-drive,USBstick, memorycardorexternaldrive space

• Screencapableof1024x768pixel screenresolution

• EitheraCD/DVDdriveoraUSB portfortheinstallationmedia

• Internetaccessusefulbutnot essential

Sobasicallyanycomputerthat onceranWindows7orlatershould befinewithUbuntu22.04LTS.

anewLinuxkernelandthatmeans moresupportfornewhardware.If youinstallUbuntu22.04LTSon newerhardware,itwillusethe5.17 versionofthekerneland,ifyou havehardwarethatdoesn’tsupport that,youwillgettherolling5.15 HWEversion.Thatincreasesthe numberofcomputersthatcanuse thisrelease.

havebeenupgradedtoo.GCCis nowatversion11.2.0,binutilsat 2.38,glibc2.35,pythonversion 3.10.4,Perlversion5.34.0,LLVM version14,golangversion1.18.x, rubyat3.0,andrustc1.58.In additiontoOpenJDK11,OpenJDK 18isalsonowprovidedalthoughit isnotusedforthepackagebuilds.

NEW Asexpected,thisreleasebrings

Thedefaultdisplayserverisnow animplementationofWayland, unlessyouhaveNvidiagraphics,in whichcaseitwilldefaulttoanX serverinstead.Therearestill ongoingattemptstogetWayland workingrightonNvidiagraphics cards,butitisn’tthereyet.

Thedevelopmenttoolsprovided

Theinitializationsystemfor Ubuntu22.04LTSissystemd 249.11.Ubuntumovedtosystemd withUbuntu15.04VividVervetin April2015and,despiteinitial concerns,ithasbeenworkingwell forthepast16releases.

Thedesktopincludesamixof applicationsfromGnome41and 42.Thedevelopersexplainthatthe

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olderGnome41applicationsare theretoprovide“amoretimetestedexperiencefortheLTS desktopbymostlyavoiding libadwaita”.

Asalways,theUbuntuversionof theGnomedesktopismodified withadockadded.Bydefault,the dockisontheleftsideofthe screen,butcanbemovedtothe bottomortherightside,although notthetopwhereitwouldconflict withthetoppanel.Itcanbe reducedinwidthbymakingthe iconssmallerinthesettingsmenu, canbesettoauto-hide,butcannot bejustselectedoffentirely,sothe launcherdoesusescreenspace thatthestockGnomedesktopdoes not.

Gnomehassomeperformance enhancementsaswellthatshould makeitfaster.

TheUbuntuimplementationof Gnomecontinuestoinclude window“maximize”and“minimize” buttons,aswellas“close”,whereas thestockGnomedesktopwindows haveonly“close”.

SETTINGS

BecauseUbuntu22.04LTSis codenamed“JammyJellyfish”,it comeswithadefaultjellyfishthemedwallpaper.Iwilladmitthat thenewartworkisactuallyquite welldoneandlooksnicewhenyou bootitup.Thisreleaseprovides12 otherwallpaperstochoosefromor youcanuseyourownfavorite wallpaper.

Ubuntuhasneverbeenknown forofferingalotofuser customization,butthelastrelease, Ubuntu21.10,actuallycutthethree choicesofwindowcolorschemes fromthreedowntotwo.Atthe time,thisseemedlikeanoddmove, especiallybecauseitwasthe defaultYaru“standard”window themethatwasdropped,leaving

onlyYarulightanddark.Afeature justintroducedinUbuntu22.04LTS makessomesenseofthismove, however.Thisreleasehasanew additiontothemenusinSettings Appearance.Here,theusercan choosetheYarulightordark theme,andthenhasachoiceoften accentcolors.Thesecontrolthe highlightandothersecondary colorsseen,andactuallydoalter theimpactofthetwoYaruthemes, dependingonthecolorchosen.I havetogivecredittotheUbuntu developersforthisnewfeaturein Ubuntu22.04LTSasitisquite innovativeandbringsmoreuser customizationcontrol.Ithinkitwill makeatleastsomeusersfeelmore likeitis“their”desktopandnotjust ageneric-lookingexperience.

InUbuntu21.10,thetrashcan iconwasmovedfromitsplaceon thedesktoptothedock.Ubuntu 22.04LTSintroducesasmallchange tothissituationinthatiftheuser addsanyiconstothedesktop,by defaulttheywillbeautomatically placedinthebottom-rightcorner ofthescreen.Thisdefault conditioncanalsobechangedin thesettingsunderSettings

Appearance DesktopIcons–ifyou wouldratherhavetheminthe traditionaltop-left,oranyother corner.

Someoftheapplications

includedwithUbuntu22.04LTSare:

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emulator

Gparted1.3.1partitioneditor

ImageViewer(EyeofGnome)42.0 imageviewer

LibreOffice7.3.2officesuite

PulseAudio15.99.1audiocontroller

Remmina1.4.25remotedesktop client

Rhythmbox3.4.4musicplayer*

Shotwell0.30.14photomanager

StartupDiskCreator0.3.13(usbcreator-gtk)USBISOwriter

TextEditor(gedit)41.0texteditor

Thunderbird91.8.0emailclient

Transmission3.00bittorrent client*

UbuntuSoftware(Gnome Software)41.5package managementsystem

Videos(Totem)42.0movieplayer

*indicatessameapplicationversion asusedinUbuntu21.10

**suppliedasasnappackage,so theversiononthereleasedate dependsontheupstreampackage manager

Ascanbeseen,almostallthe applicationsprovidedarenew versionsandmostarefromGnome 41and42.Thescreenshottoolhas beenreplacedwithasimpleand updatedinterfacefromGnome42.

Ubuntu21.10introducedthe provisionofthedefaultFirefoxweb browserasasnappackage,inplace oftheprevious.debpackage, althoughthe.debremained availableinthe21.10repositories. Aswaswarned,theUbuntu22.04

LTSrepositoriesnowcontainonly thesnappackage.Thiswasdoneat therequestofFirefox’sdevelopers atMozillatosimplifytheirsupport forLinux,eliminatinghavingto managemultiplepackageformats acrosstheLinuxuniverse.From thatperspective,themovetosnaps makessense.Snapscontainalltheir dependencies,sotheycanbebig files.Forinstance,theFirefoxsnap is163.2MB.

Allofthisdoesmeanthat,ifyou wanttouseFirefox,thenyouhave tolivewiththesnapversion,unless youwanttocompileyourownfrom theMozillawebsite-provided tarballfileorsomethingequally esoteric.

Sohowdoesthesnapversionof FirefoxworkinUbuntu22.04LTS? Someofthepastcomplaintsabout snapsingeneralarethattheyare slowtoopenanddon’ttakeup systemcolorthemes,oftenlooking outofplaceonthedesktop.In testingtheFirefoxsnaponUbuntu 22.04LTS,itopenedinaboutthree seconds,whichisnottoobad.It alsoadoptsandmatchesboththe Yarulightanddarkthemes, includingtheaccentcolorselected. IamsurethattheUbuntu developerswantedtomakethis first“mandatory”snapas unimpeachableaspossible,anditis hardtofindfaultwithit.Itfitsthe desktopandworksright.

Itisworthnotingthatthe

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includedUbuntuSoftwarestoreis justasnapstoreasitsuppliesonly snapversionsofapplications.The Gnomedesktopitselfisalsoasnap, and260.8MBinsize,whichmay partiallyexplainthe500MBlarger downloadsizeforUbuntu22.04 LTS.Thefutureisherenow,it seems.

Ubuntu22.04LTShas LibreOffice7.32andthisversionis complete,missingonlythe databaseapplicationLibreOffice Base.Itisnotoftenusedbutcan easilybeinstalledifneeded.

AsinrecentUbuntureleases, Ubuntu22.04LTSincludesthe Cheesewebcamapplicationbut omitsaCD/DVDwriter,video

editor,andageneralpurposeimage editor.TheincludedShotwellphoto organizercanactuallydosome basicphotoeditingtasksincluding cropping,rotating,color adjustment,straightening,and enhancing,althoughitisnotatrue, generalpurposeimageeditor. Therearemanygoodchoicesinthe repositories,though,including GIMPandmtPaint.

CONCLUSIONS

After36releasesover18years, Ubuntufeelslikeaserious,carefully honedandhighlypolisheddesktop aimedatenterpriseusers,but suitableforhomeuseaswell.

Overall,thechangesinthis releasecyclesincethelastLTSin 2020havebeensmalland incrementalinnatureandthatisa goodthing.MostUbuntuuserslike howitlooksandworksanddon’t seeaneedforbigchanges.

Ubuntu22.04LTSisagood,solid releasethatwillprobablykeep Ubuntufansandthelargenumber ofenterpriseandbusinessusers happyforthenextfewyears,at least.

EXTERNALLINKS

Officialwebsite: https://ubuntu.com/ AdamHuntstartedusingUbuntuin 2007andhasusedLubuntusince 2010.HelivesinOttawa,Ontario, Canada,inahousewithnoWindows.

R

WrittenbyAdamHunt

Ithoughtitwastimetojumpout oftheDebianandUbuntuworld andhavealookataLinux distributionfromawholedifferent world,PuppyLinuxSlacko7.0. Whilestilladesktopdistribution, Puppyisquitedifferentinhowit worksandwhatitcanbeusedfor.

BACKGROUND

UnlikesomeLinuxdistributions thathavecorporatesponsorship, likeUbuntuandRedHat,Puppy Linuxisa“communitybased distribution”,meaningitisbuiltby awidegroupofpeoplewhodothis asahobby.Itwasstartedby AmericanBarryKauler,andhadits firstreleasein2003.Kaulerretired fromtheprojectin2013,andsince thenithasbeenrunbyadiverse groupofdevelopers.

Theprojectisalldog-themed andwasnamedafteradogthat Kauleronceowned,named “Puppy”.Theoperatingsystem evenbarkswhenyoubootitup.

eachdecisiononhowitlooks,how itworks,thesoftwareincluded, releaseschedule,andeveryother detail,ishammeredoutasaseries ofdebates,votesandcompromises, Puppyworksverydifferently. AnyonecantakethePuppytools andputtogetheranewbranchora release.In2022,thismeansthat therearethreecurrentreleases,all offeringaslightlydifferenttake andallputoutbydifferentteams orindividuals.Itisabitanarchistic, butitmeansthatnocompromises areneededbetweendevelopers.

Eachreleaseborrows

applicationbinariesfromother Linuxdistributions,whichsavesa lotofdevelopmenttimeand duplication.

AsofMarch2022,thethree currentreleasesofPuppyavailable fordownloadwere:

• FossaPup649.5(Puppy9)64bit, whichusesbinariesfromUbuntu 20.04LTS(FocalFossa)

• BionicPup(Puppy8)32-bit&64bit,whichusesbinariesfrom Ubuntu18.04LTS(BionicBeaver)

• Slacko7.0(Puppy7)32-bit&64bit,whichusesbinariesfrom Slackware14.2

Thereishelpavailableforusers inthePuppyforumsandablogfor releaseannouncements.Itisa friendlycommunity,welcomingto newpeople,unlikesome distributioncommunities.

Slacko7.0isthemostrecentof thethreecurrentreleases,outon4 January,2021.

BOOTINGITUP

IdownloadedtheSlacko7.0ISO filefromthePuppyrepositoriesat https://distro.ibiblio.org/ puppylinux/andcompleteda SHA256checkonittomakesure thatthedownloadedfilewas good.

The64bitdownloadwas343 MB,whilethe32-bitversionwas 323MB.Thisisverysmallfora completeoperatingsystem!

Unlikesomecommunity projects,suchasDebian,where

IusedUNetbootintowriteitto aUSBstick,asitconveniently leavesthestickinFAT32format. UNetbootinspecificallysupports

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Puppy. WhilePuppycanbeinstalled conventionallyonaharddrive,it usuallyisn’tdonethatway.Instead, itisnormallyrunfromexternal media,likeaCD,DVDorUSBdrive. Beingsosmall,itallloadsintothe computer’sRAMandthenthe externalmediacanberemoved.

RunningallinRAMmeansPuppy runsveryfast,evenonold hardware,andalsothatitcanbe usedonacomputerwithabroken orevenmissingharddrive.Saving filesontoexternalmediaagaincan bedoneasyougoorattheendofa session.Atshutdown,Puppywill alsopromptforsavingfiles,aswell assettings,whichwillallloadona

freshboot.

FromtheUSBstickIdidtryto bootupSlacko7.0onmy2021 modelSystem76GalagoProlaptop andthebootloaderwouldn'teven recognizethestickforbooting, althoughitbootedfineonmynine year-olddesktopcomputer.I suspectwhatIranintowaswhat thereleaseannouncementwarned about:"somenewerhardwaremay notwork...."

USERCASE

Peoplealwaysaskaboutthe usercaseforPuppy,inotherwords: whatisitusedfor?

IhavefoundthatPuppyisuseful inatleastthreeroles,butthereare probablyseveralmorethatI haven'tdiscoveredyet.

First,itisatotallyviable, lightweightoperatingsystemthat canberunonoldercomputer hardware,even32-bit.Despitethe tinydownloadsize,itcomes completewithasuiteof applications,andisreadytogoto workfromboot-up,right"outof thebox",although,ifneeded, additionalapplicationscanbe addedfromtherepositories.That said,Iamnotsureanyonewitha moderncomputerwillchoose Puppyoveramorepolishedand full-featureddistribution,like Ubuntu,butforlimitedhardwareit

ishardtobeat.

Second,itisgreatasauserfriendly,data-rescuedisk.Itcanbe bootedupfromaCD/DVDorUSB stick,andusedtosavefilesoffa broken,unbootable,operating system.Itquicklyidentifiesany drivesinstalledrightonthePuppy desktopandthenyoucanjustclick though,findyourfilesandsave themtoaUSBstick.

ThethirdroleIhaveusedPuppy foristestinghardware.Itisquickto bootupfromexternalmedia,and canbeusedtocheckthata computer'shardwareisworking correctlyornot.

Puppyisalsowell-adaptedfor

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offlineuseorusewithdialup connections,whicharealso supported.Updatesaregenerally notaworrywithinPuppyreleases asyoudon'tgetany,justwhole, newreleases.ThisPuppyversion doesofferalistofsomeindividual packagesthatcanbeupdatedone atatime,ifdesired,usingthe PuppyPackageManager.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

Thelistedminimumhardware forrunningSlacko7.0is:

• Recommendedfor32bit:1GHz processor(P4orlatermodelAMD K7),512MBofRAM,andeither bootableCDaccess,USBboot,or networkbootaccess.Aharddriveis notrequired.

• Recommendedfor64-bit:1.6GHz processor(IA64oramd64),1GB RAM,andeitherbootableCD access,USBboot,MMC/SDcard boot,ornetworkbootaccess.A harddriveisnotrequired.

SlackodoesnotsupportoldP2, P3orAMDK6processors.

APPLICATIONS

AbiWord3.0.1wordprocessor

Evince(GnomeDocumentViewer) 3.18.2PDFviewer

Geany1.35texteditor

Firefox68.12.OesrExtended SupportReleasebrowser

Firewallset-up0.8 gFTP2.0.19FTPclient

GnomeMPlayer1.0.9mediaplayer

Gnumeric1.12.28spreadsheet

Gparted0.26.1partitioneditor

Gpicviewimageviewer

HexChat2.10.2IRCclient

HomeBank4.6.3Accounting software

InkscapeLite0.36vectorgraphics editor

Leafpad0.8.18.1texteditor

LXTerminal0.3.2

mtPaint3.50graphicseditor

Osmo0.2.10personalorganizerand

calendar

PBurn4.3.19CD/DVD/BlueRay burner

PuppyPackageManager2.5 packagemanagementsystem ROXFilerfilemanager Sylpheed3.5.1emailclient TakeAShot1.15screenshottool Transmission2.60bittorrentclient

XSane0.999scanning

XArchiveManager0.2.8

Thatisaprettyimpressivelist fora343MBdownload,butitalso includesthreegames,ALSAsound, andCUPSprinting.WhileFirefoxis thedefaultbrowser,thereisaquick installationavailableforBrave, Vivaldi,Opera,andChromium,if desired.

ThelightweightAbiWordword processorandGnumeric spreadsheetmaynotbeeveryone’s firstchoice,soLibreOfficeisalso availableforinstallation.

TheROXfilebrowserissmall, veryfast,andlight,buthasitsown quirks,likesingle-clickfileopening. TohighlightafileyouneedtoCtrlclickit.Onceyougetusedtoit,it isn’tbad,though.

Whilenotasextensiveasthe Ubunturepositories,thePuppylist ofavailable.petapplicationsis fairlycompleteandhasalotofthe mostpopularapplicationsreadyfor installation.

USINGSLACKO7.0

Oncebootedup,Slacko7.0 presentsaveryconventionallookingdesktopwithmenusanda Macstylelauncher.Peoplealways ask,“whichdesktopenvironment doesituse?”Infact,Puppyhasits owndesktop,andyouwillfind componentsfromKDE,Gnomeand LXDEhere,amongothers.Italways visuallyremindsmeofWindows98 –simpleandfunctional.

Someoftheincluded applicationswithSlacko7.0are:

OlderSlackoversionsuseda

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singlemenusystemlaunchedfrom aPuppyiconinthebottom-left,but thisversionhasmovedthemenus andthepaneltothetop.Ithastwo menusatthetop-leftmarked “Applications”and“Places”, reminiscentoftheGnome2 desktopusedinUbuntuupuntil Ubuntu10.10(MaverickMeerkat).

BecauseitisallrunninginRAM, everythinginPuppyisfast.The menusarefairlycluttered,buta lookthroughthemshowsthat,for suchasmalldownload,itcomes withalotofdefaultsoftware.

Slackohaslotsofusersettings, choicesandcolorschemes,soyou canmakeitlookandworkhowever youlike.Thedefaultthemeisabit garishbutitiseasytotonedown fromthemenus.Thesettingsarea bitscatteredabout,but,withsome perseverance,canbefound.

quirkydistributioncomparedto moreconventionalones.For instance,thedefaultuseris"root", althoughthereistheoptionof creatingadistinctuseraccount underit,ifneeded.Thisislessofan issuethanmostLinuxusersmight think,aseachrebootreplacesthe wholeoperatingsystemwitha freshcopyandthatgivesfairly goodprotectionagainstmalware.

CONCLUSIONS

Slacko7.0isagood,solidrelease withnoreallybadpoints.Itcomes withanamazinglycompletedefault assortmentofapplications, consideringhowsmallthewhole operatingsystemdownloadis.

Foruseinhardwaretestingor forarescuesystem,Puppyishard tobeat.Itisalsousefulfor breathinglifeintoolderhardware oracomputerwithnoharddrive, renderingitusefulfordailywork.

EXTERNALLINKS:

Officialwebsite: https://puppylinux.com/ Documentation: http://wikka.puppylinux.com/ HomePage

ComparedtoBionicPuppy, whichisslickerandmore professionallooking,Slackodoes looklikeanoperatingsystembuilt insomeone’sbasement,butit workswellandhasenough customizationavailabletosmooth outthevisualimpressionabit.

ThereisnodoubtthatPuppyisa

AdamHuntstartedusingUbuntuin 2007andhasusedLubuntusince 2010.HelivesinOttawa,Ontario, Canada,inahousewithnoWindows.

L

Ifyouwouldliketosubmitaletterforpublication,compliment

PLEASE NOTE:

Joinuson: facebook.com/ fullcirclemagazine twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag linkedin.com/company/fullcircle-magazine ubuntuforums.org/ forumdisplay.php?f=270

Withoutreaderinput

FullCirclewouldbean emptyPDFfile(whichIdon't thinkmanypeoplewouldfind particularlyinteresting).Weare alwayslookingforarticles, reviews,anything!Evensmall thingslikelettersanddesktop screenshelpfillthemagazine.

SeethearticleWritingforFull Circleinthisissuetoreadour basicguidelines. Havealookatthelastpageof anyissuetogetthedetailsof wheretosendyour contributions.

Q

&A A

Welcomebacktoanother

editionofQuestionsand Answers!Inthissectionwewill endeavourtoansweryourUbuntu questions.Besuretoadddetailsof theversionofyouroperating systemandyourhardware.Iwilltry toremoveanypersonally identifiablestringsfromquestions, butitisbestnottoincludethings likeserialnumbers,UUIDs,orIP addresses.Ifyourquestiondoes notappearimmediately,itisjust becausethereissuchalot,andIdo them,first-come-first-served.

RepairingIPCCTVcameras,Ifell fromawonkyladderand almostlostmylife.AtthetimeI wasusingakiddieplasticchairto restthecameraon,asthecable wasnoteasilyremovedandsoit didnotenduphangingfromthe cableoutoftherooforlyingonthe floorwhereitcouldbesteppedon. NowI’llbeupfront,Idonotdo heights.Evenaftertellingmy bosses,Iwasstillrequiredtodoso. Naturehasaweirdwayofcopingin ‘I’lljustflopoverlike apossum’.My braindoesthe‘ohhellno’ thing

andswitchesoff. Nowinsteadof doingtherightthing,and compensatingmeetc.,they launchedan“investigation”. Accordingtothe“investigation”I stoodonthekiddiechairandfell off.Thisisunsafeworkpracticeand Iwastheguiltyparty,endofstory. Theonlyproblemwiththis:Iweigh over100kgbeingover6ft, squatting275lbsetc,yougetthe picture.Thekiddiechairwouldnot hold50kgsafely.(I’mbeing generousthere.)Thepointof impactwasasecondlevellocker catch,about1.6mfromthefloor.If Iweretostandonthekiddiechair, myelbowwouldbelevelwiththe catch,meaningIcouldnotfallonto it,onlyagainstit.Theother problemwasifIweretostandon thekiddiechair,Iwouldnotbeable toreachthedomecamerainthe corneroftheroom,behindallthe boxes,thereisjustnoway,maybe atastretchifitwasdirectlyabove meandIhoppedupanddown. (Thereisnowheretomovethe boxestoasthestoreroomistoo small,andfilledwithtoomany things.)Iwastoldtoacceptitto keepmyjob.WhatcouldIdo?This

IfyouhaveaLinuxquestion,emailitto: questions@fullcirclemagazine.org, andErikwillanswertheminafutureissue. Please include as much information as you can about your query.

isthesamewithproprietary operatingsystems,youneedto shutupandtakeit.Thisiswhyyou andIuseLinux?Theonlyproblem is,manufacturersstilluse proprietaryfirmwareanddrivers. (HelloDebianfirmwarerepo!)What istobetheanswertothisclosed sourcemess?TheEUhad announcedthatallphonesshould haveUSB-Cconnectors,notamishmashofproprietaryones.Is legislationtheanswer? Writetous andletusknowyourthoughtson thisone: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org

A:IamsuretheLinuxdualpane filemanagerslikeDouble commandercould,butwhydon’t youcopythemastextanduse ‘sed’(StreamEDitor)toreplaceall thecarats?Ibetitwouldbealot faster.IfIreplaceallmyslashes withcarats,doesthatmakeit Welsh?

Q:IhaveapagefulloflinksIwanttocopy,butsomehowall theforwardslasheshavebeen replaced.Itried“inspecting”the sourcetograbitthere,butitisa hotmess.Howdodothatwith Ubuntu?Iwouldusetotal commanderinWindows.Urlsare here >https://www.cs.cmu.edu/ ~TextLearning/corpusbuilder/ corpora/welsh/preliminary/cache/ andIamusingLubuntu20.04onmy Delllaptop.

Q:HiGuys,Ihave2PC’s Dell Optiplex3020,fromouroffice sale.IsetoneupwithWindows10 20h2andonewithUbuntu20.04. MyLibreOfficeis7.0.4.2andboth havestandardUSBDellkeyboards. My‘.’-fullstopisa‘,’commaonthe numpad.Windowsforumtalkabout regionsettings,andkeyboard settings,butmineispainUS keyboard.Windowsuserstalk aboutPolishkeyboardlayoutswith dotandcommatheycanchoose, notthatithelpsme.Thistellsme theproblemisrelatedtomy computersorkeyboards.Whatdo yousuggest?

fullcirclemagazine#181 60 contents^ A:Thereare“Language”settings inLibreOffice.Lookunder “settings”or“options”. Youwant

the“Decimalseparatorkey”.Tickor unticktheboxthatsays“sameas locale”.

Q:IrecentlygotanoldHPlaptop frommyAunt.Ihavedecided onUbuntuasitistheprettiest. ThereisjustonethingIcan’twrap myheadaround.Icanaccessmy routerat192.168.0.1whenIhavea cablepluggedin,butIcannot accessitwithwifi.ThelocalPCguy suggestedthatIupdatemydrivers, butsofarIhavebeenunsuccessful inloadinganydriversformylaptop. Ihavenootherissueswiththewifi otherthanitbeingabitweak.

jellyfishandIwantedtosshintoall myRaspberryPI’s.Iwentlooking forPACmanagertofindithadsadly died.Beforeyousayanything,I don’twanttomuckwithw.i.n.e.Is theresomewayIcanhavethison Ubuntu?https:// www.royalapps.com/ts/mac/ features andalsonotproprietaryif itcanbehelped.

Q:IhaveacleanUbuntu20.04 installonmyLenovolaptop.I amunabletoturnonthe Bluetooth.Itremainsgreyedout.I havetriedeverythingIcouldfind ontheweb,butitstaysoff.

A:Iseeyourcardandraiseyou thisone:https://www.asbrucm.net/

A:Thereareafewpossibilities; 1.ItisturnedoffintheBIOS,2. Itisturnedoffwithahardware switch,3.Itwasturnedoffin Windowsbeforeyouinstalled Ubuntu.(yes,3isnotajoke,Ihave seenithappen)4.Itisan unsupportedchipset.

A:Letmeaddressthelastpart first,ontheolderHPlaptops, HPdidtheskimpingthingand thereisonlyoneantennaattached totheWiFicard,ifyouREALLY wanttoyoucanattachanother.As forthemainissue,itisnotUbuntu’s fault,thereareusuallysecurity settingswithintherouter,thatyou canset,thatpreventsomeoneon WiFIfromaccessingthesoftware.

Q:HowcanIfindoutwhich executablesneedsudoand whichonesdon’tandisitpossible togroupthem?

Q:IthasbeenawhilesinceIhave usedLinuxandIkeepcoming backtoUbuntu.Inowhavethe

A:IamnotsureIunderstandyourquestion,butitisnotthe executablesthemselves,ratherthe permissionsyouset.You*setafile tobeexecutableornotaswellas theownerandgroupthefileisin. Youcangroupanyfilesyoulikeand edittheirpermissionstomake themrequiresudoornot,eg777.

Q:Ihaveaserialportcardthat wetestedwithandUbuntu motherboard.Idon’thaveUFW runningoranyfirewallsetup.I knowitworks,Ijustcan’tgetit workinginUbuntu20.04onthePC. Hereistheoutputanddmesg; <imageremoved> <image removed> <imageremoved> <imageremoved>

A:Thisreadsfunny,butImay haveanideawhatyoumean. Theshortansweristhatyouarenot usingUbuntu,youareusingubuntu flavouredWSL,whichhaswindows driversandshenanigansinbetween theOSandthecardtoo,thatneed tobeconsidered.

Q:Hi,istheresomewayonecan restrictstudenttocertain machinesatcertaintimesonly?My reasoningforthisiswehaveavery limitedbudgetwhenitcomesto ourITandtheschoolisinarural area,soparentalsupportisnota thing. Wehave12machinesthatI wanttoschedule,sothateveryone getsafairturnatamachine.Allthe machinesrunthelatestversionof Emmabuntüsandarelockeddown viatheBIOStopreventthe studentsfromchanginganything. Thecaveatisthatthesolutionhas tobefree.

A:Ihavenoexperienceinthis fieldandthoughIhavesetup schoollabsbefore,thecontrol softwarehasalwaysbeen proprietary.MayIsuggestParental controlsoftware?Maybethis: https://techviewleo.com/setup ctparental-parental-controlsoftware-on-ubuntu/orthis:https:// ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/ 2021/11/time-limits-for-kidsubuntu/

Q:Itrytouseshareddriveon Windowstocopyfiles,no

Q&A

domainonlyworkgroup.Ifollow thetutorial,itsays:Irunthe followingcommand: root@minecraftsvr:/#sudo mount.cifs//192.168.1.101/ minecraft/mnt/shareuser=vijay,-o version=1.0 thenIonlygeterror hereCIFS:Unknownmountoption "version=1.0"butIdoublecheckedWindowsserverhasSMB1.0/CIFS forsure.

A:Whathappenswhenyouleave offtheversionpart?

meanthatyoucannotdo ANYTHINGprivateonthat computerontheinternetagain, EVER,likebanking.Iwouldexplain toher,it’slikegivingthemailman, thepostman,thecreepyneighbour allkeystoyourhouseandthey comeinandsniffherunderwear whenevertheylike.(youcango nuclearandsaytheywillcome watchheronthelooorsomething)

crossplatform.Stayawayfrom windowseditorsforthingsyouwill useonLinux,evenWSL.

Q:Ihavebeenhesitanttoinstall a “certificate” touseourcity’s freewifi,whataretheimplications ofthisforme?Willitmakea differenceifIamusingmyUbuntu partitionofmyWindowspartition? MybrotherinlawsaidIshouldnot, butmywifeispressingmetodoso ASAP.Shehasinstalleditonher tabletalreadywithouttalkingto mefirst.Ihavelikeonlyabasicidea ofwhatitis,butIneedtoexplainit tothewife,becauseshesayswe havenothingtohide.

A:Itisaveryin-depthtopic,too muchforaQnA.Theoperating systemwillnotmakeadifference asyouarecompromisingthebasic chainoftrust.Iwouldnot,itwould

Q:Ispentalotoftimegathering scriptsoverthelastfewyears andfinallysetdowntomakeone formynewUbuntu22.04install.It turnedouttobeadisaster,asmost ofitfailed,andwitherrorsIhave notcomeacrossbefore,using thosescripts(singularly).Ifeellike atotalnewb,andmaybeIam,butit justcan’tbethisdifficult? <removed><removed>See? “Unit service\x0d.servicecouldnotbe found.“Whatworkedasaoneliner, won’tworkasateam.Whyisitlike this?

A:Itallcomesdowntothe

editing:https://serverfault.com/ questions/1094756/run-commandsthat-run-in-a-shell-as-a-script

ThisispreciselywhyIlikethings likeCudatextandlite-XLthatwork

Q:Iwastryingout:https:// linuxhint.com/ install _configure_docker_ubuntu/ andIgetthefollowingerrors;‘The followingpackageshaveunmet dependencies. docker-desktop:PreDepends:initsystem-helpers(>=1.54~)but1.51 istobeinstalled‘and‘E:Unableto correctproblems,youhaveheld brokenpackages.’Canthisnotgo smoother?https://snapcraft.io/ dockerisavailable,butonlyforthe homefolderoftheuser.

A:Ratheruse:

sudo apt install docker.io IgotthatadvicethefirsttimeI installeddockeranditsimplified thingshundred-fold.

Q:Ihaveinstalledafresh[22.04].

OnlyissueIhaveisthatmyshut downisactuallyarestartandIcan’t figureoutawaytoshutdownmy system. PeoplehavesuggestedI usetheshutdowncommandfrom thecommandline,butitbehaves thesameway.Canyouhelp?

A:Removeallexternaldevices andifyouhaveaCD/DVD ROM,disconnectit.9/10itisa devicecausingit.(including keyboardsandmice)Onceit actuallyshutsdown,itwilldoso fromthenonwards,regardlessof thedevice.Idon’tknowwhy.Ijust knowitis.Iknowitbecomesmore difficultonthingslikelaptops,but makesureSDcards,PCMCIAcards evenbatteriesareremovedandtry again.Onceitshutsdown,keep addingthehardwareuntilthe culpritisfoundshouldtheproblem persist.

ErikhasbeeninITfor30+years.He hasseentechnologycomeandgo. Fromrepairingwashingmachinesized harddriveswithmultimetersand oscilloscopes,layingcable,toscaling 3Gtowers,he'sdoneit.

U UBBUUNNTTUUGGAAMMEES S

WrittenbyErik

Website:http:// darksidedetective.com/ Price:$12.99USDattimeofwriting

Blurb:“Cursedenoughthatit’sa nuisance.Cursedenoughthat somebodyhastodealwithit?That’s whereTheDarksideDetectivecomes in.Wheneveryouhearabumpinthe night,feelatingleupyourspine,or smellsomethingfishy,Detective FrancisMcQueenisn’tfarbehind.No, hedoesn’tsmelloffish it’saphrase, comeon...Pickingupafterthe eventsofTheDarksideDetective, McQueenhastosavehisusuallypresent(inbody,ifnotmind)sidekick OfficerDooleyfromtheDarkside,so thetwocangetbacktowhatthey dobest-investigatingthecity’s manystrange,oftenparanormal, alwaysparadoxicalgoings-on.Join theminthisfrighteninglyfunny point-and-clickadventureasthey investigatesixmorestandalone casesbringingthemtoacarnival, thelocalretirementhome,an amateurwrestlingcircuit,andeven asfarawayasIreland,astheydo whattheycantokeeptheDarkside atbay.

TheDarksideDetective:A FumbleintheDarkisasequelto the2017gameDarksideDetective, aretro-styled(readuglylow-res pixelated)humorousgame.The onlythingthathaschanged,isthat thepuzzleshavebecomeabit harder.

Endofreview.Ifitwerethat easy!However,forme,thatwas oneofthethingsthatmadethe firstgamebetter,thepaceatwhich thegameprogressed,unlikeother point-and-clickgames.Thepaceof thegamefitsbetterwiththelight-

heartedmoodittriedtoportrayon asometimesserioussubject.This oneisamoretraditional“Monkey Islandwithallthepuzzles”type game.Yep,ittookmeawhileto finishit,unlikethefirstgamethat wasdoneinfivehours.Thereis moreemphasisonthestrangeness oftheIrish,CastleDooleyincluded. Here,IthoughtitwastheScots whowerestrange.

T ThheeDDaarrkkssiiddeeDDeetteeccttiivve e Irecallpayingmonkeyisland1 silent,readingallthedialogue, whilemystiffydrivecrunched away.Whenthesecondonecame along,andwasatalkie,mymind wasblown.TheDarksideDetective: AFumbleintheDark,beinga sequel,isstillnotatalkie.Though thewritingisgood,top-notcheven (Icanguaranteethatyouwillbe smilingatyourmonitoratsome pointinthegame),itcouldhave benefitedfromsomecoolvoice acting.

fullcirclemagazine#181 63 contents^ story.Ilikegameswithstory,butI canswearithasfewercasesthan thefirst(Icannotremember). However,Iwouldliketopointout thatyoudonotneedtohave playedthepreviousgametoenjoy thisone,butyoumaymisssomeof thereferencesduringthegame.I wouldalsosaythatyoudon’thave tositdownandconsumeitallin onego,youcandowhatIdidand play20minutesaday,sometimes withdaysin-between.Thegameis abouttwiceaslongastheprevious oneandevenlongerifyoudon’t cheat.

Preparetogetstuckoften. ThoughIloveusingmynogginand theoddobscurepuzzle,youstill wantthegametobefun.Theother plusisthatthegamehasalotof

UBUNTUGAMES

Myonlycriticismwouldbethat itbreaksthefourthwallalittletoo often.Yes,Iknowthegamedoesn’t takeitselftooseriously,butsome thingsgetoldquickly.Youknow, likekickingthewallinFullThrottle, tofindthesecretentrance...

Letmecirclebacktotheretrostyledgraphics.Forme,itdidnot doit.Yousee,thesetypesof graphicsworkwellonaCRT monitor,notsomuchonLCD.To achievethesamefeel,youneedto atleastdoublethegraphicsquality. BythatImean,ifthisisconsidered 8-bititneedstobe16-bit,orifitis 16bititneedstobe32bit,andso forth.Itfeelslacking,and sometimeslacklustre.Don’tgetme wrong,Ilovepixelart,butwhenI

seethis,Iunderstandwhysome peoplehateit.Anexamplewould becominguptocastleDooleyina storm,itlookslikesomethingIdid whenIwas6...InM$paint...With bucketfill.Thebasicshapeisthere, butthecolouringismonotoneand thoughitisgrey,itdoesn’tpretend tobestoneorcomealive.The coupleofdarkgreymarksspeaksof “couldn’tbebothered”ormaybe “damndeadlinewasyesterday”.

Themusicisatmosphericand doesgiveoffasillyspookyvibe: https:// akuparagames.bandcamp.com/ album/the-darkside-detective-afumble-in-the-dark-original-gamesoundtrack-pleasegiveitalisten

beforeyougobuyingtheOST(hint Iwouldn’t).Itisthetypethatsets themoodwithoutbeinginyour face.Itdoesnotspeaktome,and feelsaboutasfacelessasthe characters.Thatisanotherthing, somecharactersHAVEfaces,soI amnotsurewhytheinconsistency. Forone,justasimplenosewould havebrokentheflatfaces,or shouldIsaynon-faces?Thingslike goblinshaveeyes,butthemain charactersdonot...Thefreakiest thinginthewholegameisthe facelessclowns.Ifyouhavea‘clown phobia’(coulrophobiaforthenonplebs),Isuggestgivingthisgamea wideberth.

Honestly,Iwouldnotspendthe $25USD(localworthofthegame)

onit.Isaywaitfor70%discountor buyitinabundle.TheonlywayI wouldconsideritwouldbewith higherresolutiongraphicsand voiceacting.

WhywouldIchoosethisgame oversomanyothersonsteam?The shortansweris,Iwouldnot.Ifyou enjoyedthefirstone,waitforthe saletopurchasethisone.

ErikhasbeeninITfor30+years.He hasseentechnologycomeandgo. Fromrepairingwashingmachinesized harddriveswithmultimetersand oscilloscopes,layingcable,toscaling 3Gtowers,he'sdoneit.

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Amagazineisn'tamagazinewithoutarticlesandFullCircleisno exception.Weneedyouropinions,desktops,stories,how-to's,reviews, andanythingelseyouwanttotellyourfellow*buntuusers.Sendyour articlesto:articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

FCM#182

Deadline: Sunday05thJune2022. Release: Friday24thJune2022.

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