Full Circle Magazine #183

adapt,copy,distributeandtransmitthearticlesbutonlyunderthe way(atleastaname,emailorURL)andtothismagazinebyname('F thearticle(s)inanywaythatsuggeststhattheyendorseyouoryouruseofthework).Ifyo workunderthesame,similaroracompatiblelicense.

FullCirclemagazineisentirelyindependentofCanonical,thesponsoroftheUbuntup assumedtohaveCanonicalendorsement.

Thismagazinewascreatedusing:

WELCOMETOTHELATESTISSUEOFFULLCIRCLE

Another(notquitefull)quotaofgoodnessforyouthismonthwith:Python,Latex,Inkscape,and lotsofothergoodness.NoMicroorBlenderthismonthI'mafraid.Checktheendofthe Inkscapearticleforanupdateonthebugthatwementionedlastmonth.Lookslikethey'vegotit squished.

OurfeaturedreviewthismonthisLubuntu22.04.Ournon-DebianreviewisSlitaz5.Notadistro thatI'veeverplayedaroundwith,butitlooksinteresting.Oh,andwehaveabookreviewtoo!

TheUbportsteamhasbeenbusygettingOTA-23ofTouchready,andit'sout.Again,asever,not muchtoseevisually.It'sallunderthehoodtweaksatthemoment.

Don'tforget:ifyou'relookingforsomehelp,advice,orjustachitchat:remember,wehavea Telegramgroup:https://t.me/joinchat/24ec1oMFO1ZjZDc0.Ihopetoseeyouthere.Comeandsay hello.

Anyway,allthebest,andstaysafe!

Ronnie ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

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NGINX1.23.0RELEASE: 06/21/2022

Thefirstreleaseofthenewmain branchfornginx1.23.0isout, wherethedevelopmentofnew featureswillcontinue.Inthe parallel,themaintainedstable branch1.22.x,onlychangesrelated totheeliminationofseriousbugs andvulnerabilitiesweremade. Nextyear,the1.24stablebranch willbemergedfromthe1.23.x mainbranch. http://nginx.org/#20220621

aheadofAllanSandfeld,whowas alsonominatedfortheleadbya marginof24votesto18.

NEWQTPROJECTLEADER

APPOINTED: 06/22/2022

VolkerHilsheimerhasbeen

selectedasChiefMaintainerof theQtproject,replacingLarsKnoll, whohasheldthepositionforthe past11yearsandannouncedhis retirementfromtheQtCompany lastmonth.Theleader'scandidacy wasapprovedduringthegeneral voteoftheescorts. Hilsheimerwas

Volkerhasbeendevelopingwith Qtsincethelate1990sandis currentlyDirectorofResearchand Development(R&D),Graphicsand UserInterfaceatQtCompany.Lars KnollcharacterizesHilsheimeras technicallysavvy,withconnections totheQtCompany,arespected developercommunity,anda supporterofQt'sdevelopmentas anopensourceproject. https://www.qt.io/blog/new-chiefmaintainer-for-qt RUSTSUPPORTINTHELINUX

5.20KERNEL: 06/22/2022

Attheongoing'Open-Source Summit2022'conference,in theFAQsection,LinusTorvalds mentionedthepossibilityofearly integrationintotheLinuxkernelof componentsfordevelopingdevice driversinRust.Itispossiblethat

Rust-enabledpatcheswillbe acceptedinthenextchangelog formingthecompositionofthe 5.20kernel,scheduledforlate September.

Apullrequestforthekernelhas notyetbeensenttoTorvalds,but thepatchsethasbeenfurther reviewed,strippedofkeynotes,has beentestedinthelinux-next branchforquitesometime,andhas beenbroughttoastatesuitablefor creatingabstractionlayersover kernelsubsystems,writingdrivers, andmodules.Rustsupportis presentedasanoptionthatisnot enabledbydefaultanddoesnot resultintheinclusionofRust amongtherequiredbuild dependenciesforthekernel. https://www.phoronix.com/ scan.php? page=news item&px=Rust-ForLinux-5.20-Possible

THEGECKOLINUXCREATOR

INTRODUCEDSPIRALLINUX: 06/22/2022

ThecreatoroftheGeckoLinux distribution,whichisbasedon openSUSEandpaysgreatattention todesktopoptimizationandsmall things,suchashigh-qualityfont rendering,hasintroducedanew distribution,SpiralLinux,builtusing DebianGNU/Linuxpackages.The distributionoffers7ready-to-use Livebuildsthatcomewith Cinnamon,Xfce,GNOME,KDE Plasma,Mate,Budgie,andLXQt desktopsthatareoptimizedfora betteruserexperience.

TheGeckoLinuxprojectwill continuetobemaintained,and SpiralLinuxisanattempttokeep thingsastheyareintheeventthat openSUSEceasestoexistoris transformedintoafundamentally differentproduct,inlinewiththe upcomingplansforamajor overhaulofSUSEandopenSUSE. Debianischosenasbasisasa stable,flexiblyadaptableandwellmaintaineddistribution.Atthe

SubmittedbyErikTheUnready

sametime,itisnotedthatthe Debiandevelopersarenot sufficientlyfocusedonthe convenienceoftheenduser,which isthereasonforthecreationof derivativedistributions,the authorsofwhicharetryingtomake theproductmorefriendlyto ordinaryconsumers.

UnlikeUbuntuandLinuxMint, SpiralLinuxdoesn'ttrytodevelop itsowninfrastructure,buttriesto stayasclosetoDebianaspossible. SpiralLinuxusespackagesfromthe Debiancoreandusesthesame repositories,butoffersdifferent defaultsettingsforallthemajor desktopenvironmentsavailablein theDebianrepositories.Thus,the userisofferedanalternative optionforinstallingDebian,which isupdatedfromtheregularDebian repositories,butoffersasetof settingsthataremoreoptimalfor theuser https://spirallinux.github.io/

AMDOPENSFIDELITYFX

SUPERRESOLUTION2.0

TECHNOLOGY: 06/22/2022

AMDhasannouncedtherelease ofthesourcecodeforan implementationofFSR2.0 (FidelityFXSuperResolution) supersamplingtechnologythat usesspatialscalinganddetail reconstructionalgorithmsto reducelossinimagequalitywhen upscalingandconvertingtohigher resolution.ThecodeiswritteninC+ +anddistributedundertheMIT license.InadditiontothebasicAPI fortheC++language,theproject providessupportforDirectX12and VulkangraphicsAPIs,aswellas HLSLandGLSLshaderlanguages.A setofexamplesanddetailed documentationisprovided.

FSRisusedingamestoscale outputonhigh-resolutionscreens toachievenear-nativeresolution qualitywhilepreservingtexture detailandcrispedgesby reconstructingfinegeometricand bitmapdetail.Withthehelpof settings,youcanbalancebetween qualityandspeed.Thetechnology iscompatiblewithvariousGPU models,includingintegratedchips.

https://gpuopen.com/fsr2source available/ KAOS2022.06

DISTRIBUTIONRELEASED: 06/24/2022

KaOS2022.06isout,arolling

releasedistributionaimedat providingadesktopbasedon recentreleasesofKDEand applicationsusingQt.Inthe distribution-specificdesign features,onecannotethe placementofaverticalpanelonthe rightsideofthescreen.The distributionisdevelopedwithArch Linuxinmind,butmaintainsitsown independentrepositoryofmore than1500packages,andalsooffers anumberofitsowngraphical utilities.Thedefaultfilesystemis XFS.Buildsarepublishedfor x86 64systems(2.9GB).

https://kaosx.us/news/2022/ kaos06/

COMMUNIST1.4P2PMESSENGERRELEASED: 06/25/2022

Version1.4ofCommunistP2P messengerhasbeen published.Thesourcecodeis writtenintheC++programming languageanddistributedunderthe GPLv3license.Thegraphical interfaceisbasedontheGTK4 library.LinuxandWindows operatingsystemsarecurrently supported.Readypackagesare preparedforArchLinux(AUR)and Alt. CommunistisasimpleP2P messengerdesignedtoworkboth ontheInternetandinlocal networksofvariousconfigurations. Toestablishcommunication betweenusers,acombinationofa distributedhashtableisused(the DHTversionisused,designedfor torrentclients)andtheUDPhole punchtechnique(forinteracting withhostsbehindaddress translators).IPv4/IPv6protocolsare supported.Alldataisstoredonthe user'smachineinencryptedform andisalsotransmittedencrypted. TheencryptionusestheAES standardandtheed25519digital signaturescheme.

https://forum.altlinux.org/ index.php? topic=46108.msg371189#msg3711 89

https://github.com/pitivi/pitivi/ releases/tag/2022.06.0

PITIVIVIDEOEDITOR

RELEASE2022.06: 06/25/2022

Afterayearofdevelopment, thereleaseofthefree,nonlinearvideoeditingsystemPitivi 2022.06isavailable.Theeditoris writteninPythonusingtheGTK+ (PyGTK)libraryandGES (GStreamerEditingServices)and canworkwithallaudioandvideo formatssupportedbyGStreamer, includingtheMXF(Material eXchangeFormat)format.The codeisdistributedundertheLGPL license.

ENDEAVOROS22.6

PUBLISHED: 06/25/2022

EndeavorOS22.6"Artemis" projectisavailable,which replacedtheAntergosdistribution, whichwasdiscontinuedinMay 2019duetothelackoffreetime fortheremainingmaintainersto maintaintheprojectattheproper level.Thesizeoftheinstallation imageis1.8GB(x86_64,the assemblyforARMisbeing developedseparately).

EndeavorOSallowstheuserto easilyinstallArchLinuxwiththe necessarydesktopintheformin

whichitisconceivedinitsregular filling,offeredbythedevelopersof theselecteddesktop,without additionalpre-installedprograms. Thedistributionoffersasimple installertoinstallabasicArchLinux environmentwithadefaultXfce desktopandtheabilitytoinstall fromtherepositoryoneofthe typicaldesktopsbasedonMate, LXQt,Cinnamon,KDEPlasma, GNOME,Budgie,aswellasi3tile windowmanagers,BSPWMand Sway.Workisunderwaytoadd supportforQtileandOpenbox windowmanagers,UKUI,LXDEand Deepindesktops.Oneofthe developersoftheprojectis developingitsownwindow manager'Worm'. https://endeavouros.com/news/ artemis-is-launched/

FORWEBAPPLICATIONS

PACKAGEDINAUNIVERSAL

EXECUTABLEZIPARCHIVE: 25.06.2022

Redbean2.0projecthasbeen introduced,allowingweb applicationstobedeliveredasa universalexecutablefilewithan embeddedwebserverthatcanrun onLinux,Windows,MacOS, FreeBSD,NetBSD,andOpenBSD.It isafilethatbundlesallofthe resourcesassociatedwiththeweb applicationandtheserver,is compatiblewiththeZIParchive format,andallowsyoutousethe ziputilitytoaddadditionalfiles. Theabilitytorunonefileon

differentoperatingsystemsand recognizeitasaZIParchiveis achievedbymanipulatingthe headersofexecutablefilesand linkingtothemultiplatform standardClibraryCosmopolitan. Theprojectcodeisdistributed undertheISClicense.

Auniversalexecutablefileis madebycombiningsegmentsand headersspecifictodifferent operatingsystemsPE,ELF,MACHO, OPENBSD,ZIPinonefile.Toensure

thatasingleexecutablefilerunson WindowsandUnixsystems,atrick isusedtoencodeWindowsPEfiles asashellscript,takingadvantage ofthefactthatThompsonShell doesnotusethe"#!"scriptmarker. Asaresult,anexecutablefileis created,whichcombinesseveral differentformatsusedinLinux, BSD,WindowsandmacOS.

https://justine.lol/redbean2/

SHOTCUTVIDEOEDITOR

RELEASE22.06: 26.06.2022

CHANGESTOCONTAINERDTO ALLOWLINUXCONTAINERS

TORUNONFREEBSD: 06/26/2022

EXIMMAILSERVER4.96:

06/26/2022

TheExim4.96mailserverhas beenreleased,whichincludes thepreviousaccumulatedfixesand addednewfeatures.Accordingto theMayautomatedsurveyofabout 800thousandmailservers,the shareofEximis59.59%(59.15%a yearago),Postfixisusedon33.64% (33.76%)ofmailservers,Sendmail3.55%(3.55%),MailEnable 1.93% (2.02%),MDaemon-0.45% (0.56%),MicrosoftExchange0.23%(0.30%).

https://lists.exim.org/lurker/ message/ 20220625.141825.d6de6074.en.ht ml

Shotcut22.06hasbeenpublished,whichisbeing developedbytheauthoroftheMLT projectandusesthisframeworkto dovideoediting.Supportforvideo andaudioformatsisimplemented throughFFmpeg.Itispossibleto usepluginswiththe implementationofvideoandaudio effectscompatiblewithFrei0rand LADSPA.Amongthefeaturesof Shotcut,onecannotethe possibilityofmulti-trackediting withthecompositionofvideofrom fragmentsinvarioussource formats,withouttheneedto importorre-encodethemfirst. Therearebuilt-intoolsforcreating screencasts,processingimages fromawebcamandreceiving streamingvideo.Qt5isusedto buildtheinterface.Thecodewritten inC++anddistributedunderthe GPLv3license. https://shotcut.org/blog/newrelease-220623/

Thecontainerdprojecthasadoptedasetofchangesthat integratesrunj runtimesupport andallowsFreeBSDtouseOCI compliantLinux-basedcontainer images,suchasDockerimages.In thechangelog,anexampleof successfullyrunninganAlpineLinux imageonFreeBSDisgiven.Despite theexperimentalstatusoftherunj projectandthelimited functionalityatthemoment,even inthisform,theprojectcanbe usefulforpersonalexperiments, simplifyingsolutionmodeling (ProofOfConcept),local development,runningtestsbefore deployingtocloudsystems,and workingoutoperabilityforcases whenthereisnowaytoswitchto testedandindustrialsolutionson otherplatforms,buttheneedfor containerizationhasmatured.It requiresinstalledjail,jls,jexecand ps.

It'sworthnotingthatrunjisa personalprojectofSamuelKarp,an Amazonengineerdevelopingthe BottlerocketLinuxdistributionand

containerisolationtechnologiesfor AWS,whoisalsoanindependent memberoftheTechnicalOversight BoardoftheOpenContainers project.Afterbringingrunjtothe requiredlevel,theprojectcanbe usedtoreplacetheregularruntime inDockerandKubernetessystems, usingFreeBSDcontainersinstead ofLinuxtorun.TheOCIruntime currentlyimplementscommands forcreating,deleting,starting, forciblyterminating,andevaluating thestatusofcontainers,aswellas settingtheprocess,mountpoints, andhostname. https://github.com/containerd/ containerd/pull/7000 WIFIBOX0.10-

ENVIRONMENTFORUSING LINUXWIFIDRIVERSIN

FREEBSD: 06/27/2022

AreleaseoftheWifibox0.10 projectisavailabletoaddress theproblemwithFreeBSD'suseof wirelessadaptersthatlackthe requireddrivers.Adaptersthatare problematicforFreeBSDare providedbystartingaLinuxguest

system,inwhichLinux-native wirelessdevicedriversareloaded.

Theinstallationoftheguest systemwithdriversisautomated, andallthenecessarycomponents arepackagedintheformofa ready-madewifiboxpackage, whichislaunchedatbootusingthe suppliedrcservice.(Includingthe transitiontosleepmodeis correctlyprocessed.)The environmentcanpotentiallybe appliedtoanyWiFicardssupported onLinux,buthasbeentested primarilyonIntelchips.Theyalso testedthecorrectoperationon systemswithQualcommAtheros andAMDRZ608(MediaTek MT7921K)wirelesschips.

Theguestsystemislaunched usingtheBhyvehypervisor,which grantsaccessforwardingtothe wirelesscard.Requiresasystem thatsupportshardware virtualization(AMD-ViorIntelVTd).Theguestsystemisbasedon AlpineLinux,builtontheMusl systemlibraryandtheBusyBox utilityset.Theimagesizeisabout 30MBondiskandconsumesabout 90MBofRAM.

Toconnecttoawireless network,thewpa_supplicant

packageisused,theconfiguration filesaresynchronizedwiththe settingsfromthemainFreeBSD environment.TheUnixcontrol socketcreatedbywpa_supplicantis forwardedtothehost environment,whichallowsyouto usethestandardFreeBSDutilities forconnectingandworkingwitha wirelessnetwork,includingthe wpa_cliandwpa_gui(net/ wpa supplicant gui)utilities.

Inthenewrelease,the mechanismforforwardingWPAto themainenvironmenthasbeen redesigned,whichmadeitpossible toworkwithbothwpa supplicant andhostapd.Theamountof memoryrequiredfortheguest systemhasbeenreduced.Support forFreeBSD13.0-RELEASEhas beendropped. https://github.com/pgj/freebsdwifibox/releases/tag/0.10.0 GIT2.37SOURCECONTROL

RELEASE: 06/28/2022

ThereleaseofthedistributedsourcecontrolsystemGit2.37is introduced.Gitisoneofthemost

popular,reliable,andhighperformanceversioncontrol systemsthatprovidesflexiblenonlineardevelopmenttoolsbasedon branchingandmergingbranches. Toensuretheintegrityofthe historyandresistanceto "backdating"changes,implicit hashingoftheentireprevious historyineachcommitisused,itis alsopossibletoverifythedigital signaturesofthedevelopersof individualtagsandcommits.

Comparedtotheprevious release,395changeswere acceptedintothenewversion, preparedwiththeparticipationof 75developers, 20whotookpartin thedevelopmentforthefirsttime. https://lore.kernel.org/git/ xmqqy1xinf00.fsf@gitster.g/ RELEASEBITTORRENT

CLIENTDELUGE2.1: 06/29/2022

Threeyearsafterthelastmajor branch,Deluge2.1 multiplatformBitTorrentclientwas published,writteninPython(using theTwistedframework),basedon libtorrentandsupportingseveral

typesofuserinterface(GTK,web interface,consoleversion).The projectcodeisdistributedunder theGPLlicense.

Delugerunsinclient-server mode,wheretheusershellrunsas aseparateprocess,andall BitTorrentoperationsare controlledbyaseparatedaemon thatcanberunonaremote computer.Amongthefeaturesof theapplicationaresupportforDHT (distributedhashtable),UPnP,NATPMP,PEX(PeerExchange),LSD (LocalPeerDiscovery),theabilityto useencryptionfortheprotocoland workthroughaproxy,WebTorrent compatibility,theabilityto selectivelylimitthespeedfor certaintorrents,sequential downloadmode. https://github.com/deluge-torrent/ deluge/releases/tag/deluge-2.1.0

THUNDERBIRD102MAIL

CLIENTRELEASED: 06/29/2022

Ayearafterthepublicationof thelastmajorrelease, Thunderbird102mailclient, developedbycommunityforces

andbasedonMozillatechnologies, hasbeenpublished.Thenew releaseiscategorizedasalongtermsupportrelease,withupdates releasedthroughouttheyear. Thunderbird102isbasedonthe Firefox102ESR.Thereleaseis availableasadirectdownloadonly, automaticupgradesfrompast releasestoversion102.0arenot providedandwillonlybe generatedinversion102.2.

https://blog.thunderbird.net/ 2022/06/thunderbird-102-releaseda-serious-upgrade-to-yourcommunication/

23RDUBUNTUTOUCH

FIRMWAREUPDATE: 29.06.2022

TheUBportsproject,whichtook overthedevelopmentofthe

UbuntuTouchmobileplatform afterCanonicalpulledout,has publishedanOTA-23(over-the-air) firmwareupdate.Theprojectisalso developinganexperimental desktopportofUnity8,whichhas beenrenamedLomiri.

UbuntuTouchOTA23updateis availableforBQE4.5/E5/M10/U

Plus,CosmoCommunicator,F(x)tec Pro1,Fairphone2/3,GooglePixel 2XL/3a,HuaweiNexus6P,LGNexus 4/5,MeizuMX4/Pro5,Nexus7 2013,OnePlus2/3/5/6/One, SamsungGalaxyNote4/S3Neo+, SonyXperiaX/XZ/Z4,Vollaphone, XiaomiMiA2/A3,XiaomiPocoF1, XiaomiRedmi3s/3x/3sp/4X/7, XiaomiRedmiNote7/7Pro. Separately,withoutthe"OTA-23" tag,updateswillbepreparedfor Pine64PinePhoneandPineTab devices.Comparedtotheprevious version,supportforAsusZenfone MaxProM1,XiaomiPocoM2Pro, GooglePixel2andGooglePixel3a XLsmartphoneshasbeenadded. https://ubports.com/

implementationofmalicious activityorthepresenceof vulnerabilitiesthatareusedto attackprojectsusingthepackages inquestion("supplychain").Packj supportscheckingpackagesin PythonandJavaScripthostedinthe PyPiandNPMdirectories(theyalso plantoaddsupportforRubyand RubyGemsthismonth).Thetoolkit codeiswritteninPythonand distributedundertheAGPLv3 license.

"eval"or"exec",generatingnew codeatruntime,usingobfuscated codetechniques,manipulating environmentvariables,misusing accesstofiles,accessingnetwork resourcesinsetupscripts (setup.py),usingtypesquatting (assigningnamessimilartothe namesofpopularlibraries), identifyingobsoleteand abandonedprojects,specifying non-existentemailsandsites,lack ofapubliccoderepository.

DETECTINGMALICIOUS

ThedevelopersofPackj,which analyzeslibrarysecurity,have publishedanopencommand-line toolkitthatallowsyoutoidentify riskyconstructsinpackagesthat maybeassociatedwiththe

Duringtheanalysisof330 thousandpackagesusingthe proposedtools,42malicious packageswithbackdoorsand2.4 thousandriskypackageswere identifiedinthePyPirepository. Duringthesurvey,staticcode analysisisperformedtoidentify APIfeaturesandthepresenceof knownvulnerabilitiesnotedinthe OSVdatabaseisassessed.TheAPI isparsedusingtheMalOSS package.Packagecodeisanalyzed forcommonpatternscommonly usedinmalware.Thetemplates werepreparedbasedonthestudy of651packageswithconfirmed maliciousactivity.

Italsoidentifiesattributesand metadatathatincreasetheriskof misuse,suchasexecutingblocksvia

https://github.com/ossillate-inc/ packj UNITY7.6CUSTOMSHELL

STABLERELEASED: 07/01/2022

ThedevelopersoftheUbuntu Unityproject,whichdevelops anunofficialeditionofUbuntu LinuxwiththeUnitydesktop, announced astablereleaseofthe usershellUnity7.6.TheUnity7 skinisbasedontheGTKlibraryand isoptimizedforefficientvertical spaceuseonwidescreenlaptops. Thecodeisdistributedunderthe GPLv3license.Readypackagesare formedforUbuntu22.04.

ThelastmajorreleaseofUnity7 waspublishedinMay2016,after that,onlybugfixeswereaddedto thebranch,andsupportwascarried outbyagroupofenthusiasts.In Ubuntu16.10and17.04,inaddition toUnity7,theUnity8shellwas included,translatedtotheQt5 libraryandtheMirdisplayserver. Canonicaloriginallyplannedto replacetheUnity7shell,which usesGTKandGNOMEtechnologies, withUnity8,butplanschangedand Ubuntu17.10returnedtothe regularGNOMEwiththeUbuntu Dock,andthedevelopmentof Unity8wasdiscontinued.

ThedevelopmentofUnity8was pickedupbytheUBportsproject, whichdevelopsitsownforkunder thenameLomiri.TheUnity7shell wasabandonedforsometime,until anewunofficialeditionofUbuntu, UbuntuUnity,wascreatedonitin 2020.TheUbuntuUnitydistribution isbeingdevelopedbyRudra Saraswat,a12-year-oldfrom India. https://unity.ubuntuunity.org/blog/ unity-7.6

WAYLAND1.21IS

AVAILABLE: 07/01/2022

Aftersixmonthsofdevelopment,astablerelease oftheprotocol,interprocess communicationmechanismand Wayland1.21librariesispresented. The1.21branchisAPIandABI backwardcompatiblewiththe1.x releasesandcontainsmostlybug fixesandminorprotocolupdates.A fewdaysago,abugfixupdateof theWeston10.0.1compositeserver wasmade,whichisbeing developedaspartofaseparate developmentcycle.Weston providescodeandworking examplesforusingWaylandin desktopenvironmentsand embeddedsolutions. https://lists.freedesktop.org/ archives/wayland-devel/2022-June/ 042268.html

webOSOpenSourceEdition 2.17hasbeenpublished, whichcanbeusedonvarious portabledevices,boardsandcar infotainmentsystems.RaspberryPi 4boardsareconsideredasthe referencehardwareplatform.The platformisdevelopedinapublic repositoryundertheApache2.0 license,andthedevelopmentis overseenbythecommunity, adheringtoacollaborative developmentmanagementmodel.

RASPBERRYPIPROJECT

UNVEILSWI-FI-ENABLED PICOWBOARD: 07/01/2022

WEBOSOPENSOURCE EDITION2.17PLATFORM

RELEASED: 07/01/2022

ThewebOSsystemenvironment isbuiltusingtheOpenEmbedded toolkitandbasepackages,aswell asabuildsystemandmetadataset fromtheYoctoproject.Thekey componentsofwebOSarethe systemandapplicationmanager (SAM,SystemandApplication Manager),whichisresponsiblefor runningapplicationsandservices, andtheLunaSurfaceManager (LSM),whichformstheuser interface.Thecomponentsare writtenusingtheQtframework andtheChromiumbrowserengine. https://www.webosose.org/blog/ 2022/07/01/webos-ose-2-17-0release/

TheRaspberryPiProjecthas unveiledanewRaspberryPi PicoWboard,continuingthe developmentoftheminiaturePico board,equippedwithaproprietary RP2040microcontroller.Thenew editionisdistinguishedbythe integrationofWi-Fisupport (2.4GHz802.11n),implementedon theInfineonCYW43439chip.The CYW43439chipalsosupports BluetoothClassicandBluetooth Low-Energy,buttheyarenot includedintheboardyet.Thecost ofthenewboardis$6,whichistwo dollarsmorethanthefirstoption. Oftheareasofapplication,in additiontosharingwithRaspberry Picomputers,developing embeddedsystemsandcontrol systemsforvariousdevices,theWiFioptionispositionedasaplatform forcreatingInternetofThings (InternetofThings)devicesthat interactoveranetwork.

TheRP2040chipincludesadualcoreARMCortex-M0+(133MHz) processorwith264KBofonboard RAM(SRAM),aDMAcontroller,a

temperaturesensor,atimer,anda USB1.1controller.Theboard contains2MBofFlashmemory,but thechipsupportsexpansionupto 16MB.ForI/O,GPIOportsare provided(30pins,ofwhich4are allocatedforanaloginput),UART, I2C,SPI,USB(clientandhostwith supportforbootingfromdrivesin UF2format)andspecialized8pins PIO(ProgrammableI/Ostate machines)toconnectyourown peripherals.Powercanbesupplied intherangefrom1.8to5.5volts, whichallowsyoutouseavarietyof powersources,includingtwoor threeconventionalAAbatteriesor standardlithium-ionbatteries.

Applicationscanbecreated usingC,C++,orMicroPython.The MicroPythonportforRaspberryPi Picowaspreparedjointlywiththe authoroftheprojectandsupports allthefeaturesofthechip, includingitsowninterfacefor connectingPIOextensions.For developmentfortheRP2040chip usingMicroPython,theintegrated programmingenvironmentThonny hasbeenadapted.Thecapabilities ofthechipareenoughtorun applicationsforsolvingmachine learningproblems,forthe developmentofwhichaportofthe TensorFlowLiteframeworkhas

beenprepared.Fornetwork access,theyproposetousethe lwIPnetworkstack,whichis includedinthenewversionofthe PicoSDKfordeveloping applicationsintheClanguage,as wellasinthenewfirmwarewith MicroPython. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/ raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iotplatform/ RELEASEOFMULTIPLAYER

3DSHOOTERXONOTIC

0.8.5: 02.07.2022

Fiveyearssincethelastrelease, Xonotic0.8.5isout,afree online3Dfirst-personshooter gamefocusedononlineplay.The projectisaforkoftheNexuiz game,createdmorethantenyears agoasaresultofaconflict betweenthekeydevelopersofthe projectandIllFonic,afterthe intentiontocommercializethe gamedevelopmentprocess.Of Xonotic'sfeatures,onecannote goodgraphicalcapabilities,an advanced3Dengine,avarietyof maps,andanabundanceofgame modes.Theprojectcodeis

distributedundertheGPLv3+ license.

Thenewgamehasimproved gameplay,mapsandplayermodels havebeenupdated,newsound effectshavebeenadded,more aggressivebotshavebeen proposed,anewHUD(HeadsUp Display)pop-uppanelhasbeen implemented,themenuhasbeen redesigned,andtheleveleditorhas beenexpanded.Duelsaresingled outasaseparatetypeofgame(a specificversionofdeathmatchwith twoplayers).Thereisalsoa completelyrewrittenweb-interface forprocessingXonStatstatistics. Theyalsoaddedtwonewlevels: BromineandOpium. https://xonotic.org/posts/2022/ xonotic-0-8-5-release/ FIREWALLD1.2RELEASED: 02.07.2022

Thedynamicallymanaged

firewall,firewalld1.2hasbeen released,implementedintheform ofawrapperoverthenftablesand iptablespacketfilters.Firewalld runsasabackgroundprocessthat allowspacketfilterrulestobe

changeddynamicallyoverD-Bus withouthavingtoreloadpacket filterrulesandwithoutdropping establishedconnections.The projectisalreadyinuseonmany Linuxdistributions,includingRHEL 7+,Fedora18+,andSUSE/ openSUSE15+.Thefirewalldcode iswritteninPythonanddistributed undertheGPLv2license.

Tomanagethefirewall,the firewall-cmdutilityisused,which, whencreatingrules,isbasednoton IPaddresses,networkinterfaces andportnumbers,butonthe namesofservices(forexample,to openaccesstoSSH,youneedtorun "firewallcmd add service=ssh", tocloseSSH-"firewall-cmd-remove--service=ssh").The firewall-config(GTK)graphical interfaceandthefirewall-applet (Qt)appletcanalsobeusedto changethefirewallconfiguration. Supportforfirewallmanagement viaD-BUSAPIfirewalldisavailable inprojectssuchas

NetworkManager,libvirt,podman, docker,andfail2ban.

https://firewalld.org/2022/07/ firewalld-1-2-0-release

WEBEXTENSIONSUPPORT

ADDEDTOEPIPHANYWEB BROWSER(GNOMEWEB):

02.07.2022

TheEpiphanywebbrowser

developedbytheGNOME project,basedontheWebKitGTK engineandofferedtousersunder thenewnameGNOMEWeb,has addedsupportforWebExtension add-ons.TheWebExtensionsAPI allowsyoutocreateadd-onsusing standardwebtechnologiesand unifiesthedevelopmentofadd-ons forvariousbrowsers (WebExtensionsisusedinadd-ons forChrome,FirefoxandSafari).The addonversionwillbepartofthe GNOME43releasescheduledfor September21st.

ismentioned,whichisusedinaddonstoblockinappropriatecontent. https://blog.tingping.se/ 2022/06/29/WebExtensionsEpiphany.html

Thatsaid,Epiphanyhas implementedonlypartofthe WebExtensionAPIsofar,butthis supportisalreadyenoughtorun somepopularadd-ons.Overtime, supportfortheWebExtensionAPI willexpand.Developmentis ongoingwithaneyeto implementingthesecondversion oftheadd-onmanifestand ensuringcompatibilitywithadd-ons forFirefoxandChrome.Inthe unimplementedAPIs,webRequest

SFCURGESOPENSOURCE

PROJECTSTOSTOPUSING

GITHUB:

07/04/2022

TheSoftwareFreedomConservancy(SFC),which provideslegalprotectionforfree projectsandadvocatescompliance withtheGPLlicense,has announcedthatitwillstopalluse oftheGitHubcodecollaboration platformandurgeddevelopersof otheropensourceprojectsto followsuit.Theorganizationhas alsolaunchedaninitiativeaimedat makingiteasiertomigrateprojects fromGitHubtomoreopen alternativessuchasCodeBerg (poweredbyGitea)andSourceHut, ortoimplementtheirown developmentservicesbasedon openplatformssuchasGiteaor GitLabCommunityEditionontheir servers.

TheSFCwasinspiredbythe

reluctanceofGitHubandMicrosoft tounderstandtheethicalandlegal intricaciesofusingfreesoftware sourcecodeasthebasisfor buildingamachinelearningmodel inthecommercialGitHubCopilot service.RepresentativesoftheSFC triedtofigureoutwhetherthe createdmachinelearningmodelis copyrightedand,ifso,whoowns theserightsandhowtheyrelateto therightstothecodeonwhichthe modelisbuilt.Itisalsonotyetclear whetherablockofcodegenerated inGitHubCopilotandrepeatingthe codefromtheprojectsusedto buildthemodelcanbeconsidereda derivativework,andwhetherthe inclusionofsuchblocksin proprietarysoftwarecanbe consideredaviolationofcopyleft licenses.

Microsofthasbeenevasiveand hasnotprovidedlegalanalysisto supportthelegitimacyofitsfair useclaims.Attemptstoobtainthe necessaryinformationhavebeen madesinceJulylastyear.Initially, representativesfromMicrosoftand GitHubpromisedtorespondsoon, butneverdid.Sixmonthslater,a publicdiscussionofpotentiallegal andethicalissuesinmachine learningsystemswasinitiated,but Microsoftrepresentativesignored

theinvitationtoparticipateinit. Ultimately,ayearlater,Microsoft representativesdirectlyrefusedto discussthisissue,explainingthat thediscussionwaspointless,since itwasunlikelytochangethe positionoftheSFC. https://sfconservancy.org/blog/ 2022/jun/30/give-up-github-launch/ PORTEUS5.0DISTRIBUTION

RELEASED:

07/04/2022

ThePorteus5.0livedistribution, builtontheSlackwareLinux15 andofferingbuildswithXfce, Cinnamon,GNOME,KDE,LXDE, LXQt,MATEandOpenBoxuser environments,hasbeenpublished. Thecompositionofthedistribution isselectedforminimalresource consumption,whichallowsyouto usePorteusonoutdated equipment.Itfeaturesahigh downloadspeed.CompactLive imagesareofferedfordownload, about350MBinsize,builtforthe i586andx86 64architectures.

fullcirclemagazine#183 12 contents^ NEWS Additionalapplicationsare distributedintheformofmodules. Packagemanagementusesitsown

PPM(PorteusPackageManager) packagemanager,whichtakesinto accountdependenciesandallows youtoinstallprogramsfromthe Porteus,Slackware,and Slackbuilds.orgrepositories.The interfaceisbuiltwithaneyetothe possibilityofusingitondevices withasmallscreenresolution.The PorteusSettingsCentre'sown configuratorisusedfor configuration.Thedistributionis loadedfromacompressedFS image,butallchangesmadeduring operation(browserhistory, bookmarks,downloadedfiles,etc.) canbesavedseparatelyonaUSB driveorharddrive.Whenbooting in'AlwaysFresh'mode,changesare notsaved.

Thenewversionissynchronized withSlackware15.0,theLinux kernelhasbeenupdatedtoversion 5.18,andthesetofBusyBox utilitiesintheinitrdhasbeen updatedtoversion1.35.The numberofgeneratediso'shave beenincreasedto8.Toreducethe sizeoftheimage,thecomponents forsupportingthePerllanguage havebeenmovedtotheexternal module05-devel.Theyadded supportforslackpkgandslpkg packagemanagers.Supportfor installationonNMVedriveshas

beenaddedtothebootloader toolkit. https://forum.porteus.org/ viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10183

RELEASEOFZABBIX6.2: 07/05/2022

Anewversionofthefreeand

completelyopensource monitoringsystemZabbix6.2is out.Thereleaseincludes performanceimprovements, flexiblilitywithauto-discovered hosts,detailedprocessmonitoring, asignificantimprovementin monitoringtheVMWareplatform, newvisualizationanddata collectiontools,anexpandedlistof integrationsandtemplates,and muchmore.Theprojectcodeis distributedundertheGPLv2 license.

Zabbixisauniversalsystemfor monitoringtheperformanceand availabilityofservers,engineering andnetworkequipment, applications,databases, virtualizationsystems,containers, ITservices,webservices,cloud infrastructure.Thesystem implementsafullcyclefrom

collectingdata,processingand transformingit,analyzingthisdata todetectproblems,andending withstoringthisdata,visualizing andsendingalertsusingescalation rules.Thesystemalsoprovides flexibleoptionsforextendingdata collectionmethodsandalerts,as wellasautomationoptionsthrough apowerfulAPI.Asingleweb interfaceimplementscentralized managementofmonitoring configurationsandrole-based distributionofaccessrightsto varioususergroups. https://www.zabbix.com/ documentation/6.2/manual/ introduction/whatsnew620

Slimbook.Thesoftwareisbasedon theKDEPlasmadesktop,the Ubuntu-basedKDENeonsystem environment,andaselectionof freeapplicationssuchastheKrita graphicseditor,Blender3Ddesign system,FreeCADCAD,andKdenlive videoeditor.Thegraphical environmentusestheWayland protocolbydefault.Allapplications andupdatesshippedwiththeKDE Slimbookarethoroughlytestedby theKDEdeveloperstoensurea highlevelofenvironmentstability andhardwarecompatibility.

THEKDEPROJECT

INTRODUCEDTHEIRFOURTH GENERATIONOFKDE

SLIMBOOKS: 07/05/2022

TheKDEprojectintroducedthe fourthgenerationof ultrabooks,suppliedundertheKDE Slimbookbrand.Theproductwas developedwiththeparticipationof theKDEcommunityincooperation withtheSpanishhardwarevendor

fullcirclemagazine#183 13 contents^ NEWS ThenewseriescomeswithAMD Ryzen5700U4.3GHzprocessors with8CPUcores(16threads)and8 GPUcores(lastseriesusedRyzen7 4800H).Thelaptopisofferedin versionswithscreensof14and 15.6inches(1920x1080,IPS,16:9, sRGB100%).Theweightofthe devicesisrespectively1.05and1.55 kg,andthepriceis1049€and999€. Thelaptopsareequippedwith250 GBM.2SSDNVME(upto2TB),8 GBRAM(upto64GB),2USB3.1 ports,oneUSB2.0portandone USB-C3.1port,HDMI2.0,Ethernet (RJ45),MicroSDandWiFi(Intel AX200).Itisapitythatthesedonot havenumpads,I'dloveone,but cannotfunctionwithoutmy numpad.

UNBREAKABLEENTERPRISE

KERNEL7AVAILABLE:

07/06/2022

OraclehaspublishedstablereleasesoftheOracleLinux9 distributionandUnbreakable EnterpriseKernel7(UEKR7), positionedforuseintheOracle Linuxdistributionasanalternative tothestandardRedHatEnterprise Linuxkernelpackage.TheOracle Linux9distributionisbasedonthe RedHatEnterpriseLinux9andis fullybinarycompatiblewithit.

Fordownloadwithout restrictions,installationisoimages areoffered-8.6GBand840MBin size,preparedforx86_64and ARM64(aarch64)architectures.For OracleLinux9,unlimitedandfree accesstotheyumrepositorywith binarypackageupdateswithbug fixes(errata)andsecurityissuesis open.Separatelymaintained repositorieswithsetsof ApplicationStreamandCodeReady Builderpackagesarealsoprepared

fordownload.

InadditiontotheRHELkernel package(basedonthe5.14kernel), OracleLinuxoffersitsown UnbreakableEnterpriseKernel7, basedontheLinux5.15kerneland optimizedforOracleindustrial softwareandhardware.Thekernel sources,includingthebreakdown intoindividualpatches,are availableinthepublicOracleGit repository.TheUnbreakable EnterpriseKernelisinstalledby default,positionedasan alternativetotheregularRHEL kernelpackageandprovidesa numberofadvancedfeaturessuch asDTraceintegrationandimproved Btrfssupport.Exceptforthe additionalkernel,theOracleLinux 9andRHEL9releasesare completelyidenticalin functionality. https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/ announcing-oracle-linux-9-generalavailability

NISTAPPROVESQUANTUM

RESISTANTENCRYPTION

ALGORITHMS: 07/06/2022

TheUSNationalInstituteof StandardsandTechnology (NIST)hasannouncedthewinners ofthecompetitionforcrypto algorithmsresistanttoselectionon aquantumcomputer.The competitionwasorganizedsix yearsagoandisaimedatchoosing post-quantumcryptography algorithmssuitableforpromotion asstandards.Duringthe competition,thealgorithms proposedbyinternationalresearch teamswerestudiedby independentexpertsforpossible vulnerabilitiesandweaknesses.

Thewinneramongtheuniversal algorithmsthatcanbeusedto protectthetransmissionof informationincomputernetworks isCRYSTALS-Kyber,whose strengthsare,arelativelysmallkey sizeandhighspeed.Inadditionto CRYSTALS-Kyber,fourmore general-purposealgorithmshave beenidentified-BIKE,Classic McEliece,HQCandSIKE,which needtobeimproved.Theauthors ofthesealgorithmsaregiventhe

opportunitytoupdatethe specificationsandeliminate shortcomingsinthe implementationsuntilOctober1, afterwhichtheycanalsobe includedinthefinalists.

Theneedtodevelopand standardizenewcryptographic algorithmsisduetothefactthat quantumcomputers,whichhave beenactivelydevelopedrecently, solvetheproblemsofdecomposing anaturalnumberintoprimefactors (RSA,DSA)anddiscretelogarithm ofpointsofanellipticcurve (ECDSA),whichunderliemodern asymmetricencryptionalgorithms bypublickeysandarenot effectivelysolvableonclassical processors.Atthecurrentstageof development,thecapabilitiesof quantumcomputersarenotyet enoughtobreakthecurrent classicalencryptionalgorithmsand digitalsignaturesbasedonpublic keys,suchasECDSA,butitis assumedthatthesituationmay changewithin10yearsanditis necessarytopreparethebasisfor thetransferofcryptosystemsto newstandards. https://groups.google.com/a/ list.nist.gov/g/pqc-forum/c/ G0DoD7lkGPk

LENNARTPOTTERINGLEFT

REDHATANDJOINED MICROSOFT: 07/07/2022

LennartPoettering,whocreated projectssuchasAvahi(an implementationoftheZeroConf protocol),thePulseAudiosound server,andthesystemdsystem manager,leftRedHat,wherehe workedsince2008andledthe developmentofsystemd.Microsoft isnamedashisnewplaceofwork, whereLennart'sactivitieswillalso berelatedtothedevelopmentof systemd.

Microsoftusessystemdinits

CBL-Marinerdistribution,whichis beingdevelopedasauniversalbase platformforLinuxenvironments usedincloudinfrastructure,edge systems,andvariousMicrosoft services.

InadditiontoLennart,Microsoft alsoemployssuchwell-knownopen sourcefiguresasGuidovanRossum (creatorofthePythonlanguage), SteveKost(founderof OpenStreetMap),SteveFrench (maintainerofCIFS/SMB3

subsystemsintheLinuxkernel)and RossGardler(VPoftheApache Foundation).MigueldeIcaza (creatorofGNOME,Midnight CommanderandMono)andDaniel Robbins(creatorofGentoo)were employedatMicrosoft,buthave alreadyleft.Thisyear,Christian Brauner,leaderoftheLXCandLXD projects,oneofthemaintainersof glibcandacontributortosystemd development,movedfrom CanonicaltoMicrosoft. https://www.phoronix.com/ scan.php?

page=news item&px=SystemdCreatorMicrosoft RELEASEOFSPACEVIM2.0: 07/07/2022

SpaceVim2.0projectis

presented,adistributionforthe Vimtexteditorwithaselectionof pluginstosupportvarious programminglanguagesand featuresinherentinintegrated developmentenvironments. Pluginsaregroupedintosetswith theimplementationofcertain features.Forexample,thePython developerkitincludes deoplete.nvim,neomake,andjedi-

vimpluginsforcodecompletion, syntaxchecking,andinteractive documentation.Thus,theuseronly needstoselecttherequired functionalitywithouttheneedfora separateselectionofplug-ins.

Thenewversionoffersnewkits fordevelopersusingcmake,jr, jsonnet,octave,yang,haxe, postscript,teal,veriloganddjango. SupportforGitterandIRChasbeen addedtothechatsuite.Addednew keyboardshortcuts.Theyalso implementedapluginfor automaticsavingplusadded clipboardsupportforvim8and implementedascrollbar. https://spacevim.org/SpaceVimrelease-v2.0.0/ UBUNTUMATE

DISTRIBUTIONHAS GENERATEDBUILDSFORTHE RASPBERRYPI: 07/07/2022

ThedevelopersoftheUbuntu

MATEdistribution,builton Ubuntuandofferingadesktop environmentbasedontheMATE project,haveannouncedthe

FULLCIRCLEWEEKLY

NEWS

fullcirclemagazine#183 15 contents^ NEWS JoinourhostMossBlissas hepresentsyouwithashort podcast(<10min)withjust thenews.Nochitchat.No timewasting.Justthelatest FOSS/Linux/Ubuntunews. RSS:http:// fullcirclemagazine. org/feed/podcast

formationofbuildsforRaspberry Piboards.Thebuildsarebasedon UbuntuMATE22.04releaseandare preparedforboth32bitand64bit RaspberryPiboards.

https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ ubuntu-mate-22-04-lts-forraspberrypiisoutnow/25634

InadditiontodevelopingC++ programs,wxWidgetsprovides bindingsformostpopular programminglanguages,including PHP,Python,PerlandRuby.Unlike othertoolkits,wxWidgetsprovides theapplicationwithatrulynative lookandfeeltothetargetsystem byusingsystemAPIsratherthan GUImimics.

https://www.bacula.org/bacularelease1300/

WXWIDGETS3.2.0

GRAPHICALTOOLKIT: 07/07/2022

Nineyearsafterthereleaseof the3.0branch,thefirst releaseofanewstablebranchof thewxWidgets3.2.0cross-platform toolkitispresented,whichallows youtocreategraphicalinterfaces forLinux,Windows,macOS,UNIX andmobileplatforms.Comparedto the3.0branch,thereareanumber ofincompatibilitiesattheAPIlevel. ThetoolkitiswritteninC++and distributedunderthefree wxWindowsLibraryLicense approvedbytheFreeSoftware FoundationandOSI.Thelicenseis basedontheLGPLandisnotable forallowingtheuseofitsown termstoredistributederivative worksinbinaryform.

https://wxwidgets.org/news/ 2022/07/wxwidgets-3.2.0-finalrelease/

MICROSOFTINTRODUCESA

BANONTHESALEOFOPEN SOURCESOFTWARETHROUGH

THEMICROSOFTSTORE: 07/08/2022

developer,andincludesapps hostedintheMicrosoftStoreby coreprojectstosupport developmentfinancially.Microsoft officialssaythedecisionwasmade becauseofthedifficultyof identifyingthetruedevelopersand thedesiretoprotectusersfromthe manipulationofopensource softwareandthesaleofprograms thatcanbelegallydownloadedfor free.

BACULA13.0.0AVAILABLE: 07/09/2022

Bacula13.0.0isout.The12.x branchisomittedtoseparate versionnumberingbetweenthe freeandcommercialeditions-the freeversionusesoddbranch numbers,whilethecommercial versionusesevenones.Bacula's freeeditioncodeisdistributed undertheAGPLv3license,but excessivecontroloverthe developmentprocessandcutting functionalityinfavorofthe commercialversionafewyearsago ledtothecreationofaforkBareos,whichisactivelydeveloped andcompeteswithBacula.

Microsofthasmadechangesto thetermsofuseofthe MicrosoftStorecatalog,whichwill beeffectivefromnextweek.The mostcontroversialchangewasthe banonprofitingthroughthe catalogfromthesaleofopen sourcesoftwareoranyother applicationsthatarenormally distributedfreeofcharge.They introducedrequirementsaimedat combatingthirdpartieswhoprofit fromthesaleofassembliesof popularopensourceprograms.

Thenewrulesareformulatedin suchawaythatthebanonsale appliestoallprojectsunderopen licenses,sincethecodeforthese projectsisavailableandcanbe usedtocreatefreebuilds.Theban applieswhetherornottheaccount isassociatedwithadirect

Thisisthereasonforthe Microsoftstoreafterall,tochoke outanycompetition? https://sfconservancy.org/blog/ 2022/jul/07/microsoftbans commerical-open-source-in-appstore/ NDPI4.4DEEPPACKET

INSPECTIONRELEASED: 08.07.2022

Thentopproject,whichdevelops toolsforcapturingand

analyzingtraffic,haspublisheda releaseofthenDPI4.4DeepPacket InspectionToolkit,whichcontinues thedevelopmentoftheOpenDPI library.ThenDPIprojectwas foundedafteranunsuccessful

attempttocommitchangestothe

OpenDPIrepository,whichwasleft unmaintained.ThenDPIcodeis writteninCanddistributedunder theLGPLv3license.

Thesystemallowsyouto determinetheapplication-level protocolsusedintrafficby analyzingthenatureofnetwork activitywithoutreferenceto networkports(itcandetermine knownprotocolswhosehandlers acceptconnectionsonnonstandardnetworkports,for example,ifhttpisnotsentfrom port80,or,conversely,whensometheytrytodisguiseothernetwork activityashttpbylaunchingiton port80).

DifferencesfromOpenDPIcome downtosupportforadditional protocols,portingfortheWindows platform,performance optimization,adaptationforusein real-timetrafficmonitoring applications(removedsome specificfeaturesthatsloweddown theengine),theabilitytobuildin theformofaLinuxkernelmodule, andsupportfordefining subprotocols.

Intotal,about300protocoland applicationdefinitionsare

supported,fromOpenVPN,Tor, QUIC,SOCKS,BitTorrentandIPsec toTelegram,Viber,WhatsApp, PostgreSQLandGmail,Office365, GoogleDocsandYouTubecalls. ThereisaserverandclientSSL certificatedecoderthatallowsyou todeterminetheprotocol(for example,CitrixOnlineandApple iCloud)usingtheencryption certificate.ThenDPIreaderutilityis suppliedtoanalyzethecontentsof pcapdumpsorcurrenttraffic throughthenetworkinterface. https://www.ntop.org/ndpi/ introducing-ndpi-4-4-many-newprotocols-improvements-andcybersecurity-features/ DEBIAN11.4UPDATE: 07/09/2022

Thefourthcorrectiveupdateof

theDebian11distributionhas beenpublished,whichincludesthe accumulatedpackageupdatesand fixesbugsintheinstaller.The releaseincludes81stability updatesand79securityupdates. OfthechangesinDebian11.4, wecannotetheupdatetothe lateststableversionsofthe

apache2,clamav,postfix,networkmanager,ganeti,libtgowt,nvidiagraphics-drivers,nvidiapersistenced,nvidia-settings, nvidia-xconfig,telegram-desktop, ublockpackages-origin,usb.ids, wireless-regdb.Theyremovedthe elogandpython-hbmqttpackages, whichareunmaintainedandhave securityandperformanceissues. Installationbuildswillbe preparedfordownloadand installationfromscratch,aswellas liveiso-hybridwithDebian11.4. Previouslyinstalledandup-to-date systemsreceivetheupdatesthat arepresentinDebian11.4through thenativeupdatesystem.Security fixesincludedinnewreleasesof Debianaremadeavailabletousers asupdatesarereleasedviathe security.debian.orgservice. https://www.debian.org/News/ 2022/20220709

systemandvariouscloudstorages suchasGoogleDrive,Amazon Drive,S3,Dropbox,BackblazeB2, OneDrive,Swift,Hubic,Cloudfiles, GoogleCloudStorage,Mail.ru CloudandYandex.Disk.Theproject codeiswritteninGoand distributedundertheMITlicense. https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone1-59-0-release/31808 RELEASEOFLIBREBOOT 20220710,ACOMPLETELY FREEDISTRIBUTIONOF

COREBOOT: 10.07.2022

Aftersevenmonthsof

RCLONE1.59 RELEASED: 07/10/2022

Therclone1.59utilityhasbeen published,whichisananalogue ofrsyncdesignedtocopyand synchronizedatabetweenthelocal

fullcirclemagazine#183 17 contents^ NEWS development,thereleaseof freebootablefirmwareLibreboot 20220710hasbeenpublished.This isthefourthreleaseintheGNU Projectandisbeingtoutedasthe firststablerelease(pastreleases havebeenmarkedastestreleases astheyrequireadditional stabilizationandtesting).Libreboot developsacompletelyfreefork fromtheCoreBootproject, providingabinary-free replacementforproprietaryUEFI andBIOSfirmwareresponsiblefor

initializingtheCPU,memory, peripherals,andotherhardware components.

Librebootaimstocreatea systemenvironmentthat completelydispenseswith proprietarysoftware,notonlyat theoperatingsystemlevel,butalso atthebootfirmwarelevel.

LibrebootnotonlycleansCoreBoot ofnonfreecomponents,butalso addstoolstomakeiteasierforend userstouse,creatingadistribution thatcanbeusedbyanyuserwith nospecialskills.

https://libreboot.org/news/ libreboot20220710.html

Lightningcalendarschedulerare offeredaspreinstalledaddons. Thenewreleasebringsfixesand changesfromthecurrentFirefox codebase(SeaMonkey2.53isbased ontheFirefox60.8browserengine, portingsecurityrelatedfixesand someimprovementsfromcurrent Firefoxbranches).

https://blog.seamonkey-project.org/ 2022/07/11/seamonkey25313is out/

RELEASEOFCALIBRE6.0: 11.07.2022

programswithouttheneedto installtherustccompilerbuiltusing LLVMdevelopments.

SEAMONKEY2.53.13

RELEASED: 11.07.2022

TheSeaMonkey2.53.13setof

Internetapplicationshasbeen released,whichcombinesaweb browser,anemailclient,anews feedaggregationsystem(RSS/ Atom)andaWYSIWYGhtmlpage editorComposerwithinone product.TheChatzillaIRCclient, theDOMInspectorweb developmenttoolkit,andthe

AUDACIOUS4.2RELEASED: 11.07.2022

Audacious4.2isout,originally branchedofffromtheBeep MediaPlayer(BMP)project,which isaforkoftheclassicXMMSplayer. Thereleasecomeswithtwouser interfaces:basedonGTKandQt. Buildsarepreparedforvarious Linuxdistributionsandfor Windows.

Calibre6.0isavailable,automatingthebasicsof maintainingane-bookcollection. Calibreoffersinterfacesfor navigatingthelibrary,reading books,convertingformats, synchronizingwithportable readingdevices,andviewingnews aboutnewproductsonpopular webresources.Thecomposition alsoincludesaserver implementationforaccesstoyour homecollectionfromanywhereon theWeb. https://calibreebook.com/newin/ fifteen

https://audacious-media-player.org/ news/53-audacious-4-2-released

GCCAPPROVESINCLUSION

OFRUSTLANGUAGE

SUPPORT: 11.07.2022

TheGCCSteeringCommitteehas approvedtheinclusionofthe gccrs(GCCRust)implementationof theRustcompilerintothecore GCC.Afterintegratingthe frontend,thestandardGCCtoolkit canbeusedtocompileRust

Thedevelopersofgccrsare encouragedtostartworkingwith theGCCchangereviewandrelease teamstofinalizeandapprove patchesintermsofmeetingthe technicalrequirementsforcode beingaddedtoGCC.Assuming developmentofgccrscontinuesas plannedandnounforeseenissues areidentified,theRustlanguage front-endwillbeintegratedinto theGCC13releasescheduledfor Maynextyear.TheRust implementationinGCC13willbein betastatus,notyetenabledby default. https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/ 2022-July/239057.html

NETWORKSECURITY

TOOLKIT36

RELEASED: 12.07.2022

Afterayearofdevelopment, theNST36(NetworkSecurity Toolkit)Livedistributionhasbeen published,designedtoanalyze networksecurityandmonitor operationthereof.Thesizeofthe

bootableisoimage(x86 64)is4.1

GB.Aspecialrepositoryhasbeen preparedforFedoraLinuxusers, whichmakesitpossibletoinstall theframeworkoftheNSTproject intoanalreadyinstalledsystem. ThedistributionisbasedonFedora 36andallowsinstallationof additionalpackagesfromexternal repositoriesthatarecompatible withFedoraLinux.

Thedistributionincludesalarge selectionofapplicationsrelatedto networksecurity(forexample: Wireshark,NTop,Nessus,Snort, NMap,Kismet,TcpTrack,Etherape, nsttracroute,Ettercap,etc.).To managethesecuritycheckprocess andautomatethecallofvarious utilities,aspecialwebinterfacehas beenmade,whichalsointegratesa webfrontendfortheWireshark networkanalyzer.Thedistribution's graphicalenvironmentisbasedon FluxBox. https://sourceforge.net/p/nst/ news/2022/07/nst-version-3613232-released/

UPTO4TIMESFASTER

IMPLEMENTATIONOF MEMCHRFUNCTION PROPOSEDFORLINUX

KERNEL: 12.07.2022

Asetofpatcheswithan

optimizedimplementationof thememchr()functionusedto searchforacharacterinanarrayis proposedforinclusionintheLinux kernel.Unliketheoldversion, whichusedabyte-by-byte comparison,theproposed implementationisbuilttakinginto accountthefulluseof64-and32bitCPUregisters.Insteadofbytes, thecomparisonisperformedusing machinewords,whichallowsat least4bytestobecomparedata time. Whensearchinginlargestrings, thenewversionturnedouttobe about4timesfasterthantheold one(forexample,forstringsof 1000characters).Forsmallstrings, theefficiencyofthenew implementationisnotas significant,butstillhigherthanthe originalversion.IntheLinuxkernel, thesizeofthestringsprocessedin memchr()reaches512bytes.The

performancegainfor512byte strings,inasituationwherethe searchcharacterisattheendofthe string,is20%.

Testingthe5.18kernelwiththe new"memchr()"variantfor32-bit and64-bitarchitecturesdidnot revealanyissues.Theoverall performancegainofkernel subsystemswhenusingthe optimized"memchr()"varianthas notyetbeenevaluated,norhasthe expediencyofreplacingthe implementationbeenanalyzed(the memchr()functioncalloccurs129 timesinthekernelcode,including inthecodeofdriversandfile systems). https://www.phoronix.com/ scan.php? page=news item&px=Linux-KernelFaster-memchr HEROESOFMIGHTAND

MAGIC2OPENENGINE

RELEASE-FHEROES20.9.17: 12.07.2022

Thefheroes20.9.17projectreleaseisout,whichrecreates

theHeroesofMightandMagicII gameenginefromscratch.The projectcodeiswritteninC++and distributedundertheGPLv2 license.Torunthegame,the originalgameresourcefilesare required,whichcanbeobtained, forexample,fromthedemo versionofHeroesofMightand MagicIIorfromtheoriginalgame. https://github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/ releases/tag/0.9.16

X.ORGSERVER21.1.4

UPDATEWITHSECURITY

FIXES: 12.07.2022

AcorrectivereleaseofX.Org Server21.1.4isavailablethat fixestwovulnerabilitiesintheXkb extensionhandlersthatallowyou toescalateyourprivilegesonthe systemiftheXserverisrunningas root,orexecutecodeonaremote systemifsessionredirectionisused foraccessX11usingSSH.The vulnerabilitiesarecausedbythe lackofpropersizecheckinginthe ProcXkbSetGeometry(CVE-20222319)andProcXkbSetDeviceInfo (CVE-2022-2320)requesthandlers, whichcanbeexploitedtowritetoa

memoryareaoutsidetheboundsof theallocatedbuffer.

Inthecaseof ProcXkbSetGeometry,therewasno checkforthesizeoftherequest fields,whichallowedtheclientto causeanoverflowbyspecifyinga numberofsectionsintherequest thatdidnotmatchthedataactually sent.IntheProcXkbSetDeviceInfo handler,thevulnerabilityiscaused byanincorrectorderoffunction calls-thefunctionforchecking parameterswascalledafterthe functioninwhichtheseparameters wereused(thenamesofthe functionsweremixedupandthe XkbSetDeviceInfofunction includedthecodeforchecking,and XkbSetDeviceInfoCheck-for settingvalues).

https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg/ 2022-July/061036.html

AnonymousexittoTailsisprovided bytheTorsystem.Allconnections, excepttrafficthroughtheTor network,areblockedbydefaultby thepacketfilter.Encryptionisused tostoreuserdatainthesaveuser databetweenrunsmode.A1Gbiso imagehasbeenpreparedfor download,capableofworkingin Livemode.

companyappointedMattHicks, whopreviouslyservedasvice presidentofRedHatproductsand technology.MatjoinedRedHatin 2006andbeganworkingonthe developmentteamdoingthework ofportingcodefromPerltoJava. Later,Mattledthedevelopmentof hybridcloudtechnologiesand becameoneoftheleadersofthe RedHatOpenShiftproject.

Anupdatehasbeenprepared

Thenewreleasewasreadyon June28,asexpected,butonJuly13 duetothedelayinthepublication ofanewstableversionoftheTor Browser.Asaresult,the13thalpha versionofTorBrowser11.5 (11.5a13build2)isincludedinthe release.Alsoincludedisanupdate totheThunderbird91.11.0mail client.Tails5.3isscheduledtobe releasedonJuly26th. https://forum.torproject.net/t/newrelease-tails-5-2/3944

RELEASEOFTAILS5.2:

13.07.2022

Tails5.2(TheAmnesicIncognito

LiveSystem),aspecialized distribution,basedontheDebian anddesignedforanonymousaccess toanetwork,hasbeenreleased.

CEO:

PresidentandChiefExecutive Officer(CEO).Thenewheadofthe

PaulCormier,theformer presidentofRedHat,wholedthe companyafterJimWhitehurst,was transferredtothepositionof chairmanoftheboardofdirectors (chairman)ofRedHat.MattHicks andPaulCormierwillreportto ArvindKrishna,CEOofIBM,which tookoverRedHatin2019but grantedindependenceandthe abilitytooperateasaseparate businessunit. https://www.redhat.com/en/about/ press-releases/red-hat-names-matthickspresidentandchief executive-officer

foraspecializedbuildofthe DogLinuxdistribution(aDebian LiveCDinthestyleofPuppyLinux), builtontheDebian11"Bullseye" anddesignedfortestingand servicingPCsandlaptops.Includes applicationssuchasGPUTest, UnigineHeaven,CPU-X, GSmartControl,GParted, Partimage,Partclone,TestDisk, ddrescue,WHDD,DMDE.The distributionallowsyoutocheckthe performanceoftheequipment, loadtesttheprocessorandvideo card,checkSMART ofHDDand NVMeSSD.ThesizeoftheLive imagedownloadedforUSBdrivesis 1.14GB https://gumanzoy.blogspot.com/ 2021/05/liveusb-1100mb-doglinuxdebian-11.html

386BSD,30YEARSAGO

TODAY: 14.07.2022

UPDATINGADOGLINUX

BUILDTOCHECK

HARDWARE: 07/14/2022

OnJuly14,1992,thefirstworkingrelease(0.1)ofthe

386BSDoperatingsystemwas published,whichofferedaBSD UNIXimplementationforthei386

processors,basedonthe4.3BSD Net/2developments.Thesystem wasequippedwithasimplified installer,includedacomplete networkingstack,amodularkernel, andarole-basedaccesscontrol system.InMarch1993,outofa desiretomakepatchingmoreopen andunifysupportforvarious architectures,theNetBSDforkwas formedbasedon386BSD0.1,and inJune1993,theFreeBSDproject wasfoundedonthebasisof 4.3BSD-Lite'Net/2'and386BSD0.1, whichincorporatespatchesnot includedin386BSD.

https://groups.google.com/forum/ #!original/comp.unix.bsd/ zA8Jl89HSRo/DqMzaUUZ7wYJ

LXQt1.1userenvironment.Initial buildsofLubuntu22.04shipthe deprecatedLXQt0.17branch publishedinApril2021.

TheLubuntuBackports repositoryiscurrentlyinbeta testingandissimilartothefresh KDEdesktoprepositorymaintained bytheKubuntuandKDENeon developers.Theofficialreleaseof backportsisscheduledforJuly19, ifnosignificantproblemsare identified. https://lubuntu.me/jammybackports-22-04-1-cft/

user(inthecaseofabrowserhack, attackerscanaccessthesystem networksettings,soproductssuch asWhonixshouldbeusedto completelyblockpossibleleaks). TorBrowserbuildsarepreparedfor Linux,WindowsandmacOS https://blog.torproject.org/newrelease-tor-browser-115/

security,andunifyingsoftware usedbycompaniesandeducational institutions.Thesystemissupplied freeofcharge,andthesourcetexts aredistributedundertheApache 2.0freelicense.

BUILDSWITHLXQT1.1

USERENVIRONMENT

PREPAREDFORLUBUNTU

22.04: 14.07.2022

ThedevelopersoftheLubuntu distributionannouncedthe publicationoftheLubuntu BackportsPPA,offeringpackages forinstallationinLubuntu/Ubuntu 22.04ofthecurrentreleaseofthe

TORBROWSER11.5:

15.07.2022

After8monthsofdevelopment, amajorreleaseoftheTor Browser11.5ispresented,which continuesthedevelopmentof functionalitybasedontheFirefox 91ESRbranch.Thebrowseris focusedonprovidinganonymity, securityandprivacy,alltrafficis redirectedonlythroughtheTor network.Itisimpossibletocontact thesystemdirectlythroughthe regularnetworkconnection,which doesnotallowtherealIPofthe

CHROMEOSFLEX

OPERATINGSYSTEMREADY FORINSTALLATIONONANY

HARDWARE: 15.07.2022

Googleannouncedthereadiness ofChromeOSFlexfor widespreaduse.ChromeOSFlexis astandalonevariantofChromeOS designedforuseondesktops,not justdevicesthatshipwithChrome OSnatively,suchasChromebooks, Chromebases,andChromeboxes.

Keyareasofapplicationfor ChromeOSFlexincludeupgrading existinglegacysystemstoextend theirlifecycle,reducingcosts(for example,noneedtopayforanOS andadditionalsoftwaresuchas antivirus),improvinginfrastructure

ThesystemisbasedontheLinux kernel,theupstartsystemmanager, theebuild/portagebuildtoolkit, opencomponents,andtheChrome webbrowser.Theuserenvironment ofChromeOSislimitedtoaweb browser,andinsteadofstandard programs,webapplicationsare provided,however,ChromeOS includesafullmulti-window interface,desktopandtaskbar.As tovirtualizationmechanisms,layers areprovidedforexecuting programsfromAndroidandLinux. Itisnotedthattheoptimizations implementedinChromeOSFlex cansignificantlyreduceenergy consumptioncomparedtousing otheroperatingsystems(energy savingsupto19%).

fullcirclemagazine#183 21 contents^ NEWS ChromeOSFlexeditionusesa verifiedbootprocess,integration withcloudstorage,automatic installationofupdates,Google Assistant,encryptedstorageof userdata,andmechanismsto preventdataleakageincaseof deviceloss/theft.Itprovidestools

forcentralizedsystems managementthatarethesameas ChromeOS-accesspoliciescanbe configuredandupdatescanbe managedusingtheGoogleAdmin console.

Currently,thesystemhasbeen testedandcertifiedforuseon295 differentmodelsofPCsand laptops.ChromeOSFlexcanbe deployedbybootingoverthe networkorbootingfromaUSB driveaswellasinlivemode.After evaluatingthesuitabilityofthe newsolution,youcanreplacethe existingOSvianetworkbootor fromaUSBdrive.Statedsystem requirements:4GBRAM,x86-64 IntelorAMDCPU,and16GB internalstorage.Alluser-specific settingsandapplicationsare synchronizedonfirstlogin.

Theproductwascreatedwith thehelpofNeverware,acquiredin 2020,whoreleasedtheCloudReady distribution,whichisabuildof ChromiumOSforlegacyequipment anddevicesthatwerenotoriginally equippedwithChromeOS.During thetakeover,Googlepromisedto integrateCloudReady'sworkinto thecoreChromeOS.Theresultof thiswas,ChromeOSFlexedition, willbesupportedinthesameway

asChromeOSsupport.Usersofthe CloudReadydistributionwillbe abletoupgradetheirsystemsto ChromeOSFlex. https://cloud.google.com/blog/ products/chrome-enterprise/ chromeos-flex-ready-to-scale-topcs-and-macs

ARCANDESKTOPENGINE

RELEASE0.6.2: 16.07.2022

Afterayearofdevelopment,

Arcan0.6.2desktopenginehas beenpublished,whichcombinesa displayserver,amultimedia frameworkandagameenginefor processing3Dgraphics.Arcancan beusedtocreateavarietyof graphicalsystems,fromuser interfacesforembedded applicationstoself-contained desktopenvironments.Including thethree-dimensionalSafespaces desktopforvirtualrealitysystems andtheDurdendesktop environment,thatarebeing developed.Theprojectcodeis writteninCanddistributedunder theBSDlicense(somecomponents underGPLv2+andLGPL).

Thenewreleasecontinuesthe developmentoftoolsforremote workwithadesktopovera network.Networkaccessis providedbythe"arcan-net" graphicalserverthatimplements theA12protocol,whichcombines thecapabilitiesoftechnologies suchasmDNS(localservice definition),SSH(interactivetext shell),X11/VNC/RDP(interactive graphicalshell),RTSP(multimedia streaming)andHTTP(resource downloadandstate synchronization).

Arcanisnottiedtoaseparate graphicssubsystemandcanrunon topofvarioussystemenvironments (BSD,Linux,macOS,Windows) usingpluggablebackends.For example,youcanitrunontopof Xorg,egl-dri,libsdlandAGP(GL/ GLES).TheArcanDisplayServercan runX,WaylandandSDL2based clientapplications.Thekeycriteria usedinthedesignoftheArcanAPI aresecurity,performance,and debuggability.Tosimplifythe developmentofinterfaces,they proposetousetheLualanguage. https://arcan-fe.com/2022/07/15/ arcan-0-6-2-its-all-connected/

T2SDE22.6META

DISTRIBUTIONRELEASED: 16.07.2022

TheT2SDE21.6metadistributionhasbeenreleased, providinganenvironmentfor creatingyourowndistributions, cross-compilingandkeeping packageversionsuptodate. Distributionscanbebasedon Linux,Minix,Hurd,OpenDarwin, Haiku,andOpenBSD.Ofthe populardistributionsbuiltontopof theT2system,PuppyLinuxcanbe noted.Theprojectprovidesbasic bootableisoimageswithaminimal graphicalenvironmentinversions withtheMusllibrary(653MB)and Glibc(896MB).Morethan2000 packagesareavailableforbuilding.

Thenewreleaseaddssupport forarc,avr32,x32,andnios2 architectures,andbringsthetotal numberofsupportedhardware architecturesto22(alpha,arc,arm, arm64,avr32,hppa,ia64,m68k, mipsel,mips64,nios2,ppc,ppc6432,ppc64le,riscv,riscv64,s390x, sparc64,superh,x86,x86-64,and x32Updatedcomponentversions, includingGCC11,Linuxkernel 5.17.15,LLVM/Clang14,GCC12.1, andrecentreleasesX.org,Mesa,

https://www.mail-archive.com/ t2@t2-project.org/msg04039.html

THEXFWM4WINDOW

MANAGERHASBEENPORTED

TOWORKWITHWAYLAND:

07/17/2022

Aspartofthexfwm4-wayland project,anindependent enthusiastisdevelopingaversion ofthexfwm4windowmanager, adaptedtousetheWayland protocolandtranslatedtothe Mesonbuildsystem.Wayland supportinxfwm4-waylandis providedthroughintegrationwith thewlrootslibraryandprovides basicfunctionsfortheWaylandbasedcompositemanager.Xfwm4 isusedintheXfceuser environmenttodisplay,decorate, andtransformwindows.

Thedeveloperhasnotyet decidedwhethertodevelopthe portindependentlyoraspartof Xfce.Iftheprojectremains independent,itwillusethename xfway,whichwaspreviouslyused bythesameauthortoexperiment withdevelopingacompositeserver

forXfcerunningontopofthe libwestonlibrary.Initscurrent form,thexfwm4portbasedon wlrootshasnotbeencompleted, andcomparedtotheprevious attempttocreateacomposite serverbasedonlibweston,thenew portstilllagsbehindin functionality.Atthesametime,the portisactivelydeveloping,for example,supportforswitching windowsusingAlt+Tabwasadded afewdaysago.Ofthefuture plans,theprovisionofworkinboth WaylandandX11ismentioned, Asfortheofficialsupportfor WaylandinXfce,itisstillstallingin place.Inaccordancewiththeplan publishedayearago,theyintend toachieveacceptableoperationof themainapplicationsinWayland basedenvironmentsintherelease ofXfce4.18,andafulltransitionto Waylandisclassifiedasalong-term plan.Therewerediscussionsabout usinglibmutterorwlrootsas optionsforadaptingXfcefor Wayland,butultimatelythechoice wasmadeinfavoroflibmutter,asit ismorefamiliartodevelopers workingwithGTK.Unlikethe wlroots-basedport,thelibmutterbasedsolutionwillrequirethe xfce4-panelandxfdesktop componentstobeintegratedinto

thecompositeserver. https://lists.freedesktop.org/ archives/wayland-devel/2022-July/ 042273.html

OPENSUSEPROVIDESFULL

SUPPORTFORTHENIM

PROGRAMMINGLANGUAGE: 18.07.2022

ThedevelopersoftheopenSUSE distributionhaveannounced thestartofinitialsupportfor packagesrelatedtotheNim programminglanguage.Primary supportmeansregularandprompt generationofupdates correspondingtothecurrent releasesoftheNimtoolkit. Packageswillbegeneratedforthe x86-64,i586,ppc64le,andARM64 architecturesandtestedagainst theopenSUSEautomatedtesting systemsbeforepublication.Earlier, theArchLinuxdistributioncameup withasimilarsupportinitiativefor Nim.

TheNimlanguageisfocusedon solvingproblemsofsystem programming,usesstatictyping andwascreatedwithaneyeon Pascal,C++,PythonandLisp.Nim

sourcecodeiscompiledintoaC,C+ +,ObjectiveC,orJavaScript representation.Subsequently,the resultingC/C++codeiscompiled intoanexecutablefileusingany availablecompiler(clang,gcc,icc, VisualC++),whichmakesitpossible toachieveperformanceclosetoC, ifwedonottakeintoaccountthe costsofrunningthegarbage collector.SimilartoPython,Nim usesindentationasblock separators.Metaprogramming toolsandcapabilitiesforcreating domain-specificlanguages(DSLs) aresupported.

https://news.opensuse.org/ 2022/07/14/os-reaches-first-classsupport-for-nim/

ANEXPERIMENTTOIMPROVE

THEEFFICIENCYOFTHECAT

UTILITY: 18.07.2022

fullcirclemagazine#183 23 contents^ NEWS Firefox,Rust,GNOMEandKDE. AriadneConill,creatorofthe Audaciousmusicplayer,pioneerof theIRCv3protocol,andleaderof theAlpineLinuxsecurityteam,has doneresearchonhowtooptimize thecatutilitythatprintsoneor morefilestostandardoutput.To improvetheperformanceofcaton

Linux,twooptimizationshavebeen proposedbasedontheuseofthe sendfileandsplicesystemcallsto directlycopydatabetweenfile descriptorsatthekernellevel withoutacontextswitchtouser space.

Thebaseimplementation,using traditionalreadandwritecalls resultinginacontextswitch,when copyinga4GBfilefromtmpfs showedathroughputof3.6GB/s. Thesendfile-basedvariant increasedperformanceto6.4GB/s, andthesplice-basedvariantto11.6 GB/s,i.e.turnedouttobefaster thantheoriginalversionbymore than3times.

https://ariadne.space/2022/07/17/ howefficientcancat1be/

systemwith6GBofRAManda64bitIntelorAMDCPUwithsupport forVT-xcEPT/AMD-vcRVIandVTd/AMDIOMMUtechnologies,an IntelGPUisdesirable(NVIDIAand AMDGPUsarenotwelltested). Thesizeoftheinstallationimageis 5.5GB.

QUBESOS4.1.1UPDATE: 07/19/2022

AnupdateoftheQubes4.1.1

operatingsystemisout,which implementstheideaofusinga hypervisorforstrictisolationof applicationsandOScomponents (eachclassofapplicationsand systemservicesruninseparate virtualmachines).Itrequiresa

ApplicationsinQubesare dividedintoclassesdependingon theimportanceofthedatabeing processedandthetasksbeing solved.Eachapplicationclass(e.g. work,entertainment,banking)as wellassystemservices(network subsystem,firewall,storage,USB stack,etc.)runinseparatevirtual machinesthatrunusingtheXen hypervisor.Atthesametime,these applicationsareavailablewithinthe samedesktopandarehighlighted forclarityindifferentwindow framecolors.Eachenvironmenthas readaccesstotheunderlyingroot FSandlocalstoragethatdoesnot overlapwiththestoragesofother environments;aspecialserviceis usedtoorganizeapplication interaction. Inthenewrelease,onlythe updateoftheversionsofthe programsthatformthebasic systemenvironment(dom0)is noted.Atemplateforcreating

virtualenvironmentsbasedon Fedora36hasbeenprepared.By default,theLinux5.15kernelis proposed.TheQubes4.0branchis scheduledtobedemaintainedon August4,andusersoftheold branchareencouragedtoswitchto usingQubes4.1. https://www.qubes-os.org/news/ 2022/07/18/qubes-4-1-1/ RELEASEOFNEBULAGRAPH

3.2: 19.07.2022

TheopenDBMSNebulaGraph

3.2hasbeenreleased,designed toefficientlystorelargesetsof interconnecteddatathatforma graphthatcanhavebillionsof nodesandtrillionsoflinks.The projectiswritteninC++and distributedundertheApache2.0 license.Clientlibrariesfor accessingtheDBMSareprepared forGo,Python,andJava.

Theorchestrationofdata movementandtheprovisionof meta-informationaboutthegraph ishandledbyameta-service.To ensuredataconsistency,aprotocol basedontheRAFTalgorithmis used. https://github.com/vesoft-inc/ nebula/releases/tag/v3.2.0

TheDBMSusesadistributed architecturewithoutresource sharing,whichimpliesthelaunchof independentandself-sufficient graphdqueryprocessingprocesses andstoragedstorageprocesses.

NOMENUS-REX0.7.0

RELEASED: 20.07.2022

AnewreleaseofNomenus-rex, acommand-lineutilityforbulk

filerenaming,isavailable.Itis configuredusingasimple configurationfile.Theprogramis writteninC++anddistributed underthetermsofGPL3.0.Since thepreviousupdate,6daysago, theutilityhasacquired functionality,andnumerouserrors andshortcomingshavebeenfixed.

https://github.com/ANGulchenko/ nomenus-rex

TWOMOREGAMESFROM

STUDIOKD-VISIONGOES

OPEN: 20.07.2022

Followinginthesourcecodefootstepsofthegamessuchas "Vangers","Perimeter"and "Moonshine",thesourcecodeof twomoregamesbytheKD-Vision studio(formerlyKD-Lab)were published-"Perimeter2:New Earth"and"Maelstrom:TheBattle forEarthBegins".Bothgamesare builtontheVistaEngine,an evolutionofthePerimeterengine thatsupportswatersurfacesand othernewfeatures.Thepublication ofsourcecodeishandledbythe communityoffansofKD-Lab gameswiththepermissionofthe developers.Thesourcecodeofthe gamearepublishedunderthe GPLv3license,gameresourcescan beusedfromSteam. https://github.com/KD-lab-OpenSource/VistaEngine

RELEASEOFTHEQT CREATOR8DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

22.07.2022

TheQtCreator8.0IDEhasbeen released,designedtocreate cross-platformapplicationsusing theQtlibrary.Boththe developmentofclassicC++ programsandtheuseoftheQML languagearesupported,inwhich JavaScriptisusedtodefinescripts, andthestructureandparameters ofinterfaceelementsaresetby CSS-likeblocks.Downloadsare readyforLinux,Windowsand macOS. https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-creator8released

projectcodeiswritteninC languageandisdistributedunder theBSDlicense.

Forgames,itusesthespecial libgamemodelibrary,whichallows youtorequesttheinclusionof certainoptimizationsthatarenot usedbydefaultinthesystematthe timeofgameexecution.Thereis alsoalibraryoptionavailabletorun thegameinautomaticoptimization mode(loading libgamemodeauto.sovia LD PRELOADwhenstartingthe game),withouttheneedtomake changestothegamecode.The inclusionofcertainoptimizations canbecontrolledthroughthe configurationfile.

gamemodelistutilitythatallows youtoviewalistofprocesses associatedwithgamesrunning usingtheGameModeshared library.Insteadofbeingtiedto/usr/ bin,pathstoexecutablefilesare nowdefinedthroughthePATH environmentvariable.For sysusers.d,thegamemode.conf configurationfileisimplemented, whichcreatesaseparategroupfor GameMode. https://github.com/FeralInteractive/ gamemode/releases/tag/1.7

GAMEMODE1.7IS

AVAILABLE: 22.07.2022

FeralInteractivehaspublished thereleaseofGameMode1.7 optimizer,implementedasa backgroundprocessthatchanges variousLinuxsystemsettingson theflytoachievemaximumgaming applicationperformance.The

Forexample,usingGameMode, powersavingmodescanbeturned off,resourceallocationandtask schedulingparameters(CPU governorandSCHED_ISO)canbe changed,input/outputpriorities canberearranged,screensaver startupisblocked,various enhancedperformancemodesare enabledinNVIDIAandAMDGPUs, andNVIDIAGPUsareoverclocked andrunscriptswithuser-defined optimizations.

Release1.7introducesanew

VSMTP-MAILSERVERWITH

BUILT-INLANGUAGEFOR

TRAFFICFILTERING: 22.07.2022

ThevSMTPprojectisdeveloping anewmailserver(MTA)aimed atprovidinghighperformanceand providingflexibleoptionsfor filteringandtrafficmanagement. TheprojectcodeiswritteninRust anddistributedundertheGPLv3 license. Accordingtodeveloper-who publishedthetestresults,vSMTPis tentimesfasterthancompeting MTAs.Forexample,vSMTPshowed

413timeshigherthroughputthan Postfix3.6.4whensending100KB messagesandestablishing4-16 concurrentsessions.High performanceisachievedthrough theuseofamultithreaded architecture,inwhichasynchronous channelsareusedtocommunicate betweenthreads.

vSMTPisbeingdevelopedwith aprimaryfocusonhighsecurity, whichisachievedthrough extensivetestingusingstaticand dynamictests,aswellastheuseof theRustlanguage,which,ifused properly,avoidsmanymemoryrelatederrors.Configurationfiles aredefinedinTOMLformat

https://github.com/viridIT/vSMTP/ blob/develop/benchmarks/ README.md#benchmarks

mentionsthattheproblemis relatedtothemasterpassword. Thenewreleasehaschangedthe methodofencodingandstoringthe masterpassword,sousersare advisedtobackuptheirOpenOffice profilebeforeinstallingversion 4.1.13,asthenewprofilewillbreak compatibilitywithprevious releases. https://cwiki.apache.org/ confluence/display/OOOUSERS/ AOO+4.1.12+Release+Notes

Fedora,ArchLinux,ManjaroLinux. https://github.com/CineEncoder/ cine-encoder FFMPEG5.1MULTIMEDIA

PACKAGERELEASED: 23.07.2022

THEBANONTHESALEOF

OPENSOURCESOFTWARE THROUGHTHEMICROSOFT STOREHASBEENLIFTED: 22.07.2022

APACHEOPENOFFICE

4.1.13RELEASED: 22.07.2022

ApacheOpenOffice4.1.13isavailable,whichoffers7fixes. PackagesarepreparedforLinux, WindowsandmacOS.Thenew releasefixesforavulnerabilitythat hasnotyetbeendetailed,but

RELEASEOFCINEENCODER

3.5.4:

23.07.2022

ThevideoconverterCine Encoder3.5.4isout.The programcanbeusedtochange HDRmetadatasuchasMaster Display,maxLum,minLum,and otherparameters.Thefollowing encodingformatsareavailable: H265,H264,VP9,MPEG-2,XDCAM, DNxHR,ProRes.CineEncoderis writteninC++,usestheFFmpeg, MkvToolNixandMediaInfoutilities towork,andisdistributedunder theGPLv3license.Packagesfor majordistributionsinclude:Debian, Ubuntu,LinuxMint,CentOS,

Aftersixmonthsofdevelopment,theFFmpeg5.1 multimediapackageisavailable, whichincludesasetofapplications andacollectionoflibrariesfor operationsonvariousmultimedia formats(recording,convertingand decodingaudioandvideoformats). Thepackageisdistributedunder theLGPLandGPLlicenses,the developmentofFFmpegiscarried outadjacenttotheMPlayer project. https://ffmpeg.org/ index.html#news

MicrosofthasamendedthetermsofusefortheMicrosoft Storetochangethepreviously addedrequirement,which prohibitsthecatalogfromprofiting fromthesaleofopensource softwarethatisnormally distributedfreeofcharge.The changewasmadeaftercriticism fromthecommunityandthe negativeimpactofthechangeon thefundingofmanylegitimate projects.

Themotiveforbanningthesale ofopensourcesoftwareinthe MicrosoftStorewastocombatthe fraudulentresaleofinitiallyfree applications,buttheSoftware FreedomConservancy(SFC)has shownthatopensourcesoftware alreadyhasaneffectivetoolto combatfraudstersdistributing clonesofpopularprogramstrademarkregistrationandthe introductionofaclauseintherules fortheiruseprohibitingresale undertheoriginalname.Atthe

sametime,usersretainthe possibilityofpaiddistributionof theirbuilds,butshouldnot distributethemonbehalfofthe mainproject(dependingonthe rulesadoptedbytheprojects, deliveryunderadifferentnameor addingalabelindicatingthatthe buildisnotofficialisrequired).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ windows/uwp/publish/storepolicies-change-history

BrianDouglasshasupdatedhis FCMappforUbportsTouch devicesthatwillallowyoutoview currentissues,andbackissues,and todownloadandviewthemonyour UbuntuTouchphone/tablet.

INSTALL

Eithersearchfor'fullcircle'inthe OpenStoreandclickinstall,orview theURLbelowonyourdeviceand clickinstalltobetakentothestore page: https://uappexplorer.com/app/ fullcircle.bhdouglass

HUGEthankstoBrianforthis.

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

WrittenbyErik

Welcomebacktoanotherissue

of‘commandandconquer’. Asmanyofyoumayknow,I’mon thelookoutforadistributionto suitmyoldpotatolaptops.IthinkI havedecidedonXFCEfortheDE. XFCEissimpleandvery customizable,andithassomenifty keyboardshortcutsbuiltin.Wantto learnthem?Thenreadonaswewill covertheminthisissue.

Thoughsomedistributionsuse CTRL+Escforthemenu,with Xubuntu,youcanusejustthe “super”key.Theonewiththelittle black-and-whiteDanish/Swedish/ Norwegian/Finnishflagonit.;o)

Somekeyboardshaveacontext menukeyontheright,that’sthe oppositesideoftheblack-andwhiteflag,Stan,thatyoucanuseto bringupacontextmenu.However, ifyourkeyboarddoesnothavethis key,youcanuseALT+F1topopit intoexistenceanywherethemouse pointeris.However,thisisnot applicationspecific,likearightclick,nomatterwhatsomemaysay. Youcantestthisbyrightclickingon thedesktopandright-clickinginan application,thenrepeatingitwith

thekeypress.ALT+F2(orsuper+r) shouldlaunchyourfinder–basically thesearchinyourwhiskermenu. ALT+3shouldbringupthewhole whiskermenuatyourmouse pointer.CTRL+ALT+Escarethe Linuxkill(xkill)keys.Yourmouse pointershouldchangetoindicate thatxkillhasbeenactivatedand

willkillanyapplicationyouclickit on.

ForThunarfilemanager,super+ fwillwork,thoughonXubuntu, super+e(forwindowsusers)isalso Thunarfilemanager,bydefault.My favouriteThunarshortcutisF4,for openingaterminalinthecurrent

folder.OnstandardXFCE,super+e usuallylaunchesmousepad.Most peopleknowthatCTRL+ALT+t bringsupaterminal,buton Xubuntu,super+twillalsosuffice. Mediakeysareawonderfulthing, butout-of-the-boxXubuntucan emulatethesekeysifyour keyboardislacking.Super+mwill launchyourmailreader (Thunderbirdusually),andsuper+w

COMMAND&CONQUER

willlaunchyourwebbrowser.Super andF1willpingyourmouse pointer,soyoudon’tloseit.Atany time,youcangoaheadandchange anyofthesedefaultbindings,in keyboard->applicationshortcuts.

AsIsaid,wearetalkingout-ofthe-boxhere.Youcanalso manipulatewindows;mostofyou knowALT+F4tocloseawindowand ALT+TABtoswitchwindows,butdo youknowALT+F9tominimizea window?WeknowthatF11 maximizesabrowserorevensome applications,butALT+F11will maximizethingslikeThunar;tryit out.Wouldyouliketosendyour currentThunarwindowtothe ‘bottomofthepileofwindowsyou haveopen’andbringitbacktothe top?ThenuseALT+SHIFT+PGDN. Butwait!There’smore.Ifyouact now,foralimitedtimeonly,you canuseALT+SPACEtoemulate clickingonthefoldericoninthe top-leftofyourThunarwindow. Yes,youheardcorrectly,100% mouse-freeactionwiththepushof twobuttons!Nowobviously browsersarenotincludedhereas browsershavetheirownshortcut keys,sodonottrythesewhenyour browserhasfocus.That’sright folks,browsershortcutkeyssold separately.CTRL+ninThunar,will

netyouanewwindowandCTRL+t anewtab.Forthattoworkinthe standardterminal,youneedthe shift-key.CTRL+SHFT+twillgetyou anothertabinXFCEterminal.

Rememberthatifyouchange thingslikeyourcomposter,things likeALT+Mousewheel-up,willno longerzoomyourdisplay.Donot confuseitwithCTRL+Mousewheelupthatwillincreasethezoom insideanapplicationthatsupports it.Forinstance,inThunar,the foldericonswillincreaseinsize,but thetextwillnot.Shouldyouwishto moveawindow,that,say,wentout ofboundswithascreenswap,you canuseALT+left-clicktomovea window,withoutgrabbingitbythe titlebar.

Ifyouuseworkspaces,ALT+INS willincreasetheamountof workspaces,whilstALT+DELwill decreasethem.Ifyoupressthe keysandnothingseemstobe happening,addtheworkspace switchertooneofyourpanels.

Let’sgeneraliseforasecond, usuallyCTRLisusedinthe “general”sphere.Thingslike: CTRL+oforopen,CTRL+nfornew, CTRL+qforquit.Thesekeysshould workin*most–not*all

applications.CTRL+ptoprint, CTRL+stosave,CTRL+ftofind,and theusualCTRL+ctocopy,CTRL+v topaste,CTRL+xtocut,shouldget youalmostallthewaythere.There isalsoCTRL++toenlargeyourview orCTRL+-fortheopposite,with CTRL+0for“returntonormal” shouldthingsgettoobigortoo small,anddon’tforgetCTRL+rto refresh(notF5).Ididnotforget CTRL+aforselectall,orCTRL+zfor undo,butredoistheoddoneout assometimesitisCTRL+yor CTRL+SHIFT+z.Theseareonesyou shouldknow,astheyworkinother operatingsystemstoo.

Thedefaultscreenshottoolin XFCEisscreenshooter,anditalso hassomeshortcutkeys,PRTSCRto takeafullscreenscreenshot,and SHIFT+PRTSCRtoallowyouto selecttheareaofthescreenyou wouldliketogetapictureof.

Andthatistheshortn’sweetof it,nowtocreateyourown.Open thekeyboardappandnavigateto

‘applicationshortcuts’.Don’tworry, weareonyourside.Ifyouseethis littlepopup,anddon’tknowwhat todo,letushelp.

COMMAND&CONQUER

Whenyouright-clickonany menuiteminthewhiskermenu, youwillsee“editapplication”.This iswhereyoucancopypastathe commandyouneedfrom,intothis littleboxpromptingyoufora “Command:”.Onceyouclick“OK”,it willaskyouforyourkey combination;besureitdoesnot overlapwithanyothersbeforehand andmakesureyoupresscorrectly. Ifyoumadeamistake,youcan alwaysremoveitwiththe“-”atthe bottom,orifitwassuccessfulyou shouldseesomethinglikethis: Asyoucansee,myCudatext shortcutisrightatthetop.Hooray! Youarenowwellonyourwayto tamingXFCE.

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

H

W-

TO O

WrittenbyGregWalters

Sorryaboutnotbeingableto continuethetopiclastmonth, butweareback.Let’sjumpright intotheprojectwhereweleftonin issue#181.Hereiswhatthelatest versionoftheprogramlookslike (imageshownbottomright)

Justtoremindyou,thereare threepossiblecolorsettingsfor mostwidgets.ASelected

Backgroundcolor,anActive Backgroundcolor,andanInactive Backgroundcolor.Hereishowthey work…

Forthemostpart,thisall pertainstotheTNotebookTabs, buthave“carryovers”intomost otherwidgetsaswell.

SelectBackgroundColor-The backgroundcolorofthetab (widget)youarecurrentlyon ActiveBackgroundColor-The backgroundofthetab(widget)the mouseishoveringover

InactiveBackgroundColor The backgroundofallothertabs (widgets)

threemainpanels(allTLableframes (ttk::Labelframes))thatholdthe widgetsthatwewillneedtomake theprojectwork.Fromlefttoright, wehavethebackgroundcolors,the foregroundcolors,andasmall

samplingofvariouswidgetsthat willactasapreview,showinghow thecolorswilllook.

Takingacloserlookatthe backgroundcolorsTLableframe

(theforegroundworksalmost exactlythesame,exceptfor dealingwiththeforeground colors),we’llconcentrateonthe backgroundpanelrightnow. Wehavethreestatictext

Mostoftheactionhappens withintheTNotebook.Thereare

HOWTO-PYTHON

widgets(ttk::Labels),threeEntry widgets(ttk:Entries),andthree Buttons(StandardTk::Buttons). BetweentheEntrywidgetsandthe buttons,wecanpickthecolorswe wanttotry.Allthreebuttonshave thesamebasiccallbackcommand function(lambda:on_bgColor(x) wherexisthenumberofthe button).Thisallowsanyofthe threebuttonstocallthesame function,withadifferentindex,so theprogramknowswhichButton madethecall.Thebuttonswillcall theColorSelectdialog.Ifyouknow whatcoloryouwant,youcanput thecolordirectlyintotheEntrybox oftheLabelframeorusethedialog. Thedialogalsoletsyouusethe slidersordirectentryintotheEntry box.

Hereiswhatyouneedtouse theColorSelectdialog.

def on _bgColor(*args): global lastbg1, lastbg2, lastbg3, lastfg1, lastfg2, lastfg3 if debug: print("ColorSetCreator_support.on_bgColor") for arg in args: print("another arg:", arg) sys.stdout.flush()

First,youneedtoimportitfrom Tkinter.

import tkinter.colorchooser as colorchooser

Then,whenyouwantthe colorchooserdialogtobeshown, thesyntaxis: result = tkColorChooser.askcolor(color , option=value, ...)

Theparametersare: Color-Theinitialcolorthatthe dialogwillshow.Ifyouleaveit blank,itwilldefaulttolightgray. Title-Thetitleforthedialog window Parent-TheToplevelformyou wishthedialogtoappearover. Usually,thiswouldbeyourmain form.

Thereturnvaluecomesbackas

atuplethatcomesinas(triple, color)–assumingtheuserclicksthe Okbutton.Tripleisitselfatupleof (Red,Green,Blue)values(inthe rangeof[0,255])andcoloristhe regularTkinterhexvalueobject.If theuserclickstheCancelbutton, thereturnvaluewillbe (None,None).

Whenthedialogisshown,the usercanusethesliderstocreatea colortheylike,enterahexvalue (startingwith“#”)intotheentry box,orenteroneofthepredefined Tkintercolorsasastring(like“sky blue”).Anytimeyouenter somethingintotheentryboxofthe dialog,youMUSTpresstheEnter keyto“set”theinformationbefore youclicktheokbutton(topright).

TheTEntrywidgetseachhavea textvarthatallowstheprogramto findtheentereddatasimplyand theyareTEntry1Data,TEntry2Data andTEntry3Data.I’veboundthe threeTEntrywidgetstothesame

callbackfunctionwheneverakeyis pressedonthekeyboardandthe widgetisinfocus.Inthisfunction, weareonlylookingforthe <Return>key,Thenwesimplyread thetextvartoseewhattheuser hasentered. Nowlet’slookatsomeofthe codethatisattachedtothe buttons.Remember,wecallthe codeason _bgColor(n)wherenis thevaluewegavethebutton.

Forthemostpart,thefirst portionofthecodeisgeneratedby PAGE,showingeachofthevalues passedintothefunction.Iadded theglobalstatementandtheif debug:portionofthecode,soIcan hidethevalueprintoutwhenI’m donewithdebugging.

Nextwelookattheargument beingpassedin(whichisthe numberofthebutton)andgetthe lastcolorthatwasassignedtothat backgroundcolorgroupfromthe

HOWTO-PYTHON

globals.Thisgivesusthestarting colorfortheColorSelectdialog basedonwhichofthethree backgroundcolorswewishtowork on.

Wesimplyuseanifstatementto checkthevaluepassedin.

which = args[0]

if which == 1: colr = lastbg1 elif which == 2: colr = lastbg2 elif which == 3: colr = lastbg3

Simpleenough,right?Nowthat wehavethebasicdata,wecancall thecolorchooserdialog.

result = colorchooser.askcolor( colr, title=f"Enter Color for Background #{which}", parent=root)

Wesetthestartingcolor,the titleofthedialog,andthenameof theparentToplevelsothedialog getscenteredproperly.The responsefromtheusercomesback

asthevariableresult.

Sincethedialogreturnstwo values(thefirstbeingatuple containingR,GandBvalue,andthe secondreturningthehexvalueof thecolorchosen),weneedtocheck atleastoneofthetwovalues. Tkinterdoesn’tallowfortheRGB valuestobeuseddirectly,sowe wanttocheckthehexvaluewhich comesinasthesecondvalue.In addition,thevaluescanbeeither validcolorvaluesortwoNone values.Ioptedtocheckthesecond value,whichiswhatwewillbe usingtosetthecolorifthereisa valuethere.Thefirstthingwetodo ismakesurethattheuserdidn’t clicktheCancelbutton(bottom left).

Ifthereturnedvalueisnot None,wethensetthehexvalue intotheTEntrywidgetandsetthe backgroundcolorofthebuttonto visuallyshowthecolorthatwas chosen.Thesamecodeisbasically usedfortheothertwopossible button/TEntrycombinations.Then,

abspath1 = os.path.abspath('')

abspath2 = pathlib.Path().absolute()

abspath3 = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.absolute()

localpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))

# 'cwd' stands for Current Working Directory

cwd = os.path.abspath(os.getcwd())

realpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))

print(f'Abspath1: {abspath1}')

print(f'Abspath2: {abspath2}')

print(f'Abspath3: {abspath3}')

print(f'LocalPath: {localpath}')

print(f'Current Working Directory: {cwd}')

print(f'Real Path: {realpath}')

finallywecalltheroot.update() functionjusttomakesure everythinglooksright(bottom right).

TheForegroundcolor(thetext color)isbasicallythesameprocess, sowe’llskipithereforthismonth. Sohereiswhatasimplecolor combinationworksouttobe. SelectedBackgroundisTab1,Tab2 istheActivebackground(where themouseishovering),andTabs3 through5aretheInactive Backgrounds.

actuallybeappliedtothewidgets, weneedtoapplythecolorsets.

Lookingbackatthefullimageof theform,thereisabuttoncalled “ApplyColors”.Thishasacallback thatsimplycallsafunctioncalled set colors().SinceIoriginally designedthistodealwithttk widgets,weneedtostartbycalling thettk.Style()togetadefaultstyle structure.

Inordertogetthecolorsto

elif which == 2:

w1.TEntry2Data.set(lastcolor)

_

if result[1] != None:

lastcolor = result[1]

if which == 1:

_w1.TEntry1Data.set(lastcolor)

lastbg1 = lastcolor

w1.Button1.configure(background=lastbg1)

lastbg2 = lastcolor

w1.Button2.configure(background=lastbg2) elif which == 3:

w1.TEntry3Data.set(lastcolor)

lastbg3 = lastcolor

w1.Button3.configure(background=lastbg3) root.update()

HOWTO-PYTHON

def set _colors():

global lastbg1, lastbg2, lastbg3, lastfg1, lastfg2, lastfg3

“Selected”and“Active”areall obvious,butthereisthe“!active” state,whichistheinactivestate (whenthewidgetisjustsitting therewithoutthemousedoing anythingaroundit).

style = ttk.Style()

Inordertomanipulateanyof thestylesforanyofthettk widgets,wehavetomodifythe style.mapstructure.Sincewewant tochangetheTNotebooktabsfirst, westartthere(topright).

Eachttkwidgethasadifferent setofstatesthatcanbeset.These canincludestateslike“Active”, “Disabled”,“Background”and more.Youcanseethatwesetthe threebackgroundandthree foregroundcolorvaluesabove. Whatisnotobviousfromthe documentationonttkStyle manipulationistheinactivestate.

AsIsaid,everywidgetis differentastothestatesthatitwill support.Forexample,theTButton hasan“Active”,a“Disabled”anda “Readonly”state,allofwhichhave separateattributesthatcanbeset (bottomleft).

Manyofthettkwidgetsalso needtobeconfigured,sortoflike the“standard”Tkwidgetsdo,to setmanyofthevariousattributes available.Todothis,weneedto createa“generic”styleforthat widget,thenapplyitusingthestyle attribute.(Getssomewhat confusing,huh?.

Wedothisbyusingthe

style.map( "TButton", background=[ ("active", lastbg2), ("disabled", "gray76"), ("readonly", "firebrick2"), ],

foreground=[("active", lastfg2), ("disabled", lastfg1), ("readonly", lastfg3)],

style.map( "TNotebook.Tab", background=[("selected", lastbg1), ("active", lastbg2), ("!active", lastbg3)],

foreground=[("selected", lastfg1), ("active", lastfg2), ("!active", lastfg3)],

)

style.configurefunction,starting withournamedstylealongwith thewidget,thensettheattributes aswewantthem,thenfinally applyingthestyleviathestyle attribute(bottomright).

Youcandothiswithmanyofthe “normal”attributesthatyoudon’t gettochangewithinPAGE,since anyttkwidgetcanhaveanystyle available.Imaginehaving100ttk widgetseachwithitsownstyle.It canbedone!

Enoughtheoryforthismonth. Nextmonth,we’lllookatsaving thecolorsetsintosomethingthat wecanuseandapply,andawayto writethisinformationoutsowe canuseitwithinotherprogramsin averysimpleway.

Untilnexttime,asalways;stay safe,healthy,positiveandcreative!

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

)

style.configure("MyTButton.TButton", background=lastbg1, foreground=lastfg1)

w1.TButton3.configure(style="MyTButton.TButton")

H HOOWW--TTO O

BACKNEXTMONTH

B BlleennddeerrPPtt..X

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

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyRobertBoardman

Texwasdevelopedinthemid

1970sbyDonaldKnuthand publishedin1978.“TeXwas designedwithtwomaingoalsin mind:toallowanybodytoproduce highqualitybookswithminimal effort,andtoprovideasystemthat wouldgiveexactlythesameresults onallcomputers,atanypointin time”(Wikipedia:Tex).Thatmeant thedocumentandthetypesetting instructionshadtobewrittenusing onlythestandard128characters availableinASCII.Rememberthe firstIBM-PCwasnotavailableuntil 1981.Itcamewith16KBofRAM, whichwasexpandableto256KB. Forstorage,theoriginalIBMPC couldhouseeitheroneortwo 320KBfloppydiskdrives.There werenoPCsin1978,sothefirst installationsofTexranonPDP-10 machines,amainframecomputer popularincommercialsettingsand universities.

RememberTexwasdesignedfor typesetting,andrememberthat, untilIBMmadeCGAgraphicscards availablein1981,computer monitorsdisplayedonlyASCII characters:text,numbersandafew

specialcharacters.Printerswere alsorestrictedinthesamewayuntil thedevelopmentofPostscript(mid 1980s)andPDF(1992).

Thisbriefhistorylessonisto pointouttheneedforpackages whenusingTex.Withverylimited RAMavailableandthenecessityfor usingonlyASCII,Knuthhadto developatypesettingsystemthat wouldbeefficientandrun consistentlyonmainframesfromas manydifferentmanufacturersas possible.Theselimits(processing powerandprintingpower) necessitatedtheuseofpackages, smallindependentsetsof instructionsthatcouldbeloaded onlywhenrequired.Thehardware limitationsmadeTexandLaTex modular.

Becausethisearlydesign decisionwasforceduponKnuthby thehardwarespecifications availableatthetime,Texisnow remarkablyflexibleandrelatively easytoexpand.Needanew capability?Writeanewpackage. Forexample,theAmerican MathematicalSocietyhaswritten

severalpackagesthatarevery usefulwhenmathematicalformulas areincludedinprinteddocuments.. Thissetofpackagescanbe identifiedby“ams”atthe beginningofthepackagename.

Latexwasdevelopedmore-orlessinparalleltoTex.Latexis designedtobeauser-friendlylayer ontopofTex.Itisasetofmacros forthemarkupfunctionsofTex, andleavesthelayoutfunctionsto Tex.Itwasdevelopedinthe1980s, thecurrentversionwasreleasedin 1994andrevisedin2020.Latex consistsofabasicsetofpackages thatallusersofLatexcanassume willbeavailabe,andminimal documentation.TheLatexarchive (https://www.ctan.org/pkg/latex) containsmoredetails.CTANisan enormousstorehouseofpackages (setsofTexmacros)whichcanbe downloadedandaddedtoyour Latex/Texfiles,andthenmade availableforusewithyour documents.

Whatkindofdocumentareyou tryingtowrite?Areyoudoing researchinthephysicalsciences?

Thereare93packageswhich includethewordphysicsintheir descriptionatCTAN.Thereare58 whichusechemistry,butonly14 forastronomy.Whataboutthelife sciences?Packagesusingbiologyin theirdescriptionare23innumber, butonly1forbiochemistry.There are750(!)formath,62labeledfor geometry.Youmightwantto narrowyoursearchforan appropriatepackage,forexample theterm“integration”has21 packages,probablysomeofthese areinthetotalof750for mathematics.Turningtonon scientificpackages,thereis1which saysitsupportstheworkofpastors andpriests,28forbusiness,1for accounting,2forbankingincludingonethatisspecificfor documentsfromtheCzech NationalBank.

Ifyourdocumentrequires citations,therearepackagesfor severaldifferentcitationstylesso thereferencesinyourdocument canconformtowhateverstyleyour schoolorpublicationrequires. Thereare5packagesfortheMLA style,17fortheChicagostyle,and

HOWTO-LATEX

53fortheAPAstyle.Someofthese packageswillbeobsoleteas citationstyleschangefromtimeto time.(Perhapsweshoulddevelopa packageforFCM?<tonguefirmly plantedincheek>).

Ifyoufindapackageyouwould liketouseatCTAN,whatthen? First,ofcourse,youneedto downloaditandunpackit.Then followtheinstallationinstructions ifthereareany.Somepackages havenoinstallationinstructions. Apparentlytheuserissupposedto knowhowtoinstallthem.Howthe user,particularlyinexperienced users,aretoobtainthisknowledge isnotclear.InstallingnewTex/ LaTexpackagescanbeafrustrating experienceasyouwilllearninthe restofthisarticle.

Somepackageshavegood,clear, conciseinstallationinstructions.For exampletheinstallation instructionsfortheapa7package say:

1.Createdirectory"config"nextto thefileapa7.ins

2.Runlatexapa7.ins

3.Move/copyapa7.clstothe directoryofyourlatexinstallorthe directorycontainingyourlatex project.

Aswewillfindout,these instructionsareappropriatefor installingapa7.Theyarenotallyou needtoknowinordertoinstalland useAPAcitationstylesinyour documents.IselectedAPAbecause itisaverycommoncitationstyle usedatcolleges,universitiesandin professionaljournals.Iselected apa7becauseitistiedtothemost recentrevisionoftheAPAstyle standard.WhetheryouuseAPA(or anycitationstyle),Ihopeyouwill learnfromwhatIdid.Whenyou wanttoexpandwhatyoucando withLaTexbyinstallingnew packages,keepmyexperiencein mind.

Havingdownloadedtheapa7.zip packageandthenunzippingit therearethesefiles:apa7.dtx, apa7.ins,apa7.pdf,README.txt. TheREADMEfilehasthe installationinstructionsshown above.APA7.PDFcontains documentationforthisversionof theAPAstylesheet–nothingto helpwithinstallationofthe package.SoIwillfollowthe instructions.

1.Intheapa7folderinmydefault downloadfolder,Imadeafolder called“config”.

2.Iopenedaterminalwindowand ranlatexapa7.ins.Thisgenerated

twelvetxtfilesintheconfigfolder: twelvefilesstartingwithapa7and thenaworddenotinglanguage: apa7american.txt,apa7british.txt, etc.Italsoaddedtwofilestothe mainapa7folder:apa7.clsand apa7.log.

3.ThenIamsupposedtocopy apa7.clstothedirectoryofmylatex installormyproject.Ichosethe projectfolder.

4.OnceIhadapa7.clsintheproject file,IstartedanewTexproject (apa7test.tex)andaddedtheapa7 packagetothepreamble.ThenI compiledapa7test.texusing TexStudio.

5.Compilingapa7test.texwith apa7.clsinthesamefolder generatedanerror.Theapa7.sty filecouldnotbefound.Imovedthe apa7.clsfiletotheinstallation folder(usingsudo)andcompiledit again.

a.Ididasearchfor*.clsfilesand discoveredinmydistribution*.cls filesarestoredin/usr/share/texlive/ texmf-dist/tex/latex.Eachclsfileis storedinaseparatefolder.Ihaveto makeafolderapa7in/usr/share/ texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex(/usr/ share/texlive/texmfdist/tex/latex/ apa7)andthenmovedapa7.clsinto thatfolder(usingsudo).

6.Sameerror:cannotfindapa7.sty.

WhatIlearnedisnotobvious andnotmentionedintheapa7 documentation.APA7issimplyan updatetotheoriginalAPAstyle sheetwhichisavailablebyinstalling apacite.Itisnotacomplete package,theoriginalapacite packageneedstobeinstalledfirst. Thisoversightinthe documentationiscommonwithTex packages;thiskindofoversightis veryfrustratingforinexperienced users.

AfterIdownloadedand unzippedapacite,Ithengavethe commandtextapacite.ins.(This instructionisoftenusedasa precursortoinstallingTex/LaTex packages.)Therearenow24filesin theapacitefolderinsteadofthe4I startedwith.Thesefilesneed homes;theyhavetobemovedto appropriatefoldersinthetex hierarchyoffolders.

Eachuserwillhavetofind wherethefileswithaparticular extensionarestoredintheir distribution.Mostorallwillbein thesamepartofthedirectorytree. Searchfortheextensiontofindthe location.Thenmovethe appropriatefileintothelocation. Thenrepeat.Inmydownload/ apacitefolder,thereareeight

HOWTO-LATEX

extensionswhichneedtobe relocated.Wheretheywillgo dependsuponyourdistribution.

Iknowthisarticlehasnothad much“handson”materialforyou tofollow.Nextmonth,Iwillreturn tomyusualhands-on,step-by-step stuffwithanexpansionofErik’s workaboutimagesindocuments. Someofyouhaveprobably watchedsomeormanyofthe instructionalvideosaboutLaTex availableonline.Manyofthemare specificaboutwhatpackagesneed tobeincludedinordertodo particulartasks.Erikusedthree packagesinthearticleshewrote: graphicx,subcaptionandlipsum. Packagescanbeusedtoextend LaTex,togiveitcapabilitiesthe standardinstalldoesnothave,to updateitsfeatures,todospecific tasks.WhenIlookatimagesnext time,Iwillneedtousethegraphicx package.

Asalwaysifyouhavecomments, orquestions,orhaveaspecific topicyouwantmetodealwith, pleasesendanemail.Iwillrespond tothebestofmyability.

Roberthasbeeninvolvedwith computerssincedBaseIVandNovell Netware2.Herecentlyretiredfrom overtwentyyearsteachingcomputer skillstocollegestudents.

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyMarkCrutch

Oneinterestingaspectofthe new‘LivePathEffects’ Selectordialogisasmalltoggleat therightofthetoolbar,labelled “ShowExperimental”.Turnthison, andyourcollectionofLPEswillbe augmentedbyafewothers,each withaclassiccherrybombasits icon.

Thecherrybombhasalong historyincomputerinterfacesasa meanstoindicatesomethinghas gonewrong themostfamous instancesbeinginthecrashdialog ofearlierMacOSreleases,andto indicatebootproblemsontheAtari ST(whoseGEMinterfacetook ratheralotof“inspiration”from MacOS).InthecaseofInkscape, however,itservesasawarningthat usingtheseLPEsisrisky.Notonly aretheylikelytobebuggy,but there’salsonoguaranteethat imagesyoucreateusingthemwill besupportedinfutureversions. Generally,therefore,Irecommend leavingtheShowExperimental switchdisabled unlessyouwishto engageintheselflessactof actuallytryingtheexperimental LPEsinordertoprovidesome

usefulfeedbacktothedevelopers. Definitelydon’tusethemforreal workthough.

Thegoodnewsisthatthebest LPEscan,intime,bepromotedout ofthe“experimental”stageand intothesuiteoffullysupported effects.Suchisthecasewiththe BooleanOperationeffect,which wasexperimentalinversion1.0, butreceivedenoughpolishand stabilityfixestomakeittothebig timeinInkscape1.1.

BOOLEANOPERATION

I’mgoingtoassumethatanyone readingthisisalreadyfamiliarwith

theexistingbooleanoperationsin Inkscape,foundunderthePath menu.Ifnot,thenyoumaywishto haveareadofpart7ofthisseries, fromwaybackinFCM#67!Inshort, booleanoperationstaketwopaths andmanipulatethemindifferent ways suchasjoiningthem togetherintoasingleobject(the “union”operation),cuttingthe shapeofoneoutoftheother (“difference”)andkeepingjustthe partswheretheyoverlap (“intersection”),orwherethey don’toverlap(“exclusion”).

Usingtheseoperationsfromthe Pathmenuisassimpleasselecting twopathsandthenchoosingthe appropriatemenuentry.Youmay

alsoneedtoalterthestacking orderofyourpaths,dependingon theoperationyou’reperforming,as someofthemproducedifferent resultsiftherolesoffirstand secondoperandarereversed. Inkscapeusesthez-indexofthe pathstodeterminewhichiswhich.

WithLPEs,thingsaren’tquiteso simplewhenmultiplepathsare required.Youcan’tjustselectyour twopathsandaddtheeffect. Instead,youhavetobeginby selectingyourfirstoperandpath andaddtheBooleanOperationLPE toitinthenormalmanner.Thiswill bringuptheeffect’sparameters:

Withjustonepath,aboolean operationwon’tdoanything,sowe needtoaddthesecondoperand. Thisisdonewiththeusualcomplex

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

andfrustratingmethodofcopying ittotheclipboardand“linking”it intotheLPE:

1.Selectthesecondoperandpath onthecanvas.Thiswillde-select thefirstone,soyou’llloseaccessto theLPEparameters.

2.Copytheselectedpathtothe clipboard(Ctrl-C).

3.Re-selectthefirstoperandpath inordertore-enabletheLPE parameters.

4.Clickonthe“Linktoitem”button intheLPEcontrols(theonethat lookslikeaclipboard).

Notethatyou’renotactually pastingthesecondpathintothe LPE,butratherusingthis convolutedtechniqueinorderto addareferencetothepath–a “link”intheterminologyusedin LPEs.Thatmeansyouarestillfree tomakechangestothesecond path,anddon’tneedtogothrough thisrigmaroleeachtime:thelinkis live,sochangespropagate automatically.

Withtwopathsadded,the actualresultwilllargelydependon thevalueselectedinthe “Operation”pop-upmenu.The “Swapoperands”checkboxcanbe usedtochangeInkscape’snotionof whichordertheoperandsshould

beappliedin(equivalentto swappingthezindexorderwhen usingthetraditionalbooleanpath operations).Forsomecasesthiswill havenoeffectontheoutput.The imagebelowgivesyouanideaof howthesetwocontrolsworkwhen appliedtoapairofsimpleshapes.

Atthetopoftheimageisthe originalpairofpaths.Ineachcase, theLPEwasappliedtotheorange square,withthetealcirclebeing linkedviatheclipboard.The columnsbelowshowtheeffectof applyingeachoperation,withthe topobjectbeingthedefault output,andthebottomone showingtheeffectoftickingthe

“SwapOperands”checkbox.

Theresultsarefairlyselfexplanatory,especiallyifyou’re alreadyfamiliarwiththestandard booleanoperationsinInkscape.It’s worthnotingthattheoperation referredtointheLPEas “SymmetricDifference”is,asfaras Icantell,theequivalentofPath> Exclusion.Ihavenoideawhythe developersoptedfordifferent names,asitjustaddsunnecessary confusion.

Withtheold-stylepathoperations theresultisapairofobjectswhich canbedraggedapart.Youcansee thisintheimagebelow,which showstheoriginalobjects,the immediateresultofthePath> Divisionoperation,andtheeffect ofdraggingthetop-rightobject away.

Onesignificantdifference betweenthehistoricalboolean operationsandthisLPEiswiththe outputfromtheDivisionoperation.

WiththeLPEversion,theinitial outputlookssimilar,however tryingtomovethetop-rightpart actuallyjustchangesthepositionof thesecondoperandpath.Inorder toseparatetheparts(i.e.to actuallydividethem),youhaveto taketheadditionalstepof“fixing” theLPEbyusingPath>Objectto

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

Path.Ofcourse,onceyou’vedone that,younolongerhavethe benefitofany“liveness”,soyou mayaswellhavejustusedtheolder approachinthefirstplace.

Movingonwiththeparameters fortheeffect,nextwehavea checkboxlabelled“RemoveInner” butonlyifyou’reusingversion1.1. Thischeckboxonlyhadaneffecton someoperationsthatwere ultimatelyremovedfromthisLPE forthe1.1releaseduetostability issues,sothere’snoneedto consideritfurther.It’sbeen removedentirelyfromInkscape version1.2.

Thelasttwoparameters concernthefillrulewhichisapplied toeachpath.Thefirstpop-up governsthepaththattheLPEis appliedto,whilethesecondisfor theoneaddedviatheclipboard.Fill rulesareoneofthemoreobscure partsofvectorgraphics,and essentiallysettherulesforhow complexpathswithself intersectionsorsub-pathsshould betreatedwhenapplyingthefill color.Youmayhaveencountered themviathetogglebuttonsinthe Fill&Strokedialog(seepart95of thisseries,inFCM#155).

Inthisimage,youcanseewhat happenswhenIturntheoriginal objectsintocomplexpathswith severalsub-paths.Thetopimage showstheobjectswithnoLPE applied(withthe“evenodd”fillrule appliedviatheFill&Strokedialog). Thesecondimageshowstheeffect ofapplyingthe“Symmetric Difference”(akaExclusion)effect withbothpop-upssetto“nonzero”;thethirdisthesamebutwith thembothsetto“even-odd”.

Inmyexperience,the“positive” optionjustmakestheobjects disappear,butthatmightsimplybe aneffectofthepathsI’musing.The “takefromobject”optionhonours thesettingintheFill&Stroke dialog,so,inthiscase,theoutputis thesameasthebottomimage.My adviceistoleavethesepop-upsset to“takefromobject”,andonly fiddlewiththemifyouhave complexpathsandaren’tgetting theresultyouwouldlikeintermsof theareasbeingfilled.

Aswe’veseen,theBoolean Operationeffectwillacceptonly twopaths:thefirstoperand(on whichtheLPEisapplied)andthe secondoperand(addedviathe clipboard).Thisisunlikesomeother LPEswhichallowyoutoadd multiplelinkedpathsintoalist.This isashame,becausesomeboolean operationscouldeasilybe extendedtomultipleobjects,while otherscouldsimplytreatalistof pathsasasequenceofoperands, applyingthemoneatatimetothe outputfromtheprevious operation.Instead,shouldyouwish toapplymultipleboolean operationsusingthisLPE,you’ll havetoaddseveralinstancesofit toyoureffectslist.Initself,this

isn’taproblem,butyoucanquickly endupwithaseriesofentries,all justlabelledas“Boolean operation”,whichcanmakeithard tokeeptrackofwhateach operationisfor.

Personally,I’mmorelikelyto sticktotheold-fashionedboolean operations.Whileit’sgreattohave a“live”versionofthese,allowing forsubsequenttweaksand changes,themeansofapplying themisalittlefiddly(aswithall multi-pathLPEs,tobefair),and theirlivenessmeansthattheynot onlyrequiremoreprocessing powertodisplay,butarealsomore likelytoexposebugsinthe implementation(Isufferedseveral hardcrasheswhilecreatingthe screenshotsforthisarticle!).LPEs alsoaren’trecognisedbyother applications,orwebbrowsers,so althoughtheoutputshouldlook thesameintheory,yougetabetter guaranteeofthatwiththeolder operatorsthatmakepermanent changestotheunderlyingpaths.

SLICE

Formanyusecases,theSlice LPEwilllikelygiveabetterresult thantheBooleanOperationeffect

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

inDivisionmode.Asnotedabove, thismodedoesnotactually produceseparateobjectsuntilyou “fix”theeffect.TheSliceeffect,on theotherhand,doessplityour objectintotwoseparatepartsthat canbemoved,andevenstyled, independentlyofeachother.Itis limitedtosplittingalongastraight line,however,sothe“squareand circle”exampleIusedforDivision can’tbereplicatedusingSlice.

It’saprettyeasyLPEtouse.Just selectyourobjectandaddthe effect.Theobjectwillbebroken intotwowithaverticalsplitdown themiddle,andthetwopartscan bemovedandstyledseparately,as showninthissimpleexampleof applyingtheSliceLPEtoastar.

Thethreebuttonsdoexactly whatyouwouldexpectfromtheir labels:

• Removeanystylechangesthat havebeenappliedtotheindividual parts

• Useaverticalslicingline

• Useahorizontalslicingline

location,relativetothesource path,whichmaybeusefulifyou wanttostyleonlypartsofthe shapedifferently,butdon’twantto adjusttheirpositions.Formost people,however,slicingapath impliesaneedtomovethepieces around,forwhichthisneedsto remainchecked.

complexpaths,eachwitha differentfillcolor.

Theparametersforthiseffect areprettysimple,too.

I’veusedtheterm“slicingline” toindicatethatthisisastraight line,notanSVG-stylepaththat couldhavecornersandcurves.But you’renotlimitedtohorizontaland verticalslicing:thecoordinate boxesbelowcanbeusedtosetany startandendpointsfortheline, allowingangledslicinglinestobe usedaswell.Inpractice,nobodyis likelytofillinthenumbershere, though,asyoucanswitchtothe Nodetool(F2)inordertomoveand rotatetheslicinglineon-canvas instead.Thisapproachmakesit easyandintuitivetoadjusttheline tosuityourneeds.

The“AllowTransforms” checkboxisavitalpartofthis effect–andoneyou’llmostlikely wanttoleaveenabledallthetime. Ifthisisuncheckedthenyouwon’t beabletomovetheindividualparts around(norskew,scaleorrotate them).They’llstayintheiroriginal

Ifyoudowantyourshapecut intomorethantwopartsyoucan applytheSliceeffectmorethan once.Here’showourstarlooks withanadditionalsetofangled slicinglinesappliedtoeachhalf, andabitmorevariationinthe styling.

Afterseveralmonths,we’renow finishedwiththenewLPEsthat wereaddedinInkscape1.0and1.1 (andthat’swithoutconsideringthe experimentalones!).Butwe’renot quitedoneyet:nextmonth,I’lltake alookatsomeimportantnew featuresthatwereaddedtoan existingLPE,beforemovingonto thenewextensionsthatwere addedinversion1.0.

Ofcourse,theSliceLPEcanbe combinedwithothereffects.Here areourearliercomplexpaths,with theBooleanOperationeffect applied(“SymmetricDifference” mode,“even-odd”forboth operands),followedbyapairof Sliceeffectstoproducefour

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

IMPORTANTRELEASEOF

INKSCAPEVERSION1.2.1

FIXESDATALOSSANDCRASH

ISSUES

We'vejustresolvedsome

criticalissuesinInkscape1.2 thatwereidentifiedbyour community.Ifyou'recurrently usingInkscape1.2thenthisisan importantupdatetoinstallonyour device.

Itprovidesafixforanumberof criticalbugsinthe1.2release:

• drawingdataaboutfilters, markers,gradientsandmore,now savestofileafterperforminga simplesequenceofcopy-pasteundowiththeExportdialogopen;

• startupissmootherwhenmany fontsareinstalled,and • rasterized(filtered)objectsnow showuponanypageofamultipage documentexportedtoPDF.

Thisreleasebringsbackthe built-inabilitytoopenPostScript/ EncapsulatedPostScript(.ps/.eps) fileswithInkscapeonmacOS.

Improvementswerealsomadeto userinterfacetranslationsand documentationtranslations.

Linuxusersusingthesnap packagingformatwillonceagainbe abletoimportandexportimages. Windowsuserswillnowseethe correctInkscapeversionimageon install,whileusersofmacOS10.13 10.15willbeabletoopen extensionswithoutthemcrashing.

E EVVEERRYYDDAAYYUUBBUUNNTTU

WrittenbyRichardAdams

BACKNEXTMONTH

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

ICCRROOTTHHIISSMMIICCRROOTTHHAAT T

WrittenbyGregW.Walters

BACKNEXTMONTH

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

U

BPPOORRTTSSDDEEVVIICCEES S

WrittenbyUBportsTeam

UbuntuTouchistheprivacyand

freedom-respectingmobile operatingsystembyUBports.

Todaywearehappytoannounce thereleaseofUbuntuTouchOTA23,theverylatestupdatetothe system!OTA-23willbecome availableforthefollowing supportedUbuntuTouchdevices overthenextweek:

AsusZenfoneMaxProM1

BQE4.5UbuntuEdition

BQE5HDUbuntuEdition

BQM10(F)HDUbuntuEdition

BQUPlus

CosmoCommunicator

F(x)tecPro1

Fairphone2

Fairphone3

GooglePixel2and2XL

GooglePixel3aand3aXL

HuaweiNexus6P

LGNexus4 LGNexus5

MeizuMX4UbuntuEdition

MeizuPro5UbuntuEdition

Nexus72013(WiFiandLTEmodels)

OnePlusOne

OnePlus2

OnePlus3and3T

Oneplus5and5T

OnePlus6and6T

SamsungGalaxyNote4(910F,910P,910T)

SamsungGalaxyS3Neo+(GTI9301I)

SonyXperiaX

SonyXperiaXCompact

SonyXperiaXPerformance

SonyXperiaXZ

SonyXperiaZ4Tablet(LTEorWifionly)

VollaphoneandVollaphoneX

XiaomiMiA2

XiaomiMiA3

XiaomiMiMIX3

XiaomiPocoF1

XiaomiPocoM2Pro

XiaomiRedmi3s/3x/3sp(land)

XiaomiRedmi4X

XiaomiRedmi7

XiaomiRedmiNote7and7Pro

XiaomiRedmi9and9Prime

XiaomiRedmiNote9,9Pro,9ProMaxand 9S

improvementsareplanned,and consideritmorelikeaproofof concept.Alsoitwillnotworkon otherdevicessincethekernel needsafewoptionsset.More devicestocome…

ThePine64PinePhoneand PineTabareupdatedindependently oftherestofthesedevices.The stablechannelforthePinePhone andPineTabwillnotreceivean updatelabeled"OTA-23".

WHAT'SNEW?

ThisreleaseofUbuntuTouchis stillbasedonUbuntu16.04.

• InitialsupportforFMradios (@mardytardi):Ifyouownanyof thosedevices:BQE4.5,BQE5, XiaomiNote7Pro-youarelucky: Connectyourheadphones, downloadtheFMRadioApp and enjoytheshow.Several

• MessagingApp(@lduboeuf): Somesmallerimprovementsfor MMShandlingforbigger attachments.Alsotextmessages withspecialcharactersfromthe HTMLspecification(&,<,>)areno longertruncated.

• JingpadA1(@fredldotme): Supporthardwarevideodecoding intheMediaPlayerApp.

• Wirelessdisplaysupport (@fredldotme):Finallysomeefforts weresuccessfultofixAethercast protocoltoallowsettingupan externaldisplayforyourdeviceand worklikeonadesktop.Notethat alsohere,notalldevicescan supportthis,soitneedstobe enabledbytheporterforeach deviceseparately.Wearestill workingonafinallist.Alsothis needsacompatibleMiracast adapter,andbehold,notallofthem arereally“compatible”!Itmight needafewtriestofindtheright one.

• Snappybacklightdimming (@Flohack):Nowalldevices brightenanddarkenthescreenin thesameamountoftime, regardlessofambientlighting.This makesthedevicequicklyaccessible, andalsoprevents“pocketdialling” whenthescreenistooslowtoturn off,buttheuserhasalreadystowed itaway.

BUGSANDISSUESFIXED

• Externaldisplayimprovements (@fredldotme):Indicatorscalingis nowcorrectonexternalscreens, thelauncherandappdrawerdonot disappearanymorewhenoperated withthemouse.

• Soundplaybackduringentering andexitingsleepwaschoppyfor somedevices(@fredldotme)

• WiFinagsuserforalreadyknown passwordsandcreatesnew connectionsrandomly(@Pekkari)

M MYYSSTTOORRY Y

Likemanyotherpeople,Ihadmy firstexperiencewithLinux completelybychance.Itwasin 2005.

Iwasinthemilitaryatthetime, workingonanairbaseinthefreight section,becauseI’dbeendetached frommyusualunitforthree months.

SomecolleaguesandItalked oftenaboutcomputerswhenwe hadafreemomentwithnottoo manyloadstoprepare:howto “boost”WindowsXP,thelittle thingsthatwouldallowyouto customizeit,thejoysofitscrashes, andsoforth...Untilamemberof theAirForcepersonnelcameupto usandsaid,“Tomorrow,I’llbring yousomethingthatwillfloor you!…”.Andthenheleft,leavingus therefullofquestionsandwithour insatiablecuriosity!

Thenextday,heshowedusaCD inhishandandsaid,“Ifyou’ve neverseenaLiveOS,bereadyto beflabbergasted…”andheputthe CDinacomputer,butturnedoff thecomputer!…BecauseIdidn’t

understand,Iaskedhimwhathe wasdoingandheanswered,“it’s nowthatthemagicbegins!!”And herestartedthemachine.

Then,infrontofoureyes,there werelinesandlinesofwritingina languagethatIwouldcall “gobbledygook”,whensuddenly, KaellaKnoppix,version2, appeared.Hegaveusthedetails andthendemonstratedtheLinux OStous.

Wewerewellandtruly flabbergasted!!!

ThatsimpleCDcouldmakea computerwork,camewithallthe necessarysoftware,andwasfree… ItWASalmostmagic!WithWindows youhadtobuy(orpirate...)allthe softwareyouneededtodothings. But,theCDcamewitheverything andeverythingworked!

Ihadfoundthatexperiencevery cooland,everytimeIcould,Iput theCDinandhadfundiscoveringit all.Butmyfather’sdeath,which occurredonlyashorttime afterwards,putanendtomystint

ontheairbase,aswellastomy Linuxexperience.AndIwenthome, carryingwithmeacopyofthe operatingsystemthatIhadjust discovered.

ButIadmittohavingforgotten Linuxabit.Iwentbacktomylaptop withXP…Ayearandahalflater,I learnedthat,whentheywere renewed,mostofthecomputersof theunitwouldbedeliveredwitha customizedversionofUbuntu8.04, createdbythecomputer department,insteadofWindows. Theadministrativeservicesweren’t toohappywhentheylearnedthat, becausethepersonnelwouldbe forcedtothinkaboutthingsand that’ssomethingthatcanbequite difficult!Theirhabitsandreflexes wouldbeshakenupinfrontofthe screen.

Then,suddenly,thenameof Linuxremindedmeofsomething!!!

BecauseIwascurioustosee whatthisLinux,whichwouldsoon destroyourcertainties,lookedlike, Ifoundmyselfintheactof downloadingUbuntu7.04,because

itwastheversionthathadjust comeout.IburnedittoaCD(yes indeed,aCD itwaslessthan700 Mb!)andthereitwas,openingon mylaptop.

Thatoperatingsystemtruly thrilledme.SinceIwantedtotestit forreal,Iboughtaharddriveand tookouttheonewithWindowson itsoIcouldinstallUbuntu.Finally, afterseveralmonths,whenIwas reallytiredofexchanginghard drives,andalsobecauseIwantedto keepWindowsforgames,Idecided todoadual-bootinstallwithmyXP, inspiteofafewlittlepersisting problems(especiallywiththeWiFi).

Unfortunately,thelaptopbroke downratherquickly(theoperating systemwasn’tatfault,itwasa problemwithpowertothe motherboard…)andItook advantageofthattobuyaSony VaioVGN-NR38E.AssoonasI’d boughtit,alongwithalicensefor Windows,Itookouttheoriginal harddriveandleftitonashelfto waitforthewarrantytoexpire. (Later,afterIgotridofWindows,it helpedmetestvarioussystems.)I

fullcirclemagazine#183 51 contents^ WrittenbyPatH.

MYSTORY

replacedthatharddrivewithone onwhichIinstalledmyfavoriteOS. Everythingworkedexceptforthe Sonymemorystickreader,andthe diodeoftheWiFi,neitherofwhich washandled,soitwasnothing serious.

IinstalledeachoftheLTS versionsastheycameout,one aftertheother,andItestedthe intermediatesystemswithDVDs.I alsotriedloadsofLinuxdistros, fromArch,throughDebian,and eventoToutouLinux.

Doingso,justforthefunofit,I gotabitofexperienceininstalling operatingsystems,without knowingthat,afewmonthslater, myworkwouldbecompletely upset.Ofcourse,inacareer,and, what’smore,acareerinthe military,changesarefrequent (transfers,changingservicesor orientation…).Icertainlydidn’t thinkthatmyfunwouldbegood formeprofessionally,andyetI foundmyselfworkinginoneofthe serviceswherethecomputeris king:thesecretariatofmyunit!

workingonasystemwhichIalready knewwell,contrarilytomy comrades…Iwasinforabad disappointment,however:the versionusedinmywork,thathad beenadjustedbythehouse programmers,whileitworked correctly,hadbeenoverly restricted.ItgaveLinuxafalse image:slow,freezingeveryso often,takingtonsoftimetoopen documentsortheemail,etc.Both thehardwareandthesystemwere atfault.

somethingthatwastotallyfree!My reasoningwasfoolproof!

Andso,forafewyears,shortly afteranewofficialLTSversion cameout,weweregivenour “houseadjusted”version.Thelast oneIgotwasthe18.04,because, afterwards,mymilitarycareercame toanend.

thatmydaughtergotfromherhigh schoolandBob’syouruncle!!

Itwasin2009thatthefirst computerswithUbuntu(version 8.04)arrivedandweremade availableforeveryone.ThereIwas,

Mycolleaguescomplained bitterlyaboutthesystem;they werecertainlygettingabadideaof Ubuntu.Beingafirmbelieverin Linux,Iwasforcedtofightto convincethemthatthe“civilian” versionwasmuchmorepowerful.I wouldusemypersonalcomputerto showthemeverythingyoucoulddo withitandprovethattheydidn’t needaproprietarysystemthatcost afortune.And,whenIheard somebodysaysomethinglike “Sometimesitbreaksdownorno longerdoeswhatIwantitto,”my favoriteanswerwasthatthey mightwellcomplainaboutasystem they’dpaidforandthatwasn’t workingwell(youknowexactly whatIwasreferringto…),butthey hadnorighttocomplainabout

Throughoutthattime,Itriedto givepeopleamaximumof knowledgeofthatsystem(Ubuntu) andshowthatitofferseverything thatoneexpectsfromanOS,with everythingnecessaryalready installed,functional,easyand, especially,free.MySonydiedin 2015andIboughtthenextmachine (thatisstillinuse)withoutan operatingsystem,sothatIwouldn’t havetopayforaproprietary systemthatIwouldn’tuse(Ino longerplaygamesonthe computer…).IthasUbuntuonit andnothingintheworldwould makemechangethat…

Imustadmitthat,inspiteof everything,sometimesit’s necessarytohaveaproprietary system,ifonlyfortheupdatesof thingsliketheGPSorthesystems installedinourcars.Forthat,I borrowthelaptopwithWindows10

Although,fromtimetotime, youstillhaveto“lookunderthe hood”,Linux,andparticularly Ubuntu,arebecomingmoreand morereliableandpowerful.Isay thatbecause,afterall,onecanbe disorientedattimes.Theproofis thatonlyLinuxMint,ZorinorMX Linux21canmakemyBrother multifunctionlasercolorprinter work,butneitherUbuntunor Debian.Afterdifferenttests,when theprinterorthescannerwouldn’t work,IchangedtheOS.Ididn’ttry todigforreasonswhythatmachine isnotcorrectlyinstalled,it’ssimpler (andmorefun)todiscoveranother OSandtesttheprinterwiththat.

That’swhyIhaveMint20.3on mydesktopmachineanditsuitsme fine…Maybethenextversionof Ubuntuwillbeabletohandlemy printer…Ican’twaittotryit!

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

Releasedon21April,2022,this newlongtermsupportversion (LTS)ofLubuntuistheeighthone withtheLXQtdesktop,andthe 25thoverallrelease,dependingon howyoucountthem.

Thedevelopmentcycleofthree standardreleasessincethelast LubuntuLTS,leadinguptothisLTS version,haveseenveryfew changes.Itismostnotableforwhat hasbeenremovedmorethanwhat hasbeenadded!

MostLubuntuuserssticktothe LTSversionsandthisnewrelease willbetheonethattheywilluse forthenextfewyears.Itcomes withthreeyearsofsupport,until April2025,althoughthenextLTS versionisscheduledforApril2024.

INSTALLATION

IdownloadedLubuntu22.04LTS viabittorrentfromtheofficial website.Thedownloadisnowupto 2.4GBinsize,whichis500MB biggerthanthelastrelease Lubuntu21.10was1.9GB.Thereis noexplanationforthisbut,oddly,

thelatestreleasesofUbuntuand Xubuntuarealsolargerby500MB.

IcarriedoutaSHA256checksum fromthecommandlineonthe downloadedISOfiletoensureIhad agooddownloadanditchecked outfine.

InextusedaUSBstickequipped withVentoy1.0.73tobootto Lubuntu22.04LTSfortesting,and laterforinstallationontwo computers.Ventoymakestesting Linuxdistributionsreallyeasy:once thestickhasVentoyinstalledonit, youcanjustcopyandpastetheISO

fileontothestickandVentoytakes careoftherestatboot-up.Iteven allowsmultipleLinuxdistributions onthesamestickandgivesachoice atboot-up.

ALubuntuinstallationisvia Calamares,aniceoperatingsystem installerthatisactuallysouser friendlythatevenfirsttimeusers willfeelconfidentinstalling Lubuntuusingit.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

WhentheLXQtdesktopwas

introducedwithLubuntu18.10,the developersstoppedpublishing minimumsystemrequirements.I installedthisreleaseonadesktop computerwitha3.3GHzdualcore processorand6GBofRAM,andit ranverysmoothly.

NEW

ThisLubuntureleaseusesLXQt 0.17,basedontheQt5.15.3toolkit. Lubuntu22.04LTSusesthenew Plymouthbootscreenthatwas introducedinLubuntu20.10,which addsanelegantandmodernlook tothebootprocedure.

TheLubuntumanualfoundon theofficialwebsitehasbeen extensivelyupdatedandisareal boonfornewusers.Itshouldbe yourfirststopforhelp.

Therehavebeensome applicationchanges,described below,butotherwisethereisnota lotnewinLubuntu22.04LTSand thisishowitshouldbe.Userswant awelltestedandstableLTSversion andsothedevelopmentshould

REVIEW

takeplaceinthethree“standard” releasesofthedevelopmentcycle. TheLTSshouldbeverysimilarto thelastrelease,witheverything testedandworking,andLubuntu 22.04LTSmatchesthispattern.

SETTINGS

Thisreleasehasachoiceof eightwallpapers,includinganew “JammyJellyfish”defaultwallpaper byDanistSoh.Ifyourhardwareis RAMlimited,youmaywantto checkthefilesizesonsomeofthe providedwallpapers,assomeare verysmallandothersarehuge.The largestwallpaperimageprovidedis 6.5MBwhilethesmallestis26.2 KB!Youcan,ofcourse,alsouse

yourownfavoritewallpaper.

Forsettings,thereare19 windowcolorschemes,13iconsets, tenLXQtthemes,andtwocursor stylestochoosefrom.Themany usercustomizationoptions availableallowyoutomakeyour desktoplookthewayyoulike.

APPLICATIONS

Someoftheapplications includedwithLubuntu22.04LTS are: 2048-qt0.1.6simplelightweight game* Bluedevil5.24.4bluetooth connector DiscoverSoftwareCenter5.24.4

packagemanagementsystem

FeatherPad1.0.1texteditor Firefox99.0.1webbrowser** ImageMagick6.9.11.60image editor* Kcalc21.12.3calculator

KDEpartitionmanager21.12.3 partitionmanager

LibreOffice7.3.2officesuite,Qt interfaceversion

LubuntuUpdateNotifier0.4 softwareupdatenotifier*

LXimage-Qt0.17.0imageviewer*

LXQtArchiver0.4.0archive manager*

Muon5.8.0packagemanager* Noblenote1.2.0notetaker*

PCManFM-Qt0.17.0filemanager* Qlipper5.1.2clipboardmanager* qPDFview0.4.18PDFviewer* PulseAudio15.99.1audiocontroller

Qtransmission3.00bittorrent client,Qtinterfaceversion*

Quassel0.14.0IRCclient

ScreenGrab2.2.0screenshottool*

Skanlite21.12.3scanningutility

StartupDiskCreator0.3.13(usbcreator-kde)USBbootdiskmaker

VLC3.0.16mediaplayer*

Wget1.21.2commandline webpagedownloader

XScreenSaver5.45screensaverand screenlocker*

*indicatesthesameversionusedin Lubuntu21.10.

**suppliedasasnap,soversion dependsontheupstreampackage manager Itisinthedefaultapplications

providedthatmostofthechanges

REVIEW

haveoccurredinthisLubuntu developmentcycle,startingwith theLXQtArchiver,whichreplaced ArkbackinLubuntu21.04.

Inthisrelease,theTrojitáemail client,theK3BCD/DVDburning application,andthefcitxinput methodframeworkhaveallbeen removed.Ithinkthecasefornot includingadefaultCD/DVDburning applicationisprettyobvious,asit hasbeenadecadesincemostnew computerscamewithoptical drives.Removingtheemailclientis aninterestingmove,perhapsthe developersfigurethatmostpeople usewebmailthesedays?Or perhapsmorepeoplepreferthe GTK-basedMozillaThunderbird emailclient,butthedevelopers

didn’twanttoofferitbydefaulton apredominantlyQt-based operatingsystem?

Naturally,ifyoumissanyof thosedeletedapplications,youcan installthemfromtherepositories usingtheincludedDiscover SoftwareCenter,theMuonpackage manager,orfromthecommandline.

Ofcourse,theoutstanding questionforLubuntu22.04LTSis “willFirefoxbeincludedasasnap package?”TheUbuntudevelopers, inconjunctionwithMozilla,moved toFirefoxbeingasnappackagein Ubuntu21.10–primarilytosimplify Mozilla’ssupportacrosstheLinux universe.Therepositoriesforthat

releaseretainedthe.debversionof Firefoxaswell,though,andthat gavethedevelopersofallUbuntu flavors,includingLubuntu,achoice fortheir21.10version.TheLubuntu developersdecidedtoleaveFirefox asa.debfilefor21.10but,as expected,theFirefox.debwas omittedfromthe22.04LTS repositoriesforcingtheissue.It remainedtobeseenwhetherthe Lubuntudeveloperswouldswitch tothesnapversionordo somethingelse,suchaschange browsersorcompileFirefox themselvesfromsource.So,with thisrelease,theissuehasbeen decided,Lubuntu22.04LTSuses theFirefoxsnappackage.

snapsareslowopeningtimesand inconsistentsystemthemeuptake. TheLubuntudevelopersdoseem toatleastwarnusersaboutthe snap,though,writing“pleasenote: ThechangeofFirefoxtosnap package,resultsinthebrowserbeing slowertostart.Itdoesnotimpact executionorsubsequentrunsduring thatsession.Thereasonforthisis thesettingupoftheconfined environmentinwhichsnapsrun,and decompressthesquashfs,with privacyandsecuritybenefits.Thisis verynoticeableonthefirstrun especiallywithlivemedia.”

fullcirclemagazine#183 Inmytesting,IfoundFirefox takesaboutthreesecondstoopen butthisisnotreallyanyslowerthan the.debversion.

Themaincomplaintsabout

REVIEW

IinstalledLubuntu22.04LTSon twocomputersand,forsome reason,ononeFirefoxpickedup thesystemQtthemeandonthe otheritpickedupthedarkGTK theme.Thelatterwassolvedfor FirefoxandalsotheotherGTK applicationswhichIhadinstalledby goingtothemainmenu>

Preferences>LXQtSettings> Appearance>SetGTKthemes> GTK2andGTK3themes>Arc-

Lighter.

Overall,thesnapversionof Firefoxworksfineand,onceyou havethethemesortedout,most userswon’tnoticethedifference betweenthesnapandthe previous.debimplementation. Afterworkingwithit,Ihaveto admitIamhappywiththesnap version.

CONCLUSIONS

Lubuntu22.04LTSisareally solidandtrouble-freerelease,with onlyafewsmallchangessincethe lastLTS.Almostallthatisnewin thisdevelopmentcyclehasbeenin aestheticsandapplications.Users willlikethenon-existentlearning curveoverthelastLTSversion,just replace20.04LTSwith22.04LTS andgo!

EXTERNALLINKS

Officialwebsite: https://lubuntu.me

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

WrittenbyAdamHunt

Aspartofourseriesfocusingon

Linuxdistributionsfrom outsidetheDebian-Ubuntufamily, thistimearoundwearegoingto lookatSliTazGNU/Linux.

SliTazisaverylightweight distributionthatisaimedatolder hardware,muchlikePuppyLinux, butwithsomeinteresting differencesthatmakeitwortha closelook.

BACKGROUND

SliTazhasbeenaroundfora while.Itsfirstreleasewason22 March,2008,soitisafairlymature project.

ThecurrentversionisSliTaz5.0, arollingreleasethathasanew versionavailableeachweekmade fromincorporatedupdates.

SliTaz5.0hadaprotracted developmentperiod,oversixyears, startingin2014,withtherelease on23February,2020.

SliTazisanindependentLinux distribution,meaningitisnot

basedonanotherdistribution.Itis developedbytheSliTazGNU/Linux Association,anon-profit organizationbasedinSwitzerland. Anyonecanjoinandbecomea supporter.Thedevelopersworking onitcomefromallovertheworld, soitisatrulyglobalproject.

Theunusualnamecomesfrom: Simple,Light,Incredible, TemporaryAutonomousZone.That isareferencetothe1991book T.A.Z.:TheTemporaryAutonomous Zonebytheanarchistwriterand poet,HakimBey,whichisthepen nameofPeterLambornWilson.The

bookdealswithsocio-political tacticsincreatingtemporary spacestoeludetheformal structuresofcontrol.Ithinkthat undercurrentprobablyaccountsfor SliTaz’sspiderlogoanditsdark, brooding,post-apocalyptic-looking wallpaperselection.

GETTINGSLITAZ

Theofficialwebsiteoffersa numberofdifferentversionsof SliTazin32-bitand64-bit,coreand desktop.Themaindownload offeredisthecurrent32-bit

desktopversionofSliTaz5.0,which isaverysmall53.6MB.Toputthat sizeinperspective,theFossaPup 9.5versionofPuppyLinuxis409 MB,andthatisalightweight distributiontoo!Thosecompareto thecurrentversionofUbuntuat2.9 GB,makingSliTazbasically2%of thedownloadsizeofUbuntu.Itis hardtobelievethatyoucangeta completedesktopoperating systemin53.6MB,butSliTaz provesthatyoucan.

Downloadsareviahttponly,no bittorrent,andnohttpseither,so yourbrowserwillprobablywarn youaboutinsecuredownloadslike FirefoxdidwhenIranthe download.Youcouldusewgetfrom thecommand-line,too.Duetothe smallfilesize,itdoesn’ttakelong todownload.

MakesureyourunanMD5 checksumtoensurethedownload isgood.MD5sumsareprovided, butnotthemoresecureSHA256 sums,whichwouldbebetter.

IusedVentoy1.0.71torun SliTazfromaUSBstick.Once

REVIEW

Ventoyisinstalledonthestick, installingSliTazisaseasyascopying andpastingtheISOfilewithyour filebrowser.Ventoytakescareof therestatboot-up,anditworked perfectly.

SliTazdoesn’tsupportUEFI,so theboothastobeinanon-UEFI environment.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

Therearenoreleasenotesfor SliTaz5.0,but4.0’snotesindicateit needs192MBforthedesktop version,althoughatextversioncan berunwith48MBofRAM.Thatall meansthatSliTazisperfecttorun onthatoldWindowsXPhardware

youhavebeenusingasadoorstop. LikePuppyLinux,SliTazloadsinto RAM,makingevenoldcomputers feelverylightandquick.

ItestedSliTazonanineyear-old desktopPCwithadual-core3.3GHz processorand6GBofRAMandit ranveryfast.

RUNNINGSLITAZ

IwilladmitthatIhadlow expectationsforSliTaz.Most lightweightLinuxdistributionstend tobequirky,odd,andlackthings foundonmorefullyfeatured desktopdistributions.Ithought thatthetinydownloaddidnot portendgreatthings,butIwill

admitthatIwaspleasantly surprised!

Whenitfirstbootsup,SliTaz5.0 showsacreepy-lookingspiderlogo andpost-apocalypticwallpaper.It reallylookslikeWednesday Addams’desktop.Butwait,that panelatthetoplooksoddly familiarand,yes,turnsouttobe LXpanel.Aquickadjustmentsetsit tothebottomofthescreen.The filemanagerturnsouttobe PCManFM,afullyfeaturedfile browser.Acheckofthepackages showsthatSliTazisrunningthe venerableLXDEdesktop,thesame asLubuntuused upuntilits transitiontoLXQtwiththerelease ofLubuntu18.10inOctober2018. Onceyougetpastthewallpaper,

SliTazhasafriendlyfamiliaritytoit.

ForanyonewhohasusedLXDE, thiswillallseemfamiliar,andfor thosenewtothisdesktop,itis simpleandintuitive,with everythingonasinglemenu.

WithLXDE,SliTazhaslotsof settingsavailable.TheOpenBox 3.6.1windowmanagerhaseight windowcolorschemes,andthere are15themesandthreewallpapers tochoosefromsoitiseasyto customize.

UnlikeinPuppyLinux,wherethe userisalways“root”,SliTazboots upinalimiteduseraccount, naturallyenoughnamed“Tux”. Rootprivilegesareusefulforsome

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tasks,though,andcanbegained directlyinsomeapplicationsor throughopeninganapplication throughaterminalwith“sudo”.The defaultrootpasswordis“root”.

Withthewholeoperating systemloadedintoRAM,SliTazis blazinglyfast.Noneedtowait whileapplicationsopen,it’salready there.

SliTazcanbebootedfromaUSB stickorothermedium,andjustrun inRAM,evenonacomputerwith noharddrive,butitcanalsobe installedconventionallyandbooted intoRAMfromaharddisk.

APPLICATIONS

WhereSliTazsavesondownload sizeisnotsomuchonthesystem side,asintheapplications,sinceit doesn’tcomewithalot.Hereare someofwhatisincluded:

ALSAPlayer0.99.81audioplayer ePDFview0.18PDFreader

GPicView0.2.5imageviewer

Leafpad0.8.18.1texteditor

Midori0.5.2webbrowser

mtPaint3.49.25imageeditor

Nano4.8texteditor

PCManFM1.3.1filemanager

TazPanel638systemandpackage manager

TazWeb209webbrowserandvideo player

Xterm356terminalemulator

Itcomeswith18gamesfromthe webgamespackage,plus nanochess.

Thereisnowordprocessor,no emailclient,nowebcam,norevena screenshottool.Thegoodnewsis thatithasawell-stockedrepository ofapplicationsinauniqueSliTaz format(.tazpkg),andareally remarkabletoolformanaging them,TazPanel.

TazPanelevenhasatoggleswitch toallowyoutouseitas“root”, afterenteringtherootpassword.

TazPanelreallydoeseverything. Asidefrominstallingandremoving packages,italsoallowsinstalling SliTaztoyourharddrive,managing updatesandhardware,some settingsandmanyotherfeatures.It isanimpressivebitofgearandwas developedespeciallyforSliTaz.

Whileitcomeswithtwo lightweightwebbrowsers,the SliTazrepositorieshavemorefullyfeaturedbrowsers,likeFirefox, available.Likewise,LibreOfficeisin therepositories,aswell,alongwith 4,967otherpackages.Itevenhas somerareapplications,likethe Tesseractcommand-lineOptical CharacterReader.

SliTaz5.0usestheBusyBox 1.31.1collectionofUnixutilities, andcurrentlyhasLinuxkernel 3.16.55.Thisisanolderkernel releasedon4March,2018,sodon't expectSliTaz5.0torunon

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hardwarenewerthanthatvintage.

Thecombinationofasmall downloadwithveryfewdefault applications,andawell-stocked cupboardofsoftwarethatcanbe easilyinstalled,isactuallyavery smartwaytogo.Itmakesthe downloadsmall,ofcourse,butalso reducesclutter–youjustinstall whatyouneedanddon’thaveto spendtimeremovingalotofcruft orputupwithclutteredmenus.

BetweenTazPanelandthe settingsavailable,itisquickto customizeSliTazandmakeitlook andworklikeyouwant.Youcan evenbrightenupthegloomypostapocalypticcolorscheme,ifyou like.

CONCLUSIONS

SliTazturnedouttobeanice surpriseinasmallpackage.

Itisclearfromgoingthrough thetoolsandmenus,aswellas usingit,thatagreatdealofcare hasbeenputintothisdistribution, makingitreallylookandworklikea fullfeaturedLinuxdistribution,all inalightweightpackagesuitable forolderhardware.

SliTazreallyistheLinux distributiontogetthatold computerbackintoservice!

EXTERNALLINK

Officialwebsite: https://slitaz.org/en/

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

Written by Greg Walters

T ThheeRReeccuur

TheRecursiveBookOfRecursion

-Acethecodinginterviewwith

PythonandJavascript

AlSweigart

Publisher:NoStarchPress

ReleaseDate:August16,2022(on

Amazon.comUSA)

#Pages:328

ISBN:978-1718502024

Price:$39.99(Preorderon

Amazon.comUSA)

Website:https://nostarch.com/

recursive-book-recursion

Overtheyears,thisisthe14th bookreviewthatI'vedone. Howbookreviewsarehandedout isprettystraightforward.Ifthereis anauthorwhohasaspecialitythat fitsaparticularbook,Ronnie usuallyasksthatauthorifthey wouldbewillingtoreviewthat book.Sometimes,hewillapproach allofusandmakeablanketoffer. Usually,Itrytoleavebookreviews fortopicsotherthanPythontothe otherauthors.Whenthebookison Python,andtheoffergoesoutto everyone,Iusuallyrespondto Ronnieprivatelyandsayifnoone elsewantstodoit,I'dbehappyto.I gottheoffer,soIjumpedonthe chance.

Asmostofyouknow,Al Sweigartisoneofmyfavorite Technicalauthors.I'mguessingthat atonetimeoranother,I'veread justabouteverybookthathe's writtenonPython,andhaveread manyofhisblogpostings.I've neverbeendisappointed.

Thisbook,however,mademy facecontortinto"huh?"mode.The

subtitleis"Acethecodinginterview withPythonandJavascript"."Both PythonANDJavascript?"mymind thought.Well,likeIsaid,I'venever beendisappointed,sowhynot?

DavidBeazley(AuthorofPython Cookbookandothers)wrotethe forewordforAl'snewbook.I decidedtoborrowashortsegment fromhischapter…

"Inmyunbridledexcitementto saymoreaboutrecursion,I originallywrotethisforewordin theformofafewshortstories involvingfriendswho’dapplied recursivethinkingindifferentways butachievedasimilarresult.First, therewasthestoryofBen,who learnedaboutrecursion,tookittoo far,andsomehowmanagedto disappearoffthefaceoftheearth undermysteriouscircumstances aftercommittingthefollowing Pythoncodeintoproduction:

result

for n in range(37)]"

Thissumsuptheissuewith totallyunderstandingthetopicof recursion.Youjustmightdisappear fromthefaceoftheearth!

OntoAl'snewbook.

Alstatesinthesection"Whois thisbookfor?":

"Thisbookisforthosewhoare intimidatedorintriguedbyrecursive algorithms.Recursionisoneofthose topicsthatseemslikeblackmagicto beginnerprogrammersorfreshman computersciencestudents.Most recursionlessonsarehardtofollow andmakethesubjectseem

frustrating,evenfearsome.Forthese

readers,Ihopethatthisbook’sdirect explanationsandampleexamples canhelpmakethetopicfinallyclick."

Afterreadingthroughafew chapters,IcameacrossChapter10 FileFinder.Ipresentedafunction thatrecursivelychecksafolderand allsubfoldersforMP3filesmany yearsagointheBeginningPython seriesofarticleshereinFullCircle,

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sothatimmediatelygrabbedmy attention.

Thewayhepresentsthetopics (atleastinChapter10)istoprovide thefullcodeoftheexample,then explaineachsectionofthe programafterwards.TheFile Findertypeofprogramatfirst glancelookstobeverysimpleand straightforward.However,when youdigintothecode,itcanturn intooneofthoseprojectsthatcan

causeaprogrammertoendup cross-eyedwithinafewpages. However,intrueAlSweigartstyle, heisnotonlyabletopresentthe project,buttoexplainitwell–allin lessthan14pages.

Ihavetoadmit,Ihavefeltfora longtimethatIhadaprettygood handleonthesubjectofrecursion, butdeepdowninside,Ihadadesire tolearnmore.ThankstoAl Sweigart'snewbook,IthinkI'mfar

betterinformedthanIwasbefore.I willre-readthisbookacouplemore times,justtoaddtotheknowledge.

TableofContents: Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PartI:UnderstandingRecursion

1-WhatisRecursion?

2-RecursionvsIteration

3-ClassicRecursionAlgorithms

4-BacktrackingandTreeTraversal Algorithms

5-DivideandConquerAlgorithms

6-PermutationsandCombinations

7-MemoizationandDynamic Programming

8-TailCallOptimization

9-DrawingFractals

PartII:Projects 10-FileFinder 11-MazeGenerator

12-Sliding-TileSolver

13-FractalArtMaker 14-DrosteMaker

L

Ifyouwouldliketosubmitaletterforpublication,compliment

PLEASE NOTE:

letters@fullcirclemagazine.org

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

CompiledbyEriktheUnready

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.

So,backinthedaywhenVisual Basic6arrivedonthescene,my bosssentusonacourseatDamelin College.It'snotthatwereally programmedanything,weused VisualBasicformakingfront-ends. WhenIsaythisImeanyouclicka buttoninsteadofphysicallyflipping aswitch.Thisinturnflippedonor offaPLCrule.Theonlyadvantage thishadoveraphysicalswitchis thatitlogged"when".(Basically, provingoperatorerror.)Atthis course,therewereabunchofguys Isuspecttheywerelikeday

labourers,astheyweretheblinken lightstype.Lookingback,Ishould haveobjectedtotheseguysina non-basic(notasinvisualbasic, mindyou)course,buthindsightis 20-20vision.Theproblems manifestedrightawaywhenthe instructorsaid"clickontheVB6 icononyourscreen".Micewere liftedontoCRTmonitorsand buttonswereclicked.Thiswasthe redflagIshouldhavetossedmy toysat,asitbasicallytookthem5 weekstomasterthemouseinthe 6-weekcourse,ruiningitfor everyoneelse.Thelargecompany behindthemandthecollege's greed,kepttheminpace.Outof our400-pagecurriculum,wedid "tic-tac-toe"andnothingelse.Even thoughthoseofusmanagingto completetheexamgotour certificates,thewholethingwasa sham.Ihavestartedwithanew companyandwehaveunlimited accesstoUdemy.NowthatIcan freelylookatthings,Ifindmany(if notmost!)ofthecoursesare rehashedYoutubevideos,orold bookchapters1-3.Notasingle originalthoughtbetweenthem. Guys,don'tbeafraidtoleave1star

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

reviewsanddemandarefund.Look throughthevideo'sassoonasyou haveorderedyourcourseand immediatelydemandarefundifit fitstherehashedhorseradish criteria.Don'tfeelyouneedto finishthecourse,findanother. Don'tfeelbecauseyoulearned "something"itwasworthit,thatis whatsomeofthesharkspreyon.

Q:Ineedtoupgrademycrappy computer.IhaveWattOS running(basedonUbuntu),butI neednewersoftwaretorunon here.Theforumsareonline,but whenyoutrytoaccessthem,there isa"notacceptable"error message.IfIjustaddtheUbuntu repositories,canIupdate?

Q:ItriedtoinstallFreeCAD0.20 inJammyJellyfish,butithas notbeenupdatedyet.Iamnot reallyafundie,sohelpmegetthe decentversionsetupplease?

A:Ifoundaforumpostonthat here:https:// forum.freecadweb.org/ viewtopic.php?t=59647 itseemsit wasreleasedonthe14th, rememberUbuntuneedstotestit firstbeforejustaddingittothe repo.Thatsaid,youcanalwaysgrab theappimagesolongoraddaPPA: https://launchpad.net/~freecadmaintainers/+archive/ubuntu/ freecad-daily

A:Probablynot.WattOShasbeendiscontinuedforawhile. MaybelookatLinuxLiteasa replacement?Idon'tknowhow energyefficientitis,butitislighter thanstandardUbuntu.

Q:Whatareyourthoughtson'http://www.pixeluvo.com/'??Is itworththe$34??Inthe documentation,itsaysitcandoit allwithabrush,TheFxBrushTool allowsyoutopainttheeffectof somecommonfiltersontoan image.Thiscanbeincrediblyuseful fortouchingupphotosorapplying effectsinveryspecificportionsof animage.Thefiltersyoucan currentlyusetopaintwithare: Saturate,Desaturate,Colorize,Blur, Sharpen,SurfaceBlur,BoostDetail,

BoostClarity,SmoothSkin.Simply selectthedesiredeffect,adjustthe effectsettingsintheoptionsbar, thenpaintwiththefilterdirectly ontotheimage.

A:Honestly,$34iseasyfor someoneearningdollarsor euros,butwaytooexpensivefor otherpeoplelivingoutsidethose zones,soIwouldnotknow,asthat ismorethanIamwillingtopayfor software.Ifyouareinoneofthose zones.I'dsaygoforit.FromwhatI canseeonthewebsite,itlookslike aniceprogram.

Q:Hey,Iwantedtotry22.04and did'update-manager-d'.Ithen saw:"WelcometotheUbuntu 'JammyJellyfish'development release”,andIwaslike:Huh?Seeing "Thisreleaseisstillin development."hasmewondering maybeIinstalledthewrong version?

A:Manpages,youngperson!update-managerhasthe-dfor areason.Itisshortfor"develrelease".Don'tblindlycopypasta thingsifyouareunsure.

Alsocheckthateverythingis pluggedintightly.Lastly,bootoff aninstalldiskand*iftheredlines arestillthere,itisnotsoftware. Problemis,guysminecryptowith thoseandtheyrunat100% capacityallthetime,theyare boundtowearout.

Q:Hai,IstartedlearningPHPand wantedtoinstallcodeliteasper thebook,butitsaysitdoesnot exist.Iknowitdoes,asIinstalledit onthedebianVMweweregivenin college.TheproblemisthattheVM istoolockeddownformylikingand Iwanttodomyownthing.

Q:IupgradedUbuntualltheway from16.04,rightupto20.04. AllseemedwelluntilItriedtolog inanditwouldnotletme.Iwent andchangedthepassword, thinkingImadeaslip-upwiththe typing,butIstillcan'tlogin. <removed>iswhatIcangleam. Eitherthatormyloginisinaloop?

A:Youareoutofspace.Delete something.Isuggestremoving oldkernelsanddoingasudoapt autocleanandautoremove.Maybe lookatStaceronceyouarebackin tokeepitclean?

Q:IrecentlygotaRadeonRX570 cardoffgumtree,second–hand, andthenaftermylastupdate,Iam seeingredverticallinesonmy screen.Itriedmybrother'sscreen anditisthesame.HowcanIgo backtobeforethisupdate?Idon't wanttoreinstallastherearethings Iwanttokeep.

Q:MybluetoothonmyUbuntu machinesuddenlyswitched fromheadphonestothebluetooth soundbardownstairs.HowcanI avoidthisinfutureasitputsmeina badlight?

A:"Abadlight"???Stopwatching porn?Removethesoundbar fromtheBluetoothwindow.

A:It'smuddywaters,itneedsan extrarepository,seehere: https://docs.codelite.org/ downloads/download/#ubuntudebian–justfollowthese instructions,itshouldtheninstall normally.

A:Itriedtofixyourquestionasit madenosensewhatyouwrote: Redlinesdownthescreenarenot usuallysoftwarerelated.Takeyour cardoutandreseatitinyourslot. Youcanuseanerasertocleanthe contactsonthecard.Alsoswap yourcable,itcouldbeabadsolder.

Q:IhaveLL20.04installed,andit seemstowanttoremovemy Nvideadrivers.IfIdoasudoapt autoremoveitliststhedriversandI didthatbeforeandhadnodisplay. Help?

A:Don'tremovethem.Thiswill comerightdowntheline.Linux lite6.0wasreleasedlastweekand thereareboundtobebugs.

Q:OK,I'mnotgonnalie,Isortof fellasleepatmydeskandmay havepressedsomethingIshould nothave,ifyouknowwhatImean. Myfileexplorerisnowwithoutthe treeviewontheside.It'snotso muchofanissueasIhavethefull pathsetupontop,butI'dliketo seeitagain.

A:It'srightthereinthe hamburgermenu(Show sidebar)ifyouuse"files",butyou didnotsaywhichDEyouareusing. Letmeknowwhichversion,then wecantakeitfromthereasthere arealotoffilemanagersoutthere.

Q&A

Q:IuninstalledthesnapstoreasI don'twantslowsoftware,plusI haveonlya128GBWDSSDinmy laptop.Itisafirstgeni5soitis ratherslow.TheissueIhavenowis thatIhavenoGUIwaytoinstall software.Eventryingsudoapt installchromiumdoesnotwork.

A:Sorryforcuttingthat,therest wasnotrelevant.Youdoknow thereareothersoftwarestoresout there,youdonothavetouseonly one.Hereisanicelist:https:// askubuntu.com/questions/339697/ are-there-alternatives-to-softwarecenter

Theymaynotallwork,but AppGriddoes,Itestedit.

upgradefirst,followedbyapt-get-f install.

JustGoogle“howtofixbroken packagesUbuntu”iftheabovedoes notworkforyou.

Q:IhavestdUbuntu20.04,andI triedinstallingcuda,thengot thisgem:Thefollowingpackages haveunmetdependencies: cuda:Depends:cuda-11-7(>= 11.7.0)butitisnotgoingtobe installed E:Unabletocorrectproblems,you haveheldbrokenpackages.

A:Youwillneedtofixyourerror first,tryapt-getautocleanand apt-getupdateandapt-get

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

U UBBUUNNTTUUGGAAMMEES S

WrittenbyErik

Website:https:// www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Price:Varies Blurb:“PICO8isafantasyconsole formaking,sharing,andplayingtiny gamesandothercomputer programs.Itfeelslikearegular console,butrunsonWindows/Mac/ Linux.Whenyouturniton,the machinegreetsyouwithacommand line,asuiteofcartridgecreation tools,andanonlinecartridge browsercalledSPLORE.“

Whyarewereviewingthisonly now?Well,wegotthisonly now,thankstoRonnieTuckerfor thereviewcopy.

I’mgoingtostartthisoffby sayingitisugly.Lawd,itis,butitis themostfunyoucanhavewith yourcomputer,makingitdosilly stuff,orwithyourclotheson.

Youliterallystartwithbupkis, eventhe“manual”isalittletext file.Thisreallyremindsoneofan8bitcomputerstartupscreen.Iwant tostarttyping;LOAD””

Anyway,movingrightalong,this

littletoyisadiamondintherough. Thoughthescreenresolutionis onlyroughlythatoftheAtari2600 consolefromthelate‘70s,Iwould havelovedforittobeatleast doublewhatitis,asIhavenever beenoneforfatgraphics(youwill understandwhenyouseeaManda NoraUandaW).Seriously,ifthe resolutionwasbetter,imagine puttingthisonahand-heldFPGAor RaspberryPiZerowithoneofthose WaveshareLCDs,andyoucanload upyourowngamesaswellasthose ofyourfriends?Poof!Mindblown.

Sowhatdoyouneedtoget started?TheyrecommendLua,as thesyntaxisLua-like.No,don’tstop reading,youdon’tNEEDit,itisonly recommended.Yousee,thelittle fantasyconsolehasmorethanone face.Youcanmakegames,youcan makepixelart,andyoucanmake

music,trackerstyle,andthenshare itwithafriend.

GRAPHICS

Let’scovermygrumblefirst:you pressescapetogettotheeditor andthegraphicseditoristhelittle “mask”thatlookslikeGeneral GrievousfromStarWars.Nowitis simplyamatterofpaintingwith dots.Youhavealimitedcolor palette,butdon’tletthatstopyou. Yourcharacterscanbeanysize,as longastheyaremultiplesof8(you donothavetodoanymathseither, thoughtothisdayIcantellwhat thevalueofalineingraphpaperis justbylookingatit,soit’snotall bad).Youhave8x8pixelblocksthat youcanslaptogethertomake biggerspritesordrawings.Note:it isquick,Imadeasimplepenguinin 20seconds.IfIrepeatthattothe

otherside,Icanhaveasimple waddleanimationinlessthana minute!Thatcontributestothe charmofthistitle,therawspeed thatyoucangetgoing.The limitationisthe128x128display.

Youcanmakegraphicsand soundwithouttypingasingleline ofcode.Easytopickup,quickto learn,whatisnottolike?

SOUND

contents^ Letmetellyouaboutthemusic side.Itissplitintotwoparts,the soundeditorandthepattern editor.Inthesoundeditoryou “draw”yoursoundandhitthe spacebartohearwhatitsounds like.Insteadofmetellingyouhow itworks,thefunisinthefinding out.Onequicklylearnswhatishigh orlowpitched,playingwiththe speedbutton,butalsointheway youdrawyoursoundsample.There arealsotrianglewaves,square waves,saws,andnoiseforyour pleasure.IamnotashamedtosayI spentawholemorninginbed playingwithJUSTthesound module.Justwhenyouthinkyou

UBUNTUGAMES

haveitfiguredout,thereis somethingelsethatcatchesyour fancy. Onceyouhavemadeyour soundsorinstruments,youcango and“paint”theminthesongeditor. Youwillbesurprisedathow untalentedyouare.Ohwait,that’s onlyme.Ihavethemusical capabilitiesofasnail.However,the joyhereisthefartingaround.OK, apparentlyIam8asImadesome fartsoundsandamusedmyself withthose(alsoImanagedtouse ‘fart’inanarticlewithouttryingto bevulgar;bonuspoints?).Meow....

PROGRAMMING

Nowforthecodingside.Youare coveredwithallthebasicslike variables,loopsandfunctions,but youarelimitedto256characters. Again,thisiswheretheuglypart pokesitsheadin,asyoucancodein onlycapitallettersandletters lookalike.Lookattheword “VOLUME”intheprecedingscreen shot.Thisreallystressesoutmy peepers.Theideahereisthatby limitingthesounds,thespritesand thecode,youstartgetting innovativetodomorethanthetoy wasdesignedfor.Andindeed,we seethisinretrogaminganddemo scenesallthetime,whereguyswill unrollalooptogainmorespeed,or

makespritesthatcanbeusedover andoverwithjustasimplecolour change(thebushesandtheclouds inMario,forinstance).Thebonus hereisthatyoucangraba completedgameandrollyour peepersoverthecode.Thisisbyfar thebestwayofgainingan understandingifyouareanonprogrammer.

Thisbringsmetothe“SPLORE” command.Thisisasoftwarestore whereyoucangrabagameor musicordemomadebysomeone else.Thewholegameisinthatone imagefile.Idon’tknowwhy,but thismakesmesmile.Youcanalso simplycopyyourlittlepictureto

thatold16/128MBSDcardor thumbdriveyouhavenousefor, andfitquiteafewgamesonthere. Anyonecanpublishtheirgameand haveothersplayyourgameor musicordemo.Yes,thereisalready anactivedemosceneforthePico8. IthinkIlearnedmoreabout programmingthisweek,thanmy wholelifesofar.IwillDEFINITELY bespendingmoretimewiththis.I encourageanyonetogetthisand learnsomethingnew.Yes,Iknow it’sugly,butifyoumakeonlyone purchasethisyear,software-wise,I recommendthis.Callitan educationaltoyforthekidsand claimityourself,thetoptierin adulthood.

MONTHLYPATRONS

AlexCrabtree

AlexPopescu

AndyGaray BillBerninghausen

BobC BrianBogdan CBinMV Darren DennisMack DevinMcPherson DougBruce ElizabethK.Joseph EricMeddleton GaryCampbell GeorgeSmith HenryDMills HugoSutherland Jack JasonD.Moss

JoaoCantinhoLopes

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JohnMalon JohnPrigge

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JT KevinO'Brien

LeeAllen LeoPaesen LindaP

MarkShuttleworth MossBliss NormanPhillips OscarRivera PaulAnderson PaulReadovin RinoRagucci RobFitzgerald RobinWoodburn RoyMilner ScottMack SonyVarghese TaylorConroy TomBell Tony VincentJobard VolkerBradley WilliamvonHagen

SINGLEDONATIONS

2021: FloydSmith DaleReisfield JanÅgren LindaPrinsen melvynsmith FritsvanLeeuwen RaymondMccarthy RobertKaspar FrankDinger KenMaunder

BrianKelly

JánosHorváth RonaldEike JohnPorubek HansvanEekelen KeesMoerman JonLoveless JimHibbard

2022: FritsvanLeeuwen MarcusCarlson LouisWAdamsJr LindaPrinsen JamesFlanagan PeterHorlings PatrickMartindale FrankDinger JánosHorváth DanPrizner TODDWINTERS

Thecurrentsitewascreatedthanksto LucasWestermann(ex-Command& Conquer)whotookonthetaskof completelyrebuildingthesite,and scripts,fromscratch,inhisowntime.

ThePatreonpageistohelppaythe domainandhostingfees.Theyearly targetwasquicklyreached thanksto thoselistedonthispage.Themoney alsohelpswiththenewmailinglistthatI setup.

SeveralpeoplehaveaskedforaPayPal (singledonation)option,soI’veaddeda buttontotherightsideofthewebsite

Abigthankyoutoallthosewho’ve usedPatreonandthePayPalbutton. It’saHUGEhelp. https://www.patreon.com/ fullcirclemagazine

FULLCIRCLENEEDSYOU!

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

FCM#184

Deadline: Sunday07thAug.2022. Release: Friday26thAug.2022.

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