Full Circle Magazine #184

way(atleastaname,emailorURL)andtothismagazinebyname(F thearticle(s)inanywaythatsuggeststhattheyendorseyouoryouruseofthework).Ifyo workunderthesame,similaroracompatiblelicense.

FullCirclemagazineisentirelyindependentofCanonical,thesponsoroftheUbuntup assumedtohaveCanonicalendorsement.

Thismagazinewascreatedusing:

WELCOMETOTHELATESTISSUEOFFULLCIRCLE

Anothernotquitefullquotathismonth.WithonlyLatexandInkscape.Greghashadtotakea (welldeserved)monthoff.SonoPythonorMicroarticlesthismonth.Butwedostill, technicallyspeaking,havesomePythonforyou.It'sanarticleaboutconvertingBashscriptsto Python.OneHowToarticle(VAX-VMStoLinux)isanewparttoanoldseriesthatfeaturedwaaaay backseveralyearsago.Sodon'tgetconfusedwhenyousee'Pt.7'andthink'Idon'trememberone throughsix!'.It'sOK.You'renotlosingyourmarbles.

Adam'sreviewscontinuewithXubuntuandVoidLinux.Ihavetoadmit,I'dneverheardofVoid LinuxbeforeAdamsentoverthereview.Alwaysgoodtoseenewdistros,butdoesitbringanything newtothetable?I'llletyoureadthearticleandfindout.Oh,andRichardcontinueshisEveryday Ubuntuserieswithalookatmakingdiagrams.

Itakefullresponsibilitythismonthforanygoofs.Eventhoughouramazingproof-readersread throughmostofthearticles,IwasofflineforacoupleofweekssoI'vehadtorushthisPDFtogetit outontime.

Don'tforget:ifyou'relookingforsomehelp,advice,orjustachitchat:remember,wehavea Telegramgroup:https://t.me/joinchat/24ec1oMFO1ZjZDc0.Ihopetoseeyou there.Comeandsayhello.

Anyway,allthebest,andstaysafe!

Ronnie ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

https://www.patreon.com/fullcirclemagazine

FindFullCircle on: facebook.com/ fullcirclemagazine

twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag http://issuu.com/ fullcirclemagazine

https://mastodon.social/ @fullcirclemagazine

WeeklyNews:

http://fullcirclemagazine.org/ feed/podcast http://www.stitcher.com/s? fid=85347&refid=stpr http://tunein.com/radio/Full Circle-Weekly-News-p855064/

N

EWWS S

SubmittedbyErikTheUnready

NSCDE2.2RELEASED: July25

TheNsCDE2.2(NotsoCommon DesktopEnvironment)project, whodevelopaCDE(Common DesktopEnvironment)desktop environment,adaptedforuseon modernUnix-likesystemsand Linux,hasbeenpublished.The environmentisbasedontheFVWM windowmanagerwiththethemeof design,applications,patchesand superstructuresforrecreatingthe originalCDEdesktop.Theproject codeisdistributedundertheGPLv3 license.Theadd-iniswrittenin PythonandShell.Installation packagesareavailableforFedora, openSUSE,DebianandUbuntu.

Thegoaloftheprojectisto provideacomfortableenvironment forfansofretrodesktops, supportingmoderntechnologyand notcausingdiscomfortduetothe lackoffunctionality.TheuserstyledCDEapplications,design generatorsforXt,Xaw,Motif, GTK2,GTK3,andQt5havebeen preparedtostylizethedesignof mostprogramsusingtheX11.

NsCDEallowsyoutolinkthedesign ofCDEandmoderntechnologies, suchasfontroutingusingXFT, Unicode,dynamicandfunctional menus,virtualdesktops,applets, desktopwallpapers,design/ pictogramthemes,etc. https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE/ releases/tag/2.2

userinterfacefromtheinternal componentsoftheYaSTand providingthepossibilityofusing variousfrontends.YaSTlibraries continuetobeusedtoinstall equipment,hardwarechecks,disk breakdownsandotherfunctions requiredforinstallation,YaST libraries,ontopofwhichan interlayerabstractsaccessto librariesthroughtheunifiedD-Bus interface.

D-INSTALLER0.4FORSUSE: July25

ThedevelopersoftheYaST

installer,usedinopenSUSEand SUSELinux,publishedanupdateof theexperimentalinstallerD Installer0.4,whichsupportsthe managementoftheinstallation throughawebinterface. Installationimageswereprepared tofamiliarizethemselveswiththe capabilitiesofD-Installerand providetoolsforinstallingthe continuouslyupdatededitionof openSUSETumbleweed,aswellas releasesLeap15.4andLeapMicro 5.2. D-Installermeansseparatingthe

ThenewversionofD-Installer implementsamultiprocess architecture,which,thankstothe interface,theinteractionwiththe userisnolongerblockedduringthe executionofotherprocessesinthe installer,suchasreadingmetadata fromtherepositoryandinstalling packages.Theyintroducedthree internalstagesofinstallation:start theinstaller,setupofinstallation parametersandtheinstallation itself.

acontainerandtheuseofaspecial initrd-deathIguanaloadingtostart thecontainer.Atthemoment,YaST moduleshavealreadybeen adaptedforworkfromthe containertocustomizetimezones, keyboard,language,firewall, printingsystem,DNS,program management,repositories,users andgroups. https://yast.opensuse.org/blog/ 2022-07-19/yast-report-2022-5

Also,workisbeingdoneonthe creationofaminimalisticsystem imagethatlaunchestheinstaller. Themainideainthelayoutofthe installercomponentsintheformof

FEDORAINTENDSTOBAN

THESUPPLYOFSOFTWARE

DISTRIBUTEDUNDERTHE

CC0LICENSE:

July25

RichardFontana,oneofthe

authorsoftheGPLv3license, workingasanopen-sourceand patentconsultantatRedHat,has announcedplanstoamendthe Fedoraprojectrulesprohibitingthe inclusionofsoftwareinthe repositorysuppliedunderthe CreativeCommonsCC0license.The

CC0licenseimpliestheauthor's waiverofitsrightsanddistribution asapublicdomain,whichallows youtodistribute,modifyandcopy theSoftwarewithoutany conditions.

ThereasonforthebanisCC0's uncertaintyaboutsoftware patents.TheCC0licensetext containsaclausethatclearly indicatesthatthelicensedoesnot affectthepatentrightsand trademarkrightsthatmaybeused intheapplication.Thepossibilityof influencethroughpatentsis consideredapotentialthreat,so licensesthatdonotexplicitly providethepossibilityofusing patentsorwaivepatentsare consideredasnotclassifiedasin thecategoryofopenandfree (FOSS).

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/ archives/list/ legal@lists.fedoraproject.org/ thread/ RRYM3CLYJYW64VSQIXY6IF3TCDZ GS6LM/

Theabilitytoplacecontentsin repositoriesundertheCC0license notrelatedtothecodewillbeleft. Forpackageswithcodealready placedintheFedorarepositories suppliedundertheCC0license, theywillmakeanexceptionand allowdeliverytocontinue.The inclusionofnewpackageswitha codesuppliedundertheCC0 licensewillbeprohibited.

RELEASEOFCDE2.5.0:

July26

Theclassicindustrialdesktop environmentCDE2.5.0 (CommonDesktopEnvironment) hasbeenreleased.CDEwas developedintheearly1990sbythe jointeffortsofSunMicrosystems, HP,IBM,DEC,SCO,Fujitsuand Hitachi,andformanyyearsactedas theregulargraphicsenvironment ofSolaris,HP-UX,IBMAIX,Digital UNIXandUnixWare.In2012,CDE 2.1wasopenedbytheLOPGroup consortiumundertheLGPLlicense.

TheCDEsourcecodeincludesan XDMCP-compatibleinputmanager, usersessionmanager,window manager,CDEFrontPanelpanel, desktopmanager,interprocess interface,desktoptools,toolsfor shellandCiapplication development,componentsfor third-partyintegration.Tobuildit, youneedtohavealibraryof

elementsoftheMotifinterface, whichhasbeentranslatedintothe categoryoffreeprojectsfollowing theCDE. https://sourceforge.net/p/ cdesktopenv/mailman/message/ 37684830/ DEBIANSUEDTHEDOMAIN

DEBIAN.COMMUNITY,WHICH PUBLISHEDACRITIQUEOF

THEPROJECT:

July25

TheDebianproject,thenonprofitorganizationSPI (SoftwareinthePublicInterest) andDebian.ch,representingDebian inSwitzerland,wonthe proceedingsattheWorld IntellectualPropertyOrganization (WIPO)relatedtothe debian.communitydomain,which ranablogcriticaloftheprojectand itsparticipants,andalsobroughtto thepublicconfidentialdiscussions fromthedebian-privatemailinglist.

Unlikethefailureofasimilar proceedinginitiatedbyRedHat abouttheWeMakeFedora.org domain,theclaimsrelatedto

debian.communitywerefoundto bejustifiedandthetransferof rightstothedebian.community domaintotheDebian.community projectwasresolved.The decommissioningoftheDebian trademarkisaformalmotivefor thetransferofthedomain.The authorofthesite

debian.communityannouncedthat heregisteredforthecontinuation ofthepublicationofthenewsite"suicide.fyi,"whichwillcontinueto publishcriticismofDebian. https://suicide.fyi/debian/urgentdomain-stolen-use-new-url-asapnewdebianprivateleaks/ LATTEDOCKANNOUNCED

THETERMINATIONOFTHE

PROJECT:

July26

MichaelVourlakoshas

fullcirclemagazine#183 5 contents^ NEWS announcedtheterminationin thedevelopmentoftheLatteDock project, analternativedockfor KDE.Thereasonisthelackoffree timeandthelossofinterestin furtherworkontheproject. Michaelplannedtoleavethe projectandtransferittoother handsafterthereleaseof0.11,but

eventuallydecidedtoleaveearlier. Itisnotyetclearwhetheranyone canpickupthedevelopmentMichaelmadeanoverwhelming numberofchanges.Thelistof changesnotestheactivityof severalmorepeople,buttheir contributionisminimalandlimited toindividualcorrections.

TheLattepanelwasfoundedas aresultofthemergertwopanelsNowDockandCandilDock.Asa resultofthemerger,anattempt wasmadetohaveapanel,working separatelyfromPlasmaShell,with theoriginalNowDockdesignofthe interfaceandtheuseofonlyKDE andPlasmalibrarieswithoutthirdpartydependencies.Thepanelis basedontheKDEFrameworkand Qtlibrary,supportsintegration withtheKDEPlasmadesktopand implementstheeffectofparabolic macOSpictogramsorthePlank

panel.Theprojectcodeis distributedundertheGPLv2 license. https://psifidotos.blogspot.com/ 2022/07/latte-dock-farewell.html

Lx5.0branch.Fordownload,anisoimageof2.6GBwithaKDEdesktop withaKDEdesktop,supportedthe downloadinLivemode,prepared fordownload.

OPENMANDRIVASTARTS

TESTINGTHE

OPENMANDRIVALXROME

ROLLING: July27

Thedevelopersofthe

OpenMandrivaproject presentedapreliminaryreleaseof anewversionoftheOpenMandriva LxROMEdistribution,whichusesa modelofcontinuousdeliveryof updates(rollingrelease).The proposededitionallowsyouto accessnewversionsofpackages developedfortheOpenMandriva

Inthenewversionsofthe packagesintheOpenMandrivaLx ROMEbuild,thereis-thekernel 5.18.12(assembledwithClang), Python3.11,Java20,KDE Frameworks5.96.0,PlasmaDesktop 5.25.3andKDEGear22.04.2. Reorganizationofthefilesystem structure-allexecutablefilesand librariesfromtherootdirectories aretransferredtothe/usrsection (categols/bin,/sbinand/lib*are designedassymboliclinkstothe correspondingdirectoriesinside/ usr).Supportforinstallationon partitionswithBTRFSandXFSFS hasbeenresumed.Inadditionto thedefaultfilemanagerdnf4as alternatives,dnf5andzypperare

offered. https://www.openmandriva.org/en/ news/article/openmandriva-lxrome-rolling-technical-preview UPDATINGCLAMAV

0.103.7,0.104.4AND

0.105.1: July27

Ciscohasreleasednewversions ofthefreeantiviruspackage ClamAV0.105.1,0.104.4and 0.103.7.Theprojectcametothe handsofCiscoin2013afterthe acquisitionofSourcefire,which developsClamAVandSnort.The projectcodeisdistributedunder theGPLv2license.The0.104.4 releasewillbethelastupdatein the0.104branch,and0.103willbe classifiedasLTSandwillbe accompanieduntilSeptember2023. Thereisalonglistofchangeson thewebsite. https://blog.clamav.net/2022/07/ clamav-01037-01041-and-01051patch.html

FEDORALINUX37PLANSTO

STOPSUPPORTINGROBOTICS, GAMESETC:

July27

BenCotton,FedoraProgram ManageratRedHat, announcedhisintentiontostopthe creationofalternativelive distributions-RoboticsSpin (applicationsandsimulatorsfor robotdevelopers),GamesSpin (withaselectionofgames)and SecuritySpin(withasetofsecurity checktools),duetothetermination ofthecommunicationof accompanyingorunwillingness.If therearethosewhowishtotake thesupportofthesespinsintheir ownhands,theirdeliverywillbe continued(currently,applicants havealreadybeenfoundreadyto continuethesupportofthe SecurityandGameseditions).

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/ archives/list/ devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/ thread/ YXENHLWNVIAOYQQ746KZYRIXYQ W6E2FA/

VULNERABILITYINSAMBA:

July28

ThecorrectivereleasesofSamba 4.16.4,4.15.9and4.14.14with theeliminationof5vulnerabilities havebeenpublished.Thereleaseof packageupdatesindistributions canbetracedon:Debian,Ubuntu, Gentoo,RHEL,SUSE,Arch,FreeBSD.

Themostdangerous vulnerability(CVE-2022-32744) allowsActiveDirectorydomain userstochangethepasswordof anyuser,includingthe administratorpasswordandgetfull controlofthedomain.Theproblem isbecauseKDCacceptskpasswd requestsencryptedwithanyknown key. Anattackerwithaccesstothe domaincansendafictitious requestforanewpasswordon behalfofanotheruser,encrypting itwithhiskey,andKDCwillprocess itwithoutverifyingthecompliance oftheaccountkey.Otherthanthe sendingoffictitiousrequests,itcan beusedtosenddummyrequests keysofdomaincontrollersworking inreadmodeonly(RODC),whichdo nothavetheauthoritytochange passwords.Asabypassmethodof

protection,youcandisablesupport forthekpasswdprotocolbyadding astring"kpasswdport"to smb.conf. https://www.samba.org/samba/ latest news.html#4.16.4

VENTOY1.0.79:

July28

ThereleaseofVentoy1.0.79 tools,designedtocreateboot USBdevices,includingmultiple operatingsystems,isout.Itallows youtodownloadtheOSfrom unchangedISO,WIM,IMG,VHDand EFIimages,withoutrequiring unpackingtheimageor reformattingthedevice.For example,itisenoughtosimply copytoUSBFlashwiththeVentoy downloader,asetofiso-imagesand Ventoywillprovidetheabilityto loadtheoperatingsystemsinside. Atanytime,youcanreplaceoradd newiso-imagessimplybycopying newfiles,whichisconvenientfor testingandpreviewingvarious distributionsandoperating systems.Theprojectcodeiswritten inCanddistributedunderthe GPLv3license.

Ventoysupportsdownloadson systemswithBIOS,IA32UEFI, x86 64UEFI,ARM64UEFI,UEFI SecureBootandMIPS64ELUEFI withtablesofMBRorGPT partitions.Italsosupportsthe downloadofvariousoptionsWindows,WinPE,Linux,BSD, ChromeOS,aswellasimagesof virtualmachinesinVmwareand Xen.ThedeveloperstestedVentoy withmorethan940iso-atures, includingvariousversionsof WindowsandWindowsServer, severalhundredLinuxdistributions (therearedeclaredtocheck90%of thedistributionspresentedon distrowatch.com),morethana dozenBSDsystems(FreeBSD, DragonFlyBSD,pfSense,FreeNAS, etc.).

fullcirclemagazine#183 7 contents^ NEWS InadditiontoUSB-drives, Ventoy'sUSBbootloadercanbe installedonalocaldrive,SSD, NVMe,SDcardandothertypesof drivesthatuseFAT32,exFAT,NTFS, UDF,XFSorExt2/3/4filesystems. Thereisanautomatedinstallation modeoftheoperatingsystemin onefileonaportablemediawith theabilitytoaddyourfilestothe createdenvironment(forexample, tocreateimagesfromWindowsor Linux-distributesthatdonot supportLivemode).

Thenewversionaddedsupport fortheFedoraCoreOS.Theboot imageofSuper-UEFIinSecureBootDisk,usedtorununsignedefi programsandoperatingsystemsin UEFISecureBootmode,isreturned toversion3.3.Thenumberof supportediso-imagehasbeen broughtto940.Problemswiththe kickstartmodeindistributions basedonRHELhavebeensolved. https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/ releases/tag/v1.0.79

itsdevelopmentsinthird-party products,includingcommercial products.Theoriginalcodeofthe distributioncomponents,aswellas thetoolsusedforassembly,are distributedundertheBSDlicense. Thebuildsarepreparedintheform ofLiveCDandasystemimagefor Flashdrives(347MB).

RELEASEOFOPNSENSE

22.7:

July28

ThereleaseofOPNsense22.7, whichisanoffshootofthe pfSenseproject,createdtoforma fullyopendistributionthatcould havefunctionalityatthelevelof commercialsolutionsfordeploying firewallsandnetworkgateways,is out.UnlikepfSense,theprojectis positionedasnotcontrolledbyone company,developedwiththedirect participationofthecommunityand withafullytransparent developmentprocess,aswellas providingtheabilitytouseanyof

Thedistributionprovidesmeans ofcreatingfault-tolerant configurationsbasedontheuseof theCARPprotocolandallowyouto runinadditiontothemainfirewall, asparenode,whichwillbe automaticallysynchronizedatthe configurationlevelandwilltakeon theloadincaseoffailureofthe primarynode.Forthe administrator,amodernandsimple interfaceisofferedtoconfigurethe firewall,builtusingthebootstrap web-framework. https://forum.opnsense.org/ index.php?topic=29507.0

offeringfreeimplementationof theremoteaccessprotocoltothe RDPDesktopProtocol,developed onthebasisofMicrosoft specifications.Theprojectprovides alibrarytointegrateRDPsupport intothird-partyapplicationsanda clientthatcanbeusedforremote connectiontotheWindows desktop.Theprojectcodeis distributedundertheApache2.0 license. https://github.com/FreeRDP/ FreeRDP/releases/tag/2.8.0

RELEASEPAPERLESS-NGX

1.8.0:

July30

AnewreleaseofPaperlessngx, awebapplicationfor documentmanagementthat convertspaperdocumentsinto electronic,availableforfull-text search,downloadingandstorage onlineisavailable.Thecodeis writteninPythonusingtheDjango frameworkanddistributedunder theGPLv3license.Demo'sat demo.paperlessngx.com(login/ palog-demo/demo)isavailableto familiarizeyourselfwiththe capabilitiesofthesystem.

Paperlessngxisanoffshootof thepaperless-ngproject,which,in turn,branchedofftheoriginal paperlsessproject(forkswere createdtocontinuedevelopment afterthecompletionofthesupport ofpastdevelopers).After downloadingthescanned documentinanyavailableway(by FTP,viathewebinterface,through theAndroidapplication,byemail viaIMAP),theprogramperforms opticaltextrecognition(OCR), usingtheTesseractengine,then tagging(includingautomaticusing machinelearning),fulltextsearch, aswellasdownloadingaversionof thedocumentinPDF/Aformatorin oneoftheofficepackages available. https://github.com/paperless-ngx/ paperless-ngx/ 4MLINUX40.0:

July31

Thereleaseof4MLinux40.0,a minimalisticuserdistribution thatisnotderivedfromother projectsandusesagraphical environmentbasedonJWM,isout. 4MLinuxcanbeusednotonlyasa

Liveenvironmenttoplaymedia

filesandotherusertasks,butalso asasystemforrecoveryafter failuresandaplatformforrunning LAMPservers(Linux,Apache, MariaDBandPHP).Twoiso-image (1.1GB,x86_64)withagraphical environmentandaselectionof programsforserversystemshas beenpreparedfordownload.

https://4mlinuxreleases.blogspot.com/ 2022/07/4mlinux-400-stablereleased.html

basedonMATE1.26(2GB), Cinnamon5.4(2GB)andXfce4.16 (2GB)areavailablefordownload. TheLinuxMint21isincludedinthe long-termreleases(LTS),whichwill beupdateduntil2027. https://blog.linuxmint.com/? p=4358

https://www.q4os.org/blog.html

LINUXMINT21:

July31

ThereleaseofLinuxMint21, whichhasbeentransferredto theUbuntu22.04LTSpackage database,isout.Thedistributionis fullycompatiblewithUbuntu,butis significantlydifferentfromthe approachtothelayoutoftheuser interfaceandtheselectionof defaultapplications.LinuxMint developersprovideadesktop environmentthatmeetstheclassic canonsofdesktoplayouts,whichis morefamiliartouserswhodonot acceptnewmethodsofbuilding theGNOME3interface.DVDs

RELEASEOFQ4OS4.10:

Aug1 ThereleaseofQ4OS4.10,based onDebianandsuppliedwith KDEPlasmaandTrinitydesktops, hasbeenpublished.The distributionispositionedas lightweightandofferingaclassic desktopdesign.Itincludesseveral proprietaryapplications,including 'Desktopprofiler'forquick installationofthematicsoftware sets,'Setuputility'toinstallthirdpartyapplications,'Welcome Screen'tosimplifytheinitial configuration,scriptsforinstalling alternativeenvironmentsLXQT, XfceandLXDE.Thebootableimage sizeis1.2GB(x86_64,i386).The newreleasesynchronizedthe packagebasewithDebian11.4. DesktopTrinityhasbeenupdated untilthereleaseof14.0.12.

RELEASEOFUBUNTUSWAY

REMIX22.04LTS: 08/08/2022

UbuntuSwayRemix22.04LTS, thatprovidesapre-configured andready-to-usedesktopbasedon themosaiccompositemanager Sway,isavailablefordownload.The distributionisanunofficialedition ofUbuntu22.04LTS,createdwith aneyeonbothexperiencedusers ofGNU/Linuxandbeginnerswho wanttotrytheenvironmentof mosaicwindowmanagerswithout theneedfortheirlongsetup.For download,buildsforamd64and RaspberryPi3/4areavailable.

Thedistributionenvironmentis builtonSway-acomposite managerusingtheWayland protocolandfullycompatiblewith themosaicwindowmanageri3,as wellastheWaybarpanel, PCManFM-GTK3filemanager,and utilitiesfromtheNWG-Shell project,suchastheAzotedesktop wallpapermanager,full-screen nwg-drawerapplicationmenu,and thenwampscreencontentonthe

screenisdisplayedonthenwg,the GTKthemesettingmanager,the morsatorandnwg-lookfontsand theAutotilingscript,which automaticallycomposestheopen applicationswindowinthemanner ofdynamicmosaicwindow managers. https://github.com/Ubuntu-Sway/ Ubuntu-Sway-Remix

RELEASEOFNFTABLES1.0.5: 08/10/2022

Thenewnftables1.0.5,unifying packetfilterinterfacesforIPv4, IPv6,ARPandnetworkbridges (targetedtoreplaceiptables, ip6table,arptablesandebtables),is out.Atthesametime,the accompanyinglibnftnl1.2.3library waspublished,providingalowlevel APIforinteractionwiththe nf _tablessubsystem.

fullcirclemagazine#183 9 contents^ NEWS Thenftablespackageincludes packetfiltercomponentsthatwork intheuser'sspace,whileatthe kernellevelisprovidedbythe nf _tablessubsystem,whichispart oftheLinuxkernelstartingfrom release3.13.Atthekernellevel, onlyacommoninterfaceis

provided,independentofaspecific protocolandprovidingbasic functionstoextractdatafrom packets,performdataoperations andflowcontrol.

Directlyfilteringrulesand protocol-specifichandlersare compiledintothebytecodeinthe user'sspace,afterwhichthe bytecodeisloadedintothekernel usingtheNetlinkinterfaceand executedinthekernelinaspecial virtualmachinereminiscentofBPF (BerkeleyPacketFilters).This approachallowsyoutosignificantly reducethesizeofthefiltercode, workingatthecorelevelandcarry allthefunctionsofparsingrules andlogicofworkingwithprotocols intotheuser'sspace

https://www.mail-archive.com/ netfilterannounce@lists.netfilter.org/ msg00246.html

GOOGLEHASEXPANDEDTHE PROGRAMTOSTIMULATETHE DETECTIONOF VULNERABILITIESINTHE LINUXKERNEL

08/10/2022

Googlehasannouncedanexpansionoftheinitiativeto paycashrewardsforidentifying vulnerabilitiesintheLinuxkernel. Themaximumamountofpayment forthenewvulnerabilityandthe creationofaworkingexploitonits basisincreasedfrom91to133 thousanddollars.Inadditiontothe previouslyusedkCTF(Kubernetes CapturetheFlag)forhacking attempts,newenvironmentswere proposed:basedonthelaststable branchoftheusualLinuxkernel andonabranchofthecore,which includesadditionalpatchestoblock thetypicalmethodsofoperationof exploits.

Forthecreationofexploitsthat hitanenvironmentwithafresh stablebranchofthecore,an additionalrewardof$21thousand ispaid.Hackingtheenvironment withexpandedprotection measures,youcanbepaidanother $21thousanddollars.Theproposed

expandedprotectionmeasuresare abletoblock9ofthe10 vulnerabilitiesreceivedlastyear and10ofthe13exploitsapplying forremuneration. https://security.googleblog.com/ 2022/08/making-linux-kernelexploit-cooking.html

OPEN-BASEDHEROESOF MIGHTANDMAGIC2FHEROES2-0.9.18 08/08/2022

THELINUXKERNELREVEALS

EXPLOITEDVULNERABILITIES INPOSIXCPUTIMER,

CLS _ ROUTEANDNF _ TABLES 08/11/2022

TheLinuxkernelrevealedseveral vulnerabilitiescausedby accessingalreadyfreedareasof memoryandallowingalocaluserto increasetheirprivilegesina system.Foralltheproblemsunder consideration,workingprototypes ofexploitshavebeencreated, whichwillbepublishedaweek afterthepublicationofinformation onvulnerabilities.Patcheswith troubleshootingweresenttoLinux kerneldevelopers.CVE-2022-2588, CVE20222586,CVE20222585.

https://www.openwall.com/lists/ oss-security/2022/08/09/6

Anewreleaseoffheroes2 0.9.18,whichrecreatesthe engineofHeroesofMightand MagicIIfromscratchisavailable. TheprojectcodeiswritteninC++ anddistributedundertheGPLv2 license.Tostartthegame,it requiresfileswiththeoriginal gameresourcesthatcanbe obtained,forexample,fromthe demoversionofHeroesofMight andMagicIIorfromtheoriginal game.Highlightisthatthe diplomaticoptionnowworksasin theoriginal. https://github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/ releases/tag/0.9.18

SQUIP-ANATTACKON AMDPROCESSORSTHAT LEADSTODATALEAKAGE

THROUGHTHIRD-PARTY CHANNELS

08/12/2022

Agroupofresearchersfromthe GrazTechnicalUniversity (Austria),formerlyknownforthe developmentofMDS,NetSpectre, ThrowhammerandZombieLoad attacks,revealedinformationabout anewmethodofattackonthirdpartychannels(CVE202146778) onthequeueoftheAMDprocessor planner,usedtoplantheexecution ofinstructionsindifferent executiveunitsoftheCPU.The attack,calledSQUIP,allowsyouto determinethedatausedinthe calculationsinanotherprocessor virtualmachineororganizea hiddencommunicationchannel betweenprocessesorvirtual machines,allowingyoutoexchange databypassingthesystemaccess demarcationmechanisms. Intheexperiment,the researcherswereabletofully recreatetheclosed4096-bitRSA keyusedtocreatedigital signaturesusingthemklogbedTLS

3.0cryptographiclibrary,inwhich theMontgomeryalgorithmisused fortheconstructionofanumberto themodulumization.Todetermine thekey,itwasnecessaryto perform50,500traces.Thetotal timeoftheattacktook38minutes. Searchoptionsaredemonstrated, providingleakagebetween differentprocessesandvirtual machinescontrolledbytheKVM hypervisor.Itisalsoshownthatthe methodcanbeusedtomake hiddendatatransferbetween virtualmachinesataspeedof0.89 Mbit/sandbetweenprocessesata speedof2.70Mbit/satanerror leveloflessthan0.8%.

https://stefangast.eu/papers/ squip.pdf

bugfixes,andalsothefollowing newfeatures:

*TheELFlinkerwillnowgeneratea warningmessageifthestackis madeexecutable. Similarlyitwill warniftheoutputbinarycontains asegmentwithallthreeofthe read,writeandexecutepermission bitsset. Thesewarningsare intendedtohelpdevelopers identifyprogramswhichmightbe vulnerabletoattackviathese executablememoryregions.The warningsareenabledbydefault butcanbedisabledviaacommand lineoption. Itisalsopossibleto buildalinkerwiththewarnings disabled,shouldthatbenecessary.

x86 _64).

*Thenmprogramnowsupportsa no-weak/-Woptiontomakeit ignoreweaksymbols.

*Thereadelfandobjdump programsnowsupporta-wEoption topreventthemfromattempting toaccessdebuginfodserverswhen followinglinks.

*Theobjcopyprogram's--weaken, --weaken-symbol,and--weakensymbolsoptionsnowworkswith uniquesymbolsaswell.

https://www.mail-archive.com/infognu@gnu.org/msg03078.html

2.39:

AnewreleaseofthesetofGNU Binutils2.39systemutilities hasbeenpublished,whichincludes programssuchasGNUlinker,GNU assembler,nm,objdump,strings,

*TheELFlinkernowsupportsa-package-metadataoptionthat allowsembeddingaJSONpayload inaccordancetothePackage Metadataspecification.

*Inlinkerscriptsitisnowpossible touseTYPE=<type>inanoutput sectiondescriptiontosetthe sectiontypevalue.

RELEASEOFTOYBOX0.8.8: 08/13/2022

*Theobjdumpprogramnow supportscoloured/coloredsyntax highlightingofitsdisassembler outputforsomearchitectures. (Currently:AVR,RiscV,s390,x86,

Thesetofsystemutilities, Toybox0.8.8,aswellas BusyBox,designedasasingle executableandoptimizedforthe minimumconsumptionofsystem resources,isout.Theprojectis beingdevelopedbytheformer BusyBoxmaininerandisdistributed undertheBSDlicense.Toyboxis usedformostofAndroid's commandlinetoolsinallcurrently

supportedAndroidversions,andis alsousedtobuildAndroidonLinux andmacOS.Allofthetoolsare testedonLinux,andmanyofthem alsoworkonBSDandmacOS. ToyboxislaggingbehindBusyBox, but306basecommands(227are fullyandpartiallycompleted)ofthe 378planned. https://github.com/landley/toybox/ releases/tag/0.8.8

DEEPINLINUX23PREVIEW

15/08/2022

DeepinisthetopLinuxdistributionfromChina, devotedtoprovidingabeautiful, easy-to-use,safe,andreliable operatingsystemforglobalusers. (GlobalRanking)

DeepinV23Previewisastaged versionofdeepinV23,which includesthreemainfeatures: brand-newrepositories,atomic updates,andaself-developed packageformat.Pleasenotethatit cannotbeupgradedfromdeepin 20directlyatpresent.

Linglongisanewpackage formatdevelopedbydeepin,

aimingatsolvingvarious compatibilityproblemscausedby complexdependenciesof traditionalpackageformatsunder Linux,andreducingthesecurity riskscausedbydecentralized controlofpermissions.Itis availabletoanyLinuxdistribution, supportsincrementalupdatesof applications,managing, distributing,andsandboxingapps, whichnotonlyimproveseaseof use,butalsogreatlyprotectsuser privacy. https://www.deepin.org/en/linuxsystem-distribution-deepin-23preview-released/

VALVEHASRELEASED

PROTON7.0-4: 16/08/2022

Valvehaspublishedtherelease oftheProton7.0-4project, whichisbasedonthecodebaseof theWineprojectandisaimedat ensuringthelaunchofgame applicationscreatedforWindows andpresentedintheSteam catalog.Theprojectisdistributed undertheBSDlicense.

Protonallowsyoutodirectlyrun

intheSteamLinuxclientgaming applicationssuppliedforWindows only.Thepackageincludesthe implementationofDirectX9/10/11 (basedontheDXVKpackage)and DirectX12(basedonvkd3dproton),runningthroughthe broadcastofDirectXcallsinthe VulkanAPI,providesimproved supportforgamecontrollersand theabilitytousethefull-screen moderegardlessofthescreen resolutionssupportedingames. Theesync"esync"(Eventfd Synchronization)and"futex/fsync" and"futex/fsync"mechanismsare supportedtoincreasethe performanceofmultithreaded games. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ Proton/releases/tag/proton-7.0-4 RELEASEOFLIBREOFFICE

7.4: 18/08/2022

TheDocumentFoundationhas releasedtheLibreOffice7.4 officepackage.Ready-made installationpackagesareprepared forvariousLinux,Windowsand macOSdistributions.147 developersparticipatedinthe

production,ofwhich95are volunteers.72%ofthechanges weremadebytheemployeesofthe threecompaniesthatoverseethe project-Collabora,RedHatand Allotropia,and28%ofthechanges wereaddedbyindependent enthusiasts. ThereleaseofLibreOffice7.4is equippedwiththe"Community" label,willbesupportedby enthusiastsandisnotaimedat applicationatenterprises. LibreOfficeCommunityisavailable forfreeforfreetoeveryone, includingcorporateusers.For enterprisesinneedofadditional service,productsoftheLibreOffice Enterprisefamilyareseparately developing,forwhichpartner companieswillbeprovidedwithfull support,theabilitytoreceivelong termupdates(LTS)andadditional functionssuchasSLA(ServiceLevel Agreements).

https:// blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/ 2022/08/18/libreoffice-7-4community/

RELEASEOFKDEGEAR

22.08: 19/08/2022

TheAugustsummaryupdateof theapplications(22.08) developedbytheKDEprojectis presented.Recallthatthesummary setofKDEapplicationsfromApril 2021ispublishedunderthename KDEGear,insteadofKDEAppsand KDEApplications.Intotal,233 programs,librariesandplugins havebeenpublishedaspartofthe update.Informationaboutthe availabilityofLive-assemblieswith newreleasesofapplicationscanbe obtainedonthispage,https:// community.kde.org/Plasma/ LiveImages https://kde.org/announcements/ gear/22.08.0/

operationofsomeoldlaptops duringitsplayback.This compositioncanleadtoan emergencyshutdownofthesystem duetofailuresintheharddisk associatedwiththereproductionof certainresonancefrequencies.

Itisnotedthatthefrequencyin theclipcoincideswiththe fluctuationsoccurringindisks rotatingat5400rpm,whichleads toasharpincreaseintheamplitude oftheiroscillations.Information abouttheproblemwassharedbya Microsoftemployee,whotolda storyfromtheweekdaysofthe supportserviceofWindowsXP about:Howtodealwiththe complaintsofusersofoneofthe majormanufacturerswhorevealed that"RhythmNation"leadsto disruptionsofindividualmodelsof drivesbasedonhardmagneticdisks usedinthelaptopsproducedby thismanufacturer.

JANETJACKSONRUINING

OLDERHARWARE: 19/08/2022

MITREassignedthevideowith

thesongJanetJackson "RhythmNation" thevulnerability identifierofCVE202238392due tothedisruptionofthenormal

Theproblemwassolvedbythe manufacturerthroughtheaddition ofaspecialfiltertothesound systemthatdoesnotallow unwantedfrequenciesduring soundplayback.Butsucha workarounddidnotprovidefull protection,forexample,thecase mentionedwherethefailurewas

repeatednotonthedeviceon whichtheclipwasplayed,butona nearbylaptop.Theproblemwas alsorecordedonlaptopsfrom othermanufacturerssoldaround 2005.Informationabouttheeffect hasbeendisclosedsinceithas alreadylostitsrelevanceandthe problemdoesnotmanifestin modernharddrives. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/ oldnewthing/20220816-00/? p=106994

license. https://krita.org/en/item/krita-5-10-released/ DESKTOPRELEASEBUDGIE

10.6.3: 22/08/2022

Theorganization'Buddiesof

RELEASEOFKRITA5.1: 20/08/2022

Krita5.1.0,designedforartists andillustrators,isout.The editorsupportsmultilayerimage processing,providestoolstowork withdifferentcolormodelsandhas alargesetoftoolsfordigital painting,sketchesandtexture formation.Selfcontainedimagesin theAppImageformatforLinux, experimentalAPKpackagesfor ChromeOSandAndroid,aswellas binarybuildsformacOSand Windowsareavailablefor installation.Theprojectiswrittenin C++usingtheQtlibraryand distributedundertheGPLv3

https://blog.buddiesofbudgie.org/ budgie-10-6-3-released/

fullcirclemagazine#183 13 contents^ NEWS Budgie',whichoverseesthe developmentoftheprojectafterit separationfromtheSolus distribution,introducedarelease Budgie10.6.3desktop.Budgie 10.6.xcontinuestodevelopaclassic codebasebasedonGNOME technologyanditsownGNOME shellimplementation.Inthefuture, theyexpecttostartthe developmentoftheBudgie11,a branchinwhichtheyplanto separatethefunctionalityofthe desktopfromthelayerthat providesvisualizationandoutputof information,whichwillallowyouto abstractfromspecificgraphic libraries,andimplementfull supportfortheWaylandprotocol. Theprojectcodeisdistributed undertheGPLv2license.

RELEASEOFCELLULOID

0.24: 20/08/2022 Celluloid0.24(formerlyGNOME MPV)videoplayer,thatprovidesa graphicalinterfacebasedonthe GTKlibraryfortheMPVconsole videoplayer,isout.Celluloidisused inLinuxMintandUbuntuMATEasa defaultvideoplayer. https://github.com/celluloid-player/ celluloid/releases/tag/v0.24

FULLCIRCLEWEEKLY

NEWS

JoinourhostMossBlissas hepresentsyouwithashort podcast(<10min)withjust thenews.Nochit-chat.No timewasting.Justthelatest FOSS/Linux/Ubuntunews. RSS:http:// fullcirclemagazine. org/feed/podcast

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

Welcomebacktoanotherissue ofcommandandconquer.We talkedaboutscreeninaprevious issue,whereImentionedtmux.This issueiswherethathappens.

INSTALLATION

Theysayapictureiswortha thousandwords,let’sseeifthis works.

Onceyouhaveinstalledit,

launchitbytyping“tmux”andyou shouldseeabarappearacrossthe bottomoftheterminal(shown below).

Let’stalkaboutthekey combinationsandswitcheshere,as thatiswhattmuxrevolvesaround.

Inthegeneralcategory,I’dput ‘makingmistakes’.Yes,tmuxisvery helpfulincorrectingyou,ifyoudo. Infact,I’drecommendyoumake them.Thisreallyisthebestwayto

learn.Unlikeprogramming,where almosteverythingis“Syntaxerror” andnohelpisprovided.I’dsuggest startingwiththetmuxcommand andfollowingitwitheveryletterin thealphabet.Itmayseemdumb, butthisishowyoulearnedasan infant.ItisaLOTbetterthanme just“telling”you.Don’tworry,Iwill stillbegivingyoualotof information,butIwantyouto discoversomeforyourself.

Ain’ttmuxgrand?

Ifyourememberourarticleon screen,thekeycombinationtotell screenthatyouweregoingtogive itacommand,wasCTRL+a.(Let’s callita“primer”).Intmux,itis CTRL+b.Themostimportantone I’dliketotellyouaboutisthe‘?’.If

youpressCTRL+b,andthena questionmark,helpwillbe displayed.Thenicethinghereis thatyoucanuseyourmousewheel toscrollupanddownthatlist. Thoughallthismayseemsillyto GUIusers,therewillcomeatime youwillhavetosurftheterminal andwhynotmakeitascomfortable aspossible?

Intmux,youcanhavetabsor windows,allowingyoutodoone thingthatmayrunawhile,and openanother“window”inthesame terminaltodosomethingelse.You don’tseeanotherwindowper-se, buta“new”windowwithinthe currentone.Youcannamethese windowssimplybyusingthe CTRL+bto“prime”it,followedbya ‘ ,’(comma).Typethenewnameand

itwillbedisplayedinthebottom insteadof“bash”(seeabove).

Thismakesiteasytoremember whatyouweredoinginwhich window,ifyouhavealotofthem open.Aswithscreen,pandnwill bethepreviousandnextwindowif youenterthemaftertheprimer.If youwouldliketoseeallthe “windows”thatyouhaveopen,itis wafterthe“primer”,andtogoback tothe“last”windowyouwereon,it islaftertheprimer.Whenyouuse the“w”command,thewindowsare listedwithnumbers,youcango straighttoanyofthosewiththe

numberofthatwindowdirectly aftertheprimerkeys.Youcanalso findawindowbythenameyou gaveit,anotherreasontoname yourwindows.Typeyourprimer, followedbyanfandthensimply typepartofthewordtofindyour window.Obviouslyyouwillhaveto getspecificifyounamedyour windowssomethinglike“docker1” “docker2”and“docker3”.Hint: don’t.

Nowyoumaywanttokilla windowandnotthewhole terminal.Thisiswhereyouusethe ampersand“&”(whichwilllook

differentdependingonthefont). Shift+7onmykeyboard.Youshould getaprompttoaskyouifyou’dlike tokillit.Ifyouwouldliketogroup windows,youcaneasilymovethem withthe‘.’periodaftertheprimer, thoughinallhonesty,Ihavenever usedthatfunctionality,ever.To havesomefunwithtmux,Iliketo useitaftertheprimer.Itgivesmea clock(time)toseewhenIcango home.XDWhatcanIsay,beinga prostituteisahardlife,Igivemy bodytomybossforaminimumof8 hoursaday,andIdon’tweara watch.

Nowtmuxisalotmorein-depth

thanasimple‘commandand conquer’couldcover,butI’dliketo covermorebasesthanhotkeys. Tmuxalsounderstandscommands. Forinstance,youcantype‘tmuxls’ tolistalloftheopenwindowsor sessions.Justlikevi/vim,thereisa “hidden”menuthatappearsafter youpress “ :”(colon)afterthe primer(shownabove).

fullcirclemagazine#183 18 contents^ COMMAND&CONQUER Thisallowsforevenmore functionality;forinstance,typing theword“new”afterthatcolon, willopenanewwindow.Personally Ifinditeasiertousethehotkeys, buttoeachhisown.(Thoughyou candomorethisway).

COMMAND&CONQUER

Myadvicefromearlierstands, typealetterandtabcompleteto seeoptionsheretoo.HereItyped “set”thentabbedtogetresults. Butthatisnotall,youcangoa stepfurtherandsetupa“dotfile” andloadthatup.Whenyougetto thecolon,simplystarttyping sourceandtabcompletetoloada sourcefile: source-file ~/.tmux.conf

(Youcangrabnicefilesfromthe internet,justbesuretoreadthem firsttounderstandwhattheydo.)I willlinkyouhere: https://www.hamvocke.com/blog/ a-guide-to-customizing-your-tmuxconf/ https://linuxhint.com/customizetmux-configuration/

Somehelpfulresources.Enjoy.

AlotofVimjockeysenjoytmux, becauseofthebindingsyoucan create.Iamhonestlynotafan,butI willincludeasprinklingherefor thoseofyouwhoare(notlistedin thoselinks):

bind s split-window -v splitting

bind v split-window -h splitting

bind h select-pane -L motionkeys

bind j select-pane -D motionkeys

bind k select-pane -U motionkeys

bind l select pane R motionkeys

setw -g mode-keys vi vimmotionkeyswhileincopymode

bind - resize-pane -D 1 resizepanedownby1

bind + resize-pane -U 1 resizepaneupby1

bind < resize-pane -L 1 resizepanetoleftby1

bind > resize-pane -R 1 resizepanetorightby1

Whichbringsmebacktothe“?”. Ifyouwouldliketosplitapane,say vertically,youcanusethe“%”after theprimer.Itiseasytolookthese upwiththebuilt-inhelp“?”.Iwill notrehashwhatyoucanfindthere. Pleasefigureoutyourselfhowto

usethosehotkeysfromthat,hey it’salearningexperience.Youmay notusetheterminalmuchjust playingminecraft,butonceyouget intocreatingyourownminecraft server,youmayunderstand.

Didwemakemistakes?Letus knowmisc@fullcirclemagazine.org

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

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyChrisBinnie

Greg'sregularPythonserieswill bebacknextmonth.

imageforeaseofuse(https:// zwischenzugs.com/2016/08/29/ bash-to-python-converter).

Ifyouareanythinglikeme,aftera fewyearsofexposure,theability towriteBashscriptsseemedtoget automaticallyabsorbedinmy psychebyosmosis.Ihavealso tinkeredwithPythonbutfindBash comessoeasilytomethatI've struggledtojustifycommittinglots oftimetolearningittothesame level.Eventhoughadmittedly, therehavebeentimeswhen LambdafunctionsorPython dictionarieswouldhaveprobably meantlesseffortoverall,Istill perseveredwithBash.

Recently,Iwaspleasantly surprisedtodiscoversomeone skilledhadcreatedaBashscript/ Pythonscriptconvertercalled "bash2py"(https:// www.swag.uwaterloo.ca/bash2py/ index.html).

Keentoseeifitworked,I thoughtIwouldtrybash2pywitha simplescript aswe'llseeina moment.Atthisstage,it's definitelyworthpointingoutthat youwillgetmixedresultswithtools likethisone.Theauthorofbash2py statesthatitisintendedtoonly"do thelionshareofthetranslation effort".And,additionally,ifyour Bashscriptcontainserrors, surprisinglysowilltheresulting Pythonscript!Youhavebeen warned.

Thatsaid,forrelativelysimple jobs,likeaLambdafunctioninAWS forexample,thistoolshouldbe abletogiveyouthebuildingblocks inPythonthatcouldbefurther developedupon.

SIMPLEBASHSCRIPT

#!/bin/bash echo -e "\nI am a Bash script and I can count...\n" for counter in {1..5}; do echo ${counter} done exit

quicklyaspossible,itcountstofive. TheBashscriptisshownabove. IhavesavedtheBashscriptasa filecalled"bash.sh".We’llsaveit againinamoment,sostaytuned. Totestitworks,Iranthese commands: chmod +x bash.sh ./bash.sh

I am a Bash script and I can count... 1 2

script,let'sseewhatbash2py makesofit.WewillusetheDocker imageapproach.WithDocker alreadyinstalled,thecommandto useisthis: docker pull imiell/bash2py

Nextwecancheckhowbigthat imageis,withthiscommand: docker images

REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE imiell/bash2py latest 09dfc6f8a82e 5 years ago 494MB

Icanseethescript,countingto five,sowe’reallset.

And,followingthatpieceof wizardry,anothercleverperson wrappedbash2pyupintoaDocker

Here'sasimplescriptIwrotein ordertotestouttheconverter.Its purposeistoemploytheverylatest technologicaladvances,and…as

RESULTINGPYTHONSCRIPT

NowthatwehaveasimpleBash

AswecanseearoundhalfaGB ofspaceistakenupbytheDocker image. Let’sseebash2pyinactionby enteringthecontainerafterasking Dockertorunit:

HOWTO-PYTHON

docker run -ti imiell/bash2py

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5#

Aswecanseefromthe commandprompt,we’reinsidethe containerandcanexecute commandsrelatingtobash2py. Next,we’regoingtousethe“vi” texteditorinsidethecontainerand pastethe“bash.sh”scriptintoafile ofthesamenameonthe container’sfilesystem,withthis command:

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5# vi bash.sh

Savethatfileinsidethe containerbyexiting“vi”.

Now,runittoo,ifyoulike,with thiscommand(afterfirstmakingit executableagain):

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5# chmod +x bash.sh

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5# ./bash.sh

Great,theoutputisthesameas before.Wecancounttofiveyet again.

Let’sfinallytestbash2pywith

thiscommand:

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5# ./bash2py bash.sh

Thecommandcompletes withoutanyoutput.Ifyoudoan “ls”command,youwillseethata newfilehasbeencreatedinside thecontainer’sdirectorycalled “bash.sh.py”,asso: ls

MANIFEST README.txt analyzers bash-4.3.30 bash.sh bash.sh.py bash2py bash2py.py bin install source _ code.txt tests

IfweusePythoninsidethe containerfirst,andexecutethat Pythonscript,weshouldbeableto seeifitruns,asshownwiththis command: root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5# python bash.sh.py

I am a Bash script and I can count...

1 2 3 4 5

#! /usr/bin/env python from __ future __ import print_function class Bash2Py(object):

__ slots __ = ["val"]

def __ init__(self, value=''): self.val = value

def GetVariable(name, local=locals()): if name in local: return local[name] if name in globals(): return globals()[name] return None

def Make(name, local=locals()): ret = GetVariable(name, local) if ret is None: ret = Bash2Py(0) globals()[name] = ret return ret

print("\nI am a Bash script and I can count...\n") for Make("counter").val in [1,2,3,4,5]: print(counter.val) exit()

Excellent!Wehaveaworking Pythonscript!

Whathasbash2pychangedin ourscript?Inthelistingshown above,youcanseethecontentsof ourgeneratedPythonscript.

root@8c3fa65fce45:/opt/ bash2py-3.5#

IfyoulookatListingTwo,most oftheworkhasbeendonesetting upthescriptsoitwillruninthe environment.Attheendofthe script,wecanseea“for”loop, whichisveryBash-like.

Thelastthingtodoistocopy thescriptoutsidethecontainerand runitonmylaptop,justtobesure. Areminderthatwhenyoutype “CTRL-D”insidethecontainerto exittheshell,yourcontainerwill stopanddestroythedatainsideit, becauseoftheDockercommand weusedearlier.

WiththePythonscriptcopied intomyclipboard,Icreateanew scriptcalled“counter.py”and, knowingthatmylaptopisusing Pythonversion3,thenusethis

HOWTO-PYTHON

commandtoexecuteit.

Delta ~ # python3 counter.py

I am a Bash script and I can count...

1 2 3 4 5

Ashoped,oursimplescriptruns onmylaptoptoo!Greatnews.

THEEND

Obviouslyyoustillneedsome knowledgeaboutPythonifyouuse toolslikethis.

Butbash2pycouldsaveyou someeyestrainandlotsoftime undercertaincircumstances.Be warnedyoumayfind,especiallyfor morecomplexoperations,thata fairamountoftweakingisrequired.

Hopefully,aquicklookatthis veryclevertoolhasinspiredyouto tryitoutforyourself.Younever know,itmightsavethedayatsome pointinthefuture.

ChrisBinnie’slatestbook,called CloudNativeSecurity,details DevSecOpstooling,securitythreats incontainersandKubernetesand CloudSecurityPostureManagement. Furtherinformationcanbefound here:https://cloudnativesecurity.cc

H

WrittenbyTheovanOosten

NOTE:Parts1-6areFCM#105-110

Intheearlydaysofcomputers,a companycalledDigitalEquipment Corporation(DEC)createdits32bit VAXcomputerusingOpenVMSas itsoperatingsystem.Becausea VAX/VMScomputerissoreliable, therearetoday-aftermorethan 25years stillalargenumberof theminuse.But,intheend,even thesereliablecomputerswillhave tobereplaced.Asdescribedinpart 1(FCM#105),youcouldmigrate fromVAX/VMStoLinux,astheway Linuxworksislargelycompatible withOpenVMS.IfyouusePascalas yourprogramminglanguage,you willfindthatLazarus/FreePascalis agoodreplacement.Butthereare technicalfunctionsusedin OpenVMSwithnoapparent replacementinLinux.Inthisarticle, Iwillupdateyouwith improvementsandexperience sincemylastarticle.

EARLYRETIREMENT?

Intheconclusionofpart6,Itold youthatIwasgoingintoearly

retirement.Thatwasabigmistake. TwoyearslaterIwasapproached forapositioninViennawherethey hadafew20yearoldAlpha’sand nowIamworkingthereforthree yearsalready.AndifIlistentothe customer,IgettheideathatIwill beworkingtherelongaftermy retirement.

FILEVERSIONNUMBERS

Inpart4ofmyarticle,Itoldyou that“Ifyourprojectisdepending onthisbehavior(thefileversion, notthecrashing),youwillhaveto changeyourprograms.Eitherby addingaversionnumbertothe nameortype,orbychangingyour projectinsuchawayitwillno longerdependonthefileversions.” Myveryfirstpotentialcustomer (mycurrentjob)washeavilyrelying onthesefileversionnumbers.One jobisbeingstartedmanytimes withdifferentparameters,somany logfilesarebeingcreatedwiththe samename.SoIchangedmyfile handlingroutinestouseversion numbers.AsLinuxdoesnothavean equivalent,Isolveditbyadding (andexpecting)thefileversion

numberasapartofthefilenamein theformat“;1234”.Asthisisa string,andnota16-bitnumber,the restrictionofthemaximumof 32767islifted.Thatmightcause problemsinaprojectthatrelieson thatmaximum,butthat’s somethingforthefuture.

Anotherissuewithlogfilesof batchjobsisthatifyouaskthe systemwhatthelogfileofjobxxxx is,youwillgetthefilenameand locationonly.Youhavetousetricks likewritingatokeninthecurrent logfileandsearchthroughall

versionsforthattokentofindthe fileversionnumber.Thismademe changemyimplementationofthe batchbyincludingthefileversion numberassoonasthejobstarts.

GRAPHICALDCLDEBUGGER

Whentryingmyfirstreal migration,Iranintodifficulties.Not knowingifmyimplementationof DCLiswrong(yes,Ifoundabunch ofbugs),Ineededawaytosee what’sgoingonwhileascriptis beingexecuted.Thenormalwayto

debugaDCLscriptistoputinsome writeorshowcommands.Butthisis verytediousandyouhavetoput thecommandsinatexactlythe rightpoints,whichyoudonotknow upfront.Ifonlyyoucoulddebuga DCLscriptthesamewayyouwould debugaprogram.

Ihavecreatedexactlythat.A graphicalapplicationwith breakpoints,watchpoints,anda continuousdisplayofsymbols,local andglobal.Youcanspecifyabreak onexit,todeterminewhichexit pointaroutinetakes(including errorexit).Soyouhavethe opportunitytoseewhatthevalue ofthelocalsymbolsareonexit(or

thecauseoftheerror).IwishedI hadthisapplicationyearsago.

CODASYLDATABASE EXTENSIONS

Inpart6Itoldyouabouta differentkindofdatabase:a networkdatabasecalledDBMS32. InfactIshouldhavecalledita Codasyldatabase.Thiskindof databasehasbeenaroundlonger thanrelationaldatabases,andeven hadanormalizationcommittee.My implementationislooselybasedon theformalizedspecification.When mycustomerwasfacingthe problemthatachainofjobstook

HOWTO-MIGRATIONFROMVAX/VMSTOLINUX

waytoolong(6–7hours),Istarted afeasibilitystudytoseeifIcould doitbetterusingmyCodasyl databaseinsteadofOracle.Andof courseIranintothelimitationsofa Codasyldatabase.Asitisdesigned forspeed,itisnotsuitableforlarge setsofdata.

ButIdidn'tgiveupandtweaked myimplementationtohandle millionsofrecordsandintroduced indicestokeepthespeed.Oracle usesspecialtablesforindicesthat needtobeupdated.Thosetables cangetfragmented,soithelpsto doarebuildonceinawhile.But thatcantakemorethananhour, andthetablesthatusethese indicesareblockedduringthat time(aproblemthatisverycurrent atmycustomer).Inmy implementation,thebuildissofast (lessthanasecond)thatIdecided todoitontheflyinsteadofstored.

Theendresultwasaprocessing timeoflessthanhalfanhour,so morethan10timesfaster.

Iwasalsotellingyouabouta graphicalapplicationtoreplace DBQ,thedatabaseinterface program.Ihaveextendedthis applicationwithagraphical representationoftheinterlinked data,withthepossibilityofmoving records(withyourmouse)withina listtochangetheorder.

CONCLUSION

Asyoucansee,Ihaven’tbeen inactiveinthelast5years.Mynew jobischallenging,timeconsuming (upto10hoursadayplusonthe weekends),andischallengingallof mycompetences,butcanalsobe boringfromtimetotime.Soifyou haveanewchallengeforme,like speedingupyourapplicationby

usingmyimplementationofa Codasyldatabase,youcanalways sendmeanemailorcontactme throughLinkedIn.

H

OWW-

TO O

WrittenbyRobertBoardman

\begin{figure}[h] %Use [b] to move to bottom of page

\centering

\includegraphics[height=3cm,width=3cm]{atom}

\caption{Model atom}

\label{fig:atom}

\end{figure}

\section{Heading} See figure \ref{fig:atom}

AboveisthecodeErikusedin

Part3ofthisseries,usingLatexto producedocuments:

Thefollowingarerequiredto makeacompletedocumentwithan image: \documentclass[letterpaper] {book}

\usepackage{graphicx}

Thesetwopackagesarealso useful:

\usepackage{subcaption} % Builds customized captions for images, tables, etc. \usepackage{lipsum} %To add lipsum dummy text

Allthreeofthesepackages shouldbeavailableinanystandard installationofLatex.The begin{document}codehastobe

closedinordertocompilewithout error.Puttingallthepieces togetheryieldsthecodeshowntop right. Someofthiscodeshouldbeselfexplanatory.Otherpartsneed somewordstomaketheireffects clear.Theobviousonesare explainedfirst.

Imagefilesareimportedsizeas ortofitthetext-widthorline-width oftheselectedlocation.Heightand widthargumentsinthe includegraphicsinstructionshould beobvious.Latexisnotlimitedto metricmeasures.Text-widthand line-widthareusuallythesame value,thewidthbetweenleftand rightmargins.Ifthereismorethan onecolumnoftext,thenlinewidth willequalthecolumnwidth.Images usedinsideacolumnwillnotby defaultexceedthecolumnmargins.

\documentclass[letterpaper]{book}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\usepackage{subcaption}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[h] %Use [b] to move to bottom of page

\centering

\includegraphics[height=3cm,width=3cm]{atom}

\caption{Model atom}

\label{fig:atom}

\end{figure}

\section*{Heading}

See figure \ref{fig:atom}

\end{document}

Thecenteringinstructionshould alsobeobvious.Anyelementinside thefigureenvironmentwillbe centredbetweentheleftandright margins.Thecaptioninstruction givestexttothecaption.Noticethe captionisautomaticallygiventhe name“Fig.”,andthenextnumberin thesequenceoffigures.Figisshort forfigure,thenumber(visiblein thepdfoutput)willchangeifother figurescomebeforethisone.

Thereisalabelinstructioninthe codewhichisnotrequired.Labels areveryusefulforprovidingcross references.Theycanbeusedto generatehotlinksinthepdffile, veryusefulforbothauthorand reader.

Theinstruction

includegraphics[height=3cm,width= 3cm]{atom}containsthenameof therequiredgraphic:atom.png.No fileextension(filetype)isrequired, Latexwillimportandshowimage filesoftypesEPS,JPEG,PDFor PNG.Iftherearetwoormorefiles withthesamenamebutdifferent filetypes,thefirstfile

alphabeticallyisloadedinthe document.Thewritercanindicate thecorrectfiletypeinthe includegraphicsinstruction: \includegraphics{sampleimage.pdf}

Latexalsoassumesimagefiles arestoredinthesamefolder/

HOWTO-LATEX

directoryasthetexdocument.Itis possibletostoregraphicsfilesin anotherdirectory.Thelocationof thegraphicsfilemustbeindicated intheincludegraphicsinstruction. Eitherabsoluteorrelativepaths maybeused.Forexample: \includegraphics{./sampleimage.png}

Imagefilesmayalsobescaled, reducedorenlargedbyaspecific metric:

\includegraphics[scale=.5] {sample-image.png} % scales both width and height by 0.5

Imagescanberotated:

\includegraphics[angle=10] {sample image.png} % rotates the image by 10 degrees counterclockwise

Locationonthepageis obviouslyimportanttothepage design.Theimageenvironment floatsimagestothebestlocation. Ifthereisnotroomfortheimage ontheselectedpagethenitis movedtothenextpage, generatinganewpageifnecessary. Thisactioncanbecontrolled throughoptionsinthebeginfigure instruction.Init,youwillsee[h]

whichindicatesthegraphicimage shouldbeinserted“here”,atthe locationwheretheinstructionis typed.Optionsareh=here,t=topof thispage,b=bottomofthispage, p=aseparatepagededicatedto floatedelements,adifferentpage inotherwords.If"t"or"b"are used,andtheimageislargerthan theavailablespaceonthecurrent page,theimagewillbemovedto eitherthetoporbottomofthe nextpage.Repositioningthe begin{figure}codeusing“h”asits firstargumentwillmovetheimage ofthemodelofanatomwithinthe document.(Seeimagesbelowleft

andbelowright.)

Ileaveittoyoutoexperiment withthepositionoftextinrelation tothepositionofthecodeforthe image.Note:usinglipsumto generateimitationtextdoesnot allowforinsertingtheimage betweenparagraphs.

Onewaytocontroltheposition ofanimageistoresizeitsoitfits whereyouwantit.Settingboth heightandwidthoptionstofixed valuescandistortimagesbecauseit canchangetheaspectratio.Images canlooksquashedorstretchedif

HOWTO-LATEX

bothheightandwidtharefixed values.(Seeimagebottomleftin whichbothheightandwidthare fixed.)Ifonlyoneofheightand widthisfixed,Latexwillalterthe otherdimensionautomaticallyto maintaintheaspect-ratioofthe image.

Asimilarwaytoresizeanimage istousethe[scale]instruction whichaltersbothheightandwidth bythesamemultiplier.Thiskeeps theaspectratiothesameasthe original.If[scale=1]theimageis displayedinitsoriginalsize,if [scale>1}thenimageisenlarged,

andif[scale<1]thenimageis reduced.(Seeimagebottomright inwhich[scale=1.3].

Ihopethisarticlehasgivenyou afewideasaboutworkingwith imagesinTex/Latex.Nexttime,I willdiscusssettingupcolumns,a necessaryskillformanyonlineand printedpublications.

H HOOWW--TTO O

WrittenbyMarkCrutch

IfirstdescribedtheTaperStroke LPEinpart67ofthisseries (FCM#127).Backthen,itwasinthe contextofmanuallytracingan image.Asanexample,Itookthe ‘Frankie’cartooncharacter, originallydrawnbyVincentMealing forour“Monsters,Inked”comic series,andtracedoverascanofthe originalartworkusingavarietyof techniques.TheTaperStrokeeffect wasusedasaquick-and-easywayto producemoreinterestingoutlines, withoutgoingtothefullextentof usingthePowerStrokeLPE.Here’s ascreenshotthatappearedinthe article,showingtheresultofusing theeffectinthedrawing,andthe UIfortheLPEasitwasatthattime.

WithInkscapeversion1.1, severalnewadditionsweremade totheTaperStrokeparameters enoughtowarrantaquickupdate inthisseries.Here’showtheUI appearsnow:

Thefirstchangeisthatthe TaperSmoothingcontrolhasnow beensplitintotwoparameters, governingthestartandend smoothingrespectively.Inthis context,smoothingreferstothe shapeofthetaper,fromavery roundedtaper(smoothing:1.0)toa straightline(smoothing:0).Youcan seebothoftheseusedonthe imagebelow,whichshowssomeof theeffectsthatcanbeproduced withthisLPEwhenusedon exaggeratedlythicklines.TheLefthandlinedisplaysthesensible limitsofthesmoothingparameter (1.0atthetop,and0atthe bottom),whiletherightmostline showstheeffectofsettingtheseto moreextremevalues(+/-10.0in thiscase).

Thisimagealsoshowstheother additiontothisLPE:theabilityto alterthedirectionofthetaper.The secondandfourthlinesusethe default“center”direction,butthe firstandthirdhavetheirstartand enddirectionsvariouslysetto “left”and“right”.Thesearethe onlythreeoptionsavailable–it’s notpossibletohaveataperthat terminatesonlyslightlyleftof center,forexample.

It’sworthnotingthatthe“left” and“right”designationsare relativetothedirectionofthe path.Imaginewalkingalongthe pathfromstarttofinishto determinewhichsideofitiswhich. Intheimagebelow,theleft-hand linehasitsdirectionssetto“left”, andtherighthandlinehasits directionssetto“right”,yetthey bothappearthesame.The differenceisthattheformerwas drawnfrombottomtotop,andthe latterfromtoptobottom.Thisalso meansthatusingPath Reverseon ashapewiththisLPEappliedwill flipthevisibledirectionsofthe tapers,sowatchoutforthatoneif

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

you’reforcedtoreversethepath forotherreasons!

skippingtheexperimentalLPEsfor thereasonsmentionedlasttime). Butthesereleasesalsobrought withthemsomenewextensions, whichI’lldescribebelow,andnext month.Thesecanallbefound undertheExtensionsmenu,of course,andI’veincludedthe relevantsubmenuatthestartof eachsectiontitle.

RENDER>FRAME

Butit’snotexactlyrocketscience either.ThesimplestapproachI knowofistoduplicateyourobject, selectObject ObjectsToGuides, thendrawarectanglebysnapping totheintersectionsbetweenthe guidelines.Thisextensionreduces thosefewstepsdowntoone,but doesn’treallyoffermanyother advantagesasitdoesso.

I’velefttheleftmostline selectedinordertoshowthe handlesthatarevisiblewhenthe Nodetool(F2)isactive.Ashas alwaysbeenthecase,youcandrag thesehandlestoadjustthelength ofthestartandendtapers.Anew addition,however,isthatyoucan nowshift-clickonthemtocycle betweenthethreedirectionvalues, makingitquickandeasyto experimentwiththisupgraded capability.

Withthat,we’vereachedthe endofthenewLivePathEffects addedinInkscape1.0and1.1(I’m

Let’sstartwithasimple extension.Thisonedrawsa“frame” aroundeachselectedobjectinyour image.I’veputtheword“frame”in quotesbecauseitsuggests somethingfarmoreimpressive thantheresultthisextension produces.Youmightimaginean ornatepictureframe,aCelticknot styleborder,orperhapssomething sweepingandcalligraphic.Instead, whatyouactuallygetiswhat appearstobearoundedrectangle aroundeachselectedobject. Exceptit’snotevenarounded rectangle it’sapath sothere’s noeasywaytochangethecorner radiusafterthefact.

Drawingarectanglethatexactly hugstheoutsideofanarbitrary objectisalittletrickyinInkscape.

Let’slookatitinaction.We’ll beginbyselectingmultipleitems onthecanvas.Inthiscasethereare twoselections–onesinglestarat thetop,andonegroupoftwostars atthebottom.

Finallythestrokecolorissetto black,andthefill(onthesecond tab)istransparent(alpha=0). Here’stheresult: TheInside/Outsidepopupcan beusedtodeterminewhetherthe frameisdrawninsidethebounding boxoftheselectedobject,or outsideit.Thedifferenceismost obviouswhenthestrokethickness iscrankedupalittle to10pxin thisexample.

Nowwe’llruntheextension withsomeprettystandardvalues togetstarted:Positionissetto Outside,thecheckboxesareleft un-ticked,thestrokewidthissetto 2pxandthecornerradiusto10.

TheClipcheckboxdetermines whetherornottheselecteditem shouldbeclippedtothesizeofthe

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

frame.Oftenthiswillmakelittle difference,butifyourobjecthasa thickborder,forexample,thiscan theoreticallyhidetheportionthat extendsoutsidetheframe.Isay “theoretically”becauseIhavenot beenabletogetthisfeatureto workreliablyatall.Mostofthe timeenablingtheClipoptionjust resultsintheentireobjectbeing removed.Ihaveseenitwork correctlyononeoccasion,butI haven’tbeenabletoreproduce thatbehavioursince.

TheGroupcheckbox,onthe otherhand,doesseemtowork.But allitdoesisgrouptheselected objectwithitscorresponding frame,savingyouasmallmanual stepifyouneedtokeeptheobject anditsframetogetherinthisway.

Thenewframeisrenderedon topoftheselectedobject.Bear thatinmindbeforesettingtheFill tabtouseanopaquecolor,asitwill obscuretheoriginalelement.You canchangethestackingorderafter applyingtheextension,ofcourse, butit’sanothersteptobeawareof.

Idon’treallyseethepointinthis extension.Itwouldmakesome senseiftherewasafieldinwhich toaddapaddingvalue,allowingfor

framesthatdon’thugthecontent quitesotightly.Iftheframecould berenderedinthebackgroundas well,thiswouldprovideaneasy waytoaddaboxandbackground colorformultipleitems,turning themintobuttonsoricons,for example.Asitstands,Iseelittle benefitofusingthisextensionover learningthesmallnumberofsteps toperformthistaskmanually, unlessyouhaveaverylarge numberofobjectsthatrequire tightlyfittingrectanglesaround themforsomereason.Ironically thenextextensionwouldhave beenaperfectexampleofausefor thisfeature,ifitwasn’tforthefact thattheoutputoftheFrame extensionisnotatallintheright formforExportLayerSlicesto use… EXPORT>EXPORTLAYER

SLICES

Inkscapealreadyhasanative mechanismforexportingmultiple itemsinadocumentasseparate PNGfiles,viatheBatchExport featureintheFile ExportPNG Image…dialog.Thisassumesthat theitemsyouwanttoexportare individualelements,orarealready groupedintherightway.Youcan

getaroundthislimitationbysimply creatingalayeronwhichtodraw somerectangles(orothershapes) thatmarkoutthesectionsofthe pagetoexport,thenperforma BatchExportwiththoserectangles selected.Here’satip:ifyoudon’t wanttherectanglesthemselvesto appearaspartoftheexportedfiles, selectthemallandthenhidethe layerbeforeyouhittheExport buttoninthedialog–theBatch Exportcheckboxshouldstillsay “BatchexportNselectedobjects”, whereNisthenumberofshapes youselectedinyourslicinglayer, butyou’renotleftwithavisible strokearoundtheedgeofeach PNG.

TheExportLayerSlices extensionessentiallydoesthe samething.Touseityouhaveto createaslicinglayer,thendraw rectanglestomarktheareastobe cutoutandsavedasseparate PNGs.Thelayerhastobeatthetop level(ratherthanbeingasub-layer), andtherectanglesmustactuallybe rectangles(i.e.<rect>elementsin theXML),notpathsoranyother shape.TheExportdialogapproach doesn’thaveeitherofthese limitations.

youneedtoensurethatthename ofthelayeristhesameasthename usedintheextension’sUI.By default,thisis“slices”,sothe easiestapproachissimplytogive yourlayerthesamename.

Setyourexportdirectory,and theDPIfortheimages,andhitthe ApplybuttontocreateyourPNG files.Ifyouwantfinecontrolover thefilenames,youcanfirstchange theIDofeachrectangleviathe Object ObjectPropertiesdialog (don’tforgettohitthe“Set” button).Andyouprobablyalso wanttotickthe“Overwriteexisting exports”checkbox,otherwisethe extensionwillrefusetoreplaceany existingfileswiththesamenames.

fullcirclemagazine#183 31 contents^ Unfortunately,thisextension suffersfromamajorflaw,asfarasI amconcerned.Giventhatyouhave tocreateawholeseparatelayerto definetheslicingregions,Iwould

Whencreatingyourslicinglayer,

HOWTO-INKSCAPE

expectthatlayertobeomitted fromtheexportedimages.After all,itxistsonlytoprovidesome dimensions,it’snotactuallypartof thedrawingitself.Butno,every exportedimageincludesthe rectangle’sstrokeandfillaspartof thePNG.Theeasyworkaroundisto hidethelayerbeforerunningthe extension;unliketheequivalent Exportdialogworkaround,there’s noneedtoselecttherectangles first,butit’sstillabitofapain havingtorepeatedlyhideand unhideit,ifyou’retryingtofinetunethesizesandpositionsofthe slices.

Butperhapsyouwantthe rectangleincluded,toprovidea niceborderforyourexportedPNG. Youtakethetimetosetthestroke widthandcolor…onlytofindthat yourownchoiceofstylesis replacedbytheextensionafterthe export.Therectangle’sstrokeis removedandthefillisreplaced withashadeofgray(filealready existsandwasnotoverwritten),red (fileexists,butwasoverwritten),or green(filewascreatedforthefirst time).Ifyouwanttotrytheexport again,you’llneedtorevertallthose backtotheiroriginalstylesunless youreallywantaredoverlayadded toallyourPNGs!

Inmyopinion,ifyouwantto exportmultipleslicesofyour documentdefinedbyrectangles, youmayaswelljustusethe standardBatchExportapproach, withanoptionallyhiddenslicing layer.Thebenefitsoftheextension justaren’tgreatenoughtomakeit acompellingnewmethodof performingthistask.

Thisextensiondoesofferone othertrick,however:Iconmode. Thisisenabledviathecheckboxof thesamename,andwhileitinitially appearsuseful,it’salsogotamajor flawthatmakesitlessthan practicalinalotofcases.Whatthis modedoesistoignoretheDPI setting,andinsteadcreateaseries ofsquareimagesforeachslicing region,usingthepixelsizesdefined inthe“Sizes”textbox. Unfortunately,itdoesthisby stretchingeachimagetofitthe squareaspectratio.Inshort,your slicing“rectangle”inthiscase absolutelyhastobeasquare, otherwisethecontentwillbe stretchedoutofproportion.A muchbetterapproachwouldhave beentoscalethecontentin proportion,andautomatically centeritinthesquare.Thiswould workequallywellforslicesthatare

alreadysquare,andthoseofa differentaspectratio.Butalas,the extensionoffersnosuchoption.

Theimagebelowshowsthe resultofusingIconModeona singleimagefromacharacter sheet.Ontheleftyoucanseethe originalInkscapedrawing,complete withtheslicingrectangle(ingreen, duetothisscreenshotbeingtaken aftertheinitialexport).Tothe right,youcanseetheiconsthat wereproduced.Clearlynotthe resultIwouldhavelikedor expected.

ifitdidn’tstretchtheimagesoutof proportioninIconmode.

What’smostannoyingisthat thesetwoextensionsare frustratinglyclosetoworkingwell together.ImagineiftheFrame extension’sdefaultbehaviourwas tocreaterealrectanglesinanew “slices”layer(withoptional padding,ofcourse).Instantly,it becomesaneasywaytocreatethe initialslicingrectanglesforthe LayerSlicesextensionifyouhavea lotofelementstoexport.But instead,wegetthesetwo extensions,neitherofwhichare greatontheirown,andwhichdon’t workwelltogether.Whatashame.

Sotherewehavetwoofthe newextensions.Ihatetobecynical, butIcan’treallyseemuchbenefit ineitherofthem.TheFrame extensioncouldperhapsbeuseful ifitallowedsomepaddingtobe specified,andcreatedreal rectanglesinsteadofpaths.The ExportLayerSlicesextensioncould beusefulifitdidn’talsoincludethe slicingrectanglesintheoutput,and

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

E

ERRY

AY

WrittenbyRichardAdams

Thismonth,we’regoingtotakea lookatoneofUbuntu’sdrawing programs,specificallyfordoing diagramslikeflowcharts.It’sDIA theopensourceanswertoVisio (notsurewhatthequestion actuallywas).

VISIO’SLINUXBROTHER

Now,makenomistakeaboutit,I likeVisioalot.IusedtodothirdlevelsupportatMicrosoftfor MicrosoftBusinessGraphics Products,whichwasmostlyVisio, PowerPoint,andMicrosoft Publisher.

OneoftheneatestthingsIEVER sawacomputerdowasaVisio featureatthetime.Intraining,they hadususeaparticularwizardin VisiotomaptheentireEthernet networkwewereonatthetime. Withinjustafewminutes,itcame backwithacompletenetwork diagram,includingpictogramsfor theactualhardwareitfound (specificcomputers,printers,etc.), notjustgenericones.Itwas ASTOUNDING.Doingthatjob manuallywouldhavebeena

Herculeantask,Visioliterallydidit, accurately,inafewminutes.

Althoughit’sobsoletenow,I actuallyrecentlypurchasedacopy ofthe2000editionof‘Visiofor Enterprise’specificallybecauseit hasthatfeature.I’vesometimes daydreamedthatonecouldhave possiblybuiltacareerbackinthe dayonthepremiseofdoing networkdiagramming,taking severaldaysorweeksatthejob withone’sfeetonthedeskallday, onlytoproduceabrilliantlymade diagramwithalmostnoefforton thelastdayofacontract.

Don’tjudge,ifanyoneknewhow easyitwas,theywouldcompletely discounttheendresultqualityand notwanttopay,duetotheeaseof effort.Expertiseandknowledge shouldhavevalue.Learnedthe lessonthehardwayaboutmaking thingslooktooeasy(usingLotus 123forDOSsupportbackinthe 90’s,butmaybethat’sastoryfor anotherday….).

programming,forthesakeof designingaprogram’sinput, output,andoverallflow,andalso veryimportantinbusinesstochart theprocessflowsthatabusiness needsinordertooperate,likethe entirecustomerserviceprocess,or theorderfillingprocess,orthe productfabricationprocess. Flowchartingtheseprocesseshelps withvisualizinganddesigning them,andisagoodwaytohelp makesurethatlikelycontingencies andoutcomesareproperlyplanned for.

INSTALLINGDIA

DIAcanbeinstalledinmultiple waysonLinux.Forexample,it’s availablefromtheSynaptics PackageManager,orfromthe command-line.Long-timereaders knowverywellthatwe’reaboutto headforthecommand-line.

command-linesession.InTerminal, type: sudo apt-get install dia

andhitEnter.Answeranyprompts appropriately,andDIAwillbe installed.

Remember,SUDOstandsfor SuperUserDo,andindicatesyou wanttoperformanadministrator levelfunctionunderyourcurrent userlogin.Apt-getistheDebian distributioncommand-linetoolfor softwaremanagement(Ubuntuis basedontheolderLinux distributionDebian),andofcourse installistheinstallation functionalityofapt-get.

LAUNCHINGDIA

NowthatDIAisinstalled,click theAppDrawer(9whiteboxesina grid,bottom-leftofyourscreen).

Atanyrate,flowcharting capabilityisimportantincomputer

Let’strysomethingalittle differentthismonthintermsof howtolaunchaterminalsession. HitthekeycombinationCTRL-ALT-T onyourkeyboard.Thatkey combinationwillstartaTerminal

Usethedotsontherightto pageupanddowntolookforDIA, orjusttypeDIAatthetopofthe screeninthesearchbox:

li k d h licationwill ft) en,there mleftto OpenFile, portFile, Cut,Paste, Level,

ZoomDrop-down,ToggleSnap-toGrid,andToggleSnap-to-Object. Mostoftheseshouldbeselfexplanatory,basicfunctions.The Snap-to-GridandSnap-to-Object optionscanbeveryhelpfulin keepingobjectsinyourdiagram alignedproperly.

BASICFUNCTIONALITY:

ADDINGSHAPES

Let’stryclickingonashapeto addasimpleboxtothescreen.In thetoolkitontheleft,you’llseea squarefigure.Clickthat,thenclick whereyouwanttoplaceitonthe screen/page,draggingfromtoplefttobottom-rightinorderto placeandsizeitasdesired: w a

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 MIICCRROOTTHHIISSMMIICCRROOTTHHAAT 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

TS

DEEVVIICCE

M MYYOOPPIINNIIOON N

InFCM#181,AdamHuntsaysin hisReviewthatwehavetolive withFirefoxonsnaponUbuntu 22.04,unlessyouwanttocompile fromsource“orsomethingequally esoteric.”

Twobigproblemswithsnap havebeenitsslowstartupona freshly-bootedcomputerforolder distributions,andsometimes overzealoussecurityrestrictions. Now,itseemstobeevensloweron Ubuntu22.04,tothepointwhere startingupFirefoxtakes outrageouslylongafterareboot, evenonareasonablymodern computer!

(Edit:Sincewritingthisarticle, Canonicalhasbeenactively workingonreducingthistime,with goodresults.)

Alongwithsnap’sproprietary nature,theseproblemshave, unfortunately,ledtoalotof“hate” towardsUbuntuonsomeforums. Thisisapity,becausehateisa powerfulandunnecessaryemotion.

Anyway,thepointhereisto

M MuussttWWeeLLiivveeWWiitthhFFiirreef

discussanalternativethatdoesn’t involvehardworksuchascompiling fromsource.

So,here’sagreatalternativeto thinkabout…

FLATPAK

Likesnap,flatpaksupplies packageswiththeirdependencies andextrasecurity.Asabonus,you canuseFlatsealtotweakeach package’ssecurity.Plus,some packagesareavailableonflatpak butnotsnap,e.g.Avidemux,Meld (butalsovice-versa,e.g.Adobe AcrobatReader).I’vealsofound thatflatpaktendstohavemoreupto-datepackagesthansnap,e.g. GIMP,Krita.Ofcourse,bothsnap andflatpakgenerallyholdmoreupto-dateversionsthantheUbuntu repositories,whichquicklyfall behind.

OnUbuntu20.04,andnow Ubuntu22.04,Iinstalledflatpak alongsidesnap.Mysoftwarecentre thusoffersachoiceofdeb,snap,or flatpakforeachpackage(where available),andflatpakisincludedin

theautomaticupdates.Naturally,I replacedthesnapversionofFirefox withtheflatpakversion.

Somepeopledislikesnapso muchthattheyuninstalltheentire snapsystem.Whileyoucandothis, Idon’trecommenditonUbuntu, becauseCanonicaldependsonitto supplysomefeatures,e.g. Livepatch.

WHAT’STHEPOINT?

Comparingsnapandflatpak:

• Snapandflatpaksharethe advantagesofhighersecurityand fulldependencies.

• Bothsystemssharethe disadvantageofneedingmoredisk space,andsometimesnotquite fittinginwiththedesktoptheme.

• Snapsareslow,sometimes ridiculouslyso,whenfirstloading afterstartingorrestartingthe computer.

• Securitycanbeoverzealous,but youcantweakflatpaksecuritywith Flatseal.

INSTALLFLATPAK

ox

na

Ifyou’reinterested,herearethe stepstoinstallflatpakandFlatseal.

InstallFlatpakanditsGnome connection.Thedependencies includetheGUIappGnome Software,whichwillreplace UbuntuSoftware.

sudo apt install gnomesoftware-plugin-snap gnomesoftware-plugin-flatpak

Removethenow-redundant UbuntuSoftwareapp.

sudo snap remove --purge snap-store

Fromyourmenu,startGnome Software,whichlookssimilarto UbuntuSoftware.Checkthatyour updatesaresettoautomatic, unlessyouwanttomanuallycontrol them:Menu(thehamburgermenu atthetopright)>Update

Preferences.Butdon’tinstallor uninstallappsyet.

Restartyourcomputertoallow flatpaktostartproperly.Thisis important;don’tskipthisstep.

Connectflatpaktothecentral

fullcirclemagazine#183 41 contents^ p?

MYOPINION

repositoryFlathub.

flatpak remote-add --if-notexists flathub https:// flathub.org/repo/ flathub.flatpakrepo

InstallFlatseal.Becausethisis thefirsttimeusingFlathub,it mighttakeaminuteorsofor flatpaktoinitialiseit;thiswon’t happenagain.

flatpak install com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Whenyouusetheterminal, you’llbeaskedforconfirmation. Justenter“y”.

That’sit!Flatpakisinstalledand available.Tolearnmoreabout usingflatpakfromtheterminal, entermanflatpakintotheterminal. Or,ignoretheterminal,andinstall anduninstallpackagesfromGnome Software;notetheSourceoptionat thetop-rightwheninstallingan app.

REPLACESNAPFIREFOX

WITHFLATPAK

Youcanreplacethesnapversion ofFirefoxwiththeflatpakversion. Warning:YouwillloseyourFirefox settings,unlessyouhavesignedin

andsynchronisedthem.

Removethesnapversionof Firefox.

sudo snap remove purge firefox

Installtheflatpakversionof Firefox.

flatpak install org.mozilla.firefox

Ifyouprefertodothisfromthe GUI(usingGnomeSoftware) insteadoftheterminal,beaware thatitliststwodifferentFirefox entries,oneeachforsnapand flatpak. REMOVESNAP(ONLYIFYOU

INSIST)

Ifyoutrulywanttogetridofthe snapsystemitself,here’show.I don’trecommendthis;doitatyour ownrisk!

Purgethesnapsystem.

sudo apt remove --purge snapd Optional:Deleteyoursnap directory.

rm --recursive ~/snap Restartyourcomputer.

SUMMARY

Ifyoufollowthestepsinthis articletoaddflatpak,youwillhave awiderchoiceofsoftware, sometimesmoreup-to-date,and withgreaterflexibility.

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

ThereleaseofXubuntu22.04LTS on21April,2022,broughtalot of…verytinychanges.Infact,this wholedevelopmentcyclesincethe lastlongtermsupport(LTS)release hasseenverylittlenewandIam goingtomakethecasethatthatis actuallyagoodthingthatwill pleasemostXubuntuusers.

BeinganLTSrelease,Xubuntu 22.04LTSwillbesupportedfor threeyears,untilApril,2025.

Xubuntu22.04LTSisalsothe 33rdreleaseforXubuntu.Thefirst onewasXubuntu6.06LTS,made backon1June,2006,whichwas sixteenyearsago.

Xubunturemainsoneofthefew flavorsofUbuntuthathasnever changeditsdesktop;itisstillusing Xfce.ThatcontrastswithUbuntu whichisonitsthirduserinterface, andLubuntuonitssecondone. Xubuntucertainlyhasbroughtits usersstabilityandthatmightbe onereasonwhyithassucha dedicatedfanbase.

INSTALLATION

IdownloadedXubuntu22.04LTS fromtheofficialwebsitevia BitTorrentandcarriedoutan SHA256sumcheckonitfromthe command-linetoensurethatthe downloadwascorrect.

LikeUbuntuandLubuntu, Xubuntu22.04LTShasincreasedin downloadsizeby500MBsincethe lastrelease,forreasonsthatare notclear.Xubuntu22.04LTSisa2.5 GBdownloadcomparedwith2.0GB forXubuntu21.10.

IusedaUSBstickequippedwith

Ventoy1.0.73tobootupXubuntu 22.04LTS.Ventoymakesthe processreallyeasy,justcutand pastetheISOfileontothestickand Ventoytakescareofallthe unpackingatboot-up.Italsoallows multipleISOfilestobeonthesame USBstick,subjecttospace,and givesachoiceofwhichonetoboot to.Itmakestestingoutmultiple distributionsaneasytask.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

Theminimumsystem requirementsforXubuntuhave

beenthesamesinceXubuntu 21.04,whichwasthefirstreleasein thisdevelopmentcycle.They remain: 1.5GHzdualcoreprocessor 2GBofRAM 20GBofharddrivespace

Thismeansitcanberunonearly Vistaboxesandlaterhardware.

NEW

Xubuntu22.04LTSusestheXfce 4.16desktop,withtheGTK3.24.33 toolkit.Ithasanewgraphic wallpaperforthisrelease,too, whichisoneof20wallpapers included.Sixofthewallpaper designsarenewsceneryonesfrom theXubuntu22.04LTSwallpaper competition,whilemanyofthe othersarefavoritesfromrecent Xubuntureleases.Youcanalways substituteyourownwallpapertoo, ifdesired.

Therestofthechangesinthis releasearetoapplications, describedbelow.

REVIEW

Asnoted,thereisverylittlenew inthisrelease,andIthinkthatisa goodthing.WheneverItalkwith Xubuntuusers,theylikeittheway itisanddon’tseeaneedformuch inthewayofchanges.Thelast majorchangewasprobably Xubuntu’smovetomakeWhisker Menuthedefaultmenusystem, andthatwasbackinXubuntu14.04 LTS,eightyearsago.Largescale changesareonlygoingtomake usersunhappy.

SETTINGS

Thisreleasecontinueswith “Greybird”asthedefaultwindow colortheme.Thereareatotalofsix windowthemesprovided:Adwaita,

Adwaita-dark,Greybird,Greybirddark,HighContrastandNumiux,as wellasachoiceofsixiconthemes. Thechoiceoftwodifferentdark colorschemesshouldkeepdark themefanshappy.

APPLICATIONS

Someoftheapplications

includedwithXubuntu22.04LTS are:

Atril1.26.0PDFviewer*

CUPS2.4printingsystem

Catfish4.16.3desktopsearch

Firefox99.0.1webbrowser**

GIMP2.10.30graphicseditor

GnomeDiskUtility42.0diskspace andhealthmonitor GnomeDiskUsageAnalyzer41.0

diskdisplay*

GnomeSoftware41.5package managementsystem

Gparted1.3.1partitioneditor Hexchat2.16.0IRCclient LibreOffice7.3.1officesuite

Mousepad0.5.8texteditor

Parole4.16.0mediaplayer* PulseAudio15.0audiocontroller

Ristretto0.12.2imageviewer Rhythmbox3.4.4musicplayer*

SimpleScan42.0scanningutility (re-badgedbyGnomeas "DocumentScanner")

SoftwareUpdater22.04.9(updatemanager)softwareupdate manager Synaptic0.90.2package managementsystem* Thunar4.16.10filemanager Thunderbird91.8.0emailclient

Transmission3.00bittorrentclient*

Wget1.21.2command-line webpagedownloader

Xfburn0.6.2CD/DVDburner*

Xfce4Panel4.16.3desktoppanel*

Xfce4PowerManager4.16.0

systempowermanager*

*indicatessameapplicationversion asusedinXubuntu21.10

**suppliedasasnap,soversion dependsontheupstreampackage manager.

Xubuntu22.04LTSisoneofthe

fewUbuntuflavorstoincludea defaultgraphicseditor,inthiscase

GIMP,andalsoaCD/DVD-burning application,Xfburn.Mostother flavors,includingUbuntu,Kubuntu andLubuntu,havenowdropped

REVIEW

theCD/DVDburningapplication fromthedefaultlist.

Xubuntu22.04LTSdoesnot includeawebcamapplicationor videoeditoralthoughthereare severalchoicesofeachavailablefor installationintherepositories.

ThisreleasehasLibreOffice 7.3.1anditissuppliedcomplete exceptforLibreOfficeBase,the databaseapplication.Baseis probablytheleastusedcomponent ofLibreOffice,butcaneasilybe installedifneeded.

Xubuntu22.04LTSrepresented adecisionpointforalltheUbuntu flavorsonthequestionofFirefox asasnappackage.AtMozilla’s

request,theUbuntudevelopers movedtoasnapversionofFirefox inthe21.10release,althoughthe traditional.debpackagewasstill availableintherepositoriesforthat onelastreleaseandtheXubuntu developersstayedwiththe.deb packageforthe21.10release. Startingwiththe22.04LTS releases,Firefoxisavailableonlyas asnappackage,andthatmeant thattheXubuntudevelopershadto eitherswitchtothesnapordo somethingelse,suchascompileit themselves,orswitchbrowsers. ThereleaseofXubuntu22.04LTS solvedtheissue,astheXubuntu developershavegonewiththesnap versionofFirefox.Theynotedall theadvantagesofthesnapversion inthereleasenotes,includingthat

newversionsarereceivedmore quicklydirectlyfromMozilla,and bettersecurity,duetotheisolation ofFirefox.

Themaincomplaintsaboutsnap packagesareapplicationopening timeandinconsistenttheme adoption.Inmytesting,Ifoundthat whilethesnapversionofFirefox wasslowtoopenthefirsttime, subsequentopeningswerearound twoseconds,whichisasfast,or faster,thanthe.debversion.On Xubuntu22.04LTS,Firefoxtookup themesfine,too.

Intheotherapplications providedbydefaultontheISO, therehavebeensomeuseful improvements.Forinstance,the

Mousepadtexteditornowincludes aspell-checkingplug-inthateven providesforunderliningspelling errorsasyoutype,whichisa welcomeimprovement.Mousepad alsonowhasasessionbackupand restorefeature.

TheRistrettoimageviewernow hasimprovedsupportfor thumbnails,andsomeperformance improvements.TheWhiskerMenu Plugin2.7.1hasaddedsomenew customizationoptionsfor preferencesandCSSclasses–whichshouldbeusefultopeople doingtheirowntheme development.

Asalways,theWhiskerMenuis themostflexibleandcustomizable

REVIEW

menuusedintheUbuntuflavors, allowingresizingamongother features.ItreallysetsXubuntu apart.

CONCLUSIONS

Xubuntu22.04LTSisaverywellpolishedandmaturedistribution withnoobviousdrawbacksor flaws. IthinkthatXubuntufansare

goingtobepleasedwithXubuntu 22.04LTS,mostlybecauseverylittle haschangedsincethelastLTS release.TheXubuntuusersseemto likehowXubuntulooksandworks, anddon’tseeaneedforbig changes.

EXTERNALLINKS

Officialwebsite: https://xubuntu.org/

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

R

WrittenbyAdamHunt

Aspartofourongoinglookat

someLinuxdistributionsthat arenotDebianorUbuntu-based, thismonthwearegoingtotake VoidLinuxoutforatestdrive.

VoidLinuxisanindependent distribution,meaningitisnot baseduponanyother“upstream” distribution.Italsohasno corporatebackingandiscreatedby ateamofvolunteerdevelopers, withnopaidstaff.

Theofficialwebsiteominously invitesyouto“enterthevoid”,but inrealityitturnsouttobea friendlydistributionwiththeXfce desktop.Gooddocumentation makesiteasyfornewcomersto downloaditanduseit,too.

VoidLinuxisarollingreleaseso thereareno“newreleases”,unlike intheUbuntuworld.Instead,there areregularsoftwareupdatesand everyfewmonthsanewdownload versionispostedwhich incorporatesalltheupdatestothat point.IdownloadedtheVoidLinux 20210930versionwhichwasfive monthsoldatthattimeandthat

meantalotofupdates!

BACKGROUND

VoidLinuxwasstartedbyJuan RomeroPardinesfromSpainin 2008.ANetBSDdeveloper,hewas workingonapersonalproject(a newpackagemanagementsystem) andneededatestenvironmentto tryitouton.Thecommandlineonly‘XBinaryPackage System‘(XBPS)packagemanager wassuccessfulandattractedsome additionalhelptoworkonthe distribution.

Pardineslefttheprojectin2018 anditwastakenoverbythe communitywhonownumberover 700developerswho enthusiasticallykeepitgoing.XBPS isalsodevelopedbytheVoidLinux teamandremainsafeatureofthe distribution.

VoidLinuxcomesonlyin64-bit versionsfori686,x86-64,ARMv6, ARMv7andARMv8architectures.It hastwoversions,“base”withno graphicalinterface,and“Xfce”with theXfcedesktopenvironment.The baseversionisa568MBdownload whiletheXfceversionis871MB,at

leastwhenItestedthem.Thisisin themiddlegroundfordownload sizebetweenreallylightweight distributionslikeSliTaz5.0at53.6 MBandUbuntu21.10at2.9GB.

Theinitializationsystem employedisrunitratherthanthe commonsystemdusedinmost distributionstoday,includingall thosebasedonDebianandFedora. Runitseemstoresultinfastboots atleast.

TheVoidLinuxwebsiteiswell worthmentioning.Unlikemany distributionwebsites,itiswellthoughtoutandinformationis easilyfound.Italsohasvery completeandwell-written documentationwhichissomething thatmakesusingVoidLinuxeasy, asalltheanswersarequickly found.Thereisevenasearchable databaseofapplicationstoinstall. Thislevelofdocumentationmakes VoidLinuxsuitableforLinux beginners.

Thereisnoneedtofeelalonein thevoid,ashelpandcommunity connectionsareavailable.The

REVIEW projecthasapresenceonTwitter,a libera.chatIRCchannel,anditsown dedicatedsubreddittoo.

GETTINGVOIDLINUX

Idownloadedthe64bitXfce desktopversionvoid-live-x86_6420210930-xfce.isofromthe downloadspageonthewebsite. Downloadsareallviahttps,withno bittorrentsadvertised.

ASHA256sumisavailableandI ranatestfromthecommand-line tomakesurethedownloadwas correct,whichisalways recommended.

INSTALLING

IusedVentoy1.0.71toputVoid

LinuxontoaUSBstick.Thisisas easyasjustcopyingandpastingit ontothestickfromyourfile manager,asVentoytakescareof therestatboot-up.Iranaseriesof livesessionstotryitoutanditran verywellfromtheUSB.

Topermanentlyinstallmost Linuxdistributions,thereisusually anice,friendlyicononthelive sessiondesktop,andclickingonit getstheprocessstarted,butnotso onVoidLinux.Infact,thedesktop andmenusgivenoclueastohowto installitfromalivesessionbut everythingiswellexplainedinthe documentation,ofcourse.The installationisdonefromthe command-linewith: sudo void-installer

Overall,VoidLinuxisnot complextouse,aslongasyouare notreluctanttoopenaterminalto usetheXBPSpackagemanager. Thegreatdocumentationmakes thateasytodo.

SYSTEMREQUIREMENTS

Thedocumentationsaysthat theminimumhardwareforan installationisanx86 64(64bit) processor,96MBofRAM,and700 MBofdiskstoragespace.This seemsprettylowuntilyourealize thatthisisforthenon-graphical “base”versionandnottheXfce desktopversion.Forthat,no hardwareisspecifiedbutatleast2 GBofRAMwouldbeareasonable guess.

AsthedownloadedISOfileis complete,aninternetconnectionis notneededtorunorinstallVoid Linuxbut,ofcourse,youwon’tget anyupdates.

Itesteditoutonanine-yearold desktopwitha3.3GHzdual-core processorand6GBofRAM,andit ranverywell.

Oneofthedangersofrunning anyrollingreleasedistributionon oldhardwareisthattheoperating systemmaybeupgradedatsome futurepointtoanewkernelor othersoftwarethatnolonger supportsyourincreasinglydated hardware–theso-called“systembreakingupdate”.Atthatpoint, youwillneedtoeitherupgradeto newerhardwareormovetoa distributionthatsupportsyour

REVIEW

olderhardware,likeSliTazorPuppy Linux.

TRYINGOUTVOIDLINUX

BootingupVoidLinuxgivestwo choices,“live”and“RAM”.Thelive modeloadsfasterbutswaps betweenRAMandtheinstallation media,while“RAM”modeloadsthe wholethingintoRAM,ifyouhave thecapacity.

Onmyfirstboot,Itried“live” modeanditquicklyopeneda beautiful,friendly,blueXfce desktop.Iwashonestlyexpecting somethingmorenihilisticfromthe void!

Thesyntax Suis“system update.”Thattookawhile,asthere werefivemonthsofupdates,butit completedthetaskandconsumed aboutanother1GBofRAMfora totalof3.5GB.Itwasquickly apparentthata“RAM”session requireslotsofRAM,butwith6GB Ididnotrunout.

feeleasy.

VoidLinux’simplementationof theXfcedesktopispureand simple,withnochangesor modifications.Followingthe updates,itwasusingtoolsfrom Xfce4.16,thecurrentrelease.

it,butitisnoteasytoconfigure.Its defaulticonsshow:desktop, terminal,filebrowser,webbrowser, applicationfinder,andfile locations.Itactuallyjustduplicates selectionsfromthemainmenuand createsclutterso,ifyoudon’tlike it,thelauncheriseasytoremove fromthedesktop.

Mynextchallengewasinstalling ascreenshottool.SinceVoiduses theXfcedesktop,Iinstalledthe nativexfce4-screenshooter packagewith:

sudo xbps-install xfce4screenshooter

ItusesthestandardXfcesingle menuandnottheWhiskermenu foundonXubuntu,although Whiskerisavailableforinstallation intherepositoriesasxfce4whiskermenu-plugin.

Intryingtotakesome screenshots,Idiscoveredthatby defaultitcomeswithouta screenshottool,and,also,in“live” modeyouarelockedoutofboth updatesandinstallingpackages.

Ibootedinto“RAM”modeand thatusedupabout2.5GBofRAM. TheupdatesworkedwhenIran thosefromthecommandlineusing theXBPSpackagemanager:

sudo xbps-install -Su

andthatworkedperfectly.The XBPSpackagemanagerisactually fairlyeasytouseafterabitof readingthroughthe documentation.Thiswasstartingto

Inthedefaultsetup,theXfce desktophasthexfce4-panel4.16.3 atthetopofthescreenandaMacstylelauncheratthebottom.The launcherisactuallyasecond implementationofthepanel,which auto-hideswhenawindowtouches

Unusualforadistribution runningalivesession,theXfce screenlockeractuallylocksafterten minutes,anditisusefultoknow thattheliveuseraccountis"anon" andthepasswordis"voidlinux" otherwiseyouwon'tgetbackinto yourlivesession!

Overall,VoidLinuxwillbereally appealingtouserswholikethe Xfceexperienceandwantitclean, plainandunmodified.

SETTINGS

BeingpureXfce,VoidLinuxhas lotsofusersettingsand customizationavailable.

Itcomeswithfourwallpapers, allofthemstandardXfcemouse logowallpapersandbasicallyblue incolor.Oddly,thereisnoVoid Linux-themedwallpaper.Iguess

REVIEW

thedevelopershaveleftittothe userstomaketheirown.Aquick internetsearchshowsmanyalready have.

Othersettingsincludeachoice ofthreewindowthemes:Adwaita, Adwaitadark,andhighcontrast, plusachoiceofthreeiconssets.So, notahugerange,butenoughto keepmostusershappy.MoreXfce themesareavailableonline,too,of course.

APPLICATIONS

VoidLinuxcomeswithavery minimalsetofdefaultapplications, including:

Firefox78.14.0ESRwebbrowser

Mousepad0.5.7texteditor

Thunar4.15.10filebrowser

Parole4.16.0mediaplayer

Ristretto0.11.0imageviewer

XfceTaskManager1.4.2system monitor

Xfce4Terminal0.8.10terminal emulator ...andthatisaboutit!

TheupdatesIranwiththeXBPS packagemanagerbroughtFirefox uptoversion91.6.0ESRandThunar upto4.16.10,forexample,soit seemsthepackagesareallkeptup-

to-date.

Ascanbeseen,thereisno defaultwebcamapplication,no officesuite,emailclient,word processor,orevenscreenshottool. Thegoodnewsisthatthe repositoriesarewell-stockedwith lotsofchoicesandtheXBPS packagemanagercanbeusedto retrievethemallquickly.Every applicationIlookedforIfoundon thewebsitepackagelisting, includingpopularapplicationslike Chromium,LibreOffice,Kdenlive, FileZilla,gFTP,Thunderbird,and evenmoreesotericoneslikethe Tesseractcommand-lineoptical characterreader.Otherdesktops, likeLXQtandGnomeareavailable toinstall,aswell.

Iactuallylikethephilosophyof leavingadesktopdistributionISO withjustabareminimumof applicationstogetstartedandthen

makingeverythingneededeasyto install,withgoodpackagelistings andclearinstructionsonhowtodo it.ThatresultsinasmallISO download,ofcourse,butitalso meansthatthereisnobiglistof applicationstoremoveorelselive withclutteredmenusandthe associatedbiggerupdatesforthe unwantedapplications.Itreallyis bettertoletusersinstallwhatthey needalthough,Iwilladmit,a screenshottoolbydefaultwould benice!

CONCLUSIONS

Despitethenihilistic-sounding nameandthewebsitewarningthat youareaboutto“enterthevoid”, VoidLinuxturnsouttobeafriendly andupbeatLinuxdistribution, offeringdesktopusersaclean,pure Xfceexperience.Package managementfromthecommand-

linewiththeXBPSpackage managerisabitunusual,buteasy tolearn.

Theprojectbenefitsfromallthe bestthataLinuxdistributioncan

offer:awell-designedwebsitewith outstandingdocumentation,a dedicatedcadreofvolunteer developers,andagoodcommunity ofhelpfulpeople,allbackingawelldesignedandmaintained distribution.

ForanyonelookingforanXfce distribution,VoidLinuxdeservesa closelook.

EXTERNALLINKS

Officialwebsite: https://voidlinux.org/

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

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,theJingPadA1hascomeand gone,Isupposebythetimethis ispublishedin2months,things maybedifferent,butIthinkitdied somehow.CuteFishOSlasthad actiononJuly3(andanothingthe monthbefore),anotherpromising projectseemstobedeadinthe water.Whydowehavethe spectacularrise&fallofLinux projects?Assoonassomething “nice”comestoLinux,itseemsto gosilent.Irecallsuchprojectsas PearOS.Notthethingthatparades itselfaroundasthatnow,but

PearOS7,Ithinkitwasthelast decentversionthatwasfasterthan theOSitwasbasedonwithnifty tools.PearOS8wasincompleteiirc andthewebsitediedwhenitgo “released”.Wecouldgofull conspiracyhereandsayM$/Apple paidthemtostop,butitseems unlikely.Isuspectthefinalmessage wastomesswithus:“PearOSisno longeravailablefordownload.Its futureisnowinhandsofacompany whowantstoremainanonymous forthemoment.Theconcepthas pleasedthemitandnowwantsto continueandimprovethesystem fortheirownproducts.Icannot giveanamebutitisaverylarge companywellknown...”What causesadevelopertoabandona project,whilstotherprojectslive on?Moneydoesmaketheworldgo ‘roundandIhaveseenbrilliant projectscannedbecausetheprofit marginwouldbetoosmall.The businesssideofthingskillsthe innovation.IsthisthereasonRed Hatwantstodropgamesfromthe repository?Shouldtherebea Kickstarter-typeplaceforLinux projects?Coulditbeattitude?As withanythinginlife,practisemakes

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

perfectandIamthankfultomy currentcolleaguesforlettingme doalltheworkwhilstonshift,I couldlookatitandgo;whyshouldI doitall,or,takethepracticeanstay ontopofthegame.Ilearnmore,I don’tgetbored,Igetmymuscle memory.Idonotseeadownside. Soisitattitudethatneedsto change?Idon’tknowtheanswerto thesequestionsasIdon’trunany opensourceprojects.Ifyouhave anyinsightsontheseissues,letus know.

A:Whatyouarelookingforisdu

insteadofdf.Ifyoudoa: du -a | sort -n -r | more

youwillseethebiggestfiles& foldersatthetop.Nowsimplyslice thetopfewyouwanttolookat with:head-n10,forinstance,to replacethe“more”onceyouknow howmanylinesyouwant.

Q:HereIamtransitioningtoa

Q:Hi.Ihavestartedtolearn

Ubuntuserverandmy“server” isani3with128gbSSDand4G memory.Whileitallgoes swimmingly,IfindthatIrunoutof spacequitefast.IhaveUbuntu DesktopandIknowdiskusage analyser,butmyserverhasnoGUI. Df-hjusttellsmemydriveisat 99%.HowdoIknowwhatistaking upallthespace?Ihaveanimage,so IjustrestorethatwhenIrunout,so norealbiggie.

newlaptopfrommy10yearold one.Itisflushwithallthebells‘n whistles.IgotoinstallUbuntu 22.04anditdoesnotshowthe option“installalongsideWindows”. ItcamewithWindows11pre installed.

A:Youneedtomakespaceon yourhaddriveforUbuntuto live.Youmayalsoneedtore-install windowsasIhavehadissueswill Dell,wherethedrivecontrolleris installedas“raid-on”intheBIOS andyouneedtohaveitinAHCIfor Ubuntu.(changingthewaythe controllertalkstotheedrive,may

Q&A resultinwindowsnotbooting.)

Eachmanufacturerhaslittlequirks likethis.Securebootisanother optionthatmaybehinderingyou.

saveyourselfalotofgreyhairby stickingtoRaspbian.

Q:IwanttoinstallDocker,butI'm gettingbash:version:Nosuch fileordirectory'error.Allfrom here:https://docs.docker.com/ engine/install/ubuntu/ Itisdrivingmeupthewall.

A:Thedockersitemaybeoutof dateormaybethe “recommended”way,I’mnotsure. ThankstoDaniel(Fleabite)forthe easyanswer: sudo apt install docker.io

Q:Ihaveadockercontainerwith UbuntuandIwantedtousethe pipinstallerbutitgiveserror SystemError:Cannotcompile 'Python.h'.Perhapsyouneedto installpython-dev|python-dev?It’s thelatestversionbtw.

downloadedadebianorMint.deb filetoinstallit.Icannotreallyhelp youasIneedmoreinformation,but IsuggestbackingupyouVHD’sand purgingVirtualBoxandinstallingit fresh(notfromthat.deb).Ihave seensomethinglikethisbefore,but Icannotremembertheoutcome.If yourOSisolder,youmayneedto addaPPAtogetthelatestversion ofVirtualBox.

A:Myadvicewouldbetorename youroldonetosay,log_old withthemvcommandandthen namethenewonetothenamethe oldonehad,say,logorwhatever. Youcouldalsoconfigureyourlog readertoreadthenewfilename.

Q:CanIinstallplainUbuntuon myRaspberryPi3b+?Ithad UbuntuMateonbeforebutit behavedsluggishly.Iwaslookingat forumsforthebestoptiontodoso, buttheadviceisallmixed.

A:Haveyouconsideredinstalling adifferentversionofPythonin avirtualenvironmentandtryitthat way?

Q:IwaslookingforaDRsolution forUbuntu.SomethingIdon’t havetoconstantlymanage.Canyou help?

Q:Thismaysoundweird,butI havetwoUbuntuwebservers andonenginxloadbalancerasmy labsetup.Ihavehad404errorsand myfriendwouldsayitistheload balancer,howwouldyouknowthat sofast?HowcanIlearnthisdark magic?

A:Don’t.YesIknowitisahorribleanswerbutunlessyou installtheIOTcore version,itwill beasslowasturtlesstampeding throughpeanutbutter.Youcan

Q:IrecentlyupdatedVbox versionswithaddonsandit loads,butasIcreateanew VirtualMachineandstartitfroma virtualCDROMinordertoinstall Ubuntu22.04asguestIgetthis error:TheVirtualBoxkernel modulesdonotmatchthisversion ofVirtualBox.Executing'/sbin/ vboxconfig'maycorrectthis.Make surethatyouarenotmixingbuilds ofVirtualBoxfromdifferent sources.

A:Thatlastbitistelling,asit seemsthatyoumayhave

A:IamgoingtoassumeDisaster Recovery?Ihaveheardgood thingsaboutthis: https://relaxandrecover.org/ thoughinmy previousjobweusedVeeam,itwas finnicky,butitworked.

Q:I’mnewtoUbuntuserver,butI havebeenrunningUbuntu desktopsince7.Ihavealogfilethat stoppedrecording,butitmadea newonewithtoday’sdate.Thisis allfine,butIhavealogreader readingofftheoldfile.Whatare myoptions?

A:Actually,yourfriendwouldbe wrong.A404isafilenotfound error,meaningthefileisnotfound onthehost,soquerypassedthe loadbalancertothehost,a500 errorwouldindicatethattheload balancercannotfindthehost.Have alookhere:https://kb.iu.edu/d/ bfrc

fullcirclemagazine#183 54 contents^ Q:Iwanttostreamlivegameplay totwitchfrommyUbuntu machine.IamtoldthatIneedto useOBSstudio,buthowdoI actuallydothat?OnAndroiditis

Q&A easy,youdownloadtheappandgo live.

A:Iamsorry,thisIknowNOTHINGabout,ifwehaveany readerswhohaveexperiencewith this,pleaseemailus: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org

openingitinInkscape.Theneditto yourheart’scontentandsaveitas thenameoftheapplicationthatis lacking.Copyitintothepack.It reallyisthatsimple.

Q:Ihavesetupmymachinewith thelatestUbuntuandsetitup thesameasmyold18.04one(Both Dell3020miditowers).Somehow stufflikeslackjustgivemeablack screen.ThereisNONvidiainvolved. Givemetheshortversionplease.

A:OK.Oneword:Wayland.

Q:Ihaveinstalledanicontheme inUbuntuthatIreallylike, howeveritismissingafewicons.I feelthatIcouldmaketheonesI need,butIhavenoideawhereto start.Canyoupointmeintheright direction?

Q:SoIhavemysister’slaptopfromhertimeinunianditisan oldIntelcoreI32.2ghzand4gbram HPandIwouldliketoknowifthis boysupportsthelatestubuntu 22.04LTS,Ithink?

Q:IaddedThunderbirdv91.12on mynewlaptop.Thescreensize wentfrom1366x768to1920x1080 fromtheoldone,soeverythingis kindasmall.Idon’thavethebest eyesasitis,andwhenIgotoadjust thefontsizesinthepreferences, nothingseemstohappen.Please help?

bluetoothdevices).However,Ican pointyouhere:https://net2.com/ how-to-set-up-bluetooth-onubuntu-18-04/

A:Yes.Allofthei-seriesCPU’s aresupported,eventhe core2duo’s.Youmayhavetodo someBIOSwrangling,(seequestion above)butitwillwork.

A:Thunderbirdisbasicallyabrowser,sothefontsyouare adjustingisforthe“READING PANE”only.Youcanchangeitby changingyoursystemfonts.And ThunderbirdandFirefoxshould lookbetter.Youcouldalsoadjust the“Density”settingonceyouhave biggerfonts.

Q:SowiththestupidwokeprinciplesIneedtofixallmy senior’sscripts,sincehehasleftthe company.Myexperienceisworking inacomputerrepairshopthelast twoyears,andeverythingisLinux here.Ihavetogointoeachscript andreplaceslaveandsecondary andsometimesrevertthemfor machinesthathavenotupgraded. <removed>

A:That-a-way.OK,I’dsuggest copyinganiconfromhepack youcoulduseasabaseand

Q:IinstalledUbuntuinVirtualbox,butitisinamini screenanditwon’tgofullscreen.I thinkImayneedtoinstalladriver, butthedriverappdoesnotfind any.Itjustsitsinthemiddleofmy display.

A:Youneedtoinstallwhatis calledthe“guestaddons”and youshouldbegolden.

Q:IhavehadtogobacktoUbuntu18.04,asoursoftware doesnotsupportanyofthenewer versions.Ijusthitonesnag,Ineed bluetoothformyheadphones.I haveanHPProbookwithnothing printedonthebottomcover,sono modelnumber,butitisani5with anSSD,soitcan’tbeTHATold. Dmesg<removed>

A:Iamnot100%onbluetoothas Ihavenotusedit,(no

A:Linuxshipswithacommand lineapplicationcalledsed,a streameditor.Simplytype: sed -i ‘s/setSlaveOK/ setSecondaryOK/g’

mansedifyougetstuckorfind itonthe‘net.

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

U UBBUUNNTTUUGGAAMMEES S

WrittenbyErik

Price:$3.99USD

Blurb:“Returntotheunderground classicworldoftreasuresandtraps intheHDremakeofCrystalCaves! GuideMylothroughpuzzlesand arcadechallengesofyourfavorite episodes,thenexplorethewhole newEpisodeloadedwithallnew puzzles,enemies,challenges, hazardsandhelpMylogetback home!“

I wouldliketopointoutthatthis isagamefrom1991ish,updated toworkonmoderndisplays.Itisan excellentgamefortheyoungones, whichshouldkeepthembusyfor ages.(Plus,itwonttakeupmuch spaceonyourcomputer.)

ThePCreallylackedfornice platformgamesintheearly90’sso Crystalcaveswasconsidered special,butitwasoutshoneby Prehistorik1&2andneverreally floatedtothetop.Itwasalsoriding thewaveofCommanderKeenfrom Apogeetheyearbefore,thatwas hugelypopular.However,Icannot seeitbecomeverypopular,even now,inHD,butasImentioned

before,itmaykeepthekidsbusy forafiver.Keepinmindthatthe originalcanstillbeplayedvia DosBoxandwasfreeasin “Shareware”.

Theinstallationdidnotgowell,I hadtotrysomeoldversionsof Ubuntutogetitinstalled.

Sowhataretheenhancements overtheoriginal?Thereisafourth world.Thereisalsomusic.Not greatmusic,butalsonotbeepsn boopsliketheoriginalonPC speakers.Ithinkmusiciskeyhere asthegameneedstobepassedto

C CrryyssttaallCCaavveessHHD

thenextgeneration.Ifyouareadie hardretrofan,youmaynotlikethe music,soyoucanturnitoff.

Ihonestlydidnotlikethe original,(Comingofftitlesinthe 80’swithsoundtracksbythelikes ofRobHubbard/ChrisHuelsbeck, itisnothardtseewhy.)object sizeswerewaaaayoff,forinstance, aminecartwouldbesmallerthan you,butashoewillbeyour (sprite’s)size.Thissortofbugged me,aseveryspritehadtobe16x16 withtheoddonelarger.Also, becauseofthelimitedpalette, thingswouldseemtoblendinto

thecolouredbackground.Iwill includeascreen-shotherewhere youneedtospotthemainsprite,so youcanhaveanideawhatIam talkingabout.Onthisfront, nothinghaschanged.Itisstillthe samepaletteandthesame graphics,withspritesthatdon’t makesense.(Alsotheywere bargainbasementsprites comparedtootherApogeetitles, evencomparedto8-bitcomputer gamesfromthe80’s.) Donothold yourbreathforastoryeither,then again,afouryearolddoesnotneed astory.Thegame-playissimple enoughforanykid,yourun,you jump,youshootandyoucollect colourfulobjects.Noducking, sliding,doublejumping,etc.There aresomepuzzleelementsinthe game,buttheyareverybasic–I supposethetargetedaudienceis under10–butkidsknowwhen theyarebeingskimpedon.

Thebigbonus?Crystalcaves nowhasitsownleveleditorand youcanshareyourcreationswith friends.Ifyouarenotthecreative type,sofar,theonlinelevelsare 50/50,whichistobeexpectedas

UBUNTUGAMES

most“creators''willbeunderthe ageof12.Theleveleditoralso ensuresthatyoudidnotwasteyour moneywhenitcomestoreplayability.Theopportunityhereisyou cansitdownandteachyourkids howandplaywhatyoumadewith them.Whoknows,youmay discoverahiddentalent!

Thequestionis:Shouldyoubuy it?Myansweris,itdepends.Ifyou wantaburstofnostalgiaorto

amusethekids,sure.Ifyouwanted somebuttonmashing,nope.

Thegameisataleisurelypace andyouquicklylearnthatyou cannotshootforeveras,one,the bulletsarelimitedandtwo,you mayhitsomethingvitalyoursprite needstolive.Ifyoulikedmatching gemsorclickingonplayingcardsto sortthemintostacks,thisisright upyouralley.Sincetheoriginaldid notdoitforme,theHDversion

withthemusicandleveleditor leavesmewithaglasshalffulland halfemptysituation.Nowhere’s thekicker,ifwhatwehavenowwas availablein1992,Imayhavelikedit abitmore.

Tobethorough,Ihaveto mentionthattheoriginalis availableonGOGforawhole$0.49 USD,butWindowsandMaconly.

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

ATTRROONNS

MONTHLYPATRONS

AlexCrabtree AlexPopescu

AndyGaray BillBerninghausen

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

JoaoCantinhoLopes

JohnAndrews

JohnMalon JohnPrigge

JonathanPienaar

JosephGulizia

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#185

Deadline: Sunday11thSept.2022. Release: Friday30thSept.2022.

WearealwayslookingfornewarticlestoincludeinFullCircle.Forhelpandadviceplease seetheOfficialFullCircleStyleGuide:http://bit.ly/fcmwriting

SendyourcommentsorLinuxexperiencesto:letters@fullcirclemagazine.org

Hardware/softwarereviewsshouldbesentto:reviews@fullcirclemagazine.org

QuestionsforQ&Ashouldgoto:questions@fullcirclemagazine.org

Desktopscreensshouldbeemailedto:misc@fullcirclemagazine.org

...oryoucanvisitoursitevia:fullcirclemagazine.org

YoucankeepuptodatewiththeWeeklyNewsusingtheRSS feed:http://fullcirclemagazine.org/feed/podcast

http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=85347&refid=stpr

FullCircleTeam

Editor RonnieTucker

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

Webmasteradmin@fullcirclemagazine.org

Editing&Proofreading

MikeKennedy,GordCampbell,Robert Orsino,JoshHertel,BertJerred,Jim DyerandEmilyGonyer

OurthanksgotoCanonical,themany translationteamsaroundtheworld andThorstenWilmsfortheFCMlogo.

GettingFullCircleMagazine:

EPUBFormat-Mosteditionshavealinktotheepubfileon thatissue'sdownloadpage.Ifyouhaveanyproblemswith theepubfile,email:mobile@fullcirclemagazine.org

Issuu-YoucanreadFullCircleonlineviaIssuu: http://issuu.com/fullcirclemagazine.Pleaseshareandrate FCMasithelpstospreadthewordaboutFCMandUbuntu.

News-p855064/

https://www.patreon.com/fullcirclemagazine