Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, A few months ago, I wrote about the strange case of the misbehaving color.js and faker.js open source libraries. These popular tools were sabotaged by their own developer, who had become disillusioned by the way large companies were using his code without contributing or providing compensation. But the larger point was about the need for an orderly transition when a developer has to step away or step back. Burnout is a serious thing for FOSS developers. And sometimes it isn’t even a matter of burnout but is simply that lives have a way of changing. People change jobs, get married, have kids … open source projects need to provide continuity when a lead developer bows out. When you call out a fiery explosion like the color.js crash, it…

NixOS is a unique take on Linux in that everything (including the kernel, applications, system packages, and configuration files) is built by the Nix package manager. And by isolating the applications from one another, the developers have achieved a distribution without using /bin, /sbin, /lib, or /usr directories. Instead, all packages are stored within /nix/store. With the release of NixOS 22.5, 9,345 new packages have been added and 10,666 have been updated. This was achieved thanks to 1,611 contributors and 46,727 commits. Impressive. This new release includes Nix 2.8, which fixes several issues, improves usability, and bolsters performance. The biggest change to Nix comes by way of the flakes experimental features, which allow you to specify code dependencies in a declarative way by listing them (in JSON format) within a…

Linux Magazine www.linux-magazine.com ADMIN HPC http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/ Distributed Linear Algebra with Mahout • Andrew Musselman and Trevor Grant The ideal scenarios for using Apache Mahout are in teams with the flexibility to adapt as their needs change over time. Mahout can easily swap back-end compute engines (e.g., batch or micro-batch systems such as Apache Spark) or streaming systems (e.g., Apache Flink). ADMIN Online http://www.admin-magazine.com/ Obtain certificates with acme.sh • Thorsten Scherf We take a close look at acme.sh, a light weight client for the ACME protocol that facilitates digital certificates for secure TLS communication channels. Linux infrastructure servers for small and midsize businesses • Andreas Stolzenberger Specialized Linux distributions are available for small and midsize businesses that promise economical and easy management of server applications and entire IT infrastructures. We looked…

Is It a Bug or Is It Time to Go? Davyd McColl wanted to mount a really old Common Internet File System (CIFS) v1.0 drive but ran into a kernel bug that caused the mount to fail. He spent a few hours in Git bisecting the exact patch that caused the problem and posted his findings in the hope that a fix might be found. CIFS is a variant of Server Message Block (SMB) introduced by Microsoft with Windows 95 in 1996. SMB in turn was developed by IBM in the 1980s. CIFS and SMB are used for sharing file repositories with other users on the same network. This is old tech that has long since been replaced with much better options, but apparently CIFS 1.0 drives can still be…

If the browser stops halfway while loading a website and then freezes, experienced users know that usually all it takes is clicking the reload button to make it work like clockwork on the next attempt. Or, if an rsync transfer suddenly stalls because the server has fallen asleep, admins will in-tuitively press Ctrl+C to abort, only to immediately restart the command and see it finish without a hitch in most cases. Scenarios where humans have to manually take control over running processes just because the computer fails to understand that an automatic restart would solve the problem are one of the last hurdles to a fully automated world. The yoyo Go program presented in this issue supervises programs entrusted to it and will rejigger them like a yo-yo (as you…

The file and directory structure you traverse so effortlessly is all a metaphor. Behind the scenes, Linux and Unix systems sometimes use links to connect data from different folders. But what happens when you delete a file? This month’s tutorial describes some scripting techniques for searching out broken links – and we’ll also introduce you to some free tools that will help you keep your file systems free from these pesky tunnels to nowhere. We also dive into Zrythm, a free digital audio workstation that offers some special features for managing loops.…

Development of Zrythm is still in the alpha phase, and this can be seen, for example, in regular crashes. These crashes were triggered by various actions in our lab, such as selecting the color for a track or cutting sections of audio. Crashes were also observed simply when the application ran for a longer period of time. The problems were always associated with a flood of xruns on the JACK back end. A look at top in the terminal showed a challenging 300 percent CPU load and more for Zrythm in this situation. Every now and then the computer even hung completely. In some cases, Zita-a2j running in the background, which makes MIDI devices that are registered in ALSA available to JACK went zombie. Since this small server is necessary…

We are always looking for good articles on Linux and the tools of the Linux environment. Although we will consider any topic, the following themes are of special interest: • System administration • Useful tips and tools • Security, both news and techniques • Product reviews, especially from real-world experience • Community news and projects If you have an idea, send a proposal with an outline, an estimate of the length, a description of your background, and contact information to edit@linux-magazine.com. The technical level of the article should be consistent with what you normally read in Linux Magazine. Remember that Linux Magazine is read in many countries, and your article may be translated into one of our sister publications. Therefore, it is best to avoid using slang and idioms that…

Preview Newsletter The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/Linux-Update Approximate UK / Europe Aug 06 USA / Canada Sep 02 Australia Oct03 On Sale Date Please note: On sale dates are approximate and may be delayed because of logistical issues.…

With a foundation built on the Debian Stable Branch, Titan Linux (https://techcafe757.wixsite.com/titanlinux) takes a functional, yet a minimal, approach to KDE Plasma to create an operating system that is as functional as it is performant. Titan Linux features a minimal KDE Plasma desktop, the stable LTS kernel, a wide range of hardware support, a large independent community of supporters, and a brand new management system (called the Titan Toolbox) that makes it possible to manage the operating system with a single click. This new distribution is built with the end user in mind and eliminates the dependency on meta-packages to create a remarkably stable system. Titan Linux defaults to a global dark theme and adds just enough eye candy to make it elegant, without bogging down the system. Currently, Titan…

Linux will finally have support for StrongARM platforms. After more than 10 years of work, Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux and the leader of kernel development) stated in a recent update, “One thing of note is how the long-time ARM generic kernel work (aka “multiplatform”) is pretty much done after 10+ years. Congrats to everybody involved. The StrongARM platforms remain with their separate kernels and are expected to stay so, but compared to where things were a decade ago, this is a pretty big step.” Beyond that major advancement, the 5.19 kernel will be rather boring for standard users, while also being on the “bigger” side. The majority of the new additions and changes to the 5.19 kernel are hardware-related driver support. Along with the architecture updates (such as…

Moving to open source Several people have approached me with issues of “migrating to open source” and do not seem to know how to get started. Sometimes these people represent companies, sometimes educational institutions, and sometimes governments (local, regional, or national). Most of the time, they seem to have the impression that migrating to open source is something that happens with a finger snap. Other times they seem to have the impression that it is an overwhelming task that can never be done, so why even start. I have several philosophies on this that have been used successfully by various people and groups. 1. Start with Applications There are many applications that work across multiple platforms: web browsers, office packages (like LibreOffice), databases, etc. These open source applications can substitute…

Order online: https://bit.ly/Linux-Newsstand #260/July 2022 Privacy If you are really serious about privacy, you’ll need to lean on more than your browser’s no tracking button. Those who need anonymity the most depend on the Tor network – a global project offering safe surfing even in surveillance states. We also look at Portmaster, an application firewall with some useful privacy features. On the DVD: Ubuntu 22.04 and Fedora Workstation 36 #259/June 2022 Zero Trust Twenty Years ago, everyone thought a gateway firewall was all you needed to stay safe from intruders, but recent history has told a different story. Today, the best advice is: Don’t trust anyone. Your internal network could be just as dangerous as the Internet. On the DVD: Zorin OS 16.1 Core and Super GRUB2 Disk #258/May 2022 Clean…

HP has teamed up with System76 to create a developer-focused laptop, called the Dev One, which ships with System76’s own Pop!_OS Linux distribution and starts at $1,099. The original announcement came out in May 2022 and, at the time, the laptop was unavailable for pre-order. Fast forward to today and users in the US can now order one of these shiny new pieces of Linux-powered hardware. The Dev One keeps the prices slightly lower by going with an AMD CPU and shrugs off a discrete graphics card. The base model ships with an 8 Core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U processor with a 1.9-4.4GHz clock speed, an integrated AMD Radeon graphics chipset, and 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM (upgradable to 64GB). The chassis is .75" thick and has a 1TB PCIe…

The Gemini Protocol [1] is a relatively new Internet communication protocol for accessing remote documents. Unlike an HTML web page that contain layers of style sheets, JavaScript, and HTML tags, a Gemini document is a simple readable document. Gemini’s Gemtext format is easy to learn, requiring about five codes. Children or new coders could easily put together a small documentation server or custom application server without many programming skills. In this article, I introduce the Gemini protocol with three simple projects. The first project creates a Gemini server and client with just one line of Bash code. In the second project, a Bash script creates a common gateway interface (CGI) page that connects to a sensor to show temperature and humidity data. The third project uses Gemini document links to…

Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software Writer’s IDE Zettlr While there are many text editors available for Linux, there aren’t many that are suitable for large or long-form projects. Every writer is different, but bigger projects typically benefit from an environment that helps with note taking, link annotation, draft edits, creating a bibliography, and adding references. This is probably why lots of Linuxbased authors choose augmented versions of Vim or Emacs, or even the ancient version of the proprietary Scrivener that still runs on Linux. Zettlr, however, is a new text editor that has some unique features that make it a good candidate for larger and more ambitious projects. It runs on Electron, but it puts text editing at the center of…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at https://www.linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to info@linux-magazine.com. NOTICE Be sure to check the event website before booking any travel, as many events are being canceled or converted to virtual events due to the effects of COVID-19. Storage Developer Conference 2022 Date: September 12-15, 2022 Location: Fremont, California Website: https://storagedeveloper.org/ Join us September 12-15 at SNIA’s SDC22! Staying current with the latest technology can amount to a lot of dollars and time. Attending SDC is a…