 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 62, 16 August 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 32nd edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Having survived a power blackout generated by an approaching typhoon, your intrepid web site maintainer has yet more exciting stories for you...
Content:
Yellow Dog Bites Back
Apple announced the availability of OS X 10.3.5 on August 10. However, OS X is not the only operating system that can run on the Macintosh, and on August 13 (Friday the 13th) Yellow Dog Linux decided to bite back by releasing version 4.0 RC2. YDL users were no doubt relieved - indeed, they were starting to get rather anxious as approximately 11 months had lapsed since the release of 3.0.1 (the current stable version). According to Yellow Dog developers, the reason for the long delay had much to do with the unsettled state of Red Hat/Fedora, upon which YDL is based. As regular readers of DistroWatch should know, Red Hat has undergone major changes in the past year, moving their product line into the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux while spinning off the freebie download version into the rapidly-developing Fedora project.
Yellow Dog Linux is a commercial product sold by Terra Soft Solutions, and the latest version 4.0 is available for download through YDL.net Enhanced (3.01 can can be obtained from free mirrors). Yellow Dog's drawcard is that it is unique among Linux distros - it is the only one designed exclusively to run on Macs (or more accurately, the PowerPC processor). Yes, there are other Linux distros that have been ported to PowerPC (Debian and Gentoo come to mind), plus NetBSD and OpenBSD, but only Yellow Dog has bet the ranch on the Mac architecture. So far the bet has paid off, as YDL has been around for five years now and appears to have the lead among Linux-on-Mac fans. YDL 4.0 RC2 will probably be the last release candidate - Yellow Dog developers are predicting that they'll have the final stable release ready for downloading in about another week.
This is probably as good a place as any for me to ask a question that has been fermenting in the back of my head for awhile. I don't own a Macintosh, but I am curious to know how the Linux/BSD experience on PowerPC stacks up when compared to the Intel x86 world. For those of you who own both a PowerPC and x86 box, what differences do you find when running Linux and/or BSD on these machines? Any advantages/disadvantages between the two? Inquiring minds want to know. And let it be stated that this is just a question, not a troll - I've actually been admiring some of those nice-looking iBooks and PowerBooks that I see in the shopping malls.
New Steganography Tool
In last week's Tips, Tricks and Hints, we discussed steganography, the art and science and hiding text messages in unexpected places (ie. inside of graphic, audio and video files). Now there is a new steganographic tool for hiding top-secret data inside of executable files. Hydan is the brainchild of Rakan El-Khalil, a computer science student at Columbia University in New York. El-Khalil revealed his new creation at CodeCon, a non-commercial IT conference held at a San Francisco nightclub.
The ability to place hidden messages inside of an executable binary is not a trivial accomplishment. In the case of graphic, audio and video files, the hidden text slightly impairs the visual or audio output, but so slightly that it's seldom noticeable. However, executable code is much less forgiving - normally, changing even one byte of binary code is enough to cause a program to crash. Yet Hydan not only manages to allow the binary to run properly, it even manages to contain the hidden payload without changing the executable file's original size. This seemingly impossible task is viable thanks to redundancies in x86 instruction code. That is to say, there are places where two instructions are the same, so it should be possible to replace one of them. However, such redundancies are far less common in executable binaries than in graphic, audio or video files. As a result, Hydan can only hide one byte of a text message in about 110 bytes of executable code. By comparison, other steganography programs such as Outguess can hide one byte of message in 17 bytes of a .jpeg file.
Hydan encrypts messages using the blowfish algorithm with a user-supplied passphrase. Though steganography is mostly used to hide information that some people would rather not share with the world, Hydan has some other functions: it can be used to embed a watermark or a digital signature in an executable file. Hydan is open source and will run on Linux and *BSD, but there is also a version for Windows.
Debian Installer RC1
The new Debian installation program RC1 (Release Candidate 1) for "Sarge" was released on 07 August. Download links can be found here. There is even a review of the new installer over at Linux.com.
It's seldom that publishing an installation program would make headlines, but in the case of Debian it's a monumental event. It has been a long time coming, as work on the installer began about four years ago. Debian "Woody" was released on 19 July, 2002, and many had anticipated that a new installer would be available then, but they were disappointed. The next release of Debian (code-named "Sarge") is anticipated for September, though that is not engraved in stone. The difficulty of creating an easy-to-use installer for Debian has much to do with the fact that Debian runs on 11 different architectures (alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390), and the developers have been adamant that the installation experience should be the same everywhere. This, apparently, is easier said than done.
In terms of packaged software, Debian is the largest of all distros, with over 16,000 packages in the "unstable" branch. However, the number of users actually running "pure" Debian may be much smaller than the super-sized package collection indicates. Rather, many people are using Debian-based distros (Knoppix, Xandros, Lindows, etc) which conveniently are compatible with Debian's monumental package collection.
The reason for this state of affairs is that Debian has long been notorious for its difficult-to-use installation program. Indeed, the current installer is so bad that it has given a significant boost to a whole cottage industry of Debian-based distros which tout "easy installation" as a major drawcard. Just how much the new and much-improved installation program will impact these other Debian-based distros remains to be seen. Of course, there is more to a distro than just its installer (easy-to-use system administration tools, for example).
One thing for certain - with the upcoming release of Sarge and the new installer, this is an exciting time for Debian users.
Linux at the Olympics
Friday the 13th marked the official (if inauspicious) start of the Athen's 2004 Olympics. Spectators can expect to see a lot of running, jumping and hitting balls with various objects - all in all, a very non-geeky event, though we'd venture to guess that some of the athletes have an unconfessed weakness for pizza deliveries.
That having been said, Linux will make a small but significant splash at this year's summer Olympics thanks to the BBC. According to this article, the British Broadcasting Corporation will use Linux to improve the speed and accuracy of rendering real time results. Leading the charge are British techies who have installed a bank of Linux computers at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Athens. The machines will receive real-time results in XML format, and then use SQL databases to store the data, which will then be piped to Macs running Linux apps that will render 3D graphics.
The Athens Olympics are likely just the first step. Jon Hanford, senior systems analyst at BBC, says that the system is being battle-tested at the Olympics, and if successful will likely be used at future sporting events. So next time you see a gymnast flexing his or her biceps in stunning 3D, remember the Linux developers who made it all possible. Now if we could only get some of those Olympic stars to wear DistroWatch T-shirts...
Linux Trademark Battle - Blasts from the Past
Though now mostly forgotten (if not forgiven), back in the bubble days of 1996, Linux Torvalds (with the help of his friends) fought a year-long legal battle to gain control of the "Linux" trademark. Linus - not being a trademark kind of guy - had neglected to register the name Linux with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). That proved to be a costly mistake when an individual by the name of William R. Della Croce, Jr. came out of the woodwork and started demanding 10% royalties on sales from businesses marketing Linux products. Della Croce, it seems, had registered the "LINUX" trademark for a computer operating system. This is despite the fact he was not a developer and was in no way associated with Linux. Details of the fiasco are outlined here.
A year later, a legal settlement was reached and Linus regained control of the Linux name. For the young software developer from laid-back Finland, the whole twisted nightmare was a rude introduction to the US legal system. An old article from Linux Journal explains how the case was resolved.
Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same - now somebody else is trying to register the Linux name (this time in Australia). However, it's unlikely that this case will get very far. Basically, what's happening is that a company calling itself Linux Australia Pty Ltd has been trying to register its name as a trademark, so far unsuccessfully. Australia's answer to the USPTO, IP Australia, has apparently heard of Linux and seems pretty sure that it wasn't invented Down Under. Another complicating factor is the existence of Linux Australia, Inc, an Aussie open-source organization that has been using the name as an unregistered trademark. Linux Australia has gotten in touch with Linux Torvalds and asked him to legally reassert possession of the Linux name. More details of this convoluted story can be found here.
What a world we live in. Before you know it, somebody will start trademarking common everyday English words like "windows" and "outlook".
Crippled XP At Discount Prices
Faced with high software prices, customers in at least some parts of the world have lately been deciding that they can do without Windows XP (or at least legally-licensed copies). Full-priced legal CDs containing Windows XP plus Office carry a combined price tag of nearly US$600. In wealthy countries that may be affordable (for most), but in developing countries it represents months of hard-earned wages. Not surprisingly, many of the non-wealthy decide that their best bet is to run pirated software.
The traditional response from the software industry has been to get their governments (usually the US government) to push, pull and issue dire threats of economic sanctions against the offending country for IPR violations. The traditional response from the offending countries has been fake compliance, with high-profile "crackdown cleanup" campaigns. Photos of seized pirate CDs being incinerated in front of approving Western software execs are front-page news in developing country newspapers. Occasionally they throw a few fake Rolex watches and Gucci handbags into the bonfire as well. After the execs head back to their five-star hotels or the airport, the street vendors unpack their newly-pressed Windows/Office CDs and flog them off to locals and tourists alike for US$2 a piece.
Of course, there is another option - the citizens of developing countries could run open source software. And increasingly, this is what they are choosing to do. Aside from costing nothing and being perfectly legal, they gain a few bonuses - freedom from viruses and "product activation", as well as the chance to cultivate a local pool of programming talent.
After bravely holding prices as high as possible for as long as possible, Microsoft finally decided to blink when sales of Linux went through the roof in Thailand. In order to stem the flood of defections, late last year Microsoft threw in the towel and dropped the price of the Thai edition of WinXP+Office to US$37, which is only about 6% of its former cost. Not surprisingly, the new bargain basement prices did not go unnoticed by other developing nations, and they too started demanding a discount.
Caught between a penguin and a hard place, Microsoft announced last week that, starting from October, it would offer a crippled version of Windows officially called "Windows XP Starter Edition." Unofficially, users are calling it "XP-Lite". Among the great new features it offers are lower-resolution graphics, fewer networking capabilities and reduced multitasking. A Microsoft press release called XP-Lite "a low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in developing countries." Aside from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia will qualify for the cut-rate deal, and there have been suggestions that Singapore be included too (though it is hardly a "developing country"). Other lucky winners in the software sweepstakes may include China and India, but Microsoft seems as yet undecided about this.
No sooner was the ink dry on the digital announcement than IT research firm Gartner published a report recommending that users "steer away" from the new XP-Lite. The Gartner analysts suggested that users would likely find the disabled features "frustrating", and concluded that the ironic result might actually be to increase piracy of Windows XP and Office.
It remains to be seen whether or not consumers in Asia will prefer XP-Lite or Linux. In Thailand, Linux has already gained an enthusiastic following, and Thai geeks are insisting that they won't be seduced by budget Windows. As others have pointed out, Microsoft's sudden generosity has nothing to do with altruism, but rather competition. If the Linux threat recedes, it's hard to believe that software prices won't rise again. A little competition can be a good thing.
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| Released Last Week |
GeeXboX 0.98
A new version of GeeXboX, a Linux-based multimedia player, has been released: "Here
comes again the GeeXboX. This 0.98 edition is a key point in our
roadmap. Indeed, this latter does not really come with many new
features (but some new useful things whenever) but fixes a huge
number of annoying bugs. Most of all, this release will probably be the
last time you see GeeXboX looks like it. We've plan to work harder than
ever to bring you next time a new OS, like you've never seen, still
keeping it as simple to use as it ever been. So just stay tuned :-)" Read the full announcement on the distribution's home page, in French or in English. Download: geexbox-0.98-fr.iso (6.07MB) or geexbox-0.98-en.iso (5.96MB).
K12LTSP 4.1.0
K12LTSP 4.1.0 has been released: "K12LTSP
4.1.0 is finally available for your downloading pleasure. This release
was a long time in coming, 144 days since the last release. K12LTSP
4.1.0 is the combination of Fedora Core 2 and LTSP 4.1.
The hard work of these two projects shows in this release, this is the
fastest, most refined release of K12LTSP to date. We owe the Fedora and
LTSP projects a big thank-you." Read the full announcement including the changelog. Download: K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc1.iso (623MB), K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc2.iso (649MB) ,K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc3.iso (649MB), and K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc4.iso (621MB).
tinysofa classic server 1.1
tinysofa classic server 1.1 (Rio) is now generally available. "Rio
overhauls the tinysofa classic server product line, adding Native POSIX
Threads Library support to the kernel and glibc, Exec-Shield support to
the kernel, replacing the SWUP updater with APT as the primary advanced
package management tool, designating vsftpd as the only FTP server
shipped, adding dovecot and tftp to the base package set, implementing
'thought process compatibility' with the tinysofa enterprise server
product line and much more." Download: Rio.i586.iso (356MB) and Rio.src.iso (324MB) via BitTorrent. Md5sums can be found on traditional FTP sites.
tinysofa enterprise server 2.0
tinysofa enterprise server 2.0 (Odin) is now generally available. "Odin
is a next generation operating system which showcases the latest in
open source technology in a fast, stable, securely configured and
easily manageable form. Odin features: The Linux 2.6.8 kernel, SELinux
support, APT as an advanced package management tool, a turn key ASP.NET
solution using components from the Mono project, the next generation
PHP 5 environment, high availability features such as DRBD, UCARP and
PostgreSQL replication, the latest development tools and languages" including automake 1.9, bash 3.0 and tcl 8.4.7! Download: Odin.i386.iso (691MB) and Odin.src.iso (703MB) via BitTorrent. Md5sums can be found on traditional FTP sites.
blackPanther OS 4.0
blackPanther OS
(formerly known as blackPanther-Linux) is a Hungarian Linux
distribution based on Mandrakelinux. Version 4.0 of blackPanther has
been released: "First CD there is ISO format, other 4CDs only in FTP, source and RPM format available." If you understand Hungarian you can read the full announcement here. Download: CD1-blackPanther4.0final.iso (527MB).
INSERT 1.2.14
A new version of the Inside Security Rescue Toolkit INSERT has been released. From the changelog: "v1.2.14
(the one-year-anniversary release). Bugfix: libpcap0.8 was missing (for
tcpdump). The following packages/programs were updated: fwlogwatch,
clamav, avscan, smbmount, rkhunter; p0f - a passive OS fingerprinting
tool was added; the ability to create boot floppies (mkfloppy.bat and
mkfloppy.sh was removed (the files didn't fit on a floppy anymore, this
should be re-added ASAP); a bug with the 'toram' boot option was fixed.
Now all files are being copied to the RAM disk...." Download from here: INSERT-1.2.14_de.iso (49.0MB) or INSERT-1.2.14_en.iso (49.0MB).
Development and unannounced releases
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 315
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 7
- Number of discontinued distributions: 32
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 84
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| Tips, Tricks and Hints |
Loop-AES
Steganography provides a useful way to secure your bank account or credit card numbers, but it's not really a practical form of encryption if you've got a large quantity of data to conceal. If, for example, you're a politician and you've got hundreds (or thousands) of incriminating emails that you'd like to keep secret, trying to bury them one at a time inside of your family digital photo album would be a painstaking task to say the least (and it would be equally painstaking trying to retrieve the data, or search through it). Aside from that, some of the data you wish to hide may include naughty photos or videos, and steganography wouldn't be of much help since it's designed for hiding text.
The solution to this problem is to place all the scandalous files on an encrypted partition. A clever algorithm and a passphrase are used to encrypt the partition. This is a nearly bulletproof solution, but be forewarned that if you forget the passphrase, you can kiss the data goodbye unless you've backed it up to someplace else in an unencrypted format.
Linux provides two unrelated packages for making encrypted partitions, Cryptoloop and loop-AES (note that these are Linux-only - the BSDs have their own separate encryption schemes). However, it's been claimed that Cryptoloop has certain weaknesses, and it was recently discussed on Kerneltrap that Cryptoloop was being replaced with dm-crypt in the 2.6 kernel. For that reason and others, this article will focus on loop-AES.
Unfortunately, installing loop-AES is not as simple as grabbing an RPM or source tarball - it requires a kernel module and patched util-linux. More devout geeks may rise to the challenge, but it's a complicated mess and I'm not going to cover how to do it in this brief article. The good news is that more and more distros are including loop-AES by default - if your distro doesn't, give the developers some pressure to do so. In my opinion, it's a killer feature, and every desktop distro should have it.
The easiest way to find out if you've got loop-AES installed is to search for the loadable Linux kernel module "loop.o" on 2.4 kernels, or "loop.ko" on 2.6 kernels. An easy way to do this is with the "locate" command. If you're unfamiliar with "locate", note that it depends on a database that you create first create by running "updatedb" (you must be root to do so). You only need to run "updatedb" just once, though you may want to run it periodically (once a week) to rebuild the database as the files on your computer change. Most Linux systems will run "updatedb" as a weekly cron job, but that won't necessarily work if your computer isn't turned on just after midnight. Anyway, run "locate loop.o loop.ko" - here are the results that I obtained:
locate loop.o loop.ko
/initrd/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/loop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/isdn/isdnloop/isdnloop.o
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/cryptoloop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/loop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/isdn/isdnloop/isdnloop.ko
As you can see, I have the necessary modules, so I'm in business. I'm running Knoppix 3.4, and I've also found the drivers on recent versions of Xandros, Mepis and Libranet. I have Slackware on one on my hard disk partitions, and it does not have loop-AES enabled by default. I have not checked the other 310 distros that are in the DistroWatch database (this is not a feature we normally monitor, but maybe we should). I'd be very interested in hearing from others to learn whether or not loop-AES is enabled in their favorite distros.
At this point, it's worth pointing out that there are two ways to use loop-AES. One way is take an unused partition on our hard drive (perhaps /dev/hda3) and encrypt it. The other way is just to make an encrypted BIGFILE and place it on a partition that we are already using. With this in mind, let's get down to the actual details.
Encrypted Partition
You need a spare partition if you want to encrypt it because all the data will be destroyed. If you aren't already intimately familiar with your partition table, there are a few tools which will let you peek at it. One is "sfdisk" - you must be root to run it, and it's a dangerous tool if you start monkeying around with all it's capabilities, so just stick to the "-l" option. Read the sfdisk man page if you want to know more, otherwise, as root do the following:
sfdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 4865 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 0+ 13562- 13563- 6835626 a6 OpenBSD
/dev/hda2 13562+ 42632- 29070 14651280 a5 FreeBSD
/dev/hda3 42632+ 43604 973- 489982+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 43605 77544 33940 17105760 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 43605+ 55223- 11619- 5855661 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 55223+ 61040- 5818- 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 61041+ 77544 16504- 8317984+ 83 Linux
As you can see from the above, /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 are occupied by OpenBSD and FreeBSD respectively, so let's forget those. I had originally hoped to use /dev/hda3, but I see that's it's occupied as my swap partition, so that's out too. My /dev/hda4 is an "extended partition" - never mess with that. The only possible candidates are /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and /dev/hda7. But wait, I might be using those too - better check with the "df -h" command:
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 7.9G 3.1G 4.4G 42% /
/dev/root.old 17M 7.9M 8.3M 49% /initrd
/dev/hda6 2.8G 546M 2.1G 21% /home
Good thing I checked - /dev/hda7 is my root partition, and /dev/hda6 is /home. So the only spare partition I've got is /dev/hda5. Actually, I've got an old Linux distro installed there, but it's not important so I'm going to nuke it. We will use the losetup command, which is used to set up and control loop devices. So, without further ado:
losetup -e AES128 -T /dev/loop0 /dev/hda5
This command will link /dev/hda5 to the first virtual peripheral /dev/loop0. You will be asked to enter a password - 20 characters or more is recommended. Once you've done that, create an ext2 filesystem on /dev/loop0:
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0
Now we must detach the partition from the specified loop device:
losetup -d /dev/loop0
Now, create a new directory which will be used to mount this partition:
mkdir /sleaze
The last step is to edit file /etc/fstab. Before you do this, make a backup copy (a wise move whenever you edit an important system configuration file:
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.original
OK, go ahead and add this line to /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda5 /sleaze ext2 defaults,noauto,loop=/dev/loop0,encryption=AES128 0 0
Now you may mount /dev/hda5 to /sleaze whenever you like (you'll need to be root to do that, or else set up sudo). Anytime you attempt to mount it, you'll be asked for the password (not the root password, but that big long 20-character password which you'd better not forget). Whenever the partition is not mounted, the data will be inaccessible, and thus safe from prying eyes.
Finally, note that my encrypted partition could have been placed on a removable device such as a USB card or keyring (/dev/sda1) or even on a floppy (/dev/fd0), but not a CDR.
Encrypted BIGFILE
As already mentioned, loop-AES can be used to create an encrypted BIGFILE rather than an encrypted partition. The main advantage is that you won't need a spare partition on your hard drive. From what I've read, you should be able to back up the BIGFILE to a CDR, but I have not had much luck with this.
For the purpose of this experiment, I'll create a 100MB BIGFILE. Before I begin, let's see how much empty space I have available on my mounted partitions. This is best done with the "df -h" command:
df -h
/dev/hda7 7.9G 2.5G 5.0G 34% /
/dev/root.old 17M 7.9M 8.3M 49% /initrd
/dev/hda6 2.8G 546M 2.1G 21% /home
I've got more space in my "/" partition than anyplace else, so I could put my BIGFILE in /root, or create a new user in /home and put in there. Since it will require root privileges to access anyway, I'll put it in /root but there is no reason why I must. I need to perform the following steps to create my BIGFILE and set it up as a loop device:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/BIGFILE bs=4k count=2560
losetup -e AES128 -T /dev/loop1 /root/BIGFILE
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop1
losetup -d /dev/loop1
mkdir /secret
You can do all of the above without any explanation, but most of you would probably like to know what's going on. The math in the first line: "bs" means "block size" and "count" means "how many blocks". Always use a block size of 4k, but you can vary the count according to the size you want the encrypted file to be: "4k x 256 = 1024k" which is 1MB, but I want 10MB so I multiply 256 times 10 to get 2560.
Also note above that I used "/dev/loop1", not /dev/loop0 - the only reason for this is that I've already populated /dev/loop0 with the encrypted partition I created earlier. Yes, you can indeed have both an encrypted partition and an encrypted BIGFILE at the same time. In fact, you can have up to eight encrypted partitions and/or BIGFILEs (/dev/loop0 to /dev/loop7).
Finally, I add a line to /etc/fstab so that I can mount /root/BIGFILE onto its mount point /secret:
/root/BIGFILE /secret ext2 defaults,noauto,loop=/dev/loop1,encryption=AES128 0 0
It only remains for me to mount the encrypted BIGFILE:
mount /secret
Ideally, it would be nice if I could back up the encrypted data to a CDR (while still keeping it encrypted). Articles I've read indicate that BIGFILE could be burned to a CDR, but my own experiments with this failed. I'd be interested if others have been more successful. However, backing up to my removable USB hard drive worked just fine.
That's all for this week.
Robert Storey
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Linux Loco
Linux Loco was an Argentinian GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. Its objective was to offer a simple installation, an up to date desktop, and a secure base. However, the most ambitious objective of Loco Linux was to create consciousness about Free Software in Argentina, and generate a framework for the development of Free Software in public and private environments. Linux Loco was based on Progeny Componentized Linux and shares some components with gnuLinEx.
Status: Discontinued
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