 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 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Burapha Linux Server
Burapha Linux Server was a free Linux distribution. It was a descendant of Burapha Linux 5.5, which in turn was a descendant of Slackware 10.x. Burapha Linux Server does not have any packages taken directly from Slackware; the project builds their own packages and have their own package manager. The primary purpose of development was for the computer science students to learn the infrastructure of a UNIX system, and to apply the acquired knowledge in research and projects.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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