 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 906, 1 March 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Computers are not just great tools for crunching numbers, sharing information, and accomplishing more work quickly, they are often a source of entertainment. Whether our personal computers are being used for gaming, playing music, sharing jokes, or streaming videos, modern computers have become a common centre piece in home entertainment. This week we begin with a look at some open source solutions for media streaming in the home. We take a look at the Kodi media centre software and a number of approaches to installing it, including using a dedicated distribution like LibreELEC as well as installing the media centre via a Flatpak bundle. Read on to learn more about setting up Kodi in our Feature Story. We'd like to hear if you run Kodi at home in our Opinion Poll and what your setup looks like in the comments. In our News section we discuss the PureOS team contributing new work to the Linux kernel, especially in areas that benefit mobile platforms. We also share tips on upgrading FreeBSD using filesystem snapshots to reduce downtime and facilitate testing. Red Hat is trying to find ways to fill the void left behind by cutting support for CentOS Linux and we share details below. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about how large open source projects, such as the Linux kernel, are audited for vulnerabilities and other problems. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeing. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: LibreELEC 9.2 and Kodi
- News: PureOS contributes to Linux development, upgrading FreeBSD using snapshots, Red Hat to supply open source infrastructure with free licenses, Void switches back to OpenSSL
- Questions and answers: Auditing large open source projects
- Released last week: GeckoLinux 999.210221.0, Kali Linux 2021.1, Mageia 8
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Alpine, CloudReady, GeckoLinux, Kali, KDE neon, Mageia, Nitrux, Tails
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 13.0-RC1
- Opinion poll: Do you run Kodi?
- New additions: AlmaLinux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
LibreELEC 9.2 and Kodi
I recently got into a discussion with someone who had purchased a second television for their house and, knowing that I have a fondness for open source and do-it-yourself projects, they asked if there was a suitable alternative to Fire TV. For those not familiar with the device, a Fire TV stick is a small device which looks like a large USB thumb drive and attaches to the HDMI port of a television. The device connects wirelessly to local networks and can be used to stream shows and movies from a variety of services like Netflix and Disney+. The device is operated by a small, dedicated remote control.
I was pretty sure a minimal Linux distribution running on a spare, minimal personal computer or a single-board device like a Raspberry Pi would probably be a suitable replacement. I figured a distribution that ran Kodi could probably do the work, connecting to the TV through an HDMI cable. The user could likely use the Kodi mobile app in place of a dedicated remote control.
For the sake of comparison, I looked up information on the Fire TV stick which was $55 USD if i wanted it in two weeks or $60 if I wanted it in one week. The person I was talking with already had one and knew it was a "plug and play" type device, so the total set up time would be under ten minutes.
I did some on-line shopping in my area and the closest open source style equivalent I could come up with was a Raspberry Pi 3B. The Pi was $47 USD. The Pi included a Wi-Fi option, but no microSD card, no HDMI cable, and no power supply. Adding these items to my tally brought my total up to $78, including tax. In other words, even with a free software solution, it looked like the open source route was going to be slightly more expensive with parts available in my region.
Using a dedicated distribution
On the software side of things I decided to start off with LibreELEC, a minimal Linux distribution designed to run on both personal computers and a variety of ARM-powered devices, including the Raspberry Pi. The latest version of LibreELEC ships with Kodi 18.9. Kodi is a highly flexible media centre which supports a massive range of streaming and local player options through repositories of add-ons. I checked and confirmed there were third-party add-ons which were advertised to work with Netflix, YouTube, and Disney+, along with other popular streaming services.
The download for LibreELEC was 244MB for PCs and 125MB for the Raspberry Pi. These images are compressed and, when they are expanded, grow to 549MB each. We can then copy this image file to a microSD card and boot from it. LibreELEC is a very minimal distribution which basically just boots and launches the Kodi software. Or at least that was what I expected. However, the distribution would begin to boot, then restart the device, begin to boot again, and restart the device. I tried starting the distribution several times with various options and they all caused the operating system to enter a loop at boot.
I tried downloading the LibreELEC media again in case my copy of the distribution was corrupted. (As far as I can tell LibreELEC does not provide checksums or signatures for its media.) My second attempt was no better than the first. I also tried the generic PC build of LibreELEC with no better results. I could get LibreELEC to launch its installer, but not install successfully or run in live mode.
I was not discouraged however, because I felt I still had options. LibreELEC basically just runs the Kodi media centre, but I could theoretically install another distribution, such as Raspberry Pi OS, and then simply install the Kodi software on top of it.
Using a generic distribution
Setting up the general purpose distribution was straightforward enough and, once it was in place, adding the Kodi package pulled in an extra 85MB of packages. This gave me a copy of Kodi 18.5 which I could launch. Kodi's media centre can be navigated using a smart phone app, a mouse, or a keyboard, making it pleasantly flexible. I find navigating the Kodi interface a little foreign, but I gradually got the hang of things. The media centre is relatively large, using 273MB of memory without any add-ons installed and no media playing.
I then set about trying to get some streaming services set up. Kodi's documentation seems to side-step this a bit, probably to avoid potential legal issues, but there are lots of tutorials and tips on the Kodi Guide site which explain how to get the most out of the media centre.
Enabling third-party add-ons in Kodi
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I decided to start with accessing Netflix. Following a how-to I found a Netflix add-on package... which turned out to be deprecated. However, that add-on's GitHub repository linked to another, actively maintained one. This allowed me to download a Zip file. From within the Kodi interface I selected the Zip file as a new add-on and its installation failed. This turned out to be the result a security feature which blocks third-party plugins. I found where to disable the block against third-party add-ons in the Kodi settings and tried again. The new add-on did not include the Netflix add-on, but it did set up a repository which in turn included the Netflix add-on. I then installed Netflix and tried to run it.
Browsing installed add-ons
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I found I could sign into Netflix and browse available titles, but not view any streams. Attempting to stream a movie or show caused an error to appear telling me "inputstream.adaptive" was missing. I checked around and found this guide for adding the missing software. Unfortunately the guide assumes a category of software in the Kodi repository is available that was not present on my system, specially "VideoPlayer InputStream" was missing. This is a problem a number of other people reported in the comments under the guide, across multiple versions of Kodi, including the latest 18.9 version.
Trying to play Netflix content
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I set about looking for other ways to install the inputstream.adaptive add-on, but the Kodi wiki says this software must be installed through the Kodi repository (though it is missing in my case). I tried to find more information on the missing plugin, but relevant links led me in circles on the wiki.
Missing the necessary category in the Kodi repository
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Wondering if maybe I was just having bad luck with one service, I tried installing an add-on for YouTube. The YouTube add-on installed, but accessing any video streams would fail. The error message reported I would need my own API keys. There is a link to instructions on how to add these keys which requires signing into a Google Developers account and then manually configuring the add-on to use newly generated digital keys.
Encountering an error while trying to access YouTube
(full image size: 221kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I also tried a Disney+ add-on. This followed a very similar process to installing Netflix where I downloaded an add-on, used that to gain access to a new repository, and then installed the Disney+ add-on from the new repository. Once again I could access the service and login, but not watch anything due to missing dependencies.
Flatpak to the rescue
At this point I was feeling as though I'd been falling down the rabbit hole for a while. Each add-on gave me an error that led me to a guide that seemed to be inaccurate or incomplete. I considered that the problem might be with the Kodi package I was running - perhaps it was too old or there was a problem with the package.
I decided to switch gears and set up Debian on a laptop and then install the latest Kodi Flatpak from Flathub. My thought was this would give me an up-to-date version of Kodi on a popular distribution on a popular architecture, reducing most possible issues or overlooked problems.
I downloaded the latest stable version of Kodi available on Flathub. The total download was 700MB in size. The installation went well, pulling in Kodi and its dependencies. However, Kodi failed to run, reporting that it would not find the Wayland display server. Which made sense since Wayland was not installed and I was running a window manager on the X.Org display server. There did not appear to be any way around this Wayland dependency, short installing a heavier desktop like GNOME that would have used up most of the device's available memory.
Curious if the issue was specific to me, I got a peer who sometimes reviews Linux distributions for DistroWatch and other sites to give the Kodi Flatpak a try on a Wayland-powered desktop. They successfully installed the Kodi Flatpak, but the media centre failed to run, reporting a similar error to the one I encountered: "No protocol specified. ERROR: Unable to create GUI. Exiting" It seems the Kodi Flatpak package is not yet ready for general use.
Conclusions
Trying to get Kodi running, through a variety of approaches, felt a lot like dealing with the RPM dependency issues of twenty years ago. While I know getting Kodi to work with various video providers is possible, and I know some people who have purchased it bundled on embedded devices, it seems to require a steady stream of problem solving. It is a situation which is not helped by outdated documentation (in some situations) and deprecated plugins in others. I was always on the wrong distribution, the wrong display server, installing an out of date add-on, missing a dependency, hunting down a setting, trying to find a complete guide, etc.
Including the install times for the operating systems and Kodi packages, my experiment went on for over six hours and, in the end, not a single video played successfully. This is with the benefit of my experience helping me navigate incomplete guides, knowing how to install plugins, and knowing what dependencies are and what Wayland is. I have a feeling many potential users of LibreELEC and Kodi would have more of a challenge if they were looking to replace pre-packaged solutions with this open source alternative.
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Visitor supplied rating
LibreELEC has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.3/10 from 10 review(s).
Have you used LibreELEC? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
PureOS contributing to Linux development, upgrading FreeBSD using snapshots, Red Hat to supply open source infrastructure with free licenses, Void switches back to OpenSSL
The PureOS team develop a free software distribution for a range of devices, including personal computers and the Lbrem 5 mobile device. The project is regularly producing fixes and improvements in free software in order to make their Linux distribution run better, particularly on mobile devices. Martin Kepplinger has published an overview of work that has gone into the Linux kernel which improve power management, battery status indicators, and USB controllers. "Following up on our report for Linux 5.9 and 5.10, this summarizes the progress on mainline support for the Librem 5 phone and its development kit during the 5.11 development cycle...."
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While filesystem snapshots are often used on FreeBSD to take a snapshot of a working system prior to an upgrade, there are alternative ways to make use of snapshots which avoid making changes to the running system. The Vermaden blog provides a tutorial for upgrading the FreeBSD operating system using ZFS snapshots and a chroot in order to install a new version of the operating system which can be booted in the future while leaving the running system unchanged. "Having 12.2-RELEASE installed I wanted to check 13.0-BETA to check if things that are important for me - like working suspend/resume for example - work as advertised on the newer version. It is the perfect task that can be achieved by using ZFS boot environments. In the example below we will create entire new ZFS boot environment with clone of our current 12.2-RELEASE system and upgrade it there (in BE) to the 13.0-BETA3 version and there will only be required one reboot - not three as in typical freebsd-update(8) upgrade procedure."
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Following Red Hat's plan to cut support for CentOS Linux in favour of CentOS Stream, the company has announced a new plan to allow open source organizations to access no-cost licenses for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This will allow open source projects to run Red Hat servers, with just slightly more effort than they did when maintaining CentOS Linux servers. "Under the program's terms, eligible organizations will be granted access to no-cost RHEL subscriptions for any use within the confines of their infrastructure. This includes build systems, continuous integration (CI) testing and general project requirements (i.e. web servers, mail servers, etc.). These subscriptions will be self-supported by default, which provides full access to the Red Hat customer portal, knowledge base articles and forums, and also include Red Hat Insights, our proactive analytic tooling. We may also be able to offer no-cost support depending on the scope and nature of the organization." The details on this program are available in Red Hat's blog post.
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At the start of the year we mentioned the Gentoo project was considering dropping support for LibreSSL, a fork of the OpenSSL cryptography library. While LibreSSL was intended to be smaller, lighter, and more secure, a lot of work and improvements have gone into OpenSSL while not many Linux packages are tested against LibreSSL, causing problems for their maintainers. The extra effort to maintain compatibility with LibreSSL while new features arrive in OpenSSL first has caused the Void team to switch from running LibreSSL back to OpenSSL. "The Void Linux team is switching back to OpenSSL on March 5th, 2021 (2021-03-05). For most users, there should be no noticeable change. If you have any packages installed that are no longer provided by Void, or your system has explicit dependencies on LibreSSL, you will of course need to take action to ensure your system continues to function after the switch."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Auditing large open source projects
Preparing-for-an-audit asks: I've heard that one of the things that makes open source more secure is that anyone can read the source code and find mistakes. But how can anyone audit a project like the Linux kernel, isn't it millions of lines long? How can any one person be sure there aren't backdoors lurking in all of those files?
DistroWatch answers: Before I get to the core of this question, I'd like to comment on the idea that open source software is more secure than proprietary software. A project being open source (or not) doesn't directly affect whether it is secure or well written. The license of a product doesn't make it inherently better or worse. However, when a product is open source it means we have the option of finding and fixing problems.
In other words, with open source software people have the ability to confirm that there are (or are not) bugs in the code and fix it, making the situation better for everyone. When a product is closed source there is no reasonable way to verify its inner workings. This makes it virtually impossible to determine whether there are bugs or not and it prevents helpful developers from fixing the problems in closed-source software.
This means over time open source software tends to pick up all kinds of little fixes and improvements from casual developers. It also means more people have the option of auditing the code and reporting issues which otherwise would not be addressed in proprietary products.
On to the focus of the original question, how can any one person audit a large open source project like the Linux kernel? It is true some large projects include millions of lines of code and that would make it virtually impossible for one person to audit the whole thing manually. Luckily no one needs to do this.
Almost all large software projects, including the kernel, are built gradually over time. No one merges code into a big project like the kernel directly, it goes through a series of stages and reviews. Generally a developer will submit a new piece of code to the person who is in charge of that component or module. Then that person confirms the code looks good and tests it. Then the new code is passed up the chain of command. A third or fourth person ends up doing the final verification and committing it to the final release that the public receives.
This means no one needs to review the entire kernel from scratch, every new piece and each new change is tested and verified by multiple people.
Another point I feel is important to make here is that a lot of code auditing is done using automated tools that look for common issues or mistakes. The tools can scan millions of lines of code in under a minute and report potential threats. Developers can then focus their efforts on looking at areas the tools highlight. Then they can determine whether there really is an issue or if the auditing tool is displaying a warning without cause.
With most of the work automated, security researches might only end up looking at a few hundred lines of code instead of a million when they are searching for bugs and backdoors.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GeckoLinux 999.210221.0
GeckoLinux is an openSUSE-based distribution which features both fixed and rolling-release editions. The project's latest rolling-release snapshot, version 999.210221, introduces updated desktop environments and a number of fixes. The project's release announcement shares the available desktop versions and details on improvements: "Plasma 5.21, Framework 5.79.0, KDE applications 20.12 - improved font legibility with main user interface fonts colors changed to pure black; fixed screen brightness hotkeys bug; fixed a bug causing delays in initial loading of desktop icons and notifications; GNOME 3.38; Budgie 10.5.2 - improved behavior of Nemo desktop icons; eliminated transparency from bottom panel for better visibility and contrast; Xfce 4.16; Cinnamon 4.8.6 - improved behavior of Nemo desktop icons; relocated mounted drives applet; MATE 1.24.1; Pantheon (various component versions); LXQt 0.16." The distribution is available in nine editions.
Kali Linux 2021.1
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's first release of the year is Kali Linux 2021.1. "Today we're pushing out the first Kali Linux release of the year with Kali Linux 2021.1. This edition brings enhancements of existing features, and is ready to be downloaded or upgraded if you have an existing Kali Linux installation. The summary of the changelog since the 2020.4 release from November 2020 is: Xfce 4.16 - Our preferred and current default desktop environment has been updated and tweaked. KDE 5.20 - Plasma also received a version bump. Terminals - mate-terminal, terminator and tilix all had various work carried out on them. Command Not Found - A helping hand to say if a program needs to be installed. Partnership with more tool authors - BC Security and Joohoi have been producing great tools and we want to support them. New tools and updates - Multiple new tools have been added to Kali and are ready for you. Kali NetHunter - New BusyBox and Rucky version, and boot-animation. Kali ARM - Preliminary support for Parallels on Apple Silicon (Apple M1) and Raspberry Pi 400 (WiFi Support)." Details on the changes and features available in the new version can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Kali Linux 2021.1 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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Mageia 8
Mageia is a community fork of the now-discontinued Mandriva distribution. The Mageia distribution provides a general purpose operating system with a focus on easy to use, pre-configured desktop environments. The project's latest release is Mageia 8 which improves boot time performance, mostly removes dependencies on Python 2, and package management information is now compressed using Zstd to make updating parsing package data faster. "Faster package metadata parsing Urpmi metadata are compressed with Zstd instead of Xz, resulting in faster parsing. Python 2 is mostly dead Most python2 modules and software were removed. The ARM (Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) Machine) port rebooted during Mageia 7 days has been enhanced. The core is available for ARMv7 and AArch64. There is no traditional installer for now, and it is still considered experimental, but most of the distribution was built successfully on both architectures (see our ARM status overview for details). The plan is to provide installation images for popular ARM devices in the coming months. There is no ETA for those as of Mageia 8's release. Drakboot is now somewhat able to set up UEFI on AArch64." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release notes.
Parted Magic 2021_02_28
Parted Magic is a small live CD/USB/PXE with its elemental purpose being to partition hard drives. Although GParted and Parted are the main programs, the CD/USB also offers other applications, such as Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, and ddrescue. The project's latest release is Parted Magic 2021_02_28 which upgrades core packages and addresses an issue with boot image size limiations. "Notable changes for this release: Linux 5.11.2 with NVIDIA driver version 460.56. Forum member ven42 found a program buried on the Internet called 'Fred'. This is a perfect replacement for the old 'pcregedit'. For what ever reason some newer computers cannot load a boot image larger than 250MB. Users would get a message 'error: out of memory'. This was fixed by making the initramfs smaller. Duh. There was another memory error 'Not enough memory to load specified image'. I've seen this on and off with computers for the past 10 years. I had a boot menu entry to fix this by telling the computer how much memory to use. Most people overlooked it or didn't see it. Over the past month I just added mem=32G to all of the boot entries and so far it hasn't caused a problem. Hopefully the memory errors are put to bed once and for all." Further information can be found on the distribution's news page.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,356
- Total data uploaded: 36.5TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you run Kodi?
In this week's Feature Story we talked about some approaches to installing the Kodi software and connecting it to popular streaming services. Do you run Kodi at home and, if so, on what sort of platform? Let us know about your experiences with Kodi in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running generic or HWE kernels in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running Kodi at home
| I run Kodi on my PC: | 154 (10%) |
| I run Kodi on a single-board computer: | 169 (11%) |
| I run Kodi on an Android device: | 69 (5%) |
| I run Kodi on a console: | 6 (0%) |
| I run Kodi on another type of machine: | 33 (2%) |
| I do not run Kodi at home: | 1075 (71%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
AlmaLinux
AlmaLinux is an open-source, community-driven project that is built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). AlmaLinux is a completely binary compatible fork of RHEL 8 and it is built by the creators of the established CloudLinux OS.
AlmaLinux 8.3-rc -- Running the GNOME desktop
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 8 March 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BinToo GNU/Linux
BinToo GNU/Linux was a full-featured binary distribution based on Gentoo Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
