 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1020, 22 May 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 21st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Computers are, ultimately, machines intended to accept, process, and output information. They are information storage and processing systems which can be used in all sorts of creative ways. This week, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss looking up information. Specifically we talk about methods we can use to find a computer with an unknown IP address on our network and also how to look up a list of Linux distributions which ship with a specific kernel version. Do you run a brand new kernel on your distribution or an older, stable kernel? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. First though we take a look at the latest version of UBports. Version 20.04 of the mobile-focused UBports operating system has been anticipated for a few years and Jesse Smith takes an early snapshot of the distribution for a test run on the PinePhone. Read on to learn what works and what is still a work in progress. Then, in our News section, we discuss work going into preparing Debian 12 for release next month. We're also pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we welcome the Liya distribution to our database. Liya is a desktop-focused, Arch-based project and we share more details on this young distribution below. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports 20.04 on PinePhone
In March we discussed the release of UBports 20.04, a long-anticipated upgrade to the mobile operating system which is a community-run continuation of Ubuntu Touch. The new release is available for several devices, though the PinePhone was not one of the officially supported platforms. People running the PinePhone (and the PinePhone Pro) can rest assured that work to bring UBports 20.04 to their devices is ongoing and there is an early development snapshot people can use to try out the latest version of UBports on PinePhone devices.
I had some free time and a PinePhone that had been running UBports 16.04 for about a year. The device, while slow and limited in its capabilities, has been fairly reliable as a portable, battery-backed computer. One of my few ongoing issues with the PinePhone running UBports 16.04 is the system clock keeps getting out of sync. Whether the clock is set manually or automatically over the network time protocol (NTP), it keeps jumping ahead or behind several years, which tends to break network connections. A reboot and manually running the date command fixes this, but the clock's massive leaps happen about once a week, which isn't a great experience.
I hoped for better performance and fewer little bugs like this one would be provided with the upgrade. I grabbed the development image for UBports 20.04 and followed the directions for installing it on my device.
Before I get into what it is like operating the latest version of UBports on the PinePhone, I want to share some important warnings. This image I was using was discussed (one might go as far as say "endorsed") on the UBports blog, but it is not an official image, it didn't come from the UBports team. The 20.04 build is still very much in the early stages of porting to the PinePhone. Several functions, such as GPS and the camera, are known to not work. This isn't intended to be a daily driver, it's more of a proof that UBports 20.04 can run on the PinePhone and the hardware issues will be sorted out with time.
I'll mention this again later, but it bears saying more than once: this unofficial port uses a read-write filesystem while other UBports images use a read-only filesystem. The PinePhone port can be updated and maintained using the APT command line tools without making any adjustments to the root filesystem. While it is possible to switch other flavours of UBports into read-write mode and use the APT package manager, it's outside the realm of recommended behaviour. In other words, running and maintaining this unofficial port will work a little differently than using other editions of UBports.
In short, what follows is a review of what it is like, specifically, to run UBports 20.04 on a PinePhone. It's not necessarily a good reflection of what it is like to run UBports on other, Android devices.
Installing
The installation process happens in two parts, which may be confusing for some people. The blog post detailing the steps is pretty clear, I think, and guides us through the process. In short, we download two pieces, a boot image package and an image file for UBports. We then unpack the boot image and copy one of its files to an SD micro card. Specifically, we can use a disk writer or the dd command to write the file called mmcboot.installer.img to our SD card.
We then insert the SD card into the PinePhone and boot it. This will bring up a menu where we can wipe and do a fresh install of the boot firmware. This doesn't install UBports. What it does do for us is allow us to connect the PinePhone to our computer using a USB cable and then treat the phone's internal storage as removable storage media. In other words, we can then use an image writer or dd to write the ubuntu-touch-pinephone.img file to the PinePhone's internal storage. (People should only attempt this series of steps if they are familiar with the command line and writing images to removable media. A typo here can wipe the wrong disk!)
What we end up with is UBports installed on our PinePhone's internal drive, not on the SD card. The internal storage and any previous operating system is erased. We can then remove the SD card and boot from the internal storage. (Later, if we wish, we can format the SD card and use it as extra storage for the PinePhone.)
The instructions on the blog worked, though I did run into one minor issue. When I first wrote the boot firmware to the SD card, placed it in my PinePhone, and booted the phone the mobile device did not show up as a storage device when I plugged it into my computer. I had to plug the phone into my workstation first, then reboot the PinePhone before it would show up. Plugging the phone into my workstation after it had already booted didn't work for me.
First impressions
When the PinePhone boots UBports from its internal drive, the system begins by showing us a series of systemd start-up messages on a text console. These scroll by for a few seconds before we are shown a graphical splash screen. The first time we run UBports a configuration wizard launches. This wizard asks us to select our preferred language from a list and then our time zone. We are then asked to make up a name for ourselves and, optionally, a passcode for the phone.
This first series of steps is easy to navigate, but there is a long delay between each screen being displayed - possible because of the PinePhone's low specifications. This means when we press the Next button on each screen it appears as though the first-run wizard has locked up for about 10 to 15 seconds. When the wizard finishes we are shown a brief tutorial on using swipe gestures to navigate the phone's interface.
UBports 16.04 -- Scrolling through open windows
(full image size: 430kB, resolution: 1080x1920 pixels)
The four main swipe gestures are as follows:
- Swiping down from the top of the screen provides access to notifications and some settings.
- Swiping from the left to the right opens the application drawer, this is where we can see a complete list of installed apps.
- Swiping from the right to the left shows a list of open windows. We can then scroll through windows, tap one to bring it to the front, or swipe it upwards to close the app.
- Swiping upward from the bottom of the screen will usually start a new process. If we are in a messaging app, this gesture begins a fresh message thread. In the web browser it will open a new browser tab.
Once the tutorial is finished we find a panel down the left side of the display. This panel acts as a launcher for commonly used apps and also as a task switcher. The default interface uses a light theme. There doesn't appear to be any way to change between light and dark themes in the settings panel, but we can install and use an app called ThemeSwitch to adjust the theme.
Something I noticed right away was UBports 20.04 performs a lot faster than 16.04 did on the same device. The interface is more responsive, apps load faster, and the load average appears to be lower (around 0.1 versus 1.0). I think there could be a few reasons for this. One is that I was running UBports 16.04 from the SD card while 20.04 was running on the internal storage and I suspect this might be the primary cause for the loading times being reduced. Though I don't think that would affect the responsiveness of the interface which also appears to be improved. Another possibility is the new version is simply running fewer components. A number of features like the flashlight, camera, and GPS are not yet working under version 20.04 and their absence might make the system lighter.
I also think it's possible UBports 20.04 is simply faster and more efficient, perhaps due to having a newer kernel and updated user interface. A lot of work has gone into the kernel and into the display server between the two versions and that effort might be paying off with better performance.
As with version 16.04, when I first started using UBports 20.04, the clock was out of sync by a lot. However, it automatically synchronized itself with NTP and seemed to stay in sync. With 16.04 the time would jump by a few years about once a week and require a manual fix from the command line, but 20.04 does not appear to have this issue.
Software management
UBports ships with a collection of useful applications. These include such common items as a calculator, calendar app, contact manager, note taking program, music player, SMS messaging client, phone app, and weather app. There is also a virtual terminal along with the Morph web browser, and a clean and well organized settings panel.
UBports 16.04 -- Browsing applications in the app tray
(full image size: 645kB, resolution: 720x1440 pixels)
Should we wish to access additional programs there is a software centre built into UBports call Open Store. This software centre makes it easy to browse and search for applications, similar to the way the Play store works on Android or the app store on an iPhone functions.
On the PinePhone I found Open Store worked fairly quickly and I was able to locate most of the functionality I wanted. I tend not to use a lot of specific mobile programs and can make due with similar functionality from alternative apps. Some people, those married to a specific brand, may struggle with UBports as big name applications are often missing from the platform.
Apart from having a nice, clean interface and decent performance, one aspect of working with the Open Store I enjoyed was it would allow me to remove pre-installed applications. If I didn't feel the need to have a note taking application or camera app I could remove them.
UBports 16.04 -- Installing a new application from Open Store
(full image size: 301kB, resolution: 720x1440 pixels)
Other observations
I made a lot of little observations while using UBports 20.04 on the PinePhone, many of them while exploring the operating system's settings panel and command line. Speaking of the command line, UBports offers a read-write filesystem which has a fully functional GNU/Linux command line environment. Virtually anything we could run on Ubuntu's command line we should be able to run on the PinePhone. Given the device's current limitations when it comes to some smart phone operations this makes me think the device might be best thought of as a tiny portable server with a screen and battery backup. In theory we can also run Ubuntu desktop applications on the mobile platform through a technology called Libertine containers (found in the Settings app), but the functionality is hit-or-miss (in my experience) and likely to be quite slow when it works.
Screen rotation does not work yet with UBports 20.04 on the PinePhone. In a reverse situation, I could not get Bluetooth to turn off for more than a minute at a time. It seems to automatically enable itself within seconds of being disabled.
At the time of writing the camera doesn't work yet, neither does the flashlight. I'm not able to make calls on the PinePhone, but I think that is a limitation of the hardware not matching my carrier's frequencies rather than the operating system as I've made calls with UBports on Android phones.
I could not get the GPS and location functionality to work yet. As hinted at in the blog post about this port, it's in its early stages. Other devices supported by UBports tend to have much more complete functionality.
On a positive note, the Morph web browser is much more responsive and loads pages faster on this version.
UBports has a curious method for taking screenshots on the PinePhone. The option to take a screenshot appears alongside the options to shutdown or restart the device when we press the power button. Whenever I tapped the Screenshot button it would power off my phone. I tried this a few times in case I had simply tapped the wrong button, but each time I selected the option to take a screenshot my PinePhone would immediately power down. The screenshot function worked in version 16.04 so this would seem to be a bug which slipped in during the upgrade.
Earlier I mentioned this port of the operating system uses a read-write filesystem, meaning we can make changes to it without needing to make any mount adjustments first. This is convenient as it means we can use the APT package manager to install and upgrade software on the system. On most devices, UBports performs full, immutable operating system upgrades. On the PinePhone, for now, new updates happen through APT packages the way most workstations get updates.
Background services
One thing which makes working on the PinePhone easier, especially when setting up services and backup operations, is having remote shell access. I'd had this enabled with UBports 16.04 and hoped it would be straight forward to use again. I found the OpenSSH service is installed, however it is not enabled.
I tried starting the service (this can be done using the service command or the systemctl command). The daemon refused to start and, with a little poking around, I found the service was not working because host keys had not been generated yet. Often times keys are created at install time or during the first time a system boots, but a phone usually doesn't need to set up host keys. I manually generated a set of host keys by running "sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server". I then followed this by running "sudo systemctl start sshd" and confirmed the service was running. This allowed me to remote into the phone as well as copy files over the network.
One problem I had while trying to work remotely on the phone was the phone would put itself to sleep after a minute and this would kill its network connection until I woke up the device. When I had been running UBports 16.04 I'd worked around this by disabling the screen's sleep mode and then locking the device. This didn't work for me with 20.04, at least at first. I could increase the time before the screen went to sleep, but not disable the sleep function entirely.
This issue resolved itself after I installed waiting updates using the APT package manager and restarted the phone. After this, the phone could be locked and left with the screen still awake. In this mode the network connection remained active.
Conclusions
I've said it before and want to underline again that this build of UBports 20.04 for the PinePhone is a community effort and not official. As such, it does a number of things differently. The focus of this port has been to get the operating system to boot and perform some low-level functions on the PinePhone. It hasn't introduced much hardware functionality yet, such as GPS, screen rotation, and flashlight activation. These will come with time, probably before the port is declared officially supported.
I mention this because other devices which run UBports typically have a full range of working hardware and most of the bugs have been corrected. However, I didn't have a supported device on hand, so I went with this unofficial port of UBports 20.04. It mostly works the same as version 16.04, but with some key improvements. It's faster, responds more quickly, and it looks like the time sync issue has been fixed. The regressions all seem to be specific to hardware support/drivers which I suspect will be fixed in the coming months.
I wouldn't recommend the PinePhone as a daily driver as a phone, probably with any operating system. However, I will say that with it running a full GNU/Linux platform, it works pretty well as an ARM-powered testing device and as a small home server. It's silent, it has a built-in battery, it has a touch screen for times when we need local access, and it has a slot for SD cards, giving it expanded disk space. I'm quite content using mine as a backup and test server at home. Plus it fits in my pocket if I want to relocate the device.
In this way, I think of the PinePhone as a flexible single-board computer, such as a Raspberry Pi, more than as a phone. And, while running UBports 20.04, it feels well suited to this niche role.
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Please note that I was unable to get the screenshot function to work on UBports 20.04. The images shown above are from 16.04 which are either identical or nearly identical to how the UBports interface looks in the latest version. They're offered here to show how UBports 20.04 looks and operate as the Unity interface has remained visually the same across both versions.
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Visitor supplied rating
UBports has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.6/10 from 8 review(s).
Have you used UBports? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian prepares for the launch of Bookworm, 20 years of running Gentoo
The Debian distribution is gearing up for a new release in mid-June. As we approach the upcoming release date for Debian 12 Bookworm, the system installer team is busy making final adjustments to Debian's venerable installer. Cyril Brulebois has published an overview of changes and fixes in Debian's installer and asked people to test it prior to the launch of Debian 12. People interested in trying out snapshots can find them on the Debian Installer page.
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The Gentoo project has been developing a meta-distribution for over two decades. Gentoo is probably the most well known source-based project and a popular option for people who want to customize their operating system on every level. One Gentoo user has looked back at what it has been like running Gentoo for the past 20 years and shares some benefits and drawbacks to the experience. "In the early years, Gentoo was known for having superb documentation. Often when I would tell people I ran Gentoo, they would relate a time they were stuck in their non-Gentoo distribution, but found the solution to their problems in the Gentoo docs."
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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) |
Finding another machine's IP address and finding distributions with a recent kernel
Seeking-a-lost-machine asks: Is there a way to find the IP address of a headless machine that is connected to the network? I have a Pi that I'm pretty sure is connected to the network, but it has no display and I don't remember what address it was configured to have.
DistroWatch answers: Assuming you have another computer attached to the same local network, there are tools you can use to scan for other machines on the network.
If the computer or device you are trying to connect to has network services running, in other words it has open network ports, one of the easiest ways to find the machine is to use nmap. The nmap utility will scan a range of IP addresses and report on any computer with open ports it finds.
To find out what your computer's IP address is on the network, you can usually run the ifconfig or "ip a" command, depending on which distribution you're running. This will tell you what your computer's address is. Then you can use that as a basis for seeking other computers and devices on the network.
For instance, running the ifconfig command tells me my computer's IP address is 192.168.2.25. On most home networks the first three numbers of an address will remain the same while the last number will range from 1 through 255. Using nmap, we can then scan the whole local network for other devices by running:
nmap 192.168.2.1-255
The above command will probably find your router, the computer you're operating, and the mystery Pi. It may also turn up any phones or printers running network services on your network. The output from nmap will look like the following for any IP addresses it finds with a running network service:
$ nmap 192.168.2.1-255
Nmap scan report for 192.168.2.11
...
Nmap scan report for 192.168.2.14
Using nmap works well when you're trying to find a headless server. However, it doesn't work all that well if the device you are trying to find doesn't run any services. For example, most smart phones will have an IP address, but likely do not run services - they do not have open ports. We can usually still detect these devices using the ping command.
The following is a crude, one-line command which will use ping to try to detect each machine on the local network. For each attempted IP address, ping will report either a received response, or it will list an error if it doesn't get an answer.
for i in {1..255} ; do ping -q -c 1 192.168.2.$i ; done
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Seeking-a-new-kernel asks: Which distributions currently run the 6.x kernel? Not ones which have it in the repository, but enabled by default.
You can find which distributions offer a specific version of a package, either the kernel or another key piece of software, using the Package Search feature of our search page. For instance, this search returns a list of distributions with version 6.x of the Linux kernel included.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Tails 5.13
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project has added a few new tools to the distribution in Tails 5.13, including the cURL downloading program which will run over the Tor network by default. Encryption for persistent storage has also been upgraded. "Add curl, a command line tool to download over HTTPS, FTP, and other protocols. curl can be useful for online investigations as an alternative to wget. Everything you do with curl goes through the Tor network. If you want to use curl on a local network, use /usr/bin/curl instead. Use LUKS2 by default for all new Persistent Storage and LUKS encrypted volumes. LUKS2 provide stronger cryptography by default. We will provide a migration plan from LUKS1 to LUKS2 for existing Persistent Storage in Tails 5.14 (early June). Update Tor Browser to 12.0.6." Additional information can be found in the release announcement and in the changelog.
Rocky Linux 9.2
Rocky Linux is a community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project's latest update is Rocky Linux 9.2 which includes a number of fixes and improvements. The release announcement mentions an upgrade issue with Python along with a list of new features: "LVM cloud image variants now remove /etc/lvm/devices/system.devices to resolve issues with PV/VG/LVs upon installation of the images due to being hardcoded to a specific device. An aarch64 kernel with a 64kb page size is now available via the package kernel-64k. nfsrahead, a tool to configure the readahead for NFS mounts, was added. Intel Arc GPU support has been added. The infamous Flatpak bug that breaks all fonts in applications using the default font (Cantarell) has been fixed! Wireguard once again works with SELinux enabled. A more complete list of new features and changes is available in the Rocky Linux 9.2 release notes."
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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: 2,870
- Total data uploaded: 43.3TB
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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) |
How cutting edge is your Linux kernel?
Visiting The Linux Kernel Archives reveals a number of different flavours of the kernel, at varying degrees of development. On the cutting edge we find the mainline kernel, offering the latest experimental features. Then there are stable kernels, versions which are considered stable and have been released for distributions to package. Finally, there are long-term support kernels which are maintained for longer periods to reduce maintenance on older and enterprise-level distributions. This week we'd like to hear from you: how cutting edge is your kernel?
You can see the results of our previous poll on the appeal of a rolling release edition of Ubuntu in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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How recent is your kernel?
| Mainline/Development: | 144 (9%) |
| Stable - latest: | 654 (40%) |
| Stable - maintained: | 271 (17%) |
| Stable - no longer maintained: | 28 (2%) |
| Long term - maintained: | 498 (30%) |
| Long term - no longer maintained: | 15 (1%) |
| I am not running the Linux kernel: | 30 (2%) |
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| Website News |
New projects added to database
Liya
Liya is an Arch Linux-based, rolling release distribution. The project uses the Calamares system installer to set up the distribution which offers users the Cinnamon desktop environment, Pamac graphical package manager, and OnlyOffice. The system is intended to be easy to use, easy to explore, and distraction-free.
Liya N4Si -- Exploring the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 550kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
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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, 29 May 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. 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)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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RebornOS
RebornOS is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. Although the RebornOS live image provides one desktop only, the installation process offers a choice to install one of the many popular desktop environments and window managers. Other interesting features of the distribution include support for Flatpak packages, optional installation of Anbox for running Android applications, a capability to rollback the system to a previous date, and graphical system configuration and maintenance tools.
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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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