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Tue, Mar 19th, 2024

No Sound Output Troubleshooting in openSUSE Linux

I suddenly had a sound issue on my openSUSE machine. There were no sound output devices available to the system to play anything. My laptop was mute. I had never seen this. EVERYTHING was gone. Rebooting didn’t fix it, rolling back to a previous snapshot didn’t fix it, I had no idea what I had … Continue reading No Sound Output Troubleshooting in openSUSE Linux

Mon, Mar 18th, 2024

Ferdium | Centralized Web-Based Services Application

Like it or not, this web technology thing is not a fad and is going to be sticking around for the time being. I think this is great and terrible all at the same time. The great thing is, this means that I am free to use my preferred operating system for which I do … Continue reading Ferdium | Centralized Web-Based Services Application

Sat, Mar 16th, 2024

KDE Plasma 6 on openSUSE Tumbleweed

In the wide, wide world of desktop Linux, there is a lot of buzz and excitement over the release of Plasma 6 and for good reason, it is a fantastic upgrade from 5.27. The world of Plasma isn’t perfect but when put into perspective, this is getting real close. I was rather concerned about this … Continue reading KDE Plasma 6 on openSUSE Tumbleweed

Fri, Mar 15th, 2024

openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2024/11

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

“Ask, and it will be given to you” – if you believe KDE Plasma 6 happened this week because many users asked for it, you are mistaken. Things don’t happen in Tumbleweed because some/many ask for it – but because some/few WORK on it (most do so in their spare time). As a community project, the devs don’t need more people asking ‘When is it done’, but rather ‘Here, this is my contribution; or ‘Can I help out’.

Despite all the questions asked and repeated, the package maintainers and developers still found sufficient time to deliver content. This week we have published 6 snapshots (0307…0311, 0313). As usual, the next snapshot is in openQA and may or may not be published later today.

The most relevant changes of the past week were:

  • LibreOffice 24.2.1.2
  • libvirt 10.1.0
  • Mozilla Firefox 123.0.1
  • gpg 2.4.5
  • Poppler 24.03.0
  • KDE Plasma 6.0.1 See https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/thread/FZ7OPVGZS3IIJKTQSB5JIGAFPIU466R3/
  • KDE Frameworks 6.0.0
  • KDE Gear 24.02.0
  • Linux kernel 6.7.9

The future holds more updates. Currently, the teams are working on:

  • KDE Plasma 6.0.2 (addressing a bunch of issues found in the last days)
  • Systemd 255.3
  • linux-glibc-devel 6.8 (kernel 6.8 headers)
  • LLVM 18
  • Shadow 4.15.0
  • Linux kernel 6.8.0 (or later): dpdk needs attention
  • Cleanup of KDE/Plasma 5 packages
  • Removal of Python 3.9 modules: in order to be able to successfully perform this, most – if not all – python-* packages should be fixed. Counterintuitively, removing a python flavor means we need to successfully rebuild the packages (python-singlespec)
  • dbus-broker: no progress this week
  • libxml 2.12.x: slow/no progress
  • GCC 14: phase 2: use gcc14 as the default compiler

Thu, Mar 14th, 2024

The syslog-ng Insider 2024-03: MacOS; OpenTelemetry;

The March syslog-ng newsletter is now on-line:

  • Native MacOS source in syslog-ng
  • Using OpenTelemetry between syslog-ng instances
  • Collecting even more logs on MacOS using syslog-ng

It is available at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/the-syslog-ng-insider-2024-03-macos-opentelemetry

syslog-ng logo

QoL improvements for the Download Redirector

The Download Redirector received a few minor quality of life improvements, which are discussed below.

Projects

The main menu on the downloads site now has a Projects item. This table defines how additional statistics are gathered and visible in various reports, such as the mirrors report and downloads report.

Mirror propagation

Timing of mirror propagation is collected for the projects mentioned above. To access it, click on the corresponding project in the table mentioned earlier, e.g. Tumbleweed ISO. The view will show the discovery of usable mirrors over time.

Furthermore, clicking on the value in column ‘version’ will show detailed information about when the update was discovered on a specific mirror, e.g. Version 20240310.

Slowroll on the mirrors report

Slowroll was added as projects: ISO and repo, so it is now visible on mirrors report. Mirror propagation will be collected as well.

sypper: a tool for downloading packages

As part of benchmarking and prototyping for mirror infrastructure, a new tool was developed, sypper. While its intended purpose is a little bit different, it can be used for pre-downloading packages for zypper. Benchmarking shows that it downloads 4-5 times faster by using concurrent downloads and skipping some advanced checks, which zypper does. So check the readme if you want to experiment with the download speed.

Feedback

For eventual feedback, please open an issue in corresponding github projects or use any openSUSE heroes channel.

Improvements arrive for Download Redirector

The Download Redirector received a few minor quality of life improvements, which are discussed below.

Projects

The main menu on the downloads site now has a Projects item. This table defines how additional statistics are gathered and visible in various reports, such as the mirrors report and downloads report.

Mirror propagation

Timing of mirror propagation is collected for the projects mentioned above. To access it, click on the corresponding project in the table mentioned earlier, e.g. Tumbleweed ISO. The view will show the discovery of usable mirrors over time.

Furthermore, clicking on the value in column ‘version’ will show detailed information about when the update was discovered on a specific mirror, e.g. Version 20240310.

Slowroll on the mirrors report

Slowroll was added as projects: ISO and repo, so it is now visible on mirrors report. Mirror propagation will be collected as well.

sypper: a tool for downloading packages

As part of benchmarking and prototyping for mirror infrastructure, a new tool was developed, sypper. While its intended purpose is a little bit different, it can be used for pre-downloading packages for zypper. Benchmarking shows that it downloads 4-5 times faster by using concurrent downloads and skipping some advanced checks, which zypper does. So check the readme if you want to experiment with the download speed.

Feedback

For eventual feedback, please open an issue in corresponding github projects or use any openSUSE heroes channel.

Tue, Mar 12th, 2024

Gmail Accounts with Kmail

I had stepped away from using Kmail as my mail client on Linux for almost a year. I moved to Thunderbird for a few months, tweaking a lot of the usability issues with it to make it work better for me. I can say that I almost have it the way I want it but … Continue reading Gmail Accounts with Kmail

Fri, Mar 8th, 2024

openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2024/10

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

We have officially reached ‘spring’ (according to some calendars/regions). We cleaned up the staging projects: we accepted all the good things you submitted that passed staging. Neat, eh? That’s what we do all the time anyway, so it’s not that special. The progress on RPM 4.20 fixes in the spec files has been slowing down a bit, but we’re nearing the end. This morning, there were 235 spec files left in Factory that needed touching – and many submit requests are still pending.

In sum, we have released again 6 snapshots this week (0301…0306), containing these changes:

  • ImageMagick 7.1.1.29
  • Python 3.x fixes for CVE-2023-6597 (TmpDir cleaning)
  • Linux kernel 6.7.7
  • kernel-firmware 20240229
  • openblas 0.3.26
  • Tcl 8.6.14
  • RPM: patches to better support reproducible builds. Factory will test-enable this feature on Monday (March 11)
  • Shadow 4.14.6
  • openjpeg 2.5.2
  • GStreamer 1.24.0: We have heard of some users having issues with their local caches.If you experience issues, try “rm ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry.x86_64.bin”
  • postfix 3.8.6
  • wireplumber 0.4.90

Staging projects are mainly busy with the same things that take some more time to prepare. Luckily, this does not stop progress at all and we have sufficient capacity to test things in parallel. The current list here is:

  • libvirt 10.1.0
  • Mozilla Firefox 123.0.1
  • Poppler 24.03.0
  • KDE Frameworks and Plasma 6: Lots of progress since last week. By now we reached the QA phase. Optimistic souls bet on next week (no promises though!)
  • KDE Gear 24.02.0 – Requires KDE Frameworks 6 and will land at the same time
  • Systemd 255.3: issues with OBS/build and transactional-update were identified. Once addressed, this should move forward soon too.
  • python 3.9 deprecation: we decided to postpone this a little bit due to the still large fallout from Python 3.12 addition. Removing a Python flavor will require us to rebuild all the Python packages for the new builds to drop the python39 flavor. Too many packages fail to build at this moment.
  • dbus-broker: no progress this week
  • libxml 2.12.x: slow/no progress
  • GCC 14: phase 2: use gcc14 as the default compiler

Thu, Mar 7th, 2024

Leap 15.6 Reaches Beta Phase

The openSUSE Project is thrilled to announce the Beta release phase of Leap 15.6.

Feel free to download Leap 15.6 Beta images from get.opensuse.org and test it out, or upgrade from your existing Leap 15.5 system by running zypper --releasever=15.6 dup. You might want to get familiar with known issues in Leap 15.6.

Show your support by dropping in today at our Thursday Weekly Meeting at 20:00 UTC and participate in the live Leap 15.6 Beta testing event aka “Bug Day”. The event will be live streamed to the openSUSE channel on youtube.

“Let’s make sure that Leap 15.6 runs well on your hardware, and that we can keep it that way for the next 18 months,” said Lubos Kocman, openSUSE Leap release manager. “We cannot address hardware issues, feature requests and other issues without knowledge of these problems. Our openQA is limited. Testing different hardware and reporting these issues are a big help.”

Built on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 6, the Beta, which has full compatibility with the enterprise Linux release will focus on stability and offer an option for those seeking to migrate to an enterprise distribution.

One core aspect of Leap 15.6 is the Linux Kernel 6.4 version, which will have extensive backport updates and the release is expected to gain fresher software and hardware support.

Along with the updated Kernel version, glibc 2.38, systemd 254 and firmware updates with dracut 059+ version are expected to enhance processing power and faster boot times.

The container stack was refresh as podman 4.8 version provides more support. Nextcloud out of box can be easily run in an optimal way with quadlets. The newest versions of distrobox, docker, python-podman and skopeo are available for container use.

The virtualization stack also gains newer versions with Xen 4.18, KVM 8.1.3, libvirt 1.0 and virt-manager 4.1.

Updates software packages related to telecommunications received updates and Leap 15.6 is expected to have DPDK 22.1 and versions 3 and 4 of Open vSwitch will be available.

The Beta introduces substantial updates across the board, starting with the KDE environment. Qt 5 receives an uplift to 5.15.12+kde147 and has security enhancements from KDE developers beyond the standard release. This update brings a move to KDE Frameworks 5.114.0 and marks a leap from the previous 5.90.0 version. Alongside this, Qt6 moves up to version 6.6.1 and ensures that the latest applications can run smoothly with the new libraries. Python bindings for both PyQt5 and PyQt6 are updated and aligns well with the Python 3.11 stack.

GNOME users will be delighted with the GNOME 45 update, which will enhance the user experience with new features and refinements. The desktop environment continues to evolve, providing a sleeker and more intuitive interface.

Audio handling receives a dual upgrade as PulseAudio is updated to version 17.0 and features improved hardware and Bluetooth support, which includes device battery level reporting. Meanwhile, PipeWire steps up to version 1.0.3 and expands its capabilities with new features and enhances compatibile with Pulseaudio and JACK.

Packages related to security were also updated for the beta phase and OpenSSL 3.1.4 is the new default. Other related libraries that are updated are liboqs 0.8.0, python-pycurl, python-uamqp, python3-python3-saml, python-xmlsec, python3-M2Crypto. firewalld 2.0.1, gnutls 3.8.0 and openvpn 2.6.x. The update of AppArmor 3.1.6 could possibly see an upgrade to version 4.

The project’s release engineering team encourages users to download, test, and provide feedback for the Leap 15.6 Beta. This helps to identify and resolve any issues before the final release, which is slated for mid-June, according to the roadmap.

This release marks another milestone in offering a stable, feature-rich platform for workstations, servers and more. Users and developers are encouraged to join the efforts in refining this release by reporting bugs, contributing to the software and sharing experiences. Community efforts with every test, bug report or feedback provides valuable step toward a successful launch of openSUSE Leap 15.6.

Download the Beta

The Leap 15.6 Beta is available on get.opensuse.org. Pick an image fitting your purpose. Install it on a VM like virtualbox, GNOME Boxes or install it on your own hardware, which we prefer.