openSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release distribution, so it's ideal for developers and users that like to have the bleeding edge software.

It's also really "stable" to be a rolling release, from time to time you can find a broken package because of one package is updated and another one is not compatible yet, but it's something that doesn't happen too often thanks to openqa tests, so you don't need to worry about a breaking system.

You can find the Python interpreter and a lot of python modules in every Linux distribution, but Tumbleweed does an interesting thing for Python.

Default Python version (python3 -> python-3.11)

If you don't worry about the python version, you can just rely on python3. In Tumbleweed python3 is not a real package, but the default python version provides python3, so depending on when you install python3 you will get a different package, if you install it today (August 2023) you'll get python311.

In your system you'll have the /usr/bin/python3 binary that points to the default python, so you don't need to worry about the current version, you'll have there the default Python version for the operating system.

In addition to the Python interpreter, you can find in the distribution a lot of python modules, but again you can use the default version, so, for example, if you want to install poetry, you just use zypper install python3-poetry and that will install the real package python311-poetry.

Multiple python versions (3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11)

Besides the default Python, in Tumbleweed you can also find other supported Python interpreters. Right now you can find all the Python versions currently supported by the Python Foundation, from 3.8 to 3.11.

For Python 3.8 you'll only find the interpreter, because the python modules are not built anymore, but for all the other versions you can find almost the same modules.

All python modules that provide binaries uses the update-alternatives, so you can configure in your system the version that you want to use as default. For example, if you want to use the 3.9 version of poetry, having installed different versions you can decide what /usr/bin/poetry points to:

$ sudo zypper in python311-poetry python39-poetry
$ sudo update-alternatives --config poetry

/usr/bin/python3 is a link provided by the default python package, so you can't modify with update-alternatives, so if you want to use a different python version, make sure to do the correct call with the full name python3.9, and use the correct shebang in your python scripts, for example #!/usr/bin/env python3.9.

What happens when default changes?

This way of distributing Python interpreter and modules is useful, because you don't need to update your software to work with the latest Python version, if your software requires another version, you can just install and continue using it, even on a bleeding-edge distribution like Tumbleweed.

But this method has some problems. When the default Python interpreter is changed in the distribution, all packages that depends on python3 will be updated, and that works correctly. But if you have installed some python module using the python3 prefix, that package, and all dependencies, is not updated automatically.

For example, if you installed python3-poetry when python3.10 was the default system, and then the distribution updates the system Python to python3.11, you don't get the python311-poetry package by default, you'll need to install it again. This could break you software, because if you use python3 and the dependencies are not updated, you'll find that some dependencies are not installed after updating.

For that reason, when the default python is changed in Tumbleweed, if you've software that rely on python3 you should make sure to install dependencies again by hand. And also you can do a cleanup and remove all old version packages that you don't need anymore.

If you just want the latest version you can just do all at once with a simple script like this:

#!/bin/bash
# up-py-tw.sh

FROM=$1
TO=$2

if [ $# -lt 2 ]
then
    echo "Usage:   up-py-tw.sh FROM TO"
    echo "example: up-py-tw.sh 310 311"
    exit 0
fi

echo "Updating python packages from $FROM to $TO"

OLDP=$(zypper -q search -i python${FROM}-* | tail --lines +4 | cut --delimiter \| --fields 2)
NEWP=$(echo $OLDP | sed "s/python${FROM}/python${TO}/g")

sudo zypper in $NEWP
sudo zypper rm $OLDP

You should verify what will be installed and what will be removed to make sure that just the python related packages are removed. It's possible that other packages depend on a python version that's older than the system one and that's okay.

Beta version (3.12.0b4)

In Tumbleweed, right now you can find all the supported Python versions, but it's not just that. At this moment you can also find the beta version of the next Python interpreter.

$ sudo zypper in python312

So if you are adventurous and want to test some new feature in the next Python release, you can do it with the version provided there. This version could also be used by openSUSE packagers to test the packages before the Python version is released so it allow us to prepare everything for the release and it could be in the distribution earlier and more tested.

Development

All this multiple python versions is done at distribution level and usually there's only one source package that produces the python39-foo, python310-foo and python311-foo. The source package is usually called python-foo and can be found in the Python devel project.

These packages spec uses the python-rpm-macros to generate all the versions from one source. If you're a packager you can find more information on the openSUSE wiki about Python Packaging.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

As so often during the vacation season, I take some Fridays off and am punished for it by having to do reviews spanning more than one week. The same thing happened this time, so you had to wait an extra week again to find out what happened in Tumbleweed. A total of 10 snapshots have been published since my last review (0719, 0724, 0727..0731, 0801, 0802, and 0803). Between 0719 and 0724, there was a more significant gap due to SUSE moving some infrastructure between data centers.

The most relevant changes delivered during the last two weeks include:

• Qemu 8.0.3
• systemd 253.7
• Linux kernel 6.4.4 & 6.4.6
• openSSH 9.3p2
• PHP 8.2.8
• Mesa 23.1.4
• cURL 8.2.0 & 8.2.1
• GStreamer 1.22.5
• Samba 4.18.5
• Mozilla Firefox 115.0.3
• KDE Plasma 5.27.7
• Inkscape 1.3

Staging projects are well used, and we have the following changes in the queue for testing:

• glibc 2.38
• Mesa 23.1.5
• Mozilla Firefox 116 (fails to build on i586, aarch64, armv7l – inclusion blocked)
• Linux kernel 6.4.8
• Perl 5.38.0
• Python Sphinx 7.1.x

One of the highlights of the syslog-ng 4.3.0 release is parallelize(). Normally, syslog-ng processes incoming messages from a TCP connection in a single thread. While this works fine with many connections, it is a bottleneck when using a single or very few high-traffic connections. Using parallelize() allows syslog-ng to process log messages from a single high-traffic TCP connection in multiple threads, thus increasing processing performance on multi-core machines.

As you will see, parallelize() helps when you have a single high-traffic TCP connection. In this case parallelize() distributes incoming messages to multiple threads, so resources are better utilized. However, when using many TCP connections, parallelize() only gives an extra overhead. Likewise, you don’t need to use parallelize() if you have a single low-traffic connection, as a single thread can handle the messages without being a bottleneck in that case.

Read more at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/accelerating-single-tcp-connections-in-syslog-ng-parallelize

For a while Dirk Mueller was working in the background to get a sponsored CDN subscription. Thanks to his effort Fastly.com has agreed to sponsor the openSUSE project with bandwidth. We primarily intend to use it to improve the reachability (latency) of download.opensuse.org in various areas of the world, but of course can expand it to other usecases as well.

openSUSE-repos simplifies openSUSE repository management by utilizing Repository Index Service (RIS) for core distribution repositories and its latest update switches users to the new cdn.opensuse.org.

Change just landed in Tumbleweed, openSUSE Leap 15.5 users will receive it in the next few days via a maintenance update. The change will be available also as part of Leap Micro 5.5. Users who don’t want to wait can get it from Base:System/openSUSE-repos.

Installation of openSUSE-repos for your distribution

openSUSE-repos backs up and disables all default system repositories as long as they have original filenames. User-defined repositories will remain untouched.

Install the correct package for your distribution and you should be all set.

sudo zypper in openSUSE-repos-Leap

sudo zypper in openSUSE-repos-Tumbleweed

sudo zypper in openSUSE-repos-MicroOS

sudo zypper in openSUSE-repos-LeapMicro

About Repository Index Service

zypp supports RIS services which translate a (remote) repoindex.xml into (local) repository definitions. These definitions are identified by a prefix, in this particular case openSUSE: .

Example: /etc/zypp/repos.d/openSUSE:repo-oss.repo

Making a change like switching users to CDN takes a one-line change in the service template. Service template can reference zypp variables such as a new /etc/zypp/vars.d/DIST_ARCH.

# head /usr/share/zypp/local/service/openSUSE/repo/repoindex.xml
<repoindex ttl="0"
disturl="https://cdn.opensuse.org"
distsub="leap/"
distver="${releasever}"
debugenable="false"
sourceenable="false">

<repo url="%{disturl}/distribution/%{distsub}%{distver}/repo/oss"
alias="repo-oss"
name="%{alias} (%{distver})"
enabled="true"
autorefresh="true"/>

Let’s have a look at our services

# zypper ls # list-services
# | Alias | Name | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh | Type
--+----------------------------------------+----------------------+---------+-----------+---------+-------
1 | openSUSE | openSUSE | Yes | ---- | Yes | ris
2 | NVIDIA | NVIDIA | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | rpm-md
3 | google-chrome | google-chrome | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | rpm-md

You may optionally use zypper ref -s to explicitly refresh services. You can manually trigger refresh the service including its repos with zypper refs -r.

If you’d experiment with your own services, /var/log/zypper.log will help you troubleshoot most of the service-related issues. See doc-o-o for more information about zypper and RIS.

Rollback

Users can restore old repository files by following instructions in the project README file.

System administrators (sysadmins) are the unsung heroes of technology, and the openSUSE Project is thankful for all the openSUSE heroes that help our project to function.

Sysadmins are responsible for maintaining the backbone of our technology. They work behind the scenes to maintain infrastructure, security, and overall functionality of computer systems.

SysAdmin Day is celebrated every year on the last Friday of July and is a special occasion that recognizes the crucial role they play in keeping our digital world operational.

Some of the responsibilities include tasks like Installing, configuring, and maintaining hardware and software. They ensure system security, troubleshoot and solve problems. These individuals continuously learn and adapt while building positive work environments. Some might answer the phone asking if you “have you tried turning it off or on”. :joy:

These projections’ efforts are essential to the smooth running of businesses and organizations of all sizes. Without sysadmins, the digital world would grind to a halt and so would several open source projects.

On this SysAdmin Day 2023, let us take a moment to thank these dedicated professionals; They deserve our appreciation.

Here are some ways to show your appreciation for your sysadmins on SysAdmin Day:

• Send them a gift from shop.opensuse.org
• Hand them a card or send email expressing your thanks
• Take them lunch or dinner.
• Buy them a beer

No matter what you choose, your sysadmins will be grateful for your kind gesture and show of appreciation.

Thank you sysadmins for keeping our digital world running smoothly.

Happy SysAdmin Day!

GUADEC 2023 is underway in Riga. It’s great to see people face to face after a long time. Kicked off the first day with an ADHD trip of a talk. Rather than putting links in my slides, where nobody has the chance of actually follow, I’ve assembled them here. Enjoy!

• Color Pallette. Useful tool to get GNOME colors across your toolchain.
• App Icon Preview. Design app icons.
• OS Component Website Template. A template to get your pixel art laden component website up and running in a nanosecond.
• Beziers. An epic video on the elegance and control over bezier curves, by Freya Holmér.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

This week is all in the spirit of some data center moves. OBS had been announced to have fewer worker powers and openQA is also in read-only mode, busy moving to a new home. This of course has some effect on the number of Tumbleweed snapshots: we won’t be publishing snapshots that cannot go through openQA. For this reason, we have only published 4 snapshots this week (0714, 0716, 0717, and 0718).

The most relevant changes contained in these snapshots are:

• Mozilla Firefox 1150.2
• audit 3.1.1
• Linux kernel 6.4.3 (with full lockdown enabled)
• Libvirt 9.5.0
• Freetype2 2.13.1
• krb5 1.21.1
• Poppler 23.07.0

Staging projects started getting crowded – mostly due to openQA being down and no tests being executed at the moment. The list of staged changes includes:

• systemd 253.7
• Rust 1.71
• Meson 1.2.0: enabled Python cache builds by default, resulting in a bunch of files section not matching anymore
• Linux kernel 6.4.4
• PHP 8.2.8
• Samba 4.18.5
• GCC 13.2