Mentors and administrators of openSUSE are excited to be accepted as a mentorship organization for this year’s Google Summer of Code and will be available for potential mentee to discuss the projects that are listed on 101.opensuse.org.

There will be 15 minute sessions prior to all openSUSE community meetings where mentees can join our Jitsi meeting room to get in touch with members of the openSUSE community who can help them navigate the projects available during this year’s GSoC.

Community meetings are every Tuesday and Thursday and the times vary. The Tuesday session for mentee applicants starts at 15:15 UTC and the Thursday session begins at 19:45 UTC. Meeting times begin at 15:30 UTC and 20:00 UTC respectively.

Potential mentee applicants can view a list of projects on 101.opensuse.org and communicate directly with mentors leading the project through commenting on the GitHub issue listing the project of interest. Not all mentors are available during the time slotted for the awareness sessions, but those who are available will help the best they can with the information they have available about a project.

Sessions will be available from Feb. 23 - April 4. There are 15 projects listed this year. Some of the projects listed involve topics related to devops, artificial intelligence, security, cryptography, Kubernetes, containers and quality assurance. Many of the projects’ languages include Python, Rust, Perl, ReactJS, JavaScript, Ruby and more.

Unless there is a serious problem, FreeBSD ports usually contains the latest stable syslog-ng release. However, sometimes people want to compile a git snapshot to test a new feature or bugfix. To do that, one way is to generate a syslog-ng release tgz on FreeBSD and edit the syslog-ng port files yourself. However, this needs some practice. As such, an easier solution is to use my weekly development snapshots.

Learn how from my latest blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/installing-a-syslog-ng-4-development-snapshot-on-freebsd

This is the eighth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about network logging. Today, we learn about syslog-ng macros and templates. At the end of the session, we will know how to do a simple log rotation using macros.

You can watch the video on YouTube:

and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb

Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-8-macros-and-templates

The release manager for openSUSE Leap Luboš Kocman is expected to announce the Beta release phase of Leap 15.5 soon. The first Beta release is syncing on mirrors globally for people to download it and test it out.

Users can begin testing the beta versions to find bugs before the general release, which is scheduled for official release at the beginning of June, according to the roadmap.

The version will offer some newer software versions, but the release is not a feature release. Packages like a newer Mesa and having the OpenH264 repository enabled by default for all new Leap 15.5 installations is planned. Another new element for Leap 15.5 is a migration option. A new single-click migration streamlines a migration process that took three steps in previous openSUSE Leap releases. The users that want to migrate from previous releases or 15.5 Alpha can install openSUSE-repos-Leap, which comes with the repo definition and it utilizes zypp services for repo management; although this feature is not enabled by default. However, a zypper-migration-plugin implementation as the main request on the Graphical User Interface has been fulfilled into a separate element related to SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 5.

Python 3.10 with its relevant modules will be made available to users in a later part of the Beta phase, which will provide users a fully capable alternative to the default system of Python 3.6. A utility for managing Linux software RAID arrays was taken care of with an mdadm 4.2 upgrade. An update for KDE users will happen with the Desktop Environment for Leap 15.5 set to have Plasma 5.27, Plasma 5.27 is a Long Term Support version until the next LTS rolls around in 2024. It provides excellent stability along with bug fixes. A known issue for Leap 15.5 is the installation of util-linux-lang on ppc64le fails and is recorded with boo #1208196.

Linux Kernel 5.14.21 version will remain the same as that of Leap 15.4. Despite identical base kernel version number, the kernel adds number of latest upstream backports which amount to some individual 19,000 patches. The biggest changes are in the area of GPU drivers, networking drivers and storage drivers. The last extends to device mapper and io_uring updates. This continues with updated drivers: bluetooth, ACPI, Intel QAT and xHCI. A large effort also went to updating BPF code to recent upstream.

The wallpaper is expected to change as seen in the image above, but there is an option for designing a new wallpaper for anyone interested in providing a design contribution. There are some guidelines to help those willing to contribute.

The 15.5 version is expected to be the last of the Leap 15 series releases, which was first released in May of 2018.

Architectures available for testing include x86_64, aarch64, PowerPC and s390x.

Testers are encouraged to try out Leap 15.5 on multiple laptops, workstations and other hardware devices. People testing it are encouraged to record their Leap Beta testing efforts on this spreadsheet. Those interested in beta testing images for openSUSE Leap 15.5 Windows Subsystem for Linux can contact Kocman or the factory mailing list.

Bugs should be reported on openSUSE’s bugzilla. Bugs for packages inherited from SUSE Linux Enterprise should be reported against PUBLIC SUSE Linux Enterprise SP5, server and High Availability. The policy for setting priorities on these public products listed above have been updated. A list of the Most Annoying Bugs for the Leap 15.5 beta will be posted on the wiki.

The roadmap shows openSUSE Leap 15.5 will reach its Release Candidate phase in late April and the Gold Master is expected toward the end of May, which will then transition the release to a maintenance phase. The documentation and translations deadline is scheduled for May 14.

To celebrate, have an install party and test the openSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta. A new openSUSE user may show up! If you are unsure of how to do it, read this. You can even drop in the openSUSE Bar to discuss the beta.

Download the Beta…

The Leap 15.5 Beta is available on get.opensuse.org. Pick an image fitting your purposes. Install it on a VM like virtualbox, GNOME Boxes or install it on your own hardware.

One of the games that I think is a great accomplishment is the direct port of “Sonic the Hedgehog” from the SEGA Master System to the Commodore 64. This was manually converted from Z80 to 6502 assembly by Mr. SID. The game plays great on real hardware with a RAM Expansion Unit or REU. I […]

We took another step on the SCM/CI integration of the Open Build Service. This time we improved the rendering time of the workflow runs UI and enhanced the user documentation. Reduced Rendering Time of Workflow Runs UI Previously with a lot of workflow runs being present, the UI took multiple seconds in order to load and render. This was above whats acceptable, so we took another look onto it and reduced the overall rendering times...

The conversation that was wrapped around immutable operating systems and Wayland went a lot deeper than I thought it would. Adam Grubbs presented to the panel how he builds and deploys a custom Fedora Silverblue image with the hardware tweaks necessary for his Asus laptop. His solutions is obviously not one that everyone can do […]

Greg is a Fellow at the Linux Foundation and is responsible for the Linux kernel stable releases. He is also the maintainer of a variety of different kernel subsystems (USB, char/misc, tty/serial, driver core, staging, etc.) and has written a few books and articles about Linux kernel development.

Wikipedia entry that is usually very out of date

reddit AMA in 2020

reddit AMA in 2015

Greg’s setup back in 2012

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

Week 7 of the year – 7 days have passed since the last review, BUT we only released 6 snapshots since then. The reason is only timing though: the 7th snapshot is still in QA and, looking at the current results, is likely to be published later today. So no need to be worried. This review will cover snapshots 0210…0215.

The most exciting changes delivered during this week were:

• Mesa 22.3.5
• PostgreSQL 15.2
• XFCE 4.18.2
• Node.JS 19.6.0
• KDE Frameworks 5.103.0
• KDE P,lasma 5.27.0
• NetworkManager 1.42.0
• gnome-shell & mutter 43.3
• Rust 1.67.1

Most of the stagings we currently have are longer-living and seem to take some more effort. Everybody is invited to help push them forward. The most relevant changes that are currently staged include:

• openSSL 3.0.8 in Staging:A (regression detected)
• Binutils 2.40 in Staging:B – causes a few builds to fail
• Switch to Ruby 3.2 in Staging:H – YaST as the main consumer is almost ready. Almost!
• Python 3.11 module enablement in Staging:M – Builds look good so far, 1 build cycle introduced
• Gcc 13 as distro compiler in Staging:Gcc7
• In Staging:L we just collect random things breaking other stuff, like e.g:
  • gpg2 2.4.0 – breaks gpgme:qt
  • Podman 4.4.1: fails the openQA tests
• Samba 4.17.5
• cURL 7.88.0

As a reminder for the curious ones: the Staging dashboard can be found at https://build.opensuse.org/staging_workflows/openSUSE:Factory (requires login to the open build service)

This week has provided many openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots focusing on hardware, graphics, desktop environment and more.

From Mesa to the disk encryption package cryptsetup and Xfce software to GraphicsMagick, the snapshots are rolling with new software updates.

The GraphicsMagick 1.3.40 package arrived in the most recent snapshot, 20230215. The ImageMagick fork that focuses on programming Application Programming Interfaces and command-line options fixed a 20-year old bug in the WordPerfect Graphics header reading. The package also provided some new features and has PCX and DCX file support for writing an uncompressed format. An update of gnome-shell 43.3 plugged a leak, fixed a crash and cleaned up some code. A major version update of text shaping engine harfbuzz arrived in the snapshot; moving from the 6.0 version to the 7.0 version, the package brought experimental support to cubic curves in the glyf data table, and it has a new command line utility, hb-info, for querying various font information. A few other updates were made in the snapshot.

Snapshot 20230214 delivered the disk encryption package with the cryptsetup 2.6.1 update. The version fixed a possible iteration overflow in the OpenSSL2 PBKDF2 cryptography backend. The package also fixes a possible hash offset setting overflow, and it does not initiate a re-encryption command when the header and data devices are the same. The changelog states that if data device reduction is not requested, it leads to data corruption since the Linux Unified Key Setup metadata would be written over the data device. An update of NetworkManager 1.42.0 adds support for source load balancing for ethernet bonds and adds support of IPv4 for the Equal-Cost Multi-Path routes. The ECMP routes will be merged. A Common Vulnerability and Exposure patch was dropped in the guestfs-tools 1.50.0 package. CVE-2022-2211 is a flaw that leads to a denial of service either by mistake or by a malicious actor, but it is considered to have a low impact for the package that is used for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images. The updated package also has a new ‘virt-drivers’ tool; the tool can be pointed at a disk image that lacks metadata and, in some circumstances, can determine useful information about it such as what bootloader it contains and what device emulation it needs to boot. The update of kernel-firmware 20230210 adds missing tuning files for HP Laptops using Cirrus Amplifiers and adds firmware for Cirrus CS35L41 on an ASUS laptops. Some other packages to update in the snapshot were gnome-control-center 43.4.1, libzypp 17.31.8, yast2 4.5.24, vim 9.0.1307 and more.

The 20230212 snapshot focused mostly on updates for Xfce users. The xfce4-power-manager 4.18.1 version updated translations, fixed the management of source identification and implemented a fall back on the lock command with the screensaver should the D-Bus call fail. Some memory leaks were fixed with the xfce4-session 4.18.1 update. Several blurry icons were made more sharp with the update of xfce4-settings 4.18.2, and a duplicated configuration line was removed. The update of patterns-xfce 20230212 replaced gnome-calculator with galculator since it better integrates with the Xfce look and feel. A few changes were also made to the yast2-iscsi-client 4.5.7 version.

An update of nodejs19 19.6.0 in the 20230211 snapshot upgraded the npm dependency to version 9.4.0, and it removed an s390 patch after the fix upstream was accepted. An update of gnome-software 43.4 had some AppStream changes, and gnome-contacts 43.1 fixed several bugs when updating or editing a contact. The GTK+ bluetooth manager, blueman, updated to version 2.3.5 and enabled a plugin that was providing connection errors to devices as well as fixing a right click with a wrong pointer. The update of the dbus-1 1.14.6 version fixed a crash with some glibc versions when non-auditable SELinux events are logged. The updated version also fixed some documentation. GNOME’s personal management application evolution was updated to version 3.46.4, and converts the mail signature into markdown language, which was co-developed by Aaron Swartz.

The 20230210 snapshot from last Friday brought Mesa and Mesa-drivers 22.3.5, which had no new features, but it did fix null descriptors and had a fix for RB+ for sRGB formats. Xfce’s text editor mousepad had some code refactoring and code cleanup in the 0.6.0 version. The 15.2 postgresql15 release took care of CVE-2022-41862, which a server could report an error message containing uninitialized bytes and could make a message accessible to an attacker. A few other packages were updated in the snapshot.