The author recounts a weekend tech project involving cleaning a Framework Laptop 13's fan, which led to accidentally damaging the fan. With no immediate replacement available, they salvaged a fan from another machine, successfully restoring functionality. Lessons learned emphasize caution during repairs, the importance of spare parts, and separating tech tasks from cooking.

I recently encountered an issue with the Vision Client Launcher used for the Ignition Platform by Inductive Automation. The system I set up to view the various HMI screens openSUSE Tumbleweed VM sitting on a protected part of the network, hidden away from the scary internet. The trouble was, the client would just not launch […]

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

From an engineering point of view, this week was exciting. Hopefully, you have seen on news.opensuse.org that the default LSM has been switched from AppArmor to SELinux for new installations. This has been a long ongoing effort. It took quite some time as we did not just want to release it onto users (as default) before we trusted it to work, with policies that make sense out of the box. There might still be rough edges, and there are almost certainly some policy issues to be uncovered in the next weeks with more workloads running on it. Considering MicroOS and Aeon have been configured with SELinux as their LSM for quite some time, there is also high confidence in this. And bringing MicroOS, Aeon and Tumbleweed closer together makes for easier administrative switching for those distributions, as they all behave equally.

Of course, that’s not all that changed this week though – we have published 4 snapshots (0206, 0207, 0209, and 0211), bringing you these changes:

• sssd 2.10.2
• pam_pkcs11 0.6.13: smartcard auth for PAM, CVE fix
• KDE Gear 24.12.2
• GNOME Shell 47.4
• KDE Plasma 6.3.0
• GIMP 3.0.0 RC3
• SELinux is the default LSM for new installs; AppArmor can still be selected during the installation process

The developers have submitted these changes, which are currently tested in the staging areas and by openQA:

• Pipewire 1.3.82
• Linux kernel 6.13.2
• Reworked kernel-firmware package, allowing them to be updated in smaller chunks
• Zypper 1.14.84: aborts dup in case of repositories not being available
• cURL 8.12.1
• Qemu 9.2.1
• PostgreSQL 12 is EOL and will be removed from the repository
• Boost 1.87
• glibc 2.41: please help work out the errors in https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory:Staging:O
• Python 3.13 as the default Python interpreter: Pending issues can be seen at https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory:Staging:A

The romantics out there probably already know that tomorrow February 14 is “I Love Free Software” day. But I thought I’d give it a mention anyway, as a reminder to celebrate software freedom, which can’t be taken for granted.

Also this February marks the 20th anniversary of me installing SUSE Linux 9.2 with KDE 3 and making it my default operating system – which it has been ever since. And for some 15 years it’s been my only PC operating system. Previously I had made failed attempts at switching to GNU/Linux with Ubuntu 4.10 and Fedora Core 3, but SUSE with KDE on top in all its glory was love at first sight.

Throughout this time I’ve been active in the community to varying degrees, maintaining opensuse-guide.org, doing translations of openSUSE and KDE, supporting users on forums and IRC, beta testing, bug reports, doing Kommander scripts for easy codec installation and Compiz installation, promoting the distro and other less technical tasks.

It hasn’t been all clear sailing though, there have been many uphill battles along the way, such as ximian influence, ZMD package management disaster, Microsoft patent deal, KDE 4.0 (dot oh), layoffs affecting among lots others one of my all-time favourite SUSE developers Beineri, ALP, a whole series of acquisitions by more or less dubious parent companies and probably more struggles that I’ve forgotten.

Thanks to everyone in this community and I hope to be with you for another twenty years.

Tumbleweed is planning to adopt SELinux as the default Linux Security Module (LSM) for new installations in the nearterm.

The transition was announced on the mailing list in July and marks a significant development for the rolling release. A new announcement on the factory mailing list yesterday confirmed that starting with Tumbleweed snapshot 20250211. This change also applies to the openSUSE Tumbleweed minimalVM, which will ship with SELinux enabled by default.

“Users installing openSUSE Tumbleweed via the ISO image will see SELinux in enforcing mode as default option in the installer,” wrote SELinux Security Engineer Cathy Hu in the email announcement. “If the user prefers to use AppArmor instead of SELinux, they are able to change the selection to AppArmor manually in the installer.”

Tumbleweed has used AppArmor as its default LSM. This marks a shift in the default Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system for new installations as SELinux replaces AppArmor as the default choice. SELinux will be enabled in enforcing mode by default only for new installations. Existing installations will not be affected by the change and will retain the option to select AppArmor during installation if they prefer.

The switch to install SELinux by default is in early implementation and aligns with a decision to grow adoption of SELinux for both SUSE and openSUSE. It’s expected to increase security by confining more services by default. SELinux is known for its rich security features and widespread use in enterprise environments.

The move is expected to bring tighter access controls to Tumbleweed. Users may encounter bugs or issues, but openQA tests for Tumbleweed have played a key role in identifying and resolving potential problems in the early adoption phase.

Contributors were encouraged to report any bugs that arise and can refer to the SELinux bug report guide for help.

There is no plan to change the kernel configuration yet, with the installer handling SELinux activation on new installations.

The community response to this change has been largely positive, though some users, particularly those who rely on highly customized AppArmor profiles, expressed concerns. AppArmor will continue to be supported and users can opt to install it manually if desired.

The change will not affect the Leap 15.x release. The first boot might take a little time. Expect updates for SELinux to roll out with fixes and tweeks over the next several weeks.

Tumbleweed has adopted SELinux as the default Linux Security Module (LSM) for new installations after a recent snapshot.

The transition was announced on the mailing list in July and marks a significant development for the rolling release. A new announcement on the factory mailing list yesterday confirms this to take place with the release of Tumbleweed snapshot 20250211. This change also applies to the openSUSE Tumbleweed minimalVM, which will ship with SELinux enabled by default.

“Users installing openSUSE Tumbleweed via the ISO image will see SELinux in enforcing mode as default option in the installer,” wrote SELinux Security Engineer Cathy Hu in the email announcement. “If the user prefers to use AppArmor instead of SELinux, they are able to change the selection to AppArmor manually in the installer.”

Tumbleweed has used AppArmor as its default LSM. This marks a shift in the default Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system for new installations as SELinux replaces AppArmor as the default choice. SELinux will be enabled in enforcing mode by default only for new installations. Existing installations will not be affected by the change and will retain the option to select AppArmor during installation if they prefer.

The switch to install SELinux by default is going through implementation and aligns with a decision to grow adoption of SELinux for both SUSE and openSUSE. It’s expected to increase security by confining more services by default. SELinux is known for its rich security features and widespread use in enterprise environments.

The move is expected to bring tighter access controls to Tumbleweed. Users may encounter bugs or issues, but openQA tests for Tumbleweed have played a key role in identifying and resolving potential problems in the early adoption phase.

Contributors were encouraged to report any bugs that arise and can refer to the SELinux bug report guide for help.

There is no plan to change the kernel configuration yet, with the installer handling SELinux activation on new installations.

The community response to this change has been largely positive, though some users, particularly those who rely on highly customized AppArmor profiles, expressed concerns. AppArmor will continue to be supported and users can opt to install it manually if desired.

The change does not affect the Leap 15.x release. The first boot might take a little time. Expect updates for SELinux to roll out with fixes and tweeks over the next several weeks.

Developers of the openSUSE community continue their commitment toward improving legal compliance and software transparency with the release of the Cavil Legal Text dataset on Hugging Face.

This dataset is designed to enhance automated legal text classification, which reduces manual review efforts and improves accuracy in identifying legal snippets within software projects.

“Open sourcing the dataset is cooler than just open sourcing the weights to a model fine-tuned by us because everyone can use it to make their own versions based on whatever open weight model they want,” said Sebastian Riedel, one of the developers behind the project.

The Cavil Legal Text dataset supports Cavil, which is a system built to automate the extraction and classification of potential legal texts in software packages. By leveraging AI, Cavil minimizes false positives when detecting license information, copyright statements and compliance-related content; this ensures that legal experts can focus on critical cases rather than sorting through large amounts of irrelevant data.

With 150,000 labeled samples, the dataset is instrumental in training AI models to distinguish between legal and non-legal text with a high degree of accuracy. It enables legal review workflows by improving text classifications, pattern matching and reduces the dependency of human intervention.

Cavil consists of three key parts: a user-friendly web application with a REST API, a job queue for handling background tasks like pattern matching and analysis, and an AI-powered text classification server that continually improves its ability to recognize legal texts. All these components interact seamlessly through PostgreSQL and HTTP; this allows human experts and lawyers to efficiently validate software licenses at scale.

Currently, Cavil employs a Character-level Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model in production due to its efficiency and compatibility with existing infrastructure. However, an alternative approach using fine-tuned LLMs is under exploration. The LLM-lawyer experiment suggests that large language models could provide more adaptable and context-aware classifications with less frequent retraining.

The dataset is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later and is freely available on Hugging Face for researchers, developers, and compliance teams to explore and contribute. Open-source contributors can refine AI classification models, propose new legal text patterns, and support the ongoing improvement of automated legal compliance in software projects.

Those interested can explore the dataset on Hugging Face, read the Cavil documentation, experiment with Llama-3 through the Llama-Lawyer repository, and contribute to openSUSE’s compliance efforts through GitHub.

The promising new package management tool Myrlyn now includes a much-requested feature: repository configuration. Users can now easily manage their repos, adjust priorities, enable auto-refresh, and even add well-known community repositories like packman, openh264, libdvdcss, and NVIDIA; all with Myrlyn’s streamlined UI!

Key Features:

• View repo details, including priority, auto-refresh status, and URL.
• Modify repo settings directly from the interface.
• Add custom repos with libzypp variables like $releasever.
• Select community repos automatically tailored for Leap, Tumbleweed or Slowroll.
• Enable read-only mode for non-privileged users.

Some users have been exclusively managing their systems with Myrlyn, which showcases its reliability. Myrlyn was developed during Hack Week 24 and is a standalone Qt-based package manager, free from YaST dependencies.

Ready to configure your repos? Head to Extras → Configure Repositories (Ctrl+Shift+O) and give it a spin!

texte en français ci desous

After the blog post on the Sauna adventure in 2013 in Marseille (German), this is the 2nd story of unexpected and awkward evenings. Unfortunately, this one is sad and no recommendation to try yourself. To the contrary.

Low value for money, bad service, few people, people smoke inside, 0 out of 5 stars.

When a friend cancelled a dinner and home party invitation as he caught the flu, Jeanne (name changed) and I thought of other plans for Saturday night. We could not agree on a night out for dancing due to divergences on music taste (Jamaican music: one vote in favour, one vote against). Then, I proposed to go instead to the pretenious and stylish Imperial Premium Bar Brussels (map) who would host at this day event orgainsed by ‘Coeur à Coeur’: Grande Soirée Célibataire (on Facebook, on Eventbrite). After some hesitation and some giggling 🤣🤣, Jeanne and I decide to actually give it a try. 4 hours before the start, we can still buy an early bird ticket for 10€. On top, 1.68€ on Eventbrite fees.

The Cloakroom (Part 1)

We plan to get there quite early and Jeanne arrives on time ahead of me. She texts that cloak room is mendatory and I notice to not have any cash with me. Once I found my way to the cloak room in a separate entrace inside the building, I am relieved that they take also card payments. There is no queue and I learn immediately: It is 2€ per piece.

I put my scraf into my cap and stuff both into my heavy winter jacket. I hand my jacket over and proceed to pay contactless. Only then, I notice on my phone, that I have been charged 4€. I remark that I have been charged 4€. The lady on the other side of the desk explains me that it is 2€ per piece. I look at her. She looks at me. We do not understand each other – obviously. She explains then that out of curtesy, my hat would be for free and only my jacket and my scraf would be charged. 2 pieces makes 4€. Her voice lets no doubt on her being serious. I feel cheated for two reasons:

1. Since when do cloakrooms charge also per scarf stuffed in jackets? Is this now a thing?
2. Did she pay so carefully attention of what I put in my pockets and arms of the jacket? Should I be glad that I put my headphones in the pockets before I entered the cloakroom? 😳 I decide to not bring it up.

Instead, I decide that this way of doing cloakroom business is immoral and usury, which – if confirmed – would be prohibted under German law (BGB § 138). Of course, I am not in Germany and I am not aquinted enough with Belgium law. I ask if such unevitable fees should not be stated at the booking page Eventbrite and that this reservation is after all subject to a contract amongst two parties. The lady does not care. It remains totally unclear who would be the contracting party. So I ask instead to speak her superior. The lady tells me that she is her own superior. At this time, the subjective temperature in the cloakroom dropped already significantly. Jeanne texts me if I arrived already. I confirm. Jeanne may be already surrounded by single men. Obviously, Jeanne knows how to defend herself, but I better want to check soon and not get further delayed.

I ask the lady in front of me to issue my a paper receipt and then – if I find the motivation – complain later in writing. In this moment, a man in his 50s steps into the cloakroom. I make an attempt to find a comrade in my endeavour to fight against cloakroom injustice and start to talk to him in French. I say he better ought to be careful and keep his hat – because everything can be a piece and charged separately in this cloakroom. The man is obviously irritated and decides – that may come with the theme of the evening – to side with the lady. He asks rethorically if we would know each other. Then, he offers his jacket to the cloakroom, but keeps his hat on.

Eventually, I get the paper receipt.

The Bar

Eventually, I find Jeanne at the far-out corner. I pass by many tables with mostly men of which some seem to have brought female companions dressed in revealing clothing/style. The purpose of this is not clear to me given the theme of a Singles’ night.

Jeanne tells me how she ordered her distilled beverage. When she complaint that the liquor would barely spread out over the entire glass bottom, she was given a supplementary fill. The she was charged for two of them (for the record: 20€ in total). The bar keeper would offer then an excuse – but only after Jeanne paid the bill.

Prepared with these insights, I get to the bar myself with the goal to buy for us a Coke and a glass of Water. Indeed, the choice of softs is very limited. You got 5 refreshments of the Coca Cola Company to choose from or still or sparkling water from Evian. I have a short moment of feeling triumph, when I recognise that Coke and Water is bottled in this place and there can be no discussion on quantitities this way. I was wrong. The Impérial Premium Bar has at 21h45 no water anymore – at least not from Evian. They propose the much less premium water Chaudfontaine (also owned by Coca Cola) instead (for the same 5€/bottle 33cl). I am not a water gourmet anyway and accept. Unfortunately, this water doesn’t come in bottles. The barkeeper opens the 2cl Coke bottle, puts it on the bar and then fills up to a third a glass with water.

So Impérial Premium Bar seems to be consistent on their glass filling practices. Though I am prepared. I ask the bar keeper, if this should be 33cl in this glas. The bar keeper nods. I explain to the bar keeper that if I empty by 2cl Coke bottle in my Coke glass and then fill the water into the Coke bottle, it would need to overflow. The bar keeper looks now self critic and then asks his colleague to find him a larger glass.

The Socialising

Jeanne and I had a chat, we had a sip. Someone else talked for a moment to Jeanne. Otherwise not much happened. It is not clear if anyone from the organisers Coeur à Coeur is in the room (unclear if this would be good or bad). 3 musicians play some classical pieces and some Jazz Mannouche. Occasion for the audience to gather footage for their next Insta/TikTok/X/Facebook stories that give evidence of this privileged evening in the Impérial Premium Bar.

Twice we try out the dance floor in the cellar. For some reason, people smoke here and we only stay 2 songs.

Around midnight, we recognise that the crowd fill not change substantially. Few guests have left already. So we make our way to the exit. We bump into a distant friend of mine who also accompanied someone to this venue. We say hello. We stay a bit. We talk about Salsa at other venues. The girls change numbers. So for Jeanne, it was not all for nothing.

The Cloakroom (Part 2)

Jeanne and I found ourself in a small crowd waiting in front of the closed cloakroom. It is unclear what happened. Then, we learn that the lady from the cloakroom is also the lady from the bar and that the cloakroom is only available every now and then. Eventually, the lady appears and asks us for our cloakroom paper snippets. She gathers a few before she leaves, but unfortunately without the one from Jeanne. The cloakroom stays closed. Jeanne and I try to chase the lady through half of the venue.

Eventually, the lady decides it is easier to open the cloakroom for some time. We all get in at the same time and find our jackets spread out in the room. We manage to find our belongings and leave this place for good.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

This week, we held back a few snapshots as we were unhappy with the openQA presented results. The main hold-up was a scripting error in gtk3-tools, which was exposed by RPM 4.20. It was bad enough to lead to crashes in multiple applications and thus definitively not something we wanted to release to the users. Once the issue was identified it was – as usual – a straightforward fix and Tumbleweed started rolling again. In total, we delivered 3 snapshots during this week (0130, 0204, and 0205)

The most relevant changes that were part of those snapshots are:

• timezone 2025a
• Meson 1.7.0
• RPM 4.20.0 – as a packager, please familiarize yourself with https://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.20.0
• Qt 6.8.2
• fwupd 2.0.5
• Linux kernel 6.13.1
• Mozilla Firefox 135.0
• GStreamer 1.24.12
• Python2 interpreter has been removed for good

The relevant changes coming your way as part of the next few snapshots should include:

• KDE Gear 24.12.2
• KDE Plasma 6.3
• Boost 1.87
• glibc 2.41: please help work out the errors in https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory:Staging:O
• Python 3.13 as the default Python interpreter: Pending issues can be seen at https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory:Staging:A
• The change of default LSM from AppArmor to SELinux is progressing, it’s expected to be switched during the next week