This week’s openSUSE Tumbleweed roundup will look at five snapshots that have been released since last Friday.

Snapshots include switching the default Ruby for the rolling release along with software updates for packages like pidgin, parole, OpenSSL, php, sudo, tigervnc and more.

Snapshot, 20230222 updated just four packages. The major release of gnu-unifont-fonts 15.0.01 arrived in the snapshot and it introduced a couple new subpackages and cleaned up the spec file. The curses emulation library ncurses 6.4.20230218 added a patch and provided some configuration script improvements. The ibus-m17n 1.4.19 update added a parrot icon emoji and made some Weblate translations for the Sinhala language, which is spoken in Sri Lanka. There was also an update for Ark Logic video cards with the xf86-video-ark 0.7.6 update, which brings a decade worth of accumulated changes that has the ability to build against xorg-server 1.14 and newer out of the box.

Chat program pidgin updated to version 2.14.12 in snapshot 20230221; it fixed a crash when closing a group chat and updated the about box pointing people to another form of communication besides the mailing. The Wayland display server and X11 window manager and compositor library for GNOME was updated. The 43.3+2 mutter package provided a fix that broke the windows focus where people with a full screen encountered a problem with layers transitioning between Wayland and X11. Binary tools package binutils 2.40 had a rebase and removed a package. A fix for the package that tracks the route taken by packets over an IP network; the traceroute 2.1.2 update fixed an unprivileged Internet Control Message Protocol tracerouting with the Linux Kernel. A couple other packages were updated in the snapshot including yast2-packager 4.5.16.

An update of openssl 3.0.8 arrived in snapshot 20230220. The updated fixed three Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures; a NULL pointer vulnerability was fixed CVE-2023-0401. A denial of service attack could be avoided with the CVE-2023-0217 fix to prevent a crash and CVE-2023-0286 prevents an attacker from reading member contents or enacting a DoS. Xfce’s media player parole 4.18.0 fixed a compilation warning, a memory lead when loading a cover image and updated translations and the copyright year. Tests to handle zstd 1.5.4 were made with the zchunk 1.2.4 update.

The default was changed in snapshot 20230218 from Ruby 3.1 to 3.2. The newer version adds many features and performance improvements. The release provides WASI based WebAssembly support that enables a CRuby binary to be available on a Web browser, a Serverless Edge environment, or other kinds of WebAssembly/WASI embedders. The release improved the regular expression matching algorithm and has a new feature of syntax_suggest, which was formerly dead_end integrated into Ruby.

The snapshot from last Friday, 20230217, had a lengthy amount of package updates. The sudo 1.9.13 update fixed a signal handling bug when running sudo commands in a shell script and fixed potential memory leaks in error paths. The lock key synchronization has been re-enabled in the native tigervnc viewer after being accidentally disabled in 1.11.0 thanks to the 1.13.0 update. An update of php8 8.1.16 was a security release that addresses CVE-2023-0567, CVE-2023-0568, and CVE-2023-0662, which an excessive number of parts in HTTP form uploads can cause high resource consumption and an excessive number of log entries. Rendering of color type 3 fonts were fixed with PDF render poppler 23.02.0 and inkscape 1.2.2 had four fixes for crash, five fixes for extension bugs and 13 improved user interface translations. Other packages to update in the snapshot were bind 9.18.12, webkit2gtk3 2.38.5 and more.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

The week having 7 days is defined. Tumbleweed reaching a daily snapshot is almost as defined. It’s pretty rare to do anything else. No surprise on this front this week when we delivered the 7 snapshots (0216…0222) to the users.

The most relevant changes delivered include:

• dav1d 1.1.0
• git 2.39.2
• mozjs 102.8.0 (used to power gnome-shell)
• PHP 8.1.16
• poppler 23.02.0
• samba 4.17.5
• Ruby 3.2 is now the default
• Python 3.11 modules are being shipped (the default python3 interpreter is still version 3.10)
• openssl 3.0.8
• binutils 2.40
• mutter 3.43+2: fix regression of 3.43 regarding window focus being ‘weird’

Staging projects are mostly cleared – except the long-running ones expected to be with us a bit longer. The main changes coming to Tumbleweed in the next few days/weeks are:

• SQLite 3.41.0: Take note of https://sqlite.org/quirks.html#dblquote which is enforced by this version when using the CLI
• KDE Plasma 5.27.1
• Podman 4.4.2
• Linux kernel 6.2 & linux-glibc-devel 6.2
• cURL 7.88.1
• zstd 1.5.4
• Mesa 23.0.0
• Gcc 13 as distro compiler (progress tested in Staging:Gcc7)

Some maintenance operations plus a missing configuration rollback caused a 20 minutes certificate error on our reference server. In the lines below you will find a detailed explanation of what happened. Impact Our reference server was providing an wrong/ outdated certificate for around 20 minutes. As result, no one was able to work with the API or web interface during that time. Root Causes It is common to perform updating operations in our systems during...

When developing new openQA tests you will have to run a lot of verification and debug test runs. This is why I typically encourage people to do all openQA testing on their own instances, to prevent spamming of the production instances.

The SteamDeck is a great retro gaming platform. I have loaded it up with many of my retro games and one of my favorites to play on it is Super Mario World but in a widescreen format. I have seen this done elsewhere but wanted to do this for myself. After a few tries, I … Continue reading Super Mario World Widescreen on the SteamDeck →

While Flatpak itself is an architecturally decentralized way to distribute apps, Flathub embraces the convenience for people to come to one place to install apps. There’s some fairly big changes coming to Flathub that I’m extremely excited about, that will make sure the new wave of Linux apps doesn’t fizzle out and we’ll maintain a sustainable application ecosystem.

Thus there is no better time to refresh what has become a little dated, Flathub’s visual identity. It centers around the core of what Flathub is — the apps themselves. The identity isn’t very loud and shouty. The flashy colors and emphasis remains on the apps themselves, Flathub is the neutral platform for the apps to shine.

Take a peek at the brand guidelines to learn more about the new Flathub brand or download the logos in scalable format. The download buttons for app websites are also available.

Building a brand on neutral greys isn’t quite an easy sell, but precisely targets the main point of the Flathub brand. It creates the stage for apps to shine. Flathub isn’t flashy by itself. It allows the apps to be at the center of your attention.

If you’ve read until this point, you deserve a treat! Here’s some eye candy from the early stages of the process. Wallpapers derived from the elemental shapes of the logomark. Clearly off limits now, but can’t just throw them away, can I?

Big shoutout to razze for his ongoing work on the website and implementing the brand so quickly. Many thank yous to Tobias Bernard for significant involvment in this during the Berlin Mini GUADEC and Václav Vančura for sensible feedback.

Previously

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.