It’s been a while since I’ve annoyed you by mentioning drones, but here we are with DJI’s latest creation—the Neo. DJI is a giant, soulless corporation, but they’ve made some clever design decisions with this drone. It’s a flying camera that works without a phone or remote, and for about half the price of a GoPro, you get a self-sufficient, button-operated flying cameraman. Take it out, push a button, and off it goes, capturing footage like it knows what it’s doing. It might also just simply be a response to the actually innovative HoverAir X1, just made extremely affordable.

The camera quality won’t blow you away, but it’s solid enough if you can overlook its overly-sharpened aesthetic. The Neo can even play the part of a lightweight cinewhoop or a poor man’s DJI Mini, though that’s only if you own DJI’s latest goggles and remotes—so there’s a bit of a catch. I bought it mainly for the fun shots you’re watching here, and while I’m not interested in keeping up with DJI’s endless upgrades, I must admit the little drone has charm and utility.

Neo’s Follow mode is a standout, tracking you accurately with just its camera feed and no fancy sensors. It tries to follow your path to avoid hitting anything. But beware the Direction Tracking mode in crowded areas—it has a habit of misjudging where you’re facing and wobbling about. The biggest hiccup I encountered? No gesture to make it return home, which left me standing under it after performing a Rocket shot, until the battery ran out. Luckily the pain lasted only about 10 minutes. Overall, it’s a great toy for hikes, casual outings, and occasional public embarrassment.

Soundtrack for the poorly edited video above comes from my 2024 weekly beats endeavors. Looks like I have enough material for a 2025 album. Stay tuned!

Dolphin is the default file manager in the KDE Plasma desktop environment and although it is the most feature-rich file manager available on any computer in any time in history, it can always use a few more functions. Thankfully, there are a fantastic set of plugins that just may improve your quality if file-manager life … Continue reading Dolphin-Plugins | Must have for KDE Plasma →

One of the neat things that you can do in Linux or Unix for that matter is the ability to schedule events with Cron. This isn’t exactly the easiest system to understand but when you study it a bit, it is pretty simple. My favorite reference for this is on the openSUSE wiki. https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Cron This … Continue reading Crontab | Automatic purging of Logs →

They say you can’t forget how to ride a bicycle. Well I don’t think it applies to FPV racing. Haven’t touched the sticks in a year. But that does not make me not hang out with old buddies at the longest running event in Czechia.

Last time we looked at how syslog-ng can send logs to Quickwit using its Elasticsearch compatible API. This time we are going to look at how to use the OpenTelemetry protocol to send logs to Quickwit with syslog-ng.

Read more at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/sending-logs-to-quickwit-using-the-opentelemetry-destination-of-syslog-ng

I haven’t done a good job posting to my blog this year and this is the first step to correct it.

I often self-censor, thinking my thoughts aren’t worth a longer post, so I stick to quick updates on Mastodon . But I’ve realized it’s valuable to have a place to revisit my thoughts, as I’ve done in the past.

Worthy Music

Like many, I often find myself gravitating towards the music that shaped my younger years. But I also seek out new music. Taking part in Weekly Beats helps a lot. That’s how I discovered a very talented artist with an unpronounceable name – Gesceap. I’ve put him into the same genre box as Chris Leary aka Ochre, my old favorite. The tremendous detail of Gesceap’s work is that he produces on a tiny little piece of software called nanoloop. His level of mastery within such a constrained world is truly remarkable.

Another artist I admire is Ivar Tryti. Absolute master of the Elektron boxes, he performs all his tunes with robotic speed and precision, but the music stands on its own. Truly love the way he works with energy.

Berlin Performance

One of my personal highlights at this year’s mini GUADEC was the opportunity to demonstrate the Dirtywave M8. While the device locked up three times during the show (eek) as I was sporting a beta build to be able to use the Novation Launchpad Pro. Tim only added support for it like a week prior.

The crowd was amazing, and the performance went much better than I expected. I even kept going, drifting into DJ space and playing for over 2.5 hours.

As Slowroll continues its journey, the latest updates released on August 30 and two on Sept. 2 with snapshot 20240902T0137 and snapshot 20240902T2146 have brought a slew of maintenance packages that enhance systems. These updates are part of Slowroll’s ongoing effort to provide users with a balanced rolling release that prioritizes stability while keeping the software stack up-to-date.

Updates for the quarter were scheduled for July 9, August 9 and Sept. 9, so the updates are well with the the monthly cadence.

August 30 updates had 49 packages that focused primarily on existing tools. Key updates include:

• Development Tools: Updates to llvm14, llvm15, and llvm17, alongside other essential packages like bash and python-Flask-Cors, ensure that developers working within the Slowroll environment have access to the latest tools and libraries for compiling and development.
• System Utilities: The update includes improvements to NetworkManager-branding and ddcutil-service, which contribute to system performance and hardware compatibility.
• Multimedia and Graphics: Applications like darktable, muPDF, and SDL_mixer received updates to provide smoother performance in graphic-related tasks.
• Virtualization: The inclusion of an update for VirtualBox ensures that users relying on virtual environments continue to have a stable and secure platform for running other operating systems or isolated environments.

snapshot 20240902T0137 updates closely followed and delivered 44 packages. These updates include:

• Network and Security: Updates include those for NetworkManager, bind and dkimproxy for reliable network operations.
• Multimedia Improvements: The update provides enhancements to the gstreamer family of packages (gstreamer, gstreamer-plugins-bad, gstreamer-plugins-base, etc.) that are essential for media processing and playback.
• System Utilities and Development: buildah, dracut and python-flake8 were among the tools updates for to both system administrators and developers.
• Virtualization and Cloud: Updates to nextcloud and python-azure-agent focused on Slowroll’s cloud and virtual environments and technologies.

snapshot 20240902T2146 had 33 packages updated. Key updates include:

• Graphics and Multimedia: Updates to Mesa and gstreamer-plugins-ugly provide improvements in handling 3D graphics and media playback tasks.
• System Utilities: Essential updates to binutils, kernel-firmware, and lightdm enhance system stability and hardware compatibility.
• Development Tools: The snapshot includes updates to gcc14 and several Python versions (python310, python311, python312, python313) and other libraries.
• Security and Networking: Enhancements to openssl-3 and wireshark strengthen system security and improve network analysis capabilities.
• Virtualization and Cloud: Updates to Xen and other virtualization tools aid in Slowroll systems to run virtual machines and manage cloud environments.

The development team is expected to release more updates in the future and people can subscribe to the Factory mailing list to get more information.

View the latest statistics on the Slowroll Stats page.

It’s crucial to understand that Slowroll is not intended to replace Leap. Instead, it provides an alternative for users who desire more up-to-date software at a slower cadence than Tumbleweed but faster than Leap.

If you try Slowroll, have a lot of fun - rolling… slowly!

Robert de Leeuw came up with the suggestions to use AI for compiling a list of changes in OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) 2.1. Me being too lazy to go over the document myself, I headed over to ChatGPT and this came up.
Note: Please take this with the necessary caution about correctness and completeness, as it’s still ChatGPT that spit this out. Proof-reading and suggestions are obviously most welcome.

The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 2.1 draft introduces a number of changes, enhancements, and new features compared to OCPP 2.0.1. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the changes:

1. New Features and Functionalities

• ISO 15118 Plug and Charge: Enhanced support for the ISO 15118 standard, including Plug and Charge functionality, allowing for automatic authentication and billing between the electric vehicle (EV) and the charging station without requiring a separate card or app.
• Improved Smart Charging: New profiles and parameters for smart charging that allow more sophisticated energy management strategies, including better integration with grid requirements and renewable energy sources.
• Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Support: Preliminary support for V2G functionality, enabling bidirectional energy flow between the EV and the grid, which facilitates the EV acting as an energy storage device.
• New Charging Profiles: Introduction of more flexible charging profiles that can be dynamically adjusted based on real-time data, improving the ability to manage charging sessions based on grid conditions, energy costs, and user preferences.

2. Security Enhancements

• Enhanced Certificate Management: Improvements to certificate handling for secure communication, including the ability to manage multiple certificates and better support for certificate revocation lists (CRLs) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP).
• Improved Firmware and Software Updates: More secure and robust mechanisms for firmware and software updates, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of updates delivered to charging stations.
• Expanded Use of TLS: Strengthened use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for all communication, ensuring secure data transmission between the charge point and central system.

3. Transaction and Metering Enhancements

• Detailed Transaction Records: More detailed transaction recording, including finer granularity in start and stop times, energy delivered, and cost breakdowns, which helps in providing more transparent billing and usage information.
• Meter Value Reporting: Expanded options for reporting meter values, including more frequent and detailed reporting, support for different meter types, and enhanced data granularity, enabling better tracking of energy usage.
• Multiple Transactions: Support for handling multiple concurrent transactions at a single charging station, allowing better utilization of charging resources and more complex charging scenarios.

4. Diagnostics and Maintenance Improvements

• Advanced Diagnostics: More detailed diagnostics messages and status reports that provide better insights into the operational state of the charge point, enabling quicker identification and resolution of issues.
• Error Handling Enhancements: Refined error handling processes, including more specific error codes and clearer guidelines for managing various fault conditions.
• Improved Event Notification System: An expanded set of event notifications and more flexible configuration options for event handling, allowing operators to customize notifications based on specific operational needs.

5. Data Transfer and Customization

• Custom Data Objects: Support for transferring custom data between the charge point and central system, enabling more flexible integrations and the ability to support proprietary features or business models.
• Extended Data Formats: Introduction of new data formats and extensions to existing ones, improving the efficiency of data transmission and allowing for more complex data structures.

6. Communication Protocol Enhancements

• Optimized WebSocket Communication: Refinements to the WebSocket communication protocol to reduce latency, improve reliability, and enhance performance, especially under high-load conditions.
• Offline Message Queuing: Enhanced support for handling messages when the charge point is offline, ensuring that messages are properly queued and delivered once the connection is restored.
• Extended Message Types: Introduction of new message types and updates to existing ones, allowing for more nuanced communication between the charge point and central system.

7. User Experience and Interface Improvements

• Enhanced User Authentication: New options for user authentication, including support for contactless payments and improved handling of user credentials and identity management.
• Better User Feedback: More flexible configurations for providing user feedback via the charging station interface, including enhanced messaging and status displays.
• Remote Start/Stop Capabilities: Improved remote control capabilities for starting and stopping charging sessions, providing operators and users with more control over the charging process.

8. Backward Compatibility and Migration

• Migration Tools and Guidelines: Introduction of new tools and documentation to aid in migrating from OCPP 2.0.1 to OCPP 2.1, ensuring a smooth transition and minimizing disruption.
• Backward Compatibility Considerations: Efforts to maintain compatibility with OCPP 2.0.1 where feasible, ensuring that existing systems can continue to operate while taking advantage of new features incrementally.

9. Documentation and Standards Compliance

• Updated Specifications and Guidelines: Revisions and clarifications to the OCPP documentation, providing clearer guidance on implementing and complying with the protocol standards.
• Expanded Use Cases and Examples: More detailed use cases and implementation examples to help developers understand and apply new features and changes effectively.

10. Testing and Certification Enhancements

• Enhanced Testing Procedures: Updates to the testing and certification procedures to ensure compliance with OCPP 2.1 standards, including more rigorous testing for new features and security enhancements.
• Certification Criteria Updates: New criteria for certification that reflect the expanded functionality and security requirements of OCPP 2.1, ensuring interoperability across different implementations.

Summary

The OCPP 2.1 draft introduces a range of new features, security enhancements, and improvements over OCPP 2.0.1, reflecting the growing complexity and demands of the EV charging ecosystem. These changes aim to improve functionality, security, and interoperability, providing a robust framework for the future of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It is essential for developers and operators to familiarize themselves with these updates to take full advantage of the new capabilities and ensure compliance with the latest standards.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

As I mentioned last week, we had to block the release of snapshot 0821 due to conflicts between OpenSSH and SELinux. I’m happy to report that openQA played a crucial role in detecting/resolving this issue on the SELinux-policy side. This incident highlights the strength of the iterative development model we use for delivering Tumbleweed. While we strive for perfection, openQA is instrumental in catching most issues before they reach our users.

However, this week we encountered a hiccup. We released a snapshot that transitioned the dbus-daemon from dbus-1 to dbus-broker. Unfortunately, I misjudged the severity of a test failure, which led to a significant issue: all machines using Wicked lost network access upon reboot (race between starting dbus-broker and wicked). My apologies for the disruption this caused. For more details, you can read the news article here. As the old saying goes, ‘You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.’

Not all was bad this week though – despite all, we managed to publish 7 snapshots (0822, 0823, 0825, 0826, 0827, 0828, and 0829), containing these changes:

• Samba 4.20.4
• Cockpit 322
• GStreamer 1.24.7
• LibreOffice 24.8.0.3
• Mozilla Firefox 129.0.1
• OpenSSH 9.8p1
• python setuptools 72.1.0 / pip 24.2
• dbus-broker 36: new default dbus daemon for Tumbleweed (snapshot 0825, published on Aug 26)
• wicked: address the race condition with dbus-broker (published as an emergency update on Aug 28, and merged into snapshot 0829)
• KDE Gear 24.08.0
• GCC 14 is finally the default system compiler (since snapshot 0827).

With the dbus-broker and GCC14 changes done, we completed almost all of the long-standing changes from the last weeks. The switch to GCC 14 has been in the weekly review since 2024/08, when we completed phase 1, using GCC14’s libraries by default. dbus-broker has been in the making even longer, as that was first mentioned to be worked on in the review 2023/45.

So let’s get the list a bit shorter and get an overview of what we currently know should happen in the upcoming days/weeks:

• Linux kernel 6.10.7
• binutils 2.43.1
• Go 1.23 as new system default (ignition is the only failing package identified so far)
• perl-Bootloader will be renamed to update-bootloader: it’s been a while since there was no Perl code in there anymore. Some openQA tests need to be adjusted for this (https://progress.opensuse.org/issues/165686)
• grub2 change: Introduces a new package, grub2-x86_64-efi-bls

Welcome to the monthly update for Tumbleweed for August 2024. This month has been a productive period with significant progress and updates. The rolling-release team is making headway on longer-term projects like dbus-broker showing promising progress and the transition to GNU Compiler Collection 14 as the default compiler is in its second phase as there are ongoing efforts to address the remaining build failures. Those efforts for GCC 14 becoming the default compiler are likely to arrive in the 20240827 snapshot. Go 1.22 became the default go compiler this month and ffmpeg switched from version 6 to 7. However, a critical issue emerged with the network stack in recent builds due to a race condition. Those using Wicked, which is a network configuration tool, were advised to delay updates or rollback using snapper while ongoing efforts focused on resolving the problem. A submit request for Wicked was made on August 28 for resolving the issue and will likely address the networking issue in a snapshot before August ends. Those not dependent on Wicked are encouraged to proceed with updates as usual.

Stay tuned and tumble on!

Should readers desire more frequent information about snapshot updates, they are encouraged to subscribe to the openSUSE Factory mailing list.

New Features and Enhancements

• Linux Kernel 6.10.4: This update has some key changes including a fix to the klp_symbols macro in the kernel spec file, which addresses errors in the build process for openSUSE Tumbleweed. Networking improvements resolve issues in the bnxt_en driver and multiple fixes were made to the MPTCP protocol, which multiple path connection use while maximizing throughput and increasing redundancy. Updates to the DRM subsystem include fixes for memory leaks in Mesa’s V3D driver, handling issues in the AMD GPU driver and addressing black screen issues in the AST driver after resume. The update also includes critical bug fixes for the ALSA sound system, Btrfs file system and various other components.
• GNOME 46.4: This update brings a series of enhancements and fixes across several core GNOME packages. While the gnome-bluetooth package updated to version 46.1, it addresses a bug that prevented some device icons from appearing correctly and includes updates for translations. The control center improves accessibility, resolves a memory leak in the default apps page and fixes issues related to network settings, Bolt visibility, and fingerprint enrollment. The gnome-software update corrects AppStream metadata formatting, includes translation updates and refreshes user docs and Help documentation.
• php 8.3.10: This update brings a series of critical fixes and enhancements. In the core, it resolves several issues, including memory leaks, segmentation faults and support for systems with sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX) == -1. Notable bug fixes include addressing a use-after-free in property coercion with __toString() and resolving crashes in DOMDocument::xinclude(). The updated package improves compatibility with libxml2 versions 2.13.0 and 2.13.2 and fixes issues in extensions like PDO. The update fixes buffer overflows, stream wrapper truncations and memory leaks.
• KDE Plasma 6.1.4: This Konqi update brings a variety of fixes and improvements across several core components of the Plasma desktop environment. Discover addresses bugs related to license text parsing, icon caching and visibility calculations. The Crash handler Dr Konqi enhances reporting by integrating version information and improving metadata synthesis for crashes in kwin_x11. KPipeWire adds resilience to stream handling during PipeWire restarts and introduces a new encoder using libopenh264. KWin includes numerous fixes, such as improving window focus management, addressing crashes and enhancing rendering performance. Updates to the Plasma Desktop refine folder view behavior, applet layouts and visual configurations.
• Frameworks 6.5.0: This update sees Attica add support for a new version field in DownloadDescription. Bluez Qt fixes connections related to the connectedDevices list property. Breeze Icons introduces new category icons and resolves issues with symlinks for various applications. Extra CMake Modules adds MANPATH support and improves WaylandScanner handling. KAuth enhances dbus backend functionality and KIO improves file handling, enhances logging and optimizes connection management. Additionally, Kirigami refines dialog behavior and accessibility features, while KTextEditor adds new actions for space and tab conversion along with improving drag behavior with wrapped lines. These updates collectively enhanced the functionality, stability and user experience across the KDE Plasma ecosystem.
• systemd 256.5: The update restores the 32-bit version of libudev.so, which was inadvertently dropped during the merge of libudev-devel into systemd-devel. This restoration is essential for enabling plug-and-play support in Wine for 32-bit Windows applications. For a detailed list of changes, users can visit its GitHub changelog.
• KDE Gear 24.08: Just in time for the upcoming Akademy 2024, KDE Gear 24.08 arrives with a fresh wave of updates across a broad range of applications. The release introduces new features for Dolphin like easier file management with administrative privileges and a streamlined Move to New Folder option. The disk visualizer Filelight has a friendlier interface and improves Windows version, which helps you visualize disk usage right from within Dolphin. Konsole makes navigating long outputs easier with a new bookmarking feature and video editor Kdenlive advances keyframe curve editing and refined effects handling. Travel apps like Itinerary and conference tracker Kongress are updated to assist you during Akademy, offering detailed travel plans and venue maps.

Key Package Updates

• NetworkManager 1.48.8: The latest update resolves an issue with Open vSwitch (OVS) where stage3 activation could be triggered without an initialized DHCP client and improves configuration parsing by correctly handling the autoconnect-ports value to provide better control over automatic connections. Enhancements to IPv6 networking were made by preserving router preferences in neighbor discovery (NDISC).
• pavucontrol 6.1: The major version of PulseAudio Volume Control package addresses issues such as translations not being correctly applied, a bug where unplugged audio cards would not disappear from the interface and a misalignment in Bluetooth codec selection. The application name in the desktop file has also been corrected to Volume Control. Version 6 introduces significant changes that including a migration from Gtk 3 to Gtk 4, embedded UI resources and improved support for 144 Hz monitors.
• binutils 2.43: A new .base64 pseudo-op allows encoding data as base64 strings and Intel APX support is expanded with new instructions like CFCMOV and CCMP. The x86 Intel syntax now provides more warnings for mnemonic suffixes, and macros in assembly code can use \+ to track execution counts. Significant updates include support for armv9.5-a in AArch64 and new extensions in RISC-V, along with improved data handling in s390 and MIPS. The arm architecture drops support for outdated co-processors, while LoongArch gains finer control over assembly options. Enhancements in tools like readelf and objdump offer more detailed outputs, particularly for .eh_frame sections. The linker now includes options for segment handling and ISA level reporting. These updates enhance binutils’ functionality and adaptability across a wide range of platforms.
• curl 8.9.1: This update addresses a critical regression fixing proper handling of sigpipe signals by initializing the struct correctly. Bug fixes include better detection of libssh and nettle in CMake providing better connection shutdown handling for event-based processing and more robust socket code for the --ip-tos option. Updates also improve compatibility and stability across different platforms, including fixes for 32-bit systems, OS400 builds and defensive coding for NULL inputs.
• bash 5.2.32: Key fixes include correcting an inverted configure test for strtoimax(3) and resolving a problem where a DEBUG trap in an asynchronous process could mistakenly take control of the terminal, causing the calling shell to exit. The update corrects an issue where functions containing coprocesses were displayed with an erroneous COPROC command, making them unreadable as input.

Bug Fixes

• orc 0.4.39:
  • CVE-2024-40897 was solved with versions before 0.4.39, which had a buffer overflow vulnerability in orcparse.c.
• curl 8.9.1:
  • CVE-2024-7264 was a parser flaw that may cause crashes or leak heap contents.
• Flatpak 1.15.10:
  • CVE-2024-424721 was a flaw that allows unauthorized file access via symlink in persistent directories.
• tiff:
  • CVE-2024-7006 was a null pointer flaw that may cause crashes, which could lead to denial of service.
• unbound 1.21.0:
  • CVE-2024-43167 was a null pointer flaw that may cause crashes, leading to a denial of service as well.
• Mozilla Firefox 129.0: This release fixes 14 CVEs, which addresses multiple vulnerabilities, including fullscreen notification dialog obscuration with CVE-2024-7518, CVE-2024-7523, and CVE-2024-7529. There was an out-of-bounds memory access CVE-2024-7519 and CVE-2024-7522. There was type confusion and incomplete exception handling in WebAssembly with CVE-2024-7520 and CVE-2024-7521 along with some other CVEs affecting security and memory handling.
• python311:
  • CVE-2024-6923 was a medium severity vulnerability in CPython’s email module that allows header injection due to improper quoting of newlines during email serialization.

Conclusion

August 2024 saw significant improvements for Tumbleweed users. Security fixes were made across multiple packages to ensure Tumbleweed remains stable and secure. Significant improvements were made in tools like pavucontrol, binutils and curl, with enhanced compatibility, performance and security. Noteworthy changes in packages such as php, systemd, and NetworkManager are crucial fixes. These updates collectively contribute to a more refined and stable rolling release environment.

Stay updated with the latest snapshots by subscribing to the openSUSE Factory mailing list. For those Tumbleweed users who want to contribute or want to engage with detailed technological discussions, subscribe to the openSUSE Factory mailing list . The openSUSE team encourages users to continue participating through bug reports, feature suggestions and discussions.

Contributing to openSUSE Tumbleweed

Your contributions and feedback make openSUSE Tumbleweed better with every update. Whether reporting bugs, suggesting features, or participating in community discussions, your involvement is highly valued.

_{^{(Image made with DALL-E)}}