Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

We’re quickly approaching the end of the year, and I hear more and more people ‘preparing for the holiday’. As with every year, this season will likely slow down Tumbleweed. There are more important things to tend to than sending updates to Factory over and over, something I am sure all readers will support. Our maintainers deserve a break every now and then—after fixing the most critical bugs. This week, the developers are still in full swing and are sending submissions to Factory. The Release Team produced 4 working snapshots (1129, 1202, 1203, and 1204.

The most relevant changes delivered to the users during this week were:

• Mozilla Firefox 133.0
• LibreOffice 24.8.3.2
• SQLite 3.47.1
• elfutils 0.192
• mozjs 128.5.1 (JS engine used by GNOME-Shell)
• systemd 256.9
• libcap 2.73
• Python setuptools 75.6.0

Of the advertised things from last week, most notably systemd and kernel 6.12 have not made it into any snapshot yet: both started showing issues around TPM measuring which have been flagged by openQA and are actively worked on by the developers. Currently, the release team is testing those updates in the staging areas:

• Linux kernel 6.12.3
• Systemd 257.x
• Rust 1.83
• Python 3.11.11, 3.12.8
  

The openSUSE community is excited to announce the official release of Leap Micro 6.1.

Leap Micro continues its alignment with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro, ensuring robust container and virtual machine hosting capabilities. The release has a new opensuse-migration-tool, which simplifies upgrades for smoother transitions between releases. Some enhanced features include reworked jeos-firstboot, soft-reboot support to further minimize downtime, two-factor authentication with cockpit and additional tools like vhostmd for SAP Virtualization.

You might want to check our Leap Micro 6.1 video showcasing fully encrypted disk image with TPM 2.0 chip, and the two factor authentication with cockpit.

The release of Leap Micro 6.1 signals the End of Life (EOL) for Leap Micro 5.5. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to either Leap Micro 6.0 or 6.1 to continue receiving updates and support.

For a detailed upgrade guide, visit the openSUSE Wiki or SLE Micro 6.1 Release notes.

The openSUSE community is excited to announce the official release of [Leap Micro 6.1]((https://get.opensuse.org/leapmicro/6.1/).

Leap Micro continues its alignment with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro, ensuring robust container and virtual machine hosting capabilities. The release has a new opensuse-migration-tool, whic simplifies upgrades for smoother transitions between releases. Some enhanced features include soft-reboot support. Two-factor authentication (TOTP) for PAM logins improves security. There are additional tools like vhostmd for SAP Virtualization and improvements to the jeos-firstboot wizard and more.

The release of Leap Micro 6.1 signals the End of Life (EOL) for Leap Micro 5.5. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to either Leap Micro 6.0 or 6.1 to continue receiving updates and support.

For a detailed upgrade guide, visit the openSUSE Wiki or SLE Micro 6.1 Release notes.

Lots of KDE hacking these days, and that comes with compiling large amounts of code. Right now, I am installing, well building from source Plasma Mobile on an “old” laptop so I can test some patches natively on a touchscreen device. The machine has just two cores (hyperthreaded), so builds take rather long, especially if you build Qt and all that 80+ packages that are needed for a fully working Plasma system.
One of the tools that do an incredible job while being super flexible to use is icecream. Icecream (or “icecc“) allows you to distribute your build over multiple machines, it basically ships compile-jobs with all that’s needed to other machines on a local network, meaning you can parallelize your builds.

Icecream has this nice visualization tool, called icecream-monitor which you can stare at while your builds are running (in case you don’t have anyone handy for a sword-fight). In the screenshot you can see manta, the underpowered laptop doing a 32 parallel job build over the network. miro is my heavy workstation, 8 cores and 128GB of RAM, it duely gets the bulk of the work assigned, frame is my (Framework) laptop, which is also quite beefy, gets something to do too, but not taxed as heavily as that build monster in my basement office.
Icecream can be used with most environments that have you run your compiler locally. Different distros are no problem! Just a matching CPU architecture is needed. Icecream does its job by providing its own g++ and gcc binaries, which will relay the build jobs transparently to either your local machine or across the network. So you basically install it, adjust your PATH variable to make sure icecc’s g++ is found before your system’s compiler and start your build. Other machines you want to join in for the fun just need to run icecc-scheduler and they will be automatically discovered as build slaves on your network. If you want to further speed up builds, it works with ccache as well.

Please note that you only want to do this in a trusted environment, we’re shipping executables around the network without authorization!

Recently I was asked why the syslog-ng newsletter looks odd. At first I did not even understand what is the problem. Then I realized that I kept using the same format for the past 14 years, that was optimized for UNIX terminals :-)

So, what is the problem? 14 years ago I was kindly asked by syslog-ng users to use plain text e-mails instead of HTML formatting. Of course it also means that there is no easy way to emphasize titles in the newsletter. For that I started to use a long list of hyphens under the titles, equal length to the title. It all looks perfect in a terminal window, which has fixed width fonts. It definitely looks odd in a GUI e-mail client, which does not use fixed width fonts. Something like this:

This is a really nice title

---------------------------

The lenght of the line and the title are different. Luckily the mailing list archive also uses a fixed width font when showing e-mails. So, if you take a look at the last syslog-ng newsletter, you will see that it looks completely OK: https://lists.balabit.hu/pipermail/syslog-ng/2024-December/026735.html

So, what is next? My suspicion is that over the past decade even the most diehard terminal users started to use graphical e-mail clients (most likely a web browser). Starting next year I’ll switch to HTML formatting, hoping that nobody will complain :-)

The December syslog-ng newsletter is now on-line:

• FreeBSD audit source for syslog-ng

• Version 4.8.1 of syslog-ng is now available

• Where should I present syslog-ng and sudo?

It is available at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/the-syslog-ng-insider-2024-12-freebsd-audit-4-8-1-conferences

Release Candidate images of Leap Micro 6.1 can be found at get.opensuse.org.

At this point we’re only awaiting confirmation of the Leap Micro 6.1 maintenance setup prior making an official release; hopefully coming later this week.

Please be aware that the release of Leap Micro 6.1 means the end of life for Leap Micro 5.5.

Users are advised to upgrade to either Leap Micro 6.0 or 6.1 and can find details about release cycle on the openSUSE wiki.

Users upgrading from previous releases can consider our experimental opensuse-migration-tool. The migration tool will be part of Leap Micro 6.1+; users from older release can still get the tool from git.

See our Leap Micro upgrade wiki for more information about upgrade options.

See SLE Micro 6.1 Release notes and a summary for a list of changes in the Leap Micro 6.1 Alpha announcement.

Creative professionals exploring alternatives that allow them to continue working without investing in costly new hardware and software upgrades can look at Linux as the end of Windows 10 approaches.

Distributions and flavors like openSUSE’s Tumbleweed, Leap, Slowroll, Kalpa and Aeon and other Linux distributions offer an excellent platform for creators with a wide variety of powerful, open-source tools designed to meet the needs of artists, designers, photographers, videographers and video editors.

From Indie short films to podcasts, open-source software and tools are available as a Flatpak, AppImage or as a native applications for creative people to create.

Many user-friendly tools are viable alternatives to popular, proprietary commercial applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro and others.

This article explores some of the top creative tools available on Linux and how transitioning to openSUSE can help creative professionals maintain, or even improve, their productivity.

Transitioning from Photoshop to GIMP

For many creatives, Photoshop is the go-to application for photo editing and graphic design. However, GIMP is an excellent open-source alternative that provides a wide range of professional-grade features.

GIMP supports many file formats, including PSD and offers powerful tools for retouching, editing and manipulating images. Creative professionals will find familiar features like layers, masks, blending modes and a variety of brushes. GIMP also supports high-bit-depth images and allows users to create professional-quality designs.

GIMP may have a slightly different workflow than Photoshop, but it is flexible, customizable and its plugin support makes it a highly versatile tool for image editing and graphic design. Many users find that GIMP offers all the functionality they need to complete complex projects.

Alternatives to Illustrator: Inkscape

For vector graphics, Inkscape is a known alternative to Illustrator. Inkscape is a powerful, free tool for creating logos, illustrations and scalable graphics. It supports common vector formats, including SVG, AI, and EPS, which make it easy to integrate into existing workflows.

Inkscape’s interface is intuitive for Illustrator users and features many of the same tools, such as the Pen tool, curves, shape tools and layer management. Its active development community ensures frequent updates, and the software is highly customizable through extensions and plugins.

For those focused on scalable design and illustration, Inkscape provides a professional-grade environment without the subscription fees associated with cloud creative services. This saves costs and opens people’s minds to the alternatives that are available.

Video Editing: Kdenlive and Blender

Creative professionals working in video production and editing have strong options to use both Kdenlive and Blender. Kdenlive, which is part of the KDE ecosystem, is a feature-rich video editor that provides tools for cutting, splitting and arranging video clips. It supports multiple video and audio tracks, transitions, effects and keyframe animation, which makes it suitable for everything from simple edits to more complex projects.

Blender is an industry-leading, open-source application meant for those working on 3D animation, video effects or visual effects (VFX). Blender’s capabilities include 3D modeling, animation, rendering and compositing, as well as a fully functional video editor. Blender is widely used in professional studios for film, game development and visual effects, which makes it a powerful option for creative professionals. Blender’s source code is governed by the GNU General Public License, embodying the same principles of freedom and collaboration that drives distributions like openSUSE and others.

Audio Production: Ardour and Audacity

Creative professionals working in music production, sound design or podcasting have options. Software packages like Ardour and Audacity offer powerful audio editing solutions. Ardour is a digital audio workstation (DAW) that supports multi-track recording, mixing and mastering. It is widely used for professional audio production, supporting VST plugins and offers advanced feature sets comparable to Logic Pro and Pro Tools.

Audacity is a simple and easy-to-use tool for audio editing; it’s ideal for basic recording, podcasting and sound editing tasks. It’s perfect for quick edits and simple projects, with support for a variety of audio formats and built-in effects.

3D Modeling and Animation: Blender

Blender deserves a second mention here because of its dominance in the field of 3D modeling and animation. Blender’s comprehensive suite of tools allows users to create everything from character animations to architectural models. It offers sculpting tools, UV unwrapping, rigging, particle simulation, and more.

For creative professionals used to proprietary 3D modeling software like Autodesk Maya or 3ds Max, Blender provides a comparable, if not superior, set of features with the added benefit of being open-source.

Publishing and Layout: Scribus

For professionals in publishing or those who need to create print-ready materials, Scribus is a capable desktop publishing tool. It provides features for designing brochures, books, magazines and other print materials. It’s similar to InDesign and just as functional.

Scribus supports advanced typography, CMYK colors, ICC color profiles and PDF export, which makes it a professional solution for designers working on print projects. With a clean, organized interface, it makes a transition from InDesign relatively smooth.

Why openSUSE?

Besides Windows 10 expiring and having to spend more than $100 USD for an upgrade depending on the country you live in, openSUSE provides a solid environment for creative professionals to transition to a new operating system. It offers stability, security and flexibility that allows users to customize their systems to fit their specific needs. Tumbleweed, which is openSUSE’s rolling release version, ensures access to the latest versions of creative software, while the Leap version offers long-term stability with fewer updates; Leap is ideal for users who prefer to avoid frequent changes.

With software centers and tools like openSUSE’s YaST configuration tool, managing software and updates are incredibly easy; this can be a big advantage for those new to Linux.

Creative professionals can continue producing high-quality work without the need for expensive software subscriptions or hardware upgrades. From GIMP and Inkscape to Blender and Ardour, the open-source Linux ecosystem offers powerful, free alternatives that rival commercial counterparts.

The “Upgrade to Freedom!” campaign is here to help creative people make the switch. By choosing openSUSE, you not only gain access to a suite of professional-grade tools but also extend the life of your hardware and avoid contributing to e-waste.

Now is the perfect time for creative professionals to embrace the freedom of open-source software and continue thriving on Linux.

This is part of a series on Upgrade to Freedom where we offer reasons to transition from Windows to Linux.Those who would like to order a laptop with Linux, can visit slimbook.com or other providers of Linux machines.

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

After hackweek, we see a bunch of nifty changes coming our way. I have not seen everything by far, but there is at least a replacement for openSUSE-welcome planned on the GNOME Desktop (a variant of GNOME Tour), Lubos has just announced a new migration tool and there will certainly be many more things popping up in the next few days/weeks. During the last week, we have managed to deliver six snapshots (1121, 1122, 1124, 1125, 1126, and 1127)

The most relevant changes delivered are:

• Mesa 24.2.7 & 24.3.0
• ICU 76.1
• gpgme 1.24.0
• GTK 4.16.6 & 4.16.7
• LLVM 19.1.4
• PHP 8.3.14
• CMake 3.31.0
• GNOME 47.2
• KDE Plasma 6.2.4
• Qt 5.15.16
• Debugedit 5.1

Amongst the initially mentioned changes, we are currently also testing these updates in the Factory Staging areas:

• Mozilla Firefox 133.0
• LibreOffice 24.8.3.2
• Python setuptools 75.6
• systemd 257
• SQLite 3.47.1
• Linux kernel 6.12.1

Leap Micro 6.1 Beta was released last Wednesday. Images can be found at get.opensuse.org As this is mostly a rebrand of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.1, unless some serious issues are found, users can expect a quick transition to RC and GA next week.

We’re introducing a new migration tool with Leap Micro 6.1 which should hopefully ease future upgrades to a Leap Micro releases, specifically new major versions. Let’s have a look at how to deploy it from git on older Leap Micro releases as well as how to install it on Leap Micro 6.1 Beta.

The main benefit for the user is that you don’t have to deal manually with any repository changes that might have been introduced in a new releases. This will hopefully lead to smoother and more straightforward upgrades. As of now the opensuse-migration-tool is still experimental.

Testing the tool with Leap Micro container from your Leap or Tumbleweed

We have to be running an older version of Leap Micro to be able to upgrade to 6.1.

Since we’re using distrobox in this example our host can be running Leap, Tumbleweed, Aeon. Distrobox will have access to your home directory, including the git checkout.

The key is to use –pre-release to have Leap Micro 6.1 as an available upgrade target.

$ git clone https://github.com/openSUSE/opensuse-migration-tool.git
$ cd opensuse-migration-tool
$ distrobox create --image registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/leap-micro/6.0/toolbox --name micro60
$ distrobox enter micro60 # from now on inside distrobox
$ zypper in bc jq curl dialog sed gawk
$ ./opensuse-migration-tool --pre-release --dry-run
$ sudo ./opensuse-migration-tool --pre-release # Chooose Leap Micro 6.1
$ cat /etc/os-release # should confirm that you've upgraded to 6.1

Enjoy your new Leap Micro 6.1 Beta container

If you trash your container, just type exit podman stop micro60 or docker stop micro60 followed by distrobox rm micro60. And you can start all over again.

Testing the tool on Leap Micro host or inside the VM

Here we have to use transactional-update shell as we’re working inside Leap Micro 6.0 or even 5.5 host or a VM. Just like in the previous case, the important piece is to try it from a Leap Micro release older than 6.1, as otherwise, the only migration target would be MicroOS.

Make sure to use –pre-release to have 6.1 Beta as a viable migration target.

$ sudo transactional-update shell # from now on inside shell
$ zypper in git bc jq curl dialog sed gawk 
$ git clone https://github.com/openSUSE/opensuse-migration-tool.git
$ cd opensuse-migration-tool
$ ./opensuse-migration-tool --pre-release --dry-run
$ sudo ./opensuse-migration-tool --pre-release  # Choose Leap Micro 6.1 as a target
$ reboot

*Enjoy Leap Micro 6.1 Beta

Don’t worry In case you mess up, we’re using transactional-update shell. You can always boot the previous snapshot.

Testing Leap Micro 6.1 to MicroOS upgrade migration

Since there is no newer point release than Leap Micro 6.1 Beta, the only migration/upgrade target would be MicroOS.

The point of this example is to show that the Leap Micro 6.1 repository already contains the opensuse-migration-tool Therefore there is no need to run it from a git checkout unless you want to tinker with it.

$ sudo transactional-update shell
$ zypper in opensuse-migration-tool # Will work only on Leap Micro 6.1
$ sudo opensuse-migration-tool --dry-run # to oversee what would change
$ sudo opensuse-migration-tool # MicroOS is expected to be the only migration option from Leap Micro 6.1 Beta

Don’t bother re-running the opensuse-migration-tool once you upgrade to MicroOS which is in fact openSUSE Tumbleweed. There is really nothing newer that you could migrate to, and you’ll get the message that openSUSE Tumbleweed is unsupported. This behavior is expected.

Known issues

Bug 1233982 - Upgrade to 6.1 (netcfg) failed

This particular issue will for sure pop up in your distrobox-based experiments. Distrobox mounts over /etc/hostname with a bind mount and the upgrade of netcfg will fail on post-script. This is safe to ignore (type i in interactive zypper dup).

The migration tool tries to run non-interactively at first, and in case it fails it leaves problem resolution on the user by re-running zypper dup in interactive mode.

Contributing

If you’re interested in contributing feel free to send PR, report issues or features against openSUSE/opensuse-migration-tool Github repository