LocalSend is a the AirDrop for the rest of us. The ability to easily send files to other computers or systems that are local to your network. This is also cross platform, so whether you are on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS, this will work for you. It really couldn’t be much easier. Bottom […]

I enjoy using my 3D printer to create things that are small quality of life improvements. One of my ambitions is to no longer have a full-on junk drawer and where everything has a place and a place for everything. One such issue that has been a constant irritant has been that of where the […]

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

Here at openSUSE, we celebrated the ‘month of the desktops’. Both major desktop environments (KDE/Plasma and GNOME) just came out with their new releases in the last weeks and Tumbleweed users had the pleasure of receiving both those updates during the last few days. Not stopping there, we can look back at a full 7 snapshots (0314, 0315, 0317, 0318, 0319, 0320,and 0321) published since the last weekly review.

The most relevant changes shipped were:

• KDE Plasma 6.0.2
• Systemd 255.3 & 255.4
• Linux kernel 6.8.1 & Kernel firmware 20240312
• linux-glibc-devel 6.8 (kernel 6.8 headers)
• strace * iputils2 6.8
• QEmu 8.2.2
• LLVM 18
• SQLite 3.45.2
• GNOME 46.0
• PHP 8.2.17
• Qt 5.15.13

So, irrespective of KDE or GNOME user: enjoy the update. As usual, please report bugs – should you see any – to https://bugzilla.opensuse.org

The next few changes that are planned are:

• KDE Gear 24.02.1
• Shadow 4.15.0
• TeXLive 2024
• Removal of Python 3.9 modules: To successfully perform this, most – if not all – python-* packages should be fixed. Counterintuitively, removing a python flavor means we need to rebuild the packages (python-single spec) successfully
• dbus-broker: no progress this week
• libxml 2.12.x: slow/no progress
• GCC 14: phase 2: use gcc14 as the default compiler

There are a lot of web based tools out there to create simple QR codes, but why use a website when you can use the terminal? Generating a QR code in the terminal is pretty easy to do and actually quite convenient. The syntax is easy to follow and therefore makes for an easy time […]

There are a lot of web based tools out there to create simple QR codes, but why use a website when you can use the terminal? Generating a QR code in the terminal is pretty easy to do and actually quite convenient. The syntax is easy to follow and therefore makes for an easy time … Continue reading Generate QR Codes in the Terminal with qrencode →

A lot of excitement was brewing at the announcement of KDE’s Plasma 6 release and now the MegaRelease has arrived in openSUSE Tumbleweed and Kalpa while plans for Slowroll are progressing.

Rolling release users and the developer community get an upgrade that marks a monumental shift for KDE desktop users. The update will make it into a Slowroll release in April as the distributions steady paced version-bumps are expected between April 2 and April 14.

Almost a decade from the release of Plasma 5, the desktop experience for Plasma 6 begins. The transition not only signifies an advancement in aesthetic and functionality, but also underscores openSUSE’s commitment to providing this highly anticipated technology to its users.

Plasma 6 introduces a ton of improvements and features that cater to a diverse array of users; from the tech-savvy enthusiast to the casual user. The update sees major changes under-the-hood as a transition to the latest Qt application framework and migration to the Wayland display server protocol that is set to be the default graphical session. At this time however, It’s important to note that the Wayland session is not yet the default in Tumbleweed; this decision allows users and developers to discern whether encountered issues stem from Plasma 6 itself or the Wayland session. Tumbleweed’s KDE desktop derivative Kalpa plans switching to Wayland by default.

Developments include enhanced security, performance and improved modern hardware support.

Despite these significant changes, users are expected to find the Plasma 6 environment familiar, retaining the classic KDE look and feel while laying the groundwork for future innovations.

The new release boasts features such as an overview and desktop grid effects; It improves the touchpad gestures, and partial High Dynamic Range (HDR) support on Wayland, which, combined with the new ‘Scarlet Tree’ wallpaper, transforms the desktop into a vibrant and dynamic workspace.

Plasma 6 introduces changes aimed at enhancing user experience, including a shift in default settings. Notably, it adopts a single-click action for selecting files and folders and a double-click action for opening them. While the single-click approach streamlines the opening process, it may be less intuitive for users accustomed to other systems and could complicate the selection of multiple items. The double-click, however, is more familiar to those migrating from different systems and provides known usability when selecting items.

While the transition to Plasma 6 promises an array of benefits, a few minor issues have been identified in the snapshot. None were deemed severe enough to delay its release.

These known topics include:

• GTK theme setting for new Installations: Some users may find the GTK theme is not set correctly. A workaround involves manually setting it in system settings or running “kded5” once.
• Launcher icon switch for upgrades: Users upgrading their system may notice the launcher icon defaults to the Plasma icon. This can be adjusted manually by changing the icon to “start-here-branding.”
• Upgrades from Older Systems: A known issue affects users upgrading from Leap versions 15.3 or older related to a package called “libksysguard5-helper.” The recommended solution is to opt for deinstallation of the problematic package.
• Plasmashell start delay: Users without Bluetooth hardware may experience a delay in Plasmashell start-up if kdeconnect-kde is installed, which can be mitigated by disabling the KDE Connect system tray icon.

As openSUSE continues to evolve with Plasma 6, Tumbleweed, Kalpa and Slowroll remain dedicated to delivering a fresh, stable and updated systems to the global open-source community.

The openSUSE KDE packaging team encourages users to embrace this new phase, explore the rich features of Plasma 6 and provide feedback to help refine future releases. The adventure is just beginning for Plasma 6 and we invite people to engage with the development of open-source software and to “have a lot of fun” on this journey into a new era of desktop computing.

A coworker recently faced the problem to copy&pasting a large amount of text into a VNC terminal for openQA. VNC doesn’t always allow copy&paste and when you have to manually type a longer string this is prone to typos and human error.

There was a service degradation of our reference server. After a deployment of build.opensuse.org on Tuesday, March 19, 10:36 UTC, accessing the changes on some Submit Requests showed this error to the users: Not all Submit Requests were affected. Specifically, only those requests that had changes on files containing a slash symbol in its path (e.g: buildah-1.35.1.tar.xz/CHANGELOG.md). Our production instance was back to normal operation at 13:05 UTC, so users were impacted by this during...

The openSUSE community’s Contribution Workshops continues to move forward with exciting new sessions.

The next session, which is Episode 4: openSUSE Contribution Workshop: Packaging Rust in Open Build Service, is scheduled to take place tomorrow, March 21 at 20:15 UTC on the openSUSE Project’s YouTube channel. The stream will coincide with the community meeting and provide an option for live interaction and learning. This session promises to delve on the intricacies of packaging Rust projects in OBS.

Episode 5 will focus on contributing to openSUSE Leap and will likely be released next week. The session aims to shed light on the internal workings of the openSUSE Leap distribution and offers insights into project structure, feature tracking and the process of updating packages sourced from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The schedule for this episode will be announced on calendar.opensuse.org.

The Contribution Workshops series was launched in February and the workshops aim to equip enthusiasts and newcomers with the necessary skills to contribute effectively to the project.

The following episodes were already released:

• Episode 1: openSUSE Contribution Workshop: Basic use of OBS osc using a version bump as an example
• Episode 2: openSUSE Contribution Workshop: From 0 to an rpm package packaging GNU Hello
• Episode 3: openSUSE Contribution Workshop: openSUSE Leap 15.6 Beta Bug Day

One Identity Cloud PAM Essentials is the latest security product by One Identity. It provides asset management as well as secure and monitored remote access for One Identity Cloud users to hosts on their local network. I had a chance to test PAM Essentials while still in development. While there, I also integrated it with syslog-ng.

From this blog, you can learn what PAM Essentials is, and how you can collect its logs using syslog-ng. My next blog will show you how to work with the collected log messages and create alerts when somebody connects to a host on your local network using PAM Essentials.

https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/collecting-one-identity-cloud-pam-essentials-logs-using-syslog-ng