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 […]

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.

One of the games that I think is a great accomplishment is the direct port of “Sonic the Hedgehog” from the SEGA Master System to the Commodore 64. This was manually converted from Z80 to 6502 assembly by Mr. SID. The game plays great on real hardware with a RAM Expansion Unit or REU. I […]

We took another step on the SCM/CI integration of the Open Build Service. This time we improved the rendering time of the workflow runs UI and enhanced the user documentation. Reduced Rendering Time of Workflow Runs UI Previously with a lot of workflow runs being present, the UI took multiple seconds in order to load and render. This was above whats acceptable, so we took another look onto it and reduced the overall rendering times...

The conversation that was wrapped around immutable operating systems and Wayland went a lot deeper than I thought it would. Adam Grubbs presented to the panel how he builds and deploys a custom Fedora Silverblue image with the hardware tweaks necessary for his Asus laptop. His solutions is obviously not one that everyone can do […]