Table of contents for July 2023 in Linux Format

Jonni Bidwell The document indexing features on Gnome and KDE Plasma are all well and good, but if they get their teeth into large media collections, they can very rapidly start eating memory and choking on large files. Tell them not to index certain locations, such as /media. Les Pounder Keeping it ultra-light, I like to use DietPi (https://dietpi.com) on server/appliance Raspberry Pi builds. The easy-to-use installer and menu-driven interface make it a breeze to configure servers, Wi-Fi hotspots, even gaming via emulation and Steam. Mayank Sharma I rarely power cycle my box so I’m not really concerned about boot speed. To speed up application startup times, I suggest using preload, but only if you have ample RAM. On older PCs with less RAM, it’s best to use lightweight DEs…

Released late April, Linux kernel 6.3 brought thousands of new lines of code to improve the core kernel, architectural support, networking and filesystems. The support for hundreds of new devices has also been added, along with more Rust support, although there is still a long way to go before Rust modules are supported. Also, the requirement to use a legal name for contributing to the Linux kernel, which was added in 2006, has been lifted by Linus Torvalds himself. The updated Developer Certificate of Origin allows contributors to use any known identity (pseudonyms or nicknames). This subtle yet important change enables those who go by a preferred name (which differs from that by which they are legally known) to contribute more easily, thus increasing the inclusivity of the kernel community.…

In early May, Linux creator Linus Torvalds took some time out of the big picture stuff to merge his own x86-rep-insns branch to the kernel for Linux 6.4. Torvalds explained further in the git merge: “This cleans up a lot of our x86 memory copy code, particularly for user accesses. I’ve been pushing for micro-architectural support for good memory copying and clearing for a long while. “Micro-architectural support has been improving over the years, to the point where on modern CPUs the best option for a memory copy that would become a function call is now to inline the string instruction sequence instead. However, that only makes sense when we have the modern markers for this: the x86 FSRM and FSRS capabilities (Fast Short REP MOVS/STOS). “So this cleans up…

Linus Torvalds announced Linux 6.4-rc1 following the closure of the customary two-week merge window, during which disruptive changes are allowed into a new kernel development cycle. The new kernel includes a number of new architecture-specific features, such as x86 LAM (Linear Address Masking) that allows user apps to borrow the top six bits of 56-bit virtual addresses for use as tags (while ignoring them as part of the actual address, this is useful for JITs and JVMs, for example, that need to add metadata to pointers), and a piece of new infrastructure for RISC-V called riscv_hwprobe that aims to make it easier for applications to discover the exact flavour of RISC-V support available. Perhaps most unusual was “that we had two different pull requests that ended up with me doing…

Beginner programming languages Multi-lingual Michael Reed investigates the best programming languages for a beginner to start learning how to code with. HOW WE TESTED… We tried to approach each language from the perspective of a beginner – someone who has either never programmed before or only has a little bit of experience. However, we had a goal in mind. We are looking for a language suitable for someone who is just starting out but would like to eventually graduate to being able to create substantial applications or become a contributor to existing Linux projects. These criteria rule out some simpler teaching systems, such as Scratch, as they aren’t designed to create full apps. We’re also thinking about people who might be thinking of doing an academic course involving programming and…

The first Cambridge Raspberry Jam (https://twitter.com/ CambridgeJam) since the pandemic recently took place and, by all accounts, it was a resounding success. Organised by Brian Corteil, Cambridge Raspberry Jam is one of the oldest jams in existence (the very oldest being Manchester) and is run inside of Cambridge Makespace (https://twitter.com/ cammakespace). At the event there was a range of workshops, talks and tables where makers could show off their builds and help others to build their own. Sadly, I couldn’t be there in person, but through the power of social media, I kept track of the event and it seems that it was well attended and featured a diverse range of projects. Dr Chris Parrott, roboticist for Pimoroni, demonstrated a table full of Raspberry Pi RP2040- powered creations, many of…

Credit: www.gnu.org/software/gcl/ OUR EXPERT Mike Bedford found that getting to grips with LISP was a completely new experience, but he’s not convinced he’ll be embracing it in the future, despite its obvious quirkiness. We can’t trace its fortunes year on year, but according to the TIOBE Index, LISP was the third most commonly used language in 1988. Today it’s at position 29, and while that’s a substantial drop since its heyday, we don’t think it’s bad going for a 64-year-old language. In the previous instalment in our series on classic programming languages, we examined I ALGOL, and this month we’re delving into another archaic language, LISP. However, the fact they both date back to the 1950s is about the only thing the two have in common; in most other respects…

Credit: https://milkytracker.org OUR EXPERT Michael Reed first came across computer music on his Acorn Archimedes in the late ’80s. He’s tracked on every major platform since. we’re going to take a look at a workflow for creating vintage-style tunes using Linux W tracker software. Best of all, no previous musical experience is required. The tracker method of music construction began on the Commodore Amiga line of computers in the late 1980s. Tracker music programs arrange the notes in a series of columns of numbers and letters. It might sound complicated, but once you’ve got the hang of playing in notes on the QWERTY keyboard, it becomes a quick and simple way of composing tunes. Tracker files include the samples that constitute the instruments of the tune, meaning that it’s simple…

Credit: https://github.com/joewing OUR EXPERT David Bolton has been programming since before the war. Which war? Don’t ask. He wrote a 1,000-player RPG game called Quest in 1989 that is still running today. QUICK TIP Open another terminal while in the maze and run Scrot in the terminal to get a screen grab. It saves a date/ time-stamped PNG file in the current folder. Raspberry Pi OS comes with Scrot already installed. You can find many mazegeneration programs in C on the web. Many of those output the mazes as texts. In this example, we’re going to set up Visual Studio Code (aka VS Code) and write a Cprogram that uses the SDL2 library to draw the maze and then solve it. For this tutorial, the program was developed on a…

It’s fascinating to read the constant online forum complaints against Ubuntu. Despite a plethora of alternative options and the ability to bypass Snaps – the main source of recent gripes – people still love to vent about something they don’t actually have to use. Let’s also keep in mind that the single biggest third-party installer of Snaps are Linux Mint users, one of the key anti-Snap voices. But let’s not give Canonical a free pass here. Snaps are proprietary, Snaps do slow application launches, at least initially, Canonical did drop Flatpak support – a popular alternative – and quietly swapped the Chrome DEB install for a Snap package. Annoying, but the end of the world? You can easily add Flatpak back in, you can easily strip out Snap, or you…

In case you haven’t heard, MySQL 5.7 is going end of life (EOL). The upstream project will stop updates in October and focus on MySQL 8.0. This is a logical decision and they’ve given users ample time to upgrade. But some users and organisations need more time. This is why open source is so vital. When proprietary apps are EOLed, that’s it. With MySQL, vendors or the community can address bugs or security issues after the upstream ends support. Consider Python 2.7. Even after its EOL date, it’s got support from companies like Red Hat for customers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It’s not glamorous to provide fixes for older releases, but it is necessary for open source to thrive in the enterprise where an app may live for a…

The EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor) is piloting the use of the open source software Nextcloud and Collabora Online (based on LibreOffice tech) to share files, send messages, make video calls, and collaborate on docs in a secured cloud. The EDPS is an independent supervisory authority whose mission is to create awareness of risks and protect people’s rights and freedoms when personal data is processed. Wojciech Wiewiórowski, EDPS, said: “Open source software offers data protection-friendly alternatives to commonly used cloud service providers that often imply the transfer of individuals’ personal data to non-EU countries. Solutions like this may therefore minimise reliance on monopoly providers and vendor lock-in. By negotiating a contract with an EU-based provider of cloud services, the EDPS is delivering on its commitments as set out in its…

Kernel development is pretty fast paced. In an average month, there are over 10,000 messages posted to the Linux Kernel Mailing List. As a result, it is easy to miss something important, and very easy to lose track of a bug needing attention, even if Thorsten Leemhuis is trying to keep track of regressions from one release to the next. Enter Konstantin Ryabitsev, the Kernel.org admin and developer of much of the infrastructure powering the site. Konstantin recently announced Bugbot, which connects the Bugzilla. Kernel.org bug tracker with the kernel mailing list. Entering certain magic incantations in an email thread causes a new bug to be opened about the topic under discussion, including the history, while mailing list discussions can be started via new bugs that contain the suitable incantation…

OUR EXPERT Les Pounder is associate editor at Tom’s Hardware and a freelance maker for hire. He blogs about his adventures and projects at http://bigl.es. YOU NEED Any Pi An LED 330 ohm resistor (orangeorangebrown-gold) 2x femaleto-male jumper wires Breadboard M ost of the time, installing Python modules happens either systemwide, or at a use level. This is fine if your Raspberry Pi is just for one project, but what if your Raspberry Pi is a multi-use machine? Python modules can conflict – modules installed via the OS package manager can be older than those installed using Python’s Pip package manager. In this tutorial, we’re creating a quick and simple virtual environment where we can install Python modules without impacting the underlying operating system. Open a terminal on your Raspberry…

OUR EXPERT Shashank Sharma is a trial lawyer in Delhi and an avid Arch user. He’s always on the hunt for affordable geeky memorabilia. w hether to preserve one’s sanity or just to get a sense of productivity and organisation into our lives, we’ve all created a to-do list at some point. The simplest to-do list is a text file comprising a list of tasks to be accomplished. Maybe with a due date thrown in, and perhaps liberal use of symbols, such as dashes and stars, to distinguish important and urgent tasks. The only downside to such an approach is the inability to quickly glean useful data from it, or to rearrange the list based on priority or due date. This is where to-do managers such as Dooit come in.…

Credit: http://asciidoc.org OUR EXPERT Karsten Günther makes documents with AsciiDoc, LaTeX and other formats. If he needs a metaformat, he uses AsciiDoc. A sciiDoc is a shell program that takes source text, formats it and produces legible, correct output. A plus of AsciiDoc is that there are several versions in Ruby, Java, JavaScript and Python (plus Rust and Go unofficially) that produces mostly identical output. Markup or formatting languages are about separating content from presentation. So tables are special structures with rows and columns, not text aligned by indents and spaces. AsciiDoc tries to emulate many functions of LaTeX, albeit at a low level. LaTeX documents, for example, allow data to be automatically read in and prepared, as well as define their own macros and more. AsciiDoc does not do…

Credit: https://github.com/Textualize/rich OUR EXPERT Matt Holder has been a fan of the open source methodology for over two decades and uses Linux and other tools where possible. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music and reading. When writing terminal apps, it would sometimes be useful W to emphasise information, to make the user aware of certain important or dangerous operations. The Rich library provides console rendering for many things, such as the printing of emojis, coloured text, rendering of tabular information and markdown, collection of information from the user – including allowing from a selection of choices as well as progress bars and spinners, which is helpful in denoting long-running information. Another useful feature of the library is the ability to export the console output to a file…

For the first time in its six-year existence KeePassXC has undergone a full security audit by independent security specialist Zaur Molotnikov. The KeePassXC blog summarises his findings after scouring over 127,000 lines of C++ code: “I have reviewed the core features of KeePassXC focusing mainly on its database reading and writing features, and cryptography use. I could discover no major problems. To the best of my knowledge, I can recommend the use of core KeePassXC 2.7.4 functionality: reading and writing the database files with confidential user information.” Although KeePassXC is backwardscompatible with older password database formats, his review focuses only on the latest KDBX4 format, which uses powerful AES-256- CBC encryption. Redditors also spotted an ongoing security flaw caused by the absence of hardened memory allocators. This means if the…

Q Driverless network I am a long-time subscriber and I have finally built my dream machine, with plans on running multiboot Linux distros on it. My basic problem is that I can’t connect to a network, or obviously the internet, with any Linux distribution. My first choice would be to use Linux Mint, but no luck, so I tried booting from a live USB and tried Ubuntu 22.04 and even Fedora 37. I really, really want to multiboot Linux Mint, Ubuntu 22.04 and Fedora 37 on the same machine using Ethernet. The network device is a Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller running the 10.56.119.220 drive on Windows 10 Pro (rt640X64.sys). I have searched the internet, but I am not having much luck finding Linux drivers for this controller. Frank Gunseor…

Canonical’s latest version of Ubuntu (23.04) hit the mirrors back in April. And if you like to live on the edge, you might well already be running it. It’s an intermediate release (with only nine months of support as opposed to the five years provided to major releases), so if you’re running the last LTS release (22.04), you may well prefer to stick with that. Either way, we’re going to take this opportunity to look at how you can streamline and slimline your Ubuntu install. We’ll start by swapping Gnome for a lighter desktop environment, such as Xfce or LXQt. If you’re running Ubuntu Server, this probably won’t be of much interest, as you’re likely already running the lightest desktop possible (ie none). So if you’d like to run Ubuntu…

OUR EXPERT Tam Hanna has been using the Raspberry Pi and similar single-board computers since their initial release in 2012. Before that, he kept himself busy with general electronics design and phone programming. WARNING Microsoft Azure is a paidfor service. Linux Format cannot be held responsible for any costs incurred from following this tutorial. The reader is wholly responsible for account creation and subsequent service costs. Artificial intelligence models tend to show A surprisingly large amounts of robustness against suboptimal image quality; many images that a human photographer would delete during chimping pass muster when studied from an AI model’s point of view. Due to this, we can get away with using relatively dated hardware – the main computer is a Raspberry Pi 4, while the Raspberry Pi Camera Module…

OUR EXPERT Nick Peers wishes he could plug Recoll into his own brain. His ageing synapses aren’t what they once were. Sorry, what was the question again? QUICK TIP Take the time to read through Recoll’s comprehensive documentation at www.lesbons comptes. com/recoll/ usermanual/ webhelp/docs/ where you’ll find detailed sections on installation and configuration, indexing, search syntax and even help on writing your own plugin APIs CS ometimes, it can seem like finding a file is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Your desktop’s own search tools are fine when you know the name (or part of the name) of the file you’re looking for, but what if you can’t remember the file’s name (never mind where it might reside), but do remember some of its content? The solution…

OUR EXPERT Stuart Burns works in Linux systems management for highperformance computing for a Fortune 500 company. WARNING Microsoft Azure is a paidfor service. Linux Format cannot be held responsible for any costs incurred from following this tutorial. The reader is wholly responsible for account creation and subsequent service costs. we’re looking at how Linux and Azure can W work together to provide a highly resilient infrastructure and how the features that come as part of Azure can make life easier. To try this out, we’ll create a basic Ubuntu VM and look into the principles behind Azure best practice and then discuss some of the more advanced features. Be aware: trying this tutorial does have a small cost for the virtual machines and associated items created. As long as…

Mayank Sharma can’t decide whether he was more petrified when he rode his first modern roller coaster or when he hopped inside an ancient paternoster lift. AUDIO STREAMER SonoBus Version: 1.6.2 Web: https://sonobus.net If you host a podcast or an audio call with multiple participants, you can use SonoBus I to record the audio from everyone, as well as stream audio content to the whole group. The crossplatform app works across devices over the local network as well as over the internet. The project can be installed via its official repo for Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu, and Linux Mint: $ echo “deb http://pkg.sonobus.net/apt stable main” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sonobus.list $ sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/sonobus.gpg https://pkg.sonobus.net/apt/keyring.gpg $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install sonobus If you use another distro,…