Indice dei contenuti per May 2025 in Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, Fires were burning in Cupertino this March as news of an internal meeting revealed consternation within Apple over the state of development for the Siri voice assistant. The situation was described as “dire” in the headlines, although the meeting appears to have been more like a combination of a pep talk and an expectation-management exercise. Unfortunately, whoever leaked the news of the meeting leaked it to Bloomberg, who placed the article behind a paywall [1], so most of the descriptions are from third parties [2], but it appears that the “incredibly impressive” new features targeted for release with iOS 19 “only work properly up to two thirds to 80 percent of the time” [3]. It is embarrassing, of course, for this kind of thing to leak, but I…

Gnome fans know all too well about extensions. These tiny additions to the Gnome desktop extend the functionality, feature set, and customization so users can wind up with a desktop that is unique to them. One such extension is Dash to Panel (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/), which moved the Gnome Dash to a main panel at the bottom of the display. This extension can make the desktop workflow a bit more efficient by reducing the number of clicks required to launch an app. The latest release of Dash to Panel has a new trick up its sleeve, one that a lot of users will happily welcome. That feature makes it possible to use Dash to Panel in dock mode. You can even set the margins to achieve a flowing panel/dock look. You might…

Linux Magazine www.linux-magazine.com ADMIN Online http://www.admin-magazine.com/ Core Linux Commands for HPC • Jeff Layton Many people want to get into HPC but aren’t sure how. We consider commands that would be a good starting point, especially if you want to build your own home system. File Integrity Checks with AIDE • Matthias Wübbeling If an attacker gains access to your systems, you need to quickly discover the attacker’s tracks to mitigate further damage. We show you how to monitor changes to files with the Linux AIDE tool. Sizing Monster VMs • Wolfgang Weith Massive, performance-hungry VMs require proper handling to meet their dynamic requirements. We give you some rules to help size these monsters properly. Networking Linux on Azure • Marcin Gastol We explore advanced networking strategies tailored for Linux…

We live in wild times, my friends. If the Gnome developers follow through with their proposed plans to drop RPM support, these times are going to get even wilder. Before you lose your Linux-loving mind, this doesn’t mean that the Gnome desktop environment will only be available to install via Flatpak. However, it does mean that the development team is considering removing support for RPMs within Gnome Software. That’s a mighty big change, but it’s one that’s been written all over the walls for a while now. Many instances of Gnome Software (such as with Pop!_OS) already default to Flatpak installations, so it should come as no surprise that the next step in the evolution would be to make that the only option. In one particular Fedora mailing list post…

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It is hard to imagine a gaming enthusiast who has not fallen in love with Nintendo at least once in their life. But everything comes with a price tag, even love. When one of the parties in a love affair starts expressing their love via unholy acts, the other party must question the validity of that relationship. Nintendo holds quite the reputation [1] when it comes to the kind of love that it often demonstrates (or doesn’t demonstrate) toward its fanbase. Even when some non-profitable community project shows potential, it seems that the project is received as a blow [2] to Nintendo pride rather than as a show of endorsement [3] and gratefulness [4] from a kind and loving community. One could argue that a second golden age for the…

Order online: https://bit.ly/Linux-Magazine-Library #293/April 2025 Trojan Horse We’re all taught to fear Trojan horse programs, but what are they really? This month we steal a look inside to show how attackers use Trojans to stash their nefarious code in ordinary applications. On the DVD: Debian 12.9 Live Gnome and Arch Linux 2025.02.01 #292/March 2025 What Comes After Git? Git is practically part of the woodwork in open source circles, but can we do better? The Pijul developers think we can. This month we look at the ambitious Pijul project and the effort to build a next-generation version management system based on patches rather than snapshots. On the DVD: AlmaLinux 9.5 and Manjaro Gnome 24.2 #291/February 2025 Optimizing Linux All the classic Linux distros are optimized for some abstract “general purpose”…

Rocky Linux 9.5 64-bit Rocky Linux is a nonprofit, community-based enterprise operating system. The project’s website describes it as “100-percent bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.” Rocky Linux 9.5 is focused mainly on security features and upgrades. Its SELinux policy now allows the Qemu Guest Agent to execute confined commands, while its crypto-policies now control Java’s algorithm sections. Rocky Linux’s ca-certificates program provides trusted CA roots in the OpenSSL directory format. In addition, both the OpenSSL TLS and the NSS cryptographic toolkits are upgraded. Other upgrades are included for Apache HTTP Server 2.4.62 and Node.js 22, as well as system toolchain components such as GCC 11.5 and Annobin 12.70; performance tools and debuggers such as GDB 14.2 and Valgrind 3.23.0; monitoring tools including PCP 6.2.2 and Grafana 10.2.6; container…

You read it correctly, the open source 3D-creation software has made it to Hollywood. In fact, a film that made use of Blender won an Oscar. The film in question is Flow, which is an animated feature that follows the mystical journey of a cat and his friends. According to Blender, the film is the very manifestation of Blender’s mission, where “a small, independent team with a limited budget is able to create a story that moves audiences worldwide.” Recently, Francesco Siddi, COO of Blender, had an interview with Flow director Gints Zilbalodis. During that interview, Zilbalodis spoke about his migration to Blender. “After finishing my first feature, Away, I decided to switch to Blender in 2019, mainly because of EEVEE. I started using the 2.8 beta or even alpha…

Seal Security (https://www.seal.security/), a web-based security platform that provides advanced threat protection and incident response capabilities for individuals, businesses, and organizations, is set to launch Seal OS. According to the Seal OS website (https://www.seal.security/solutions/seal-os), this new Linux tool will vulnerability-proof your Linux operating systems, so you can deploy pristine, secure Linux images. Seal OS works like this: 1. Discovers vulnerabilities 2. Applies security patches 3. Deploys a new image With Seal OS, you’ll be able to automate vulnerability remediation for your existing Linux deployments while maintaining code security, compliance, and application stability. You’ll be able to secure your Linux systems, installed packages, and legacy and third-party apps, while staying compliant and within your service-level agreement (SLA) and more. Seal OS can help your systems stay compliant with FedRAMP, PCI DSS…

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release that is as secure as any Linux distribution, and it offers plenty of tools for power users (such as YaST). For years it has used AppArmor as its underlying security layer, but that is about to change. As a bleeding-edge distribution, the Tumbleweed developers don’t mind making dramatic changes, especially with the internals. One such dramatic change, which was announced on the openSUSE Factory mailing list (https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/thread/G3W5NIY3OKRBHPHWTPYEUPSS4LKZN77N/), will be the move from AppArmor to SELinux for mandatory access control. SELinux will be set to enforcing mode on openSUSE Tumbleweed. However, if you would like to stick with AppArmor, you can do so manually in the OS installer. It’s also important to note that existing installations will not be switched to SE-Linux. Leap users don’t…

In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a monster with a lion’s body, a goat’s head, and a snake for a tail. It is an ideal name for a distribution assembled from various parts of different operating systems and tools from diverse sources, ranging from FreeBSD core tools and Clang Power Tools to Alpine’s apktools package manager and systemd’s logind. This fresh approach makes Chimera Linux (Figure 1) [1] stand out from the dozens of distributions derived from a handful of long-established popular distributions. Here, nina (q66), Chimera Linux’s project leader, goes into technical detail about this original distribution. Linux Magazine (LM): What are the goals of Chimera Linux? Was there was a defining moment or incident that inspired it? nina (q66): The goal is to rethink the way a Linux…

The measured value in bits per second for the data currently pouring through my Internet connection provides information on whether my home network is working well or whether someone in the household is currently using an excessive amount of bandwidth. In a scenario where all of the data traffic flows through a central router such as my pfSense appliance, it is easy to average the bit count over several seconds, for example, using the genuinely helpful vnStat utility. To install the tool on my pfSense router as a normal package in typical FreeBSD style, I call and then to launch the daemon, which keeps a constant record of the throughput and stores the measured values in its own binary database. After a little lead time, I can then query the…

Use a Raspberry Pi plus a temperature sensor to talk to a PS Vita Display Show the Outside Temperature The Lua programming language [1] is often viewed as mainly a video game scripting language, because many popular games such as Angry Birds, Roblox, and World of Warcraft use it. But Lua scripts run extremely fast, making Lua a good option for many small embedded systems where Python isn’t supported or may have performance issues. In this article, I’ll introduce Lua by letting it fight Python in a simple performance test that compares startup times. Next, I’ll look at some good application fits for Lua, and I’ll finish with a small home project that uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W that sends weather data to a PlayStation (PS) Vita handheld gaming…

Open data The world is in a large amount of turmoil these days and sometimes it can be overwhelming. We wonder what we can do to make a difference in what is going on, and sometimes are depressed in our feelings of helplessness. Fortunately for many of us we have free software, open hardware, and open data, tools we can contribute to and utilize to help, in each person’s way, to make things better. While many of us are familiar with free software and to a certain extent open hardware, sometimes we forget about the concept of open data, data that is free to use, modify, and distribute to others under formats that are open and free to use. One issue related to this is document formats, which I became…

Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software Slow Open Source? As I was scrolling r/opensource this month, I happened across a link to a post by open source developer Lukasz Gornicki entitled “Stop Blaming Open Source Slowness.” In it, he talks about how the slow pace at which open source projects change can seem frustrating. User demand sometimes even leads to quick fixes like patches or temporary forks to the detriment of the overall development process. Lukasz gently reminds readers that there are two principal types of open source developer. One type is those that are employed full time by a company who will prioritize their employer’s needs. The other type are volunteers who can only contribute in their free time. As much…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at https://www.linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to info@linux-magazine.com. Linux App Summit Date: April 25-26, 2025 Location: Tirana, Albania Website: https://linuxappsummit.org/ The Linux App Summit (LAS) brings the global Linux community together to learn, collaborate, and help grow the Linux application ecosystem. Through talks, panels, and Q&A sessions, we encourage attendees to share ideas, make connections, and join our goal of building a common app ecosystem. PyCon US 2025 Date: May 14-22, 2025 Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Website: https://us.pycon.org/2025/…

Linux Magazine is looking for authors to write articles on Linux and the tools of the Linux environment. We like articles on useful solutions that solve practical problems. The topic could be a desktop tool, a command-line utility, a network monitoring application, a homegrown script, or anything else with the potential to save a Linux user trouble and time. Our goal is to tell our readers stories they haven’t already heard, so we’re especially interested in original fixes and hacks, new tools, and useful applications that our readers might not know about. We also love articles on advanced uses for tools our readers do know about – stories that take a traditional application and put it to work in a novel or creative way. We are currently seeking articles on…

The grub2 boot loader is a staple of the Linux ecosystem. It is so easy to press the button and watch it go that many users don’t ever look closely at how to customize and adapt the system startup process. Next month we show you some tricks with grub2. Also inside: • Build a Custom Linux Distro for Niche Applications • Onion OS: Play with Linux on Retro Handheld Gaming Consoles • Rust in the Linux Kernel • Ultra-light Web Apps with Streamlit • And much more! Please note: Articles could change before the next issue. BE THE FIRST TO SEE WHAT’S NEXT The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up…

CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux CIQ recently announced a new version of Rocky Linux with an awkward name but plenty of extra security. The name, Rocky Linux from CIQ – Hardened, certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue, but when you read about what the team has done to this distribution, the name won’t matter. Here’s the deal. Rocky Linux from CIQ – Hardened is delivered via a secure supply chain and packages, pre-configured security, code-level hardening that blocks common exploits, automated security updates, enhanced threat detection, and support. This is all done while maintaining API and ABI compatibility with the usual standards applied to Enterprise Linux. Other important features of Rocky Linux from CIQ – Hardened include system-level hardening, accelerated risk management, strong access controls, and simple deployment.…

Sometimes change happens because it’s required. Sometimes change happens because it’s desired. Sometimes the twain shall meet and a change happens because it’s both required and desired. I believe that to be the case with the news from the official Linux Mint blog (https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4811) about what’s coming for the Cinnamon application menu. What the developers have designed isn’t a dramatic reinvention of the app menu, but a sort of reconfiguring of the constituent parts. Essentially, the redesign expands the side panel in the desktop menu such that it shows the full name of pinned icons (launchers), but it also adds the standard home folders (Home, Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads). At the same time, your username and avatar will be shown in the top-left corner of the new…

For those anxiously awaiting the next non-LTS release of Ubuntu, a plucky little puffin has some exciting news. At the time of writing, Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) is scheduled to be released on April 17 with quite a few notable features. One of the more exciting (and under the hood) changes is the replacement of -O2 compiler optimizations with -O3. This should go a long way to boosting the execution speed of all apps. Also, Ubuntu 25.04 ships with the 6.14 kernel which provides additional hardware support, better energy efficiency, and additional security patches. Another big update is Gnome 48. Not only does Gnome 48 further refine the responsiveness of the UI, but it also improves workflow and introduces a new Well-being tracker that allows users to manage screen time.…

Author The Linux kernel mailing list comprises the core of Linux development activities. Traffic volumes are immense, often reaching 10,000 messages in a week, and keeping up to date with the entire scope of development is a virtually impossible task for one person. One of the few brave souls to take on this task is Zack Brown. Doing the Two-Step Sometimes developer conflicts are navigated with grace and poise. For example, Bart Van Assche recently invited public comment on something he’d been working on. Specifically, he pointed out that the Clang C compiler was capable of various compile-time tests – including multi-threading safety tests – that could potentially identify bugs in source code. To demonstrate this, he posted a patch containing fixes for almost 900 files in the Linux kernel…

In the winter, you spend a lot of time indoors, making it important to keep an eye on C02 concentrations. In contrast to sensors for measuring temperature and humidity, CO2 sensors are quite expensive, with prices consistently in the double-digit range. This quickly adds up if you want to monitor more than one room. To make C02 monitoring more budget friendly, this article focuses on three inexpensive solutions: the Winsen MH-Z19C [1], the ScioSense ENS160 [2], and the Sensirion SCD40 [3]. The latter sensor from brand manufacturers such as Adafruit, Pimoroni, or SparkFun are really expensive, costing between $40 and $80. AliExpress gives you cheaper options with prices below $15, but those come with the added thrill of not knowing whether parts will even work. Infrared Measurement The Winsen MH-Z19C…