FOSS Roundup #7 – M1, Gaming, Docs, and More!
It’s been another exciting week in the Linux landscape, with Linux support arriving for the M1 and gaming on Linux continuing to expand thanks to the Steam Deck. Around Xubuntu, docs are done, and AppImage continues to be supported. As usual, Xfce has a few new releases as well. All this and more in this week’s FOSS Roundup!
The first Asahi Linux alpha release arrives
The first release of Asahi Linux, the first distribution for M1-powered Macs, has been made available. There are still many missing features, but even just getting here is incredible. This team has made so much progress in a very short time. Interestingly, Apple has, at the same time, been quietly enabling features to support booting Linux on the M1 Macs.
Microsoft is working to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to Steam Deck
Working closely with Valve, Microsoft has prepared a beta version of the Microsoft Edge browser that brings the cloud gaming service to Linux and the Steam Deck. A handful of Microsoft-published verified titles are also available on Steam.
The new Xubuntu Documentation is finally ready
After nearly two years, the newly rewritten Xubuntu Documentation is ready to be reviewed, merged, and published. Together with another Xubuntu Team member, I worked with members of the community to document Xubuntu’s user experience more completely. The most painful part of it all was converting to DocBook, our native documentation format. This part is now complete.
It's finally done. 🎉 https://t.co/k7a2bP6sYH https://t.co/jinkuoI6ZV
I'm so tired of working with Docbook. pic.twitter.com/k0rmta101k
— Sean Davis 🦣 @bluesabre@floss.social (@bluesabredavis) March 19, 2022
Supporting AppImage on Xubuntu
While installing Xubuntu 22.04 on my main machine for testing, I found that it could no longer open software distributed with AppImage. This includes .run and .AppImage files that you might find online, like DaVinci Resolve or Cryptomator. The missing piece was the libfuse2 package, which was no longer pulled in as a dependency in 22.04. As of today’s daily ISO, this issue should be resolved for Xubuntu and Ubuntu Studio.
http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/universe/x/xubuntu-meta/xubuntu-meta_2.240/changelog
This week’s Xfce releases
libxfce4ui 4.17.5 was released this week, including several bug fixes and enabling Mousepad to use the XfceShortcutsEditor. Sounds like some nice new features are on their way.
Orage 4.16.0, previously unmaintained and archived, has now been ported to GTK 3 and is once again an active Xfce project. The Orage panel plugin has been discontinued, but the standalone calendar application will be supported going forward.
What I’m working on…
With the documentation updates nearly out of the way and bug lists cleaned up, I hope to start working on bug fixes and more testing this week. We’ve also nearly completed voting on the 22.04 Xubuntu Wallpaper contest, with 3 clearly identified winners and three we’re sorting out. Look for more news early this week.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sending me a tip! I’ve added links to GitHub Sponsors, Ko-Fi, and Patreon to the Donate page on my website.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week with some new and exciting Xfce and Xubuntu updates! Have a great week, and stay safe out there!
FOSS Roundup #6 – Where have all the good bugs gone?
Welcome to the sixth edition of my Weekly FOSS Roundup! I’ve been hard at it this week, cleaning up Xubuntu bugs and hacking on docs. A new Linux vulnerability, “Dirty Pipe,” was announced. And Xfce has been accepted into the 2022 Google Summer of Code program. What a week!
Dirty Pipe Linux Vulnerability Discovered
A new Linux vulnerability that allows attackers to overwrite read-only files, including immutable files and those on read-only Btrfs snapshots. Kernel versions 5.10.102, 5.15.25, and 5.16.11 have already been patched. Update your machines now!
Xfce Accepted into Google Summer of Code 2022
Xfce will again participate in the Google Summer of Code (abbreviated “GSoC”) in 2022. GSoC is a program focused on attracting new contributors to open-source software development through a 12-plus-week mentorship program.
Submissions for the 22.04 Xubuntu Wallpaper Contest are Now Closed
After receiving a fantastic 126 submissions from numerous contributors, the 22.04 Xubuntu Wallpaper Contest is now closed for additional submissions. The Xubuntu Team will begin the voting process, with expected results within the next two weeks.
Submissions for the 22.04 Xubuntu Wallpaper Contest are now closed! We received 126 submissions, and will now begin the voting process. Look forward to news of the winning entries in the near future. In the meantime, you can browse the entries here: https://t.co/HamoGf1sQp
— Xubuntu (@Xubuntu) March 13, 2022
This Week’s Xfce Releases
Xfce Screenshooter 1.9.10 features a handful of fixes and now uses symbolic icons for the interface. This means the application will automatically look better regardless of using a dark or light GTK theme.
Xubuntu Bug Spring Cleaning
I’m unsure what prompted me, but I got into a cleaning mood this week. I started the long and arduous task of cleaning up Xubuntu’s bug reports. After starting with nearly 2,000 bug reports that affect Xubuntu and its related packages, I’ve reduced this list to a (still large) 1,584 bugs! There’s still lots of work and probably a hundred or more bugs that could be cleaned up or de-duplicated.
My first pass is finally done. Down from nearly 2,000 bugs to 1,584! What remains now are bugs that are reported or confirmed for 20.04+. I also didn't touch blueman, onboard, synaptic, or the Mate apps.
Next steps: Triage in 22.04, tag duplicates, and report bugs upstream. pic.twitter.com/omNBENUNan
— Sean Davis 🦣 @bluesabre@floss.social (@bluesabredavis) March 11, 2022
Making Strides with Xubuntu Documentation
I had a really productive week with the Xubuntu Documentation, getting the to-do list down to just two more chapters. I need to go through and clean up some of the formatting and tag usage, but we should be ready to merge this week! The latest documentation has been built here.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sending me a tip! I’ve added links to GitHub Sponsors, Ko-Fi, and Patreon to the Donate page on my website.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week with some new and exciting Xfce and Xubuntu updates! Have a great week, and stay safe out there!
FOSS Roundup #5 – Time to Test (Ubuntu Flavors)
Welcome to the fifth edition of my Weekly FOSS Roundup! We’re halfway through the Ubuntu Testing Week (March 3-10), and it’s time to start getting involved. In other news, the Xubuntu Wallpaper contest is ongoing, and there are some updates around Bluetooth and Xfce. Here’s the latest!
The Xubuntu 22.04 Wallpaper Contest Continues
The Xubuntu 22.04 Wallpaper Contest is progressing smoothly. So far, we’ve already had 77 quality submissions from numerous contributors. Submissions are open through March 12, so it’s not too late to submit your own. Keep your submissions coming!
Ubuntu Testing Week March 3-10
The next LTS release of Ubuntu and its many flavors will be released in less than two months. Feature Freeze is behind us, so there is no better time to get started with testing. Please help make this another dependable release by taking time to test and report any bugs you find.
Linux Mint is Switching to the Blueman Bluetooth Manager
Linux Mint has been using its own Blueberry application to manage Bluetooth devices for several years now. Later this year, it looks like they’ll be switching to Blueman, the same utility found in Xubuntu and several other Linux distributions. Their move will no doubt have a positive impact on any other Blueman-using distros.
This Week’s Xfce Releases
The 0.9.2 release of the Xfce Terminal is a release candidate for the upcoming 1.0.0 release. It includes several improvements and bug fixes. Take it for a test drive to help identify and eliminate the remaining bugs!
Xfdashboard provides a GNOME Shell-like experience for Xfce. The new 0.9.90 release is a release candidate for the upcoming 1.0.0 release. If you’re a fan of GNOME Shell’s behavior but prefer to stick with Xfce, Xfdashboard is worth a look.
The Xfce Diskperf (Disk Performance) plugin displays instant disk and partition performance in the panel. The 2.7.0 release features various usability and feature improvements.
What I’m working on…
This week I spent extra time working on the Xubuntu Documentation updates. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 have been converted to Docbook, leaving only 8 chapters to go. I’ve got a pretty good flow for converting them now; it depends on having a solid, uninterrupted 20-30 minutes to migrate a single chapter.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sending me a tip! I’ve added links to GitHub Sponsors, Ko-Fi, and Patreon to the Donate page on my website.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week with some new and exciting Xfce and Xubuntu updates! Have a great week, and stay safe out there!
FOSS Roundup #4 – The Steamy Update
It’s the fourth edition of my Weekly FOSS Roundup! This week’s hottest news is the Steam Deck, an Arch-based handheld Linux gaming console. If that’s too hot, cool down with the OSTree-based XfIce desktop. Once you’re comfortable, send the Xubuntu team your best wallpaper for a chance to be included in the 22.04 release. Let’s get to it!
Steam Deck Released
Valve’s Steam Deck has finally been released. It runs Steam OS, based on Arch, with a KDE desktop. Hundreds of games are supported via Steam Proton. As more games become verified on the Deck, they’ll be supported on nearly any Linux distribution!
An OSTree-based Xfce desktop has arrived
Based on Fedora, the “XfIce” desktop is an immutable base operating system running Xfce. Immutable Linux distributions have gained popularity quickly, and now Xfce can be used with them.
The Xubuntu 22.04 Wallpaper Contest is Live
For every LTS release, Xubuntu holds a wallpaper contest for the community to submit their finest work for inclusion in the ISO release. The 22.04 contest is live until midnight March 13th (2022-03-13 00:00:00). There have already been 12 submissions! Send us yours!
A new guide for installing Xubuntu on the Raspberry Pi
One of the most popular articles on my website is a guide for installing Xubuntu 19.10 on the Raspberry Pi. This article is obsolete as I’ve published a new, in-depth how-to for the current supported and development releases. Check it out!
What I’m working on…
Last week I rolled out my new website. This week, I did some scans and found that I had a lot of broken links (bad migrations, services going away, the introduction of the Xfce GitLab, and deprecation of the Xfce build bot). Those have now been resolved, so any article you read on my site should take you to the right places. Here’s a relevant and time-appropriate goodie that would have been lost to time if not for archive.org…
Today, I am back to working on the Xubuntu documentation updates. There are only a few completed chapters left and a handful of chapters that we started updating a couple of years ago but stopped due to time conflicts (and, to some extent, probably burnout). That said, with the existing completed content, I may be able to wrap it as early as this week!
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sending me a tip! I’ve added links to GitHub Sponsors, Ko-Fi, and Patreon to the Donate page on my website.
See you next week with some more Linux and Open Source news!
Xfce Panel Profiles 1.0.13 Released
Introducing new layouts and improving on existing ones, Xfce Panel Profiles 1.0.13 makes it easier than ever to manage and experiment with new panel configurations.
What’s New?
New Features
- New “Cupertino” macOS-inspired layout ( Xfce #7). Note that this theme requires the AppMenu Plugin to display the menu in the panel.
- New “Redmond 7”, Windows 7-inspired layout ( Xfce #8)
- New “Xfce 4.16” layout to make it easier to get back to defaults
- The Whisker menu configuration is now included in the export (Xfce #11). Existing templates using the Whisker menu have been updated to include appropriate defaults.
General
- All existing templates have been updated with better support for Xfce 4.16. This includes updated launchers, current defaults, and replaced plugins.
- Bashisms have been removed from the Makefile, enabling installation with alternative shells.
Updated Translations
Belarusian, Czech
Screenshots
Xfce 4.16, Cupertino, and Redmond 7 Layouts
Downloads
Download Xfce Panel Profiles 1.0.13 from the link below.
Source tarball ( sha1, sha256)
Xfce PulseAudio Plugin 0.4.3 Released
Xfce PulseAudio Plugin 0.4.3 has arrived! It includes improved MPRIS compatibility and support for the Plasma Browser Integration plugin.
What’s New?
General
- Exo 0.11 or newer is now required
- Fixed various memory leaks and warnings
- Removed unused dbus-glib include (Xfce #15343)
- Replaced g_type_class_add_private deprecations
- Updated copyright years
- Updated URLs from goodies.xfce.org to docs.xfce.org (Xfce #16173)
MPRIS Enhancements
- Support for filename icons (Xfce #14329)
- Support for single-string variants on xesam:artist
- Support for the DesktopEntry property (Xfce #14412)
- Support for the plasma-browser-integration plugin (Xfce #15487)
- Detection of artist and title from the track title
Preferences
- Fixed icon rendering for known players
Translation Updates
Albanian, Belarusian, Chinese (Taiwan), Galician, Interlingue, Slovenian
Plasma/Browser Integration
Plasma/Browser Integration is an extension for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers that better integrates those browsers with the Plasma Shell. It enables the following functionality for Plasma desktops:
- MPRIS2 media controls
- Sending links via KDE Connect
- Showing and controlling downloads from the notification area
- Finding browser tabs in the Run Command window
Thankfully, this extension does not require Plasma to run! With just a few adjustments to the Xfce PulseAudio Plugin, Xfce users can now also utilize the MPRIS2 media controls and link sharing.
How to Install
Instructions adapted and simplified from the KDE Community website. Check this link if these instructions no longer work.
The extension requires two components: the browser extension and the native host. Once both are installed and correctly configured, active streams should appear in the Xfce PulseAudio Plugin menu.
Browser Extension
Install the plugin appropriate for your browser. Most Chromium-based plugins support extensions installed from the Chrome Web Store.
- Chromium-based browsers including (but not limited to) Google Chrome, Chromium, Brave, and Vivaldi: Chrome Web Store
- Mozilla Firefox: Firefox Add-Ons
Native Host
Most distributions should now include a plasma-desktop-integration package in their repositories. Find yours here at Repology. If you’re using Ubuntu or a derivative, installing the native host is as easy as:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install plasma-browser-integration
Once both components are installed, the extension should start working!
Downloads
$ md5sum xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin-0.4.3.tar.bz2 3d86032acb9364d47e0a144350c63e1a
$ sha1sum xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin-0.4.3.tar.bz2
5682fa1ed6976e94fa01c91fc5b7839bfe804241
$ sha256sum xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin-0.4.3.tar.bz2
5a518237e2137341d8ca6584938950525e20c28a0177e30ecaea3ba8e7a2615b
Xfce PulseAudio Plugin 0.4.3 is included in Xubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa,” which will be available in April. Users testing the daily images should be able to check it out now.
Catfish 1.4.12 Released
Welcome to 2020! Let’s ring in the new year with a brand new Catfish release.
What’s New
Wayland Support
Catfish 1.4.12 adds support for running on Wayland. Before now, there were some X-specific dependencies related to handling display sizes. These have now been resolved, and Catfish should run smoothly and consistently everywhere.
Dialog Improvements
All dialogs now utilize client-side decorations (CSD) and are modal. The main window will continue to respect the window layout setting introduced in the 1.4.10 release.
I also applied several fixes to the new Preferences and Search Index dialogs, so they should behave more consistently and work well with keyboard navigation.
The new dialogs are more streamlined and standardized.
Release Process Updates
I’ve improved the release process to make it easier for maintainers and to ensure builds are free of temporary files. This helps ensure a faster delivery to package maintainers and, therefore, to distributions.
Translation Updates
Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Galician, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian Bokmål, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish
Downloads
$ md5sum catfish-1.4.12.tar.bz2
9aad6a0bc695ec8793d4294880974cb2
$ sha1sum catfish-1.4.12.tar.bz2
4e78e291a2f17c85122a85049bdc837b49afdd66
$ sha256sum catfish-1.4.12.tar.bz2
c3fb30e02b217752aa493b49769be1a5fc2adde70b22aef381e6c67d5227134a
Catfish 1.4.12 will be included in Xubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa”, available in April.
Catfish 1.4.11 Released
Catfish 1.4.11 is now available. The latest release features improved support for symbolic links, various bug fixes, and a clearer preferences dialog. Search is better than ever.
What’s New?
General
- Radio indicators are now displayed on the layout options, making your selection clearer on all themes
Bug Fixes
- Startup crash when GdkDisplay or GdkScreen calls return None (LP #1822914)
- Configuration of preferred window layout (Xfce #16085)
- Finding files in the target directory (Xfce #15985, #16233)
- Symbolic links loop, causing the search to go on forever (Xfce #16272)
- Home (~) expansion for the start path, simplifying command line usage:
catfish --path=~/Desktop
- Fix asv-summary-has-dot-suffix ( Debian Appstream)
Translation Updates
Albanian, Belarusian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Interlingue, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Thai, Turkish
Downloads
$ md5sum catfish-1.4.11.tar.bz2
67e23d45fded026ef3445bc7fe1d1653
$ sha1sum catfish-1.4.11.tar.bz2
e7617948d59c69faa3f2569981b7371126d00737
$ sha256sum catfish-1.4.11.tar.bz2
617baf9309e3cdfb20c8357ac786eb26f30e6fd4280d4534d3cdd742c7ffcd85
Catfish 1.4.11 will be included in Xubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa,” available in April.
Catfish 1.4.10 Released
The best Linux graphical file search utility keeps getting better! Catfish 1.4.10 features a new preferences dialog, a polished user interface, and significantly improved search results and performance.
What’s New?
New Features
- A brand new Preferences dialog. This dialog includes options for window layout, display options, custom exclude directories (new!), and an option to close Catfish after opening a file (new!).
- Custom exclude directories. Previous releases of Catfish excluded various directories (/dev, ~/.cache, ~/.gvfs) to boost performance. This latest feature customizes path exclusions so users can further speed up their searches. (Xfce #15317)
- Close after select. Frequent file searcher? This feature will let you find and open your missing file and close Catfish immediately, keeping your application list at bay. (Xfce #14888)
Bug Fixes
- The previous release, Catfish 1.4.9 meant to include fixes for path exclusions. Somehow, I forgot to include the actual fix! Path exclusions are fixed and search performance should be increased as a result. (Debian #926850)
- The results now always display icons at a consistent size. Previously, some icons were displayed much larger than others, breaking the visual flow.
Improved Application menu
In the past, clicking the application menu in Catfish meant seeing a cluttered, inconsistently spaced, and aligned popover with poorly worded options. No more!
- Better use of space, padding, and margins
- Clearer purpose labels
- Keyboard accelerators are now displayed in the menu
Search Improvements
- Symbolic links are now traversed, with actual paths only processed once
- Added search priority, surfacing more relevant results faster. Folders are now descended with the following priority, then alphabetically:
- XDG paths (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc)
- Visible paths
- Hidden paths
General
- Better use of alt-accelerators
- Improved installation instructions (Xfce #15105)
- Reduced warnings displayed in the terminal
- Simplified Python 2/3 compatibility code
- Various code quality fixes (pylint, flake)
Translation Updates
- Simplified welcome text. While not visually different, the 3 translatable phrases were merged into a single sentence to simplify translations. (Xfce #15596)
Albanian, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish
Screenshots
Downloads
Source tarball ( md5, sha1, sha256)
Catfish 1.4.8 Released
Catfish 1.4.8 is now available. This latest release improves integration with OpenBSD, Wayland, Xfce, and numerous other desktop configurations. It also features many translation updates to improve Catfish’s international support.
What’s New?
Desktop Integration / Enhanced Thunar Support
A long-requested feature ( requested 2+ years ago), navigating directly to a file in Thunar, is now possible. Right-click on a file and select “Show in File Manager.” Thunar will open it immediately, scroll to it, and select the requested file. Folder spelunkers, rejoice! (Xfce #14494)
Bug Fixes
- Automatically adjust locate arguments to accommodate the host OS, improving support for OpenBSD
- Fixed crash at startup on Wayland (Xfce #15297)
- Fixed directory support when XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP in unavailable (Xfce #15099)
- Fixed search exclusion of non-standard paths (~/.cache, ~/.gvfs, /dev) (Xfce #15206)
Translation Updates
- Added ‘translator-credits’ string to .po files (Xfce #15564)
- Changed “…” to “…” for consistency with other Xfce apps (Xfce #15407)
- Marked the “Search for files” string translatable (Xfce #15097)
Albanian, Arabic, Armenian (Armenia), Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (Australia), Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Interlingue, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
Downloads
Download Catfish 1.4.8 from the link below.
Source tarball ( md5, sha1, sha256)