Linux User & Developer 161 - Build Your Own Linux PC

100 Pages·2016·22.419 MB·English

by  Gavin Thomas

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001_LUD161.indd 1 21/12/2015 23:13
Full Page.indd 1 18/12/2015 11:41
THE MAGAZINE FOR
THE GNU GENERATION
Welcome
Imagine Publishing Ltd
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Editor Gavin Thomas
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Production Editor Rebecca Richards This issue

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Photographer James Sheppard

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Editor in ChiefDan Hutchinson
Publishing Director Aaron Asadi » Build your own computer from scratch

Head of DesignRoss Andrews
Contributors » Customise a Linux distro to run on it
Dan Aldred, Joe Bernard, Christian Cawley, Gareth Halfacree, Tam Hanna,
Richard Hillesley, Jon Masters, Luke Mulcahy, Dom Peppiatt, Swayam
Prakasha, Jon Silvera, Richard Smedley, Nitish Tiwari, Alexander Tolstoy, » Find the right Steam Machine for you
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Printing & Distribution performance benchmarks for each, to help you choose the right
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003_LUD161.indd 3 22/12/2015 20:41
Contents
Reviews
Subscribe
& save!
28 S sUcahaSvone pc su3 pu0srbt%icosem co trneoib rdtseha ey .
on page 79
86 Alienware
The successor to the Windows
10-based Alpha runs SteamOS
20 Build your own Linux PC
88 Syber
Get the right parts, build the rig, install a custom distro CyberPowerPC’s console, based on
its Vapor brand, supports upgrades
90 Zotac NEN
OpenSource Tutorials
High performance in a small form
factor, the NEN is a sleek offering
06 News 30 Systems programming:
T he biggest stories from Control processes
the open source world Master the system calls for dealing with kernel 81 Best audio editors
tasks and learn to combine them effectively What’s the best software for cleaning up
08 Free Software column recordings and making new tracks?
Expert insights into open 36 Set up an open source e-shop
source and free software for WordPress 92 Free software
Install and set up the WooCommerce plug-in Richard Smedley recommends some
11 Coding column excellent FOSS packages for you to try
Learn problem solving and 40 Detect network intruders
systems programming in C Perform real-time packet detection and
traffi c analysis with Snort
12 Interview
Screenly’s Viktor Petersson 44 Code game logic in MonoGame
explains multi-node signage
Improve your cross-platform C# game by
defining the core mechanics
16 Kernel column
The latest on the Linux 48 Computer science:
kernel with Jon Masters
Linked lists
Model data of any kind by understanding how
Features
ttoo ccrreeaattee,, ssoorrtt aanndd ttrraavveerrssee lliinnkkeedd lliissttss
20 Build a Linux PC
From tower to distro, put 55 Practical Raspberry Pi
everything together yourself Explore the Pi Wars robots, teach your Pi
to multitask, learn the art of night-time
56 Pi Wars 2015
photography with a Pi, make your own
Discover the most magnifi cent 99996666 FFFrrreeeeee dddooowwwnnnllloooaaadddsss iBeacon, stream video podcasts and
Raspberry Pi robots taking on Find out what we’ve uploaded to our digital finish off your Tempest-inspired clone.
the ultimate set of challenges content hub FileSilo for you this month
Join us online for more Linux news, opinion and reviews www.linuxuser.co.uk
4
004_LUD161.indd 4 22/12/2015 20:44
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Full Page.indd 1 21/12/2015 11:05
FIRMWARE
Dell enables fi rmware
updates within Linux
The fi rst of a stream of manufacturers making our lives easier
Dell has confirmed that it has become the metadata you need to manually click the
first major manufacturer to sign up to the refresh button in the updates page, which
Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS), a so far 40,000 people have done. Given
project which aims to make it possible to that the ColorHug hardware is the only
update device firmware from within Linux released hardware with firmware on the
rather than requiring users to boot into a LVFS, the 224 downloads is about what I
proprietary operating system. expected. When we have major vendors like
Created by Richard Hughes, the LVFS Dell (and other vendors I can’t talk about
and its associated fwupd package began yet) shipping real consumer hardware
life as a means for users of Hughes’ with UEFI update capability the number
ColorHug colour calibration hardware to of files provided should go up by orders
update the firmware of the device from of magnitude.”
within Linux. With Dell’s membership, To support these users, Hughes has
the project moves forward as a formally- been working on improving the LVFS
supported method of updating device process. From the release included in
firmware from multiple manufacturers for Fedora 24, the firmware metadata will
Above The Linux Vendor Firmware Service launched in the summer of the first time. be automatically refreshed rather than
2015 but take-up has been relatively slow to date
Dell’s use of fwupd will begin with the requiring manual updating, meaning that it
Below Dell has become the second company to sign up to the LVFS company’s Dell Edge Gateway 5000/5100 will be possible to be automatically notified
Series hardware, which the company has when new firmware is available. The fwupd
been trialling through the LVFS. Support build included in Fedora 24 will also be the
is due to expand in the future, however: first to support system upgrading from
The project moves forward as a formally-
supported method of updating device fi rmware
from multiple manufacturers for the fi rst time
“I’ve been told that Dell are considering within GNOME and to support USB devices
expanding out the LVFS support to all adhering to the Device Firmware Upgrade
new models supporting UEFI updates,” (DFU) standard.
Hughes explained in the announcement of The development of fwupd and the Linux
the partnership. Vendor Firmware Service is financially
It’s not just Dell taking an interest in the supported by Red Hat, though Hughes
LVFS, either. Hughes has indicated that offers access to the service freely to all
numerous other major vendors are trialling distributions. Dell is currently asking its
updates through the service, though at the customers to fill in a survey, available at
time of writing he was unwilling or unable is.gd/dellsurv, to ascertain interest and
to name names. Currently, usage of the begin planning which models of hardware
fwupd tool is limited. “In November, 224 will be the next to gain LVFS support.
firmware files were installed onto client No formal roadmap for extending its
systems using fwupd,” Hughes revealed. use of LVFS has yet been provided by
“At the moment, to update the firmware Dell, however.
6
006-011_LUD161.indd 6 22/12/2015 20:45
UBUNTU TOP FIVE
Canonical ditches New features
in Raspbian
“spyware” search tool
1 Pi Zero support
Retires the Music Store Scope, too The biggest reason to update for a lucky few tens
of thousands of people worldwide is Raspbian’s
new support for the Raspberry Pi Zero, a pared-
down ultra-compact device which packs the
computing power of the original Pi into a chewing-
gum sized board priced at less than £5.
2 Node-RED Added
IBM’s popular Node-RED drag-and-drop
development environment for Internet of Things
(IoT) projects is now included by default, offering a
browser-based environment for rapid application
development. Existing Raspbian users can simply
install the new nodered package.
3 New Package Manager
Raspbian has long struggled with package
management, with traditional graphical tools
struggling on the single-core models and the
text-based versions putting newcomers off.
Thankfully, a new package manager looks to fi x
that once and for all.
Above Previously enabled by default, the search system would upload even local searches to remote servers
Canonical has announced that it is offi cially “Online search will be off by default. This
disabling the online search functionality of its means that out-of-the-box none of your search
Unity desktop environment from Ubuntu 16.04 terms will leave your computer,” explained
onwards, ostensibly due to changes planned Canonical’s Will Cooke of the change. “You can
for Unity 8. toggle this back on through the Security & Privacy
The on-by-default online searching option in System Settings. Additionally, if you do
functionality led to considerable user backlash toggle this back on then results from Amazon &
when Canonical introduced it in Ubuntu Skimlinks will remain off by default,” he added,
12.04. Designed to offer a more polished referring to the two biggest advertising revenue Above Raspbian’s new package manager has a
much more user-friendly graphical interface
user experience while generating a revenue generators for Canonical.
stream for Canonical, the system would send In addition, Ubuntu 16.04 will no longer include 4 GPIO Zero Included
all searches performed from within Unity to a the various music-related Scopes in its default
remote server in order to push related products install and will see the Music Store, launched in Although it has long been available as a separate
into the system. Searches for the Terminal September 2012 as part of the Ubuntu One cloud package, GPIO Zero is now installed by default.
Designed to make addressing the general-
application, for example, would also reveal initiative, retired completely.
purpose input/output (GPIO) header from Python
Amazon results for the fi lm The Terminal, while The shift comes not as an admission of
apps easier, it replaces the older and more
anybody clicking on such a result would earn wrongdoing by Canonical, though, but as a complex RPi.GPIO library.
Canonical advertising revenue. precursor to the launch of Unity 8. “We can better
The system was branded “spyware” by the manage the eventual transition to Unity 8 and not 5 Video Playback Boosted
Free Software Foundation and described as a have to maintain two sets of scope infrastructure
A new version of the Epiphany browser promises
“major privacy problem” by the Electronic Frontier for the duration of the LTS support period of fi ve
to make video playback smoother on the Pi’s
Foundation, but Canonical insisted that it was years,” Cooke explained, adding that “On Unity 8
on-board graphics processor, with better support
benign and could be disabled by the user. Now, the Scopes concept has evolved into something for several popular sites including YouTube and
though, it’s disabling the system by default from which gives the user fi ner control over what is Vimeo and overall improved stability during
Ubuntu 16.04 onwards. searched and provides more targeted results.” streaming and playback.
www.linuxuser.co.uk 7
006-011_LUD161.indd 7 22/12/2015 20:45
OpenSource
Your source of Linux news & views
OpiniOn free sOfTWAre
Copyleft & compliance
Copyleft licences drive the success of free software and the
development of Linux by ensuring reciprocity and community
Much of the success of GnU/Linux has because the GPL enforces reciprocity and in doing so
been due to the GpL, and the reciprocity encourages some level of commonality.
it ensures. Copyleft obliges those who similarly, reciprocity was a positive asset for the
distribute the code to pass on the same rights to growth of use of the Linux kernel across the computing
others, unimpaired, which means giving access to the industry. Copyleft ensured that a company that
source code, and to any changes that have been made contributed to the Linux kernel had the assurance that
to the code. As we know, the GPL has few conditions. it would also beneit from the contribution of others. A
The user of software licensed under the GPL can company could fork, strip or enhance the Linux kernel
deploy the software in any context that they please. according to the strengths and weaknesses of the
The software can be repackaged and sold, or given company’s hardware, but its enhancements had to
away for free, and verbatim copies can be made of the be made available to others. And the GPL, which gave
program. The only restriction is that if the code is made assurance of the continued freedom and commonality
publicly available in any form, the source code must of the code, was the driver behind this impulse.
also be available, accompanied by the GPL and any All this assumes compliance with the terms of the
notices referring to the GPL, including the copyright GPL, and this is where software freedom Conservancy
and disclaimers of warranty for the software. All comes in. The beneits of reciprocity and re-usability
Richard Hillesley
changes to the code must be noted and released under of code are not always visible to the end user, but are
the GPL, with notice of the changes and who made writes about art, music, digital vital to the continued health of free software. sharing
rights, Linux and free software for
them. In this way, copyleft guarantees the freedom of a variety of publications the code is useful to everyone, but the application of
the code and ensures reciprocity and community. copyleft depends upon the willingness of distributors
The restrictions of the GPL help to ensure open of GPL’d software to comply with the terms of the
standards and the continuity of the code that are vital licence, and/or the willingness of copyright holders to
if people are going to inter-operate in a networked act in defence of the GPL. And the licence hasn’t always
The
world, which has worked to the advantage of users and been enforced because the copyright holders have had
developers alike. Copyleft has made it easier to port restrictions of other things to do, or because the copyright has been
Linux and other software to mobile and embedded assigned to corporate entities that don’t care about the
the GPL help
devices, which has spread the usefulness and reduced licence beyond their immediate needs.
the cost of these devices. to ensure open software freedom Conservancy ensures, on behalf
In the early days, much of the success of free of developers, that third parties comply with the
standards and
software was due to the ubiquity of GCC, the GNU terms of the GPL. for the most part this is a routine
Compiler Collection. Because GCC was the cheapest the continuity undertaking. Most infringements are not deliberate,
and most effective of compilers and used the GPL, it and according to Bradley Kuhn, the founder of sfC,
of the code that
became the path of least resistance for companies “99.999 per cent of violations get resolved without
to add the code to compile languages and proprietary are vital if people court proceedings. Most of the companies that have
architectures into GCC, which in turn made the had enforcement actions against them nobody’s
are going to
languages and architectures accessible to others. ever heard of, and they came into compliance without
If chip manufacturers or the designers of proprietary inter-operate in a much fanfare.”
languages kept their changes to themselves, the While most companies comply without a fuss, there
networked
languages and the architectures would be less are a handful of notable exceptions, the most famous
useful to IsVs and OeMs and to the manufacturers world of which involves VMware, which is alleged to have re-
themselves. The portability of GCC played a big part used portions of Linux kernel code in its own kernel
in making it possible to port Linux to many devices. codebase, and was covered in this column earlier
A permissive licence would not have prohibited this this year. The case, involving the senior Linux kernel
effect, but would have made it less likely, if only developer, Christoph Hellwig, is still ongoing.
8
006-011_LUD161.indd 8 22/12/2015 20:45
cloud GRAPHIcS
Microsoft offers oficial AMD takes on
NVIDIA with new
Linux certiication
graphics toolkit
Teaming up with TLF for new Azure cert
AMd has announced a new set of open
Microsoft, which has for years stood against definitely allow professionals to stand apart from source tools for developers called
linux in the data centre, has teamed up with The their peers and allow them the opportunity to work GPuopen. Similar to rival NVIDIA’s
linux Foundation to offer a joint certification on the most interesting technologies of our time.” proprietary GameWorks libraries, the toolkit
aimed at those using linux guests on the “The Linux Foundation is the leading will empower game developers with a range
company’s Azure cloud computing platform. A organisation representing stakeholder interests of visual effects, tools, libraries and SDKs
tacit admission of the success of Linux in cloud in the open source ecosystem,” emphasised designed to make optimal use of the GPU.
computing, and echoing comments made earlier Steven Guggenheimer, chief evangelist at With GPUOpen set to launch in January
this year by Azure chief technology officer Mark Microsoft. “That, combined with its proven 2016, AMD plans to include TressFX,
Russinovich regarding the need to support Linux commitment to professional, distribution-flexible ShadowFX, GeometryFX and AOFX access
on Azure, Microsoft’s new certification is designed and performance-based certifications, makes – software for dealing with hair, shadows,
as a follow-on to the Microsoft Implementing it a natural choice for our partner for Linux on object geometry and ambient occlusion,
Azure Infrastructure Solutions and Linux Azure certifications.” respectively. GPUOpen will also feature
Foundation Certified System Administrator exams. The Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate libraries and SDKs including the FireRender
“Today’s IT environments demand more from Linux on Azure certification is available now, rendering engine, LiquidVR, RapidFire and
professionals than ever before, and the ones with the promise that it “demonstrates your Firerays, plus DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 code
equipped to manage this new landscape look ability to design, architect, implement, and samples, along with the CodeXL debugger
to professional certifications to rise above the maintain complex cloud-enabled Linux solutions and performance proiler. All software
rest,” says Jim Zemlin, executive director at The that leverage Microsoft Azure open source provided through GPUOpen will be made
Linux Foundation, in the joint announcement. “A capabilities” and “also validates your Linux system available under the MIT licence and hosted
Microsoft-issued certification that includes the administration skills to show that you are fluent in on GitHub.
Linux Foundation Certified SysAdmin exam will today’s cloud-native world.” Currently, AMD has both a closed-source
Catalyst driver and an open source Radeon
driver. Going forward, AMD will have two
oPEN SouRcE
driver stacks – ‘All Open’ and ‘Professional/
Gamer’ – above a single, open source base
Apple open-sources Swift
graphics driver: AMDGPU. With OpenCL
and Vulkan support on the roadmap for
AMDGPU, and the new GPUOpen providing
Protocol-oriented language released on GitHub
a vendor-neutral set of GPU tools, AMD is
embracing open source at the heart of its
Apple has announced that it is releasing its Swift accept pull requests from outside contributors, in strategy for the year ahead.
programming language under an open source support of the open source ethos. The company
licence and setting up a new community site has also set up swift.org, a site dedicated to the
designed to foster its adoption. Originally created language. Used to organise the engineering of the
for the company’s iOS and OS X operating systems language, the site is open to the community and
and since ported to Linux, Swift was released includes issue tracking, a mailing list, tutorials,
in June 2014 as a more resilient alternative to documentation, design guidelines, and how to
Objective-C and the flagship for Apple’s approach contributing to Swift’s development.
of “protocol-oriented programming.” To aid its “Swift makes it easy to write software that
adoption outside the iOS/OS X ecosystem, the is incredibly fast and safe by design. Now that
company has now released the language as an Swift is open source, you can help make the best
open source project under the Apache Licence 2.0. general purpose programming language available
The release, publicised through the company’s everywhere,” Apple boasted of its release in a
newly-set-up GitHub repository, includes source statement published to the swift.org website.
code for the Swift compiler, LLDB debugger, “For students, learning Swift has been a great
REPL, standard and core libraries, and other introduction to modern programming concepts
Above TressFX was used to create Lara Croft’s
projects. The company has also indicated it will and best practices.” realistic hair in the rebooted Tomb Raider games
www.linuxuser.co.uk 9
006-011_LUD161.indd 9 22/12/2015 22:06
OpenSource
Your source of Linux news & views
DISTRO FEED MOBILE
Top 10
(Average hits per day, 24 November - 14 December)

Linux Mint
1. 3,705
Debian
2. 1,903
openSUSE
3. 1,487
Ubuntu
4. 1,383 Mozilla pivots
Fedora
5. 1,057
Mageia
6. 1,015
Firefox OS for IoT
Manjaro
7. - 958
CentOS
8. 820
Kali
9. 802
10. Puppy - 775 Bad news for Firefox OS handset owners
This month
Mozilla has confi rmed that it is dropping We will prototype this future starting right
development of the HTML5-powered Firefox now using technologies developed as part
OS as a smartphone platform, but claims it of the Firefox OS project to give us a kick
■ Stable releases (14)
■ In development (3) will use the bones of the project for a new start,” explained Mozilla’s vice president for
platform aimed at Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices Ari Jaaksi of the move. “We
We’ve seen just three projects. Launched in 2013, initial interest will make space for this exploration by stopping
development releases in Firefox OS was high. Demand for the fi rst our work to build and ship smartphones
this month: Deepin 15
devices to run the software crashed retailers’ through carrier partners.”
Alpha 2, Elive 2.6.12
Beta, and Pentoo websites, but poor performance and a lack of That cessation of development work on
2015.0 RC4.6 third-party development cooled the ardour of the smartphone side of Firefox OS means
even the most fervent fan. With sales lacking those with existing handsets will receive no
Highlights and new OEM partners thin on the ground, more software updates, including security
Mozilla has opted to call it a day on the project. and bug fi xes, and puts paid to any possibility
“[The] Internet of Things, as many call it that companies will port their smartphone
Elementary OS 0.3.2 today, will fundamentally affect all of us. applications to the platform.
A relatively minor update to the
distribution’s Freya branch, the 0.3.2
release is mainly notable for fi nally squashing
SECURITY
some bugs users have had with GRUB boot
errors appearing on UEFI and Secure Boot-
enabled systems. Let’s Encrypt enters public beta
Linux Mint 17.3
Still the most popular Linux distribution 100,000 certifi cates issued within a week
around, the Mint 17.3 release represents
a Long Term Support (LTS) build with official updates
planned right through to 2019. Let’s Encrypt, the joint initiative to create an “We have more work to do before we’re
automated certificate authority to make it comfortable dropping the beta label,” says the
Q4OS 1.4.4
easier and cheaper for administrators to add TSL Internet Security Research Group’s Josh Aas,
Designed for low-resource hardware, the security to their sites, has entered public beta. “particularly on the client experience. Automation
latest Q4OS build includes a new update
Designed to use automated verifi cation to is a cornerstone of our strategy, and we need to
notifier and manager along with improved file transfer
reduce staffi ng requirements and offering make sure that the client works smoothly and
performance to and from Android devices.
certifi cates completely free of charge, Let’s reliably on a wide range of platforms. We’ll be
Encrypt is off to a grand start. In the fi rst week monitoring feedback from users closely, and
Latest distros of its public beta the service issued more than making improvements as quickly as possible.”
available: 100,000 individual certifi cates, fi gures show, Interested parties can download the client and
including the 26,000 it issued during a closed apply for certificates from the service by visiting
fi lesilo.co.uk beta period. letsencrypt.org and following the documentation.
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