Linux User & Developer 162 - Total Distro Toolkit

100 Pages·2016·17.357 MB·English

by  Gavin Thomas

FREE 4.7GB DVD WITH 6 VITAL DISTROS
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Contents
Reviews
Subscribe
& save! 81 Best package managers
28 C gUchraSeena cc tksu n usoebtuowstm c ooruefibfrres er ! Ebuatc hw dhiiscthr iibs uretiaolnly h tahse ibtse sotw fno rf athveo ujorbit?e,
via page 80
APT DNF
Zypper Pacman
19 Total Distro Toolkit
Six crucial distros containing dozens of tools, all on one DVD
OpenSource Tutorials
06 News 30 Systems programming: 86 LeMaker Guitar
T he biggest stories from Creating and using threads The Banana Pi maker takes on the
the open source world When to program multi-threaded processes Compute Module with its CoM board
08 Free software column 36 Get started with Blender 88 Free software
Expert insights into open Learn to manipulate and animate models Richard Smedley recommends some
source and free software excellent FOSS packages for you to try
40 Harness shaders in MonoGame
11 Coding column We continue the game dev series and look 90 Linux Mint 17.3 KDE Edition
Learn problem solving and this month at handling colouring with shaders One of the most popular Linux distros
systems programming in C gets ready for its next LTS release
44 Switch to the MariaDB database
12 Interview
Use the fastest-growing open source database
Ikey Doherty claims Solus OS
will beat Ubuntu to the tablet 48 Identify false positives
16 Kernel column Learn to differentiate between real security
The latest on the Linux holes and misinterpreted system events
kernel with Jon Masters 52 Computer science:
Generating unique strings
94 Letters
From infi nite monkeys to brute-forcing
Your views shared and your
questions answered
RReessoouurrcceess
Features
96 On your free disc
19 Total distro toolkit
Find out how to navigate the DVD
Learn to use the six distros interface and how to live-boot the 59 Practical Raspberry Pi
on your live-booting DVD distros included on the disc Boost your programming potential with an
expert look at Python, monitor audio on your
60 Develop with Python
Pi, learn to set up the Pi Zero from scratch,
Discover new techniques and 98 and make a Pi Zero-controlled wearable
packages for a range of fi elds DDiiggiittaall rreeaaddeerr?? GGeett yyoouurr ffrreeee ttuuttoorriiaall aasssseettss
Join us online for more Linux news, opinion and reviews www.linuxuser.co.uk
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06 News & Opinion | 12 Interview | 94 Your questions answered
HACKING
Sony’s PlayStation 4 gets
unoffi cial Linux support
The cheap way to get your hands on an eight-core PC
Noted engineering team ‘fail0verflow’ surprise – but that limitation has now been The feat has far
has successfully booted Linux on Sony’s unoffi cially removed. more potential than
PlayStation 4 console, bypassing the Speaking at the 32nd Chaos Communication just gaming, too: the
protections the company has put in place Congress, the fail0verfl ow team demonstrated PS4’s processor is an
against running third-party software and the ability to bypass protections against booting eight-core AMD model with powerful integrated
potentially opening the doors to novel uses for third-party software on the console by loading a graphics, yet the device retails at less than £300
the device. Linux distribution – something Sony had taken – far less than an equivalently-powered PC.
Sony’s PlayStation family has a long history pains to prevent. Both the PS2 and PS3 found use in computing
with Linux. The company released an expansion “Linux on the PS4 actually makes a lot of clusters due to their price-performance ratio,
kit in 2002 which turned its PlayStation 2 console sense, more than it ever did on any previous and the ability to run Linux on the PS4 will likely
into a fully-fledged Linux personal computer, game console,” claimed fail0verfl ow’s ‘marcan’ lead to the same uses.
and its successor the PlayStation 3 launched of the team’s work. “It’s close enough to a PC There is a catch, however: while the team has
with ‘OtherOS’ support for booting a number of that getting 3D acceleration working, while released the loader required to boot Linux on
Linux distributions. The company soon began rather painful, seems entirely possible without the PS4, it has not released the exploit needed
worrying that developers would find a way to undue amounts of effort to the level needed to boot the loader. “We can add more value to
use the OtherOS support to play illegitimately for real indie games and even triple-A titles, not the homebrew ecosystem by helping port Linux
copied games, however, and removed the feature just homebrew. And many thousands of indie than by releasing exploits,” explained marcan,
in a firmware update – prompting a class-action and triple-A games already run on Linux. Yes, telling interested parties to “write an exploit,
lawsuit against the company. SteamOS on the PS4 should ‘just work’ once point it to our loader, and you’ll get Linux.”
Given Sony’s removal of OtherOS from the the driver issues are sorted out. We demoed Sony has not issued comment on the team’s
PlayStation 3, the fact its successor launched a silly GBA emulator because all we had was breakthrough, but will likely be looking to block
without the ability to run anything but the a 2D framebuffer, but the real fun is getting 3D the ability to boot third-party software in a
company’s BSD-variant Orbis OS was no games to run just like they do on a PC.” future fi rmware update.
Linux on the PS4 actually makes a lot
of sense, more than it ever did on any
previous game console
Above The PS4 can now boot
Linux, if you have an exploit
6
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OPEN HARDWARE TOP FIVE
New features in
KDE Plasma 5.6
1 Notifi cations
Plasma 5.6 brings with it a vastly improved device
notifi cation system, changing code which has
stood untouched since Plasma 4.7 to improve
the appearance and usability – in particular
when unmounting a USB mass storage device for
removal – meaning an end to annoying ‘orphan’
error message pop-ups.
Google, HP and Oracle
join RISC-V group
Above Device notifications are now tidily
organised in a single window display
Open source chip project gains big-name supporters 2 Unity Launcher support
Unity may be divisive, but it’s also widespread. “If
there’s an API or library that works and is widely
The RISC-V project, pronounced Risk Five, has project can even boast a shipping implementation in
adopted, we’re happy to pick it up and add support
gained some big-name members in the form of the Axiom family of open source 4K video cameras. for it in our software stack,” explained developer
technology giants Bluespec, Google, Hewlett The promise of a royalty-free reasonable and Kai Uwe.
Packard Enterprise, Lattice Semiconductor, non-discriminatory (RAND) licence has doubtless
Microsemi, and Oracle, as it looks to offer an helped, as have designs which compare favourably 3 Media applet
open source alternative to MIPS and ARM. The to proprietary equivalents from embedded industry
The KDE Plasma 5.0 release included a media
latest incarnation of the RISC core, first developed giant ARM. While membership of the project will controller applet, but only for selected software.
by David Patterson and John Hennessey in require contribution of any modifications made With Plasma 5.6, the MPRIS specifi cation has
1980 and recently seen commercially in the Sun to the RISC-V core under the project’s permissive been implemented to allow control of software
Microsystems SPARC processor family, RISC-V licence, executive director Rick O’Conner told from VLC through to Spotify right in Task Manager.
aims to offer an open source processor design industry outlet EE Times that there would be “plenty
4 Better crash handling
which anyone can customise and implement, either of room for secret sauce and company-specific
via a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or by implementations” of the core. The focus-stealing DrKonqi crash handler has
fabricating silicon chips. The RISC-V project was launched to develop been replaced with an unobtrusive desktop
Google, which has previously been investigating a clean-slate and open alternative to ARM, x86, notifi cation, offering one-click options to
the use of low-power ARM processors as a means and MIPS in the processor world, offering a report the bug to the developers and restart the
application without stealing focus from your
of reducing power draw in its data centres, has simpler approach and modular layout designed
currently active window.
been named as a new member of the project, which for extensibility and specialisation. The project
was launched by the University of California at has long stated it will concentrate on offering a 5 Desktop Actions
Berkeley in 2010. The company is joined by Oracle, specification, and allow both open and proprietary
which acquired SPARC creator Sun Microsystems implementations. Andreas Olofsson, known for Also known as Jump Lists, Desktop Actions
allow applications to offer certain commonly-
in 2010, along with Hewlett Packard’s newly- the Epiphany architecture, has described RISC-V
used tasks – such as creating a new document
formed Enterprise division, Lattice Semiconductor, as “state of the art” and stated that “we need an
or opening a private browsing window – directly
Microsemi, and tool vendor Bluespec. The list of architecture that is bigger than any one company [...] through Task Manager in the application’s right-
interested parties is impressive, and the RISC-V my bet is on RISC-V.” click menu, for quicker access.
www.linuxuser.co.uk 7
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OpenSource
Your source of Linux news & views
OpiniOn FREE SOFTWARE
Stand up for the GPL
“VMware uses a badly-hacked 2.4 kernel with a big binary
blob hooked into it” – Christoph Hellwig, 2006
The importance of the ongoing legal dispute more than quarter of a million lines of code to the Linux
between Cristoph Hellwig, Linux kernel kernel and is one of the 20 most prolific contributors to
developer, and VMware, the virtualisation the kernel. Specifically, he has contributed to the scsi
company, cannot be underestimated. At issue is the subsystem and radix tree (look-up mechanism) that are
right of an individual developer to license their code as also included in vmklinux. He owns the copyright to the
they see fit, with the expectation that the terms of the code he has written, and code he has written is included
licence will be honoured. At stake are the viability of in VMware’s offering, so he has a clear right to object to
free software and the GPL, and an industry built on the the appropriation of his code.
flexibility and accessibility of FOSS. VMware also claims an interface called VMK API
Hellwig’s complaint against VMware is that Linux creates a shield between the GPL code, contained in an
kernel code written by himself and other kernel ‘interoperability module’ called vmklinux, and VMware’s
contributors is incorporated in the proprietary elements proprietary code. Hellwig argues that “vmklinux is not
of VMware’s ESXi hypervisor, and that VMware is an interoperability module, but rather an arbitrary
refusing to comply with the terms of the GPL. VMware separation of the Linux-derived module from vmkernel.
doesn’t deny the use of GPL-licensed code inside the Specifically, vmklinux is nonfunctional with any non-ESX
ESXi supervisor, and instead “questions Christoph’s OS, and vmklinux is tied intimately to a specific version
Richard Hillesley
copyright interest in the Linux kernel and his right to bring of ESXi.”
this action” and claims “vmklinux is an ‘interoperability writes about art, music, digital Hellwig also points out that “if the Court allows
rights, Linux and free software for
module’ which communicates through a stable interface a variety of publications proprietarization of an arbitrary split portion of GPL’d
called VMK API.” computer programs, it could allow redistributors to
The questioning of Hellwig’s interest in the copyright of trivially bypass the strong copyleft terms found in the
the kernel may be a legal device to cast doubt on his right GPL,” simply lifting core sections of GPL code and doing
to speak for a project which belongs to everyone and to what they will with it, without reciprocation. He argues
The success
no-one. Linux has no single owner. However, individual that “vmkernel and vmklinux don’t ‘communicate over
and/or corporate contributors ‘own’ the copyright to the of Linux is built an interface’,” but “run in the same process as a single
code they have contributed, unless they have assigned computer program” and the ‘interface’ doesn’t comply
on its status as
ownership of the copyright to someone else. with the definition of an interface “as set forth in the EU
The GPL has a very simple purpose, to ensure that a commodiied Directive 2009/24/EC.”
free software remains free. The instrument to achieve The precedents set by this case are vital to the future
kernel, and
this is copyleft. The mechanism is well understood. of free and open source software. The success of Linux
Software vendors are entitled to do what they like with the reciprocity is built on its status as a commodified kernel, and the
free software, but if they re-use copylefted code in reciprocity that the GPL encourages between individual
that the GPL
another setting then all modified and associated code and corporate contributors. Corporate contributors are
must be made available to users under the same licence. encourages often ambivalent and sometimes hostile to the GPL, but
If the terms are unacceptable there is a simple alternative, the GPL and copyleft have been a large part of the long-
between
which is to write your own code. term success of Linux.
VMware’s get-around has been to take a huge chunk individual and Hellwig is funded in his case against VMware by
of the Linux kernel code – some would argue the difficult Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit charity
corporate
parts – and then impose a ‘shim’ or translation layer dedicated to defending the GPL. Software Freedom
module called vmklinux containing the Linux code and contributors Conservancy is increasingly reliant on voluntary
an API that speaks to the vmkernel. The argument is donations because, as Karen Sandler, SFC’s executive
that the API precludes the need for copylefting the director, told supporters recently, “Over the past year, and
derivative code, which is nonetheless dependent on in particular since we launched the VMware suit, some of
large segments of Linux code. Hellwig has contributed our corporate funding has been pulled.”
8
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PACKAGES DEBIAN
Apt package manager gets Ian Murdock,
Debian founder,
major performance boost
dies aged 42
Scores of Ubuntu derivatives to benefi t
Born on the 28th of April 1973 in Konstanz,
Package manager apt, as featured in Debian, updating with PDiffs enabled took 41 seconds; West Germany, Ian Murdock is best known
Ubuntu, and Linux Mint, has received a serious For APT 1.1.7, updating with PDiffs enabled for founding the Debian Linux distribution
performance boost in its latest release, thanks took four seconds. That’s a tenfold increase – named for himself and then-girlfriend
to the work of developer Julian Andres Klode. in performance.” Debra Lynn, giving DEB and IAN – in 1993.
Klode discovered that apt’s handling of While a tenfold speed boost will be The Debian project has stated that “Ian’s
Pdiffs, the fi les used for differential fi les applied undoubtedly welcomed by apt’s users, Klode sharp focus was on creating a Distribution
to packages, sources, and other fi les in an claims there is still room for considerable and community culture that did the right
apt archive, was far from optimal despite the improvement in the performance of the package. thing, be it ethically, or technically. Ian’s
introduction of performance-boosting read “Writes are still unbuffered, and account for dream has lived on, the Debian community
buffering in December of last year. about 75 to 80 per cent of our runtime. That’s an remains incredibly active, with thousands of
Discovering the problem in the software’s obvious area for improvements.” developers working untold hours to bring the
ReadLine method and working through a series A further change proposed by Klode but world a reliable and secure operating system.
of modifi cations, including modifying the buffer not yet implemented is shifting compression The thoughts of the Debian Community are
length and removing the use of the memmove away from gzip and using LZ4 for a six-fold with Ian’s family in this hard time.”
function, Klode worked on a fi x which has had a performance improvement in exchange for a Murdock’s death followed a stream
dramatic effect. “I measured the run-time of apt- larger compressed archive size. “We’d still fetch of posts to his personal Twitter account
get update, excluding appstream and apt-fi le gzip-compressed Contents fi les, but recompress claiming that he had been hospitalised
fi les,” he explained in a blog post on the changes. them to LZ4 on the system,” Klode explained of following abuse from his local police force.
“The results are impressive: For APT 1.1.6, his suggested modifi cation. Murdock stated he would post details of
his complaints to his personal blog before
committing the act, but no such post was
made before his family announced his death.
TECHNOLOGY
Police have confi rmed that they arrested
and bailed Murdock on the night in question,
Gadget showcases next-gen tech
on charges of assault and obstructing an
offi cer, then re-arrested him later that
same night when a reportedly intoxicated
New magazine curates the world’s best new devices
Murdock attempted to gain entry to a
neighbour’s house.
Imagine Publishing has globally launched a much more besides. With insightful features No details regarding his death have been
new print and digital magazine dedicated to covering everything from crowd-sourced yet released by his family.
the discovery and celebration of cutting-edge disruptive technologies to CES show-stealers, it is
technology: Gadget. From the makers of the essential reading for anyone who keeps their finger
award-winning How It Works magazine and the on the pulse of the industry.
tech team behind industry-leading titles such as
Android Magazine and games™, the publication
is a champion of technological innovation and
identifies key trends in industries including
mobile and embedded computing,
3D-printing, UAVs and
transportation, consumer
electronics, media and the
arts, astronomy, gaming,
emergent technologies and
Above The passing of Ian Murdock has been felt
deeply across the Debian community
www.linuxuser.co.uk 9
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OpenSource
Your source of Linux news & views
DISTRO FEED BLOCKCHAIN
Top 10 LF launches
(Average hits per day, 15 December – 18 January)

Blockchain project
Linux Mint
1. 3,227
Debian
2. 2,092
Ubuntu
3. 1,581
Aims to develop an enterprise-grade ledger
openSUSE
4. 1,459
Manjaro
5. 1,126
The Linux Foundation has announced transactions, which the project’s leads claim
6. Fedora 1,079 the launch of a new collaborative project can be used to create cost-effi cient business
deepin concentrating on the blockchain technology networks without requiring a centralised point
7. 968
that underpins popular crypto-currency of control.
CentOS
8. 909 Bitcoin. The latest in a string of projects headed “Distributed ledgers are poised to transform
Arch by the Foundation, the blockchain project has a wide range of industries from banking and
9. 863
the backing of companies including Accenture, shipping to the Internet of Things, among
Mageia
10. 834 IBM, Intel, the London Stock Exchange Group, others,” claimed Jim Zemlin, executive director
VMware, and Wells Fargo, and aims to create an at The Linux Foundation, of the new project’s
This month
open source distributed ledger framework. scope. “As with any early-stage, highly-complex
Under the name Hyperledger, the blockchain technology that demonstrates the ability to
offers a means of recording and verifying change the way we live our lives and conduct
■ Stable releases (20)
■ In development (9) business, blockchain demands a cross-
Above Blockchain technology industry, open source collaboration to advance
will no longer be limited
The traditional end-of- to Bitcoins the technology for all.”
year slowdown has “A broad, cross-industry and open source
hit, but the new year
approach is critical to advance the potential
has still had some
impressive new releases for blockchain and make it mainstream,”
claimed Arvind Krishna of IBM Research,
which has donated considerable code to the
Highlights effort. “Even beyond building out standards,
creating common code will allow organisations
to focus on creating industry-specifi c
KaOS 2016.01 applications that enhance the
Built around the latest stable KDE value of this technology.”
Plasma release, the new KaOS release
includes new widgets such as the Colour Picker and
INFOTAINMENT
Disk Quota, restores support for legacy system tray
icons, and shifts to Noto as the default font.
AGL snags four more members
Linux Mint 17.3 KDE, Xfce
A two-for-one release, the Linux Mint
community celebrated the new year Industry members now number over fi fty
with KDE and Xfce spins of the distribution boasting
support for UEFI BIOS, though not Secure Boot, and
support through to 2019. The Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) project has process to gain a competitive edge. We are glad
announced four new members, all heavy-hitters to see the increased commitment being made by
Tails 2.0 RC1
in the vehicle industry: Subaru (a subsidiary of the automotive industry to advance AGL as the de
The first release candidate for the privacy- Fuji Heavy Industries), Mitsubishi Motors, Mazda facto standard for the connected car.”
enhancing Tails 2.0 brings with it a switch
Motor Corporation, and Ford Motor Company. The companies join more than fifty existing
to Icedove for mail handling, an upgraded Tor browser,
“We are excited to welcome Ford, Mazda, members including Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover,
and support for newer Intel graphics chips.
Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru as the latest and Toyota, the latter of which has upgraded its
automotive OEM members of AGL,” said general membership to Platinum level. “Toyota believes
Latest distros manager Dan Cauchy. “In order to keep up with that Linux, open source, and the development of
available: consumer demands for a modern infotainment an open ecosystem is a suitable approach for the
system, car makers realise that they need to future of infotainment,” said Tokuhisa Nomura of
fi lesilo.co.uk adopt an open source software development his company’s decision.
10
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