Linux NewsMy favorite Raspberry Pi feature is too often overlooked
A Raspberry Pi might be a single-board computer, but it's easy to make it a multi-OS system.
Ryabitsev: Tracking kernel development with korgalore
Konstantin Ryabitsev has put up a blog post about korgalore, a tool he has written to circumvent delivery problems experienced by kernel developers using the large, centralized email systems. We cannot fix email delivery, but we can sidestep it entirely. Public-inbox archives like lore.kernel.org store all mailing list traffic in git repositories. In its simplest configuration, korgalore can shallow-clone these repositories directly and upload any new messages straight to your mailbox using the provider's API.
Remote authentication bypass in telnetd
One would assume that most LWN readers stopped running network-accessible telnet services some number of decades ago. For the rest of you, this security advisory from Simon Josefsson is worthy of note: The telnetd server invokes /usr/bin/login (normally running as root) passing the value of the USER environment variable received from the client as the last parameter. If the client supplies a carefully crafted USER environment value being the string "-f root", and passes the telnet(1) -a or --login parameter to send this USER environment to the server, the client will be automatically logged in as root bypassing normal authentication processes.
An Exciting Day With More Performance Optimizations Merged For RADV In Mesa 26.0
Mesa 26.0 was due to be branched last week and in turn start its feature freeze but ended up being pushed back to tomorrow (21 January) to allow some lingering features to land. It's been beneficial for the Radeon Vulkan driver "RADV" with several interesting merge requests having landed in time for Mesa 26.0...
Ubuntu's Snap Store is Under Siege from Scammers, and The Gates are Open
After years of crypto wallet theft, scammers have escalated to domain takeovers.
KDE Plasma could get a VR desktop mode on Linux
This new draft code turns KDE Plasma into a full VR desktop
New Linux Patch Improved NVMe Performance +15% With CPU Cluster-Aware Handling
Intel Linux engineers have been working on enhancing the NVMe storage performance with today's high core count processors. Due to situations where multiple CPUs could end up sharing the same NVMe IRQ(s), performance penalties can arise if the IRQ affinity and the CPU's cluster do not align. There is a pending patch to address this situation. A 15% performance improvement was reported with the pending patch...
Mozilla introduces Firefox Nightly RPM package repository
Mozilla has announced a repository with Firefox Nightly channel packages for RPM-based Linux distributions such as CentOS Stream, Fedora, and openSUSE. Mozilla has provided a Debian repository since 2023. Note that this repository only includes the nightly builds of The firefox-nightly package. Mozilla is not providing stable builds as RPMs at this time. However, the package will not conflict with a distribution's regular firefox package; both packages can be installed at the same time for those who wish to test the nightly builds. See the blog post for instructions on setting up the repository.
Linux Mint 22.3 ‘Zena’ Delivers a Polished, Familiar Desktop Experience
by George Whittaker The Linux Mint project has unveiled Linux Mint 22.3, carrying the codename “Zena”, the latest point release in the popular Mint 22 series. This new version continues Mint’s reputation for delivering a comfortable, user-friendly desktop experience while remaining stable and reliable. As a Long Term Support (LTS) release, Linux Mint 22.3 will receive updates and security patches through April 2029. Built on a Solid Ubuntu Base Zena is built on top of Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (“Noble Numbat”), bringing Mint’s traditional desktop approach together with Ubuntu’s well-tested foundation and extensive software repositories. It ships with the Linux kernel 6.14 and benefits from the Ubuntu Hardware Enablement stack, which improves support for newer hardware such as recent AMD and Intel chips. What’s New in Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena” Rather than revolutionize the distro, the Mint team focused on thoughtful refinements and quality-of-life improvements that make everyday usage smoother an
Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.5 Improves CLI Usability
Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.5 adds macOS dark mode icon support, fixes the update dialog, and improves UI behavior across platforms.
[$] An alternate path for immutable distributions
LWN has had a number of articles on immutable distributions, such as Bluefin and Bazzite, in recent years. These distributions have taken a variety of approaches, including using rpm-ostree, filesystem snapshots, and bootable container (bootc) images. But those approaches, especially the latter, lead to extra complexity for a user attempting to install new software, instead of just using the existing package manager. AshOS (Any Snapshot Hierarchical OS) is an experimental AGPL-3-licensed "meta-distribution" that tried a different approach more in line with traditional package management. Although the project is no longer updated, it remains usable, and can still shed some light on a potential alternate path for users worried about adopting bootc-based approaches.
Linux 6.19 ATA Fixes Address Power Management Regression For The Past Year
It's typically rare these days for the ATA subsystem updates in the Linux kernel to contain anything really noteworthy. But today some important fixes were merged for the ATA code to deal with a reported power management regression affecting the past number of Linux kernel releases over the last year. ATAPI devices with dummy ports weren't hitting their low-power state and in turn preventing the CPU from reaching low-power C-states but thankfully that is now resolved with this code...
Window Shadows Finally Arrive on COSMIC Desktop
System76 has updated the COSMIC Desktop with window shadows and consistent corner sizing across all applications, a change available on Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS right now and coming to users on other Linux distributions soon. Both features apply the effects consistently, meaning that apps in different toolkits (Qt, GTK, Iced, etc) match better (if not perfectly) than they did before. Controls for applying roundness and shadowing in floating and tiled modes is user‑adjustable. Prior, only GTK windows running on COSMIC had drop shadows. Native COSMIC apps, and Qt ones, appeared flat. This often made it hard(er) to tell which app was […]
Slimbook Executive Packs Intel Core Ultra 7 Power Into a 1.2 kg Linux Laptop
Slimbook Executive pairs Intel Core Ultra 7 performance with a 1.2 kg chassis, Linux support, and a 99Wh battery for mobile professionals.
I only recommend these 3 Linux distros for dual booting with Windows
Give each OS a real job—three Linux distros that actually make dual booting worthwhile.