Reflecting on my 2023
I figured I’d write a post about this last year, maybe to crystalize thoughts I’ve been having, and to help figure some things out for the times ahead.
https://rubin55.org/blog/reflecting-on-my-2023/
#planetarch
I figured I’d write a post about this last year, maybe to crystalize thoughts I’ve been having, and to help figure some things out for the times ahead.
https://rubin55.org/blog/reflecting-on-my-2023/
#planetarch
Stream to chromecast with resolved, vlc and bash
Chromecast is one of those devices I just generally use a lot. They are small practical and enables me to stream video or music to my TV from multiple devices. But it also requires you to have a supported browser or video player. This is obviously a bit boring. There has been multiple command line chromecast streamers through the years. But their ffmpeg usage has been shoddy at best with no hardware decoding support and usually quite bad implementations.
https://linderud.dev/blog/stream-to-chromecast-with-resolved-vlc-and-bash/
#planetarch
Chromecast is one of those devices I just generally use a lot. They are small practical and enables me to stream video or music to my TV from multiple devices. But it also requires you to have a supported browser or video player. This is obviously a bit boring. There has been multiple command line chromecast streamers through the years. But their ffmpeg usage has been shoddy at best with no hardware decoding support and usually quite bad implementations.
https://linderud.dev/blog/stream-to-chromecast-with-resolved-vlc-and-bash/
#planetarch
Plans and ideas for 2024
A follow-up to my reflections on 2023, my plans and ideas for 2024.
https://rubin55.org/blog/plans-and-ideas-for-2024/
#planetarch
A follow-up to my reflections on 2023, my plans and ideas for 2024.
https://rubin55.org/blog/plans-and-ideas-for-2024/
#planetarch
Making dbus-broker our default D-Bus daemon
We are making
For the foreseeable future we will still support the use of
For a more detailed rationale, please see our RFC 25.
https://archlinux.org/news/making-dbus-broker-our-default-d-bus-daemon/
#news
We are making
dbus-broker our default implementation of D-Bus, for improved performance, reliability and integration with systemd.For the foreseeable future we will still support the use of
dbus-daemon, the previous implementation. Pacman will ask you whether to install dbus-broker-units or dbus-daemon-units. We recommend picking the default.For a more detailed rationale, please see our RFC 25.
https://archlinux.org/news/making-dbus-broker-our-default-d-bus-daemon/
#news
Why stdout is faster than stderr?
I recently realized stdout is much faster than stderr for Rust. Here are my findings after diving deep into this rabbit hole.
https://blog.orhun.dev/stdout-vs-stderr/
#planetarch
I recently realized stdout is much faster than stderr for Rust. Here are my findings after diving deep into this rabbit hole.
https://blog.orhun.dev/stdout-vs-stderr/
#planetarch
GNOME battery charge control
As someone who has to use a laptop for work, I keep my laptop plugged in 8 hours or more a day, 7 days a week. The laptop's battery during these days would discharge and charge, slowly degrading the battery because only the last ~ 20% would be charged and discharged …
https://vdwaa.nl/gnome-upower-charge-thresholds.html
#planetarch
As someone who has to use a laptop for work, I keep my laptop plugged in 8 hours or more a day, 7 days a week. The laptop's battery during these days would discharge and charge, slowly degrading the battery because only the last ~ 20% would be charged and discharged …
https://vdwaa.nl/gnome-upower-charge-thresholds.html
#planetarch
My FOSDEM 2024 Experience
Sharing my experience after giving a talk at FOSDEM 2024!
https://blog.orhun.dev/fosdem-2024-experience/
#planetarch
Sharing my experience after giving a talk at FOSDEM 2024!
https://blog.orhun.dev/fosdem-2024-experience/
#planetarch
Uninterupted desktop streaming vs. NetworkManager
For maybe more than a year (maybe two) I’ve been struggling with getting desktop streaming from Linux desktop client to a Windows or Linux host system working flawlessly. I mean without interruptions in video frame speed (60fps) or audio drop-outs.
https://rubin55.org/blog/uninterupted-desktop-streaming-vs-network-manager/
#planetarch
For maybe more than a year (maybe two) I’ve been struggling with getting desktop streaming from Linux desktop client to a Windows or Linux host system working flawlessly. I mean without interruptions in video frame speed (60fps) or audio drop-outs.
https://rubin55.org/blog/uninterupted-desktop-streaming-vs-network-manager/
#planetarch
mkinitcpio hook migration and early microcode
With the release of mkinitcpio v38, several hooks previously provided by Arch packages have been moved to the mkinitcpio upstream project. The hooks are: systemd, udev, encrypt, sd-encrypt, lvm2 and mdadm_udev.
To ensure no breakage of users' setup occurs, temporary conflicts have been introduced into the respective packages to prevent installing packages that are no longer compatible.
The following packages needs to be upgraded together:
* mkinitcpio 38-3
* systemd 255.4-2
* lvm2 2.03.23-3
* mdadm 4.3-2
* cryptsetup 2.7.0-3
Please note that the
https://archlinux.org/news/mkinitcpio-hook-migration-and-early-microcode/
#news
With the release of mkinitcpio v38, several hooks previously provided by Arch packages have been moved to the mkinitcpio upstream project. The hooks are: systemd, udev, encrypt, sd-encrypt, lvm2 and mdadm_udev.
To ensure no breakage of users' setup occurs, temporary conflicts have been introduced into the respective packages to prevent installing packages that are no longer compatible.
The following packages needs to be upgraded together:
* mkinitcpio 38-3
* systemd 255.4-2
* lvm2 2.03.23-3
* mdadm 4.3-2
* cryptsetup 2.7.0-3
Please note that the
mkinitcpio flag --microcode, and the microcode option in the preset files, has been deprecated in favour of a new microcode hook. This also allows you to drop the microcode initrd lines from your boot configuration as they are now packed together with the main initramfs image.https://archlinux.org/news/mkinitcpio-hook-migration-and-early-microcode/
#news
Join the Arch Testing Team - Call for participation
We hope y'all had a good start in the new year of 2024 — With the new year usually come new resolutions. If you don't have any so far, we have one for you: What if you decided to give Arch a bit of help with testing package updates this year? Arch uses testing repositories as a buffer for core/critical package updates (or any other package updates that would benefit from being tested first) before entering the stable repositories. Testing these package updates helps us to catch more bugs upfront and ensures flawless updates for the stable repos, and that is where you can help! By joining the official Arch Linux Testing Team, you'll get the ability to "sign off" packages in testing after vouching for their correctness (or reporting a bug otherwise). This helps Arch Package Maintainers catching eventual bugs upfront and helps to move packages out of the testing repositories faster and more efficiently. We are not necessarilly looking for in depth testing. Verifiying that a program launches correctly and that you're able to perform your usual routine with it is already a good test on its own. You can also check the general testing guidelines. This is a very effective and rather easy way to contribute to Arch Linux. The more testers we have, the more reliable packages updates will be. We hope to see some of you there, also join us on IRC on Libera in #archlinux-testing!
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=293464
#planetarch
We hope y'all had a good start in the new year of 2024 — With the new year usually come new resolutions. If you don't have any so far, we have one for you: What if you decided to give Arch a bit of help with testing package updates this year? Arch uses testing repositories as a buffer for core/critical package updates (or any other package updates that would benefit from being tested first) before entering the stable repositories. Testing these package updates helps us to catch more bugs upfront and ensures flawless updates for the stable repos, and that is where you can help! By joining the official Arch Linux Testing Team, you'll get the ability to "sign off" packages in testing after vouching for their correctness (or reporting a bug otherwise). This helps Arch Package Maintainers catching eventual bugs upfront and helps to move packages out of the testing repositories faster and more efficiently. We are not necessarilly looking for in depth testing. Verifiying that a program launches correctly and that you're able to perform your usual routine with it is already a good test on its own. You can also check the general testing guidelines. This is a very effective and rather easy way to contribute to Arch Linux. The more testers we have, the more reliable packages updates will be. We hope to see some of you there, also join us on IRC on Libera in #archlinux-testing!
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=293464
#planetarch
Changes to Moderation Staff
Please join me in extending our profound "Thank you"s to 2ManyDogs who has hung up their ban hammer and now joins other former moderators in the infamous Fellows Taco Lounge. In addition, it is my extreme pleasure to welcome Schard as our newest moderation team member.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=294359
#planetarch
Please join me in extending our profound "Thank you"s to 2ManyDogs who has hung up their ban hammer and now joins other former moderators in the infamous Fellows Taco Lounge. In addition, it is my extreme pleasure to welcome Schard as our newest moderation team member.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=294359
#planetarch
xz Package Backdoor
Please see the Arch main page announcement and take appropriate action. https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-packa … ackdoored/
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=294363
#planetarch
Please see the Arch main page announcement and take appropriate action. https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-packa … ackdoored/
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=294363
#planetarch
NixOS is not reproducible
Okay, sorry for the clickbait. NixOS is not reproducible according to the Reproducible Builds definition. I keep reading people making this claim repeatedly on orange-site, even LWN.net made a similar claim when writing about Nix and Guix earlier this week.1 Along with their recently launched wiki. So, what is the Reproducible Builds definition?2 When is a build reproducible? A build is reproducible if given the same source code, build environment and build instructions, any party can recreate bit-by-bit identical copies of all specified artifacts.
https://linderud.dev/blog/nixos-is-not-reproducible/
#planetarch
Okay, sorry for the clickbait. NixOS is not reproducible according to the Reproducible Builds definition. I keep reading people making this claim repeatedly on orange-site, even LWN.net made a similar claim when writing about Nix and Guix earlier this week.1 Along with their recently launched wiki. So, what is the Reproducible Builds definition?2 When is a build reproducible? A build is reproducible if given the same source code, build environment and build instructions, any party can recreate bit-by-bit identical copies of all specified artifacts.
https://linderud.dev/blog/nixos-is-not-reproducible/
#planetarch
Ratatui Received Funding: What's Next?
Let's delve into the realm of open source funding along with Ratatui's journey.
https://blog.orhun.dev/open-source-funding-with-ratatui/
#planetarch
Let's delve into the realm of open source funding along with Ratatui's journey.
https://blog.orhun.dev/open-source-funding-with-ratatui/
#planetarch
The Name Quest
I went on a trip to Mongolia to find out the meaning behind my name.
https://blog.orhun.dev/mongolia-trip/
#planetarch
I went on a trip to Mongolia to find out the meaning behind my name.
https://blog.orhun.dev/mongolia-trip/
#planetarch
The xz package has been backdoored
Update: To our knowledge the malicious code which was distributed via the release tarball never made it into the Arch Linux provided binaries, as the build script was configured to only inject the bad code in Debian/Fedora based package build environments. The news item below can therefore mostly be ignored.
We are closely monitoring the situation and will update the package and news as neccesary.
TL;DR: Upgrade your systems and container images now!
As many of you may have already read ([one](https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4)), the upstream release tarballs for `xz` in version `5.6.0` and `5.6.1` contain malicious code which adds a backdoor.
This vulnerability is tracked in the Arch Linux security tracker ([two](https://security.archlinux.org/ASA-202403-1)).
The `xz` packages prior to version `5.6.1-2` (specifically `5.6.0-1` and `5.6.1-1`) contain this backdoor.
The following release artifacts contain the compromised `xz`:
installation medium
virtual machine images `20240301.218094` and `20240315.221711`
container images created between and including 2024-02-24 and 2024-03-28
The affected release artifacts have been removed from our mirrors.
We strongly advise against using affected release artifacts and instead downloading what is currently available as latest version!
## Upgrading the system
It is strongly advised to do a full system upgrade right away if your system currently has
## Upgrading container images
To figure out if you are using an affected container image, use either
or
depending on whether you use
Any Arch Linux container image older than
Run either
or
to upgrade affected container images to the most recent version.
Afterwards make sure to rebuild any container images based on the affected versions and also inspect any running containers!
## Regarding sshd authentication bypass/code execution
From the upstream report (one):
> openssh does not directly use liblzma. However debian and several other distributions patch openssh to support systemd notification, and libsystemd does depend on lzma.
Arch does not directly link openssh to liblzma, and thus this attack vector is not possible. You can confirm this by issuing the following command:
However, out of an abundance of caution, we advise users to remove the malicious code from their system by upgrading either way. This is because other yet-to-be discovered methods to exploit the backdoor could exist.
https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-package-has-been-backdoored/
#news
Update: To our knowledge the malicious code which was distributed via the release tarball never made it into the Arch Linux provided binaries, as the build script was configured to only inject the bad code in Debian/Fedora based package build environments. The news item below can therefore mostly be ignored.
We are closely monitoring the situation and will update the package and news as neccesary.
TL;DR: Upgrade your systems and container images now!
As many of you may have already read ([one](https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4)), the upstream release tarballs for `xz` in version `5.6.0` and `5.6.1` contain malicious code which adds a backdoor.
This vulnerability is tracked in the Arch Linux security tracker ([two](https://security.archlinux.org/ASA-202403-1)).
The `xz` packages prior to version `5.6.1-2` (specifically `5.6.0-1` and `5.6.1-1`) contain this backdoor.
The following release artifacts contain the compromised `xz`:
installation medium
2024.03.01virtual machine images `20240301.218094` and `20240315.221711`
container images created between and including 2024-02-24 and 2024-03-28
The affected release artifacts have been removed from our mirrors.
We strongly advise against using affected release artifacts and instead downloading what is currently available as latest version!
## Upgrading the system
It is strongly advised to do a full system upgrade right away if your system currently has
xz version 5.6.0-1 or 5.6.1-1 installed:pacman -Syu## Upgrading container images
To figure out if you are using an affected container image, use either
podman image history archlinux/archlinuxor
docker image history archlinux/archlinuxdepending on whether you use
podman or docker.Any Arch Linux container image older than
2024-03-29 and younger than 2024-02-24 is affected.Run either
podman image pull archlinux/archlinuxor
docker image pull archlinux/archlinuxto upgrade affected container images to the most recent version.
Afterwards make sure to rebuild any container images based on the affected versions and also inspect any running containers!
## Regarding sshd authentication bypass/code execution
From the upstream report (one):
> openssh does not directly use liblzma. However debian and several other distributions patch openssh to support systemd notification, and libsystemd does depend on lzma.
Arch does not directly link openssh to liblzma, and thus this attack vector is not possible. You can confirm this by issuing the following command:
ldd "$(command -v sshd)"However, out of an abundance of caution, we advise users to remove the malicious code from their system by upgrading either way. This is because other yet-to-be discovered methods to exploit the backdoor could exist.
https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-package-has-been-backdoored/
#news
Increasing the default vm.max_map_count value
The vm.max\_map\_count parameter will be increased from the default
This change should help address performance, crash or start-up issues for a number of memory intensive applications, particularly for (but not limited to) some Windows games played through Wine/Steam Proton. Overall, end users should have a smoother experience out of the box with no expressed concerns about potential downsides in the related proposal on arch-dev-public mailing list.
This
Before upgrading, in case you are already setting your own value for that parameter in a
https://archlinux.org/news/increasing-the-default-vmmaxmapcount-value/
#news
The vm.max\_map\_count parameter will be increased from the default
65530 value to 1048576.This change should help address performance, crash or start-up issues for a number of memory intensive applications, particularly for (but not limited to) some Windows games played through Wine/Steam Proton. Overall, end users should have a smoother experience out of the box with no expressed concerns about potential downsides in the related proposal on arch-dev-public mailing list.
This
vm.max_map_count increase is introduced in the 2024.04.07-1 release of the filesystem package and will be effective right after the upgrade.Before upgrading, in case you are already setting your own value for that parameter in a
sysctl.d configuration file, either remove it (to switch to the new default value) or make sure your configuration file will be read with a higher priority than the /usr/lib/sysctl.d/10-arch.conf file (to supersede the new default value).https://archlinux.org/news/increasing-the-default-vmmaxmapcount-value/
#news
Arch Linux 2024 Leader Election Results
Recently we held our leader election, and the previous Project Leader Levente "anthraxx" Polyák ran again while no other people were nominated for the role.
As per our election rules he is re-elected for a new term.
The role of of the project lead within Arch Linux is connected to a few responsibilities regarding decision making (when no consensus can be reached), handling financial matters with SPI and overall project management tasks.
Congratulations to Levente and all the best wishes for another successful term! 🥳
https://archlinux.org/news/arch-linux-2024-leader-election-results/
#news
Recently we held our leader election, and the previous Project Leader Levente "anthraxx" Polyák ran again while no other people were nominated for the role.
As per our election rules he is re-elected for a new term.
The role of of the project lead within Arch Linux is connected to a few responsibilities regarding decision making (when no consensus can be reached), handling financial matters with SPI and overall project management tasks.
Congratulations to Levente and all the best wishes for another successful term! 🥳
https://archlinux.org/news/arch-linux-2024-leader-election-results/
#news
Gnome Search Provider: Emacs Integration
Rationale Emacs users try to avoid leaving their editor for other tasks. There is an shell (Eshell: The Emacs Shell), an integration into Secret Service API (Emacs auth-source Library 0.3) and countless other integrations. Search is a central element of the Gnome desktop environment. Many applications implement the Search Provider dbus interface to provide suitable results. The aim of this package is to make these search results also available within the Emacs editor.
https://blog.hoetzel.info/post/consult-gnome-search/
#planetarch
Rationale Emacs users try to avoid leaving their editor for other tasks. There is an shell (Eshell: The Emacs Shell), an integration into Secret Service API (Emacs auth-source Library 0.3) and countless other integrations. Search is a central element of the Gnome desktop environment. Many applications implement the Search Provider dbus interface to provide suitable results. The aim of this package is to make these search results also available within the Emacs editor.
https://blog.hoetzel.info/post/consult-gnome-search/
#planetarch