Sparky 2021.03 of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is the first snapshot in 2021 of Sparky which is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
– packages upgraded from Debian testing repos as of March 5, 2021
– Linux kernel 5.10.13 (5.11.3 & 5.12-rc2 in Sparky unstable repos)
– Firefox 86.0
– Thunderbird 78.8.0
– LibreOffice 7.0.4.2
– LXQt 0.16.0
– MATE 1.24.1
– Xfce 4.16
– Openbox 3.6.1
– New edition with KDE Plasma 5.20.5
– VLC 3.0.12
– Exaile 4.1.0
– Calamares 3.2.37 + kpmcore 20.12.3
– Sparky APTus AppCenter 20210302
– added extra keyboard shortcuts to Xfce, LXQt and Openbox: https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/custom_shortcuts
– removed packages: sparky-xdf, bleachbit

LXQt:
– audio player: Exaile replaced by Clementine
– IM: Pidgin replaced by Kopete; HexChat replaced by Konversation
– Web: Cheese replaced by Webcamoid

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui tool or a command:

sparky-upgrade

or:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

Known issues:
– can not open terminal emulator via right click in Thunar in all non Xfce desktops and window managers; it requires xfce4-settings to be installed

 

There is a new, small application available for Sparkers: Sparky System

What is Sparky System?

Sparky System is a small, Yad based tool which gathers and shows information about system.

Modules:
– CPU information
– Memory usage information
– PCI bus devices
– Loaded kernel modules
– Battery state
– Sensors information
– Disk space usage

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sparky-system

License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Wiki: wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_system
GitHub: github.com/sparkylinux/sparky-system

 

The second monthly Sparky project and donate report of 2021:
* Linux kernel updated up to version 5.11.2 & 5.12-rc1
* added to repos: Gomux Matrix cli client, Tutanota Desktop email client, Kopete IM (Sparky 6), Amarok music player 2.9.71 (Sparky 6)
* Sparky 5.14 of the stable line released
* 2 repo mirrors have been set in Germany
* Added RealTime Debian Kernel installation to APTus (Sparky 5 & 6) & APTus AppCenter
* Added Backports & RealTime Backports Debian kernel installation to APTus (Sparky 5)

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects, specially in this difficult days. Your donations help keeping them and us alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in March too, please.

Country Supporter Amount No name PLN 50 Wojciech H. PLN 5 Krzysztof M. PLN 50 Olaf T. € 10 Siebert C. € 50 Krzysztof S. PLN 50 Akos S. € 10 Gernot P. $ 10 Tom C. $ 15 Neal B. $ 2 Alexey $ 5 Mitchel V. € 30 Parvaneh B. € 6 Robert G. € 25 Markus P. € 30 Jacek G. PLN 100 Bogdan P. PLN 50 Paweł S. PLN 111 Jon C. € 20 Krzysztof S. PLN 3.58 Nicholas F. € 10.75 Andrzej M. PLN 5 Rudolf L. € 10 Stanisław R. PLN 80 Fernando A. € 20 Karl A. € 1.66 Jacek G. PLN 40 Andrzej T. PLN 100 Marek B. PLN 10 Alexander F. € 10 Stanisław G. PLN 20 Andrzej P. PLN 10 Jorg S. € 3 Paweł D. PLN 100 Aymeric L. € 10 Dariusz M. € 10 Maciej P. PLN 22 Ralf A. € 10 Daniel R. € 29.59 Total: 77%
€ 296
PLN 806.58
$ 32

* Keep in mind that some amounts coming to us will be reduced by commissions for online payment services. Only direct sending donations to our bank account will be credited in full.

* Miej na uwadze, że kwota, którą przekażesz nam poprzez system płatności on-line zostanie pomniejszona o prowizję dla pośrednika. W całości wpłynie tylko ta, która zostanie przesłana bezpośrednio na nasze konto bankowe.

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Tutanota Desktop

What is Tutanota?

Tutanota is the secure email service with built-in end-to-end encryption that enables you to communicate securely with anyone on all your devices.

What is Tutanota Desktop?
The secure desktop clients with built-in encryption is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS (mobile versions for Android and iOS are also available, as well as a web client). The Tutanota secure email service with automatic encryption has been published in March 2014. The Tutanota desktop clients enable you to use Tutanota directly from your computer without the need of a browser.

Installation (Sparky 5 & 6 amd64):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install tutanota-desktop

or via APTus-> Email tab-> Tutanota Desktop icon.

The first run asks about the app integration with the desktop – you do not need to do that, it is already integrated at the deb package.

Author: Tutao GmbH
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Web: github.com/tutao/tutanota

 

Sparky APTus has been upgraded up to 0.4.36 (Sparky 5) & 0.4.38 (Sparky 6).

There are small, but notable changes of APTus, which provide:
– added Debian RealTime Linux kernel installation (Sparky 5 & 6)
– added Debian Backports Linux kernel installation (Sparky 5)
– Added Debian Backports RealTime Linux kernel installation (Sparky 5)
– separated Linux kernel amd64 & i686 installation of Debian and Liquorix kernels (Sparky 5 & 6); it means, the kernel installer shows amd64 kernels only on the list of amd64 machines and shows i686 & i686-pae kernels only on machines i686.

* No need to manually configure the Debian backports repos on Sparky stable 5 – the tool will do that for you.
* If you already configured Debian backports repos – simply disable or remove it.

The new small features will be moved to APTus AppCenter too.

 

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Gomuks

What is Gomuks?

A terminal Matrix client written in Go using mautrix and mauview.

Installation (Sparky 6 amd64 & i386):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gomuks

General usage:
– /help – View command list.
– /quit – Close gomuks.
– /clearcache – Clear room state and close gomuks.
– /logout – Log out, clear caches and go back to the login view.
– /fingerprint – Shows the Device ID and fingerprint, allowing verification of the session.
– /toggle – Toggle user preferences.
— rooms – Room list sidebar.
— users – User list sidebar.
— baremessages – Bare message mode where the sender name is inline with the messages.
— images – Text image rendering.
— typingnotif – Outgoing typing notifications.
— emojis – :emoji: conversion when sending messages.
— html – HTML input.
— markdown – Markdown input.
— downloads – Automatic downloads (this will also prevent images from working).
— notifications – Desktop notifications.
— unverified – Sending (e2ee keys for) messages to unverified devices. You need restart gomuks for this setting to take effect.

More info at the project’s GitHub wiki page.

Author: Tulir Asokan
License: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Web: github.com/tulir/gomuks/

 

There are two, new repo mirrors available for Sparkers, both located in Germany.

Mirror DE1 is provided by JackGrumbler:
http://de1.repo.sparkylinux.org

Mirror DE2 is provided by MoroS:
http://de2.repo.sparkylinux.org

Thanks a lot both, JackGrumbler and MoroS.

If you would like to provide a mirror repo server in your location, send a message via contact form, please.

Requirements and settings: https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/mirrors

If you’d like, I can set your Sparky mirror for you.

A next point release of Sparky 5.14 “Nibiru” of the stable line is out. This release is based on Debian stable 10 “Buster”.

Changes between Sparky 5.13 and 5.14:
* system upgraded from Debian stable repos as of February 2, 2020
* Linux kernel 4.19.171 (PC) (5.9.15-1~bpo10+1 in Debian backports repo, if you need a newer one)
* Linux kernel 5.4.83-v7+ (ARMHF)
* Firefox 78.7.0esr
* Thunderbird 78.7.0
* VLC 3.0.12
* LibreOffice 6.1.5-3
* LXQt 0.14.1
* Xfce 4.12.5
* Openbox 3.6.1-8
* xterm replaced by spterm, which is used by Sparky tools now

System reinstallation is not required; if you have Sparky 5.x installed, make full system upgrade:

sparky-upgrade

or:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

or via the System Upgrade tool.

Sparky 5 is available in the following flavours:
– amd64 & i686: LXQt, Xfce, MinimalGUI (Openbox) & MinimalCLI (text mode)
– armhf: Openbox & CLI (text mode)

New live/install media of the stable line can be downloaded from the download/stable page.

The first monthly Sparky project and donate report of 2021:
– Linux kernel updated up to version 5.10.12 & 5.11-rc5
– added to repos: DeepL-Linux Client, Trible bittorrent client, SteamTinkerLaunch

Do you think about a Sparky repo mirror server in your location?
What you need is:
– a fully managed vps with hard/ssd disk >= 20GB
– RAM >= 512MB
– CPU >= 1
– ssh access
– Debian 9/10 (preferred) or Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 or CentOS 7/8 preinstalled
– monthly bandwidth > 500GB
– one IP4 address
– NS record to redirect a new repo subdomain to
Let me know via the contact form if you could provide a VPS to Sparky repo mirror, please. I could set it up for you.

* Thank all of you very much, but unfortunately we did not found exact amount to the server, as well as to life

There is a new application available for Sparkers: SteamTinkerLaunch

What is SteamTinkerLaunch?

SteamTinkerLaunch (short stl) is a Linux wrapper tool for use with the Steam client which allows to customize and start tools and options for games quickly on the fly.
stl works with linux native games and with games using proton! (Some features (f.e. ReShade) are only available for games using proton) (Non-Steam games added to Steam are supported as well).
There are two ways to use stl with steam. Either as Launch Option or as Steam Compatibility Tool.Installation (Sparky 6 only):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install steamtinkerlaunch
or via APTus-> Game section.

Founder: frostworx
License: GNU GPL 3.0
Web: github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch

 

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Tribler

What is Tribler?

Tribler is a research project of Delft University of Technology. Tribler was created over nine years ago as a new open source Peer-to-Peer file sharing program. During this time over one million users have installed it successfully and three generations of Ph.D. students tested their algorithms in the real world.
Tribler is the first client which continuously improves upon the aging BitTorrent protocol from 2001 and addresses its flaws. We expanded it with, amongst others, streaming from magnet links, keyword search for content, channels and reputation-management. All these features are implemented in a completely distributed manner, not relying on any centralized component. Still, Tribler manages to remain fully backwards compatible with BitTorrent.Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install tribler

Authors: Delft University of Technology
License: GNU GPL
Web: github.com/Tribler/tribler

 

There is a new application available for Sparkers: DeepL-Linux

What is DeepL-Linux?

DeepL integration for Linux. Select text in any application and simply press Ctrl+C and another shortcut to translate it. The client for deepl in Linux uses webview.Installation (Sparky 5 & 6, amd64 & i386):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install deepl-linux

Add system shortcut:
* add this command:
/opt/deepl/loader.sh
And set this command with a shortcut, for example: Ctrl-Alt-D

Use it:
Select text in any application, press Ctrl+c to copy selected content into clipboard, then press the shortcut you just defined for loader.sh

Author: kumakichi
License: ?
Web: github.com/kumakichi/Deepl-linux

 

The 12th monthly Sparky project and donate report of 2020:
• Linux kernel updated up to version 5.10.4 & 5.11-rc1
• Sparky 2020.12 of the rolling line released
• Sparky 2020.12 Special Editions: GameOver, Multimedia & Rescue released
• added to repos: Pogo audio player, Zettlr markdown editor, Rescuezilla, Cozy audiobook player

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects, specially in this difficult days. Your donations help keeping them alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in January too, please.

Special thanks go to all of you, for sending extra money to the VPS too.

As you known, the January is the second and the last month we try to collect extra donations to pay a bill of our VPS. We alredy recived 55% of our need (PLN 1500) in the December 2020, so we still be trying to collect missing 45% in the January. The deadline is on the end of January 2021, so consider an extra, small donation to the VPS, please.

Happy New 2021 Year!

Country Supporter Amount Andrzej K. PLN 15 Andrzej K. PLN 20 Krzysztof M. PLN 50 Olaf T. € 10 Andrzej T. PLN 100 Wolfgang L. € 24 Krzysztof S. PLN 50 Gernot P. $ 10 Tom C. $ 15 Carlos F. $ 15 Neal B. $ 2 Mitchel V. $ 10 Thomas B. € 15 Paolo R. PLN 446.39 William S. € 60 Peter M. € 25 Simone M. € 10 Andrzej M. PLN 5 Andrzej K. PLN 50 Krzysztof S. PLN 5 Hubert S. PLN 200 Andrzej R. PLN 30 Marek S. PLN 10 Rudolf L. € 10 Alexander F. € 10 Karl A. € 1.66 Bernt A. € 50 Armel R. € 40 Tomasz P. PLN 50 Aymeric L. € 85 Jacek G. PLN 40 Jaime S. € 3 Stanisław G. PLN 20 Andrzej P. PLN 10 Andrzej P. PLN 4.20 Jorg S. € 5 Damian G. PLN 30 Jerzy R. PLN 18 William T. € 20 Bartłomiej P. PLN 35 Dariusz M. € 10 Ralf A. € 15 Władysław K. PLN 20 Jan K. PLN 300 Dariusz T. PLN 30 Wojciech H. PLN 1 Petr U. € 15 Total: 90% (+ 55% to VPS)
€ 408.66
PLN 1539.59
$ 52

* Keep in mind that some amounts coming to us will be reduced by commissions for online payment services. Only direct sending donations to our bank account will be credited in full.

* Miej na uwadze, że kwota, którą przekażesz nam poprzez system płatności on-line zostanie pomniejszona o prowizję dla pośrednika. W całości wpłynie tylko ta, która zostanie przesłana bezpośrednio na nasze konto bankowe.

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Cozy

What is Cozy?

A modern audio book player for Linux using GTK+ 3

Features:
– Import your audiobooks into Cozy to browse them comfortably
– Sort your audio books by author, reader & name
– Remembers your playback position
– Sleep timer
– Playback speed control
– Search your library
– Offline Mode! This allows you to keep an audio book on your internal storage if you store your audiobooks on an external or network drive. Perfect for listening on the go.
– Add mulitple storage locations
– Drag & Drop to import new audio books
– Support for DRM free mp3, m4a (aac, ALAC, …), flac, ogg, opus, wav files
– Mpris integration (Media keys & playback info for desktop environment)

Installation (Sparky 6 only):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cozy

or via APTus AppCenter-> Multimedia-> Audio Players-> Cozy icon.

Author: Julian Geywitz
License: GNU GPL v.3
Web: github.com/geigi/cozy

 

Special editions of Sparky 2020.12 GameOver, Multimedia & Rescue released.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• packages updated from Debian testing repos as of December 17, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.9.11 (5.10.1 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Calamares 3.2.34 + kpmcore 4.2.0
• APTus replaced by APTus AppCenter RC1
• added ‘sparky-www’ – it is a small package, which provides a custom Sparky’s start page, powered by DuckDuckGo, to your favorite web browser; the start page is located at /opt/sparky/index.html and has to be loaded manually to a web browser, after installing the package
• Firefox 84.0
• Thunderbird 78.5.1
• LibreOffice 7.0.3
• VLC 3.0.11
• Exaile 4.1.0 beta1
• Python 3.9 is the default one, and libpython3.8 is still installed
• python2.x & libpython2.x removed

GameOver edition:
• removed packages: snowballz, xblast-tnt

Multimedia edition:
• removed packages: jack, jack-mixer, volti, k3d, lilypond

Rescue edition:
• added packages: iotop, rescuezilla
• removed packages: disk-manager, system-config-lvm

According to all the applications which can be installed via the the Sparky APTus AppCenter, the System Kernel section lets you install/reinstall Linux kernels of Debian, Liquorix, XanMod and Sparky. If you looking for a RealTime Linux kernel, simply install XanMod RT Stable or RT Edge (latest) kernel.

System reinstallation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui or a text based tool:
sparky-upgrade

or via apt:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New iso images of the special editions can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Zettlr

What is Zettlr?

A Markdown Editor for the 21st century. With Zettlr, writing professional texts is easy and motivating: Whether you are a college student, a researcher, a journalist, or an author — Zettlr has the right tools for you.

Features:
– Available in over a dozen languages
– Tight and ever-growing integration with your favourite reference manager (such as Zotero or JabRef)
– Cite with Zettlr using citeproc and your existing literature database
– Five themes and dark mode support
– File-agnostic writing: Enjoy full control over your own files
– Keep all your notes and texts in one place — searchable and accessible
– Code highlighting for many languages
– Simple and beautiful exports with Pandoc, LaTeX, and Textbundle
– Support for state of the art knowledge management techniques (Zettelkasten)
– A revolutionary search algorithm with integrated heatmap

Installation (Sparky 6 amd64 only):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install zettlr

License: GNU GPL v.3
Web: github.com/Zettlr/Zettlr

 

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Pogo

What is Pogo?

Pogo – A fast and minimalist audio player for Linux. It groups tracks by album, which uses less space and simplifies rearranging your playlist. Pogo does not organize your tracks in a music library and does not stream or download tracks. Therefore, it is best suited for people who store their tracks by album and want a simple way of playing them. Pogo allows you to quickly search for music on local drives and in the playlist. It also features an equalizer and displays covers and desktop notifications.
Pogo is a fork of Decibel Audio Player and supports most common audio formats. It is written in Python and uses GTK+ and GStreamer.

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pogo

or via APTus-> Audio Players-> Pogo icon.

Copyright (C) 2007-2010 Ingelrest Francois
Copyright (C) 2010-2017 Jendrik Seipp
License: GNU GPL v.2
Web: github.com/jendrikseipp/pogo

 

The December snapshot of Sparky 2020.12 of the (semi-)rolling line is out.
It is based on the Debian testing “Bullseye”.

Changes:
• packages updated from Debian testing repos as of December 3, 2020
• Linux kernel 5.9.11 (5.9.12 & 5.10-rc6 in Sparky unstable repos)
• Calamares 3.2.34 + kpmcore 4.2.0
• APTus replaced by APTus AppCenter 20201203-RC1; it is still under development but it is enough stable to let you test and work on it https://sparkylinux.org/sparky-aptus-appcenter/
• added ‘sparky-www’ – it is a small package, which provides a custom Sparky’s start page, powered by DuckDuckGo, to your favorite web browser; the start page is located at /opt/sparky/index.html and has to be loaded manually to a web browser, after installing the package https://wiki.sparkylinux.org/doku.php/sparky_www
• Firefox 83.0
• Thunderbird 78.5.0
• LibreOffice 7.0.3
• VLC 3.0.11
• Exaile 4.1.0 beta1
• libpython3.9 is installed, but Python 3.8 is still the default one
• python2.x & libpython2.x removed
• GCC 10.2.0 as the default compiler
• added RSS feed clients: QuiteRSS to LXQt and Liferea to MATE and Xfce iso images

System re-installation is not required, make full system upgrade via Sparky Upgrade gui tool or a command:

sparky-upgrade

or via APT:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

New rolling iso images can be downloaded from the download/rolling page.

 

The annual payment day for our server is coming.

We know that the situation is very difficult for all of us, because the virus paralyzes not only our bodies, and businesses too, but if you are in a position to help us, please support us – without your support we will not be able to keep it running, because we only exist thanks to you.

Until January 31, 2021 we have to collect and pay for our server 1500 PLN/360 Euros/430 USD plus min. 2600 PLN/~620 Euros/~ 740 USD for our monthly bills, such as: electricity, gas, water, internet, domains, expenses related to improving the functionality of websites, small computer equipment that wears out constantly (memory, pen drives, mice, batteries, etc. …), fuel, as well as rent, food, drugs and immortal taxes.

This is a bigger amount than usual, so we start collecting today. If we do not pay – we could disappear from the network, but we believe, with your help, we will be able to do it.

There are 2 collection progress bars will appear on the website.
The first bar for monthly support, and the second one for the collection to the server, so add a note: support and/or collection to the server, as a message to your donation, please. The amounts without a note will be transferred equally (in half) to both collections.

Unfortunately, better times we know before the Coronavirus have not returned yet, and there are no signs that they will come back soon, so we would like to collect the minimum national wage every month; from January 2021 it is PLN 2,800/~670 €/~800 USD.

Linuxiarze, SparkyLinux, ArchiveOS and SoftMania is our only job we have and our only source of income. The two of us only live off your monthly support and small advertising incomes. It’s not possible to survive in the Polish capital having small income from the adds, so your support is very important to us.

Anyway, if any of you have something interesting for us to offer – we are open to cooperation.

We wholeheartedly thank you for your support, which is, as always, invaluable.
Thanks to people like you, we have the power to create and continue to operate.

Visit the donation page to find out how to send a donation.

Stay healthy.
Aneta and Paweł

The 11th monthly Sparky project and donate report of 2020:

• Linux kernel updated up to version 5.9.11 & 5.10-rc6
• Sparky 5.13 “Nibiru” of the stable line released
• VMware Workstation Sparky’s Installer updated up to version VMware 16.x & put some fixes; it it available from APTus & APTus AppCenter; works on Sparky stable and oldstable only
• added to repos: LazPaint graphics editor, Nyxt web browser, Slimjet web browser, Simplest Studio audio editor

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects, specially in this difficult days. Your donations help keeping them alive.

Don’t forget to send a small tip in December too, please.

Country Supporter Amount Krzysztof Ś. PLN 200 Olaf T. € 20 Gernot P. $ 10 John C. $ 5 Tom C. $ 15 Carlos F. $ 15 Neal B. $ 2 Andrzej T. PLN 100 Krzysztof M. PLN 50 Krzysztof S. PLN 50 Anthony M. € 12 Władysław K. PLN 10 Karl A. € 1.66 Marek B. PLN 10 Alexander F. € 10 Rudolf L. € 10 Paweł S. PLN 44.44 Jacek G. PLN 40 Stanisław G. PLN 20 Andrzej P. PLN 10 Bartłomiej P. PLN 25 Jorg S. € 5 Aymeric L. € 10 Dariusz M. € 10 Paolo R. PLN 447.82 Ralf A. € 15 Norbert M. PLN 50 Kiss L. € 5 Ryan S. € 20 Rafał L. PLN 100 Wojciech H. PLN 1 Mieczysław K. PLN 10 Ou P. € 100 Total: 85%
€ 218.66
PLN 1168.26
$ 47

* Keep in mind that some amounts coming to us will be reduced by commissions for online payment services. Only direct sending donations to our bank account will be credited in full.

* Miej na uwadze, że kwota, którą przekażesz nam poprzez system płatności on-line zostanie pomniejszona o prowizję dla pośrednika. W całości wpłynie tylko ta, która zostanie przesłana bezpośrednio na nasze konto bankowe.