today's howtos

• How to add PHP support for jailed SSH users in ISPConfig 3

  Jailkit is an easy-to-use tool to create and maintain jail environments for shell users on Linux. In this guide, I will show you how to move PHP and its dependencies into the jail so that the jailed user can execute PHP scripts inside the jail on an ISPConfig server.

• Installing other DEs in Nitrux

  During last month’s release of Nitrux, we made available a minimal ISO to let users install Nitrux and also install a different desktop environment and a selection of applications than the ones we include by default. We figured it’d be simpler to do this since we don’t have any plans to release different ISO images with different desktop environments.

• How to Change Cursor Size on Ubuntu Desktop

  #Nitrux is not just #KDE anymore https://nxos.org/tutorial/installing-other-des-in-nitrux/

• How to clear Bash history on Linux

  The bash history is a log file that contains all commands that the user executed on the Linux shell. When you use the "arrow up" key on our keyboard, then Bash will look up the previous command from that file and display it on the screen, ready to be executed again.

• How to set a VNC password

  The Linux TigerVNC Server provides a command to set a new password.

• How to kill an OpenVZ Container

  This guide shows you how to kill an unresponsive OpenVZ container in case the normal stop procedure fails. Killing the container will not delete any files or remove the container, it just kills all processes so that you can start or restart the container again when it gets stuck. I will use container ID 101 in all commands, please replace that ID with the ID of the container that you like to kill.

• How to install TagScanner on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux - Linux Shout

  TagScanner, a freeware program, is only available for Windows 10/8/7/ to easily edit metadata information of audio or music files. However, that doesn’t mean we cannot install and use Tagscanner on Linux systems such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and others, yes we can using Wine. You can get TagScanner for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It is one of the popular tools to edit audio file metadata and available to download free of cost from official or third-party websites. Let’s see the steps involve to run Tagscanner on Linux systems.

Debian Installer Bullseye RC 1 release

The Debian Installer team[1] is pleased to announce the first
release candidate of the installer for Debian 11 "Bullseye".


Improvements in this release
============================

 * base-installer:
    - Re-add the removed is_ports_architecture() function - it's used by
      other packages and library.sh looks like a fair central place for it
      to be (#979193).
 * brltty:
    - Update udev rules.
    - Make sure the hardening flags are used in the udeb build.
 * choose-mirror:
    - Update Mirrors.masterlist.
 * debian-archive-keyring:
    - Add bullseye keys, remove jessie keys.
 * debian-cd:
    - Shorten "ppc64el" to "p64el" in the volume ID.
    - Include eatmydata deb for the installer to use offline (#986772).
 * debian-installer:
    - Build in libinput instead of evdev driver for the graphical
      installer. This should improve support for touchpads in particular.
    - Bump Linux kernel ABI to 5.10.0-6.
    - Add wireless-regdb-udeb to all Linux arch images (#979104).
    - Correct keyword for bootloader arguments in netboot/xen/debian.cfg
      example file (#904131).
    - Update debian-internals manual to current development state.
    - Update minimum disk and memory sizes.
 * debian-installer-utils:
    - list-devices-linux: Support partitions on USB UAS devices.
 * espeakup:
    - Carry over the alsa mixer levels into the installed system.
 * grub-installer:
    - Make sure that efivarfs is loaded and the efivars pseudofs is
      mounted when needed.
 * grub2:
    - Add support for SBAT.
    - grub-install: Fix inverted test for NLS enabled when copying locales
      (#979754).
 * installation-report:
    - bugscript: do not include template in script output (#980929).
 * libdebian-installer:
    - Remove the arbitrary limitation on maximum line length in Packages
      and Sources files (#971946).
 * libinih:
    - Add libinih1-udeb for Debian Installer (#981864).
 * libinput:
    - Drop libwacom support from the udeb.
 * libmd:
    - Add a udeb package needed by libbsd.
 * libwacom:
    - Drop the udeb, libinput no longer needs it.
 * linux:
    - Add bonding driver to the nic-modules udeb.
    - Remove efivars from the efi-modules udeb.
    - arm64: Fix i2c-mv64xxx module name.
 * localechooser:
    - Disable Kabyle for the text-based installer, as switching keyboard
      fails there (#973455).
    - Correct Kabyle locale definition in languagelist to its real naming.
 * lowmem:
    - Delete graphical terminal related files when memory is low
      (#977490).
    - 5lowmem: Rename to 05lowmem so that rescue actually overrides it
      (#870574).
    - S15lowmem: Update minimum memory sizes.
 * nano:
    - Compile the udeb with --without-included-regex to make binaries
      substantially smaller.
 * netcfg:
    - Update testcases to work with current Check API (#980607).
    - Satisfy GCC pedantry for strncpy() calls.
 * os-prober:
    - Probe Microsoft OS on arm64.
 * partman-btrfs:
    - Add minimal subvolume support for / (#964818).
 * partman-efi:
    - Make sure that efivarfs is loaded and the efivars pseudofs is
      mounted when needed.
 * rootskel:
    - Use /dev/tty0 as a console even if it's not in /proc/consoles.
    - Do not remove the font when bterm is not started (#977466).
 * rootskel-gtk:
    - Switch to Homeworld theme for Debian 11 by Juliette Taka.
 * user-setup:
    - Allow underscore in username of first account (#977214).


Hardware support changes
========================

 * debian-installer:
    - arm64: Add support for puma-rk3399.
    - arm64: Update to use u-boot-install-sunxi.
    - armhf: Make hd-media and netboot sdcard images start at offset
      32768, for compatibility with rockchip platforms.
    - arm64, armhf: Update SD-card-images sizes for netboot, netboot-gtk
      and hd-media.
 * flash-kernel:
    - Add support for Orange Pi One Plus (#981328).
    - Add support for ROCK Pi 4 (A,B,C).
    - Add support for Banana Pi BPI-M2-Ultra (#982089).
    - Add support for Banana Pi BPI-M3 (#981561).
    - Fix missing ESPRESSObin variants (#969518).
    - Fix several DTB-Id entries that incorrectly referenced the
      .dts instead of .dtb file.


Localization status
===================

 * 78 languages are supported in this release.


Known bugs in this release
==========================

 * Broken rescue mode with the graphical installer (#987377).
 * amdgpu firmware required for many AMD graphic cards.

See the errata[2] for details and a full list of known issues.


Feedback for this release
=========================

We need your help to find bugs and further improve the installer, so
please try it. Installation images, and everything else you will need
are available at our web site[3].


Thanks
======

The Debian Installer team thanks everybody who has contributed to this
release.


 1. https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Team
 2. https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
 3. https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer

Games: Proton, Barotrauma, Piepacker and More

• Proton Experimental gets upgraded, Forza Horizon 4 playable and Origin Overlay works

  Valve and their partners CodeWeavers have upgraded Proton Experimental, the special testing version of Proton where the latest special updates come in with some big stuff. This is a totally separate version to the normal Proton releases, which you can select for specific games just like you would normally. Right click -> Properties -> Compatibility and select Proton Experimental from the drop-down box.

• Barotrauma gets a colossal update to improve almost every part of the game | GamingOnLinux

  Barotrauma, the sci-fi submarine sim I lovingly call a suffering simulator has just had massive Embrace the Abyss upgrade while in Early Access making it better than ever. One of the problems has been how tough it is to get into, so they've introduced a new player experience focused on easing people into it a bit more. There's now a hint system, text highlighting for mission descriptions, player-controlled characters get automatically assigned an appropriate order when the game starts to guide the player on what they should do and more tweaks.

 

• Piepacker is a new online multiplayer platform for retro gaming

  Another attempt to bring back the glory days of retro games and local multiplayer is here with Piepacker, a browser-based platform for playing the classics with your friends. Browsers nowadays are ridiculously powerful and feature-filled, so much so that now various streaming services let you play entire AAA games in a browser tab. More and more of this will come, and in some ways it's probably the eventual future (like it or not).  [...] They claim that will also work fine on Linux.

• Civilization VI has a final free update 'of the season' hinting at more | GamingOnLinux

  The final free update to Civilization VI is now live although the team appears to be hinting that more may be on the way now the New Frontier Pass is finished. With the New Frontier Pass the team at Firaxis released a bunch of DLC, with free updates in between. They initially said this update was the last but now their wording is clearly different. They've mentioned it's the "final free update of the season", with season being an interesting word to stick in there hinting that a second pass may come.

• Jackbox Games have a huge sale, pick up Quiplash FREE and Drawful 2 going international

  In the mood to party? Jackbox Games have what you need with a big Weekend Party Sale going on Steam and you can get a free game for a few days too. First up it's Free Game Friday! Head over to the Steam page for Quiplash and grab yourself a free game as it's 100% off. What is it? A quick-fire game about answering questions with ridiculous answers for 3-8 players. Another bit of good news, and something many gamers have been asking for, is that more of their games are going international! Drawful 2 will be getting a free upgrade on May 6 which will include localizations for French, Italian, German and Castilian Spanish. [...] Save big on their individual games and their party packs, all of which have full Linux support so they're worth taking a look at!

today's leftovers

• DragonFly BSD 6.0.0 6.0RC1 images available

• KDE Plasma Panel Code Explained

     

• Custom USB games controllers with Raspberry Pi Pico | HackSpace 42

           

• Have you ever racked a server?

  I am by no means an IT 'graybeard'. I have been doing this kind of work for about nine years now and have been with a few different companies/environments in that time. One thing that hit me the other day is that I haven't put my hands on hardware in any real capacity since transitioning into the civilian workforce. When I was at EMC, we had a few stacks that we used for training, but my job was 95% software-focused, so it was more about knowing where certain parts were located on the server.

• Kubernetes 1.21: Metrics Stability hits GA

  Kubernetes 1.21 marks the graduation of the metrics stability framework and along with it, the first officially supported stable metrics. Not only do stable metrics come with supportability guarantees, the metrics stability framework brings escape hatches that you can use if you encounter problematic metrics.