today's howtos

• How to Install and use FFmpeg on Debian 8 Operating System

• How to manage network in Ubuntu 18.04 – Netplan Command

• Set Up SSH Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on Ubuntu Server

• The three pillars of the Arduino CLI

• How To Install TensorFlow on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

• How to Download Gnome Maps and Export the Route as a PDF

Stable Clonezilla live 2.6.7-28 Released

This release of Clonezilla live (2.6.7-28) includes major enhancements and bug fixes.
ENHANCEMENTS and CHANGES from 2.6.6-15

• The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian Sid repository (as of 2020/Jun/30).
• Linux kernel was updated to 5.7.6-1.
• ocs-iso, ocs-live-dev: sync syslinux-related files when copying syslinux exec files.
• When creating recovery iso/zip file, if it's in Clonezilla live environment, we have those syslinux files. Use that first so the version mismatch can be avoided. Ref: https://sourceforge.net/p/clonezilla/support-requests/127/
• Move grub-header.cfg from bootx64.efi to grub.cfg so that it's more flexible.
• To avoid conflict with the patch of grub in CentOS/Fedora, for GRUB EFI NB MAC/IP config style, the netboot file is now like grub.cfg-drbl-00:50:56:01:01:01 and grub.cfg-drbl-192.168.177.2 not grub.cfg-01-* anymore.
• Add xen-tools
• Partclone was updated to 0.3.14. The codes about xfs was updated to be 4.20.0.
• Package exfat-fuse was removed since the kernel has module for that.
• A better mechanism to deal with linuxefi/initrdefi or linux/initrd in the grub config was added.

Pico-ITX board based on i.MX8M ships with Linux BSP

F&S has launched a $407 and up “armStone MX8M” Pico-ITX SBC that runs Linux on an i.MX8M with up to 8GB LPDDR4 and 64GB eMMC with GbE, WiFi/BT, 5x USB, MIPI-CSI, DVI, and a mini-PCIe slot. F&S Elektronik Systeme originally announced the NXP i.MX8M-based armStone MX8M Pico-ITX board in early 2018 with an intention to begin sampling in Q2 of that year. The i.MX8M-based SBC has finally arrived, selling for 360 Euros ($407) in a kit that includes cables, a Yocto/Buildroot BSP, and full access to documentation. The key new addition since the 2018 announcement is a mini-PCIe slot and SIM card slot. Instead of supplying 4x USB 2.0 host ports, you get 2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0, and the micro-USB OTG port has been updated from 2.0 to 3.0.

Programming: Rust, Perl, Compilers, IBM/Red Hat and More

• GStreamer Rust bindings 0.16.0 release

  A new version of the GStreamer Rust bindings, 0.16.0, was released. As usual this release follows the latest gtk-rs release. This is the first version that includes optional support for new GStreamer 1.18 APIs. As GStreamer 1.18 was not released yet, these new APIs might still change. The minimum supported version of the bindings is still GStreamer 1.8 and the targetted GStreamer API version can be selected by applications via feature flags. Apart from this, new version features mostly features API cleanup and the addition of a few missing APIs. The focus of this release was to make usage of GStreamer from Rust as convenient and complete as possible.

• Set up Vim as your Rust IDE

  Text editors and integrated development environment (IDE) tools make writing Rust code easier and quicker. There are many editors to choose from, but I believe the Vim editor is a great fit for a Rust IDE. In this article, I'll explain how to set up Vim for Rust application development.

• It was bound to happen.

  While I don't actually work in Perl these days, and not by choice, I still keep an eye on the community. The language is chugging along nicely. Perl 6 is out, so at least that joke has died down, features are being added, some beneficiary, some not. All is well in perland. Then the news dropped. Perl 7. I was very interested. More so when I realised that it was a rebranding of the latest Perl. First, let me say one thing right off the bat. It's a good call. I'm all for it. In fact, I'm so all for it that I called for it in a post from 2011. At the time I suggested using codenames like Apple and others do, or to rebrand Perl 5.14 (at the time) as Perl 14 like Java did. Here's why I thought, and still do, that this "rebranding" is a Good Thing: It bypass the whole perl5/per6 story. With perl 6 not being perl anymore and Perl 5.32 being rebranded Perl 7 the community will be able to finally move past this whole deal.

• When a deleted master device file only takes 20 mins out of your maintenance window, but a whole year off your lifespan

  Out of ideas, Jim decided to crash (rather than halt) the system by typing the BREAK sequence at the console. The server would not get the chance to close the file cleanly... "We said a small prayer, crossed our fingers, booted the server, and waited for the file system check (fsck) to repair the damage we had done," he recalled. "I've never typed the letter 'y' more carefully than when asked if we wanted to re-link orphaned inodes." With an elevated heart rate, Jim logged in and checked the file system's lost+found directory.

• LLVMpipe Now Exposes OpenGL 4.2 For GL On CPUs

  It was just a few days ago that the LLVMpipe OpenGL software rasterizer within Mesa finally achieved OpenGL 4.0 support while today it has crossed both OpenGL 4.1 and 4.2 milestones. Thanks to much of GL 4.1 and GL 4.2 support for this Gallium3D software driver already being in place, it didn't take too much work to get it over the latest hurdles.

• GCC Compiler Support Posted For Intel AMX

  Building upon Intel working on GNU toolchain support for AMX, the newly-detailed Advanced Matrix Extensions being introduced next year with "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon CPUs, the GCC compiler support has been sent out in patch form. On top of the GNU bits that began at the end of June following Intel publishing documentation on AMX, AMX started landing in LLVM too a few days ago. The latest is AMX enablement for the GNU Compiler Collection sent out overnight.

• 9 open source test-automation frameworks

  A test-automation framework is a set of best practices, common tools, and libraries that help quality-assurance testers assess the functionality, security, usability, and accessibility of multiple web and mobile applications. In a "quick-click" digital world, we're accustomed to fulfilling our needs in a jiffy. This is one reason why the software market is flooded with hundreds of test-automation frameworks. Although teams could build elaborate automated testing frameworks, there's usually little reason to spend the money, resources, and person-hours to do so when they can achieve equal or even better results with existing open source tools, libraries, and testing frameworks.

• Profile-guided optimization in Clang: Dealing with modified sources

  Profile-guided optimization (PGO) is a now-common compiler technique for improving the compilation process. In PGO (sometimes pronounced “pogo”), an administrator uses the first version of the binary to collect a profile, through instrumentation or sampling, then uses that information to guide the compilation process. Profile-guided optimization can help developers make better decisions, for instance, concerning inlining or block ordering. In some cases, it can also lead to using obsolete profile information to guide compilation. For reasons that I will explain, this feature can benefit large projects. It also puts the burden on the compiler implementation to detect and handle inconsistencies. This article focuses on how the Clang compiler implements PGO, and specifically, how it instruments binaries. We will look at what happens when Clang instruments source code during the compilation step to collect profile information during execution. Then, I’ll introduce a real-world bug that demonstrates the pitfalls of the current approach to PGO. [...] Clang and GCC both support using obsolete profile information to guide the compilation process. If a function body changes, obsolete information is ignored. This feature can be beneficial for large projects, where gathering profile information is costly. This puts an extra burden on the compiler implementation to detect and handle inconsistencies, which also increases the likelihood of a compiler bug.

• Earn a Red Hat containers certification online

  Lockdowns and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 have meant limited access to testing centers for most certification programs in much of the world. We recently announced that remote exams would be an option in the near future for taking some Red Hat certification exams. In the meantime, many organizations are using the current situation as an opportunity for their teams to learn and build new skills in support of containers and Kubernetes. The need to provide the hands-on validation of these skills provided by Red Hat Certification has never been greater. In order to address these limitations and needs, and to help organizations and IT professionals pursue the opportunities offered by these technologies, Red Hat is offering a new certification, Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers for Kubernetes to people who pass the Preliminary Exam in Containers, Kubernetes, and Openshift (PE180). This certification will be given to those who have already taken the exam since it was launched in late 2019 as well as those who pass it going forward. This affordable certification offers IT professionals a remote option to strengthen their Kubernetes skills and embrace a DevOps mindset.

• Official Gentoo Docker images

  Did you already know that we have official Gentoo Docker images available on Docker Hub?! The most popular one is based on the amd64 stage. Images are created automatically; you can peek at the source code for this on our git server. Thanks to the Gentoo Docker project!

• Grupo Condis Embraces the Hybrid Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift

  Red Hat, Inc, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Grupo Condis has adopted Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform, as part of its digital transformation strategy. Building on the back of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift helps Condis respond to market needs faster, build greater customer loyalty and create more innovative services without sacrificing the stability of critical operations.