Debian and Ubuntu Leftovers

• APT 1.6 alpha 1 – seccomp and more

  I just uploaded APT 1.6 alpha 1, introducing a very scary thing: Seccomp sandboxing for methods, the programs downloading files from the internet and decompressing or compressing stuff. With seccomp I reduced the number of system calls these methods can use to 149 from 430. Specifically we excluded most ways of IPC, xattrs, and most importantly, the ability for methods to clone(2), fork(2), or execve(2) (or execveat(2)). Yes, that’s right – methods can no longer execute programs.

• Debian Policy call for participation -- October 2017

  Here’s are some of the bugs against the Debian Policy Manual. In particular, there really are quite a few patches needing seconds from DDs.

• Free Software Efforts (2017W42)

  Here’s my weekly report for week 42 of 2017. In this week I have replaced my spacebar, failed to replace a HDD and begun the process to replace my YubiKey.

• Winners of the Ubuntu 17.10 Free Culture Showcase

  Every new Ubuntu cycle brings many changes, and the arrival of Ubuntu 17.10, the “Artful Aardvark” release, brings more changes than usual. The default desktop has changed to GNOME Shell, with some very thoughtful changes by the desktop team to make it more familiar. And of course, the community wallpapers included with this exciting new release have changed as well! Every cycle, talented artists around the world create media and release it under licenses that encourage sharing and adaptation. For Ubuntu 17.10, 50 images were submitted to the Ubuntu 17.10 Free Culture Showcase photo pool on Flickr, where all eligible submissions can be found.

today's leftovers

• Linux Users Discuss DRM 1 on 1 – Unleaded Hangout

  Linux Users Discuss DRM. Today my Brandon and I discuss encrypted media extensions, digital rights management and our freedom on the Linux desktop. So join Brandon and I as we as Linux Users Discuss DRM.

• i965 Shader Cache Revised As It Still Might Squeeze Into Mesa 17.3

  Intel's Jordan Justen has sent out his third revision to the recently renewed patches for allowing an OpenGL on-disk shader cache for the "i965" Mesa driver. Just a few days back Jordan sent out a revised Intel shader cache implementation for this code that's long been baking on the Intel side but yet to be merged for mainline Mesa while the RadeonSI shader cache and co has been present now for many months.

• Sunday Linux Gaming Wrap-up

• retro-gtk: The Future, Marty!

  Let's come back to retro-gtk. In the previous articles I explained how bad retro-gtk was, what I did to start improving it and more importantly what I did to prepare the terrain for further development. This article will detail the aforementioned planed improvements!

• Ikea’s Open-Source Showrooms

  Ikea Group will also roll out a new digital platform called 'Co-Create Ikea' which mimics its IT division's open-source software development, where customers have the chance help develop and test new products.

• Glibc Picks Up Some More FMA Performance Optimizations

  The GNU C Library, glibc, has picked up support for some additional functions as FMA-optimized versions. The newest functions now getting the fused multiply-add (FMA) support are powf(), logf(), exp2f(), and log2f(). The FMA instruction set is present since Intel Haswell and AMD Piledriver generations and like past FMA optimizations, the benefits can be quite noticeable.

• Landmark release of Termination of Transfer tool from Creative Commons and Authors Alliance

  For more than a decade, Creative Commons has developed and stewarded legal tools that give creators the opportunity to share their work on open terms. We have focused on tools that empower sharing at the moment of publication, leaving out an important group of creators: what about those who previously signed away their rights to their works long ago, but who now want to share on open terms under a CC license or renegotiate unfavorable publishing terms?

• The recent catastrophic Wi-Fi vulnerability was in plain sight for 13 years behind a corporate paywall

  The recent Wi-Fi “KRACK” vulnerability, which allowed anyone to get onto a secure network (and which was quickly patched by reputable vendors), had been in plain sight behind a corporate-level paywall for 13 years. This raises a number of relevant, interesting, and uncomfortable questions.

Events: openSUSE.Asia Summit 2017, GStreamer Conference 2017, FSFE Assembly During 34C3

• openSUSE.Asia Summit 2017 in Tokyo

• GStreamer Conference 2017 Videos

  Taking place this weekend in Prague has been the 8th annual GStreamer Conference, which is preceding next week's Linux Foundation Embedded Linux Conference Europe.

• Call for sessions at the FSFE assembly during 34C3

  With the CCC moving from Hamburg to Leipzig, there are not only logistic changes to be done but also some organisational changes. We are still figuring out the details, but in the context of this call, one of the major changes will be the loss of free available rooms to book for self-organised sessions. Instead, assemblies that match with each other are asked to cluster around 1 of several stages and use that as a common stage for self-organized sessions together. To make the most of this situation, the FSFE will for the first time not join the Noisy Square this year but form a new neighbourhood with other freedom fighting NGOs – in particular with our friends from European Digital Rights. However, at this point of time, we do not yet have more information about the concrete or final arrangements.

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