today's howtos

• Grub Boot Loader Full Tutorial – Linux Hint

  A boot loader is, by default, the first program that starts as soon as you turn on your computer system, i.e., it starts even before the operating system. In fact, the boot loader is responsible for loading your operating system. In the absence of a boot loader, it is technically impossible to load your operating system, hence, you will not be able to access your computer system. This program is presented to us by GNU. Initially, this program was developed only for Linux-based systems, however, today it supports multiple operating systems including, macOS, Windows, BSD, and Solaris. Most of the users get familiar with the Grub Boot Loader only once they install more than one operating system on their machine. By doing this, they essentially cause the Grub Boot Loader to present a menu at the boot-up time through which they can explicitly choose which operating system they want to load. In this article, we would like to share with you a complete tutorial on Grub Boot Loader, which will be based on customizing this program according to your choice. After going through this tutorial, you will be in a very good position to customize the Grub Boot Loader just the way you want, and hence you can make the experience of seeing the boot-up process all the more interesting.

• Blender Knife Tool – Linux Hint

  A knife tool is used to subdivide any surface of a mesh by drawing lines. In other words, a knife tool is a modeling tool to form new edge loops and vertices. The knife tool is pretty straightforward. To select the knife tool, you must enable Edit Mode.

• Blender Bevel Tool – Linux Hint

  In real life, no surface is perfectly sharp. Bevel helps in bringing out the detail. With bevel applied, objects look much more appealing than without bevel. This effect can be exaggerated or subtle one, it depends on the shape of the mesh and your preference. The bevel allows you to chamfer the corners and edges of a mesh. The beveled edges catch light and change shading around corners, which gives realism to the mesh.

• An Introduction to Linux’s dmesg Command – Linux Hint

  Every operating system, including Linux, performs some activities silently without notifying the user. Although the user is unaware of these activities, it may be necessary to check these activities to identify operating system issues and the devices attached to the computer system. Luckily, for the Linux operating system, all these activities are logged in the ring buffer, which can be accessed by using the diagnostic messages (or dmesg) command. The dmesg command in Linux can be used to display all the messages related to the events taking place within your operating system. This article will teach you how to use this helpful command in Linux.

• How to Setup Raspberry Pi Bluetooth – Linux Hint

  Bluetooth is a very popular communication protocol for short-distance wireless communication. There are many Bluetooth devices such as keyboards, mouses, headphones, speakers, etc. that you can connect to your Raspberry Pi using Bluetooth. If you need to transfer small files between your Raspberry Pi and another device like a laptop, or a smartphone, Bluetooth can also come in handy. In this article, I am going to show you how to setup Bluetooth devices on your Raspberry Pi running the Raspberry Pi OS. So, let’s get started.

• Killing frozen applications in Ubuntu – Linux Hint

  Sometimes, the applications running on your system freeze and stop responding. A frozen application cannot be closed by simply using the x button in the upper-right corner of the interface, but rebooting the system is not always a good solution—especially if the system is running critical services. In Ubuntu, there are several methods that can be used to kill frozen applications safely and quickly without rebooting your system: xkill, system monitor utilities, and the commands kill, pkill, and killall. In this article, we will discuss these methods on a machine running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa).

• How do I Upgrade Ubuntu from the Terminal? – Linux Hint

  If you are a computer enthusiast, you might have experience working with multiple operating systems. For a given operating system, it is good to use the latest release for several reasons. First, the latest release includes the latest software upgrades, which will protect you from potential bugs. Second, newer versions tend to be more secure than older versions. In this article, we will teach you how to upgrade Ubuntu from the Linux terminal. Note that, in this article, we use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

• Amazing Useful Raspberry Pi Commands Cheat Sheet | Itsubuntu.com

  Amazing Useful Raspberry Pi Commands Cheat Sheet Let’s have a look into the some of the useful Raspberry Pi commands cheat sheet.

Best Comic Book Reading Apps for Linux

This article will list comic book reading applications available for Linux. Some of these applications are specially designed for reading comic books while others are e-book readers and general purpose document readers that support multiple digital comic book file formats.

Today in Techrights

• [Meme] Two Dictators: How the EPO Shuffled the Dictatorship's Cards
• 2020: The Year the Patent System Converged With Naked Fascism
• Links 31/10/2020: KDE on Hugo, NetBSD Moves From TWM to CTWM
• Links 30/10/2020: WordPress 5.5.2 and NSA Mum on Its Back Doors Policy
• Free Software is Still Under Attack From Software Patents (GNOME Getting Patent Trolls to Settle Isn't the Real Solution)
• Microsoft is Already Bribing the Likely Next US President (Having Also Paid the Trump Campaign) to Ensure Microsoft Can Get Away With Crimes and Receive Bailouts from Taxpayers
• With Microsoft in Charge, OpenSSF Seems More Like It's About Back Doors -- Not Real Security -- Inside the Linux Foundation
• IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 29, 2020

today's leftovers

• The General Purpose Computer In Your Pocket – Purism

  Computers have us surrounded. Just about every piece of consumer electronics these days puts “smart” in front of the name, which means they embedded a computer that runs specialized software. The “smart” trend started with “smartphones” which marketers started calling cellular phones once they got powerful enough processors to run a general-purpose operating system and applications. The name “smartphone” was intended to differentiate them from “feature phones” which had a limited set of additional applications (calculator, SMS application, possibly a music player or a limited web browser). Feature phones were designed to make phone calls and send text messages, but smartphones were actually general-purpose computers that happened to have a phone and SMS application on them. Today, a majority of people hardly ever use their smartphone as a phone and instead use it to chat, browse the web, and run applications–the same things they do on their desktop or laptop computers. Your smartphone is a pocket-sized general-purpose computer that’s more powerful than desktop computers from not that long ago, yet smartphones are prevented from realizing their full potential, are still marketed as special-purpose computers, and most people think of them that way. Why? One of the neatest tricks Big Tech ever pulled was convincing people that phones weren’t general-purpose computers and should have different rules than laptops or desktops. These rules conveniently give the vendor more control so that you don’t own a smartphone so much as you rent it. Now that the public has accepted these new rules for phones, vendors are starting to apply the same rules to laptops and desktops. [...] When you bought a computer starting in the `90s you generally expected to get operating system upgrades for the life of the computer. In the Windows world you normally could upgrade to the next version of Windows years later, and you’d only replace hardware after the OS upgrades and applications got so bloated (along with the spyware) that the computer was too slow to use. Of course, those “slow” computers then got a new life for many more years after installing Linux on them. Now imagine a computer that only lasted two or three years, after which you would no longer get OS and security updates. Even though the hardware was still fast enough to run the OS, if you cared about security you’d be forced to upgrade. That’s the situation we have with Android phones today. If you are lucky your vendor will let you update to the next version of Android at least once, and receive general updates for two years or three years. If you are unlucky your device may never upgrade to the next Android OS. Even flagship Google phones only promise OS updates three years from the date the phone first was sold and security updates for only 18 months after they stop selling a device. For instance, at the time of this article, Pixel 2 owners just lost guaranteed OS and security updates.

• Mac vs PC: The next major tech shift | INTHEBLACK

  There is another option for those with older systems – or even new Intel-based systems for that matter: move to Linux. This OS powers about 70 per cent of the world’s web servers. It is popular among software developers and other high-end users, though its overall share of desktop and laptop computers is tiny. Yet, this does not mean Linux is just for experts. Linux is free and open-source, with large communities of developers that provide regular updates. As a result, it is efficient, secure and offers plenty of choices, with hundreds of different versions (called “distributions”) available. Linux wasn’t always the friendliest OS to install and use, but mainstream distributions, such as Ubuntu and Fedora, are now much easier to install. There’s a choice of graphical user interfaces to choose from, including Elementary OS’s macOS-like experience. For those with old systems, the lightweight Ubuntu variant Xubuntu is one of many options. Businesses that need fast, guaranteed support can pay for it from the likes of Red Hat Linux. There are thousands of Linux applications to choose from. Many, such as office suite LibreOffice, either come bundled with distributions or are easy to install via “repositories”. Alternatively, a Linux tool called WINE can run many Windows apps – or you can dual-boot Linux with Windows or macOS. There is no denying that Windows and macOS users will face a learning curve, but at least they can try Linux first. Many versions are available as “live distributions”, meaning you can run them off a USB stick or DVD. Then, if you like one, you can install it on your computer. Just remember to back up your files first. Alternatively, you can buy a laptop or computer with Linux pre-installed from a speciality provider, such as Purism or Linux Now. Lenovo also has announced greater support for Linux on its systems.

• Various software updates in FreeBSD

  On an average day, I make use of a few dozen or more Open Source projects, and contribute to one or two (notably Calamares and KDE, but it varies wildly). When I wear my FreeBSD packaging hat, I tend to drive-by contribute to many more projects because there’s compatibility or C++-style fixes to apply. And I try to keep up with releases, some of which I’ll highlight here.

• Arduino Blog » This aerial system launches Nano 33 BLE Sense darts for data collection

  Sensor deployment via unmanned aerial vehicles is an interesting concept. Up until now, you’ve had two options: use a drone that drops sensors onto the ground, or one with some kind of manipulator to stick them in particular place. However, researchers at Imperial College London have been studying a third approach, which shoots sensor pods from an aerial platform like darts. The system utilizes a compressed spring, along with a shape-memory alloy (SMA) trigger to fling the sensor pods at a nearby surface, at up to a four-meter range. The actual sensor package used here is an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense, allowing for a variety of measurements without extra hardware in hazardous environments or inaccessible locations. Several methods of attachment were proposed, including magnets and chemical bonding, but the experiment’s research paper focuses on dart-like wood attachment, since this would require the most force.

• Whiskey Lake embedded PC has dual hot-swap SATA

  Axiomtek’s fanless, rugged “eBOX630-528-FL” runs Linux or Win 10 on Intel’s 8th Gen UE-series with up to 32GB DDR4, 2x hot-swap SATA bays, 3x GbE, 6x USB, 4x COM, 2x HDMI, and 2x mini-PCIe. The eBOX630-528-FL may be the quintessential, mid-range Intel-based embedded PC of 2020. With a 15W TDP 8th Gen Whiskey Lake-UE processor that falls between the low-power Apollo Lake Atom and high-end, power-sucking Coffee Lake, the fanless, ruggedized system supports a wide range of embedded applications including smart production, machine automation, product testing, smart warehouse, and AIoT-related.

• WordPress 5.5.3 Maintenance Release

  WordPress 5.5.3 is now available. This maintenance release fixes an issue introduced in WordPress 5.5.2 which makes it impossible to install WordPress on a brand new website that does not have a database connection configured. This release does not affect sites where a database connection is already configured, for example, via one-click installers or an existing wp-config.php file. [...] These themes and plugins were not activated and therefore remain non-functional unless you installed them previously. It is safe to delete these features should you prefer not to use them. If you are not on 5.5.2, or have auto-updates for minor releases disabled, please manually update to the 5.5.3 version by downloading WordPress 5.5.3 or visiting Dashboard → Updates and click “Update Now.”

• RT-Thread launches developer event

  RT-Thread is an open source embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) providing a wide range of components along with more than 250 software packages (and counting) for the Internet of Things (IoT). In previous Opensource.com articles, the RT-Thread project has demonstrated how to code hardware with an RTOS and how to program for IoT using open source tools. Great things in open source are never done by one person; they're done by a group of people working together. And if you want to get started with embedded programming or you're looking for an RTOS for your embedded project, RT-Thread wants to collaborate with you! Today, we're pleased to announce that we've teamed up with Programming For Beginners to hold a developer event. We're looking for developers who have ideas, ambitions, and excitement for the open source hardware.

• Sandstorm: A Complete Open-source Platform with A Rich Ecosystem for Enterprise

  It's a nightmare for many companies and enterprise technical departments to run the required apps separately, keep up with the maintenance, auditing logs and manage their updates. Especially the ones with low IT resources or complex structure. It's not resources-effective approach neither secure. Despite it requires a dedicated team of DevOps to keep up, It is also a challenge for company identity management, access management and compliance. Here it comes Sandstorm, An open-source solution that is designed specifically to resolve these issue and boost enterprise, developers, DevOps and individuals productivity. In this article we will guide you through this amazing application, explaining how it works, listing its features and the best use-cases for it.

• Xen Summit Keynote: Your self-driving car is awesome. . .because of open source software like Xen - Xen Project

  In his keynote speech, Robin Randhawa, Technical Director at ARM, gives an overview of how many innovations happening in the automotive industry are made possible due to open source software, including Xen. Robin is part of the open source division within ARM. In his talk, Robin outlines how ARM’s place in Vehicle Autonomy, as well as the ecosystem around it and the role Open source software plays.

• The Linux Foundation wants to help combat COVID-19 with free, open source apps to tell people when they've been exposed to the virus [Ed: Linux Foundation is an enemy of privacy. Linux Foundation actively helps companies that exploit a virus to push surveillance agenda.]