Open-source News

While X.Org Katamari releases are no longer being organized to bundle up all of the different X11 software components behind one version number and some X.Org software pieces are seeing very seldom updates every number of years, this past week has seen twenty new X.Org software releases...

Twenty Old X.Org Components See New Updates  Phoronix

A brand new Linux DRM display driver – for a 1992 computer  The Register

What are AppImages and how do you use them on Linux?  ZDNet

What are AppImages and how do you use them on Linux?  ZDNet

Linux Mint 21.1 enters beta, should arrive by Christmas  The Register

6 steps to get verified on Mastodon with encrypted keys Seth Kenlon Mon, 12/05/2022 - 03:00

Mastodon permits its users to self-verify. The easiest method to do this is through a verification link. For advanced verification, though, you can use the power of shared encrypted keys, which Mastodon can link to thanks to the open source project Keyoxide.

Install

Pretty good privacy (PGP) is a standard for shared key encryption. All PGP keys come in pairs. There's a public key, for use by anyone in the world, and a secret key, for use by only you. Anyone with your public key can encode data for you, and once it's encrypted only your secret key (which only you have access to) can decode it again.

If you don't already have a key pair, the first step for encrypted verification is to generate one.

There are many ways to generate a PGP key pair, but I recommend the open source GnuPG suite.

On Linux, GnuPG is already installed.

On Windows, download and install GPG4Win, which includes the Kleopatra desktop application.

On macOS, download and install GPGTools.

1. Create a key pair

If you already have a GPG key pair, you can skip this step. You do not need to create a unique key just for Mastodon.

To create a new key, you can use the Kleopatra application. Go to the File menu and select New key pair. In the Key Pair Creation Wizard that appears, click Create a personal OpenPGP key pair. Enter your name and a valid email address, and select the Protect the generated key with a passphrase option. Click Create to generate your key pair.

Image by:

(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternately, you can use the terminal:

$ gpg2 --full-generate-key

Follow the prompts until you have generated a key pair.

2. Add notation

Now that you have a key, you must add special metadata to it. This step requires the use of the terminal (Powershell on Windows) but it's highly interactive and isn't very complex.

First, take a look at your secret key:

gpg2 --list-secret-keys

The output displays your GnuPG keyring, containing at least one secret key. Locate the one you want to use for Mastodon (this might be the only key, if you've just created your first one today.) In the output, there's a long alphanumeric string just above a line starting with uid. That long number is your key's fingerprint. Here's an example:

sec   rsa4096 2022-11-17 [SC]
      22420E443871CF4313B9E90D50C9169F563E50CF
uid           [ultimate] Tux <tux@example.com>
ssb   rsa4096 2022-11-17 [E]

This example key's fingerprint is 22420E443871CF4313B9E90D50C9169F563E50CF. Select your key's fingerprint with your mouse, and then right-click and copy it to your clipboard. Then copy it into a document somewhere, because you're going to need it a lot during this process.

Now you can add metadata to the key. Enter the GnuPG interface using the gpg2 --edit-key command along with the fingerprint:

gpg2 --edit-key 22420E443871CF4313B9E90D50C9169F563E50CF

At the GnuPG prompt, select the user ID (that's your name and email address) you want to use as your verification method. In this example, there's only one user ID (uid [ultimate] Tux <tux@example.com>) so that's user ID 1:

gpg> uid 1

Designate this user as the primary user of the key:

gpg> primary

For Keyoxide to recognize your Mastodon identity, you must add a special notation:

gpg> notation

The notation metadata, at least in this context, is data formatted to the Ariadne specification. The metadata starts with proof@ariadne.id= and is followed by the URL of your Mastodon profile page.

In a web browser, navigate to your Mastodon profile page, and copy the URL. For me, in this example, the URL is https://example.com/@tux, so Enter the notation at the GnuPG prompt:

gpg> notation
Enter the notation: proof@ariadne.id=http://example.com/@tux

That's it. Type save to save and exit GnuPG.

gpg> save3. Export your key

Next, export your key. To do this in Kleopatra, select your key and click the Export button in the top toolbar.

Alternately, you can use the terminal. Reference your key by its fingerprint (I told you that you'd be using it a lot):

gpg2 --armor --export \
22420E443871CF4313B9E90D50C9169F563E50CF > pubkey.asc

Either way, you end up with a public key ending in .asc. It's always safe to distribute your public key. (You would never, of course, distribute your secret key because it is, as its very name implies, meant to be secret.)

4. Upload your key

Open your web browser and navigate to keys.openpgp.org.

On the keys.openpgp.org website, click the Upload link to upload your exported key. Do this even if you've had a GPG key for years and know all about the --send-key option. This is a unique step to the Keyoxide process, so don't skip it.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

More Linux resources Linux commands cheat sheet Advanced Linux commands cheat sheet Free online course: RHEL technical overview Linux networking cheat sheet SELinux cheat sheet Linux common commands cheat sheet What are Linux containers? Our latest Linux articles

After your key's been uploaded, click the Send confirmation email button next to your email address so you can confirm that you own the email your key claims it belongs to. It can take 15 minutes or so, but when you receive an email from Openpgp.org, click the confirmation link to verify your email.

5. Add your key to Mastodon

Now that everything's set up, you can use Keyoxide as your verification link for Mastodon. Go to your Mastodon profile page and click the Edit profile link.

On the Edit profile page, scroll down to the Profile Metadata section. Type PGP (or anything you want) into the Label field. In the Content field, type https://keyoxide.org/hkp/ and then your key fingerprint. For me, in this example, the full URL is https://keyoxide.org/hkp/22420E443871CF4313B9E90D50C9169F563E50CF.

Click the Save button and then return to your profile page.

Image by:

(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

You can click the Keyoxide link in your profile to see your Keyoxide "profile" page. This page is actually just a rendering of the GPG key you created. Keyoxide's job is to parse your key, and to be a valid destination when you need to link to it (from Mastodon, or any other online service.)

6. Build trust

The old Twitter verification method was opaque and exclusive. Somebody somewhere claimed that somebody else somewhere else was really who they said they were. It proved nothing, unless you agree to accept that somewhere there's a reliable network of trust. Most people choose to believe that, because Twitter was a big corporation with lots at stake, and relatively few people (of the relative few who were granted it) complained about the accuracy of the Twitter blue checkmark.

Open source verification is different. It's available to everyone, and proves as much as Twitter verification did. But you can do even better. When you use encrypted keys for verification, you grant yourself the ability to have your peers review your identity and to digitally sign your PGP key as a testament that you are who you claim you are. It's a method of building a web of trust, so that when you link from Mastodon to your PGP key through Keyoxide, people can trust that you're really the owner of that digital key. I also means that several community members have met you in person and signed your key.

Help build human-centric trust online, and use PGP and Keyoxide to verify your identity. And if you see me at a tech conference, let's sign keys!

Get Mastodon's green checkmark with PGP and Keyoxide.

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Why you should try the Nemo file manager on Linux Seth Kenlon Mon, 12/05/2022 - 03:00

Computers are fancy filing cabinets, full of virtual folders and files waiting to be referenced, cross-referenced, edited, updated, saved, copied, moved, renamed, and organized. In this article, I'm taking a look at a file manager for your Linux system.

The Cinnamon project was formed as a reimplementation of GNOME 2 using the components of GNOME 3. Eventually, it diverged enough to be a true fork, and today the Cinnamon desktop uses GTK3 libraries and forked versions of key GNOME 3 applications to create a "classic" GNOME experience. One of the components contributing to the traditional GNOME experience is Nemo, a file manager based on the GNOME 2 version of Nautilus.

Install Nemo on Linux

The source code for Nemo is available online but it requires cinnamon-desktop to build, so the easiest way to install Nemo is to just install Cinnamon.

On Fedora, Mageia, and similar:

$ sudo dnf install cinnamon-desktop

On Linux Mint, Debian, and similar:

$ sudo dnf install cinnamon-desktop-environment

Of course, as the desktop's progenitor, Linux Mint is also available with Cinnamon preinstalled.

A familiar interface

If you're used to GNOME, either of the past or of today, then Nemo feels like home from the start. It's got a familiar look and feel, with buttons in similar places and options that you're likely to recognize.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

More Linux resources Linux commands cheat sheet Advanced Linux commands cheat sheet Free online course: RHEL technical overview Linux networking cheat sheet SELinux cheat sheet Linux common commands cheat sheet What are Linux containers? Our latest Linux articles

The GNOME-ish convention of placing view control buttons in the top right is retained, and you can use the buttons to quickly switch your view of your files from large icons to a detailed list or a compact view. There's also a search function there, and the option to toggle the location bar between editable text and a button.

Editable URI bars are sometimes undervalued. It's a simple design decision, but it can be a huge feature contributing to efficiency. It's like having a one-line terminal at the top of each window, in which you can type a destination anywhere on your system and instantly be taken there. And you don't even have to type cd.

At the top right corner, there are navigation buttons: up, forward, and back. As with many Linux file managers, you can forego the use of these buttons with the Alt key plus the appropriate Arrow key.

The side pane, shows a list of important folders (Home, Documents, Downloads, and so on), can be hidden or displayed with the click of a button at the bottom of the window.

Familiarity but not the same

The comfort and familiarity of Nemo doesn't mean that it just mindlessly mimics Nautilus. Nemo has a collection of nice features that feel unique. Most of these are in Preferences, and here are just a few of my favorites:

• Full path in window title: This is my favorite feature. Never question where you are in your filesystem again. Let your window title tell you.

• Single or double click: If you're a longtime KDE user, you might find single-clicking to open a file refreshing. With Nemo, you have that choice.

• Double-click to rename: If you're using a single click to open, why not repurpose the double-click to rename?

• Open each folder in a new window: There are operating systems out there that open a new window for each folder opened.

• Plugins: Nemo has the ability to invoke actions, scripts, and extensions. Some are included, including an action to change the desktop background, create launchers, and mount an archive. Others are yet to be created, but this kind of extensibility is vital to open source.

Everything close at hand

After using Nemo for a few weeks on Linux Mint, one interesting trait stood out to me. It seemed that Nemo had, or could have with quick configuration, everything I used most often close at hand. Many of the features, admittedly, I didn't know I needed or wanted until Nemo made it easy to click. You might argue that I was bending my usage to meet Nemo's design, and maybe that is the case. But when the experience is so pleasant and efficient, does it matter?

Nemo is a great file manager. It hearkens back to the days of GNOME 2, but with updates and design choices that make it feel fresh. If you like Thunar or Nautilus, you'll love Nemo.

Nemo feels like a refreshed version of GNOME 2. I like it and think you will, too.

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Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

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The post Shell In A Box – A Web-Based SSH Terminal to Access Linux via Browser first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides .

Shell In A Box (pronounced as shellinabox) is a web-based terminal emulator created by Markus Gutschke. It has a built-in web server that runs as a web-based SSH client on a specified port and

The post Shell In A Box – A Web-Based SSH Terminal to Access Linux via Browser first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.

Embedded Linux Market Share, Size, Growth Global Future Trend, Segmentation, Business Top Key Players Analysis Industry, Opportunities and Forecast to 2029  Digital Journal

Multi-boot tool Ventoy adds support for 32GB Fat32 and multi-languages  Ghacks

9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: December 4th, 2022  9to5Linux

Weekly Roundup: December 4th, 2022 - 9to5Linux  9to5Linux

Linux 6.1 gets an eighth release candidate and Linus Torvalds is OK with that  The Register

<p><a href="https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-summit-2023-save-date?sc_cid=%207013a0000034dIVAAY">In case you missed it</a>, <a href="http://redhat.com/summit?sc_cid=%207013a0000034dIVAAY">Red Hat Summit</a> is coming back to Boston, Massachusetts on <strong>May 23-25, 2023</strong> and we’re excited to announce that our <a href="https://reg.experiences.redhat.com/flow/redhat/sum23/cfp/login?sc_cid=%207013a0000034dIVAAY">ca

OpenSSF Membership Exceeds 100 with Many New Members Dedicated to Securing Open Source Software  PR Newswire

As was expected following an uptick in kernel patches mid-to-late in the cycle, Linus Torvalds today opted to issue Linux 6.1-rc8 rather than going straight to the stable release for Linux 6.1, which is also expected to serve as this year's Long Term Support (LTS) kernel...

Ahead of the Linux 6.1-rc8 kernel that Linus Torvalds is expected to issue shortly rather than going straight to Linux 6.1 stable, a revert for a small change leading to "huge performance regressions" in select areas has fortunately been caught and reverted...

Linux 6.1 Lands Revert For "Huge Performance Regressions" From Three Lines Of Code  Phoronix

Linux Mint 21.1 Beta is Available to Download  OMG! Ubuntu!