As many of our readers know, CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System) was developed in response to the trademark issues surrounding RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the early 2000s, and provided a functionally-compatible OS to the corresponding upstream RedHat version.
Around 2014, RedHat bought CentOS, and agreed to keep it as-is, and separate from RHEL.
CentOS is Dead
As so often happens after acquisitions, in December 2020, Red Hat discontinued CentOS development, causing much upheaval in the Open Source community, and leaving the existing CentOS user base without a clear path forward.
Long Live CentOS
In response, CentOS original founder Gregory Kurtzer created the Rocky Linux project, as a successor, true to the original goals of CentOS.
CentOS Linux was discontinued at the end of 2021 in favor of CentOS Stream, a distribution positioned upstream of RHEL, but below Fedora.
CentOS Stream is still useful for many, despite having different goals now and a different use-case, and no longer being binary-compatible with RedHat – it’s a bit like a “Release Candidate” idea for Fedora, now.
This gets RedHat’s offerings a bit closer to the Debian release of Stable/Testing/Unstable, corresponding roughly to RHEL/CentOS/Fedora, in order.
RedHat Backtracks
In Addition, RedHat addressed all the Bruhaha by making RHEL free for up to 16 systems, as a migration path, considering that they also chopped 8 years off the previously announced and counted-on 10-year support period for Centos8.
But given their track record, many (including this writer) are skeptical that RedHat may again use this to tighten the grip of Vendor Lock-In, in some future version of doing as they did in 2020.
eRacks Systems Offerings
Be that as it may, eRacks Systems now offers all the OSes preinstalled and pre-configured to your preferences, in the dropdowns:
Centos 7 (last supported RHEL clone, currently 7.9)
CentOS Stream Latest (Currently 9)
Rocky Linux Latest (Currently 9)
Rocky Linux Previous (Currently 8)
Alma Linux Latest (Currently 9)
Alma Linux Previous (Currently 8)
RedHat Enterprise Linux (Now available preinstalled at no charge, for you to set up with your account on receipt)
As always, if you want a more specific version or distro, just ask.
Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera”
was released on December 20, 2022, a full 14 days after the beta
appeared. The popular Ubuntu-based distribution’s intuitive desktop
environments make it especially popular among newcomers to Linux.
Linux Mint 21.1 code name
“Vera”, brings several interface changes including a cleaner desktop with more
vibrant colors. Vera also sees the arrival of more controls in the update,
driver, and software managers. New system sounds, ISO tools, and mouse pointers
round out this update to the popular Linux distribution.
Let’s see what new Linux
Mint 21.1 has in its store for users.
Linux Mint
Linux Mint is one of the
most successful distributions based on Ubuntu. And with the number of Ubuntu
derivatives out there, that’s saying something. Linux Mint must be doing a lot
of things right—at least, according to its passionate user base.
Linux Mint is focused on
desktops and laptops. It provides customized desktop environments with a choice
of Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate. It has the Snap store disabled by default;
a move first made in Linux Mint 20.
Linux Mint doesn’t have a
server version. Its purpose is to provide a simple, intuitive, attractive
desktop Linux experience for its users, especially newcomers to the Linux
world. The Linux Mint team want a mac or Windows user to be comfortable with
Linux Mint within a short time.
Linux kernel
The release will continue
to use the Linux 5.15 LTS kernel under the hood, based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
A Refreshed User Interface
When you first boot into the desktop, you should quickly notice the new look of the cursor. It features the new Bibata theme by default.
The cursor icon theme
inventory has new options like Yaru, Breeze, and GoogleDot along with the
traditional DMZ theme.
Users will also find a unique
set of app icon themes to choose from in addition to the traditional Mint-X,
Mint-Y, and Mint-Legacy themes. This includes Papirus, Breeze, Numix, and Yaru.
Another interesting thing
you may notice is the default accent color isn’t the traditional green anymore,
and that’s because the desktop theme is now switched to Aqua. The accent color
library offers more vibrant colors and gives the desktop a clean and attractive
look.
For those who want the
legacy look back, there exists a “Mint-Y-Legacy” option in the theme
options.
Moreover, the Computer, Home, Networks, and Trash icons previously visible on the desktop are removed by default and can be accessed in the file manager. The Home folder icon is displayed on the panel instead. If you want to return the old arrangement, you can do so by heading to the system preferences.
Cleaner Desktop
The desktop has been
purged. The “home”, “computer”, “trash”, and “network” icons have been removed.
Clicking the folder icon
pinned to the panel opens your “home” directory in the Nemo file browser, so it
is still only one click away. Counter-intuitively, its tooltip reads “Files”,
but it gives you a fast way to get to Nemo and your “home” directory all in
one.
The “computer”, “trash”,
and “network” locations are available through the “Go” menu in Nemo or by
searching in the start menu.
Files that you copy or
save to “~/Desktop” still show up on the desktop, as do mounted devices.
There’s the usual
selection of new background wallpapers. You’ve got access to the generic Linux
Mint wallpapers, the backgrounds from the Linux Mint 21 Vanessa release, and
the new Vera-specific backgrounds.
It’s a stunning collection
of images by skilled photographers. Whoever curated these backgrounds did a
great job too.
There’s a new “Show
Desktop” button at the extreme right-hand end of the panel. It hides all open
windows, clearing the desktop with a single mouse click.
It’s practically
invisible, but it’s there. Point at it, and you’ll see its tooltip.
A Modern Mouse Pointer
The default mouse pointer
has changed. Linux Mint 21.1 uses “Bibata Modern Classic”, which has a gently
rounded shape without a tail.
A Modern Mouse Pointer
With all of these cosmetic
tweaks, what looks good is subjective. If you don’t like the defaults, you can change
them in a flash to something more agreeable to you.
New System Sounds
The system sounds have
been updated. As before, the volume can be adjusted, and individual sounds can
be switched on and off if they’re too distracting.
A Liberated Driver Manager
The Driver Manager
application has been changed to run in user mode. This means it’ll run without
the need for a password.
It searches your computer
for drivers that are installed and in use, then lists them. It’ll also identify
missing drivers and offer to install them.
Our test machine didn’t
require any additional drivers, but it’s nice to know that you’ve got a helping
hand if your computer does need them.
Enhanced Update Manager
A similar amount of
assistance and hand-holding is available in the Update Manager. It makes what
can become a complicated task very easy. You can select the packages that you
want to update, and exclude those you’re not interested in at this time.
Significantly,
support for updating flatpaks has been added.
More Control in Software Manager
If a flatpack is available for an application, the Software Manager let’s you choose
between installing a DEB “System Package” or a flatpack.
It’s not the
flashiest software store application, but it looks good and works well. You can
find what you want quickly from a huge choice of software, and you get a choice
of install types, too. I’ll take that over eye candy any day.
New USB Tools
As you’d expect USB Image Writer tool lets you select
an ISO image and the USB stick you want to write the image to. It
also has a “Verify” button which lets you verify the authenticity of the
ISO image before you burn it, which is convenient.
The USB Stick Formatter
tool formats USB sticks for you. You can pick a USB stick, set its device name,
and choose a file system. There are four file systems supported:
FAT32
exFAT
NTFS
ext4
Other improvements
The code which lets you
remove applications from the main menu was reviewed and password prompts were
removed in situations where administrative permissions weren’t required.
Removing a Flatpak will no
longer require a password to be entered. Same goes for simple shortcuts and
local applications (i.e. applications which aren’t installed system-wide).
Synaptic and the Update
Manager will now also ask pkexec to remember your password so you won’t have to
enter it every single time if you perform multiple operations.
Following the upstream
deprecation of apt-key, the Software Sources received changes to rework the way
it handles PPA keys.
When a PPA is added its
key is now only accepted for the PPA itself, not globally for all APT Sources.
Continuous integration for
all Linux Mint projects moved from Circle CI to Github Actions. This gives the
development team greater control over docker.
Documentation was written
and added to the User Guide to cover the following topics:
How to reset a forgotten password
How to have Bluetooth disabled at boot
How to make a Windows live USB stick or a
multiboot USB stick
Summary of changes
eRacks/LGRAM
First point release of Linux Mint 21, based
on Ubuntu 22.04.1 release
Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS
Cinnamon 5.6.4 desktop
Xfce 4.16 desktop
MATE 1.26 desktop
Friendly driver manager
Cleaner default desktop view with fewer
icons
Default theme changes to “Mint-Y-Aqua” from
the green-based icons
New cursor theme: Bibata (one of the best
cursor themes in Linux)
A bunch of stunning wallpapers
And an array of bug fixes
Including these, there are
lot of new features in this new release. Start using new Linux Mint 21.1 to get
the full experiences.
To get the Linux Mint 21.1
on your system, simply upgrade the existing Linux Minx 20.x or do a clean
install.
Upgrading to Linux Mint 21.1
Upgrading
to Linux Mint 21.1 is simple. Long-time users of the distro will be familiar
with the steps needed to do so:
Use the Timeshift app
to make a system snapshot
Update
any/all Cinnamon spices/applets/themes
Open Update
Manager and install any updates
Select the
“Upgrade” option in the ‘Edit’ menu of Update Manager
Hit Install
Once
all updates are downloaded, unpacked, and installed it’s advised to restart the
computer. A reboot ensures all changes take effect, and that the system comes
back-up functioning as intended by Linux Mint’s developers.
As
mentioned, Linux Mint 21.1 includes a number of visual changes and new artwork.
Anyone who makes the upgrade but doesn’t like the new folder icons or aqua
color accents can revert to Linux Mint’s older look using the Welcome app
available in the applications menu.
Before upgrading or clean
install, make sure your system meets the minimum requirements. The system
requirements are as follows.
System requirements:
2GB RAM (4GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
20GB of disk space (100GB recommended).
1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows
with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).
Conclusion
If your system doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements, or you need clean pre-installed new system, you can always get one from eRacks Systems store as pre-configured with Linux Mint 21.1.
Released in 17th
May 2022, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 helps users innovate, optimize, protect,
and trust their traditional and modern workloads across their datacenter,
cloud, and edge environments. Red Hat Enterprise Linux remains an economic
driver, with the overall Red Hat Enterprise Linux footprint forecast to touch
more than $13 trillion of the global economy in 2022. RHEL 9 is now available with the following major features
with all of the systems in
eRacks.
Enhanced web console performance metrics
This feature makes it easy for the
system admin and operation team to monitor and identify performance metrics. It
allows quick report generation and presentation with one click.
Kernel live patching
It is one of the best features for
managing kernel update, RHEL 9 provide the ability to manage kernel patching
with a cockpit web console.
Streamlined image building
RHEL 9 comes with various improvements
like an image builder that gives the ability to build RHEL8 and RHEL 9 images
through a single build node. This feature is very useful for the developer
community.
podman
Improved container development
RHEL 9 ships launch with upgraded
version podman with new features and advanced technology.
Link Time Optimization
It allows speeding up various
applications and running services as well as source code inspection at the time
of compilation.
Application Updates
You can find all application releases
with new versions which available in RHEL8 such as newer versions available of
Perl, python, ruby, git, apache, Nginx, MySQL, MariaDB, and more.
Enhanced security
Smart card authentication via the web
console.
Additional SELinux security profiles.
Detailed SSSD Logging and search
capabilities.
Integrated OpenSSL 3.
Integrity Measurement Architecture
allows you to dynamically verify the integrity of the OS.
The SSH root password is now disabled
by default.
Support for Newer
Versions of Programming Languages
eRacks/ENTERPRISE
RHEL
9.0 offers
the following new versions of dynamic programming languages:
PHP
8.0
Node.JS
16
Perl
5.32
Python
3.9
Ruby
3.0
Download Red Hat®
Enterprise Linux® 9 (RHEL 9) for Free.
Or you can get the
hassle free Pre-Installed Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9 (RHEL 9) or your preferred versions or any of your preferable Open-Source
Distribution by purchasing any systems from eRacks
Systems’ Store.
The Ubuntu 20.10 code name ‘Groovy Gorilla’, Yes, “Groovy Gorilla” is the development code name chosen for the next stable Ubuntu release, which is currently earmarked for general availability on October 26, 2020.
Now, I probably don’t need to tell you what a gorilla is — and if you don’t know, I don’t believe you !!, and the term groovy is… Well, the dictionary definition of “Groovy” describes it as an informal adjective meaning ‘fashionable and exciting’, e.g., “That’s a groovy new wallpaper!” or generally ‘excellent, e.g., “A groovy release filled with greatness”.
Ubuntu 20.10 establishes another milestone in Canonical’s long-term commitment to delivering a carrier-grade private cloud with “Groovy Gorilla”. The 33rd release of the most popular Linux distribution in the data center space, Groovy Gorilla, brings various improvements that enable easier consumption of the fast-networking stack across both VMs and containers, straightforward compliance with common security benchmarks and a reference telco cloud implementation.
Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” is a short-term release supported for 9 months until July 2021. So, with its imminent release on 22nd Oct 2020, Ubuntu 20.10 will be getting support from Canonical till July 2021. This includes access to new app releases, bug-fixes, and security patches. This release mostly the testbed for the latest application, Kernel stack to provide users stable packages back to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
I personally have been using it for the past couple of days, and it’s reasonably stable. It also feels snappier compared to its predecessor, which isn’t a surprise considering it was primarily focusing on performance enhancements.
That being said, I won’t keep you waiting with the formalities. I know you came here to get a tour of what’s new with Ubuntu 20.10, and I have put together a few new changes in Ubuntu 20.10. Only you can feel the exact changes when you start using it.
let’s what’s new in latest Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla”;
Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” Some Major Features:
Linux Kernel 5.8
When development for Ubuntu 20.10 started, it was based on Ubuntu 20.04 and used the same kernel base – Linux kernel 5.4 LTS. But then, Linus Torvalds released Linux kernel 5.8 in May, and everyone in the Linux community was suspecting that “Groovy Gorilla” will ship with it.
Now, after a long wait, the Linux 5.8 kernel has popped up in the Ubuntu 20.10 archives, and that too only a month ago. This means that the new iteration of the popular Linux distro will benefit from the sweep of features that comes with the new kernel.
Some notable examples include:
Airtime Queue limits for better WiFi connection quality
Btrfs RAID1 with 3 and 4 copies and more checksum alternatives
USB 4 (Thunderbolt 3 protocol) support added
X86 Enable 5-level paging support by default
Intel Gen11 (Ice Lake) and Gen12 (Tiger Lake) graphics support
Initial support for AMD Family 19h (Zen 3)
Thermal pressure tracking for systems for better task placement wrt CPU core
XFS online repair
OverlayFS pairing with VirtIO-FS
General Notification Queue for key/keyring notification, mount changes, etc.
Active State Power Management (ASPM) for improved power savings of PCIe-to-PCI devices
Initial support for POWER10
Easy Wi-Fi Hotspot Configuration
The Wi-Fi tab in “Settings” allows you to use your laptop as a Wi-Fi hotspot. If you scan the QR code with a mobile device, like your smartphone or tablet, it will connect to your hotspot.
Security Improvements
nftables is now the default backend for the firewall.
Ubuntu 20.10 Desktop
Ubuntu 20.10 is the first Ubuntu release to feature desktop images for the Raspberry Pi 4.
GNOME 3.38
Ubuntu 20.10 is shipping with GNOME 3.38 out of the box, released on 16th Sept 2020. It is a welcome upgrade over GNOME 3.34, which is being used in Ubuntu 20.04 by default.
GNOME 3.38 brings many excellent features and functionalities to the table. Here is a list going over the most notable ones:
Better Fingerprint Support
Intelligent Web Tracking Prevention
Updated GNOME Maps with Performance and UI Improvements
A Redesigned Sound Recorder and Screenshot App
Support for QR Code WiFi Hotspot
Tons of New Default Wallpaper
Folder Support in Application Grid
Restart Button Added to System Tray
New Icons for Various Apps
New Parental Controls Under Settings
Apart from this, you will get to see many more bells and whistles. We have a detailed article covering the best features in GNOME 3.38 if you are looking for more information.
Now, as you know, Ubuntu is not known for shipping with vanilla GNOME. As such, you won’t get the authentic experience that was intended by the GNOME developers. We will talk more about the new interface and overall end-user experience in a later section.
ZFS Becomes Less Experimental
The Ubuntu Unity installer hasn’t changed significantly. The installation process is almost the same as it was on Ubuntu 20.04, and the black disk checking screen is the same.
One notable change is tucked away in the “Advanced Features” dialog box. The ZFS file system installation option no longer has the word “Experimental” in capital letters beside it. Confidence must be building within Canonical about the durability and readiness of its ZFS implementation as a daily driver file system.
After you install Ubuntu 20.10 and sign in, you’ll see the Groovy Gorilla, positioned prominently amidst the familiar purple hues of the Ubuntu color palette.
He looks like an ape that’s got it together, but let’s see if that’s true.
Updated Applications:
Firefox version 81
LibreOffice version 7.0.2
Thunderbird version 78.3.2
Updated Subsystems:
BlueZ 5.55
NetworkManager 1.26.2
Noteworthy changes Ubuntu 20.10 Server:
squid: the NIS basic authentication helper was removed (LP: #1895694 34)
adcli and realmd: many upstream fixes were applied to these packages, improving on the compatibility with current Active Directory changes
samba 4.12 40 has switched to GnuTLS for most of its cryptographic operations and that has a huge performance improvement in SMB3 encryption
QEMU was updated to the 5.0 release. See the upstream changes 40 for an overview of the many improvements.
One noteworthy new feature is virtiofs 42 which allows better sharing of host file systems to the guest compared to the older 9p fs 4 based approach.
Libvirt has been updated to version 6.6. See the upstream Changelogs 34 for the many improvements and fixes since version 6.0 that was in Focal.
Libvirt 6.6 also supports the new virtiofs that was mentioned in the QEMU section above.
System Requirements for Ubuntu 20.04:
2 GHz dual-core processor
4 GiB RAM (but 1 GiB can work)
25 GB of hard-drive space
VGA capable of 1024×768 screen resolution
Either of the two: a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media
Note: Optionally, Internet access is helpful.
Download Ubuntu 20.10
You can download Ubuntu 20.10 for 64-bit computers using the link below:
As the Ubuntu 20.10 desktop image is 2.9GB in size do make sure you’re on a decent internet connection before you hit the download button!
When the download completes you need write the Ubuntu 20.10 ISO image to a USB stick using a tool like Etcher. Then pop the USB in an empty port, reboot your computer, and choose to boot from the USB.
Ubuntu follows the release cycle of the new version twice a year, with one released in April and the other released in October, accompanied by many important improvements. The 2020 version will be Ubuntu 20.04 with the Focal Fossa identifier, which is expected to be released to global users starting April 23 next year.The codename of the official Ubuntu updates is chosen in alphabetical order, and is made up of 2 words, the first word is adjective and the second word will be noun, which is specific here as a certain animal is in danger of extinction, or sometimes mythical creatures such as Unicorns or Werewolfs (Wolves).
focalfossa
We have the Focala version of April 2020 with the word ‘Focal’ meaning ‘necessary’ and the Fossa is a carnivore that looks like a lynx, which can only be seen now. in Madagascar.
This is an interesting and unique code naming that only Ubuntu applies, giving users a sense of both curiosity and memorable.
However, the code names of Ubuntu releases sometimes reveal some of the characteristics of the releases. Ubuntu 20.04 will not only be an important release (with long term service), but also contain the strengths commonly found in Fossa species such as flexibility, agility and dominance.
In short, Ubuntu 20.04 is the LTS version, so the main focus of this release will be to bring stability and reliability to users. Focal Fossa came with lots of improvements, bug fixes, and especially new features. Let’s see some of them!
New Features in 20.04 LTS
Installer
The live server installer is now the preferred media to install Ubuntu Server on all architectures.
Besides architecture support, the main user visible new features are support for automated installs and being able to install the bootloader to multiple disks (for a more resilient system).
Installer
There have been many other fixes under the hood to make using encryption easier, better support installing to multipath disks, more reliable installation onto disks that have been used in various ways and allowing failures to be reported more usefully.
Linux Kernel
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is based on the long-term supported Linux release series 5.4. Notable features and enhancements in 5.4 since 5.3 include:
Support for new hardware including Intel Comet Lake CPUs and initial Tiger Lake platforms, AMD Navi 12 and 14 GPUs, Arcturus and Renoir APUs along with Navi 12 + Arcturus power features.
Support has been added for the exFAT filesystem, virtio-fs for sharing filesystems with virtualized guests and fs-verity for detecting file modifications.
Built in support for the WireGuard VPN.
Enablement of lockdown in integrity mode.
Other notable kernel updates to 5.4 since version 4.15 released in 18.04 LTS includes support for AMD Rome CPUs, Radeon RX Vega M and Navi GPUs, Intel Cannon Lake platforms. support for raspberry pi (Pi 2B, Pi 3B, Pi 3A+, Pi 3B+, CM3, CM3+, Pi 4B), Significant power-saving improvements. Boot speed improvements through changing the default kernel compression algorithm to lz4 (in Ubuntu 19.10) on most architectures, and changing the default initramfs compression algorithm to lz4 on all architectures.
Toolchain Upgrades 🛠️
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS comes with refreshed state-of-the-art toolchain including new upstream releases of glibc 2.31, ☕ OpenJDK 11, rustc 1.41, GCC 9.3, 🐍 Python 3.8.2, 💎 ruby 2.7.0, php 7.4, 🐪 perl 5.30, golang 1.13.
GNOME and visual improvements
Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa comes with installed. It’s chock-full of visual improvements, resulting in better performance and a more aesthetically pleasing graphical experience. There’s also a new lock screen design and support for fractional scaling under X11.
GNOME 3.36
A sleeker theme
GNOME’s new default theme is called “Yaru.” Even upon first loading into Focal Fossa, the desktop gives off a much more modern and sleeker vibe. This is mostly thanks to some color tweaks in the default theme and a darker wallpaper. The updated GNOME also allows you to choose between three different color themes: light, standard, or dark.
Network configuration
With this Ubuntu release, netplan.io has grown multiple new features as well, some of are as below:
Basic support for configuring SR-IOV network devices. Starting with netplan.io 0.99, users can declare Virtual Functions for every SR-IOV Physical Function, configure those as any other networking device and set hardware VLAN VF filtering on them.
Support for GSM modems via the NetworkManager backend via the modems section.
Adding WiFi flags for bssid/band/channel settings.
Adding ability to set ipv6-address-generation for the NetworkManager backend and emit-lldp for networkd.
ZFS support
Ubuntu introduced native support of ZFS in the 2019 interim release of Eoan Ermine. In Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, ZFS support has been further improved, though still flagged as being experimental. When installing Focal Fossa, you have the option to use ZFS if you click “advanced features” when asked about how you’d like to format your hard drive.
The newest version of Ubuntu features performance enhancements for ZFS and support for encryption. Ubuntu has a ZFS system tool called Zsys, which provides automated system and user state saving. It also integrates better with GRUB so a user can revert to an earlier system state before booting into the desktop.
Acceptance of ZFS in the enterprise world is still shaky, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Seeing support for it on a really popular distribution like Ubuntu is pretty neat.
Python3 by default
In 20.04 LTS, the python included in the base system is Python 3.8. Python 2.7 has been moved to universe and is not included by default in any new installs.
Remaining packages in Ubuntu which require Python 2.7 have been updated to use /usr/bin/python2 as their interpreter, and /usr/bin/python is not present by default on any new installs. On systems upgraded from previous releases, /usr/bin/python will continue to point to python2 for compatibility.
Snap Store
The Snap Store (snap-store) replaces ubuntu-software as the default tool for finding and installing packages and snaps.
QEMU
QEMU was updated to 4.2 release. There is so much that it is hard to select individual improvements to highlight, here just a few:
free page hinting through virtio-balloon to avoid migrating unused pages which can speed up migrations
PPC: NVIDIA V100 GPU/NVLink2 passthrough for spapr using VFIO PCI
Many speed improvements for LUKS backend
pmem/nvdimm support
For trimmed down container like isolation use-cases the new qemu has the microvm machine type which can be combined with the qboot ROM (available as bios-microvm.bin) to provide a reduced feature set at a much faster startup time. To further emphasize that you can use the package qemu-system-x86-microvm which provides an alternative QEMU binary stripped of all features not needed these use cases as sugegsted by the qboot ROM.
libvirt
libvirt was updated to version 6.0. See the upstream change log for details since version 5.6 that was in Ubuntu 19.04 or further back since verison 4.0 that was in Ubuntu 18.04.
Chrony
Chrony been updated to version 3.5 which provides plenty of improvements in accuracy and controls. Furthermore, it also adds additional isolation for non-x86 by enabling syscall filters on those architectures as well.
To further allow feeding Hardware time into Chrony the package GPSD is now also fully supported.
But still for simple time-sync needs the base system already comes with systemd-timesyncd. Chrony is only needed to act as a time server or if you want the advertised more accurate and efficient syncing.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS “Focal Fossa”
There are a lot of other changes as well. To experience all the changes and improvements it is recommended to use and experiences this version of your own.
As of late April, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS “Focal Fossa” is now available on all eRacks systems, both Desktop and Server.
It should appear in the “Operating system” dropdown when you configure your system, and is the default on many / most of our systems.
If you don’t see it, or if you this it should be the default, (or shouldn’t!), please let us know – We are always listening for feedback!
Fedora 32 is now available on eRacks Systems! Check Out The New Features of Fedora 32.
fedora32
Fedora has done it again. The fruit of their labor is now ready for the masses to enjoy. Fedora 32 will definitely strike the chord for most of its users and the ones who have a keen eye on joining in. Released on April 28th 2020 after a patient wait from the fans and enthusiasts, there are no more barriers to getting it on your hands because it is now officially out.
Outstanding New Features in Fedora 32
There are a lot of changes and new features abound in Fedora 32. Let’s review some of them.
Binutils upgraded to Binutils 2.3
DNF (Dandified yum) improved (for better, more accurate counting of Fedora users)
GCC 10 compiler upgraded
Glibc upgraded to Glibc 2.31
Python upgraded to Python 3.8
Python 2 removed/retired
Ruby upgraded to Ruby 2.7
PHP upgraded to PHP 7.4
MariaDB upgraded to MariaDB 10.4
GNOME upgraded to GNOME 3.36(Fedora Workstation 32)
And many more
For a list of all changes introduced in Fedora 32 Core, refer to the official Fedora 32 Changeset.
GNOME 3.36
Fedora 32 Workstation includes the latest release of GNOME Desktop Environment for users of all types. GNOME 3.36 in Fedora 32 Workstation includes many updates and improvements, including:
Redesigned Lock Screen
The lock screen in Fedora 32 is a totally new experience. The new design removes the “window shade” metaphor used in previous releases, and focuses on ease and speed of use.
unlock-screen-fedora
Better Applications Search
Powered by the talent and the evident hard-work invested in this new release, it is amazing now that you can now search applications like lock screen, power off, log out and many more in a beautiful layout. It integrates well with screens that can be oriented vertically or horizontally which makes it sweet to interact with.
New design on the settings App
Renamed to settings, the GNOME Control Center now has an easy to use side bar which embraces the user with an intuitive and fluid navigation through the settings arena. Additionally, the About category now has a more information about your system, including which windowing system you are running (e.g. Wayland)
Supports The New Extensions App
You no longer need to utilize the GNOME Tweaks tool to separately install/manage extensions. Fedora 32 features the new extension app which lets you manage GNOME extensions directly.
fedora-extensions-app
However, you won’t find it pre-installed. You will have to look through the software center to get it installed or simply type in the following command:
sudo dnf install gnome-extensions-app
Revamped Settings Menu
As part of the new GNOME 3.36, you will find the Settings app to be re-organized and more useful than ever before. You can get more information about your system and access the options easily.
fedora-32-settings
Notifications Area Redesign With Do Not Disturb Toggle
The best thing about GNOME 3.36 is the notification area or the calendar pop-over redesign. And, Fedora 32 has it nicely set up as well in addition to the Do Not Disturb mode toggle if needed.
notification-area-design-fedora-32
Redesigned Clocks Application
The Clocks application is totally redesigned in Fedora 32. It features a design that works better on smaller windows.
clock-app-fedora-32
GNOME 3.36 also provides many additional features and enhancements. Check out the GNOME 3.36 Release Notes for further information
Improved Out of Memory handling
Previously, if a system encountered a low-memory situation, it may have encountered heavy swap usage (aka swap thrashing)– sometimes resulting in the Workstation UI slowing down, or becoming unresponsive for periods of time. Fedora 32 Workstation now ships and enables EarlyOOM by default. EarlyOOM enables users to more quickly recover and regain control over their system in low-memory situations with heavy swap usage.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) is now available on all eRacks Systems with lots of developer-friendly capabilities.
Red Hat Inc. announced the official release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 on May 7, 2019.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) comes with new features and improvements as compared to the predecessor – RHEL 7. Some of the new features of RHEL 8 are as described below.
Kernel & OS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 is based on Fedora 28 and upstream kernel 4.18. This provides users with a secure, stable and consistent foundation across hybrid cloud and Data Center deployments with tools needed to support all levels of workloads.
Storage and File systems
Stratis is the new local storage manager for RHEL 8. It provides managed file systems on top of pools of storage with additional features to the user. Stratis provides ZFS/Btrfs-style features by integrating layers Linux’s device mapper subsystem, and the XFS filesystem.
Stratis supports LUKSv2 disk encryption and Network-Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) for more robust data security that can also be used for email security SaaS also, since there is threat of data loss in every digital medium as the technology progresses to a new level everyday. The OT cybersecurity solutions is the one companies are opting for these days to protect data.
With Stratis, you can easily perform storage tasks such as:
Maintain file systems
Manage snapshots and thin provisioning
Automatically grow file system sizes as needed
Pools are created from one or more storage devices, and volumes are created from a pool. The file system is created on top of a volume, hence resizing a volume automatically resize FS as well. The default file system used by Stratis is XFS.
Other notable Storage features are:
The XFS file system now supports shared copy-on-write data extent functionality. This enables two or more files to share a common set of data blocks. Creating shared copies does not utilize disk I/O nor consume additional disk space. The files sharing common blocks act like regular files.
The shared copy-on-write data extents are now enabled by default when creating an XFS file system, starting with the xfsprogs package version 4.17.0-2.el8.
Support for Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) on all of the architectures supported by RHEL 8.
LUKS2 is now the default format for encrypting volumes. This replaces the legacy LUKS (LUKS1) format distributed in RHEL 7. LUKS2 provides encrypted volumes with metadata auto-recovery and redundancy if partial metadata corruption is encountered.
Virtualization
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is distributed with qemu-kvm 2.12 with – Q35 guest machine type support, UEFI guest boot support, vCPU hot plug and hot unplug, NUMA tuning and pinning in the guest and guest I/O threading
The QEMU emulator introduces the sandboxing feature. QEMU sandboxing provides configurable limitations to what systems calls QEMU can perform, and thus makes virtual machines more secure
KVM virtualization now supports the User-Mode Instruction Prevention (UMIP) feature, which can help prevent user-space applications from accessing to system-wide settings
KVM virtualization now supports the 5-level paging feature, which significantly increases the physical and virtual address space that the host and guest systems can use.
NVIDIA vGPU is now compatible with the VNC console
Ceph storage is supported by KVM virtualization on all CPU architectures supported by Red Hat
Q35, a more modern PCI Express-based machine type is supported by RHEL 8 Virtualization. All virtual machines created in RHEL 8 are set to use Q35 PC machine type by default
Below are the new changes in the Networking Level:
RHEL 8 is distributed with TCP networking stack version 4.16, which provides higher performances, better scalability, and more stability.
The networking stack upgraded to upstream version 4.18
Iptables has been replaced by the nftablesframework as the default network packet filtering facility.
The nftables framework is the designated successor to the iptables, ip6tables, arptables, and ebtables tools. This provides a single framework for both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols
The firewalld daemon now uses nftables as its default backend.
Support for IPVLAN virtual network drivers that enable the network connectivity for multiple containers.
Network Manager now supports single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) virtual functions (VF). Network Manager allows configuring some attributes of the VFs, such as the MAC address, VLAN, the spoof checking the setting and allowed bitrate
Content Distribution
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 has two modes of Content distribution and will only need two repositories enabled.
BaseOS repository – The BaseOS repository provides the underlying core OS content in the form of traditional RPM packages. BaseOS components have a life cycle identical to that of content in previous Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.
AppStream repository – The Application Stream repository provides all the applications you might want to run in a given userspace. Other software that has special licensing are available on a Supplemental repository.
Web servers, Web Tools, Web Management – Cockpit, Compilers, Languages & Databases, Software Management
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 includes Application Streams of multiple versions of databases, languages, compilers, and other tools available for your use.
RHEL 8 comes with Cockpit automatically installed and firewall ports required by Cockpit are automatically opened. Cockpit interface can be used to apply Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) rules to disks on managed systems.
RHEL 8 YUM package manager is now based on the DNF technology and it provides support for modular content, increased performance, and a well-designed stable API for integration with tooling. The version of RPM is 4.14.2 and it validates the whole package contents before it starts the installation.
Desktop Environment
RHEL default Desktop Environment is GNOME. The GNOME Project is supported by the GNOME Foundation. Gnome version 3.28 shipped in RHEL 8 which has automatic downloading of operating systems in Boxes. Other new features include:
New on-screen keyboard
New GNOME Boxes features
Extended devices support, most significantly integration for the Thunderbolt 3 interface
Improvements for GNOME Software, dconf-editor and GNOME Terminal
GNOME Software utility, which enables you to install and update applications and gnome-shell extensions.
GNOME Display Manager (GDM) use Wayland as their default display server instead of the X.org server
Features of Wayland display server
Stronger security model
Improved multi-monitor handling
Improved user interface (UI) scaling
The desktop can control window handling directly.
Security
RHEL 8 comes with support for OpenSSL 1.1.1 and TLS 1.3. This enables you to secure customer’s data with the latest standards for cryptographic protection.
RHEL 8 comes with System-wide Cryptographic Policies which helps you with the management of cryptographic compliance. No need to modify and tune specific applications.
OpenSSH has been rebased to version 7.8p1– with no support for SSH version 1 protocol, Blowfish/CAST/RC4 ciphers, hmac-ripemd160 message authentication code.
Red Hat Developer Subscriptions
Red Hat Developer members have been enjoying no-cost developer subscriptions for 3+ years now, and RHEL 8 is now automatically part of that. If your company wants developer support, there are several Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Subscriptions options with Red Hat support, too.
Fedora is a community-driven Linux distro that’s sponsored by the open source giant Red Hat. As Fedora is the upstream source of the company’s commercial RHEL distro, it’s also used as a testing ground for RHEL. As Linux enthusiasts might already know, Fedora is known as an innovative Linux distro that doesn’t hesitate when it comes to testing new technologies and helping other distros by making changes upstream for all distros. Shipping with many useful open source software, it’s known for providing a GNOME-based fluid desktop experience.
Fedora community recently released Fedora 30 just after about the 6 months from the version release as Fedora 29. On Fedora magazine they wrote about the early release of Fedora 30.
“It seems like it was just six months ago that we announced Fedora 29, and here we are again. Today, we announce our next operating system release. Even though it went so quickly, a lot has happened in the last half year, and you’ll see the results in Fedora 30.”
Many desktop users love Red Hat’s community Linux Fedora. They have good reason. Fedora is a great Linux desktop. But Fedora’s far more than just a desktop. It comes in three major versions: One for the workstation, another for containers, and still another that works as a server both on your server hardware and on the cloud.
About many changes, “Matthew Miller”, the Fedora Project Leader, explained in a statement:
“Computing scenarios don’t remain static and neither does Fedora. With the updates around Fedora 30, we’re providing an evolving spectrum of operating system editions to better meet diverse IT challenges. From containerized developer workspaces with Flatpak and Silverblue to expanded server and container infrastructure options in Fedora 30 Cloud and Fedora CoreOS, the Fedora Project remains focused on Linux innovation.“
The biggest change in Fedora 30 is the new GNOME 3.32 desktop environment. Over the course of past few releases, GNOME desktop has made many changes to reduce its memory consumption; GNOME 3.32 takes things further and makes things more fluid and snappier by making enhancements in the core GNOME libraries.
On the visual front, the desktop environment adds a refreshed visual style that makes the overall look more polished. Moreover, the application icons, user icons, buttons, switches, etc., are also redesigned.
Talking about different packages that are included in the distro, you get the latest GCC 9, PHP 7.3, Bash 5.0, Ruby 2.6, and other apps.
This release is powered by the latest Linux 5.0, which brings better hardware support and display performance. You also get new features like support for energy-aware scheduling, Btrfs swap file, AMDGPU FreeSync, etc.
With the Fedora 30 release, the cloud and server releases are being combined into the Fedora Server Edition. Also, Fedora CoreOS is replacing Fedora Atomic Host as the container-focused offering. There are other variants as well, including Fedora Spins and Labs.
Fedora 30 Workstation
Fedora 30 Workstation includes the latest version of the GNOME interface, GNOME 3.32. Fedora also supports the other major Linux desktop environments, including Cinnamon, KDE, LXDE, MATE, and Xfce. It also includes fractional scaling, a refreshed visual style, animation improvements, and new icons. The net effect is to make a more visually pleasing desktop, which works well on high-end monitors.
Fedora Workstation now uses the “flicker-free boot” system, so the display does not turn on and off during the boot process.
You can also now run the Fedora desktop as a containerized desktop, Fedora Silverblue, with rpm-ostree at its heart. This replaces the traditional RPM package management with atomic upgrade/rollback. In this model, Fedora provides ready-made base operating system image. When you install a program, using either rpm-ostree or Flatpak, it creates essentially a restore point. These are then tracked, and if something goes wrong, you can reset to your restore point with minimal harm done.
Fedora 30 Server
Fedora 30, released April 30, 2019, has the following new and improved features:
The product definitions for Fedora’s “Editions” have been revamped. Fedora Cloud and Fedora Server editions are now a single product, simply called Fedora Server. Fedora Atomic Host has been replaced with Fedora CoreOS, in the wake of Red Hat’s acquisition of that container-based Linux distribution. Fedora Workstation remains mostly the same.
Fedora Server now supports Linux System Roles, created by Ansible to provide consistent ways to configure common Linux subsystems such as the network, the email system (Postfix), SELinux, and a few others. The list of roles is constantly being expanded.
Almost all Python 2 packages have been removed from the system, as part of Fedora’s switch from Python 2 to Python 3.
MongoDB has been removed from Fedora, as its licensing (the Server-Side Public License v1) is not believed to be compatible with other free software licenses.
Support for many deprecated cryptography standards is being removed: DES, 3DES, CRC32, and MD4. RC4 and MD5 are being marked as deprecated.
As with each edition of Fedora, many individual software components have been upgraded:
Ubuntu 19.04, aka “Disco Dingo“, is now available on all eRacks systems.
Canonical – The company behind Ubuntu published its regular (non-LTS) version as Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) on April 18, 2019. The first Ubuntu 19.04 beta released on March 28. Other milestones during “Disco Dingo” development included feature freeze on February 21, 2019, UI freeze on March 14, 2019, and kernel freeze on April 1, 2019.
Up until this version, the codename of each Ubuntu release is traditionally made up of an adjective and an animal, both beginning with the same letter. But that’s only partly true this time – The word “Disco” is actually both a noun and a verb rather than adjective. A disco is a type of club or party at which people dance to music, often under lights.
A “Dingo” is a type of feral dog native to Australia and known for its sand-colored coat. Dingo dogs hunt alone or in cooperative packs. Inspired by the nature of the Dingo (which often sulks off when humans are around) the word has become informal Australian slang meaning ‘cowardly’, e.g., ‘he dingoes his way out of the date’.
Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo is only the second Ubuntu release to use the letter ‘D’, following Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper Drake” (released back in the land before time, aka 2006).
Since Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) is a non-LTS version (not a Long Term Support version), it will be supported for 9 months until January 2020. If you need Long Term Support, it is recommended you use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS instead.
This article for Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) provides an overview of the release and documents the known issues with Ubuntu 19.04 and its flavors.
Since the release of Ubuntu 19.04, everyone is talking about its Desktop Version. We’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to start with the Ubuntu 19.04 Server version first. Let’s what’s new:
Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) Server Updates.
Every time Canonical releases a new version, it brings many new and noticeable changes. Each new version improves the previous one and strives to provide better user experiences.
Canonical made many changes on Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) Server – the following are notable:
QEMU
In Ubuntu 19.04, QEMU was updated to the 3.1 release.
Migrations from former versions are supported just as usual. When upgrading it is always recommended to upgrade the machine types allowing guests to fully benefit from all the improvements and fixes of the most recent version.
Qemu now has virglrenderer enabled which allows to create a virtual 3D GPU inside qemu virtual machines. That is inferior to GPU pass-through, but can be handy if the platform used lacks the capability for classic PCI pass through as well as more modern mediated devices.
Among many other changes worth to mention is the ability to have GL enabled graphics as well as mediated devices to be configured while still being guarded by custom apparmor profiles generated per guest. This is required for the use of GPU based mediated devices as well as VirGL (mentioned above in the QEMU section). For bringing these changes libvirt was updated to version 5.0.
DPDK
Ubuntu includes 18.11.x the latest stable release branch of DPDK. The very latest (non-stable) version being 19.02 was not chosen for downstream projects of DPDK (like Open vSwitch) not being compatible.
DPDK dependencies were reorganized into more or less common/tested components. Due to that most DPDK installations will now have a smaller installation footprint and less potentially active code to care about.
Samba was updated to version 4.10.x, and one of the big changes here is python3 support. In Disco, samba and its dependencies are all python3 only now, with the exception of tdb. tdb still builds a python2 package, namely python-tdb, but all the others, including samba itself, are python3 only.
Open-VM-Tools
To run well integrated as VMware guest Ubuntu 19.04 comes with the latest open-vm-tools version 10.3.10. Details about the changes can be found in the upstream changelog
Raspberry Pi
Ubuntu 19.04 comes with an easy way of enabling Bluetooth support on the raspi3 Ubuntu-server preinstalled images. Install the Pi-Bluetooth package (now available in multiverse) with ‘sudo apt install pi-bluetooth’.
Please note that supported Pi devices which have Bluetooth (at the time of writing, the Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+, and 3A+) can have either serial console or Bluetooth support enabled at any given time (not both). With the Pi-Bluetooth package installed, edit it at ‘/boot/firmware/config.txt’ and set ‘enable_uart=1’ to enable serial console, or ‘enable_uart=0’ to enable Bluetooth. The change will take effect after the next reboot.
Open vSwitch
Open vSwitch has been updated to 2.11. This updated Open vSwitch version has support for the kernel versions 4.16.x and 4.17.x. Also the following features can be found on this version.
“mod-table” command can now change OpenFlow table names.
The environment variable OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD, if set, is now used as the default syslog method.
The environment variable OVS_CTL_TIMEOUT, if set, is now used as the default timeout for control utilities.
OVN-SB schema changed: duplicated IP with same Encapsulation type is not allowed any more. Please refer to Documentation/intro/install/ovn-upgrades.rst for the instructions in case there are problems encountered when upgrading from an earlier version.
New support for IPSEC encrypted tunnels between hypervisors.
ovn-ctl: allow passing user:group ids to the OVN daemons.
IPAM/MACAM add the capability to dynamically assign just L2 addresses
IPAM/MACAM add the capability to specify a static ip address and get the L2 one and it is allocated dynamically using the following syntax: ‘ovn-nbctl lsp-set-addresses <port> “dynamic <IP>”.’
Please read the Open vSwitchrelease notes for more detail.
OpenStack Stein
Ubuntu 19.04 includes the latest OpenStack release, Stein, including the following components:
OpenStack Identity – Keystone.
OpenStack Imaging – Glance.
OpenStack Block Storage – Cinder.
OpenStack Compute – Nova.
OpenStack Networking – Neutron.
OpenStack Telemetry – Ceilometer, Aodh, Gnocchi, and Panko.
WARNING: Upgrading an OpenStack deployment is a non-trivial process and care should be taken to plan and test upgrade procedures which will be specific to each OpenStack deployment. For Upgrading successfully please make sure you read the OpenStack Charm Release Notes for how to deploy Ubuntu OpenStack using Juju. Or simply contact eRacks Systems’ experts for help.
There are many other changes on newly released Ubuntu 19.04 non-LTS Server. Please read the Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) non-LTS Server release note for more details.
The Linux Kernel had its number bumped to 5.0.0-8 by Linus Torvalds, but not because of particularly noteworthy code changes. Usually, a significant number jump like this would echo an equally significant code or functionality change, but that isn’t the case. In an email to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, he explained:
“The numbering change is not indicative of anything special. If you want to have an official reason, it’s that I ran out of fingers and toes to count on, so 4.21 became 5.0.”
Torvalds went on to give a breakdown of the code changes in Linux 5.0:
This new kernel should be faster, too, as work was done to speed up the anti-Spectre and Meltdown code.
GNOME desktop 3.32
Ubuntu 19.04 ships with the latest GNOME desktop 3.32. This brings performance improvements, a host of bug fixes and some important new features. Beyond the visual changes, GNOME itself is faster and uses fewer GPU resources thanks to work done by both Canonical and the upstream GNOME team.
Of course, there’s a new wallpaper in latest GNOME desktop 3.32. But the first thing you’ll probably notice is a new icon on the desktop for your home directory. If you don’t like it, you can install GNOME Tweaks and use it to hide the home directory icon.
In keeping with modern “flat” design, the desktop’s top bar and launcher have solid-black backgrounds. The application menus have been moved back to each application’s window. They no longer appear in the toolbar. That’s a change in GNOME and not a design decision from Canonical. Some applications always kept their menus in their own application windows, which made the experience inconsistent. There were also some long-standing issues that were tough to fix. Now, that whole initiative has been canned in favor of a traditional menu placement—each applications menu is in the application’s own window.
Fractional Display Scaling (Possibly)
GNOME 3.32 includes support for fractional scaling, which is of interest to people with high DPI (Dots Per Inch) displays.
Unfortunately, in the modified version of GNOME supplied with Ubuntu, the fractional scaling settings are either hidden or not accessible to us. Eventually, a tool might allow access to these settings—or another means of accessing those settings will emerge from the user community. After all, they’re in GNOME.
Live patch for Reboot-Free Kernel Updates
Canonical introduced Live patch in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, only to remove it again in 18.10. It’s now back, complete with this new tab in Software & Updates.
Ubuntu 19.04’s Software and Updates app has a new tab called Live-patch. This new feature is intended to allow critical kernel patches to be applied without rebooting. For people using Ubuntu at home, on machines that get powered off frequently, requiring a power cycle to install a kernel update isn’t a hardship. If your Ubuntu computer is providing an external service or is hosting a website, it becomes trickier to try to schedule in the reboots.
New Icons and Visual Tweaks
The Yaru icon set has had a refresh, and new icons have been added to cater for more third-party applications. This icon set looks more coherent and slick. There’s evidence of attention being paid to the user interface all over. Files has had a facelift, and it looks crisp and feels responsive. That’s not a surprise.
Even the Terminal window has been polished up. The GNOME Terminal application has a new title bar with a prominent “New Tab” button and search icon.
The System menu has a new cogwheel Settings icon that replaces the old “crossed wrench and screwdriver” icon.
Application Permission Controls
GNOME’s Settings app now lets you control various application permissions. You can even choose whether or not each application can show notifications.
Night Light Improvements
The Night Light feature changes the hue of your computer’s display, reducing the amount of blue in the display illumination as the sun sets. You can now configure the schedule for the Night Light yourself. You can also select the color temperature—or “warmth”—of the display when Night Light is activated.
Updated Sound Controls
The Sound controls have been revamped. You don’t get more functionality than before, but the controls are laid out more conveniently and logically.
Raspberry Pi Touch Support
The bulk of the driver work in the kernel has been to graphics drivers, with enhanced support for displays ranging in size and capability—from the AMD FreeSync NVIDIA RTX Turing to the Raspberry Pi Touch Display. The Debian-derived Raspbian Linux already supported the Raspberry Pi Touch Display, but now you have the choice of using native Ubuntu with your Pi Touch.
There are many other changes as well. Some of them are mentioned below:
Tracker is now included by default. This allows the desktop to keep track of recently used files and improves searching.
Right click handling is now “area” by default. This allows both two-finger right clicking and clicking in the bottom right corner of the touchpad
alt-tab handling now switches windows by default. Switching applications by default can be done with super-tab
Preview order of windows in the dock is now static and based on the order in which the windows were added
IWD can now be enabled for use with Network Manager. IWD is a new alternative to wpa supplicant and is in testing for consideration in the future.
Installing Ubuntu Desktop on vmware will now automatically install the open-vm-tools package to improve integration.
The Yaru theme has seen further refinement and updates and includes a new icon theme.
Safe Graphics Mode. A new option is added to the Grub menu which will boot with “NOMODESET” on. This may help you resolve issues on certain graphics cards and allow you to boot and install any propriatary drivers needed by your system.
The latest releases of Firefox (66.0) and LibreOffice (6.2.2) are available and installed by default.
Some of the Common New features and Updated Packagesin both Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) non-LTS Desktop and Server Version.
Linux kernel 🐧
Both Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) non-LTS Desktop and Server are based on the Linux release series 5.0. It includes support for AMD Radeon RX Vega M graphics processor, complete support for the Raspberry Pi 3B and the 3B+, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, many USB 3.2 and Type-C improvements, Intel Cannonlake graphics, significant power-savings improvements, P State driver support for Skylake X servers, POWER memory protection keys support, KVM support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization, enablement of Shared Memory Communications remote and direct (SMC-R/D), Open for Business (OFB), and zcrypt on IBM Z among with many other improvements since the v4.15 kernel shipped in 18.04 LTS.
Toolchain Upgrades 🛠️
Ubuntu 19.04 comes with refreshed state-of-the-art toolchain including new upstream releases of glibc 2.29, ☕ OpenJDK 11, boost 1.67, rustc 1.31, and updated GCC 8.3, optional GCC 9, 🐍 Python 3.7.3 as default, 💎 ruby 2.5.5, php 7.2.15, 🐪 perl 5.28.1, golang 1.10.4. There are new improvements on the cross-compilers front as well with POWER and AArch64 toolchain enabled to cross-compile for ARM, S390X and RISCV64 targets.
There are many other changes on newly released Ubuntu 19.04 non-LTS verson. Please read the Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) non-LTS release note for more or Disco Dingo Release Notes.
Get your system with Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) as pre-installed from eRacks Systems’ show room with Quote request. Or download Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) directly from below.
Ubuntu 18.10, aka ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’, is available now on all eRacks systems.
Ubuntu 18.10 ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ supported with 9 months of security updates, bug fixes and select app upgrades. Users of it will be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.04 when it’s released in April, 2019.
When the release of a new version as Ubuntu 18.10 ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’, the first question arrives in mind, “What are updated comparing with the current Ubuntu 18.04 LTS version?”
The most important update in ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ is, it has updated Linux Kernel. Ubuntu 18.10 has Linux Kernel 4.18. This Kernel version has some improvements for AMD and Nvidia GPU, USB Type-C and Thunderbolt, and performance optimizations in CPUfreq among several other features.
Another important thing is having faster installation and boot with new compression algorithms. Working with new compression algorithms like LZ4 and ztsd, ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ is supposed to have around 10% faster boot. The installation will be slightly faster as well. Which is definitely the good news for all Ubuntu users.
As always Ubuntu 18.10 will have this new GNOME version. Most of the visual and under the hood changes in GNOME 3.30 will be seen in Ubuntu 18.10 as well.
Taking cue from Fedora 28, Canonical is also working to improve battery life for laptops. Linux kernel has options to switch HDD controllers, USB controllers and other such devices to a low power state when not in use. This lowers the overall power consumption and thus improves the battery life.
Ubuntu 18.04 was supposed to have a new look with the community developed Community theme. This theme could not be completed in time for the 18.04 release. But Ubuntu 18.10 has it. The ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ has the Yaru Community theme installed by default, giving it a ravishing fresh look.
Some other changes in the Ubuntu 18.10 ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ are as follows:
Support for fingerprint scanner.
Startup time boost and XDG Portals support for Snap applications.
32-Bit support diminishing from flavors.
UI and UX improvements to GNOME Software (possibility).
DLNA support for connecting Ubuntu with DLNA supported Smart TVs, tablets and other devices.
A new and improved installer (less likely to be completed before 18.10 release).
Ubuntu Software removes dependencies while uninstalling software.
Ubuntu Software will show a green verified tick for Snap applications developed by the owner of the brand. The same can be found on the recently redesigned Snap store website.
Ubuntu 18.10 ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’ is a modest update compared to 18.04. The vast majority of notable improvements are tucked away out of sight, ‘under the hood’. Ubuntu 18.10 feels faster than 18.04, But you can’t “see” the changes that shape Ubuntu 18.10 ‘Cosmic Cuttlefish’, you almost certainly will feel them.
