How to Install Software Applications on Linux

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January 12, 2018

How do you install an application on Linux? As with many operating systems, there isn’t just one answer to that question. Applications can come from so many sources—it’s nearly impossible to count—and each development team may deliver their software whatever way they feel is best. Knowing how to install what you’re given is part of being a true power user of your OS.

Repositories

For well over a decade, Linux has used software repositories to distribute software. A “repository” in this context is a public server hosting installable software packages. A Linux distribution provides a command, and usually a graphical interface to that command, that pulls the software from the server and installs it onto your computer.

This Week in Open Source News: CES 2018 Advances Crucial Tech Conversations Yet Again

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The Linux Foundation

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January 12, 2018

This week in open source news, the Consumer Electronics Show has us looking forward to connected cars and smart cities. Read on to learn how AGL is helping steer the course.

1) Automotive Grade Linux (AGL,) a Linux Foundation Project, makes a splash at CES 2018.

Here’s every company developing self-driving car tech at CES 2018– Digital Trends

Automotive Grade Linux Gets Support From Toyota and Amazon as It Eyes Autonomous Driving– TechCrunch driving

2) “The smart city sector is one of the hot topics at CES 2018, with nearly every major technology provider looking to jump into the connected ecosystem,” writes Natalie Gagliordi. We ask, how can open source help take this from “hot topic” to universal reality?

CES 2018: CIOs Push Smart City Agendas Through Tech Partnerships, Outreach– ZDNet

3) New project, Medicalchain, aims to employ blockchain technology to improve health record storage and is built on Hyperledger.

Can Blockchains Ignite a New Health Information Narrative?– Nasdaq

4) “The Linux Mint project has released a guide to address the Meltdown and Spectre bugs.”

Linux Mint Project Advises on Meltdown and Spectre– Neowin

Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook – Book Review

By

Crescent Vale

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January 12, 2018

Computer programmers, website developers, and people learning the basics as production managers of Linux and Unix systems will be able to acquire new information from this handbook. After reading this book, I wanted to share some of the key points with advanced engineers, as well as people starting out like myself.

One year ago I started attending DevOps meetings called Meetups in the Boulder area. I was able to expand my comfort zone past front-end development, and find out more on how system operations worked. The Meetups continue to be an excellent way for people to acquire new skills in networking and operations.

The first few chapters contained information and vocabulary that was over my head at times, but I found out that after reading and reviewing new terms, it expanded my ability to learn new information. I suggest you read the latest edition to stay up to date on Linux and Unix systems, as well as refresh yourself with the latest cloud computing trends.

Automated Compliance Testing with InSpec

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ADMIN Magazine

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January 12, 2018

Compliance is a valid tool for enabling or facilitating secure operation of any type of IT organization, which is what ISO 27001 [1], BSI Base Protection [2], and various other certification bodies claim for their customers. However, corporations often need to implement compliance rules for certification that are contrary to existing business practices. To keep the promises made to the certification authority, regular systems checks are needed. Thus, a corporation needs to verify whether the rules laid down in its statutes are in fact implemented on all relevant systems, as the instructions require. The question is, how can you implement this kind of check?

One way would be to employ admins who do nothing but handle this task, but that would be inefficient; moreover, it would cause a worrying situation in which regular administrators feel they are being watched. Infinitely preferable is automated compliance tests: InSpec to the rescue.

How the Kubernetes Certification Ensures Interoperability

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The New Stack

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January 12, 2018

Dan Kohn, executive director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, has called the launch of the new Kubernetes service provider certification programthe most significant announcement yet made by the Foundation around the open source container orchestration engine.

On this new episode of The New Stack Makers from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2017, we’ll learn more from Kohn and William Denniss, a product manager at Google, about how the program can help ensure interoperability and why that’s so important.

Denniss noted that avoiding vendor lock-in is a key reason people want to use Kubernetes, with a focus on abstracting away from the infrastructure they are using.

What is DevSecOps? Developing More Secure Applications

By

CSO Online

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January 12, 2018

The simple premise of DevSecOps is that everyone in the software development life cycle is responsible for security, in essence bringing operations and development together with security functions. DevSecOps aims to embed security in every part of the development process. It is about trying to automate core security tasks by embedding security controls and processes early in the DevOps workflow (rather than being bolted on at the end). For example, this could be the case when migrating to microservices, building out a CI/CD pipeline, compliance automation or simply testing cloud infrastructure.

The ability to deploy applications in the cloud has improved both scale and speed, the move to agile and DevOps methodologies (and with that, continuous delivery) making “big bang” application launches a thing of the past. In particular, DevOps — the principle of integrating development and IT operations under a “single automated umbrella” — has helped with everything from more frequent feature releases to increased application stability.

Working with Vi/Vim Editor: Advanced Concepts

By

Linux Tech Lab

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January 12, 2018

Earlier we have discussed some basics about VI/VIM editor but VI & VIM are both very powerful editors and there are many other functionalities that can be used with these editors. In this tutorial, we are going to learn some advanced uses of VI/VIM editor.

To open multiple files, command would be same as is for a single file; we just add the file name for second file as well.

$ vi file1 file2 file 3

Now to browse to next file, we can use

$ :n

or we can also use

$ :e filename

City of Barcelona Kicks Out Microsoft in Favor of Linux and Open Source

By

It's FOSS

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January 12, 2018

Barcelona city administration has prepared the roadmap to migrate its existing system from Microsoft and proprietary software to Linux and Open Source software.

A Spanish newspaper, El País, has reported that the City of Barcelona is in the process of migrating its computer system to Open Source technologies.

According to the news report, the city plans to first replace all its user applications with alternative open source applications. This will go on until the only remaining proprietary software will be Windows where it will finally be replaced with a Linux distribution.

Multimedia Apps for the Linux Console

By

Carla Schroder

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January 11, 2018

When last we met, we learned that the Linux console supports multimedia. Yes, really! You can enjoy music, movies, photos, and even read PDF files without being in an X session with MPlayer, fbi, and fbgs. And, as a bonus, you can enjoy a Matrix-style screensaver for the console, CMatrix.

You will probably have make some tweaks to your system to make this work. The examples used here are for Ubuntu Linux 16.04.

MPlayer

You’re probably familiar with the amazing and versatile MPlayer, which supports almost every video and audio format, and runs on nearly everything, including Linux, Android, Windows, Mac, Kindle, OS/2, and AmigaOS. Using MPLayer in your console will probably require some tweaking, depending on your Linux distribution. To start, try playing a video:

$ mplayer

If it works, then hurrah, and you can invest your time in learning useful MPlayer options, such as controlling the size of the video screen. However, some Linux distributions are managing the framebuffer differently than in the olden days, and you may have to adjust some settings to make it work. This is how to make it work on recent Ubuntu releases.

First, add yourself to the video group.

Second, verify that /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf has this line: #blacklist vesafb. It should already be commented out, and if it isn’t then comment it. All the other module lines should be un-commented, which prevents them from loading. Side note: if you want to dig more deeply into managing your framebuffer, the module for your video card may give better performance.

Add these two modules to the end of /etc/initramfs-tools/modules, vesafb and fbcon, then rebuild the initramfs image:

$ sudo nano /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
    # List of modules that you want to include in your initramfs.
    # They will be loaded at boot time in the order below.
    fbcon
    vesafb
    
$ sudo update-initramfs -u

fbcon is the Linux framebuffer console. It runs on top of the framebuffer and adds graphical features. It requires a framebuffer device, which is supplied by the vesafb module.

Now you must edit your GRUB2 configuration. In /etc/default/grub you should see a line like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

It may have some other options, but it should be there. Add vga=789:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vga=789"

Reboot and enter your console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), and try playing a video. This command selects the fbdev2 video device; I haven’t learned yet how to know which one to use, but I had to use it to play the video. The default screen size is 320×240, so I scaled it to 960:

$ mplayer -vo fbdev2 -vf scale -zoom -xy 960 AlienSong_mp4.mov

And behold Figure 1. It’s grainy because I have a low-fi copy of this video, not because MPlayer is making it grainy.

MPLayer plays CDs, DVDs, network streams, and has a giant batch of playback options, which I shall leave as your homework to explore.

fbi Image Viewer

fbi, the framebuffer image viewer, comes in the fbida package on most Linuxes. It has native support for the common image file formats, and uses convert (from Image Magick), if it is installed, for other formats. Its simplest use is to view a single image file:

$ fbi filename

Use the arrow keys to scroll a large image, + and – to zoom, and r and l to rotate 90 degress right and left. Press the Escape key to close the image. You can play a slideshow by giving fbi a list of files:

$ fbi --list file-list.txt

fbi supports autozoom. With -a fbi controls the zoom factor. --autoup and --autodown tell fbi to only zoom up or down. Control the blend time between images with --blend [time], in milliseconds. Press the k and j keys to jump behind and ahead in your file list.

fbi has commands for creating file lists from images you have viewed, and for exporting your commands to a file, and a host of other cool options. Check out man fbi for complete options.

CMatrix Console Screensaver

The Matrix screensaver is still my favorite (Figure 2), second only to the bouncing cow. CMatrix runs on the console. Simply type cmatrix to start it, and Ctrl+C stops it. Run cmatrix -s to launch it in screensaver mode, which exits on any keypress. -C changes the color. Your choices are green, red, blue, yellow, white, magenta, cyan, and black.

CMatrix supports asynchronous key presses, which means you can change options while it’s running.

-B is all bold text, and -B is partially bold.

fbgs PDF Viewer

It seems that the addiction to PDF documents is pandemic and incurable, though PDFs are better than they used to be, with live hyperlinks, copy-paste, and good text search. The fbgs console PDF viewer is part of the fbida package. Options include page size, resolution, page selections, and most fbi options, with the exceptions listed in man fbgs. The main option I use is page size; you get -l, xl, and xxl to choose from:

$ fbgs -xl annoyingpdf.pdf

Learn more about Linux through the free “Introduction to Linux” course from The Linux Foundation and edX.

Linux Smartphone Market Heats Up with PiTalk, Gemini PDA, and Eelo

By

Eric Brown

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January 11, 2018

Since our September story surveying a new crop of Linux smartphone contenders, including the Raspberry Pi based ZeroPhone and Purism’s Librem 5, we’ve seen several more Linux phone projects pop into view. New entries covered here include a successfully Kickstarted PiTalk phone add-on for the Raspberry Pi. There’s also a Gemini PDA with 4G support that dual-boots Linux and Android. It won Indiegogo funding last year and has now opened for additional orders.

Meanwhile, a new privacy focused Eelo project has joined several Linux software projects for repurposing old Android phones. We also have updates on the similar PostmarketOS, as well as Samsung’s project for supporting Linux desktops on its Android-based Galaxy phones when hooked up to the optional DEX desktop dock (see below).

The renewed dreams for a Linux smartphone may prove to be naïve — a fruitless tilting at windmills that will end in the same fate that befell Firefox OS and the Ubuntu Phone. However, the enthusiastic public response to most of these projects suggests there’s widespread appeal for phones that are not locked into the constraints — or opened up to the data mining — of the Linux-based Android. The Librem5, for example, blew past its $1.5 million goal to reach over $2.2 million, and the Gemini PDA earned $1.36 million. Whatever the motivation — greater privacy, increased modularity and recyclability, longer-term support, better compatibility with Linux desktops, or more open platforms for software and/or hardware innovation — the desire for changing the 10-year old smartphone formula is real.

Sign up for ELC/OpenIoT Summit updates to get the latest information:

PiTalk

Like the ZeroPhone, which has yet to launch its Crowd Supply campaign, the SB Components PiTalk is a fully open source platform compatible with the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. Yet instead of incorporating a Raspberry Pi Zero, the modular, hackable PiTalk is instead a shield add-on board that can work with any modern Pi from an RPi Zero to an RPi 3.

The PiTalk shield includes a 40-pin RPi header, micro-USB port, audio interfaces, and analog pins. There’s also a SIM card slot, antenna connector, and a 3G cellular module with support for voice, data, and SMS. You can further extend the board with the capabilities of the underlying Raspberry Pi, including WiFi and Bluetooth on the RPi 3, and customize it with the extensive ecosystem of RPi add-ons.

The campaign has been completed to the tune of 11,995 Pounds ($16,213), so it does not appear you can order one until after the March 2018 estimated delivery date. Funders were able to buy the shield with antenna for 47 Pounds ($64), or add 3.2-inch (65 Pounds), 4.0-inch (70 Pounds), or 5-inch (80 Pounds) touchscreens ranging from 320×240 to 800×480 pixels. Complete kits that added a Raspberry Pi and an SD card loaded with the Python 3.4-built PiTalk software ranged from 95 to 110 Pounds ($128 to $149), depending on screen size. There was also a 125 Pound full kit that added a camera, and a 90 Pound automation kit with an RPi 3 and a PiRelay automation shield, but no screen.

Gemini PDA

Planet Computers’ new Gemini PDA is a clamshell form-factor device with a dual-boot Linux/Android setup available in WiFi-only and 4G models. The device was funded last March, earning $1,359,174, which made it one of the most successful Indiegogo projects of 2017. It has finally begun shipping to backers, and this week, Planet Computers relaunched the device on Indiegogo for $299 (WiFi) or $399 (WiFi/4G).

The Gemini PDA was designed by Martin Riddiford, the chief designer of the Psion PDA of the late ‘90s. The 320-gram device folds open to reveal a 6-inch, 2880×1440-pixel, multi-touch screen, as well as a QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated voice assistance button.

The handheld device features a MediaTek Helio X27 SoC with dual 2.6GHz Cortex-A72 cores, two banks of quad-core Cortex-A53 cores split between 2.0GHz and 1.6GHz, plus an 875MHz Mali T880 MP4 GPU. You get 4GB RAM, 64GB flash, and a microSD slot. There’s also a 4220mAh battery

The Gemini PDA is further equipped with 5-megapixel front-facing camera, dual USB Type C ports, a fingerprint reader, and accelerometer, compass, light sensor, gyro, and magneto-sensor. Standard wireless features include 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, aGPS, and NFC, and the 4G version adds a SIM slot with available cards supporting GSM, WCDMA, and LTE 1-20.

This week, Liliputing published a mostly positive hands-on review of the prototype device.

Eelo

The Eelo campaign has more than doubled its Kickstarter goal to reach $79,000, with 10 days left to go. The open source community project has attracted interest in part due to its direction by Mandrake Linux creator Gael Duval.

The “privacy-enabled” software ROMs will be based on LineageOS — the fork of the discontinued CyanogenMod. Eelo will be designed to connect to privacy-minded “alternative web services” such as search, cloud storage, and settings recovery services. Updates will be supported for at least three years.

The Eelo phone is currently only a software project intended to create an open source Linux OS for loading onto Android phones. Considering that it’s nowhere close to the estimated 2 million to 2.4 million Euros ($2.4 to $2.9 million) the project says it needs to build its own bezel-less Eelo hardware, it’s likely to remain a software project for the near future.

Most of the funding pledges are simply invitations to join the project. The closest thing to a product is a 1,024 Euro ($1,225) package that gives you an early build of Eelo loaded on a mid-range Android phone such as the Xiaomi Mi 5S, due in Sep. 2018. For twice that, you get a higher end Xiaomi Mi Mix2 due in October.

PostmarketOS and Samsung’s Linux extensions for Galaxy phones

We mentioned the early-stage PostmarketOS in our last report as one of the more promising of the software only Linux smartphone projects. This lightweight, touchscreen-friendly variation on Alpine Linux will be offered for Android phones, complete with a 10-year support lifecycle.

On Dec. 31, the developers released a progress report that shows the open source project has come a long way. It’s still at an early stage, but as this Hackaday story notes: “Incredible progress is being made on everything from mainline kernel development to getting standard Linux desktops such as Gnome, MATE and XFCE4 running.”

Other PostmarketOS improvements include enhancements to the backend process of compiling and packaging components. There are also new ports of Plasma Mobile and the WebOS-based LuneOS UI, and support for many more Android devices.

One of the more interesting Linux smartphone experiments was first reported on in October: a set of extensions released by Samsung that enable its Android based Galaxy phones to run Linux. This is not a post-market replacement of Android, however. Instead, you plug the Galaxy into its optional DEX desktop dock to enable a full Linux desktop on a large display. The idea is to make it easier for Linux developers to launch their desktops from Android phones.

In November, Samsung released a YouTube video that demonstrated a Galaxy/DEX launch of an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS desktop with Eclipse IDE. The Ubuntu desktop springs from the same Linux kernel that the Galaxy uses to run Android. Users can even install multiple Linux distributions on the same Galaxy phone. In a way, the Linux-on-Galaxy trick provides a bit of the “convergence” experience Ubuntu was promising with its now discontinued Ubuntu Phone.

The last Linux-based Tizen phone that Samsung released with back in May with the Z4, a budget phone that shipped in India. It remains to be seen whether Samsung will continue to introduce new Tizen phones. The CE giant certainly continues to push Tizen in consumer electronics, however. At CES this week, it launched a Tizen-based Flip digital whiteboard for multi-party collaboration that competes with the Microsoft Surface Hub.