Recently someone in our #remotees channel at work asked about WFH setups and given quite a few things changed in mine, I thought it's time to post an update.
But first, a picture!
(Yes, it's cleaner than usual, how could you tell?!)
desk
It's still the same Flexispot E5B, no change here. After 7 years (I bought mine in 2018) it still works fine.
If I'd have to buy a new one, I'd probably get a four-legged one for more stability (they got quite affordable now), but there is no immediate need for that.
chair
It's still the IKEA Volmar. Again, no complaints here.
hardware
Now here we finally have some updates!
laptop
A Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12, Intel Core Ultra 7 165U, 32GB RAM, running Fedora (42 at the moment).
It's connected to a Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 Dock. It just works™.
workstation
It's still the P410, but mostly unused these days.
monitor
An AOC U2790PQU 27" 4K. I'm running it at 150% scaling, which works quite decently these days (no comparison to when I got it).
speakers
As the new monitor didn't want to take the old Dell soundbar, I have upgraded to a pair of Alesis M1Active 330 USB.
It's not a Shure, for sure, but does the job well and Christian was quite satisfied with the results when we recorded the Debian and Foreman specials of Focus on Linux.
keyboard
It's still the ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard with TrackPoint.
I had to print a few fixes and replacement parts for it, but otherwise it's doing great.
Replacement feet, because I broke one while cleaning the keyboard.
USB cable clamp, because it kept falling out and disconnecting.
Seems Lenovo stopped making those, so I really shouldn't break it any further.
mouse
Logitech MX Master 3S. The surface of the old MX Master 2 got very sticky at some point and it had to be replaced.
other
notepad
I'm still terrible at remembering things, so I still write them down in an A5 notepad.
whiteboard
I've also added a (small) whiteboard on the wall right of the desk, mostly used for long term todo lists.
coaster
Turns out Xeon-based coasters are super stable, so it lives on!
yubikey
Yepp, still a thing. Still USB-A because... reasons.
headphones
Still the Bose QC25, by now on the third set of ear cushions, but otherwise working great and the odd 15€ cushion replacement does not justify buying anything newer (which would have the same problem after some time, I guess).
I did add a cheap (~10€) Bluetooth-to-Headphonejack dongle, so I can use them with my phone too (shakes fist at modern phones).
And I do use the headphones more in meetings, as the Alesis speakers fill the room more with sound and thus sometimes produce a bit of an echo.
charger
The Bose need AAA batteries, and so do some other gadgets in the house, so there is a technoline BC 700 charger for AA and AAA on my desk these days.
light
Yepp, I've added an IKEA Tertial and an ALDI "face" light.
No, I don't use them much.
KVM switch
I've "built" a KVM switch out of an USB switch, but given I don't use the workstation that often these days, the switch is also mostly unused.
Si tu utilises une seedbox pour tes téléchargements torrents, tu sais à quel point ça peut être pénible de devoir transférer les fichiers manuellement vers ton NAS. C’est exactement pour ça que j’ai créé SeedboxSync : un outil simple et léger qui automatise cette étape. SeedboxSync se connecte à ta seedbox via SFTP, et copie […]
The kernel team is working on final integration for Linux kernel 6.15. This version was just recently released, and will arrive soon in Fedora Linux. As a result, the Fedora Linux kernel and QA teams have organized a test week from Sunday, June 08, 2025 to Sunday, June 15, 2025. The wiki page in this article contains links to the test images you’ll need to participate. Please continue reading for details.
How does a test week work?
A test week is an event where anyone can help ensure changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed before, this is a perfect way to get started.
To contribute, you only need to be able to do the following things:
Download test materials, which include some large files
Read and follow directions step by step
The wiki page for the kernel test week has a lot of good information on what and how to test. After you’ve done some testing, you can log your results in the test week web application. If you’re available on or around the days of the event, please do some testing and report your results. We have a document which provides all the necessary steps.
Happy testing, and we hope to see you on one of the test days.
While updating the Edusign validator to a newer
version, I had to build the image with JDK 21 (which is there in Debian Sid).
And while the application starts, it fails to read the TLS keystore file with a
specific error:
... 13 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not load store from '/tmp/demo.edusign.sunet.se.p12'
at org.springframework.boot.ssl.jks.JksSslStoreBundle.loadKeyStore(JksSslStoreBundle.java:140) ~[spring-boot-3.4.4.jar!/:3.4.4]
at org.springframework.boot.ssl.jks.JksSslStoreBundle.createKeyStore(JksSslStoreBundle.java:107) ~[spring-boot-3.4.4.jar!/:3.4.4]
... 25 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.io.IOException: keystore password was incorrect
at java.base/sun.security.pkcs12.PKCS12KeyStore.engineLoad(PKCS12KeyStore.java:2097) ~[na:na]
at java.base/sun.security.util.KeyStoreDelegator.engineLoad(KeyStoreDelegator.java:228) ~[na:na]
at java.base/java.security.KeyStore.load(KeyStore.java:1500) ~[na:na]
at org.springframework.boot.ssl.jks.JksSslStoreBundle.loadKeyStore(JksSslStoreBundle.java:136) ~[spring-boot-3.4.4.jar!/:3.4.4]
... 26 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.security.UnrecoverableKeyException: failed to decrypt safe contents entry: javax.crypto.BadPaddingException: Given final block not properly padded. Such issues can arise if a bad key is used during decryption.
... 30 common frames omitted
I understood that somehow it is not being able to read file due to bad passphrase. But, the same file with same passphrase can be opened by the older
version of the application (in the older containers).
After spending too many hours reading, I finally found the trouble. The
openssl was using too new algorithm. By default it will use AES_256_CBC for
encryption and PBKDF2 for key derivation. But, if we pass -legacy to the
openssl pkcs12 -export command, then it using RC2_CBC or 3DES_CBC for
certificate encryption depening if RC2 cipher is enabled.
This finally solved the issue and the container started cleanly.
As we head into Flock, It’s time again to talk about #strategy2028 — our high-level plan for the next few years.
Since it’s been a while since I’ve given an update, I’m going to start at the top. That way, If this is new to you, or if you’ve forgotten all about it, you don’t need to go sifting through history for a refresher. If you’ve been following along for a while, you may want to skip down to the “Process section”, or if you just want to get to the practical stuff, all the way down to “Right Now”.
The Strategic Framework and High Level Stuff
Fedora’s Goals
Vision
The ultimate goal of the Fedora Project is expressed in our Vision Statement:
The Fedora Project envisions a world where everyone benefits from free and open source software built by inclusive, welcoming, and open-minded communities.
Mission
Our Mission Statement describes how we do that — we make a software platform that people can use to build tailored solutions. That includes offerings from our own community (like the Fedora Editions or Atomic Desktops) and those from our “downstreams” (like RHEL, Amazon Linux, Bazzite, and many more).
Strategy 2028
We also have a medium-term goal — the target of Strategy 2028. We have a “guiding star” metric for this:
Guiding Star
By the end of 2028, double the number of contributors1 active every week.
But this isn’t really the goal. It’s a “proximate measure” — something simple we can count and look at to tell if we’re on track.2
The Goal of Strategy 2028
The goal itself this:
The Fedora Project is healthy, growing, relevant, and ready to take on the next quarter-century.
But, goals aren’t strategy — they describe the world we want, and Fedora’s overall work, but not the path we’ll take to get there.
The Actual Strategy
During our Council Hackfest session, I realized that we haven’t really put this into writing — instead, we’ve jumped straight to other levels of the process. So, here it is:
1. Identify areas of community interest and effort which we believe will advance Fedora towards our goal.
The computing world changes quickly, and Fedora is a community-driven project. We can’t pick things out of thin air or wishful thinking. We also need to pick things that really, actually, practically will make a difference, and that’s a hard call. Making these calls is the fundamental job of the Fedora Council.3
2. Invest in those areas.
A strategy needs to have focus to be meaningful. The Council will devote time, energy, publicity, and community funding towards the selected areas. This necessarily means that other things won’t get the same investment. At least, not right now.
3. Check if the things we picked are working.
The “guiding star” metric is one way, of course, but we’ll need specific metrics, too. At the meeting, we agreed that we have been lazy on this in the past. It’s hard work, and when something isn’t working, can lead to hard conversations. We need to do better — keep reading for how we plan to do that.
4. When things are working, double down. When things aren’t, stop, change, or switch direction.
If we’re on the right track in one area, we should consider what we can do next to build on that. When something isn’t working, we need to take decisive action. That might be re-scoping an initiative, relaunching in the same area but with a different approach, or simply wrapping up. What we won’t do is let things linger on uncertainly.
5. Rinse, repeat!
Some of what we choose will be smaller bites, and some will be more ambitious. That means we expect to be choosing new initiatives several times a year.
The Process
Practically speaking, for each area we choose, we’ll launch a new Community Initiative. We know these haven’t always been a smashing success in Fedora, but the general concept is sound. We’re going to do a few things differently, driven by our Fedora Operations Architect. (Thanks, @amoloney.)
Better Community Initiatives
First, we will require better initial proposals. We need to see concrete milestones with dates and deliverables. There needs to be a specific plan of action — for example, if the Initiative intends to progress its technical work through a series of Changes, the plan should include a list of expected proposals with a brief description for each.4
Second, we will hold initiatives accountable. Each Initiative Lead should produce a monthly or weekly status report, and we will actively review each initiative every quarter.
Third, we will create “playbooks” for the roles of Initiative Lead and Executive Sponsor. The Lead is responsible for the work, and the Sponsor is accountable for its success. We’re working on written guidance and onboarding material so that when we start an Initiative, the people involved at the Council level know what they actually need to do.
Finally, we will provide better support. We’ll help develop the Initiative’s Logic Model rather than requiring it as part of the submission. We will be better at broadcasting the leadership of each Initiative, so community members (and the leaders themselves!) know that they’re empowered to do the work. We’ll make sure Initiatives are promoted at Fedora events, and in other ways throughout the year. We will prioritize Initiatives for in-person Hackfests and other funding. And, we will will provide some program management support.5
Previously on Strategy 2028…
Our Themes
We started all of this a few years ago by asking for community input. Then, we grouped ideas we heard into Themes. These will be stable until the end of 2028 (when it’ll be time to do this whole thing over again). Under each theme, we have several Focus Areas. In bold, areas where we have a recently completed project, or something big in progress already. (See the footnotes.)
We spent the bulk of our time getting more specific about our immediate future. Under each theme, Council members identified potential Initiatives that we believe are important to work on next. We came up with a list of thirteen — which is way more than we can handle at once. We previously set a limit of four Initiatives at a time. We decided to keep to that rule, and are planning to launch four initiatives in the next months:
1. Editions block on a11y
Accessibility
This one is simple. We have release criteria for accessibility issues in Fedora Editions… but we don’t block on them. Sumantro will lead an effort to get all of our Editions in shape so that we can make these tests “must-past” for release.
2. GitOps Experiment
Communications/Collaboration Tools
This is Aleksandra’s project to demostrate how we could use a “GitOps” workflow to improve the packager experience from beginning to end. Matthew is the Executive Sponsor (for now!) Read more about this here: [RFC] New Community Initiative – GitOps for Fedora Packaging.
3. Gitforge Migration
Communications/Collaboration Tools
We’re moving to Forgejo. That’s going to be a long project with a lot to keep track of. Aoife is sponsoring the effort overall and will work with others on specific initiatives.
4. AI Devtools Out-of-Box
Tech Innovation
This is about making sure Fedora Linux is ready for people who want to work on machine learning and AI development. It isn’t about adding any specific AI or LLM technology. David is taking the lead here, with details in the works.
Next up
We can only focus on so much at once, but as current and near-future initiatives wrap up, these are the things we expect to tackle next, and an associated Council member. (That person may be either an Initiative Lead or an Executive Sponsor when the time comes.)
Bugzilla Archive (David) Red Hat is winding down bugzilla.redhat.com. There’s no planned shutoff date, but we should be ready. We are likely to move most issue tracking to Forgejo — it’d be nice to have packaging issues right next to pull requests. But, the current bugzilla database is a treasure-trove of Fedora history which we don’t want to lose
Discussions to Discourse (Matthew, for now) This is part of our overall effort to reduce Fedora’s collaboration sprawl — and to set us up for the future. It’s time to move our primary discussion centers from the devel and test mailing lists.
Get our containers story straight (Jason) The previous system we used to build containers was called “OSBS”, and was a hot mess of a hacked-up OpenShift, and not even the current kind of OpenShift. I know people are pretty skeptical about Konflux as a Koji replacement … but it can build containers in a better way.
Formal, repeatable plan for release marketing (Justin) We have a great Marketing team, but don’t do a great job of getting feature and focus information from Edition working groups to that team. We should build a better process.
More Fedora Ready (Matthew/Jef) Fedora Ready is a branding initiative for hardware vendors who want to signal that their product works well with our OS. Let’s expand this — and bring on more vendors with preinstalled Fedora Linux.
Mindshare funding for regional Ambassador planning events (Jona) This is the first step towards rebuilding our worldwide local community Ambassadors.
Silverblue & Kinoite are ready to be our desktop Editions, with bootc (Jason) We think image-based operating systems are the future — let’s commit.
CoreOS, IoT, and Atomic Desktops share one base image (Jason) Right now, we’ve got too many base images — can we get it down to one?
Fedora, CentOS, RHEL conversation (Matthew/Jef) See What everyone wants for more on this one.
See you all at Flock!
So, that’s where we are now, and our near-future plans. After Flock, look forward to more updates from Jef!
For this purpose, we are using a broad definition of contributor. That is: A Fedora Project contributor is anyone who: 1) Undertakes activities 2) which sustain or advance the project towards our mission and vision 3) intentionally as part of the Project, (4) and as part of our community in line with our shared values. A contribution is any product of such activities. So, active contributors for a week is the count of people who have made at least one contribution during that time. ︎
Um, yeah, I know that we don’t have a public dashboard with our estimate of this number yet. That’s because when we started, we quickly realized we need data scientist help — we need to make sure we’re measuring meaningfully. ︎
The Fedora Council has two elected positions, representatives from Mindshare and FESCo, and Leads for each Community Initiative. If you care about where we are going as a project, you could be the person in one of those seats! ︎
Of course, this plan can evolve, but any major changes should be brought back to the Council. ︎
There’s a tendency in open source projects — and the tech sector more broadly — to focus on using (or building) the exactly-right tool for the job. Sometimes that’s truly important. Many times, though, the wrong tool can do an okay-enough job. If a tool is a means to an end (and it is!), then the right tool is the one that gets the job done. Even if it wasn’t intended for that purpose.
When I was early in my career, I spent a lot of time helping graduate students print posters for conferences that they had designed in PowerPoint. This often went poorly. Layouts that looked fine on screen would have subtle errors when printed. This waste of time and supplies was annoying, but how much time would have been spent teaching all of them to use another tool (that the department would likely have had to pay for) so they could print one or two posters a year?
As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that people use the “wrong” tool not out of malice — or even ignorance — but because it’s good enough to do the job at hand. The difference between a tool that’s “good enough” and a tool that’s “perfect” often requires far more effort than can be justified.
In general, if existing software does a “good enough” job, you shouldn’t write or procure more. You add complexity and/or maintenance burden for little return. I wrote this in 2021 and my opinion hasn’t changed. Wait until you know that the existing tool is unworkable (not just imperfect) before trying to “solve” it. And this means, to the greatest extent you can, you should let your contributors and users work with whatever tool makes most sense to them.
Release Candidate versions are available in the testing repository for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (RHEL / CentOS / Alma / Rocky and other clones) to allow more people to test them. They are available as Software Collections, for parallel installation, the perfect solution for such tests, and as base packages.
RPMs of PHP version 8.4.8RC1 are available
as base packages in the remi-modular-test for Fedora 40-42 and Enterprise Linux≥ 8
as SCL in remi-test repository
RPMs of PHP version 8.3.22RC1 are available
as base packages in the remi-modular-test for Fedora 40-42 and Enterprise Linux≥ 8
as SCL in remi-test repository
ℹ️ The packages are available for x86_64 and aarch64.
ℹ️ PHP version 8.2 is now in security mode only, so no more RC will be released.
The Fedora Linux 42 election results are in! After one of our most hotly contested elections recently, we can now share the results. Thank you to all of our candidates, and congratulations to our newly elected members of Fedora Council, Fedora Mindshare, FESCo and EPEL Steering Committee.
Results
Council
Two Council seats were open this election. A total of 988 ballots were cast, meaning a candidate could accumulate up to 1659 votes.
# votes
Candidate
1089
Miro Hrončok
906
Aleksandra Fedorova
593
Akashdeep Dhar
586
Jared Smith
554
Shaun McCance
490
Fernando F. Mancera
447
Eduard Lucena
FESCo
Four FESCo seats were open this election. A total of 1128 ballots were cast, meaning a candidate could accumulate up to 1617 votes.
# votes
Candidate
1036
Neal Gompa
995
Stephen Gallagher
868
Fabio Valentini
835
Michel Lind
625
Debarshi Ray
607
Jeremy Cline
559
Tim Flink
Mindshare Committee
Four Mindshare Committee seats were open this election. A total of 982 ballots were cast, meaning a candidate could accumulate up to 1520 votes.
# votes
Candidate
774
Emma Kidney
750
Sumantro Mukherjee
702
Akashdeep Dhar
670
Luis Bazan
623
Samyak Jain
587
Shaun McCance
529
Greg Sutcliffe
500
Eduard Lucena
EPEL Steering Committee
As we had the same number of open seats as we had candidates, the following candidates are elected to the EPEL Steering Committee by default:
Davide Cavalca
Robbie Callicotte
Neal Gompa
Once again thank you to all of our candidates this election. The caliber was truly amazing! Also thank you to all of our voters, and finally – congratulations to our newly elected representatives!
While most Java-based drivers have been deprecated in syslog-ng years ago, we have recently removed all of them in preparation to syslog-ng 4.9.0. Right now, the only Java-based driver remaining is HDFS, so we want to ask the syslog-ng community if the HDFS destination is still needed for them.
Nas redes sociais, tem os perfis e suas publicações que ficam indignados só com a terrível situação (sim, terrível situação) dos palestinos em Gaza, criticam Israel a beira do anti-semitismo, e nunca jamais lembram do ato de terrorismo sofrido por Israel em 2023-10-07, nem sequer mencionam os sequestrados que estão há quase 2 anos num cativeiro sabe-se lá em quais péssimas condições, nem nunca levam em consideração como e porque o Estado de Israel foi criado após a 2ª Guerra Mundial.
Tem também os perfis do outro lado do espectro, nos quais o único problema do conflito é a questão dos sequestrados, desfilam islamofobia, reduzem todos os palestinos a terroristas, o que de certa forma justifica qualquer ato de guerra. Tais perfis são de pessoas que nem sabem, ou fazem questão de ignorar, as barbaridades vergonhosas declaradas por políticos israelenses, que geram atos de guerra e colonização que dão calafrios ao serem lidos nos jornais.
Um dos conflitos de geopolítica mais complexa do mundo, cuja solução todos procuram, todos almejam, mas ninguém consegue alcançar, há décadas.
Ou a gente fala sobre isso com equilíbrio e humanismo, olhando sempre, SEMPRE, os dois lados. Ou é melhor não falar nada.
We are currently working on the Fedora 43 Wallpaper and wanted to update the community while also looking for contributors!
Each wallpaper is inspired by someone in STEM in history with the letter in the alphabet we’re on. We are currently on the letter R, and voted here with the winner resulting in Sally Ride.
Who is Sally Ride?
Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was a physicist and astronaut, who became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983. The third woman ever!
Once her training at Nasa was finished, she served as the ground-based CapCom for the second and third Space Shuttle flights. She helped develop the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm which helped her get a spot on the STS-7 mission in June 1983. Two communication satellites were deployed, including the first Shuttle pallet satellite (SPAS-1). Ride operated the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve SPAS-1, which carried ten experiments to study the formation of metal alloys in microgravity.
Ride then became the president and CEO of ‘Sally Ride Science’. Sally Ride Science created entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, focusing largely on female students.
Ride and her life long partner O’Shaughnessy co-wrote six books on space aimed at children, to encourage children to study science. Ride remarked, “Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way.” It was after her death it was revealed she was the first LGBT astronaut in space.
Brainstorming
The design team held a separate meeting from our usual time to dedicate an hour of time to gathering visuals that were related somehow to Ride’s work. From visuals of space that were used in the books she created,
Possible Themes to Develop:
Space Mid Century Modern Graphics
This is probably my personal preference! Mid century modern is categorized with clean lines, bold saturated colors, and organic forms in nature. It was most popular from the late 1940s-1960s, extending to when the space race first started to lay its roots.
Going down this route would result in a colorful wallpaper, although not overwhelming since it would be limited to a small color palette. The idea was sparked by Ride’s dedication to education and teaching- as these types of graphics would often pop up in schools as informative posters.
Blueprint of Space
A dark background with planets and white details to show information just like a blueprint would. Also sparked by the type of graphics you would find in a school. The only problem that might arise is too much detail. Wallpapers on the whole are supposed to be quite simple so the user can have a calm experience. Too many details that might make it look like a blueprint, might make it too busy. However I’m sure there could be a balance of both.
Colorful Space
We have several space themed wallpapers that show the stars or planets, so this would be a nod to them (see F33,F24, F10, F9) as well as a nod to the most well known part of Ride’s career. Including some of the colors from Fedora’s color palette, like Freedom Purple, Friends Magenta, Features Orange, and First Green, into the galaxy or planetary visuals would be a great option. But not too bright and electric that it irritates the viewer when they look at it.
Inteligência Artificial tem melhorado ao ponto que imagens e vídeos gerados por IA são muito convincentes e indistinguíveis da realidade. Entramos na era em que IA pode se tornar uma poderosa fonte de inverdades, fake news etc.
É aí que jornalistas e seus meios devem ganhar protagonismo e a atenção dos leitores e telespectadores. Pois, lembrando, o papel do repórter é ir lá checar se é verdade e contar o que viu. Pode até adicionar opinião depois, mas primeiro publicar fatos apurados.
Mas qual é a diferença entre bom jornalismo e pessoa qualquer que repassa “notícias” no zap ou memes nas redes? A diferença é a mesma entre o médico diplomado, experiente, e o sujeito que vende na Praça da Sé, para curar todos os males, elixir de conhaque mijado. Este último não tem método, ciência nem reputação a zelar. Isso sem nem entrar no mérito da profundidade do conteúdo.
Jornalismo profissional é mais necessário do que nunca na nossa era da pós-verdade, inteligência artificial e fake news.
As a Python developer you work hard to ensure code works correctly across different Python versions. You have to test against Python 3.11, 3.12, 3.13 and beyond, it can be tedious. But what if your continuous integration (CI) pipeline could handle it automatically? This is where GitHub Actions and tox come in – a powerful combo for seamless CI and multi-version testing.
Introduction
Imagine you are a developer for a small real estate company, racing against the clock to deliver a groundbreaking fizz-buzz feature on the company’s python app. You make a last minute fix and commit. After testing locally, you merge with confidence, push to GitHub, and ship. Then disaster strikes, the change breaks an existing feature and the new feature you added does not work. Management is furious, and the only excuse you could give is “it worked on my machine”.
If only you had set up GitHub Actions for continuous integration (CI), you could have made sure it worked on different versions of Python.
In this article, you will learn how to set up GitHub Actions to manage continuous integration for your Python projects. You will also learn how to test your code on different versions of Python using tox on Fedora.
Prerequisites
GitHub Account
Fedora, CentOS, or RHEL server. This guide uses Fedora 41 server edition. Fedora, CentOS, and RHEL servers are interchangeable.
A user account with sudo privileges on the server.
Command line competency.
Python 3.13 environment, with poetry, tox, and pytest packages installed.
What is Continuous Integration?
Continuous Integration (CI) is a practice where you merge your code to the repository several times a day. CI reduces software defects, because every time you push a change to the repository it is verified by automated tests and built. Generally, CI refers to the server part of the build process, where you run unit tests and build your application. However, it can also be done locally. To carry out CI, you define a build pipeline using YAML. The build pipeline runs a set of automated tools for unit tests, security checks, document generation, or code quality checks.
Why use CI?
Central to CI is code stability. By running unit tests on your code whenever you make a change, you are confident that those changes do not cause software defects in your codebase. This way, you know, your code is stable; commit after commit.
There are two important aspects of CI that ensure code stability:
CI checks that code compiles or builds successfully.
CI checks that all unit tests pass successfully.
What is Tox?
Tox, is a tool that automates Python unit tests in multiple Python environments. According to tox documentation, you can use tox for:
checking your package builds and installs correctly under different environments
Running your tests in each of the environments with the test tool of choice
As a frontend to continuous integration servers
What are GitHub Actions?
GitHub Actions is a feature on Github.com that serves as an automation engine for CI. It allows you to automate tasks directly within your GitHub repository using workflows.
To use GitHub Actions effectively, you need to understand how the system works using a top-down approach.
An event is a specified activity that triggers a workflow. An activity may occur when a commit is pushed or a pull request is made. In this tutorial, an event occurs when you push a commit to your GitHub repository.
A workflow is an automated process which runs when an event occurs. It defines how code is tested, built or compiled using actions. A YAML file defines the steps in the workflow and exists in the .github/workflows directory of your repository.
A job runs actions you specify. While there are no limits on the number of actions you can run in a job, there is a maximum execution time of 6 hours. Jobs are executed in runners (containers or virtual machines). You can choose Linux, Windows, or macOS runners to run your CI jobs.
An action is the smallest building block of a workflow. According to GitHub documentation; “an action is a custom application for the GitHub Actions platform that performs a complex but frequently repeated task”. You can write custom actions as Node.js scripts or use those in the GitHub marketplace.
Test a Python project
This python project is for a calculator with functions for adding and multiplying numbers only. You will use pytest and tox to test the code using Python 3.12, and 3.13. You will also push the code to GitHub, and use GitHub Actions for CI.
HEAD’s UP: Remember, GitHub Actions uses runners for CI jobs, and runners can be Windows, Ubuntu or macOS? Did you notice, Fedora is not on the list?
Checkout, out this repository on GitHub. It contains working code for the calculator, tests, and a workflow for this tutorial. It uses the tox-github-action from Fedora Python to run tests in CI. The tests are run in a Fedora container, which is hosted in an Ubuntu runner.
This is the file structure you will work with;
Step 1: Write the Code
Here is the calculator code at /ciwithfedora/calculator.py
def add(a, b): """Returns the sum of two numbers.""" return a + b
def multiply(a, b): """Returns the product of two numbers.""" return a * b
Step 2: Write unit tests
Here is the unit test code at /ciwithfedora/test_calculator.py
Please join us at the next regular Open NeuroFedora team meeting on Monday 02 June 2025 at 1300 UTC.
The meeting is a public meeting, and open for everyone to attend.
You can join us in the Fedora meeting channel on chat.fedoraproject.org (our Matrix instance).
Note that you can also access this channel from other Matrix home severs, so you do not have to create a Fedora account just to attend the meeting.
You can use this link to convert the meeting time to your local time.
Or, you can also use this command in the terminal:
$date-d'Monday, June 02, 2025 13:00 UTC'
The meeting will be chaired by @ankursinha.
The agenda for the meeting is:
If you’re a Linux user craving a real-time strategy (RTS) game with the polish of Age of Empires and the historical depth of a university textbook—yet entirely free and open source—then you need to try 0 A.D.. This epic project by Wildfire Games is not just an open-source alternative to mainstream RTS games—it’s a serious contender in its own right, crafted with passion, precision, and community spirit.
What is 0 A.D.?
0 A.D. (Zero Anno Domini) is a free, open-source, cross-platform RTS game that takes players deep into ancient history, allowing them to build and battle with civilizations from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. The game is built using the custom Pyrogenesis engine, a modern 3D engine developed from scratch for this purpose, and available under the GPL license—yes, you can even tinker with the code yourself.
It’s not just a clone. 0 A.D. sets itself apart with:
Historically accurate civilizations
Dynamic and random map generation
Tactical land and naval combat
City-building with tech progression
AI opponents and multiplayer support
Modding tools and community-created content
Why It’s Perfect for Linux Users
Linux gamers often get the short end of the stick when it comes to big-name games—but 0 A.D. feels like it was made for us. Here’s why Linux users should care:
Native Linux Support
0 A.D. runs natively on Linux without the need for Wine, Proton, or compatibility layers. You can install it directly from your distro’s package manager or build it from source if you like full control.
For example:
# On Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install 0ad
# On Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S 0ad
# On Fedora
sudo dnf install 0ad
No weird dependencies. No workarounds. Just pure, native performance.
Vulkan Renderer and FSR Support
With Alpha 27 “Agni”, 0 A.D. now supports Vulkan, giving Linux users much better graphics performance, lower CPU overhead, and compatibility with modern GPU features. Plus, it includes AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR)—which boosts frame rates and visual quality even on low-end hardware.
This makes 0 A.D. one of the few FOSS games optimized for modern Linux graphics stacks like Mesa, Wayland, and PipeWire.
Rolling Updates and Dev Engagement
The development team and community are highly active, with new features, bug fixes, and optimizations arriving steadily. You don’t need to wait years for meaningful updates—0 A.D. grows with each alpha release, and Linux users are treated as first-class citizens.
Want to contribute a patch or translate the UI into Malay? You can. Everything is transparent and accessible.
What Makes the Gameplay So Good?
Let’s dive deeper into why the gameplay itself shines.
Realistic Economy and Base Building
Unlike many fast-paced arcade RTS games, 0 A.D. rewards planning and resource management. You’ll manage four resources—food, wood, stone, and metal—to construct buildings, raise armies, and advance through phases that represent a civilization’s growth. Advancing from village phase to town phase to city phase unlocks more units and structures.
Each civilization has unique architectural styles, tech trees, and military units. For example:
Romans have disciplined legionaries and siege weapons.
Persians boast fast cavalry and majestic palaces.
Athenians excel in naval warfare.
Intense Tactical Combat
Units in 0 A.D. aren’t just damage sponges. There’s formation control, terrain advantage, flanking tactics, and unit counters. The AI behaves strategically, and in multiplayer, experienced players can pull off devastating maneuvers.
Naval combat has received significant improvements recently, with better ship handling and water pathfinding—something many commercial RTS games still struggle with.
Endless Map Variety and Mod Support
0 A.D. includes:
Skirmish maps
Random maps (with different biomes and elevation)
Scenario maps (with scripted events)
And thanks to the integrated mod downloader, you can browse, install, and play with community mods in just a few clicks. Want to add new units, tweak balance, or add fantasy elements? You can.
Multiplayer and Replays
Play with friends over LAN, the Internet, or against the built-in AI. The game includes:
Multiplayer save and resume support
Observer tools (with flares, commands, and overlays)
Replay functionality to study your tactics or cast tournaments
There’s even an in-game lobby where players coordinate matches across all platforms.
Community and Contribution
The 0 A.D. project thrives because of its community:
Developers contribute code via GitHub.
Artists create stunning 3D models and animations.
Historians help ensure cultural accuracy.
Translators localize the game into dozens of languages.
Players write guides, tutorials, and strategy posts.
If you’re a Linux user and want to contribute to an ambitious FOSS project, this is the perfect gateway into game development, design, or open collaboration.
0 A.D. is more than just a game—it’s a testament to what free and open-source software can achieve. For Linux gamers, it’s a rare gem: a game that respects your platform, performs well, and lets you own your experience entirely.
So whether you’re a seasoned general or a curious strategist, download 0 A.D. today and relive history—on your terms.
When it comes to customizing your shell experience, most people are familiar with Oh My Zsh, the popular Zsh configuration framework. But what if you’re a Bash user—loyal to the world’s most widely used shell? Enter Oh My BASH, a community-driven framework that brings power, flexibility, and style to Bash.
Whether you’re a casual Linux user, a seasoned sysadmin, or a developer who loves to tinker with terminal aesthetics and productivity tools, Oh My BASH might just be the productivity upgrade you’re looking for. In this post, we’ll dive deep into what Oh My BASH is, its origins, features, pros and cons, and who it’s best suited for.
What is Oh My BASH?
Oh My BASH is an open-source, community-maintained framework for managing your Bash shell configuration. Much like its inspiration, Oh My Zsh, this project aims to simplify the process of customizing and enhancing your Bash environment.
With features like themes, plugins, and modular configuration, Oh My BASH turns the plain, default Bash shell into a more vibrant, powerful, and efficient tool.
Origin and History
The project was created as a direct counterpart to Oh My Zsh, for users who prefer sticking with Bash rather than switching shells. Bash remains the default shell on many Unix-like systems, including most Linux distributions and macOS (until Catalina).
Oh My BASH started as a fork of Oh My Zsh and was adapted for Bash users by enthusiasts in the open-source community. Its development continues on GitHub: https://github.com/ohmybash/oh-my-bash
Though not as widely adopted as Oh My Zsh, it has built a niche community of loyal users who appreciate what it offers without requiring them to abandon Bash.
Purpose of Oh My BASH
The primary goal of Oh My BASH is to:
Make Bash customization easier.
Provide a consistent and powerful shell experience.
Add features like themes, aliases, and plugins without cluttering your .bashrc.
It acts as a productivity booster and aesthetic enhancer for your command-line interface, all while staying true to Bash’s simplicity and compatibility.
Advantages of Oh My BASH
Here are some of the standout benefits of using Oh My BASH:
1. Theming and Aesthetics
Oh My BASH includes a variety of prompt themes. These themes add colors, Git status indicators, timestamps, and other useful elements to your prompt, making it visually appealing and informative.
2. Modular Configuration
Rather than dumping all settings into a monolithic .bashrc, Oh My BASH supports a modular structure. You can organize custom aliases, environment variables, and plugin settings in separate files.
3. Plugin Support
It comes with a set of built-in plugins that extend Bash’s functionality. These include helpful aliases and functions for Git, Docker, system info, SSH, and more.
4. Predefined Aliases and Functions
Oh My BASH comes packed with smart defaults, including common aliases and shell functions that can save you typing time and reduce mistakes.
5. Community-Driven
It’s open-source and maintained by contributors around the world. You can create your own plugins or themes, or contribute back to the main repository.
6. Easy Installation and Reset
Installing Oh My BASH is straightforward and reversible. You can easily uninstall it if needed, reverting to your old .bashrc setup.
Disadvantages of Oh My BASH
While Oh My BASH offers many benefits, it’s not without drawbacks. Here are some things to consider:
1. Slower Shell Startup
As with many feature-rich shell frameworks, Oh My BASH can slightly increase your shell’s startup time, especially if you enable many plugins and themes.
2. Less Active than Oh My Zsh
Oh My BASH is not as actively maintained or as widely used as Oh My Zsh. You may find fewer themes, plugins, and community tutorials available.
3. Plugin Limitations
The plugin ecosystem is smaller compared to other frameworks. Some power users may find it limited for more advanced workflows.
4. Not Meant for Minimalists
If you prefer a minimalist setup or enjoy hand-tweaking your .bashrc, this framework might feel like overkill or too opinionated.
Who Should Use Oh My BASH?
Oh My BASH is ideal for:
Bash Users Who Want More – If you like Bash and don’t want to switch to Zsh or Fish, but still want themes and productivity tools.
Developers and Sysadmins – Who work heavily in the terminal and appreciate added Git info, aliases, and clear prompts.
New Linux Users – Who want to make their terminal more approachable and user-friendly.
Customizers – If you enjoy tweaking your environment but don’t want to write everything from scratch.
However, it may not be the best fit for:
Hardcore Minimalists – Who prefer plain Bash with minimal external dependencies.
Performance Purists – Who want the fastest shell startup time possible.
Zsh/Fish Advocates – Users already invested in other modern shells with more robust ecosystems.
Getting Started with Oh My BASH
To install Oh My BASH, run this command in your terminal:
This will back up your existing .bashrc and replace it with a new one using the Oh My BASH structure. You can start exploring themes by editing your .bashrc file and changing the OSH_THEME variable.
Example:
OSH_THEME="font"
To list available themes, check the themes/ directory in the cloned .oh-my-bash folder.
Tips and Tricks
Use alias commands in your .bash_aliases.custom file.
Create your own theme or modify existing ones for full control.
Load additional scripts via the custom/ directory.
Keep your .bashrc clean by leveraging modular files in .oh-my-bash/custom.
Final Thoughts
Oh My BASH is a solid choice for anyone looking to improve their Bash shell experience. It brings modern features, customization, and user-friendliness to a traditional and powerful shell without forcing you to switch ecosystems.
It may not have the flashiest bells and whistles of Oh My Zsh or Fish, but for many users, its blend of power and simplicity hits the sweet spot. If you’re someone who enjoys working in the terminal and wants a smoother, more expressive experience—give Oh My BASH a try.
Have you tried Oh My BASH? Got a favorite theme or plugin? Share your thoughts or custom setups in the comments below!
If you’re looking for a sleek, lightweight, and no-nonsense dock for your Linux desktop, Plank might just be your perfect match. Built for simplicity and performance, Plank provides just what you need — and nothing you don’t.
What is Plank?
Plank is a minimalist dock designed for Linux desktop environments. Its goal is to be the simplest dock on the planet. It’s lightweight, visually clean, and designed to stay out of your way while still being highly functional.
Plank is also the core backend used by Docky (from version 3.0.0 onward), meaning it can be extended to create more feature-rich docks if needed — but Plank itself keeps things lean.
Key Features
Ultra Lightweight: Uses minimal system resources — great for low-end or older hardware.
Minimal UI: No clutter, no distractions — just a beautiful dock.
Extensible: Acts as a backend library for more advanced dock implementations.
Theming Support: Easily change its appearance with custom themes.
Open Plank settings by holding Ctrl + right-click on the dock, then choose your theme.
Final Thoughts
If you want a beautiful, no-frills dock for your Linux desktop, Plank nails the balance between functionality and simplicity. It just works — and looks good doing it.
If you’re a fan of real-time strategy (RTS) games and use Linux, OpenRA is a must-have. This open-source project breathes new life into classic Westwood titles like Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn, and Dune 2000, offering modern enhancements while preserving the nostalgic gameplay.
What Is OpenRA?
OpenRA is a community-driven initiative that reimagines classic RTS games for contemporary platforms. It’s not just a remake; it’s a complete overhaul that introduces:
Modernized Interfaces: Updated sidebars and controls for improved usability.
Enhanced Gameplay Mechanics: Features like fog of war, unit veterancy, and attack-move commands.
Cross-Platform Support: Runs seamlessly on Linux, Windows, macOS, and *BSD systems.
Modding Capabilities: A built-in SDK allows for the creation of custom mods and maps.
These improvements ensure that both veterans and newcomers can enjoy a refined RTS experience.
Latest Features and Updates
The March 2025 release brought significant enhancements:
New Missions: Two additional Red Alert missions with improved objectives.
Persistent Skirmish Options: Settings now carry over between matches.
Balance Tweaks: Refinements for Red Alert and Dune 2000 to ensure fair play.
Asset Support: Compatibility with The Ultimate Collection and C&C Remastered Collection.
Language Support: Progress towards multilingual capabilities.
These updates demonstrate OpenRA’s commitment to evolving and enhancing the RTS genre.
Installation on Linux
Installing OpenRA on Linux is straightforward:
Download AppImages: Visit the official download page to get the AppImage for your desired mod.
Make Executable: Right-click the AppImage, select ‘Properties,’ and enable execution permissions.
Launch: Double-click the AppImage to start the game.
These methods ensure that OpenRA integrates smoothly with your system.
Why Choose OpenRA?
OpenRA stands out in the Linux gaming landscape due to:
Community Engagement: Regular updates and active forums foster a vibrant player base.
Modding Scene: A robust SDK encourages creativity and customization.
Cross-Platform Play: Enjoy multiplayer matches with friends on different operating systems.
Educational Value: An in-game encyclopedia provides insights into units and strategies.
These features make OpenRA not just a game but a platform for learning and community interaction.
See OpenRA in Action
For a visual overview, check out this review:
Other Notable Strategy Games for Linux
If you’re exploring more strategy titles, consider:
0 A.D.: A historical RTS focusing on ancient civilizations.
The Battle for Wesnoth: A turn-based strategy game with a rich fantasy setting.
Freeciv: A free Civilization-inspired game with extensive customization.
Each offers unique gameplay experiences and is well-supported on Linux platforms.
OpenRA exemplifies how classic games can be revitalized for modern audiences. Its blend of nostalgia and innovation makes it a standout choice for strategy enthusiasts on Linux.
We have arrived at the end of May. This year is going by in the blur for me.
So much going on, so much to do.
Datacenter move
The switch week is still scheduled for the week of June 30th.
We made some progress this last week on installs. Got everything setup to
install a bunch of servers. I installed a few and kept building out services.
I was mostly focusing on getting things setup so I could install openshift
clusters in both prod and staging. That will let us move applications.
I also setup to do rhel10 installs and installed a test virthost. There's
still a few things missing from epel10 that we need: nagios clients,
collectd (thats on me) and zabbix clients, otherwise the changes were
reasonably minor. I might try and use rhel10 for a few things, but I
don't want to spend a lot of time on it as we don't have much time.
Flock
Flock is next week! If you are looking for me, I will be traveling basically
all monday and tuesday, then in prague from tuesday to very early sunday
morning, when I travel back home.
If you are going to flock and want to chat, please feel free to catch me
and/or drop me a note to try and meet you. Happy to talk!
If you aren't going to flock, I'm hoping everything is pretty quiet
infrastructure wise. I will try and check in on any major issues, but
do try and file tickets on things instead of posting to mailing lists
or matrix.
I'd also like to remind everyone going to flock that we try and not
actually decide anything there. It's for discussion and learning and
putting a human face on your fellow contributors. Make plans, propose things
definitely, just make sure after flock you use our usual channels to
discuss and actually decide things. Deciscions shouldn't be made offline
where those not present can't provide input.
I'm likely to do blog posts about flock days, but may be delayed until
after the event. There's likely not going to be a regular saturday post
next week from me.
Arm laptop
So, I successfully used this Lenovo slim7x all week, so I guess I am going
to try and use it for my flock travel. Hopefully it will all work out. :)
Issues I have run into in no particular order:
There are a bunch of various people working on various things, and all
of that work touches the devicetree file. This makes it a nightmare to
try and have a dtb with working bluetooth, ec, webcam, sound, suspend, etc.
I really hope a bunch of this stuff lands upstream soon. For now I just
Have a kernel with bluetooth and ec working and am ignoring sound and webcam.
s2idle sleep "works", but I don't trust it. I suspended the other day when
I was running some errands, and when I got home, the laptop had come on
and was super super hot (it was under a jacket to make it less a theft target).
So, I might just shutdown most of the time traveling. There's a patch
to fix deep sleep, but see above.
I did wake up one day and it had rebooted, no idea why...
Otherwise everything is working fine and it's pretty nice and zippy.
Battery life is... ok. 7-8 hours. It's not hitting the lowest power states
yet, but that will do I think for my needs for now.
In 1978, a commemorative souvenir was published to celebrate the milestone of acting in 400 films by Bahadoor, a celebrated Malayalam movie actor. Artist Namboodiri designed its cover caricature and the lettering.
Cover of Bahadoor souvenir designed by artist Namboodiri in 1978.
Based on this lettering, KH Hussain designed a traditional script Malayalam Unicode font named ‘RIT Bahadur’. I did work on the engineering and production of the font to release it on the 25th death anniversary of Bahadoor, on 22-May-2025.
RIT Bahadur is a display typeface that comes in Bold and BoldItalic variants. It is licensed under Open Font License and can be freely downloaded from Rachana website.
When installing or managing a Linux system, one of the most debated topics is whether to use a swap partition or a swap file—or even use swap at all.
In this post, we’ll go back to the origin of swap, explore why swap was needed, how modern systems use (or avoid) it, and the advantages and disadvantages of both swap partitions and swap files.
What is Swap?
Swap is disk space used by the operating system when physical RAM is full. It acts as an extension of RAM to allow the system to offload memory pages that are not immediately needed, keeping critical applications running smoothly.
The Origin of Swap
Swap originated in the early days of computing, when:
RAM was expensive and limited.
Storage (although slower) was more plentiful.
Systems needed a way to “extend” memory to run more processes than RAM allowed.
Unix systems implemented swap space as a way to avoid running out of memory entirely—this idea carried over to Linux.
Why You Might Still Need Swap Today
Even with modern hardware, swap still has roles:
Prevent Out of Memory (OOM) crashes: If your system runs out of RAM, swap provides a safety net.
Hibernation (suspend-to-disk): Requires swap equal to or greater than your RAM size.
Memory balancing: Swap allows the kernel to move idle pages out of RAM, freeing up space for active applications or disk cache.
Low-memory devices: On systems like Raspberry Pi or small VPS servers, swap helps compensate for limited RAM.
Why You Might Not Need Swap
On the other hand:
Lots of RAM: If your system rarely uses all available memory, swap may never be touched.
SSD wear concerns: Excessive swapping can reduce SSD lifespan (though this is largely exaggerated with modern SSDs).
Performance-critical applications: Swap is much slower than RAM. If you’re running performance-sensitive workloads, using swap can be a bottleneck.
Modern alternatives: Features like zram and zswap offer compressed RAM swap spaces, reducing or eliminating the need for disk-based swap.
Swap Partition
Advantages
Stability: Less prone to fragmentation.
Predictable performance: Constant location on disk can be slightly faster on spinning HDDs.
Used by default in many legacy systems.
Can be used even if root filesystem becomes read-only.
Disadvantages
Inflexible size: Hard to resize without repartitioning.
Occupies a dedicated partition: Not space-efficient, especially on SSDs.
Inconvenient for virtualized or cloud instances.
Swap File
Advantages
Flexible: Easy to resize or remove.
No need for a separate partition.
Supported by all modern Linux kernels (since 2.6).
Works well with most filesystems including ext4, XFS, Btrfs (with limitations).
Disadvantages
Can be slower on heavily fragmented file systems.
Doesn’t work with hibernation on some setups.
Needs correct permissions and configuration (e.g., no copy-on-write or compression with Btrfs unless configured properly).
Performance Considerations
Criteria
Swap Partition
Swap File
Resize Flexibility
Hard
Easy
Setup Complexity
Medium
Easy
Performance (HDD)
Slightly better
Slightly worse
Performance (SSD)
Similar
Similar
Works with Hibernate
Yes
Depends on setup
Dynamic Management
Manual
Resizable on-the-fly
When to Use What?
Use a Swap Partition if:
You’re setting up a traditional desktop or dual-boot Linux system.
You plan to use hibernation reliably.
You prefer separating system components into strict partitions.
Use a Swap File if:
You’re on a modern system with lots of RAM and SSD.
You want to add swap after install easily.
You’re using cloud or VPS environments with flexible resources.
You don’t plan to use hibernation.
Bonus: zram and zswap
Modern Linux kernels support zram and zswap, which compress memory pages before swapping to disk:
zram creates a compressed RAM-based block device as swap.
zswap is a compressed cache for swap pages before writing to disk.
These are great for low-memory systems like Raspberry Pi or embedded devices.
Conclusion
Swap is not dead—it’s evolved.
Whether you choose a swap partition or a swap file depends on your needs:
Flexibility? Go for swap file.
Predictability and hibernation? Use a swap partition.
Want better performance with low RAM? Consider zram.
As always with Linux, the choice is yours—and that’s the power of open systems.
TL;DR
Swap partition: Reliable, but rigid.
Swap file: Flexible and modern.
No swap: Fine if you have lots of RAM and don’t use hibernation.
comments? additions? reactions?
As always, comment on mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@nirik/114603298176306720