LWDW: ChromeBuntu

Kernel 4.15 has arrived! NVIDIA releases a busted driver, Chrome silences annoying websites and the Italian military embraces open source. All this plus your emails.

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jrullo (surge suppressor from our Wishzone)

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Colour key – Venn Pedro

News

4.15
https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_4.15

- Now I wait for NVIDIA drivers.
“Also, it is worth pointing out that it’s not like we’re “done” with spectre/meltdown. There is more work pending (arm, spectre-v1, misc details), and perhaps equally importantly, to actually get the biggest fix for the indirect branch mitigations, you need not just the kernel updates, you need to have a compiler with support for the “retpoline” indirect branch model.” -Linus”
Hey, VEGA support.
The only thing I found doesn’t work is the displaylink driver, if you’re using a USB 3 dock for pushing monitor output.
The driver won’t build against kernel 4.15 because of some Direct Rendering Manager issues, not being fed the right arguments.
That will need an update.

390.25
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/130946/en-uk

Installs and works /w 4.15 with a few small issues.
Lightdm login screen is blank.
Chrome has some stuttering issues.
- I mean really really annoying ones.
- Like, IMA start using the Fox if this don’t get sorted annoying.
There’s an issue on my end with the 390 series of drivers.
And I’m not the only one: https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1028754/linux/-390-25-random-flicker-in-mid-screen-when-deskop-is-mostly-idle-empty-/
This really highlights how good NVIDIA driver are / were?
We don’t expect this kind of buggery from a stable release.

Polish the Chrome
https://9to5google.com/2018/01/24/google-chrome-64-stable-mac-windows-linux-features/

Mitigations in version 64 of Chrome to the V8 JavaScript engine protect against speculative side-channel attacks.
improved pop-up blocker
New sitewide audio muting setting (ZDnet filter)

Mozilla handles snakes
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2018/01/23/moss-q4-supporting-python-ecosystem/

They’re also giving over $70’000 to the rust-av project, which aims to implement libav in rust.
In 2017 MOZ invested $1,650,000 in supporting open source projects around the globe.
In this quarter, under the Secure Open Source arm of MOSS, expanded the scope of the program by funding development of secure code projects.
Applications for “Foundational Technology” and “Mission Partners” remain open, with the next batch deadline being the end of January 2018.

Take it where you can get it
http://www.techdrivein.com/2016/09/italian-militarys-libreoffice-migration.html

- the Italian military have switched over 8000 PC workstations to LibreOffice.
- LibreItalia, an an open source advocacy group based out of Italy, is helping Italian Military in this massive endeavour.
“the main motives for the switch include interoperability and long-term accessibility of documents and information. The military are standardising on the Open Document Format (ODF) and are urging its users to use free fonts.”
The military is also contemplating the use of Linux for their desktop workstation
Portugal is still running DOS.

We’re shocked! not really
https://community.ubuntu.com/t/xorg-will-be-the-default-in-18-04-lts/3623?u=willcooke

- To the surprise of absolutely noone.
“Recoverability from Shell crashes is less dramatic under Xorg.”
- It’s not like a shell crash under Wayland will take down the entire sessi… wait.
The fact that they mention PipeWire gives me hope that Canocial will not reinvent the wheel.
The Wayland session will still be available, pre-installed, and mostly useless until NVIDIA pulls a Summer.

Chromebuntu
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2018/01/30/tutorial-install-ubuntu-on-a-chromebook/

A simple handy guide that will help you understand why that $200 laptop was running ChromeOS in the first place.
5. Like playing games? sudo apt install steam
- yourgoingtohaveabadtime.jpg

Open suggestions
https://github.com/klauscfhq/moviebox

Sorry, I can’t let you watch that Dave.

BAMboo
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/01/wacom-smartpad-linux-support-bamboo

Getting proper support for Wacom devices, all of them, is a sure fire way to get professional or hobbyist artists looking at Linux and Linux hardware instead of MacOS.

RAID
http://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-set-up-raid-1-for-windows-and-linux/2/