Fedora 35 launches with a gang of new features! Linux 5.15 adds support for NTFS, Firefox enables EGL on X, and building a Raspberry Pi powered cinema camera.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
06:35 Fedora 35 released
11:58 Linux kernel 5.15
16:53 ALSA support for MOTU MK3 effects
25:03 Firefox 94 enables EGL
34:03 Xorg variable refresh rate support
40:58 Multi Linux containers for ChromeOS
48:28 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
56:08 Canada Pi: Pi cinema camera
Fedora 35
https://9to5linux.com/fedora-linux-35-released-with-gnome-41-fedora-kinoite-flavor-and-wireplumber
- The default workstation edition features GNOME 41, and is the first distribution to feature it.
- A new Fedora Linux variant Fedora Kinoite is introduced which is a KDE Plasma desktop based on rpm ostree.
- It is a Fedora Silverblue variant, but uses the KDE desktop instead of the GNOME desktop.
- Cloud images have hybrid boot support, unifying the legacy (BIOS) and UEFI boot modes.
- Fedora Cloud 35 now uses BTRFS.
- WirePlumber session manager.
- If you want to play with the latest preconfigured Pipewire & Wayland hotness, this is the way.
- Unless you’re a tech YouTuber.
- I like the idea of Kinoite a bit better than Silverblue.
- Yes, purely because it’s KDE rather than GNOME.
- But if I were to be serious, these kinds of OS are great for enterprise or for a chromebook style device.
- No, I wouldn’t recommend replacing ChromeOS with Kinoite or Silverblue.
- But if you’re putting together a laptop for a family person so that they can do their browsing, emailing, and media consumption, this is very much worth considering.
- Outside of that, for just the traditional spin
- Still a meme distro.
Linux 5.15
https://lwn.net/Articles/874495/
- On Halloween Linus Torvalds gave us a treat, with the Linux Kernel 5.15 release, and it includes lots of important new features!
- It includes Paragon Software’s new NTFS file system driver, ‘NTFS3’.
- Initial Support for Intel DG2/Alchemist Discrete Graphics.
- Improvements for AMD CPUs/GPUs:
- Temperature monitoring support added for AMD Zen 3 based APUs.
- A new audio driver for the Van Gogh APU, which should benefit Valve’s Steam Deck.
- And support for upcoming RDNA2 graphics cards in the AMDGPU kernel driver.
- A newer Realtek RTL8188EU Wi-Fi driver.
- This audio brought to you by kernel 5.15.
- 5.15 will be the new LTS.
- Projected EOL 2023.
- All the new audio bits are hit and miss with RT.
- New module option ‘lowlatency’ to snd-usb-audio driver.
- Add support for MOTU 896HD
- Apparently the -Werror shenanigans have been sorted.
- Don’t know if they dropped it or stuck with it, but whatever it was 5.15 is now up for public consumption.
MOTU effects
https://twitter.com/takaswie/status/1454650301340811274
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/archives/linux-audio-dev/2021-October/038237.html
- Everyone’s favourite ALSA kernel developer sent me a message Saturday night.
- Adding ALSA controls for the internal effects on MOTU MK3 interfaces.
- No fancy GUI but 9000% better than using the 4-knob spin-push-pray method.
- Getting it setup will be a task since it requires several new bits.
Firefox 94 + EGL
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/94.0/releasenotes/
https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2021/10/30/switching-the-linux-graphics-stack-from-glx-to-egl/
- EGL is already a thing for Firefox on Wayland.
- This will be for Firefox on X.
- You will need NVidia drivers 495 to enjoy the full benefits, since them’s the ones that enable GBM over EGL.
- As of Firefox 94, users using Mesa driver >= 21 will get it by default, and I will get to test this on one of my Garuda Linux boxes with an RX 580.
- In Firefox 94 you can use about:unloads to release system resources by manually unloading tabs without closing them.
- gfx.x11-egl.force-enabled
- Appears to be working?
- They didn’t enable it by default due to some bugs.
- With 94 you’ll find a selection of six fun seasonal Colorways.
X.Org Server 21.1
https://linuxiac.com/x-org-server-21-1/
- Variable refresh rate support.
- Having proper support for variable refresh rate should alleviate a lot of the issues around it.
- Though I suspect people like myself with mixed VRR monitors will still be reliant on NVidia’s drivers.
- And be subject to memory leaks from KWin because it throws a little fit when you force different refresh rates on your monitors.
- After more than three years of development, X.Org Server 21.1 is here!
- And thank goodness, I was getting worried about X.Org development, since Wayland is the new hotness.
- X.Org Server 21.1 features:
- Better Meson build system support.
- The 2D acceleration driver for the X Server, Glamor, now has added support for Xvfb, or the X virtual framebuffer display server.
- And it has X Input 2.4 touchpad gestures support.
- As well as it now correctly reports display DPI in more cases, which will help hi-DPI screens.
Multi Linux on Chrome
https://www.androidpolice.com/chromebooks-will-soon-be-a-lot-more-useful-for-linux-power-users/
- The multi container management UI is still in development, but you can enable it to poke at it if you’d like.
- Is Google finally trying to get ChromeOS to behave more like a proper OS?
- I am so happy that Linux is finally a first class citizen on Chromebooks, and out of Beta.
- It’s been 3 years in beta.
- And being able to run multiple apps that are in containers at the same time, such as Steam for gaming and GIMP for graphics editing.
- Of course you need one of the more powerful Chomebooks to pull this off ;-)
Slice of Pi
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/new-raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-2/
- $15 for a quad-core slice of Pi.
- 512MB of RAM.
- Same formfactor.
- I made the traditional attempt of trying to get one.
- Ada was out immediately.
- I still think it is amazing to have a quad core CPU in an SoC this small.
- And 512MB of RAM is even big enough to run a lightweight Linux GUI without too much trouble.
- Especially if it’s one of my favorites, Fluxbox, Window Maker, and of course, Raspberry Pi OS’s Pixel UI.
Pi Corder
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-cinema-camera/
https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=296776&sid=1864138fbcb22725077046068b80db59
https://github.com/schoolpost/cinepi
- The effort here is to remove all the automatic image processing which the Pi does
- The hardware is just a 4GB Pi 4 and a Pi HQ camera with a 6mm lens.
- So the big thing is allowing full control of the image settings to the user and the editor.
- And the way schoolpost describes it, you’re getting image quality like you’d get from a $1000 video camera out of a Pi with the HQ cam.
- Which is insane!
- If they can hack in some clean HDMI out I will squee a little.
- They have spent some time making it usable as a camera.
- No random bits flopping about and a proper liveview.
- I could use another high quality camera for my broadcast studio, and one as cheap as a Pi project.
