Vanilla Dpup 11.0.x Development Builds

[dimkr]

@d-pupp The list of package versions that include the fix is in https://security-tracker.debian.org/tra ... -2024-9680. Debian packages are patched with extra security fixes, you should look at Debian's CVE tracker and not Mozilla's security advisories page.

EDIT: you're right, not fixed in trixie yet. It's not uncommon for testing to receive bug fixes after both unstable and stable. The former gets the newest packages and they tend to carry security fixes that haven't been backported yet, and the latter receives security fixes regularly.

[d-pupp]

Firefox 128.3.1esr is now available from apt

They have been busy on the testing side. 340 packages could be upgraded.
I upgraded just to test it. So far everything is working as expected. It did take a very long time to save ram to the save folder. When I checked the size I see why .. it's 1.9 Gb

I think I'll redo my save folder after the next upgrade to get the size back down to around 600 mb

[d-pupp]

Re connman-gtk failure to run. I can make it run from the terminal by using the no icon option.

Code: Select all

connman-gtk --no-icon

[dimkr]

11.0.191 adds some fun stuff:

• save2flash now reduces I/O priority to reduce freezing and slowness while saving, making it less frustrating to use the computer while saving to a super slow flash drive

• MAC address spoofing: a random MAC address is generated for each network interface when detected for the first time (and not randomized again on every connection or every boot) to mask the factory address (which can be be used for device or user fingerprinting) - if you upgrade from <11.0.191, this will make connman forget network settings once

• More security-related restrictions on applications running as spot

EDIT: re-triggering the build with an extra feature - ability to copy a screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving it to a file

EDIT 2: forgot to mention, kernel is bumped to 6.11.x

[darksun]

the main reason I am holding to jump from version 10 to 11 of Vanilla Dpup is the lack of one of the package I rely daily hence it is essential for me: newsboat.

I am guessing it is not available into the repository because of some missing library not yet available for Debian Trixie.

I cannot find any useful information online. @dimkr do you know how I can check or get an alert when a package is available into (the) (Trixie) repository?

Thank you.

[dimkr]

the main reason I am holding to jump from version 10 to 11 of Vanilla Dpup is the lack of one of the package I rely daily hence it is essential for me: newsboat.

This is exactly why it's not a good idea to use Debian testing and not Debian stable as your daily driver. If you don't want this, you should use either Debian stable (old packages, only fixes) or Debian unstable (all packages are available, even if they break something, and you get recent versions with many bugs).

These 11.0.x "releases" are clearly described as development builds: if you want to "migrate" from the stable 10.0.x series to a 11.0.x development build, be prepared for frequent breakage and don't expect seamless transition.

I am guessing it is not available into the repository because of some missing library not yet available for Debian Trixie.

Packages are removed and re-introduced into Debian testing all the time: removal of packages that have no maintainer or break something (until they're fixed) is normal and expected in Debian testing.

I cannot find any useful information online. @dimkr do you know how I can check or get an alert when a package is available into (the) (Trixie) repository?

Monitor https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/newsboat

[d-pupp]

Thanks for the new build @dimkr I'll download and test it out in a few days.

I'm wondering if you can explain a little more what this means

if you upgrade from <11.0.191, this will make connman forget network settings once

I'm assuming it means connman has to get a new DHCP lease??

[dimkr]

I'm assuming it means connman has to get a new DHCP lease??

It will forget the current settings, things like saved passphrases and static addresses.

[Keef]

Re connman-gtk failure to run. I can make it run from the terminal by using the no icon option.

Code: Select all

connman-gtk --no-icon

I was also having problems trying to run connman, but I will try that solution next time. I did try starting it on the terminal and got this:

Code: Select all

# connman-gtk 

(connman-gtk:6400): dbind-WARNING **: 12:07:26.245: AT-SPI: Error retrieving accessibility bus address: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.a11y.Bus was not provided by any .service files

(connman-gtk:6400): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 12:07:26.289: gtk_widget_get_scale_factor: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

The last part keeps repeating.

[dimkr]

@Keef Do you have fractional scaling enabled? It breaks some old applications and this could be one of them.

[dimkr]

11.0.192 replaces the hack that prevents connman from messing with the hardware clock with a better, eBPF-based hack. It doesn't mess with the loader configuration, doesn't produce errors in the console when running 32-bit applications, and eBPF is a new and cool technology worth learning

[Keef]

@Keef Do you have fractional scaling enabled? It breaks some old applications and this could be one of them.

No (not even sure I know how ). It had worked fine on previous releases.

[Xyz]

ntfs3 unable to mount NTFS partition

[Keef]

Xyz, see here:
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 58#p126058

[d-pupp]

I have been using dpup 11.0.192 for a few days now. It runs great. No issues to report.
My mac address was masked and I got a new ip from the dhcp server on my router. It was so seem-less that I forgot about it until today. My only complaint is the color of the ip output for the ip6 address. blue on black is impossible to read.
I see from github that you documented changes to the firewall. Is that document included in dpup 11? I took a quick look in help and /usr/share/doc and didn't see it.
I'm learning about apt. It has a lot of capabilities beyond just installing packages. Nice feature.
I like to run as stock as I can because I mostly just browse and make notes. However I have setup nnn file manager, Micro text editor, tree, and lspci for the command line. They are all very small and most only have a binary file to copy over.

I'm liking this distro very much.

I haven't seem a release date yet. However based on history I'm guessing it should been the middle of next year. Do you know when the security people will pick it up? As in before the official release or on the release date.

[dimkr]

Is that document included in dpup 11?

Yes, go to the Help menu item.

I haven't seem a release date yet.

Probably shortly after the Debian 13 release.

[d-pupp]

@dimkr I want to create a keyboard shortcut for L3afpad but I don't want it to conflict with shortcuts mapped in other programs. I was thinking supper n for new as supper e and supper l are already mapped. Is this key mapped to anything important that you can think of? Or are there a better key option?

[dimkr]

@d-pupp You can always override the default key bindings. Just try the key buildings you want, you can undo the changes or change to different key combinations if you're not happy with the result.

[dimkr]

I'm rebuilding 11.0.193 with two additions:

• Fix for blank screen when waking up from suspend, only sometimes, more likely to happen if screen was locked first

• Multi-monitor support in the screenshot/screen recording tool: it forces the user to select a screen when when selecting "whole screen" but there's more than one screen; screen recording should no longer fail silently in "whole screen" mode in a multi-monitor setup

[dimkr]

11.0.194 will add:

• Performance improvement and reduced writing to disk in most low RAM situations: the init script always activates zram (instead of doing so only if no swap partition/file is found on disk); zram has higher priority so you get the best of both worlds: zram's better performance (as long as swap usage is low) but also the option to run applications that consume lots of memory and can't run without a big swap partition on disk

• Security hardening: swap permissions are changed to 600 to prevent unprivileged applications from reading sensitive data from swap

• Security hardening: debugfs mount options are aligned with systemd's

[d-pupp]

I'm trying to use xpad for my notes instead of the paper all over my desk.
Is there a way to make the cursor visible? It's hard to know where I am.

[dimkr]

@d-pupp Can you make a screen capture that shows the problem?

[d-pupp]

@dimkr Here is the screen shot. The cursor is at the end of the last sentence I just can't see it. I can still use it but I have to edit by clicking the mouse where I want the cursor to be so I know where it is.

[darksun]

a couple of important questions:

a) I am wondering, seen that vanilla dpup 10.0.x will be the stable version and as well as will be with us for several months still, is there any plan to include/back-port some/all the (applicable) security and privacy and improvements features from 11.0.x ? if feasible and easily implementable.

b) my understanding is that vanilla dpup uses a custom/modified version of sysVinit , am I right? still I see installed packages (eg libelogind0) and as all as systemd references. Could you @dimkr explain shortly if systemd as an active role within your system or (I hope) is installed just for compatibility purposes and does not play an active role?

thank you

[dimkr]

for several months still

Hopefully, until Debian 12 reaches its EOL date. I still maintain the Debian 11 based 9.3.x series, as you can see. I think it's the only Puppy with 3 years (?) of updates, and I want 10.0.x to be like this.

is there any plan to include/back-port some/all the (applicable) security and privacy and improvements features from 11.0.x ? if feasible and easily implementable.

Check the changelog, I backport some things to 10.0.x but it's a small minority. The way Puppy works prevents me from backporting many of these improvements, and I'm using new technologies like eBPF and erofs, which are not present, not working or too old.

b) my understanding is that vanilla dpup uses a custom/modified version of sysVinit , am I right?

No. 10.0.x and below use busybox init, which is somewhat similar to sysvinit. 11.0.x uses a custom init "system" I wrote, see https://github.com/vanilla-dpup/woof-CE ... uilds/init.

Could you @dimkr explain shortly if systemd as an active role within your system

No, it's there only to satisfy dependencies on it. Debian has packages that depend on either systemd (directly or through logind) or elogind, and they're installable on Debian with either systemd or sysvinit (plus elogind). However, some packages have a hard dependency on systemd but it's not actually a dependency at runtime. Therefore, systemd is installed to have a complete and valid dependency tree, but it doesn't run at all.

[darksun]

Check the changelog,

I check it regularly and yes I see sometimes this happens eg firefox settings.

thank you very much for your hard and beautiful work.
I wish to support you but cannot see anything on how to do it on here; furthermore , mainly but no only because of the lack of an essential piece of software I rely on (newsboat) I cannot use the 11.0.x as my daily driver so I am unable to be a tester; I hope this will change in the nearest future.

[d-pupp]

xpad cursor not visible problem.

I have solve this problem. In dark mode at least the cursor is white and not visible on the yellow background. So I changed the background color and now I can see the cursor.

Thanks D-pupp

[dimkr]

I wish to support you but cannot see anything on how to do it

I don't need financial support. What I do need is:
1. Ideas for responsiveness+performance improvements, lower resource consumption (especially lower RAM usage, then lower CPU usage) and better ways to implement classic Puppy features (things like reimplementing "copy to RAM" by locking SFSs into cache instead of copying them to a ramdisk, and saving only modified regions of modified files when saving under PUPMODE 13, instead of rewriting entire files every time something changes)
2. Problems that can be found by daily driving this distro in various settings, including multi-monitor setups, old computers and boot from various devices (flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, ...)
3. A healthy ecosystem of knowledgeable users that help each other, share (good) tips and correct information, and even advanced users that tweak the system, build their own derivatives or contribute to development

[d-pupp]

@dimkr The wife's laptop partly froze the other day. I don't know what she did. I had a mouse but nothing would open. I tried all the usual keys to kill the windows manager (ctrl alt del, ctrl alt backspace, ctrl shift backspace) but nothing worked. I just tried switching VT and all I get is a blinking cursor. No login. Is there a way to kill the WM when it get stuck without doing a hard power off?

[dimkr]

Is there a way to kill the WM when it get stuck without doing a hard power off?

Currently - AFAIK no.