Issue596

Revision 2 as of 2019-09-15 20:13:36

Clear message


newspaper-icon41.jpg

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 596 for the week of September 8 - 14, 2019.

In this Issue

General Community News

IRC Council Call for Nominations (2019)

C de-Avillez tells us two IRC Council members are nearing their end-of-term, thus it's election season. Details of board members & those retiring are provided, along with links to learn more or cast your vote if eligible.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-irc/2019-September/001902.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 135480 (+37)
  • Critical: 374 (-1)
  • Unconfirmed: 66695 (+85)

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translations

  • Ukrainian: 87.57% (33967/2681)
  • German: 85.93% (38432/13)
  • Spanish: 85.36% (39986/2705)
  • French: 80.78% (52521/5752)
  • Bosnian: 79.91% (54876/155)

Hot in Support

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions

Ask (and answer!) questions at: https://askubuntu.com/

Ubuntu Forums Top 5 Threads

Find more support at: https://ubuntuforums.org/

LoCo Events

The following LoCo team events are currently scheduled in the next two weeks:

Looking beyond the next two weeks? Visit the LoCo Team Portal to browse upcoming events around the world: http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/

The Hub

discourse.ubuntu.com server guide

Joshua Powers (powersj) announces the addition of server documentation and support to discourse.ubuntu.com.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/c/server/guide

Canonical News

In the Press

The Current State Of AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs And Radeon RX 5700 GPUs On Linux

Jason Evangelho writes on the state of the impressive Ryzen R9 3900X with Radeon RX 5700 graphics cards on Linux. Jason notes the downside in that currently only Ubuntu release 18.04.2 LTS has support out of the box, and AMD Navi Vulkan support is lacking. We are told of the work in the developer community, producing a means to install the needed drivers with Vulcan support. Jason advises "it's best to wait a few days to a few weeks to let these Ryzen 3000 and Radeon RX 5700 launch pains get resolved." for us normal users.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/07/09/the-current-state-of-amd-ryzen-3000-cpus-and-radeon-rx-5700-gpus-on-linux/#3f8fa952939a

See too this install tutorial:

In the Blogosphere

This Handy Nvidia Optimus Linux Tool Makes Switching Between GPUs Easy

Joey Sneddon informs of the mate-optimus indicator applet that allows offloading to the discrete NVIDIA GPU for laptops with Nvidia Optimus. The latest version is targeted to the 19.10 release, though available in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or 19.04 with reduced functionality through the software repository.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/09/nvidia-optimus-linux-switching-applet

KDE Now Supports Fractional Scaling On Wayland

Michael Larabel reports that among the improvements and fixes in KDE Plasma 5.17's desktop on Wayland, fractional scaling is now supported. This gives a better HiDPI experience. A link to Nate Graham's blog is provided for details.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-Does-Wayland-Frac-Scaling

Ubuntu's Snapcraft Snap Creator Tool Will Soon Get a Windows Installer

Marius Nestor informs us of a new Snapcraft 3.8 tool used to package Linux apps as snaps. The ability to package snaps on windows will soon exist too. Reminding us of what snaps are, this release provides new goodies for existing users, including support for GNOME 3.28 via an extension. A link to the full changelog is provided.

https://news.softpedia.com/news/ubuntu-s-snapcraft-snap-creator-tool-will-soon-get-a-windows-installer-527336.shtml

Ubuntu 19.10 To Boot Faster Thanks To LZ4 Compression

Michael Larabel reports that the Ubuntu kernel team now uses the LZ4 compression starting with Ubuntu 19.10, making it boot faster. Canonical's Colin Ian King says "With decompression time, LZ4 is over 7 times faster than GZIP, and LZO being ~1.25 times faster then GZIP on x86... Even with slow spinning media and a slow CPU, the longer load time of the LZ4 kernel is overcome by the far faster decompression time."

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-19.10-LZ4-Kernel-Image

Canonical Fixes Linux 4.15 Kernel Regression in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS

Marius Nestor reminds us of earlier kernel patches that caused a regression for some users using the 4.15 kernel. Providing a link to Canonical's security advisory, and apology, users of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS users using the 4.15 kernel are advised to upgrade asap.

https://news.softpedia.com/news/canonical-fixes-linux-4-15-kernel-regression-in-ubuntu-18-04-lts-and-16-04-lts-527359.shtml

First Look: Here’s Ubuntu 19.10’s New Default Wallpaper

Joey Sneddon reveals the new Ubuntu 19.10 desktop background reminding us of it's coming scheduled release on 18 October 2019 and a few key features. With links to remind us of prior default wallpapers, a link is provided to download the 19.10 wallpaper from launchpad.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/09/ubuntu-19-10-default-wallpaper-download

Ubuntu Security Podcast: Episode 46

"A massive 85 CVEs addressed this week, including updates for Exim, the Linux Kernel, Samba, systemd and more, plus we discuss hacking BMCs via remote USB devices and password stashes."

https://ubuntusecuritypodcast.org/episode-46/

Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S12E23 – Wing Commander

"This week we’ve been playing Pillars of Eternity. We discuss boot speed improvements for Ubuntu 19.10, using LXD to map ports, NVIDIA Prime Renderer switching, changes in the Yaru theme and the Librem 5 shipping (perhaps). We also round up some events and some news from the tech world."

https://ubuntupodcast.org/2019/09/13/s12e23-wing-commander/

Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

For more details and farther dates please visit: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/

Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04, and 19.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 16.04 Updates

End of Life: April 2021

Ubuntu 18.04 Updates

End of Life: April 2023

Ubuntu 19.04 Updates

End of Life: January 2020

Subscribe

Get your copy of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter delivered each week to you via email at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news

Or follow us via our various social media presences:

Archive

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Archive

Further News

As always you can find more Ubuntu news and announcements at:

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Krytarik Raido
  • Bashing-om
  • Chris Guiver
  • Wild Man
  • EoflaOE
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

Other acronyms can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/glossary

Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. More on this at: https://community.ubuntu.com/contribute/

Or get involved with the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter team! We always need summary writers and editors, if you're interested, learn more at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Join

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Ideas. If you'd like to contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical support questions, please check https://community.ubuntu.com/help-information/ for more information on where to get help.

Except where otherwise noted, this issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License CCL.png