Issue617


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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 617 for the week of February 2 - 8, 2020.

In this Issue

  • 18.04.4 release date postponed by a week
  • Call for nominations: Developer Membership Board
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Hot in Support
  • My first-ever FOSDEM; it was awesome
  • LoCo Events

  • Mir News 2020-02-07
  • Canonical News
  • In the Blogosphere
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Meeting Reports
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04 and 19.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

18.04.4 release date postponed by a week

Łukasz Zemczak tells us the Ubuntu 18.04.4 release date has been pushed back a week due to problems with the Ubuntu Core 18 images. All testers are thanked with a plan to re-spin uc18-only, an apology is given over the delay. The release is now expected February 13, 2020.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2020-February/004897.html

Call for nominations: Developer Membership Board

Robie Basak repeats the request for a Core Dev or MOTU to consider nominating to fill seats on the Developer Membership Board.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2020-February/040887.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 136066 (+50)
  • Critical: 364 (-1)
  • Unconfirmed: 67340 (+102)

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

Translations

  • Ukrainian: 87.77% (36179/674)
  • German: 86.86% (38886/7)
  • Spanish: 83.54% (48694/2849)
  • French: 80.82% (56749/6066)
  • Swedish: 74.08% (76698/617)

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 News

My first-ever FOSDEM; it was awesome

Omer Akram (om26er) reports his experience at FOSDEM,"known as the biggest FOSS conference in Europe". Omer begins his report with some personal background info to qualify his address. He then leads into some of the talks he attended and the talk, DeskConn, he presented. Omer gives out accolades to the Ubuntu community and to the Ubuntu desktop team for the work on Ubuntu 20.04, and mentions some of the people he had collaboration with.

https://om26er.com/2020/02/08/my-first-ever-fosdem/

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

Mir News 2020-02-07

Alan Griffiths writes that the Wayland Conformance is now available from Debian sid; an effort with UBports to package Unity8 desktop for Debian. Xwayland X11 support has lost it's experimental status, though a number of problems remain, with reminders of how we can keep up-to-date on progress. A request for help was received on Mir working on hardware which has resulted in some work, and Alan provides a new video showing UbuntuTouch on the pinephone.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/mir-news-2020-02-07/14315

Canonical News

In the Blogosphere

NVIDIA 440.59 Linux Driver Brings DP MST Audio, PRIME Sync For Linux 5.4+

Michael Larabel reports that NVIDIA has released the 440.59 Linux driver. This updated driver includes many fixes with details listed, plus a link to nvidia.com to download the driver.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-440.59-Linux-Driver

Linux-Firmware Adds Updated Binary For Fixing Performance With RX 5600 XT vBIOS Update

Michael Larabel reminds us of the Radeon RX 5600 XT's recent release, and its problems giving low performance when run on Linux. The updated firmware to resolve this issue has now passed QA (Quality Assurance) and is available, which rectifies the performance issue. Links are provided.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RX-5600-XT-New-SMC-Micro

Systemd 245 Shipping Soon With Systemd-Homed, Systemd-Repart Partitioner

Michael Larabel informs us that Systemd 245, a large release, will ship soon. This release Includes systemd-homed, systemd-repart, as well as new features to other parts - such as systemd-journald. Systemd 245 RC1 is available for testing with a link provided.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=systemd-245-RC1

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Likely To Ship With Linux 5.4 As Opposed To 5.5

Michael Larabel writes that whilst Linux 5.5 kernel has been released, it's probable that the current 5.4 kernel in Ubuntu 20.04 will be the default kernel shipped. However, upstream kernels will be available with the enablement of the HardWare Enablement (HWE) stack. Michael gives the reasoning for these likely decisions, and reminds us that the Ubuntu kernel team has backported WireGuard support to the 5.4 LTS kernel. Links are provided.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-20.04-Linux-5.4-Likely

Learn More About Systemd-Homed For How Linux Home Directories Are Being Reinvented

Michael Larabel briefly tells us about systemd-homed that is coming in systemd 245. Systemd lead developer Lennart Poettering presented at FOSDEM 2020 last weekend, and a video recording of the presentation as well as other links are provided.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-Homed-FOSDEM-2020

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Aims To Enhance The Certified OEM Experience From Its Installer

Michael Larabel writes that booting the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS install media on a "Certified OEM" device could provide a different experience to other devices. We are told that Ubuntu developers are working on GRUB checking the device using an SMBIOS module providing added functionality if a certified device is detected. A link to the mailing list post for more detail is provided.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-20.04-Certified-OEM-Exp

Devs Push for Unicode 13 Support in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Joey Sneddon gives us a quick background on Unicode, before telling us Unicode 13 is due out March 10, with a request on the Ubuntu developer mailing list to consider packaging ICU 66 for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. A response from Ubuntu's Dimitri John Ledkov has said it's too late for inclusion. Joey tells us a preview of ICU 66 is available.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/02/unicode-13-in-ubuntu-20-04

Ubuntu Security Podcast: Episode 61

"Joe is back to discuss a recent breach against Wawa, plus we detail security updates from the past week including Apache Solr, OpenStack Keystone, Sudo, Django and more."

https://ubuntusecuritypodcast.org/episode-61/

Ubuntu Portugal Podcast: S01E76 - O PUP foi, outra vez, à FOSDEM!

"Não podíamos deixar de marcar presença na FOSDEM, o segundo melhor evento ligado ao software livre, logo a seguir à Ubucon Europe em Sintra…"

https://podcastubuntuportugal.org/e76/

Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

  • Developer Membership Board: Mon, February 10, 3pm – 4pm
  • Loco Council: Mon, February 10, 8pm – 9pm
  • Kernel Team: Tue, February 11, 5pm – 6pm
  • Ubuntu Women: Tue, February 11, 6pm – 7pm
  • Desktop Team: Tue, February 11, 6:30pm – 7:30pm
  • Technical Board: Tue, February 11, 8pm – 9pm
  • Security Team: Wed, February 12, 5:15pm – 6:00pm
  • Ubuntu Foundations: Thu, February 13, 4pm – 5pm

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

Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04 and 19.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 16.04 Updates

End of Life: April 2021

Ubuntu 18.04 Updates

End of Life: April 2023

Ubuntu 19.10 Updates

End of Life: July 2020

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Archive

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Further News

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Conclusion

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See you next week!

Credits

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Glossary of Terms

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue617 (last edited 2020-02-10 20:03:44 by bashing-om)