Issue676


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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 676 for the week of March 21 - 27, 2021.

In this Issue

  • Hirsute Hippo (21.04) UI Freeze
  • Welcome New Members and Developers
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Hot in Support
  • LoCo Events

  • Mir 2.3.3 Release
  • Canonical & Ubuntu at NVIDIA GTC 2021 Digital

  • KDE Gear 21.04 Apps: Send us Your Features
  • Ubuntu 21.04 Testing Week
  • Ubuntu Cloud News
  • Canonical News
  • In the Press
  • In the Blogosphere
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Meeting Reports
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Hirsute Hippo (21.04) UI Freeze

Lukasz Zemczak tells us that Hirsute Hippo is now in User Interface Freeze. Lukasz provides a link to get details about what this means, and a request to notify the documentation and translation teams of further changes required.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2021-March/001289.html

Welcome New Members and Developers

Congratulations to this contributor!

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 136738 (+44)
  • Critical: 347 (+1)
  • Unconfirmed: 68103 (+63)

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

Translations

  • Ukrainian: 87.85% (39387/1630)
  • German: 86.51% (43738/13)
  • French: 81.17% (61043/6605)
  • Spanish: 80.67% (62671/3835)
  • Swedish: 75.86% (78289/451)

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

Mir 2.3.3 Release

Alan Griffiths announces the release of Mir 2.3.3 with links to the Mir PPAs and source tarball. We are also provided with a summary, and list of bugs fixed in this release.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/mir-2-3-3-release/21505

Canonical & Ubuntu at NVIDIA GTC 2021 Digital

Anastasia Valti Spanopoulou writes about Canonical's sessions at GTC 2021. Canonical featured topics include "Simplifying Kubernetes across the Clouds: MicroK8s on NVIDIA Tech Stack" and "The Power of Micro Clouds, a New Class of Compute for the Edge". Session descriptions highlight usage, providing us with both a summary of the session, and RSVP links should we wish to register for them. [weeklong event starting April 12 at 8:30 a.m. PDT comprising of over 1400 free sessions]

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/canonical-ubuntu-at-nvidia-gtc-2021-digital/21524

The Planet

KDE Gear 21.04 Apps: Send us Your Features

Jonathan Riddell tells us about KDE Gear, the new name for the KDE app bundle (which includes libraries and plugins). Jonathan ends with a reminder that the team is working on 21.04 right now, so if you've a project being released as part of KDE Gear, send in the new features now using the provided merge request.

https://jriddell.org/2021/03/22/kde-gear-21-04-apps-send-us-your-features/

Ubuntu 21.04 Testing Week

Alan Pope reminds us Hirsute Hippo is the code-name for what will become Ubuntu 21.04 upon release on 22 April 2021. We are also reminded that on 1 April the Beta will be released, which marks the start of another 'Ubuntu Testing Week'. Many links are given to Alan's prior testing videos on youtube, plus wiki documentation. Alan mentions the flavors of Ubuntu, and his preference to test flavors he doesn't usually use and why he feels this is so useful. Lots more is covered, with links to where to get help (irc, telegram), where to report testing, and some details on how you can help test.

https://popey.com/blog/2021/03/ubuntu-21.04-testing-week/

See too Alan Pope’s Discourse annunciation:

Interested in the flavors? Related announcements as follows:

Ubuntu Cloud News

Canonical News

In the Press

OpenSSL fixes high-severity flaw that allows hackers to crash servers

Dan Goodin reports on the discovery and patching of a vulnerability, CVE-2021-3449, that causes servers to crash. Dan talks of the role of OpenSSL and past exploits in this open source code library before relating how the attack may be presently implemented. Nokia developers Peter Kästle and Samuel Sapalski provided the fix.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/openssl-fixes-high-severity-flaw-that-allows-hackers-to-crash-servers/

In the Blogosphere

Ubuntu Figuring Out Whether To FSCK Its File-Systems At Boot

Michael Larabel writes that Ubuntu developers are working on fsck at boot time. As it turns out Ubuntu Server and "installations making use of their Curtin installation component" don't currently execute fsck on boot and that is now being re-visited. With some history on the issue, including links to some bugs that have sat dormant a few years but have now been picked up by Ubuntu developers, the issue is being discussed. Many links are provided, including that of Michael Hudson Doyle's discourse thread started for the discussion.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-FSCK-Boot-Q

First Look at Ubuntu Budgie 21.04 on Raspberry Pi 4

Marius Nestor writes about the new Ubuntu Budgie for the Raspberry Pi 4 now in beta. With reminders of the recent official port of Ubuntu Desktop 20.10, Marius notes that whilst Ubuntu MATE already had raspberry pi support, he hopes Ubuntu Budgie is the first of a number of other official flavors providing pi support. With a link to download the beta image, Marius reviews what he found with a summary that it "doesn't disappoint".

https://9to5linux.com/first-look-at-ubuntu-budgie-21-04-on-raspberry-pi-4

GNOME 3.38.5 Released with Support for Handling Monitor Changes During Screencasts

Marius Nestor reports on Michael Catanzaro's announcement that GNOME 3.38.5 is out with "more bug fixes and various improvements". Briefly discussing some of the key changes and bug fixes, we are given links for more details, or to download the official BuildStream project snapshot.

https://9to5linux.com/gnome-3-38-5-released-with-support-for-handling-monitor-changes-during-screencasts

Canonical Releases Another Ubuntu Linux Kernel Security Update to Fix 6 Flaws

Marius Nestor alerts us to new kernels with security fixes released by Canonical for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (using the HWE kernel), Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 20.10. Listing the CVEs that are fixed for the impacted releases and kernels, we are reminded to update our systems as soon as possible.

https://9to5linux.com/canonical-releases-another-ubuntu-linux-kernel-security-update-to-fix-6-flaws

Ubuntu 21.04 Unveils a Hairy New Default Wallpaper

Joey Sneddon lets us view the new Hirsute Hippo mascot and wallpaper. Describing it as "a hunk", he also notes "it has hair! It is literally hirsute!". Color and greyscale images are provided.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/03/ubuntu-21-04-wallpaper

Ubuntu Security Podcast: Episode 109

"This week we look at security updates for containerd, Ruby, the Linux kernel, Pygments and more, plus we cover some open positions within the team as well."

https://ubuntusecuritypodcast.org/episode-109/

Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S14E03 – Tiny Spider Transmitted

"This week we’ve been migrating to Bitwarden and upgrading servers. We round up news from the Ubuntu community, events, and our picks from the tech news."

https://ubuntupodcast.org/2021/03/25/s14e03-tiny-spider-transmitted/

Ubuntu Portugal Podcast: 135 - Cisterna

"Os desafios que os vossos podcasters preferidos têm de ultrapassar para vos entregar semanalmente um episódio foi um dos temas deste episódio. Isso, nextclouds e a OTA-16 do UBPorts!"

https://podcastubuntuportugal.org/e135/

Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

  • Desktop Team: Tue, March 30, 2:30pm – 3:30pm
  • Community Council: Wed, March 31, 11pm – Thu, April 1, 12am
  • Ubuntu Foundations: Thu, April 1, 3pm – 4pm
  • Ubuntu Membership Board: Thu, April 1, 10pm – 11pm
  • Ubuntu 21.04 Beta Freeze: Monday, Mar 29, 2021
  • Ubuntu 21.04 Beta: Thursday, Apr 1, 2021

Times shown are UTC. For more details and farther dates please visit: https://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/

Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 16.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2021

Ubuntu 18.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2023

Ubuntu 20.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2025

Ubuntu 20.10 Updates

End of life: July 2021

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Archive

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Further News

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Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

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Glossary of Terms

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue676 (last edited 2021-03-29 19:37:25 by bashing-om)