The meatspace war with Iran has been spilling into cyberspace as well, and the latest casualty is Canonical. The company behind the ever-popular Ubuntu Linux is in a spot of bother, as the majority of its infrastructure is being hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The attack has reportedly been claimed by Iranian ne'er-do-wells 313 Team, also known as the Islamic Cyber Resistance in Iraq. The attackers requested a virtual meeting with the Canonical staff under threat of continued attacks, but there have been no other public developments.

The most obvious result is that Canonical's, er, canonical Ubuntu download and update mirrors worldwide are sluggish or down entirely, as is the main website. The attack extends to Launchpad, the Snap store, Canonical SSO, and other related services. Thankfully, there are no reports of security compromises affecting package repositories or ISO images, so whichever download spot you find should be safe.

Intentionally or not, this attack comes hot on the heels of the release of Ubuntu 26 LTS, dubbed Resolute Raccoon. As its name and even version number imply, this is a release with an extended support window, meaning it'll be the one installed in servers and workstations worldwide.

Much like yours truly found out yesterday, you may find it difficult to get a hold of Ubuntu 26, package updates, or even the handy WSL2 image. The Linux community is large and spread out, though, so any one of the hundreds of the non-Canonical (pun intended) will suffice. You can find one of the mirrors in the list at launchpad.net; if that link fails to load, you can consult the version on the Wayback Machine here. If you have a torrent client handy, here are the links to the desktop x64 release and the live server x64 version.

Some techies hypothesized that this attack could be related to the disastrous Copy Fail vulnerability, to which most distros, including the extant Ubuntu 24, are vulnerable. That premise is a little shaky, as in the grand scheme of things, just stopping people from updating Ubuntu isn't a world-ender, plus power users and competent sysadmins will apply a workaround or just find a mirror regardless.

The release notes for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS show that Canonical has quietly raised the minimum RAM requirement for its popular Linux-based operating system by 50%. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon), the newest long-term support (LTS) release, requires at least 6GB of precious RAM, alongside a minimum dual-core CPU with a clock speed of 2 GHz, and 25GB of free storage.

The last time that Canonical upped the minimum RAM requirements of its well-known Linux distro was in 2018. That was when Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) arrived, demanding 4GB. Ubuntu LTS RAM requirements had been as low as 1GB for the preceding four years, as established by Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) in 2014. In that context, the latest change in RAM requirements isn’t as big of a shock.

Ubuntu experts at OMG Ubuntu characterize the latest revision in RAM specs as “an honesty bump.” In other words, the core OS isn’t really more demanding on system resources this time around, but Canonical recognizes that with the latest Gnome desktop, modern web browsers, and typical multitasking workflows, users should look at a minimum of 6GB of RAM.

Key apps like Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, and the GIMP are all updated in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Moreover, the Gnome desktop has been upgraded from version 46 to 50, and there are a host of underlying changes.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS doesn’t make 6GB a hard requirement. The OS will still install on systems that don’t match the new spec. But obviously, users shouldn’t complain about Ubuntu’s poor performance on systems with lower memory quotas. OMG Ubuntu actually tested 26.04 (Beta) on a laptop with 2GB of RAM and noted it was functional but slow.

In the Linux world, there are plenty of alternatives

No one likes to see minimum system specs rise, especially during component shortages directly affecting potential upgrades. But progress must march on, and if this revision is indeed just for ‘honesty’ regarding usability with modern apps, then it is difficult to argue against the update.

If you are someone who would have installed Ubuntu LTS, and perhaps you were intending to do so on a machine constrained by a maximum of 4GB of RAM, remember that alternatives are readily available. Even within the ‘Ubuntu family,’ there is Lubuntu, a lightweight and efficient distillation of Ubuntu. This ‘essentials remix’ of Ubuntu is only up to 24.04 LTS right now but requires just 1GB of RAM, as well as a 1GHz CPU and a smidgen under 10GB of storage.

Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distros, has received some noteworthy gaming performance upgrades with the latest version 26.04. Phoronix tested Ubuntu 26.04 against 25.10 and found gaming performance improvements as great as 12%, depending on the title.

The Linux-focused outlet tested the two Ubuntu versions with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, RTX 5090, and RTX 5080. All the tests were conducted on the Nvidia 590.48.01 Linux driver. Game and benchmarks featured Counter-Strike 2, Dirt Rally 2.0, Batman: Arkham Knight, Hitman 3, Strange Brigade, GravityMark, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, Unigine Heaven 4.0, GPUScore: Breaking Limit 1.0, Tesseract, and Xonotic 0.8.6.

The first few games showed minor improvements (if any) with Ubuntu 26.04. Counter-Strike 2 was 8% faster with 26.04 on the RTX 5090, but achieved performance parity with 25.10 on the RTX 5080. Dirt Rally 2.0 saw the same thing on both the 5090 and 5080. Batman: Arkham Knight saw a 3% performance improvement on the RTX 5090 with 26.04 and none on the 5080.

Hitman 3 saw some noteworthy gains for the RTX 5090 of 11% on the RTX 5090 and Ubuntu 26.04, but just 4% on the RTX 5080. Strange Brigade showed identical performance on both GPUs with both Linux versions. GravityMark saw a 5% performance upgrade on the RTX 5090 in 26.04, and 3DMark WildLife Extreme saw a 6% improvement on the RTX 5090 with 26.04, but none on the 5080. 3DMark Solar Bay also achieved performance parity on both GPUs on both Ubuntu versions.

Unigine Heaven 4.0 saw a 2% advantage for the RTX 5090 with 26.10, but no improvement on the RTX 5080. Similarly, GPUScore: Breaking Limit 1.0 saw only a 3% advantage for the RTX 5090 with 26.10 and none for the 5080. Tesseract saw a 5% improvement in 26.10 with the 5090 only, and Xonotic saw up to a 10% improvement only on the 5090 as well. Overall, Phoronix saw a 4.4% performance improvement with Ubuntu 26.04 compared to 25.10 on the RTX 5090.

Ubuntu 26.04 is loaded with changes under the hood that contribute to its better gaming performance; it's the first Ubuntu OS to feature Mesa 26, which comes with a load of performance optimizations and bug fixes. Notably, it features ray tracing optimizations for Vulkan. Ubuntu 26.04 also comes with Gnome 50, which has seen a plethora of optimizations, upgrades, and fixes as well. Specifically on the Nvidia side, Gnome 50 comes with various workarounds (according to Phoronix) that unlock extra performance from Nvidia's Linux 580-series drivers.

The only disappointing aspect of this release is that the aforementioned performance improvements appear to only be beneficial on the fastest GPU hardware available, the RTX 5090. It's likely that other Nvidia cards, such as the RTX 5070 Ti and lower, will benefit even less from these optimizations.

Bolt Graphics' Zeus GPUs have slowly but surely been generating hype ever since the startup first announced its RISC-V GPUs in March. With its 2026 hardware launch steadily approaching, Bolt made a surprise appearance at the Ubuntu Summit 25.10 this week to talk about the software stack enabling its over-the-top hardware performance claims of being 13 times faster than Nvidia's RTX 5090.

Antonio Salvemini, Director of Graphics Engineering at Bolt Graphics, presented a talk entitled "Beyond the Silicon: Redefining GPU Innovation Through Software and Methodology" at the Summit. Salvemini talked extensively about Bolt Graphics' primary focus on path tracing, a graphics technology used primarily in the animation and film VFX worlds.

Path tracing is a step beyond ray tracing, but both rendering technologies have been an integral part of the Hollywood VFX pipeline for years and have only entered the consumer and gamer conversations in the current decade. The Zeus line of GPUs is being advertised, especially at the Ubuntu Summit, to be a way for visual effects artists to render path-tracing visuals in real-time.

"The problem with ray tracing is that each light wave only bounces one way," said Salvemini in his talk. "In path tracing, they can bounce anywhere, and you randomly select just some of these paths to display." Path tracing traces light beams in reverse order, from the digital camera back along its exact path, bouncing from object to object, until it returns to the light source it would radiate from, creating a hyper-realistic light simulation only within the bounds of what the "camera" can see, reducing graphical overhead greatly.

Salvemini highlighted the Zeus team's use of Intel's Open Image Denoise open-source library for denoising ray- and path-traced images and the MaterialX open standard for shaders and textures as key parts of the Zeus pipeline for achieving path-tracing performance that is 13 times faster than the RTX 5090, according to Bolt's own internal benchmarks.

The Zeus GPUs are built with a multi-chiplet RISC-V design on the RVA23 profile, and will be some of the first consumer chips on the new profile. The RISC-V open standard ISA has been traditionally used for lower-lift hardware such as MCUs and microcontrollers, making Bolt Graphics some of the frontrunners in taking the ISA into the consumer and professional CPU/GPU realms.

The company's choice to present at the Ubuntu Summit 25.10 was likely due to a goal to break into the Hollywood VFX and animation market. The Motion Picture Academy and Dreamworks have both hosted talks at Ubuntu Summits before, both discussing motion picture software. Bolt's own promotional materials for the Zeus line have heavily pandered to animation giants like Disney and Lucasfilm in the past. And Bolt Graphics is certainly not targeting the saturated AI or gaming markets with the Zeus line, as not a single mention of the "AI" acronym can be found anywhere on the company's website FAQ.

Bolt Graphics's Zeus line of GPUs has a chance to shift the future of computer graphics and RISC-V forever if it finds success; rapidly accelerating VFX pipelines and majorly heightening the profile of RISC-V would both be major wins attributable to the startup. For our original deep dive into the spec sheets of all four Zeus GPUs, check that out right here.

It scares me to say this, but I have been using Linux for a quarter of a century! Long before the Raspberry Pi was my main hobby, installing Linux on a myriad of devices was my jam. From the early days, when an AMD K6-2 333 and 128MB RAM powered my initial exploration of the world of Unix and Linux, to today, which sees Linux running on my Ryzen 5600X system, a Raspberry Pi laptop, and my beloved Steam Deck.

In those 25 years, I have tried many different Linux distributions; in fact, here is a list of distros that I have used over the years. This list is not exhaustive, because I reviewed a lot of Linux distros for Linux Format magazine.

• Corel Linux
• Mandrake Linux (Mandriva)
• Open Suse / Suse Linux
• Ubuntu (2006 onwards)
• Debian
• Crunchbang Linux (Debian)
• Fedora
• Manjaro
• Arch
• MX Linux
• Bodhi
• Raspberry Pi OS
• Armbian
• DietPi
• AnduinOS
• Bazzite
• CachyOS
• Linux Mint
• ZorinOS

The keen-eyed amongst you will spot that the majority of these distros are Debian-based. Yes, I prefer Debian-based distros, chiefly because I know apt rather well. But I can confidently use Fedora, or Arch (Aur) based systems too. So with all this confidence, why do I keep coming back to Ubuntu? Well, it boils down to a few reasons.

Ubuntu “just works”

I’ve run Ubuntu on everything that I could. My laptops all ran it, something called an O2 Joggler (a rebranded OpenPeak device), which was a photo frame with an early Intel Atom CPU, also ran Ubuntu.

My Asus eeePC ran it for a short while, until I moved to Cruncheee, a version of Crunchbang Linux (Debian) for the eeePC. What links all of these devices is that Ubuntu just works. Sure, in the early days, some Wi-Fi cards and obscure hardware forced me to tinker in the terminal, but in recent years, I’ve not had to delve into the terminal to fix a critical issue. For newcomers and those who prize reliability over the “bleeding edge”, Ubuntu is hard to beat. I can drop my nearly 70-year-old dad in front of Ubuntu, and he can use it easily. It just works.

Ease of use, no matter your level of knowledge

That leads me nicely into this section, and Ubuntu’s ease of use spans the gamut of users.

Linux is often seen as the difficult and, dare I say, “nerdy” OS choice, and typically those attracted to Linux are more computer-savvy than others. However, Linux is open to everyone. Ubuntu is proof of that. From my perspective, Ubuntu offers the ease of use that macOS provides, but without the walled garden that Apple promotes. Ubuntu is free, and it works on older hardware. The installation process has been streamlined, particularly over the last couple of years, with a redesign and tweaks to reduce friction for new users.

I recall installing Corel Linux and Mandrake Linux (now known as Mandriva) back in the early 2000s. They both had a great installer for the time. Remember, this was a time when the installer would scrutinize your system and ask you to make every decision along the way (including writing a custom X.org file), which would scare some from trying. I mention Corel Linux (a Debian-based distro) because that was the first Linux distro that worked for me. The installer felt, dare I say it? More Windows than Linux, and for someone moving over, it was easier to use.

Corl Linux was great fun, and the CDE (a variant of KDE) user interface was similar to Windows of that era, so not too much for me to learn. Corel Linux just gave me a basic install, not too many apps to choose from, but enough. Unlike the time that I downloaded Mandrake Linux (two days to download two CDs!) and chose to install everything. The app menus were rammed full of stuff that I had no idea about.

I loved Mandrake Linux. It felt great and worked well on the hardware of the era. However, I tried a few out, and some, like the KDE CD burning tool K3B, stuck and became a favorite.

The choice of flavors

Linux, at its most basic level, is all about “choice.” You can choose your distro, your window manager, desktop, apps, and more. Where Ubuntu, well, actually the Ubuntu community, does things a little differently is in the flavors of the OS. Each flavor, be it official or community-maintained, has “buntu” in its name.

This makes them easily identifiable to the end user. Sure, there are other distros based on Ubuntu that put their own name and spin on things (Pop! OS springs to mind), but the above list are the Ubuntu distros that many think of. I’ve also placed some suggested use cases for each distro, but ultimately that choice lies with you.

If I wished, I could install Ubuntu and then install another desktop environment, all via the software center or the terminal. In the past, I used to install Ubuntu and then install KDE. Now I just install Kubuntu and enjoy the KDE Plasma user interface.

Great documentation

Good documentation is what every project needs, and Ubuntu sets a high standard for documentation. If you were to Google “How can I change directory in a Linux terminal?”, chances are that you will get an answer that refers to Ubuntu. Either a direct Canonical / Ubuntu-backed document or something from a forum post. Ubuntu has been around so long now that it permeates the search results. Raspberry Pi is also doing the same thing, which I love to see!

The official Ubuntu documentation is excellent and covers trivial and technical issues with clarity. However, the unofficial documentation is also top-notch and provides knowledge for those uncommon issues, particularly when using applications not provided by Ubuntu.

As somebody who has over a decade of experience writing and editing technical documentation and tutorials, I really appreciate good documentation.

“You’re just an Ubuntu fanboy!”

I’ll support any cause that aims to open up computing to everyone. Free/libre software has proven itself to be used in science (NASA, CERN, ESA), technology (waving arms around to mime “Internet”), entertainment, etc. Why pay for an operating system when you can get a great one for free?

My recent Bazzite experiment has proven to me that Linux is now a capable gaming platform, and yes, I already own a Steam Deck, so I should’ve realised. But using a 4060Ti and 12th-gen Intel system to game is a bit different from what the Steam Deck can offer, and it has a bigger impact.

Digging into my personal history with Ubuntu, and in the early 2010s, I ran installfests at locations as diverse as Barcamp Blackpool, Oggcamp, and a disused paint warehouse in the center of Liverpool. I also co-created UCubed, an Ubuntu-centric unconference which later became the genesis for the Raspberry Jam movement, thanks to Alan O’Donohoe, who used UCubed as a template for the worldwide Jam movement.

Nobody at Canonical paid or asked me to do that. I felt that, after using Ubuntu for many years and being part of a larger tech community that included numerous software developers and system administrators, I had to give something back.

Wrapping Up

You may not agree with me, heck, I love that you will probably comment about “Why distro X is better than Y!” and “GNOME sucks, I use Openbox!” but this is just my opinion, based on experience and life events that have ultimately shaped how I use Linux. Your journey will be different, and so will your choices. I respect them all and urge you to continue your Linux journey.

Deleting directories and files is one of the most basic, but important functions in any operating system. In Linux, if you have a windowed environment running, you can locate and delete files using a file manager application. Perhaps you’re logging in remotely via SSH, your Linux computer doesn’t have a GUI installed or you want to have more control over what you’re deleting. As with anything in Linux, there are many reasons why it might be necessary or preferable to delete directories or files via the command line.

In this how-to, we’ll look at the rm command which removes directories and files. We’ll look at the basics of the command and how it can be used to remove both files and directories and we’ll also look at a few other enhancements to get the most out of this command. If you want to change your file’s location instead, you should check out our article on how to move and rename files in Linux.

Of course, as this how-to is about deleting directories and files, you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions, and whilst you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example empty files and directories.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt, and t or via the Applications menu.

How to Delete a File in Linux

Let’s start simply by removing a single file. The command syntax is structured as follows.

rm 

1. Create a new file called test1.txt

 touch test1.txt

2. List the contents of the directory to make sure if the file has been created. You should now see the file test1.txt.

 ls

3. Delete the test file. Deleting a file or folder is permanent. There is no recycle bin which can save us from an erroneous keystroke.

 rm test1.txt

4. Re list the contents of the directory to check the file has been removed. You should see that test1.txt is no longer listed.

 ls

How to Delete a Directory in Linux

Let’s run through a similar example to show that rm can be used to delete a directory containing files. For these examples, we will use two extra arguments -r and -i.

1. Create an empty directory. From your home directory create an empty directory.

 mkdir test_directory

2. Move into the new directory.

 cd test_directory

3. Create two test files within the directory

 touch test1.txt test2.txt

4. List the directory contents to check the files are created. You should see the files test1.txt and test2.txt are now listed.

 ls

5. Move back to the home directory

 cd ~

6. Delete the directory. To delete this directory we need to use the -r argument. The -r argument acts recursively to enter the directory and check for and delete any files within. Once empty the command returns to delete the directory it has just cleared.

 rm -r test_directory

7. Check the directory has been removed. You should see that test_directory has been removed from the list.

 ls

8. Repeat the above steps 1 to 5 to create the test directory and files.

9. Repeat the -r argument but add -i argument to interactively delete the files and directory. It can be hard to imagine what the -r argument is doing. The -i argument forces the deletion process to ask for confirmation (interactive) of each deletion.Type “y” and click enter to confirm each step.

 rm -ri test_directory

How to Delete a Write-Protected File in Linux

Occasionally you may need to delete files in Linux that are write protected. If you use the standard rm command it will ask you to confirm if you want to remove each protected file. For this we can use the -f force argument to help. This essentially forces the rm command to force-ably delete any directories and files so you need to be extra careful when using these commands as it won’t ask for any confirmation.

1. Create a test file called test1.txt

 touch test1.txt

2. Change the file permissions so that only the user and the group they belong to can delete the file.

 chmod u-w test1.txt chmod g-w test1.txt

3. Try to delete the file using the standard rm command. When you use the standard rm command you should be prompted to confirm if you want to delete the test1.txt file. Click n for “no” this time. If you had a directory with hundreds of protected files you would have to confirm each one with a y which would be incredibly time wasting.

 rm test1.txt

4. Delete the file using the -f argument. Running this command with -f argument forces the command to delete the file and does not ask for confirmation. Use with care!

 rm -f test1.txt

These commands are incredibly powerful, simple to use and can make deletion tasks really straightforward to achieve. You may have seen jokes online about extremely dangerous versions of this command such as sudo rm -rf / and you may have new insight via this article of why that might be so dangerous.

You can spot that we are giving the command root privileges and using the force and recursive arguments to essentially send the command to remove all the files on a system!

Your Linux distro already comes with a great package manager but sometimes you need applications that aren’t available via the official repositories.

Third party applications, such as Google Chrome, Slack, Zoom, Visual Studio Code are provided by their respective publishers. For Debian and Ubuntu systems these are provided as Debian package files (.deb) and for Fedora / Red Hat as RPM packages. These packages can be installed using your preferred OS GUI package manager, or they can be installed using a command line tool. But what if we had a tool which handled downloading, installing, upgrading and removing these third-party packages for us?

Deb-get, from Martin Wimpress is “a high-level command line interface for the package management system to easily install and update packages published in 3rd party apt

repositories or via direct download.” With deb-get we can download and install third party packages without leaving the terminal.

How can we use deb-get and what applications are available? Let's find out.

We tested the process on two machines, a laptop running Ubuntu and a desktop running Kubuntu.

Not every Ubuntu or Debian release is supported, but if you are running any of the following, you are good.

• Debian
  • Buster (10)
  • Bullseye (11)
  • Bookworm (12)
  • Trixie (13)
  • Forky (14)
  • Sid (Unstable)
• Ubuntu
  • 20.04
  • 22.04
  • 24.04
  • 24.10
  • 25.04
  • 25.10

The installation process for deb-get uses, deb-get. We download a copy of the application from Wimpress’ Github repository and then run the command to install it onto our system.

1. Open a terminal and update the software repositories list. This enables our machine to install the latest software from the software repositories.

sudo apt update

2. Install the curl application.

sudo apt install curl

Curl is used to download the deb-get application from the Github repository. It is highly likely that your version of curl is up-to-date, but it is always best to check.

3. Use curl to download deb-get to your machine, then run the installation using sudo.

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wimpysworld/deb-get/main/deb-get | sudo -E bash -s install deb-get

How-to Use deb-get

Behaving in much the same way as apt and apt-get, deb-get has a similar set of commands to manage applications on our machine.

We start by installing an application, after consulting the list of supported software we chose to install Microsoft’s Edge web browser for Linux.

1. Open a terminal and update the deb-get package index files. This is essentially the same as our software repositories list.

sudo deb-get update

2. Use deb-get with the install argument to download the latest stable version of Microsoft Edge for Linux. Remember to consult the support software list to get the name of the application that you wish to install.

sudo deb-get install microsoft-edge-stable

We can update all of the applications installed via deb-get via one command. It will even catch supported applications installed before deb-get has been installed. The application upgraded Zoom and Raspberry Pi Imager, both of which were installed before we installed deb-get.

sudo deb-get upgrade

To search for a particular application, we can use the search argument. For example, here is the command to search for Firefox. Note that the output shows the name that we should use for installation.

sudo deb-get search firefox

To show all of the applications that can be installed via deb-get we used the list argument.

sudo deb-get list

To remove an application, we have two choices. The first is that we can perform a standard uninstall that will remove just the application. However, this leaves any user-generated configuration files in their respective directories.

sudo deb-get remove 

Secondly, if we wish to fully purge the application and any configuration files, then we can use the purge argument.

sudo deb-get purge 

To clean out your local repository of downloaded installation files we can use the clean argument. This command is generally used for housekeeping, ensuring that your system is kept tidy and that unwanted files are removed.

sudo deb-get clean

Deb-get is a remarkably useful tool to add to our Ubuntu installations. It makes short work of installing the software that we know and love, software that is either not available, or much older in the official repositories.

Related Tutorials

• How To Check Disk Usage in Linux
• How To Kill a Process in Linux
• How To Find Files in Linux

On many Linux systems the boot process sees the usual BIOS screen, followed by Grub. The Grand Unified Bootloader (Grub) takes over from our BIOS and offers the user a choice of OS options and kernel choices. Typically we just press Enter or wait for Grub to disappear. Grub is utilitarian, it does the job and doesn’t care how it looks. But what if we could add a little flair to our boot process?

Grub Customizer, by Daniel Richter, is a GUI based application for easy configuration of Grub. Rather than manually editing text files we can easily edit and preview our changes before committing them to the system.

In this how to, we shall create a custom Grub background image using Grub Customizer and a PNG / JPEG image.

Making any changes to your Grub configuration is dangerous, and could result in a non-booting system. Before attempting these steps, ensure that your system is backed up.

For this project you will need

• A computer running Ubuntu

Installing Grub Customizer 

1. Open a terminal and add the Grub Customizer PPA to your list of repositories. A Personal Package Archive (PPA) is a software repository created for Ubuntu users to share pre-release software. Most PPAs are trustworthy. If in any doubt do not install, and read the source code before moving forwards.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

2. Update your list of repositories. This is always best practice before installing new software.

sudo apt update

3. Install Grub Customizer using the apt packaging tool.

sudo apt install grub-customizer

Using Grub Customizer

1. Click on Show Applications (3 x 3 grid of squares) to open the main menu.

2. Click on Grub Optimizer. You will be prompted to enter your sudo password, this is required as we are making changes that will be applied system-wide.

3. Click on Appearance settings. Under List configuration, we can alter the list of available OS choices presented on boot. Change their names, create sub-menus etc. General settings provides options to automatically select an OS, pass kernel parameters and delays to the boot. Only alter these settings if you know what you are doing.

4. Click on Background image.

5. Click on + Other Locations and navigate to the directory with your images. Because we opened Grub Customizer using sudo / root powers, our “home” folder is that of the root user. A PNG or JPEG image at your monitor's default resolution is preferred.

6. With the background image now set, click on Save to write the changes.

7. Click on Advanced Settings. This will open a menu containing extra Grub configuration steps.

8. Set GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE to “menu”, and set GRUB_TIMEOUT to “10”, click Close and then Save the changes. This ensures that the Grub menu is displayed, and if we do not touch the keyboard, the system will default boot in 10 seconds.

9. Reboot your computer, wait for the Grub menu to appear and then check that your background image loads correctly. If the image fails to load, repeat the previous steps and check the image file format.

More Linux Tutorials

• How to Use Nohup to Run Linux Scripts Unattended
• How To Find Large Files on Linux
• How to Use SSH to Connect to Remote Computers Using Windows, Linux or macOS

Compressing files is a quick and easy way to archive and group files. There are many occasions where archives are useful, a driver download, file backup or Linux distro download. In this how-to we’ll look at various commands to create and extract data from compressed and uncompressed archive files.

Whilst you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example test files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

Working with TAR archives

When using Linux systems you are likely to come across tar archives as well as ZIP archives. It’s useful to practice creating .tar archives and also how to extract from a tar archive. Also of note is that sometimes TAR archives are referred to as tarballs. Tar archives in their standard form have the .tar suffix but these archives are not compressed. Compression is added using different tar compression tools which is why you will see tar archives with extra suffixes such as .tar.xz or .tar.gz.

To create or extract from these compressed archives you need additional arguments added to the tar command. We’re going to use two of the most popular compression methods, gzip and bzip2 along with a tar archive that has no compression.

Using a TAR archive

1. Open a new terminal window. This will open to our home directory.

2. Create a .tar file. Using test_directory as a target we’ll make a standard uncompressed .tar archive. This kind of archive is useful to group small files, such as logs into a single archive.

$tar cf test_archive.tar test_directory

Extracting TAR archives is straightforward. Instead of adding the c argument to create an archive we replace it with the x argument. We again need to add arguments that respond to the type of compression tool the archive was created with. When we extract from our 3 archives we would be creating duplicates of the test_directory contents so we will delete this directory each time we extract the next archive.

1. Delete the test_directory folder.

rm -r test_directory

2. Extract the standard .tar archive. After extracting the archive use ls to check the archive has been extracted.

tar xf test_archive.tarls

Using Gzip Compressed TAR Files

A gzip compressed tar archive (tar.gz) is one of many popular compression tools for TAR archives and it is common to find a .

1. Create a gzip archive by adding the z argument to the tar command.

tar czf test_archive.tar.gz test_directory

To extract a gzip compressed tar archive we need to add the z argument to identify that the archive uses the gzip compression method.

2. Delete the test_directory folder.

rm -r test_directory

3. Extract the gzip compressed tar archive using the z argument. Then list the directory contents to show that test_directory has been created.

tar xzf test_archive.tar.gzls

Using Bzip2 Compressed TAR Files

Another alternative compression method for a tar archive is bzip2, which is invoked using the j argument. Archives typically end with either a tar.bz2 or tbz suffix.

1. Create a bzip2 archive by adding the j argument to the tar command.

tar cjf test_archive.tar.bzip2 test_directory

To extract a bzip2 compressed tar archive we need to add the z argument to identify that the archive uses the gzip compression method.

2. Delete the test_directory folder.

rm -r test_directory

3. Extract the bzip2 compressed tar archive.

tar xf test_archive.tar.bzip2lsrm -r test_directory

Extract TAR Archives to a Specific Location

If we wish to extract an archive to a specific location we can use the C argument with the tar command and then specify the location. The location can be a relative or absolute path. So we can extract the archive to a sub directory inside a current directory, or we can specify the full path to another location in the file system.

Extract test_archive.tar into the Music directory. Here we are in the Home directory, and most Linux distributions feature a Music directory which we can extract the archive to.

tar xfC test_archive.tar Musiccd Musicls

To extract to another location in the file system it is best practice to use an absolute path.

Extract test_archive.tar to your desktop directory. Specify the full path, tab completion can be used to auto-complete directory names. Remember to change to match your own.

tar xfC test_archive.tar /home//Desktop/cd /home//Desktop/ls

Armed with these few examples you are now capable of extracting most common archives on the command line. Whilst GUI tool options exist for some archives, often when dealing with a compressed .tar archives, these terminal commands are much quicker and easier to perform.

User management may not sound like the most glamorous task, but nonetheless it is an essential part of a busy system administrator's job. Creating new users, be they your family, friends or co-workers involves giving them the correct permissions, and managing what they can do. All of this can be done via the GUI and the terminal and in this how to we will show how.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi.
Some of this how-to is performed via the terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t. When working through this how-to take extra care when you have multiple users set up that you are selecting and deleting the correct user accounts!

Add A New Linux User Via the GUI

For most, user management via the desktop is more than sufficient and thankfully most Linux distros have this down to a tee.

To add a user via the GUI

1. Open the settings application, scroll down the list and select the users tab.

2. Click on the unlock button and enter your password. Editing these settings requires us to unlock them via a password. This helps to avoid accidents when working with user accounts.

3. Click the Add User button to open a new dialog box.

4. Add the new user's name. The tool will suggest a username, but you are free to change this. You can either add a password for that user at this stage or you can allow the user to set their own password when they first log in. When done, click Add to save. You will be prompted for your password to confirm the creation of this user.

5. Optional step: Give users additional privileges by clicking the administrator tab as you create the new user, or by toggling the administrator button if the user account is already created.

6. Log off and switch users to the new user account. You should notice that they have their own Home directory and that any applications will use the configuration settings for that user.

Deleting a Linux User Via the GUI

Making sure that user accounts are deleted is good housekeeping. It removes unnecessary files, and more importantly it removes their access.

Using the same GUI application we can delete the user Zainab from our test installation.

1. Open the settings application, scroll down the list and select the users tab.

2. Click on the unlock button and enter your password. Editing these settings requires us to unlock them via a password. This helps to avoid accidental user deletions from your system.

3. Select the user account you wish to remove and click the Remove user button. Note that if that user is currently logged in you will get a warning that deleting a user whilst logged in may create issues.

4. Click Delete Files b to remove the user's Home directory. If you haven’t yet backed up the files, click on Keep Files.

Adding a User Via the Linux Terminal

The GUI is great but sometimes we need to get our hands dirty in the terminal and from here we can easily manage users. An aspiring system administrator and a Bash script can even automate the process. Adding a user to the system using the command line interface within a terminal is straightforward.

In the following example we have used sudo at the beginning of commands as they require root or sudo privileges in order to run. If you are logged in as root you don’t need to add sudo to these commands.

1. Add a new user using the adduser command. When prompted enter your password to confirm that you have sudo privileges. The new username must be lowercase.

2. Create a password and user details for the new user account. You don’t need to complete every piece of information.You can leave them empty by pressing the Enter key to skip them.

3. Confirm the new user information by typing y and then press Enter. Should there be an error you can type n to cancel the operation.

sudo adduser jamal

Adding a User to A Group via the Linux Terminal

Group memberships are used to ensure that multiple users in a group have basic permissions and privileges. Using groups we can ensure that users in a group have these basic permissions without the need to individually assign permissions to them.

1. Open a terminal.

2. Add the new user to the sudo group using the usermod command. The usermod command has two arguments. The first is -a and this appends the user. The G argument requires the name of the group(s) to which the user should be added.

sudo usermod -aG sudo 

Deleting a User Via the Linux Terminal

Deleting a user account using the command line interface is straightforward. Similar to previous adding a user example, we need to use sudo or be logged in as root to perform these operations.

1. Use the deluser command with the –remove-home argument to remove a user and their home directory. Similar to adding a user with adduser we can use deluser to remove user accounts. Adding the --remove-home arguments removes the user's home directory and deletes all of their files.

sudo deluser –remove-home 

2. Use deluser to delete a user without deleting their home directory. Occasionally we may need to remove a user without deleting their home directory and files. To do this you simply run the deluser command without any arguments added.

sudo deluser 

Between the GUI tools and the command line interface you now have a good collection of basic approaches to manage user accounts, their file contents and group access on most Linux systems.

Related Tutorials

• How To Check Disk Usage in Linux
• How To Kill a Process in Linux
• How To Find Files in Linux

In this how-to we’ll look at various ways of using the terminal emulator to identify processes and how to kill them. A process can be an application or script running on your Linux machine. Sometimes a process can crash or become a memory hog and this is when we need to step in and “kill” the process. As ever, there are a multitude of tools that we can use to do this. We will use a variety of approaches and tools to identify and kill the processes.

While you become accustomed to these commands, it’s important to take care that you don’t kill a process which results in you losing work. Wherever possible use an application that isn’t currently in use on your machine as an example of a process to kill.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used a Ubuntu 20.04 install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

How to Kill a Known Application in Linux 

To begin, let's open a software application and then, in the terminal, use the killall command to kill the application. We have used Inkscape, the free and open source vector graphics package as an example, but it doesn’t really matter what you use, just so long as you aren’t depending on it for anything at the current time.

Using the killall command kills all processes linked to the named application. Later we will look at using the kill command to kill a specific process.

1. Launch Inkscape, or another test application, from the system gui.

2. In the terminal, use the killall command to kill all Inkscape processes. You should see that Inkscape closes immediately when this command is issued.

killall inkscape

Identifying Different Processes in Linux

Often, software applications have numerous processes running and it can be useful to try and work out which one is likely causing the problem. For example, it could be one browser window rather than all of Chromium or Firefox.Then you can close the problematic process while leaving the rest of the app running. We can use the top tool in the terminal to look at, interact and then kill the rogue processes.

1. Launch the top tool in the terminal. When it’s launched, you will see the terminal populate with information regarding all the processes and their status. The second line of the top screen shows the total number of tasks, which are currently running and which are sleeping, stopped or zombie status. Below this you will see a list of processes and this information will refresh at a default of once every three seconds.

top

2. Press i to constrain the current processes list to those currently active. This can be very useful if you are only interested in current running processes and makes the list easier to read.

3. Press z to add color to the top interface to make it easier to read. Because this is a text based interface, adding color can help distinguish between labels and data.

4. Launch Inkscape or another non essential application.

5. Find the listing for Inkscape and note the PID. The PID is the number assigned to identify the process and they are listed in the first column of the top output. In our example the PID for inkscape was 4582 but it will be different each time Inkscape is running.

6. Press k and then type the PID number to kill the process.

7. Press ENTER and you should see a message “Send pid 4582 signal [15/sigterm]” which is confirming you want to kill this process. Press “enter” once more to confirm and kill the process.

8. Press q to close top and return to the terminal emulator. Often, you will want to look at top for a quick glimpse at the processes and then return to the terminal.

Killing an Individual Process Outside of top

Occasionally you might want to kill an individual process outside of top. We can use the PID number found via top in combination with the kill command to do this. Note that the killall command we used earlier won’t work with an individual PID.

1. Launch Inkscape or another application. The choice of application doesn’t really matter, just make sure you aren’t working in the application.

2. Launch top in the terminal. Press i and z to constrain the results and add color to the top theme.

top

3. Identify and note the PID for the application to kill. In our example the PID for Inkscape was 4582.

4. Exit top by pressing q.

5. Use the kill command and the PID number to kill the Inkscape process from the terminal emulator. Replace the example PID value below with your own identified PID.

kill 4582

Using top provides an excellent set of detective tools to identify misbehaving processes and can often allow you to clinically close an unresponsive process whilst possibly saving other data in an application.

Killing Processes Using the ps Process Report

There is an alternative to top. We can use the ps command, designed to produce a report of all the running processes.

1. Launch Inkscape or another application. The choice of application doesn’t really matter, just make sure you aren’t working in the application.

2. Run the ps command with two arguments. The -e argument shows all the processes and the -f argument sets the format to the system standard syntax.

ps -ef

3. Use grep to filter the report. searching just for “inkscape”. The typical ps -ef output is extremely dense, packed with dozens of running processes. Using a filter we can search for the application name. The PID is the second column, just after the username. You may see multiple PIDs for the application.The one that we are interested in just shows the application name.

ps -ef | grep inkscape

4. Use the kill command along with the PID to kill the process. In our case Inkscape had a PID of 19166.

kill 19166

Process management is a key Linux skill to learn and it’s worth taking the time to practice these approaches before you need to deploy them in a real situation.

Copying files and directories in the Linux terminal is really efficient and straightforward once you know how to do it. It’s useful when we need to manage our files and directories without the need for a GUI, for example in a BASH script. We can do this whether we are at our desk or if we are accessing a machine remotely via SSH.

In this how-to we’ll look at the cp command which copies files and directories. We’ll look at some arguments that we can add to get the most out of this command.

While you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example empty files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

How to Copy a Single File in Linux

Let’s start really simply by copying a single file. The command syntax is structured as follows.

cp  

1. Create a new file called test1.txt.

touch test1.txt

2. List the contents of the directory to check if the file has been created. You should now see the file test1.txt.

ls

3. Copy the test1.txt file and rename it to test2.txt. This copies the item into the same directory as the original but into a new file.

cp test1.txt test2.txt

4. List the contents of the directory to check the file has been copied and renamed. You should see that the original file test1.txt is listed and the copied file test2.txt is listed.

ls

How to Copy a Directory in Linux

Let’s run through a similar example to show that cp can be used to copy a directory by using the -r argument. Though we have used an empty directory as an example, any directory contents would also be copied to the new directory using this argument.

1. Create an empty directory in your home directory.

mkdir test_directory

2. Copy and rename the new directory.

cp -r test_directory test_directory_2

3. List the directory contents to check the copied directory is created. You should see the directories test_directory and test_directory_2 listed.

ls

How to Copy Files to a Different Location in Linux

For the next example let’s look at copying a file to a different location.

1. Create an empty directory in your home directory.

mkdir test_directory

2. Create a test file in your home directory.

touch test1.txt

3. Copy the test file from the home directory into the test directory. This copies test1.txt from the home directory into test_directory.

$ cp test1.txt test_directory

4. Check the file has been copied correctly by changing directory to test_directory and listing the contents.

cd test_directoryls

How to Copy Files to and From Directories While Renaming Them

If you know the location of a file and the target location you want to copy the file to, you don’t need to move into the directories directly and you can run the cp command from the home directory. Here’s an example of how it could be done.

1. Create 2 empty directories. From the home directory run the following command to create two new directories.

mkdir folder1 folder2

2. Move inside folder1 and make a test file called test1.txt.

cd folder1touch test1.txt

3. Return to the home directory.

cd

4. Copy and rename the test file from the home directory. We can supply the cp command with the name and location of the target file to copy and where to copy the file, renaming it to test2.txt along the way.

cp folder1/test1.txt folder2/test2.txt

5. Check that the file has been copied correctly by changing directory to folder2 and listing the contents. Use cd to change directory and ls to check the file copied correctly. You should see test2.txt listed inside folder2.

cd folder2ls

How to Copy a File to a Parent Directory

As you move through directories you may need to occasionally copy a file to the parent directory of a current location. This can be achieved without having to type long directory locations into a command by using .. to target the parent directory. Here’s how.

1. Create a test directory using mkdir.

mkdir test_directory

2. Move into test_directory.

cd test_directory

3. Create a test file inside test_directory.

touch test1.txt

4. Copy test1.txt to the parent directory. Here we simply add .. to the cp command to create a copy of test1.txt into the parent directory of the current location.

cp test1.txt ..

5. Move to the parent directory and check if the file has been copied. You should see that test1.txt is now listed at this location.

cdls

As you can see the cp command is very simple to use but is very capable and, with a little practice, it’s often much quicker to be able to surgically copy and rename files using cp than using graphical interface tools.

In this how-to, we’ll look at various ways of using the find command to help us find files and directories across the Linux filesystem. Sometimes we misplace a file or directory and we can spend precious time searching via the terminal. On the Linux desktop, the file manager will have a builtin search tool, as does the terminal. The find command is immensely useful, and exceptionally easy to use.

Whilst you become accustomed to these commands, it’s good to work with test files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

Finding a File in Linux

To begin, let's create some example files in a directory and then use the find command to find them.

1. Create a test folder containing test files. After creating the test directory and files check the files have been created using ls.

mkdir testcd testtouch test1.txt test2.h test3.c TEST.fls

2. In the test directory, find the file called test1.txt. Using find with “.” indicates that the search should be confined to the current working directory. After running the find command you should see the test1.txt file listed as a result.

find . -name test1.txt

Searching Using a Partial Filename in Linux

On occasion, we may need to search using partial file or directory names. Let’s look at how to do this and how searching for partial terms affects the results.

1. In the test directory run the following command searching for files that contain the term “tes” within their name.

find . -name "*tes*"

In the list of results, you should see that all the files have been found and listed apart fromTEST.f , this is due to -name returning case sensitive results. We’ll look at an alternative that returns non case sensitive results in a later section.

2. Repeat the command searching for a specific file extension. We can use the same method to search for a particular file type. Changing the command to search for“*.txt*” will return only the .txt filetype.

find . -name "*.txt*"

3. Use -iname to return non-case sensitive results. Here we use the partial search term“*tes*” again but using -iname forces the command to show all results regardless of upper or lower case. Therefore the results include our file TEST.f .

find . -iname "*tes*"

Distinguishing Between Directories and Files in Linux

In its standard form, the find command will also return any matching results regardless be they files or directories. We can also add tags to the find command that force the command to only return files or only return directory results.

1. Add a directory inside our test directory called test2. Use ls to confirm that the directory has been created.

cd testmkdir test2ls

2. Run a find command that will return both file and directory results. You should see that the result contains all the test files and also the test2 directory.

find . -iname "*test*"

3. Add the -type f tag to return only file results. Note that in the results the directory test2 is omitted.

find . -iname "*test*" -type f

4. Add the -type d tag to return only directory results. Note that the only result now should be the test2 directory.

find . -iname "*test*" -type d

Searching the Entire Filesystem in Linux

You may need to search the entire filesystem to try and find a misplaced or forgotten file.

1. Search for the test1.txt file from the root (/) of the filesystem. This step isn’t tremendously successful and has been added to illustrate a common issue.

cdfind / -iname test1.txt

You will find that you don’t have permission to search in a lot of areas, this results in a long reported list of areas we can’t search and, although our test1.txt file has been located we need to search through the report list to find it. Notice in this example we use / to enable the command to search all sub directories.

2. Repeat the previous search but use sudo to add root privileges. This then gives the command permission to access most places within the filesystem and as such the returned report will be much clearer and easier to read.

sudo find / -iname test1.txt

With these examples you should now have a basic tool set to find any file anywhere on your system, even if you only know a part of its name.

Linux runs on hardware as diverse as the Raspberry Pi and powerful supercomputers, making it a flexible choice of operating system. Linux can be used via a graphical user interface similar to Windows or macOS. Or it can be used via a powerful terminal / command line.

The command line interface provides you with a lot more control over the computer than you can get using the GUI. Many important tasks are easier, quicker or only possible via commands. That's why, below we've listed the most important commands for navigating the file system, installing software, editing files and monitoring performance.

Opening a Terminal

To open a terminal from the desktop, you can either click on the Terminal icon found in the applications menu or hit CTRL+ ALT + T. Once open, you will see a black screen appear with a flashing prompt.

les@ThinkpadX390:~ $

This prompt is telling us that we are logged in as a user called "les" and that our machine is called ThinkpadX390 (this is the hostname). The $ refers to our permissions, in this case that we are logged on as a user with no special privileges, and that we have permission to edit any file or folder in our home directory, which in this case is /home/les/.

In our home directory we can store our work, projects, pictures etc. But we cannot harm the underlying filesystem as we do not have permission to do so. To make system wide changes we either need to be a user called “root” which has similar powers to the administrator on Windows, or we need to use sudo (see below) to temporarily give us extra permissions.

So let's start our adventure by testing out a few Linux commands and learn how to use the terminal

sudo - Super User Do

Many forms of Linux do not, by default or design, give you the admin privileges you need to perform some core tasks like installing software. This is done to make sure that the operating system is protected. However, by prefacing any command with the word "sudo," you can have admin rights for that execution. To use "sudo," you will have to be in the "sudoers" permission group, but the good news is that many Linux distros already put the main user in this group.

We can check if our user is in the sudoers group by running this command. Just swap for your username

groups 

This shows that my user, les, is in the sudoers group.

To use sudo to upgrade your operating system, you'd type:

sudo apt upgrade

Navigating the Linux file system

Moving around the filesystem is something we take for granted in a desktop environment. But with the terminal we can do everything, and often with greater speed and precision. We just need to know the correct commands. If you don't have permission to perform any of these actions on a particular file or directory, prefacing the command with sudo will probably let you, but think before doing so. There is no undo button.

We've got a full guide on the Linux file system, showing you what each directory is for.

pwd - Print working directory

This command will show the full path to the directory we are in, for example /home/les. It is a useful command to clearly show where we are in the filesystem. Typically our location forms part of the prompt, but with pwd we get a clearer indication of our location.

pwd

ls - List directory content

This command is used to list the contents of a directory. You may already be familiar with dir used in Windows and MS DOS.

You can use the command to list files in your current working directory.

ls

We can also list the files in another directory, such as /var/log:

ls /var/log

See hidden files and directories, in a long list with extra details.

ls -lha

List all files of a certain type, for example .py Python files.

ls *py

cd - Change directory

Using cd, change directory we can move around the filesystem. For example to move from our home directory to Downloads

cd Downloads

Move to a directory in another part of the filesystem, for example /var/log.

cd /var/log

Go back to the previous directory that we were in.

cd -

Go back to our home directory.

cd ~

Working with files

Sometimes we need to take a peek inside a file, look for a specific command, error or bug and with these commands we can do just that all from the terminal.

cat - Print files to the terminal

With cat we can print the contents of a file to the terminal, for example a Python file.

cat test.py

Print contents of the file to the terminal with line numbers. Useful when debugging a file, and you need to tell a colleague exactly where to find the issue.

cat -n test.py

less - Print files to the terminal

The less command will print the contents of a file in sections and we can scroll through the file using the arrow keys, Page Up / Down and Home / End.

less /var/log/syslog

grep - Looking inside a file

To search inside a file for a specific word / section of text. Typically used with log files when looking for issues. In this example we use lscpu to print the details of the CPU which is passed via a pipe | to grep which we instruct to look for “MHz”.

lscpu | grep “MHz”

Edit a file

For when you quickly need to edit a config file, Python code or just write a to do list. Yes, there are many different text editors for the terminal, nano, Vi, Vim etc. But for this how to, we will stick with nano.

nano

Nano is the easiest command-line editor for beginners.

Create a new file, for example newfile.txt.

If the file doesn't exist, the command will create it. If it exists, it will open the file.

nano newfile.txt

Edit an existing file, for example test.py.

nano test.py

Inside nano we navigate using the arrow keys and it works just like a regular text editor.

To save your work press CTRL + O, then confirm the filename. Finally, press Enter

To exit nano, press CTRL + X.

System Resources & Management

Managing our operating system and checking system resources is standard practice for system administrators. Here we show a few commands that will show you key details at a glance.

htop - Display system processes

Shows the current CPU load, RAM usage and running system processes. Useful for closing non responsive applications and seeing which processes are bottlenecking your system.

htop

free - Show amount of free and used RAM

Free will tell us how much RAM is in use, and what is free for applications. Using the -m option we can set the values in Megabytes. By default, free will show the values in KB.

free -m

dmesg - Monitor kernel events

The kernel is the core of the operating system and with dmesg we can see what events are happening behind the scenes. Useful for debugging issues with devices. You will need to run the command using sudo, otherwise you will not have access to all of the data.

sudo dmesg

File Management

Moving, deleting, copying and creating new files and directories are some of the most basic actions that we need to do. All of this, and much more is possible via the terminal.

mv - Move / rename a file

This command offers two functions. We can move a file from one location to another. For example here we move test.py to the Documents directory.

mv test.py Documents/

The command can also be used to rename a file or directory. Here we rename test.py to test2.py.

mv test.py test2.py

rm - Delete a file

With this command we can delete files and directories. In this example we delete the file test.py.

rm test.py

cp - Copy a file

To copy a file, for example test.py to our Documents directory.

cp test.py Documents/

To copy a directory, for example /home/pi/test2 to /home/pi/Documents/ we need to use the -r option to copy everything across.

cp -r test2/ Documents/

mkdir - Create a directory

Create a new directory to store work. For example let's create a directory called Work in our home directory.

mkdir Work

Software Installation

Just like any computer we need to make sure that our software is up to date and on our Linux machine the tool to do just that is called apt.

apt - Install and manage software on Debian and Ubuntu based systems

Apt, the Advanced Packaging Tool. The app store of Debian and Ubuntu flavors of Linux. To use apt we will need to use sudo as it will make changes to the operating system.

First we update the list of installable software.

sudo apt update

Then we can install a specific application, for example to install vlc.

sudo apt install vlc

Or we can upgrade all of the software on our system. Note that for this command we pass the -y option to automatically agree to install every package. But this is optional and if you prefer, you can omit the -y and be prompted for confirmation.

sudo apt upgrade -y

Network Connectivity & Internet

Checking that your Linux machine is connected to the Internet is a basic yet crucial task. It enables us to debug our servers, watch YouTube videos, and get work done.

ping - Check that we are connected

The ping command is used to test that our Linux machine is connected to the Internet / home network.

We can send a ping to a website.

ping google.com

Or to an IP address such as Google’s DNS server.

ping 8.8.8.8

Or for internal connectivity checks we can send a ping to devices on our home network. This example assumes that our IP range is 192.168.1.114 but your range may be different.

ping 192.168.1.114

hostname - Get the IP address of your Linux device

The easiest way to find the IP address of our Linux machine is using hostname with the -I (uppercase i) which will show all IP addresses (Wi-Fi and Ethernet)

hostname -I

Curl - Transfer data over a network

With this command we can transfer a file to and from our Linux machine. For example if we wanted to download an image from a website we would use curl along with the -o option to create a file named image.jpg.

Note, curl may not be installed on your system, so you may need to install using sudo apt install curl

curl http://link-to-theimage.com/image.jpg -o image.jpg

The curl command is particularly useful for downloading installation scripts to automatically install add on boards. But it should be used with caution and any code reviewed before it is used.

Time Savers

The Linux terminal has many secrets and tricks, all designed to save you time and become a keyboard ninja.

history

The history command will display the history of the commands entered in the terminal. When used it will output all of the commands at once as a long list.

history

At the start of each line in the list is a number and we can use this number to run that command once again. But we must precede the number with an exclamation mark.

!117

history with grep

By using a pipe “|” with the history command we can send the output of history to grep where we can then search for specific commands. Here we look for all the occurences of “apt” in history.

history | grep “apt”

CTRL + R search

Using this we can interactively search through our command history for a specific command. To start we press CTRL + R together and then start typing part of the command. For example we have just used the history | grep “apt” command so we can now press CTRL + R and start typing history and the search will find that command.

TAB completion

Think of this as “auto complete” for the terminal. The TAB key is located just above the Caps Lock key and we can use TAB completion to help complete long commands, directory listings. If we type in the first few letters of a command, for example his and press TAB it will complete the command to show history.

But if we wanted to complete a long directory path, for example /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages then we could start typing /usr/lib/ and then press TAB to show us all the directories available along that path. We could then start typing python3 and by pressing TAB a few more times, the command will narrow down the options that we can use.

Arrow keys

Another way to search through your history is to use the up and down arrow keys. With these keys we can go backwards and forwards through our command history and when the correct command is displayed, press Enter to run.

alias

Using this command we can create shortcuts / short commands from much longer ones. For example here we create an alias called updater and use that to call two commands. The first will update our list of installable software, and if that works successfully, denoted by using “&&” to chain the commands together, then it will run the upgrade on our Linux machine.

alias updater=”sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y”

Now we can run our update command just by typing updater in the terminal. Note that once the Linux machine is switched off, this alias is deleted.

You’re looking for that one file, the one that contains the all important information for your next meeting. Do you manually search all of your files? That will take time. Instead we use a little Linux command line magic. Grep is a pattern matching command that we can use to search inside files and directories for specific text. Grep is commonly used with the output of one command, piped to be the input of the grep command. For example we can search inside a file for a specific string of text using the less command, and pipe the output to grep.

In this how-to we will use the grep command and commonly added arguments to search for specific strings of data within files. We’ll begin by setting up a small directory of test files as searching an entire filesystem can take some time and create a lot of results.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

Set Up a Test Environment for grep 

As grep can be used in lots of different ways we need to set up a directory and some content that allow us to explore its uses. In this section we will create this test environment.

1. Set up a test directory and change directory so that you are inside it.

mkdir testcd test

2.Create 4 files, test1, test2, test3 and test4.

touch test1 test2 test3 test4ls

3. Edit test1 using nano to contain the following names on separate lines. Note that in test1 none of the names contain capitals. After editing in nano press control x to exit, press y to confirm the save and then press enter.

nano test1

4. Add the following text to the file. Then press CTRL + X, then Y and Enter to save and exit.

alimohamedclairealedsteve

5. Edit test2 using nano. In test2 we will add a single longer line of test containing the name steve.

nano test2

6. Add the following text to the file. Then press CTRL + X, then Y and Enter to save and exit.

this is a long line of test that contains the name steve

7. Edit test3 in nano. Similar to test1 we will add a list of names on separate lines but this list will include the name steven.

nano test3

8. Add the following text to the file. Then press CTRL + X, then Y and Enter to save and exit.

alicegeoffmurbarakmohamedsteven

9. Finally edit test4 to complete our test environment. Note that in this file we are using a capital letter at the start of Steve.

nano test4

10. Add the following text to the file. Then press CTRL + X, then Y and Enter to save and exit.

Steve ?

Simple Searches with grep 

Searching a file for a specific string is extremely useful. For example when debugging an error in a log file. Let’s start using grep in its most basic form.
The grep command syntax is simply grep followed by any arguments, then the string we wish to search for and then finally the location in which to search.

1. Search test1 for the string steve using grep. The search criteria is case sensitive so ensure that you're searching correctly. Notice that the word steve is simply returned in red to indicate it has been found in the file.

grep steve test1

2. Search for the same string in multiple files. We can simply add a list of files to the grep command for it to search. Notice that, with multiple search areas, the returned results are tagged with each filename from which the result is found. Also notice that grep returns the complete line of text that contains the searched string.

grep steve test1 test2

3. Search all files within the directory. Adding an asterisk forces grep to search all files within the current directory. Notice that the returned results include the result from test3 where the search string steve is contained within Steven. Note also that these results don’t contain the result from test4 as in its basic form the grep command is case sensitive.

grep steve *

4. Add the argument -i to make grep case insensitive. This will return results from all four of the test files in the directory.

grep -i steve *

Piping output to grep

The strongest use case for grep is when it is paired with another command. Using pipes we send the output of a command to grep and use it to search for patterns / keywords.

1. Open a new terminal window.

2. Use lsusb to list all of the USB devices attached to your machine. This will also list internal USB devices, such as laptop webcams. The output will differ depending on your machine, but you should be met with a wall of text.

lsusb

3. Use the lsusb command again, but this time use grep to search for Linux. By adding a pipe between lsusb and grep the output of the first command is used as the input of the second.

lsusb | grep Linux

Using dmesg and grep to Inspect the Kernel Ring Buffer

Let's try something a little more complex. This time we’ll use dmesg and grep to inspect the Kernel Ring Buffer (essentially the kernel’s log file). We are going to search for a keyword in dmesg, “secureboot”, and confirm that it is enabled.

1. Open a terminal and run the dmesg command using sudo. This will print a wall of console output to the terminal, something that we can search using grep.

sudo dmesg

2. Use the grep command to search for “secureboot” in the dmesg output. Use the -i argument to turn off case-sensitivity so that we catch every occurrence of secureboot. The output will show the lines at which secureboot appears in dmesg.

sudo dmesg | less | grep -i secureboot

Other Uses of grep 

Like many Linux commands there are many useful additions and variants for the grep command. Let’s look at a couple of interesting examples.

1. Perform an inverted search using the -v argument. This will return a list of every line from the test environment files that doesn’t contain the search string steve. This argument is useful to dismiss occurrences of strings in logs or files when debugging an issue. Note that again the results are case sensitive and therefore they include the line containing the capitalized Steve ? from test4.

grep -v steve *

2. Combine the -v and -i arguments to exclude all matching strings regardless of case.

grep -vi steve *

3. Search for a string that contains non alphanumeric text or spaces. If you include a search string with a space or other non alphanumeric text this can break the grep command syntax, to create a search string containing these you need to use quotes to contain the string. In this step we are searching for “Steve ?” which is contained in the test4 file.

grep “Steve ?” *

Searching Subdirectories with grep

Like many Linux commands there are many useful additions and variants for the grep command. Let’s look at a couple of interesting examples.

1. Perform an inverted search using the -v argument. This will return a list of every line from the test environment files that doesn’t contain the search string steve. This argument is useful to dismiss occurrences of strings in logs or files when debugging an issue. Note that again the results are case sensitive and therefore they include the line containing the capitalized Steve ? from test4.

grep -v steve *

2. Combine the -v and -i arguments to exclude all matching strings regardless of case.

grep -vi steve *

3. Search for a string that contains non alphanumeric text or spaces. If you include a search string with a space or other non alphanumeric text this can break the grep command syntax, to create a search string containing these you need to use quotes to contain the string. In this step we are searching for “Steve ?” which is contained in the test4 file.

grep “Steve ?” *

Searching Subdirectories with grep

Often we will want to search for a string in the files contained in sub directories. We can do this simply by adding the -r recursive argument to the grep command.

1. Create a subdirectory containing a test file within the test directory.

mkdir sub_directorycd sub_directorytouch test5

2. Open test5 using the nano text editor and add the text “steve in a sub directory” to the file. Then press CTRL + X, then Y and Enter to save and exit.

nano test5.

3. Return to the test directory and perform a search adding the -r option. Notice that the result for test5 includes the location of the file listed in the output.

cd ..grep -r steve *

With grep in Linux, you have a good collection of approaches for searching out file contents across your system. As with many Linux commands it can be worthwhile looking at the help menu to see all the varied arguments you can add to grep. Run grep --h in a terminal emulator to check out all the options.

MORE: How To Check Disk Usage in Linux

MORE: How To Kill a Process in Linux

MORE: How To Find Files in Linux

In this how-to, we’ll look at the zip command, a useful utility that enables us to specify lists of files, set a level of data compression and create compressed archives.

Whilst you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example test files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

Creating a Zip Archive in Linux

To begin, let's create some empty test files and then add them to an archive. We’ll use the touch command to create files, the ls command to check that the files have been created and then the zip command to create a basic archive.

1. Create a test directory where we can safely try out the command. Change directory so that you are inside the new directory.

mkdir test_directorycd test_directory

2. Create some test files to add to our archive. Note the 3 different file suffixes.

$ touch test1.txt test2.h test3.c

3. List the files to check that they have been created correctly.

ls

4. Using the zip command, create a ZIP archive of the newly created files. To create a ZIP archive, we simply use the command zip followed by the name we are giving the archive and then a list of the files we wish to include in the archive. The following command will create a ZIP archive called test_archive.zip and the archive will include the three test files. Note that we don’t need to add the archive suffix .zip to the name of the archive when using the zip command.

zip test_archive test1.txt test2.h test3.c

5. Check that the ZIP archive has been created.

ls

Creating a ZIP Archive Selecting Only Specific File Types

It’s possible to supply the zip command with arguments that only add specific file types to the archive. This is a powerful feature that is efficiently achieved on the command line.

1. Delete any previous test archives and check you still have the original three test files. Note that, unlike when creating the ZIP archive, you have to include the .zip file extension when referencing an existing archive.

rm test_archive.zipls

2. Create a new ZIP archive which contains only the test files ending .h and .c . After creating the archive, if you check its contents it will only contain the files test2.h and test3.c and won’t contain test1.txt.

zip test_archive *.h *.c

3. To check the contents use less.

less test_archive.zip

Create a ZIP archive Which Contains a Directory

Often we need to make a ZIP archive containing directories which contain files, we can do this by adding the recursive argument -r to the zip command.

1. Delete the archives inside the test_directory but keep the other files. To avoid confusion it would be good practice to delete the archives leaving only the original files that we created.

rm test_archive.zip

2. Go up one directory and check that you are not inside the directory to archive. We can’t be inside the directory that we wish to add to the archive.

cdpwd

3. Create a ZIP archive containing the test_directory directory and its contents. Notice when you create the archive using the -r argument that you see a verbose output detailing each stage of the command as it descends into the directory and archives the files and folder.

zip -r new_archive test_directory

4. Make another similar ZIP archive using the -q (quiet) argument to disable the verbose output. You should see that this time that no steps are reported to the terminal in the creation of this archive. Then use ls to check the new archive has been created.

zip -r -q new_archive2 test_directoryls

Change the Level of Data Compression for a ZIP Archive

By default, the zip command uses a compression value of 6 taken from a range of 0-9 with 0 being uncompressed and 9 being the maximum allowable level of compression. We can simply add a numerical argument to change the level of compression.

1. Add random data to the test files. Right now our test files test1.txt, test2.h and test3.c are empty. They have zero bytes of data but we can add random “garbage data” to the files using a quick terminal command that will dump 64MB into each file.

cd test_directoryhead -c 64M  test1.txthead -c 64M  test2.hhead -c 64M  test3.c

2. Return to the parent directory and create a new ZIP archive with the default compression level of 6.

cdzip -r -q archive_default_compression test_directory

3. Create another archive with the same contents but increase the compression level to 9. Check the details of the new archive and the previous archive using ls -l , you should see that the size of the new archive is smaller than the previous archive as the data compression has been increased.

$ zip -r -q -9 archive_compressed test_directory$ ls -l

Extracting Zip Archives

We will create a ZIP archive called test_archive.zip which contains a directory test_directory which in turn contains 3 empty test files, test1.txt, test2.h, test3.c . To extract this archive we will use the unzip command.

1. Create a test folder containing the test files. After creating the test directory and files check the files have been created using ls before returning to the parent directory.

mkdir test_directorycd test_directorytouch test1.txt test2.h test3.clscd

2. Create a ZIP archive called test_archive.zip that contains the test_directory. Check that the archive has been successfully created using ls. The zip command has two arguments, the name of the archive that we wish to create, and the source of the files to be put into the archive.

zip -r test_archive test_directoryls

3. Delete the un-archived directory. If we extract the test_archive.zip in the parent directory which contains the test_directory we would be asked if we want to replace or rename the archive.

rm -r test_directory

4. Unzip the test_archive.zip file. Using unzip with no extra arguments we see a verbose output report of each step of extracting the archive.

unzip test_archive.zip

Extracting a ZIP Archive to a Specified Location

Often we will want to extract an archive into a different specified location. We can add the-d argument to the unzip command to achieve this.

1. Extract the test_archive.zip to a specified directory. We can specify a relative or absolute location. In this example we extract the contents to the Music directory using a relative path. We could also pass an absolute path which provides the full path to the target location.After extracting the archive, move into the specified directory and use ls to check the archive has been extracted.

unzip test_archive.zip -d ./Music

2. Change directory and list the contents to verify the files have been extracted correctly.

cd Musicls

With these few basic uses of the zip command you now have lots of options when creating ZIP archives in the linux terminal. Being able to select specific file types and being able to set the compression level in the terminal emulator gives quick access to these powerful tools that are often hard to find in a GUI application.

Linux has a multitude of ways to install software. We can build our own executables or use AppImage to run containerized applications. But at the heart of many Linux distros is a package management system, which for Debian based systems, such as the Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu, is Apt.

Apt, the Advanced Packaging Tool is a command line application which handles the installation, categorization and removal of applications and their dependencies from the software repositories. Apt is the heart of Debian systems and the lessons learnt are applicable from the $35 Raspberry Pi to million dollar super computers. Apt is available via the Terminal and we can even administrate systems remotely using a remote connection such as SSH.

Which Linux distros use Apt?

The list below is not exhaustive, but it illustrates that Apt is used in many Linux distributions.

• Debian
• Raspberry Pi OS
• Ubuntu and derivatives such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Studio
• Pop!_OS
• MX Linux
• Linux Mint
• Peppermint OS

You may be thinking, what about the other packaging tools? Yes there are many more alternatives, typically for other Linux distros. The likes of Fedora / Red Hat uses dnf, Arch based systems use pacman, and Suse uses zypper. You can also install software directly from source files, you just need to build the software before you install.

A command line tool may seem daunting but here we detail the most common commands that you will use to keep your Debian / Ubuntu systems updated with the latest software.

So why not just use apt-get?

Apt the package manager was released in 1998. But apt, the command that is the focus of this how to, has been around since 2014, but it really came to notice with Ubuntu 16.04. But many users use “apt-get” instead so what’s the difference? They both serve the same purpose, software management, but with Apt it boils down to simplicity, with it being more user-friendly than "apt-get".

Take for example the commands that we used in this how-to.

But Apt does have a few extra commands, in fact we will use one in the how to.

Apt is the tool to learn and use for everyday tasks. Apt-get is not being deprecated, but it would be wise to invest your time learning Apt.

Searching for software with Apt

Using Apt we can search the software repository for specific applications and keywords.

Open a terminal and use the apt search command followed by the name of an application. In our example, we use vlc to search for any applications that have vlc in the title. This command can generate a lot of results, but we can scroll up and down the list using our mouse / trackpad.

$ apt search vlc

To pause the output of the command, we can pipe (send the output) to “less”. The less command is used to store a page of output, which we can scroll or page through using the spacebar.

$ apt search vlc | less

If we need to be more specific we can pipe the output from the command and use “grep” to search for a specific keyword. Here we search for any VLC tools to use with Python 3.

$ apt search vlc | grep “python3”

Once we have found the appropriate application we can use the install command to install it onto our system.

Installing Linux Software With Apt

After identifying our required application we next need to install it. Before we run an installation we need to update, ensuring that we get the latest software.

1. Open a terminal and use the update command. The update command will update the list of available packages for your machine. It is best practice to update, that way you will get the latest software.

$ sudo apt update

2. Use the install command to download and install your chosen application. In our example we install VLC, a popular media player.

$ sudo apt install vlc

After a few moments the application will be installed and available via the Terminal and via the Applications menu.

Upgrading software with Apt

To upgrade all of your installed software we can use the “upgrade” command. Using this with “update,” we can ensure that our software repositories are up-to-date, meaning that any new software is at the latest version.

1. Open a terminal and use the update command. The update command will update the list of available packages for your machine.

$ sudo apt update

2. Run the upgrade command to download and install the latest software. We use the -y switch to automatically agree to installing the software.

$ sudo apt upgrade -y

We can also chain together these commands into a one line script. Using “&&” between the commands we can instruct the system to chain the commands to run one after the other. The “&&” means that the second command will only run if the first command runs successfully.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Depending on the amount of required updates, this can take from a few seconds to multiple minutes.

Removing software

There are two ways to uninstall an application from the system. The first “removes” the application from the system, leaving any user configuration files intact. This is the most common and safest means to remove software

Open a terminal and use the following command to remove the application. In our example we uninstalled VLC.

$ sudo apt remove vlc

The second way is to “purge” the application and any config files from the system. This is a nuclear option, used to remove the application should we need a fresh start.

1. Open a terminal and use the purge command to remove VLC and any of its configuration files. Only use this command if you do not need or have backed up any configuration files.

$ sudo apt purge vlc

2. Confirm that you are happy to purge the application and any configuration files.

No matter how high-capacity your storage drive is, you always need to see how much space you have used and what files are using it. While there are ways to do this from the GUI in Linux, as always, you get more detail by using the terminal command line. Terminal tools are especially useful for users who are monitoring remote systems, for example busy system administrators connecting over a secure shell connection. In this tutorial, we’ll look at various ways of using the terminal to check disk usage enabling us to see what storage space is left on our system no matter where we may be.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

Using df to Check Disk Usage in Linux

A simple approach to check all disk usage on a system is to simply issue the df command from the home directory in a terminal window.

df

You should see a long output list. This list of items includes not only the physical best hard drive connected to your system but also any separate drive partitions, as well as virtual drives and temporary drives on your system.

To spot physical drives or partitions on physical drives look out for listings that begin with /dev/ such as /dev/sda1/. In this case dev stands for device and indicates that the item following it is a physical drive or a partition on a physical drive. Finally, you’ll notice that by default the df command outputs the size of the drive or partition in kilobytes.

Making the df Command Simpler to Read

The raw output generated by the df command can be overwhelming. We can add some simple arguments to the df command to make the output a little easier to read and understand.

1. Use the -h argument to display the sizes and usage in megabytes and gigabytes. The -h argument refers to “human readable”.

df -h

2. Use df -h / to see a broad overview of disk usage. This command will show the disk usage for the main filesystem (/)

df -h /

3. Pass df -h plus the location of a drive to see information on that drive only. On our machine our main physical drive is mounted at /dev/sda2/ which is common but may be different on your system.

df -h /dev/sda2/

On another test system our NVMe drive was located at /dev/nvme0n1p6 Adding a location to df allows us to explore just one area of a file system or one specific drive making the output more focussed and readable.

Specify df Results by File System Type

Using the -t argument in combination with other arguments we can return results only for a specific type of file system. For example FAT, NTFS, ext etc.

1. List results of df command but only for ext4 type filesystems.

df -t ext4

On our example system our main physical drive filesystem is ext4, but you can use any filesystem name you may have on your own system such as, FAT, exFAT, ext3, ext2 etc.

2. Re-run the command adding the -h argument. It’s important that the t argument is placed at the end of the argument list as the t argument expects to be followed by a filesystem type. If for example you want to add the -h argument you must add it before the t as shown below.

df -ht ext4

Exploring Linux Disk Usage with the du Command

Often we might simply want to check how much room a file or directory is using. The du command is useful for this and works in a similar way to the df command we looked at earlier. In the following examples we have used our Music directory which contains 3 subdirectories containing mp3’s. You can use any directory with contents on your system to try these commands.

1. Move to a directory, list its contents and then check disk usage.

cd Musiclsdu

Note that similar to the df command, in its standard form the du command returns values in kilobytes. The output of this command is quite straightforward: it lists the size of each sub directory and then the name and then finally on the last line returns the sum of all the subdirectory sizes to give the directory disk usage.

2. Add the -h argument to make du return results in megabytes and gigabytes.

du -h

3. Simplify the output to just show the total directory size. If we just want to know the total size of the directory and its subdirectories, adding -s as an argument will return just the total.

du -hs

4. Specify a location for the du command.

cddu -hs Music

Similar to other linux commands we don’t always need to run the du command from within the target directory, rather we can specify a path to a target directory. This can be a relative path, from our current location, or an absolute path.

The df and du commands are deceptively simple but immensely powerful. No matter if you are a relative newcomer or a seasoned sysadmin, both commands are absolutely essential for the smooth running of your Linux machines. At the basic level, each command gives you the information that you need. With the addition of our suggested arguments, these commands are ready to to be part of your sysadmin toolkit.

If you’ve ever tried to run a script from the command line in Linux and gotten an error message saying that it’s not executable or attempted to enter a directory only to be blocked by the system, you probably don’t have permissions to do those things. Fortunately, if you have the proper rights or the ability to act as a super user (accessible by using sudo), you can change the permissions on files and directories.

In this how-to we’ll look at the chmod command, a powerful command that can change file and directory permissions for the owner, user group members and others. In a section below, we’ll also explain how to tell what group your user is in and exactly what Linux means by “others.”

Whilst you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example empty files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

How to Check File Permissions in Linux

To begin, let's create a test file in a test directory and take a look at its default permissions. To see the permissions we will use ls with the -l argument added.

1. Create a new directory called test_directory

$ mkdir test_directory

2. Move into the newly created directory.

$ cd test_directory

3. Create a new test file called test1.txt.

$ touch test1.txt

4. List the contents of the directory using ls -l.

$ ls -l

Using ls -l gives us a lot more information about the items returned on the list. We should see that test1.txt has been created. We are interested in the first 10 characters on the listing which for our test file read - rw- rw- r--.

The first – indicates that the object on the list is a file. If we ran ls -l and a directory was listed this first character would be a d. The next 9 characters are arranged in 3 sets of 3.

The first set of 3 refers to the owner, the second set of 3 refer to user groups and the final set of three refer to others. Each set of 3 characters can contain either – or r, w, and x. If you can see an r in the set then that set has read permissions granted. If you can see a w that set can write to a file and if you can see an x in the set then that set can execute the file as a script or program.

We can see that our test1.txt currently has the owner and group member permissions set to read and write with others only allowed to read. No one has permission to execute the file.

How to Change Linux File / Directory Permissions Quickly

We can use the chmod command to toggle the read, write and execute permissions on and off for the owner, group and others. Let’s begin with changing single permissions for the owner and group.

1. In the test_directory, list the current permissions for test1.txt.

$ ls -l

These should be unchanged from when we created test1.txt and should read -rw-rw-r-- .

2. Change the permission of the owner to read only.

$ chmod u-w test1.txt

3. List the directory contents to view the new permission settings. We should now see that the permissions for test1.txt read -r--rw-r-- indicating that, for the owner, the file is now read only.

$ ls -l

4. Change permission of groups to read only. Similar to changing permissions for the owner we can change permission settings for the groups. To revoke write permissions we can use the argument g-w.

$ chmod g-w test1.txt

5. List the directory contents to view the new permission settings.

$ ls -l

We should now see that the permissions for test1.txt read -r--r--r-- indicating that, for the groups, the file is now read only.

6. Enable write permissions for the owner. Instead of using u-w to remove write permissions we can intuitively use u+w to grant write permissions for the owner.

$ chmod u+w test1.txt

7. List the directory contents to view the new permission settings. We should now see that the permissions for test1.txt read -rw-r--r-- indicating that, for the owner, write permissions have been granted.

$ ls -l

How to Apply Multiple File / Directory Permission Changes in Linux

We can also combine the arguments we used in the previous section to make multiple changes to Linux file permissions in a single command. In this section it’s important not to add any extra spaces in the chmod arguments as this will cause the command to fail.

In the first section we used u and g for owner and group and in this section we will additionally use o to target permission changes for others. Likewise, we used r and w for read and write and in this section we will add x to make changes to the executable permissions.

1. List the directory contents to view the new permission settings. We should see that the permissions for test1.txt are -rw-r--r-- .

$ ls -l

2. Change the permissions so that additionally the owner can execute and the group can additionally write and execute. Notice that there are no spaces after the comma and also notice that you can combine r,w,x in a single argument.

$ chmod u+x,g+wx test1.txt

3. List the directory contents to view the new permission settings. We should see that the permissions for test1.txt are -rwxrwxr-- . This means that the owner and group can read, write and execute the file whilst others can only read.

$ ls -l

How to Change File / Directory Permissions Recursively in Linux

The chmod command can be used to create changes recursively to a directory meaning that changes are also applied to the files contained within the directory. Let’s use what we have learnt so far and additionally use the recursive -R argument to see how this works.

1. Move to your home directory and list the contents.

$ cd$ ls -l

We should see test_directory listed from the previous parts of this how-to. The permissions for test_directory should read drwxrwxr-x.

2. Change the owner and group permissions of both the directory and its contents. Running this command will revoke owner and group write permissions for both test_directory and the file, test1.txt it contains.

$ chmod -R u-w,g-w test_directory

3. List the home directory contents to check the permissions for test_directory.

$ ls -l

We should see that the owner and group permissions allow for reading and execution but now do not allow writing to the directory.

4. Move into test_directory to check permissions for test1.txt.

$ cd test_directory$ ls -l

We should see that the owner and group permissions fortest1.txt have been changed to match the recursive changes to the host directory, removing write permissions.

How to View Your Linux Group

When we talk of users, groups and others what we mean is that our user typically belongs to a group of users. A user and group can have the same, or very different permissions. For example a team member may need more permissions to perform a certain task. The permissions that we give a user and a group will be different to what we give other users, users who are not in the group.

We can see the groups that our user is part of via the groups command.

1. Open a terminal and type in groups. This will list all of the groups available on our installation.

groups

2. Open a terminal and type in groups followed by the user’s name. For example here we check which groups “Tom” belongs to and find that he belongs to the groups tom and sudo.

groups tom

The output of this command looks like this.

tom : tom sudo

Others are not a group. Rather “others” refers to anyone who is not the owner, or in a group which has access to a file or directory. Typically others will only have read access to any files of directories, but this can be changed and we shall explore this later.

How to Change Linux File Permissions With Numeric Codes

Though the use of r,w or x is easier to remember for Linux file permissions, many people use a series of numeric codes with chmod instead. You feed the chmod command a three-digit number and each digit applies to a different group in this order: user, group, others. So, for example, chmod 777 gives all three types full read, write and execute permissions while chmod 740 gives the user full permissions, the group read permissions and others no permissions at all.

The table below shows what each number means.

With these basic usages of the chmod command you get a lot of control over file and directory permissions. There are lots of different arguments to add to chmod that allow you to work with different approaches.

For example it’s worth researching the use of = instead of + and – as, rather than toggling permissions on and off, you can define permissions directly for some or all users. As you research and learn about chmod it’s worth remembering to practice on test files and directories as it can be frustrating if you accidentally remove all permissions on a file you depend on.

We’ve all got to that point on a given system where we start to run out of storage space. Do we buy more storage, perhaps one of the best SSDs, or do we search and find the largest files quickly? In this how to we will look at a few simple approaches to help us maintain and manage our filesystems.

All the commands in this article will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu LTS install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. If you’re not already at the command line, you can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t or by searching for the terminal app in your applications menu.

Listing Files In Size Order Using the ls Command in Linux

The ls command is used to list the contents of a directory in Linux. By adding the -lS argument we can order the returned results according to the file size. We have copied a collection of files into a test directory to show this command but it can be run in any directory you choose.

To list the directory contents in descending file size order, use the ls command along with the -IS argument. You will see the larger files at the top of the list descending to the smallest files at the bottom.

ls -lS

While this command is useful for seeing, it lacks the actual size of the files so how can we identify the largest files in Linux and display their size?

Identifying Files Larger Than a Specified Size in Linux

In another article, we explained how to find files in Linux using the find command to search based on a filename or part of a filename. We can also use the find command in combination with the -size argument specifying a size threshold where any file larger than specified will be returned.\

1. Use find to search for any file larger than 100MB in the current directory. We are working inside our test directory and the “.” indicates to search the current directory. The -type f argument specifies returning files as results. Finally the +100M argument specifies that the command will only return files larger than 100MB in size. We only have one file in our test folder Baby_Yoda.obj that is larger than 100MB.

find . -type f -size +100M

2. Use the same command, but this time specify a path to search. We can run the same command as in the previous section but replace the “.” with a specified path. This means we can search the test directory from the home directory.

cdfind ./test -type f -size +100M

Searching the Whole Linux Filesystem For Large Files 

It’s sometimes useful to search the whole Linux filesystem for large files. We may have some files hidden away in our home directory that need removing. To search the entire filesystem, we will need to use the command with sudo. We might also want to either limit the search to the current filesystem which can be achieved via the -xdev argument, for example when we suspect the files we seek are in our current main filesystem or we can choose not to add the -xdev argument which will then include results from other mounted filesystems, for example an attached USB drive.

1. Open a terminal.

2. Search the current filesystem for files larger than 100MB. As we are invoking root privileges using sudo we will need to input our password. Note that we are using / to set the command to search the entire filesystem from the root of the filesystem.

sudo find / -xdev -type f -size +100M

3. Search all filesystems for files larger than 100MB. For this example connect a USB drive with a collection of files on it including some that are over 100MB in size. You should be able to scroll through the returned results and see that the larger files on the pen drive have been included in the results.

sudo find / -type f -size +100M

Finding the 10 Largest Linux Files on Your Drive

What are the top ten files or directories on our machine? How large are they and where are they located? Using a little Linux command line magic we can target these files with only one line of commands.

1. Open a terminal.

2. Use the du command to search all files and then use two pipes to format the returned data.

du -aBM will search all files and directories, returning their sizes in megabytes.

/ is the root directory, the starting point for the search.

2>/dev/null will send any errors to /dev/null ensuring that no errors are printed to the screen.

| sort -nr is a pipe that sends the output of du command to be the input of sort which is then listed in reverse order.

| head -n 10 will list the top ten files/directories returned from the search.

sudo du -aBm / 2>/dev/null | sort -nr | head -n 10

3. Press Enter to run the command. It will take a little time to run as it needs to check every directory of the filesystem. Once complete it will return the top ten largest files / directories, their sizes and locations.

With this collection of commands, you have several ways to identify and locate large files in Linux. It's extremely useful to be able to do this when you need to quickly select big files for deletion to free up your precious system resources. As always, take care when poking around your filesystem to ensure you aren’t deleting something critical!

Related Tutorials

• Getting To Know the Linux Filesystem
• How To Check Disk Usage in Linux
• How To Find Files in Linux
• How To Manage Users in Linux

In a modern Linux operating system we usually take it for granted that when we insert a USB flash drive, best hard drive, or even a DVD disk, they just appear ready for use. But under the hood there is a process where the device is mounted (made ready for use) and assigned a mountpoint. When using a server or a remote connection, it is not certain that a device will automatically be made available, so how can we mount our own devices?

In this how-to we’ll look at various ways of mounting and unmounting disks and disk images. We will use a variety of approaches and tools including both terminal commands and GUI tools.

All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used an Ubuntu install but you could also run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t, or by searching for the terminal app in your applications menu.

Unmounting and Mounting Drives using GUI tools

Most of the time when you attach a drive, for example a pen drive, the system will recognize it and automatically mount the drive. Occasionally this may not happen and knowing how to manually mount and unmount a drive can be a useful skill.

1. Plug in a USB Flash drive and allow it to automatically mount. You should see an icon appear as a shortcut to the drive, or opening a file explorer you will find the pen drive mounted.

2. Press the Windows / Super key and search for “disk.” Select the Disks utility.

3. Selecting the correct USB Flash drive. Click the square stop button icon to unmount the disk. You will see your main system disk drive(s) and also the pen drive you just inserted, so double check before taking the action.

4. Click the mount button to re-mount the drive. With the pen drive unmounted the mount button icon changes to a triangular “play” icon. Clicking this will remount the pen drive.

5. Unmount the drive to get ready for the next part of the tutorial. It’s useful to have the pen drive attached but not mounted for the next part of the tutorial so unmount it by once again clicking the unmount button in the disk utility.

Identifying and Mounting a Drive using the Linux Terminal

Using the terminal enables us to have greater control over when drives are mounted and their position in the filesystem that they are mounted to.

1. Identify the USB drive using the lsblk command. In the results you may well see lots of entries labeled “loop.” However you are looking for results that are listed as sda, sdb or start with nvme to identify physical disks attached to your system via SATA or PCIe. Comparing the listed capacity of the attached drives can often help you discover the name of your target drive. In our case we can identify our USB drive as sdb1.

lsblk

2. Create a directory to mount the USB drive into. When an external drive is automatically mounted it is often mounted inside the media directory. However using the CLI we can create and specify a directory into which we will mount our pendrive. Note that we need to invoke root privileges using sudo to create a directory inside the media directory.

sudo mkdir /media/pendrive

3. Mount the USB drive to the /media/pendrive directory using the mount command. The mount command has the following syntax; sudo mount /path/to/drive /path/to/mountpoint.

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/pendrive

4. Check the drive has been mounted by re-running lsblk. Notice that the final column in the lsblk output lists the mount point of the listed device, if there is a mount point listed then the device is confirmed as mounted.

Unmounting a drive in Linux using the umount command

Unmounting a drive is handled via the umount command and when invoked it safely removes the drive from the system, enabling us to pull the drive and use it in another machine.

1. Unmount the drive using umount command. Note the spelling of umount. It is a common error to type “unmount”. Using the umount command we only need to specify the mount point location and name of the drive we wish to unmount.

sudo umount /media/pendrive

2. Check the drive is unmounted using lsblk. Notice that in the lsblk output the final column lists the mount point of detected devices, if there is no mount point listed then the device is unmounted.

lsblk

Mounting a Disk Image to view contents in Linux

It is possible to mount a CD / DVD or other disk image to appear as a read only drive. This is a useful technique if you want to copy some content out of a disk image or if you simply want to inspect a disk image’s contents. In the following example, we have used a downloaded disk image of the Puppy Linux distribution but this technique would work with any disk image including images made of disks for backup purposes.

1. Create a directory called iso in the media directory to mount the disk image into. Again this could be anywhere in the file system but we have created a directory called iso within the media directory.

sudo mkdir /media/iso

2. Mount an ISO disk image using the mount command and the loop argument. We need to run this command with root privileges so therefore we use sudo. The usage of the mount command is similar to previous uses and includes the path to the image and the path to the mount point we created in the previous step. We also add the -o loop argument to create the loop device which tricks the operating system into believing this is a real disk and not an image.

sudo mount -o loop Downloads/fossapup64-9.5.iso /media/iso

3. Unmount the ISO using umount. Once again when using the umount command we need only specify the mount point of the drive or disk image we wish to unmount.

sudo umount /media/iso

With these techniques you now have greater control over mounting and unmounting disks in Linux and now have skills that may help next time a connected drive doesn’t automatically mount correctly. Being able to mount a disk image using a loop device is very useful when exploring old backup images of previously used systems or when you want to have a look around a Linux distributions image contents for exploration or learning.

Related Tutorials

• How To Check Disk Usage in Linux
• How To Kill a Process in Linux
• How To Find Files in Linux
• How To Manage Users in Linux

There are more than a billion PCs in use and, according to StatCounter, only 71 percent of them run Windows. Among the rest, about 4 percent run Linux. That's tens of millions of people with Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc as their desktop operating system. I envy them.

Windows 11 has become more annoying lately as it shoves ads for XBox Game Pass in my face, pushes AI features no one asked for and demands that I reconsider the choices I made during installation on a regular basis. Plus, it just isn't that attractive.

I'm ready to try joining that industrious four percent and installing Linux on my computers to use as my main OS, at least for a week. I'll blog about the experience here.

It's hard to give up Windows forever because so many applications only run in Microsoft's OS. For example, the peripheral software that runs with many keyboards and mice isn't available for Linux. Lots of games will not run under Linux. So I think it's likely I'll be using Windows again, at least some of the time, after this week is through.

However, for now, I'm going to give Linux a very serious audition and document the experience.

Which Linux should I install?

If you look around the Internet, you'll see that there are a ton of Linux distros to choose from. Our own Les Pounder recently listed his favorite six Linux flavors for reviving an old PC. There, he talked about Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi Desktop, Fedora, MX Linux, Linux Mint and Manjaro. Let's not forget Fedora, Debian, AlmaLinux, Kali Linux or Pop!_OS.

So which one should I go with? Some folks recommend Linux Mint, because its Cinnamon desktop is supposed to be more Windows like than those in other flavors. Others say Manjaro is a great choice for power users.

I'm going to go with Ubuntu, specifically Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin," which just came out a few weeks ago. This is the latest version of the most popular and best-supported Linux distro. However, it only gets 9 months of support.

Granted, I could use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which will maintain support for five years and is therefore the most stable version of the OS available right now. However, I want to try the latest and greatest version so I'm going to download 25.04.

After I download the ISO file for it, I'm going to follow Les's instructions for how to dual boot Linux with Windows. So I'm going to install it on both my laptop, a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (12th gen) which I use at the office, and my desktop, a custom-built PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU inside. It should run well on both.

Downloading Ubuntu 25.04

So my first step is to download Ubuntu 25.04 which is available as an ISO from Ubuntu's website. The ISO file is 5.8GB, but fortunately it downloaded in about a minute here on the office network.

Calling Rufus, the ultimate USB boot disk maker

After downloading the ISO file, the next step is to "burn" (aka write) it to a bootable USB Flash Drive. To do this writing process, I need a popular free program called Rufus that does the burning.

I'm using an SK hynix Tube drive, which is the form factor of a USB stick, but is technically a USB SSD. So in Rufus, I have to select "List USB Hard Drives" for it to appear as a valid option. Then I have to select a GPT partition scheme, choose the Ubuntu ISO and click Start.

This is a very fast USB SSD so the process only takes a few minutes. Then I'll be booting off of the Flash drive, which will take me to a GRUB menu where I can choose to install the OS.

BitLocker encryption blocks my dual boot

So I was in the middle of installing Ubuntu and going through the menus with the intention of setting up a dual boot configuration on my laptop and this happened. It turns out that having BitLocker encryption enabled, which it is by default on most Windows 11 systems these days, is a problem for the Ubuntu installer.

I could try manual installation and see if that works, but I'd rather do this the easy way. So I'm going into Windows and, for now, disabling BitLocker.

To turn off BitLocker, I went into Control Panel -> BItLocker Drive Encryption and clicked Turn Off BitLocker. Let's see if this does the trick.

Waiting on decryption

So I just learned something. If you disable BitLocker encryption, you have to wait a fair amount of time for Windows to decrypt your drive completely. Though you can shutdown or reboot during the decryption process, what you cannot do is install Linux to dual boot until the drive is completely decrypted.

I read that decryption could take hours, but my process appears to be buzzing along and will be done in a few minutes, I think. Windows 11 wasn't showing me a percentage, but the way to see how much is left to decrypt is to go into PowerShell and type manage-bde -status C: . That will show the percentage of your drive that's still encrypted and you can keep checking until it gets to 0.

Ubuntu 25.04 is now installed

So, after the decryption finished, I was able to install Ubuntu 25.04 and I'm just getting started with it now. Here's how it went.

First, I booted off my USB Flash drive and was presented with this GRUB menu.

I chose "Try or install Ubuntu." Next I waited a few seconds for it to boot into the live environment.

Then I was presented with a dialog box that stepped me through some choices. The first choice was language.

Then I got a list of accessibility options that I skipped over because I didn't need them.

After that, it was keyboard layout.

Then I was prompted to choose a connection. Since my laptop is currently connected to a Thunderbolt 3 dock that is connected to Ethernet, I went with "Use wired connection."

Then I was asked whether I wanted to install or try Ubuntu. I chose "Install." But If I had chosen "Try," I would have been able to run Ubuntu off of the Flash drive. Still, I want to use Ubuntu like this for a prolonged period so I'm past the point of just trying it for a few minutes.

I was asked whether I wanted an Interactive Installation or an Automated installation. I'm going with Interactive so I can make all my own choices.

I chose to Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and to download and install support for additional media formats. I'm not sure if these choices actually did anything or not.

I was then asked whether I wanted to install Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager or to erase the disk. Since BitLocker was now disabled, I was able to choose and did choose to install Ubuntu alongside Windows.

I then decided to alot about 500GB (545GB to be precise) to my Ubuntu installation. I have a 2TB SSD in my laptop so this ends up using up a quarter of my space. If I only end up installing a few things, I may regret going with 500GB over a smaller amount like 256GB, but I want a decent amount of room to play with.

To avoid the kind of hassle I had when disabling BitLocker, I opted to go without encryption.

I entered a name for my computer and chose a username and password.

I then chose my timezone.

Then I clicked Install.

I had to wait a few minutes, about five minutes or so, for Ubuntu to copy its files and finish installing. During the install, I got a promotion for Spotify.

Finally, I got a message that Ubuntu 25.04 is installed and ready to use.

I restarted and was first shown the GRUB menu which allows me to choose between booting to Ubuntu and booting to Windows. I didn't touch the computer for a few seconds and it automatically booted to Ubuntu.

Then I was welcomed to Ubuntu 25.04. The adventure begins!

The first thing I had to install

The very first thing I had to do under Ubuntu was connect my Bluetooth mouse, a Logitech MX Master 3, using the Bluetooth settings menu. To get there, I just opened the Ubuntu menu and searched for Bluetooth.

I then put my MX Master 3 in pairing mode and it was detected. I just clicked connect and it immediately paired.

Docking station disaster!

Unfortunately, I've already found a small compatibility problem with Ubuntu 25.04 and my hardware, specifically my docking station. It's causing my secondary external monitor to blink on and off every few seconds and it's incredibly annoying.

At my office, I always connect my laptop, a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12 with Intel Metor Lake Core Ultra 7), to a Thunderbolt 3 docking station, specifically a Plugable TBT3-UDZ. It connects to all of my peripherals, including my keyboard, webcam and headset, along with two external monitors, both via HDMI.

Unfortunately, monitor number two keeps blinking on and off under Ubuntu 25.04 and this isn't happening under Windows 11 with the same docking station and hardware. I even ran a firmware update on the docking station to see if it would help, but no luck.

I'm going to have to try a different docking station, perhaps one that connects via USB 3.0 instead of Thunderbolt 3 or 4.

Docking station solution involves a very involved install

So I found at least a temporary though kludgey solution to my docking station problem. As you'll recall from the previous post, my Thunderbolt 3 docking station was blinking the second monitor on and off. Fortunately, I had a USB to dual display adapter in my drawer, a Plugable USBC-6950U.

The Plugable USBC-6950U can't take the place of my Thunderbolt 3 dock, because it is just for displays and doesn't have USB ports for my peripherals. However, it can attach to a USB Type-A port because it uses DisplayLink technology that outputs video over a USB connection. This is unlike Thunderbolt 3 and 4 which send video as DisplayPort signals not as regular USB data.

So I hooked up the second monitor to the Pluable USBC-6950U and plugged the dock into the Type-A port on my laptop. I still have the Thunderbolt 3 connection going to my laptop's Thunderbolt 4 port.

Unfortunately, DisplayLink docks don't run natively on Ubuntu 25.04. You need to install the DisplayLink driver for Ubuntu and here's where things get interesting. I downloaded the Ubuntu driver from DisplayLink's site and unzipped it.

Then I ran the script that was in the zip file.

And then the script asked me to run various updates at least half a dozen times. And all of this was taking place at the command prompt.

Then the install script asked me to set up a MOK (Machine Owner Key). This is a security measure that allows third-party drivers to run, despite there being a UEFI Secure Boot BIOS. I had to create a password for the MOK, enter it, watch as Ubuntu rebooted and then enter my password again to install the driver.

Someone with less tech-savvy would have been totally confused by the process of registering and entering the MOK. And, to be honest, I found it confusing too.

Meanwhile, on Windows, when you install a driver, you don't need to go to the command prompt, run a script, say "yes" to about half a dozen system updates, create a new password for installing the driver and then reboot and enter that password again. This is a totally confusing and ridiculous process.

However, the process worked and my second monitor is running now and it's not blinking.

Installing on my desktop took way longer than my laptop

My desktop is a pretty powerful PC. It's got a Ryzen 9 7950X CPU (16 cores, 32 threads), 64GB of DDR5 RAM, an RTX 3090 Ti GPU and a 2TB, PCIe 5 SSD. There's no way it's less powerful than my laptop, which sports a Core Ultra 7 "Meteor Lake" mobile processor. However, it took way longer to install Ubuntu 25.04 on my desktop than on my laptop.

Last night, I installed the OS on my desktop and just having it connect to Wi-Fi (via Wi-Fi 6) took several minutes. The overall installation process took about 15 minutes and appeared to be stuck for the last 10 of those minutes (there's no progress bar to tell you how far along it is). But I waited and eventually it finished.

Anyone have any idea why a much more powerful computer would take three times as long to install and appear to be stuck?

Installing Google Chrome browser: It's not in the app store

The first app I installed on Ubuntu (on both my machines) was Chrome browser. While Chromium, the open source version of the browser, is available in Ubuntu's App Center (its app store), the official Google version is not.

To get the Google version of Chrome, I first had to go to this page and click Download Chrome.

Then I had to choose the DEB file for Ubuntu.

After it downloaded, I double clicked on the DEB and it asked if I wanted to install.

Boom. Chrome installed. However, why can't it be in the App Center where it would be available with only one click?

Can Ubuntu support unique Window borders? Not in Slack

One app I use a lot is Slack. We communicate with it for work so I can't live without it.

In Windows 11, the Slack Window is very stylish. It has a unique top with no Window bar. But what about Linux?

In Linux, it has the same standard, ugly Window bar as everything else. Lame.

Which of my favorite apps have Linux versions?

So I'm in the process of figuring out which of my favorite Windows apps have versions for Linux. So far, here's what I have found.

• Slack - has Linux version
• Dropbox - has Linux version
• Google Drive - no Linux version
• Photoshop Elements - no Linux version, using GIMP instead
• Notepad++ - Runs under Linux via WINE emulation but the font is too small to see
• Chrome browser - has Linux version
• OBS Studio - has Linux version
• PickPic screenshot tool - no Linux version, using built-in Ubuntu screenshot feature
• MySQL Workbench - appears to have a Linux version
• Visual Studio Community -- There is VSCode, but not VS Community
• VMWare Workstation Pro - Has a Linux version
• Logi Options+ - No Linux version
• Stream Deck app - No Linux version
• AutoHotKey - No official Linux version; there is a tool called AHK_X11 that tries to emulate it.
• VLC - Has a Linux version
• Steam - Has a Linux version

If anyone has any suggestions for apps I can use as substitutes, please let me know in the comments.

What's with this font?

So I installed Steam on my Linux PC and, as part of the process, it showed me this dialog box. That font is straight out of the last century.

So many different ways to install apps

There are at least four main ways that I've had to use to install applications so far in Ubuntu. First, there's the Ubuntu App Center, a searchable app store that lists thousands of programs and lets you install them in a single click. This is just click the Microsoft Store on Windows.

Another way to get apps is to download them directly from a third-party site where they are most likely (but not always) .deb files. Then you can double click them to run the install. That's what I did to get Dropbox and Chrome.

A third method involves using apt at the command line as in sudo apt get install [APP]. That's what I eventually had to do to install my favorite FTP client, Filezilla.

Filezilla was not available in the App Center so I went to FIlezilla's site where I was presented with the option to download an installer.However, the installer was not an installer at all but a .tar.xz archive file with the entire program in it, no installation script and no way to install it. Why on earth would the makers of Filezilla do that?

However, when I Googled "install Filezilla in Linux," I learned that you can install it using sudo apt get filezilla at the command prompt. If you're coming from Windows where you never need to go to the command prompt to install an app (or do most things), this is a really big step down. But it's easy enough to do.

The fourth way I've seen to install software is using some kind of script. That's what I did yesterday to install the DisplayLink driver. That took several minutes and made me enter a MOK (machine owner key) key to get it to work.

It's annoying that, even after decades on the market, Linux still doesn't make it easy enough to find and install apps. This really ought to be easier.

Linux wants you to keep entering your password

In Windows, when you install a new program or change a key setting, you get hit with a User Account Control pop-up that asks you to approve the change. But you don't need to re-enter your password every time.

In Ubuntu 25.04, every time I install a piece of software, I get hit with a password prompt. This is supposedly better for security, but I'm going to argue here that it's worse.

If you have to type in your password a dozen times a day, you're going to choose a less complex password. So maybe this is self-defeating. Anyway, it's annoying.

Why can't I ungroup taskbar icons?

One of the more annoying things about Ubuntu 25.04 is that its taskbar seemingly won't let me ungroup icons. So I have three different Chrome windows open and it shows three dots next to the Chrome icon on the left.

However, unlike Windows, there's no option I can find to ungroup it so that each window would get its own icon. Similarly, there's no way to get a description of the windows into the taskbar.

To see all the windows for an app, I must click on the icon for that app in the taskbar and then I'm taken to a separate screen that shows all the windows. It's a minor annoyance but an annoyance none the less.

Gnome shell extensions add functionality

Ubuntu 25.04 uses the Gnome Desktop Environment, which gives us the dock (aka taskbar) on the left side, the look and feel of the windows and the status bar at the top of the screen which has the date, time and system tray.

There are third-party and first-party extensions for Gnome which give you extra options and functionality but you need to first install the Gnome Shell Extension Manager which you do by entering sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager at the command prompt. I found this out through Googling Gnome shell extensions; it was presented to me as an option during install.

Once you have it installed, there are a few pre-existing system extensions that come preloaded. One of these is Ubuntu Dock, and if you hit the settings icon next to its listing, you get a window which lets you change some things about the appearance of the dock.

I changed the behavior that occurs when you click an icon for an open app in the dock so that it shows preview thumbnails of the windows rather than the default behavior which takes you to a separate screen with an "overview" of the windows.

You can also install third-party extensions and I installed one for the clipboard, which keeps a clipboard history. It's called Clipboard Indicator and it puts an icon in the system tray that lets you see and navigate through everything you've copied.

Windows 11 has a clipboard history feature built-in so this is a must-have for Ubuntu users.

What I still can't do

This is my third full day of running Linux and I spent most of the day actually working. Most of the things I work on are in the cloud and accessible via the Chrome browser. I spent a lot of time in Google docs, in Gmail and in our CMS.

Still, here are the things I can't do / haven't figured out:

• Use my Streamdeck Neo
• Control my phone from the desktop -- this appears to be doable in KDE desktop but not easily in Gnome desktop environment
• Set keyboard shortcuts to launch favorite apps -- I'd like to launch Chrome by hitting CTRL + ALT + C or something similar.
• Remap keys -- I want to turn my numpad into media keys or my Insert key into Print Screen, but I can't figure out how to make this happen
• Take screenshots with a built-in editor or timer -- The Ubuntu screenshot software is pretty good but not as good as PickPic, which I use in Windows. PickPic has a built-in editor that makes it easy to draw boxes around the parts of the shot I want to highlight. It also has a timer for delayed screenshots.
• Ungroup taskbar icons -- Not possible at least in Gnome
• Create keyboard macros like I do in AutoHotkey in Windows

If anyone has any suggestions, please leave a comment below.

GSConnect is the way to pair with your phone

One problem I solved is how to get my Android phone to connect to my Ubuntu desktop so I can read and send SMS messages from the computer. Under Windows, there's a helpful Microsoft app called Phone Link that allows me to do this. On Ubuntu, there's nothing built in.

After doing some research, I discovered that there's a Gnome Shell Extension called GSConnect, which is a port of one for KDE-enabled Linux called KDE Connect. So I opened up the Gnome Shell Extension manager and went to the tab where you search for new extensions and found GSConnect.

Then, on my phone, I had to install the KDE Connect app. Pairing the two was a one-step process and it seems to work flawlessly. However, as is often the case, I had to figure out where in the desktop UI to go to get to something on Ubuntu.

It turns out that GSCconnect is under the Wi-Fi menu.

After clicking it there, I get a big menu with more choices, including the one I care about: messaging.

Then I get my SMS messaging box.

Creating keyboard shortcuts for apps is easy, if you know how

One of the things I couldn't figure out how to do right away with Ubuntu 25.04, I have now found out how to do: setting up keyboard shortcuts to launch my favorite apps. Here's how it's done.

1. Open Settings from the Ubuntu menu.

2. Navigate to Keyboard->View and Customize Shortcuts->Custom Shortcuts

3. Click +

3. Enter a name for the shortcut, which could be anything.

4. Enter the command line command for launching the app

5. Click Set Shortcut and enter a key combo of your choice (ex: CTRL + ALT + C for Chrome)

Remapping keys is possible and relatively easy

Besides creating keyboard shortcuts, I've wanted to be able to remap keys. I like to turn my numpad into media keys and make my insert key into a print screen key. This functionality isn't built into Ubuntu 25.04, but there's a good program called keyd that makes it possible.

To install keyd, I had to enter

sudo apt install gitsudo apt install gccsudo apt install makegit clone https://github.com/rvaiya/keydcd keydmake && sudo make installsudo systemctl enable --now keyd

That gets the program installed but how do you configure it? You must create a text file called /etc/keyd/default.conf and the file should look something like this:

In the [main] section you set one key to be equal to another. So, in my case, kp5 = playpause turns the numpad 5 key into the playpause key. After you're done saving the file, enter sudo keyd reload to make it recognize the changes.

To see a list of possible key names type sudo keyd list-keys.

My laptop did not go to sleep

So I had closed the lid of my laptop Wednesday evening, thinking that it would go to sleep and eventually into hibernation so it doesn't use up the battery. That's what happens with this same laptop with Windows 11.

However, when I tried to power on the laptop on Saturday, nothing happened. It was completely out of battery, suggesting that the laptop never went to sleep or that it used up all of its battery by remaining in sleep mode and not going into hibernation (something Windows goes into after about 12 hours).

This morning, I plugged my laptop in and turned it on at the office and, indeed, it had lost all of its charge. So either the laptop never went to sleep, which I doubt because it had gone to sleep before, or it used up all of its charge while sleeping because it never went into hibernation. Either way, this is a very bad default setting for Ubuntu.

Getting a log of laptop sleep cycles

So it looks like my laptop did go to sleep but it never went into hibernate thereafter. I just looked up how to get a log of my computer's sleep cycles. What I had to do is type journalctl | grep systemd-sleep at the command prompt and read the bottom.

This is what I got.

Notice that the computer went to sleep at 17:04 on Wednesday the 7th, which is the last time I had closed the lid. Presumably it ran out of juice at some time between that day and Saturday, when I attempted to turn the laptop on again.

Mission Center is the task manager you really need

A few days ago, I was talking about Gnome System Monitor and how it takes the place that Task Manager occupies in Windows. However, Gnome System Monitor just isn't as good as Task Manager. It looks a little bit low-rent in comparison to Microsoft's offering.

The other problem with Gnome System Monitor is that it shows the apps and processes all together in one giant list. What if I just want to kill Chrome because it's stuck? There are like 20 different processes listed here.

But Mission Center shows apps and processes separately, allowing you to kill just what you need to kill.

Want to learn more about Mission Center? Check out our Mission Center article.

Trying KDE enivronment

I'm getting bored of the default, Gnome environment for Ubuntu and I'm trying to switch to the KDE desktop environment to see if it's better. Here's what the default, Gnome environment looks like with its taskbar off to the left side.

Right now, I'm in the process of trying to intall Kubuntu Desktop to see if that works. I may need to do a complete reinstall of the OS, which I'd rather avoid at this point.

Kubuntu Desktop looks good

So far so good with Kubuntu Desktop, the other leading desktop environment for Ubuntu. I simply did sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop to install it and then I removed the components of the Gnome desktop using sudo apt remove ubuntu-desktop gnome-shell && sudo apt autoremove as I saw mentioned on Reddit.

However, I am getting a few error messages, which suggests that doing a clean install of Kubuntu might have been a good idea. But then I'd have to reinstall all of my apps, something I don't want to do.

So far, I like this KDE desktop better because it feels more like Windows 11 or Windows 10. There's a Start menu and a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. The Start menu pops up as a small box, rather than taking over the whole screen like the Gnome menu did.

The system tray is also properly placed in the lower right corner of the screen.

KDE Connect Error

So it seems that transitioning from Gnome to KDE broke my smartphone program. I use KDE Connect, which on Gnome is called GSConnect. I had to re-pair the phone under KDE and that seemed to work ok. However, When I try to connect to the SMS messages part of KDE connect, nothing happens.

Boatswain gives me some access to Streamdeck, but not enough

Based on a recommendation from the forum, I tried Boatswain, an app which lets you control and program your Streamdeck keypad from within Linux. This is needed because I have a Streamdeck Neo but Elgato doesn't make a Linux version of its app.

Boatswain appears to work as it lets you assign apps, URLs and other actions to the keys on your stream deck, but it appears to have some serious problems. First, when I tried to get it to launch Google Chrome browser from a key, I discovered that the menu of available apps only shows Boatswain itself and some help files, not any of the apps I have installed.

So I couldn't have keys set to launch any of the apps I wanted. Also, it doesn't appear to allow you to pick or create custom icons for the keys. There's a small list of monochrome icons you can choose from, but if you wanted to -- as I've done in Windows -- put an actual Gmail icon on your launch Gmail button, you can't. Instead I ended up with a Globe icon.

As is often the case with Windows, someone has taken it upon themselves to make up for the lack of official hardware support. But what's really needed is for companies like Elgato (owned by Corsair) to step up and make Linux versions of their software.

StreamController is better than Boatswain for Stream Deck stuff

Thanks to some help from a forum member, I found a better app for configuring and controlling my Stream Deck Neo. It's called StreamController and it has what Boatswain, the other app I tried to do this with, lacks. It allows you to enter custom commands for each key on the Streamdeck so, as long as you know what the command line command is for your favorite app, you can enter it.

Another big improvement over Boatswain is that it allows you to use any PNG file you want as a custom background wallpaper for a key. So, I wanted to have a key that launches my Gmail inbox and I made it use the command google-chrome https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox to launch it.

There's no option to launch websites, but the workaround is to just but the command to launch your browser (in my case, google-chrome) in front of whatever URL you wish to launch. Then I downloaded a Gmail Icon as a PNG and used that as my wallpaper for the key.

I wish this process were a little more seamless and you could get a menu of preinstalled apps to choose from or a dialog box that let you put in the website you want. But this is a process that works and, for that, I am thankful. Kudos to the makers of StreamController and shame on Elgato for not having a native Linux version of the Stream Deck app.

This still isn't working

I uninstalled and reinstalled KDE Connect but the SMS messages part of the app still does nothing. Literally nothing happens when I try to activate it. This is a major downer, because I really want to be able to send SMS messages from my desktop and I was able to do it before I switched from Gnome to KDE Plasma.

No AutoHotKey for Linux?

One of my favorite Windows programs is AutoHotKey, which lets you assign macros to any keyboard combo. I write AHK macros that select menu items you can't get to with a hotkey in Google Docs or in Photoshop Elements or elsewhere.

Linux doesn't have AutoHotKey, but it does have a compatible app called AHK_X11. However, you need a version of Linux that uses X11 window manager. The latest Ubuntu (and other apps) use Wayland instead of X11. So that won't work.

Reinstalling Kubuntu Fixed some issues

So I did a clean install of Kubuntu, which I like better than regular Ubuntu, on my laptop and afterwards I was able to use KDE Connect with SMS messages, a problem I had before. Now I have to reinstall all my apps to get the laptop going again.

As I type this on my desktop, I'm using Ubuntu (not Kubuntu) and all is working pretty well, but I'm trying to find a good, free PDF editor where I can enter text on a medical form I have to fill out. I've tried five different editors and all seem to have issues that make it difficult or impossible to put text on top of the form. Very lame. Any suggestions?

Xournal++ is the PDF Editing App to Use

So I have some medical forms I need to fill out that were sent to me as PDFs. I need to fill in my name, personal info and answer some questions on these forms, which look like scans of old paper documents.

In Windows, it's difficult enough to fill out such forms because it seems like most PDF editors want you to pay or are trial versions that eventually want you to pay for them. All I want to do is type letters onto the lines and put the letter X in some checkboxes then save or print.

I found a helpful article on PDF editors for Linux and I tried the first four on the list with varying levels of success. Some of them insisted on treating the scans in the PDF as an image and every time i clicked on the form, it would move or resize the boxes and words as if I were shrinking or growing a picture when all I wanted to do was insert text at a certain position. Others made me draw a box before inserting text when all I wanted to do was click on an area and start typing.

The simplest tool I found was note-taking app Xournal++, which is made for writing notes, not necessarily for PDF editing. However, it opens PDFs and lets you type on them and then save them. If you want to save them as PDFs, you have to Export rather than save which is annoying. However, this tool seems to work really well and is convenient so I'm using it and recommend it.

To install, all you need to do is type sudo apt install xournalapp.

A week plus with Linux: What I learned

It has now been more than 10 days since I started using Linux as my main desktop OS on my laptop and desktop, both at work and at home. I've used the operating system as I've gone about my daily work and other regular tasks. On my home desktop, I've been running Ubuntu 25.04 the entire time and, on my laptop, I changed to Kubuntu 25.04, which is nearly the same OS but uses KDE instead of Gnome as its desktop environment.

Here's what I've learned:

• Most tasks are possible in Linux: Almost everything I tried I was able to eventually get to work in Linux, with a few noteworthy exceptions.
• Hardware support is the Achilles Heel of Linux: Lots of peripherals work, but don't have fully support in Linux. For example, my Logitech MX Master 3S mouse works in Linux but Logitech's software, Logi+ isn't made for Linux. So I can't do things like change the DPI or customize what the buttons do in Linux. There's unofficial community software that can do some of this, but the unofficial software just is not as good.
  
  For example, StreamController allowed me to configure my Stream Deck Neo, but it's not nearly as easy-to-use or powerful as Elgato's own Stream Deck software. Shame on all the peripheral vendors who don't offer Linux versions of their apps.
  
• Community versions of software are a mixed blessing: There are community versions -- apps made by independent developers -- that fill the gap where first-party software lacks Linux versions. However, these are often made by volunteers who have other things to do and don't have the kind of insight that would come from being part of the original hardware or software team. For example, AutoHotKey, a major macro app for Windows, is not available for Linux at all. There's a community version called AHK_X11 but it still hasn't been updated to work with the latest versions of Ubuntu, the most popular Linux flavor, because it's incompatible with the Wayland window manager that Ubuntu uses.
  
• Too many ways to install software: There are way too many competing ways to install software and this can be confusing. Some apps are best installed via Ubuntu's AppCenter, but more are available by using sudo apt-get install at the command line. Still others require the FlatPak utility to install while others have downloadable install files. Still other apps require you to compile them in order to get them to work. Some apps (example: GSConnect phone controller) even exist as Gnome Shell Extensions The lack of consistent ways to install software is a real problem for anyone who doesn't have the patience and experience to deal with all these possibilities.
  
• Changing Desktop managers is too much work: Changing from Gnome to KDE was a fair amount of work and broke some software. This should be easy and not require you to reinstall the OS.
  
• KDE is better than Gnome: I recommend that folks who want to try Linux use Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu. The KDE environment is way better than Gnome as it has a full-featured start menu and a real Windows-like taskbar and system tray.

Here's what I have and have not been able to run:

• Browser: Got my Google Chrome browser installed and it worked flawlessly with all of my extensions on board. It's a shame, though, that it's not in the AppCenter and has to be downloaded manually from Google.com.
• Slack: There's a perfect first-party version of Slack that works flawlessly.
• Discord: Also worked flawlessly.
• Filezilla: Everyone's favorite FTP and SFTP client is available and works great.
• Photoshop Elements: I couldn't even attempt to use this in Linux. Though an emulator like WINE might have made it possible, I couldn't have been able to activate it and have it also on my Windows install. I used GIMP instead and it was pretty good but I still prefer Adobe's interface.
• Screenshots: While my favorite screenshot app, PickPic, isn't available in Linux. the built-in screenshot software in Gnome and KDE is pretty good (KDE's is better). Flameshot, a third-party app, is really good too.
• MySQL: Perfect version of the Workbench is available.
• PDF Editing: It took me a while but I found Xournal+ which is great for this task.
• Code editing: There are a lot of code editors. I still haven't found one I like as much as Notepad++ which I use in Windows. Notepad++ will run using Wine emulation but on my home desktop, which uses scaling, the font is too small to read.
• Stream Deck: I can use this with the community-driven, StreamController app.
• Logitech MX Creative Console: I have this at work and there's no Linux control for it whatsoever.
• Logitech MX Master 3S Mouse: Works ok in Linux and there this a community control software. Logitech, however, should offer a Linux version of its Logi+ software.
• AutoHotKey: I love this macro scripting software in Windows and can't use it at all in Ubuntu 25.04. Huge disappointment.
• OBS Studio: There's a community version but no official version of OBS for Linux.
• MS Office: I have this for Windows. For Linux, there's the inferior but free LIbre Office.
  
• Phone Link: I use Phone Link to control my phone and send SMS messages from within Windows. In Linux, there's GSConnect and KDE Connect, depending on whether you are in Gnome or KDE. These work, but their UI looks very primitive in comparison to what you get from Microsoft. For example, when entering text for an SMS, the entry box doesn't wrap onto a second or third line so if you type a few sentences, you can't see your whole message on the screen until after you've sent it.

There's still a lot more to learn and I'll be spending more time with Linux in the days and weeks ahead. However, this is a good time to close this blog and say "I learned a lot."

I really like Linux and, if it had just a little bit better support for the hardware and software I rely on, I could see myself switching to it for 90 or 100% of my daily usage. As of now, though, I'll still be using Windows, at least some of the time.

Taking your first steps into the world of Linux can be a scary proposition. After all, we have a whole new world of terminal commands, desktop environments and applications to learn. Thankfully Linux installation has improved leaps and bounds from the earliest text based installers used in the late 1990s (Where I started my journey with Mandrake, Corel Linux) via graphical installers in the early 2000s (Ubuntu, Open Suse). From the 2010s we have seen better graphical installers providing clearer and easier means to install the latest Linux distro.

The first steps into Linux now fall under two paths.: a single board computer such as the Raspberry Pi or more traditionally a dual boot setup, where Windows and Linux are installed to the same machine, often on the same boot drive. Using a custom boot menu, GRUB, we can choose between the two operating systems when we power on our PC.

In this how to, we shall learn how to dual boot Linux with Windows, using Ubuntu and Windows 11.

Before we kick-off, a word of caution. Ensure that you have backed up your drive before moving forwards. There is always a chance that you will accidentally overwrite your drive.

How to Create a Linux Install USB

Our Linux distro is typically downloaded as an ISO image (ISO originally being used to reference CD / DVD sized images) of a live Linux OS that we can test on our machine. To use the ISO with a UEFI / Secure Boot system we need to use Rufus, a popular free utility that writes ISO files to USB Flash drives.

Our goal is to create a bootable USB stick containing our chosen Linux OS. A minimum capacity of 8GB is recommended for your USB drive.

What you will need to dual boot Linux and Windows

• Computer running Windows 10 or 11 (see how to get Windows 11 for free)
• USB Flash drive, 8GB or larger
• Linux distro (we chose Ubuntu)

1. Download and install Rufus for your operating system.

2. Insert a USB drive into your machine and open Rufus.

3. Select your USB drive using Device, and then click SELECT and select the Linux OS that you wish to install. In our case it was Ubuntu.

4. Select the GPT partition scheme and click START to write the OS to the USB drive. GPT is the latest partition scheme and necessary for installing Ubuntu on a UEFI system. It is gradually replacing MBR.

5. When prompted select “Write in ISO image mode” and click OK.

6. Read and understand the prompts to ensure that Linux OS will be written to the correct drive. There is no going back should you make a mistake.

7. Click CLOSE to exit Rufus and remove the USB drive from the machine.

How to Install Linux for Dual Boot

The Linux installer has come a long way. Gone are the old days of scary user interfaces and in their place are inviting and easy to use installers that guide you through the process. We’re going to use the Ubuntu 22.04.1 installer to split our 256GB NVMe drive in half. Giving Windows and Ubuntu enough space for a basic dual boot install. Then we will follow a typical Ubuntu installation.

1. Insert the USB drive into your computer and boot from it. Each computer is a little different, Some will offer a function key to select a boot device, some need to be selected from the BIOS.

2. From the GRUB menu select “Try or Install Ubuntu” (or your Linux OS of choice) and press Enter . The GRUB menu is a custom boot menu used on Linux devices. It can also be customized to show a background image.

3. When prompted, click Try Ubuntu to load the OS into RAM as a “Live Distro”. Live Distros give us enough of the operating system to test on our machine without making any changes to the system. They are also useful as recovery devices to boot broken computers.

4. Test your hardware to make sure that everything you need is working. Check audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc before moving onwards.

5. Double click on the Install icon to launch the installer application.

6. Select your language and click Continue.

7. Configure your accessibility requirements and click Next.

8. Select your preferred keyboard layout and click Continue.

9. Choose how you connect to the Internet and click Next to move on. If you have wired or Wi-Fi Internet access, choose the most appropriate method. Later, part of the install process will require Internet access to download software updates.

10. Select an Interactive Installation and click Next. Interactive installations will prompt the user for input as the install progresses. The automated install option is used for users who have a configuration script that automates the process.

11. Select either Default or Extended and click Next. The Default option will install just the basic applications (file manager, web browser, and some basic utilities.) This is useful for creating a base install for use in specific projects. If you require more apps, such as office tools, image editors etc, opt for the Extended selection. This option is also useful for those new to Linux.

12. Tick the boxes to choose whether you require proprietary software and click Next. Ubuntu comes with no proprietary software as part of the ISO image, but here we can install software and drivers that make Ubuntu easier to use.

13. Select “Install Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager” and click Next. Any other option will either delete the entire contents of the drive, or require manual configuration, so take great care.

14. Ensure that the correct drive has been selected, and slide the slider to adjust how much space each OS will have.

15. Select No Encryption to install Ubuntu without any form of drive encryption. Otherwise select Encrypt with a passphrase to encrypt your disk. Click Next to move on.

16. Create a new user and give your machine a relevant hostname. Click Next to continue. This will be the default user for the operating system, so make sure that it is relevant. The hostname identifies the machine, and if you have many machines on the network, it will make it easier to identify your machine.

17. Set your location and click Continue.

18. Review your choices and click Install to begin.

The installation will take a few minutes to complete.

19. Click on Restart Now to reboot your computer.

20. Remove the USB drive and press Enter when prompted.

How to set up your BIOS for your first Linux dual boot

The first boot of a Linux dual boot system requires a little fine tuning in our BIOS. We need to tell the system to boot from our Linux install, which will trigger the GRUB menu to load. From there we can select an OS to boot from. Each BIOS is a little different, so use these steps as a general guide and refer to the manual for your motherboard for more specific information.

1. Open your BIOS menu. See our story on how to enter your BIOS if you don’t know how to do this already.

2. Select the Boot menu.

3. Select UEFI NVMe Drive BBS Priorities.

4. Set Boot Option 1 to be the Linux install.

5. Check that the change has been made, then save and exit the BIOS.

6. The system will now boot to GRUB, choose your Linux OS and press Enter. If we leave GRUB for 10 seconds, it will choose the default option, typically Linux.

7. Boot to the Linux desktop and check that everything is correct.

8. Reboot to GRUB and select Windows to check that everything is working.

According to Canonical's Utkarsh Gupta, we'll have to wait a little longer for the next update to the current Ubuntu 24.04 release. It seems that the latest images are missing something beneficial to more recent hardware.

Originally scheduled for a February 13 release, Ubuntu 24.04.2 is a point release, a refreshed release that includes all of the latest updates, bug fixes and upgrades since the original Ubuntu 24.04 image was released. If you are using Ubuntu 24.04, then updating and upgrading your software packages will keep your install up to date. Point releases are more useful for those installing to a new machine, and not wanting to spend too long downloading updates, or for those with a slower internet connection.

Gupta reports that "Due to an unfortunate incident, it appears that some 24.04.2 images built this week did not include the HWE kernel. To be consistent across all images, we've decided to respin the images and delay the Noble 24.04.2 by a week.

The new release date for 24.04.2 will be 20th February 2025."

In light of the issue, Gupta states that the there will be a "a proper retrospective to prevent this from happening in the future."

So what is HWE kernel? Hardware Enablement is essentially a means for non-rolling release Linux distros to "catch up" with the latest hardware via an updated kernel. It has been almost a year since Ubuntu 24.04 was released, and in that time there has been a plethora of new CPUs and other PC hardware components.

So right now the team are rebuilding the ISO images with the correct kernel for HWE. This also means that they images will need to be retested before the February 20 release date.

Ubuntu 24.04 is the latest LTS (Long Term Support Release) of the popular Debian based Linux distro, and it has been plagued by delays. Codenamed "Noble Numbat", Ubuntu 24.04 first point update, 24.04.1 suffered a two week delay back in August 2024 due to a number of "high-impact upgrade bugs". Earlier in the release cycle, Noble Numbat's Beta release was delayed due to malicious code in the XZ compression tools. It seems that the Noble Numbat is unable to catch a break.

If you can't wait, then Ubuntu 24.04.1 is the current point release and it will be upgradeable to match 24.04.2 via the OS package management tools.

Ubuntu 24.10 marks 20 years since the first version of Ubuntu (4.10 “Warty Warthog”) was released in October 2004. I joined the Ubuntu train at 5.10 “Breezy Badger” but it was Ubuntu 6.06 which caused the biggest stir. You see, this was the first Long Term Support (LTS) Ubuntu release and it garnered plenty of interest from users wanting to move from Windows, but who also wanted a stable platform to work from.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution (often referred to as a distro) which is derived from Debian. It has proven popular with users who like the Debian way of doing things, but want a more cutting edge distro. 

An Ubuntu LTS release is published every two years and is classed as “Enterprise grade”, meaning they are fit for business critical use. Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu estimate that 95% of Ubuntu installs are LTS releases. An LTS release sees five years of support in the form of security maintenance releases (this can be boosted to 10 years with an Ubuntu Pro subscription) and an LTS will also receive point release that upgrade the kernel and other critical applications. The rest of the applications and packages are updated as and when new packages are released, for example when Blender, GIMP or Inkscape create a new release.

Interim releases typically occur in October of each year (six months between LTS versions), and are production quality releases intended for users who want the latest Ubuntu release and all of the bells and whistles associated with it. The key difference between an interim and an LTS release is that an interim release only receives nine months of support. After that you are expected to upgrade to the next release. Think of an interim has Canonical’s way of introducing new features before committing them to an LTS. 

Typically, a user would update from one LTS to another, skipping the interim releases. Note that you cannot do a direct upgrade from releases before 24.04. You must upgrade to 24.04 and then upgrade to 24.10.

But what if you are running 24.04 and wanted to update to an interim release? In this how to we will demonstrate how to update two systems. One running Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop, and the other running Ubuntu 24.04 Server, to Ubuntu 24.10.

We’re not going to go down the “Upgrade versus fresh install” road. Suffice to say, do what you are comfortable with. I’ve personally done both, usually favoring a fresh install if I have completely broken my install (and that is how I learnt to use Python virtual environments to prevent me destroying the OS Python install.)

How to update Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop to Ubuntu 24.10

For this how-to, you will need a computer running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Before taking any of these steps, ensure that you have backed up all of your data as there is a risk of data loss.

1. From the Ubuntu desktop, press the super key (Windows key) and search for Software and Updates.

2. Select the Updates tab from the Software and Updates application. This may take a little while to load as it checks for updates before launching. If this happens to you, complete any updates before moving on to the next step.

3. Select “For any new version” from the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” dropdown menu and click Close.

4. From the Ubuntu desktop, press the super key (Windows key) and search for Software Updater.

5. Click on Upgrade and enter your password to authenticate.

6. Read the Release Notes and then click Upgrade.

7. Sit back and relax as the upgrade preparations begin. There may be times where user interaction is required, for example to confirm that third party sources are disabled, check before taking action.

8. When asked “Do you want to start the upgrade?”, check the details box before clicking Start Upgrade. Some parts of the previous installation will be removed or their configurations changed, so make sure you are happy to proceed.

9. Sit back and relax while the upgrade updates your system to 24.10.

10. When asked to “Remove obsolete packages?” Click on Details and review the packages to be removed. You can choose to keep or remove. We chose to remove the packages.

11. Click on Restart Now to power cycle your computer. Note the new 20 Years Ubuntu splash screen.

You’re now running Ubuntu 24.10 but if you yearn for the “brown” of Ubuntu 4.10, then fear not as in the Settings menu (top right of the screen), under Appearance, we can set the background to something similar to those halcyon days.

And yes, we did give it a try.

How to upgrade your Ubuntu 24.04 Server to Ubuntu 24.10 Server

First of all remember that Ubuntu 24.10 only has nine months of support, versus the 5 years afforded to Ubuntu 24.04. These steps can also be followed for desktop users wishing to upgrade via the terminal. 

If you really want to upgrade then you will need to do the following.

1. Update and upgrade the software repositories to ensure that you are running the latest software. This isn’t strictly necessary, but by ensuring that we have the latest software, we can reduce the chance of any issues when upgrading to 24.10.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Open the release-upgrades file using nano.

sudo nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

3. Change the Prompt line from lts to normal and press CTRL+O, then CTRL+X, Y, and Enter to save and close nano. By default, LTS upgrades happen from one LTS to another, by changing this we are enabling the installer to use non-LTS Ubuntu releases.

Prompt=normal

4. Run the upgrade installer.

do-release-upgrade

5. Press Y and enter to start the process. 

6. Press Y to download the packages for the installation.

7. Set your language and keyboard layout and select OK.

8. Wait for the install to progress.
9. When asked to remove obsolete packages, press d to receive more details, then press Q to end the details review and y to continue.
10. Press Y to restart the server.

Your server is now running Ubuntu 24.10!

Ubuntu releases

We’ve included a list of all the Ubuntu releases, their codenames (used in development) and their release dates.This should come in handy for the SysAdmin pub quiz.

Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions, just released its latest version ­— Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole.’ This is the second update for 2024, six months after Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ‘Noble Numbat’ and following Canonical’s usual release schedule. However, given that this is the first update following an LTS (or Long-Term Support) update, we expect several new features.

The most significant change, as OMG! Ubuntu notes that ARM64 devices now use GNOME Initial Setup, which offers a cleaner, slicker way of setting up the operating system after the first install. When I set up Ubuntu 24.10 in a virtual machine in my MacBook Air, it felt easier to install and use than my MacBook and Windows laptops. We also get updated dialog boxes that adjust based on the Windows aspect ratio, making it useful for portrait devices like smartphones and tablets.

Several other quality-of-life updates in Ubuntu 24.10, like new File Manager features, make navigating your bookmarks and internal drives easier on the sidebar. Apps also now use the default File Manager when browsing your hard drive, providing a more seamless experience. And, if you run a search on non-indexed folders, you’ll find an info button that will explain why your search query is taking longer than usual.

Aside from the many functional and aesthetic changes, Ubuntu 24.10 also marks the 20th anniversary of the Ubuntu distribution, with the first Ubuntu 4.10 ‘Warty Warthog’ being released on October 20, 2004. Because of this, Ubuntu 24.10 offers a few touches for those who want to go down memory lane.

When the system boots up, you’ll see the 20 Years Ubuntu logo right at the bottom of the screen. You can also set the desktop background to the original Ubuntu 4.10 wallpaper, and a Warty Brown accent color is an available option if you want to complete the feel. To round out the experience, Ubuntu 24.10 uses the original startup sound from 4.10, which plays every time you log in.

Ubuntu has come a long way since it first came out in 2004, and each iteration makes it easier to use. This undoubtedly helps Linux increase its market share, with the operating system approaching 4.5% for the first time in August 2024. Although this is still minuscule compared to the massive share of Windows and macOS, its advances offer consumers a viable alternative versus the giants at Redmond and Cupertino, allowing them more control as they use their PCs daily.

The recent release of Ubuntu 24.04 has seemingly gone well for most platforms, but on the Raspberry Pi there is one big issue which has come to light. The OS can be easily installed to the microSD cards, including the best microSD cards, but it appears that users using a combination of USB drives, micro SD cards and for some, NVMe SSDs are encountering installation issues. Ubuntu 24.04 is the first Long Term Support (LTS) release for the Raspberry Pi 5.

So we took a look for ourselves and the picture isn't too rosy. 

At the time of writing there are workarounds which come from a Canonical software engineer, more information should appear later this week. Hat tip to @makerbymistake for alerting us to this issue.

A bug listed on Launchpad (Canonical's preferred software collaboration platform) shows that there appears to be an issue with using USB SSD / HDD and Ubuntu 24.04 on the Raspberry Pi 4.

If you are lucky, then the installer will boot and the new install slideshow will play. However, the images in the slideshow will be corrupted. We asked Dave Jones a software engineer at Canonical for more information on this bug. Jones pointed us to another bug, linked to the corrupted install slideshow. According to Jones, the new installer runs under Xorg, resetting into Wayland when the install process is complete. Jones believes that the issue is Xorg specific as this issue does not appear under Wayland.

We tried to recreate the issue on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB using the latest 20th April bootloader, but we were met with a hung system. The circle was spinning, but we never booted beyond the Ubuntu splash screen.

Could it be an issue with how we flash images to devices? No, Jones is adamant that this is not the issue. Jones tried Raspberry Pi Imager and dd (a Linux terminal command) and the issue could be replicated across both tools. Approximately six weeks ago, Jones tested a USB install on a Raspberry Pi 4, and it worked. It seems that something has happened between then and now.

USB install tests are not part of the what Jones calls "ISO tests", so it may be that this issue slipped through the testing phase. Jones assures us that this will be rectified for future releases.

In the bug report, Jones offers a possible workaround which should enable Ubuntu 24.04 to boot. The first workaround for the Pi 4 involves editing the config.txt before the drive is used to boot a Pi.  This workaround does not offer a 100% success rate. So depending on your USB SSD / micro SD / NVMe combination, you may still hit an error.

Raspberry Pi 5 is also having issues

While this story has been forming we have seen a YouTube video from LeePSPVideo which states that there is an issue using Ubuntu 24.04 on the Raspberry Pi 5 via NVMe. LeePSPVideo encountered the same graphical corruption during the install, and subsequently was unable to log in. 

In the video LeePSPVideo successfully uses Balena Etcher, an alternative tool to write disk images to drives, to write Ubuntu 24.04 to an NVMe drive, and boot from the Pi 5. They then use Gnome Disks, a disk management tool that is part of the Ubuntu install, to write to another NVMe drive via a USB to NVMe adapter. This time though, LeePSPVideo was not as lucky, and encountered an "Installation failed" error message. This dropped them to the login screen, but their freshly created user account would not work, nor would the default Ubuntu user account.

The problem that we face here is that in our tests, the Ubuntu installation process on the Raspberry Pi 5 was inconsistent. Using Raspberry Pi Imager for all of our tests, we managed to install Ubuntu 24.04 on to an NVMe SSD and USB SSD and it worked perfectly. However, a microSD card failed with the "Installation failed" error message that LeePSPVideo also hit. 

Jones refers to another workaround in the bug report, this time editing the config.txt to reduce the PCIe interface speed to x1. Boot, and install. Then revert the changes to get the best speed from the PCIe interface. Just as with the Pi 4 workaround, success is not guaranteed.

From our tests, here is what works, and what doesn't.

• What works
  • Raspberry Pi 5
    • NVMe
    • USB HDD
  • Raspberry Pi 4
    • Micro SD
• What doesn't work
  • Raspberry Pi 5
    • Micro SD
      • Crashed on boot in one test, booted to installer then "Installation Failed" error.
  • Raspberry Pi 4
    • USB HDD

We tested installing Ubuntu 24.04 on a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB and a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB.  Both machines were updated to the latest bootloader (April 20). Images were written to the devices using Raspberry Pi Imager. The devices used were a Cytron MakerDisk 120GB SATA3, Phison PS5013-E13-35 256GB NVMe SSD and a Cytron Makerdisk 128GB micro SD card.

It appears that different combinations of drives could exacerbate the situation. The root cause is not clear, and we've shown our testing to Jones via a video call and they have spotted areas where the installer it failing. 

Where does this leave Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 owners eager to try out Ubuntu 24.04 on their Pi? For now the advice is to try it out on a spare micro SD card / USB SSD / NVMe, but we wouldn't replace a working Raspberry Pi OS or Ubuntu install as yet.

Phoronix tested the Framework Laptop 16 in Ubuntu to see if the Linux OS can outperform Windows 11 on the most modular portable rig around. In testing — with Ubuntu 23.10 and 24.04, Phoronix discovered that both Linux versions were faster than Windows 11 in most applications.

The Framework Laptop 16 is a 16-inch notebook; What sets it apart from other laptops is its modular construction. The laptop can be customized with different aesthetic parts and components, and in there's a DIY edition where users can build their own PCs. For instance, all of the I/O is removable and replaceable with different ports, and the optional RX 7700S GPU comes in a module that can be installed (or removed) by the user.

That Framework Laptop 16 can be configured to come with Windows 11 pre-installed. That said, Framework promotes Linux as a viable alternative if you don't choose to your Framework 16 to come with Windows 11, which is the perfect segue into Phoronix's testing.

Phoronix tested two different flavors of Ubuntu, the outgoing 23.10 version and an upcoming 24.04 version which is "near-final state". Over 100 benchmarks were conducted in a variety of applications including Java workloads, image encoding, creator workloads, video encoding, audio encoding, texture compression, Blender, and more.

Out of the 101 benchmarks run on the Framework 16, Ubuntu 24.04 had the most first-place finishes featuring 68 wins. Ubuntu 23.10 came in second place with 22 wins, and Windows 11 was last featuring an ironic 11 first-place finishes.

Percentage-wise, Windows 11 was the slowest of the three operating systems 73% of the time. Windows 11 wasn't the slowest OS in all of the benchmarks, but it was the slowest in most benchmarks run.

This isn't the first time we've seen Linux dominate on Ryzen hardware. This behavior has been surprisingly consistent over the past few years, with multiple different Ryzen CPUs (including the 7800X3D and 7995WX) boasting more favorable performance in Linux Ubuntu rather than Windows 11. We suspect this behavior comes down to better thread scheduling on the Linux side but we can't be certain. It might also help that Framework claims to develop hardware with Linux in mind, including selecting compatible components and offering distributers pre-release hardware.

If you can live without the creature comforts Microsoft's Windows ecosystem provides Phoronix's testing confirms that Linux is the more performant operating system, at least for the Framework Laptop 16.

After a week's delay, Ubuntu 24.04 Beta has been released for eager users to test out on their systems. Ubuntu 24.04 (codenamed Noble Numbat) is the latest Long Term Support version of the popular Linux OS and introduces a new installer for new and experienced users. Hat tip to OMG Ubuntu for the news.

Ubuntu 24.04 is based on Linux Kernel 6.8 and uses Gnome 46 for the desktop environment. The basic requirements for Ubuntu 24.04 are a machine with at least 1GB of RAM according to the Beta download page. We'd stick with the Ubuntu 22.04 requirements as our lowest comfortable spec (2 GHz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM and 25GB of storage).

The installer is still based on the previous Flutter user interface but for 24.04 it has an updated look, and to be frank, we like it. The install can be interactive or automated. The interactive installation is more the traditional "ask a bunch of questions and tailor the install as you go" whereas the automated installer uses a yaml file. 

This file is something that OEMs and advanced users are likely to use to create en-masse installs to match their requirements. We installed Ubuntu 24.04 to a spare NVMe SSD in our Khadas Mind and the entire process took less than 10 minutes.

The overall look and feel of Ubuntu 24.04 is the same as previous releases, and that is not a bad thing! Running Gnome 36 (codenamed “Kathmandu”), Ubuntu 24.04 feels responsive but we were using a decent spec machine. We tested the Beta on a Khadas Mind, an Intel 13th gen I7 1360P "Raptor Lake" CPU and 32GB of RAM and also on a spare Lenovo X220 laptop which has seen many Linux installs during its long service. On the Khadas Mind it flew, but the older Lenovo X220 struggled a little. There are 11 generations of CPU between these two machines, so perhaps its time to admit that Ubuntu is a little too heavy for my aging X220 and use Lubuntu or Xubuntu?

Software installation can be handled via the App Center or in the terminal. The App Center redesign was introduced in Ubuntu 23.10, and it can be used to install applications using Snap and DEB packages. For the terminal users out there, we can install just as easily using apt and snap. 

As noted by OMG Ubuntu, there are a few software changes. The Cheese camera app is now replaced with Gnome Snapshot. Gnome Games has been removed, and Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client is now installable via snap. Under the hood there are power efficiency changes for Intel and AMD laptop users.

Why was the beta for Ubuntu 24.04 delayed? The key reason was CVE-2024-3094 — otherwise known as the XZ compression tools, which were compromised with malicious code. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu took the decision to remove and rebuild all binary packages that had been built for Ubuntu 24.04 since CVE-2024-3094 was raised. Ubuntu wasn't the only Linux distro to bear the brunt of the issue. Red Hat's Fedora, Debian users who run unstable or experimental packages, Kali Linux, and some Arch Linux installation media files were also affected. 

As far as we know, Ubuntu 24.04 is on track for an April 25 release, so the lost week may not impact the release. Unlike Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" back in 2006 which was delayed two months to give the developers time to add extra features. Ubuntu 6.06 was the only Ubuntu release to be delayed, could Ubuntu 24.04 be the second? We hope not, but if it is, then so be it.

According to a Discourse post, the beta for Ubuntu 24.04 (codename: Noble Numbat) , which was due to be released tomorrow has been delayed and now we should expect it on April 11. The reason for the delay is said to be CVE-2024-3094 — otherwise known as the XZ compression tools, which were compromised with malicious code.

This delay also leads to speculation that the upcoming 24.04 launch — slated for April 25 — could possibly be delayed.

In the Discourse post, Łukasz 'sil2100' Zemczak announced that Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has "made the decision to remove and rebuild all binary packages that had been built for Noble Numbat after the CVE-2024-3094 code was committed to xz-utils (February 26th), on newly provisioned build environments."
This means that any binaries built for the latest Ubuntu release will not be impacted by the recent threat introduced via xz-utils.

The threat, which also triggered Red Hat to release an urgent security alert, sees malicious code being introduced to versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 of xz-utils. This code appears to introduce a backdoor into systems. According to an Openwall mailing list post by Andres Freund:

"After observing a few odd symptoms around liblzma (part of the xz package) on Debian sid installations over the last weeks (logins with ssh taking a lot of CPU, valgrind errors) I figured out the answer:

The upstream xz repository and the xz tarballs have been backdoored."

The xz-utils package is used to compress files / directories using the XZ compression format, commonly used on Linux and Unix machines. At the time of writing, Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat) is using version 5.6.1 of xz-utils, which was one of the two affected versions. By rebuilding the packages with known good code build environments, Canonical claims that it "provides us with confidence that no binary in our builds could have been affected by this emerging threat."

The impact on the beta is that we will now have to wait an extra week before we can get a hands-on with something approaching the final release (there is generally a release just before launch, which is considered a release candidate). Of course there are daily builds that we can try out, but we can't guarantee they are free of the malicious code.

Does this mean the April 25 release date will be pushed back? Ex-Canonical employee and well known Linux podcaster Alan "Popey" Pope ran a poll on Mastodon asking if Ubuntu 24.04 might be delayed. At the time of writing, 58% believe that it will be released on time, while 42% fear that it may be delayed.

The last time that an Ubuntu release was delayed was back in 2006: Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" was delayed by two months to give the team more time to implement extra features for what was to become a pivotal Linux distro. Ubuntu 6.06 saw the merging of a live and install CD, along with a graphical installer and a means to install the OS to a USB drive. 

Are other Linux distros affected?

According to a list compiled by helpnetsecurity.com, it is a bit of a mixed bag:

• Ubuntu 24.04 has been impacted, but previous releases are not.
• Red Hat, Fedora Rawhide (current Fedora Linux development build) and Fedora 40 are affected. No Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions are impacted.
• Debian, no stable releases are impacted, but users who use packages from the Debian testing, unstable and experimental repositories are urged to update the xz-utils package.
• Kali Linux users who updated their systems between March 26 and 29 are impacted.
• Some Arch Linux installation media, containers and virtual machines are impacted.
• Linux Mint, Gentoo Linux, Alpine Linux and Amazon Linux are not affected.

We did check our Raspberry Pi 5 running the latest Raspberry Pi OS (Kernel 6.6.20 from March 7 2024), and checking the version number for xz returned version 5.4.1. So, all appears well for our favorite single board computer.

Mere hours after their release, Ubuntu 23.10 download images have been removed from distribution. If you try and grab the latest desktop ISO at the time of writing you will be greeted with a message saying “Ubuntu 23.10 cannot be downloaded right now.” Ubuntu’s official account on Twitter/X reveals that the reason for the takedown of the 23.10 images is that a "malicious contributor" had laced translations with “hate speech.” Ubuntu focused site OMG Ubuntu found that the Ukrainian translation file had been targeted by the malicious ne’er do well.

So, the Ubuntu 23.10 release was supposed to be available and stay available, from yesterday. We discussed the release of Mantic Minotaur in our news section yesterday. Notable new features included increased OS security, a new and improved App Center, and the introduction of support for RISC-V-based SBCs and the new Raspberry Pi 5. Little did we know the Ukrainian language resource files were spilling over with hate speech.

The malicious contributor appears to have kept some translations as intended but interspersed them with text strings that highlight extremist beliefs with regard to certain religious groups, sexual orientation, and political persuasion.

Tom's Hardware has seen the original Ukrainian text and used machine translation to initially confirm the contents. The text was then reviewed by an editor who can read Ukrainian and they have confirmed that the machine translation is accurate.

The only example of these malicious translations that we are willing to print can be seen in context, below:

@override  String onBatteryWarning(Object color) {    return ' Warning : the computer is not connected to a power source.';  }  @override  String get offlineWarning => 'Your pants are not off yet';  @override  String get chooseSecurityKeyTitle => 'Choose security key';

Ubuntu has also set up a forum post about what it calls a malicious translation incident. It notes that “these translations are not part of the Ubuntu Archive and we believe the incident is contained only to translations provided via a third-party translation tool we use for a subset of applications.” Keep an eye on this post for further details about the incident, and news of when an updated desktop image becomes available. Ubuntu says that OS upgraders would not be affected by the translations in the desktop installer.

To those worried that this malicious tampering may be the tip of the iceberg, Ubuntu says that the observed incident only extends to this set of translations, and it doesn’t believe systems or data were compromised.

The latest Ubuntu is upon us, and for this release we see Canonical beef up its security, plus support for the Raspberry Pi 5 and RISC-V-based SBCs.

Ubuntu 23.10 introduces a preview of hardware-backed full-disk encryption, which sees encryption keys stored in a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), and automatically recovered by authenticated boot software. A more broad range of hardware support and additional encryption options will be introduced in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Being a later-in-the-year release, Ubuntu 23.10 will receive support for nine months, after that you are advised to move on to a newer release. The need for a release like this is so developers can test and focus on what new features will be added to the next LTS (Long Term Support) release which sees five to 10 years of support (via Ubuntu Pro's Expanded Security Maintenance).

Another way that Ubuntu 23.10 improves security is via AppArmor profiles. These profiles are required applications that create unprivileged user namespaces. These applications can expose kernel interfaces without the need for elevating privileges and could pose a security threat. With AppArmor, their attack surface is reduced. Applications installed from the Ubuntu archives will have AppArmor profiles to ensure policy adherence.

Raspberry Pi 5 and RISC-V Support

Ubuntu 23.10 releases approximately 11 days before the Raspberry Pi 5 is officially released, but we know that Canonical and Raspberry Pi have been working together to release 23.10 for the Raspberry Pi 5. 

“With Raspberry Pi 5 we’ve boosted the power and performance of the worlds’ most popular PC to deliver a fully-fledged developer platform,” said Gordon Hollingworth, Chief Technology Officer - Software at Raspberry Pi Trading. “We’re excited to see how the Ubuntu community leverages this power to create innovative and compelling new experiences.”

There will be both server and desktop versions of Ubuntu 23.10 for the Raspberry Pi 5. The desktop release on Raspberry Pi 5 is extremely close to feeling like a full "proper" Linux desktop computer. The Raspberry Pi 4 came close, but the power of the Raspberry Pi 5's quad-core 2.4 GHz Arm CPU just makes it so much better. We'll be talking to Canonical Software Engineer Dave Jones on our Raspberry Pi-themed show, The Pi Cast, on October 17 (2pm ET / 7pm BST).

Ubuntu has been successful on the RISC-V platform, and with the Ubuntu 23.10 release support will be extended to the SiFive HiFive Pro P550 at its launch. Previously, Ubuntu supported the HiFive Unmatched development platform.

Improved App Discovery

Ubuntu 23.10 introduces a new and improved App Center, which provides a fast and easy-to-use interface to search for applications. Apps can be installed using the ubiquitous .deb packages and via Canonical's Snap packages.

Using the App Center, we can search for apps thanks to a rich amount of metadata provided by the Canonical Snap Store. Snap applications receive strict security reviews to ensure that no nefarious permissions are present.

Ubuntu 23.10 is available for free download from the Ubuntu website. Expect to see a range of Ubuntu re-spins (Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc) and community distros over the next few weeks. 

The world of single board computers (SBCs) is dominated by Arm processors, but there are some x86 based boards to be found. AAEON's series of UP boards look very much like a Raspberry Pi, but its latest range, sport Intel N-series (Alder Lake-N) CPUs.

Claiming to be "The world’s smallest developer board featuring the Intel Processor N-series platform (formerly Alder Lake-N)" the UP 7000 is indeed a small SBC. measuring just 85 x 56mm, the exact same size as the Raspberry Pi 4. While they may share a similar size, their port locations means that you won't be dropping the UP 7000 in any of the best Raspberry Pi cases. The HDMI port placement means we sacrifice a USB port. We can see the logic here, these boards are most likely destined for behind the scenes roles, not the desktop.

The Intel CPUs at the heart of the board range from an Intel N50 (dual-core, 3.4GHz, 6W TDP) to an Intel N97 (quad-core, 3.6GHz, 12W TDP) which on paper are quite competitive to the Arm chip found on the Raspberry Pi. The bonus here is that being an x86 CPU, we are free to install whatever operating system we see fit.

CPUs generate heat, and being a past owner of a first generation UP board we know that they can run hot. But the UP 7000 comes with a passive cooler and a 12V fan header means we can add our own active cooling.

Storage options are limited to 32GB eMMC for the N50 and N100 and 64GB eMMC for the N97. We can't spot a micro SD card slot, so if you want a little more storage then you will need to grab an external USB 3 drive.

Connectivity is limited to just Ethernet. No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for the UP 7000. The older UP 4000 did have a range of carrier boards which provided extra features (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and M.2 storage), but the UP 7000 product page is devoid of these accessories. For now?

The 40 pin GPIO is a mystery. Is it compatible with the best Raspberry Pi HATs? Electrically it is possible, but we cannot confirm that. More boards are providing electrical compatibility, but often fall short with software support. If you need GPIO more than raw processing power, then a Raspberry Pi is the safer bet. If you need raw power and GPIO then UP 7000 could offer a solution, but tread carefully.

So where are these boards destined for? The official blurb states "applications such as digital signage, medical imaging" and sure these boards would do a great job. The Raspberry Pi may struggle with medical imaging, but it has proven to be a great base for digital signage and AI based projects. As this is an x86 board, could we use it as a desktop? Short answer is yes. We could even play some older games on the UP 7000, but we would have to manage our expectations.

Prices and general availability are currently unknown. If you need something similar then right now the Intel Celeron N5105 powered LattePanda 3 Delta is a low-cost SBC with built-in Arduino compatible board. If you need a little more power, then the LattePanda Sigma provides an Intel Core-i5 1340P and 16GB of LPDDR5.

The market for Arm-based desktops is dominated by Apple these days largely because major PC makers yet have to ship their Arm-based parts running Microsoft's Windows. But smaller PC makers look to be a little more active. Recently Planet, a UK-based computer maker, introduced its PlanetPC XR1 Mini and PlanetPC XR2 Mini desktop systems that even have a touchscreen to additional controls.

Planet's XR1 Mini and XR2 Mini desktops are based on Rockchip's RK3568 and RK3588 system-on-chips, respectively. The RK3568 is a cheap SoC featuring four Cortex-A55 cores and Mali G52 graphics with two clusters making it more suitable for low-end smartphones or specialized devices. 

By contrast, the RK3588 is a quite capable processor featuring four high-performance Cortex-A76 and four energy-efficient Cortex-A55 cores in DynamIQ configuration, a quad-cluster Arm Mali 'Odin' GPU, a 6 TOPS NPU accelerator, and an advanced media engine that can handle 8Kp30 video encoding as well as 8Kp60 video decoding.

The two systems come equipped with 4GB of LPDDR5 memory and 32GB of solid-state storage by default, but Planet can upgrade RAM to 16GB and storage to 1TB. 

Both XR1 Mini and XR2 Mini share a chassis that measures 29×26×6 cm (11.4×10.2×2.36 inches) and comes with a distinct color touchscreen on the front panel offering quick access to soft keys for common tasks, a system monitor, and controls for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, VPN, network disk, audio, and other system functionalities. Both PCs have all the I/O that one comes to expect from a desktop PC, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB Type-A, HDMI, VGA/D-Sub, USB-C (RK3588 only), MicroSD, and audio connectors. 

The systems run Ubuntu 20.04 and are positioned mostly for office work with some multimedia playback capabilities. But Planet's XR Mini PCs look quite expensive for their performance and features: the XR1 Mini is priced at $667 ($800 including VAT), whereas the XR2 Mini costs $840 ($1,008 including VAT).

Raspberry Pi has long been the most famous in the world of single-board computers. But there are plenty of alternatives, such as LattePanda and Khadas, and of course, BeagleBoard, which has announced the availability of its RISC-V powered BeagleV-Ahead.

Coming in at $149, the BeagleV-Ahead is powered by a 2 GHz, quad-core RISC-V 64GCV Xuantile C910 CPU and has 4GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC flash storage on which you can install either Ubuntu or Yocto Linux. The OS is flashed to the board, and we then remotely interface with the board via a terminal or web interface.

The big draw for this board is the RISC-V CPU. In the maker community, RISC-V is gaining popularity, mainly due to its open-source nature and availability in several different price points and packages. This includes Milk-V, which offers three RISC-V machines starting from $9. You can even get RISC-V-powered soldering irons now!

Beagle boards have used Arm-based CPUs in the past, but the switch to an open-source RISC-V CPU is the only significant change between the boards. The distinct BeagleBoard form factor remains, meaning "capes", BeagleBoard's name for add-on boards (think Raspberry Pi HATs or Arduino Shields). Capes connect to the board using the P8 and P9 header, essentially the same as the Raspberry Pi's GPIO. But with the BeagleV-Ahead, we get six analog inputs and a plethora of PWM, I2C, UART, SPI, I2S and good old digital IO.

The BeagleBoard team has a documentation page up; from there, we can delve deeper into the BeagleV-Ahead. There are a few gaps, but this board is just a few days old, so documentation will eventually catch up.

We first reported on this board in 2021, and in the two years since, there has been a pandemic and a global chip shortage which has impacted the delivery time of the BeagleV. That said, it is good to see another RISC-V board being offered to an enthusiastic maker community.

The BeagleV-Ahead is available from several distributors, with an average price of $149. 

An interesting new tool for PC drops users into a Linux shell if Windows crashes. The BugCheck2Linux tool from NSG650, recently highlighted by NTDEV on Twitter, makes use of the bug check callback function in Windows to run an executable - even after a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) crash. So, "Death" isn't the end in this case, it is just where Linux begins.

It isn't common knowledge that programs can run after a Windows BSOD, but BugCheck2Linux stretches the current possibilities of running executables via the 'bug check callback function' to fire up a completely different OS. You can read about the intended use of the bug check callback routine on the Microsoft Learn documentation site.

BugCheck2Linux runs as a driver, which in turn "runs a tiny RISC V emulator running Linux." NSG650 says that the screen output uses bootvid.dll, and the input relies upon polling of a PS/2 keyboard driver. The developer credits the ReactOS Project for bootvid documentation, mini-rv32ima for the RISC V emulator and Linux image, and OSdev Wiki for PS/2 documentation.

There are some pretty severe limits on the Linux install that can run after the Windows BSOD. For example, the display output is limited to 640 x 480 pixels and 16 colors, the system will only work on BIOS-based (not UEFI) systems, it runs slowly, and keyboard support has limits such as not allowing users to backspace. In other words, this BSOD tool isn't dropping you into a modern Ubuntu install.

On it's own, it is impressive to be able to continue to use the computer after a BSOD, but the future potential beyond a tiny limited Linux OS is what catches the imagination here. NTDEV raises the possibility of having a Windows PC crash into BSOD and then instantly firing up Doom to let off some post-crash steam. Perhaps it would be a more modest step to try and post-BSOD run a classic arcade title like Asteroids or Galaxian.

Trying BugCheck2Linux

If you want to try out this tool, the GitHub page where it is found provides a step-by-step guide. Basically, you must download and start the tool's driver process, so it can be ready to run if you BSOD.

In NTDEV's video above, you can see the Tiny11 developer making his Windows 11 install crash by executing winini (as Administrator) in PowerShell. Then you get to see the Linux install running post-BSOD.

This is an fun project, but please be careful with your PCs, and make sure to perform regular backups just in case.

With all the talk about chatbots such as ChatGPT, it's easy to forget that text-based chat is just one of many AI functions. The ideal generative AI would be able to work across different models as needed, interpreting and generating images, audio and video.

Enter Jarvis, a new project from Microsoft that promises one bot to rule them all. Jarvis uses ChatGPT as the controller for a system where it can employ a variety of other models as needed to respond to your prompt. In a paper published by Cornell University, Microsoft researchers (Yongliang Shen, Kaitao Song, Xu Tan, Dongsheng Li, Weiming Lu and Yueting Zhuang)  explain how this framework works. A user makes a request to the bot, it plans the task, chooses which models it needs, has those models perform the task and then generates and issues a response. 

The chart below, provided in the research paper, shows how this process works in the real world. A user asks the bot to create an image where a girl is reading a book and she is positioned the same way that a boy is in a sample image. The bot plans the task, uses a model to interpret the boy's pose in the original image and then deploys another model to draw the output.

Microsoft has a Github page where you can download and try out Jarvis on a Linux-powered PC. The company recommends you use Ubuntu (the outdated version 16 LTS specifically), but I was able to get the main feature of it -- a terminal based chatbot -- working on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and on Windows Subsystem for Linux.

However, unless you really like the idea of messing with configuration files, the best way to check out Jarvis is by using HuggingGPT, a web-based chatbot that the Microsoft researches have set up at Hugging Face, an online AI community which hosts thousands of open-source models. 

If you follow the steps below, you'll have a working chatbot you can show images or other media to and ask it to output images as well. I should note that, like other bots I've tried, the results were very mixed. 

How to Set Up and Try Microsoft Jarvis / HuggingGPT

1. Obtain an OpenAPI API Key if you don't already have one. You can get it at OpenAPI's website by signing in and clicking "Create new secret key." Signing up is free and you will get a free amount of credit, but you will have to pay for more if you use it up.  Store the key somewhere like in a text file, where you can easily get to it. Once you copy it, you can never get it again.

2. Sign up for a free account at Hugging Face if you don't already have one and log in to the site. The site is located at huggingface.co not huggingface.com.

3. Navigate to Settings -> Access Tokens by clicking the links in the left rail.

4. Click New Token.

5. Name the token (anything at all), select "write" as role and click Generate.

6. Copy the API key and keep it somewhere you can easily access it.

7. Navigate to the HuggingGPT page

8. Paste your OpenAPI key and Hugging Face token into the appropriate fields. Then hit the submit button next to each.

9. Enter your prompt into the query box and click Send.

How to Setup Jarvis / Hugging GPT in Linux

It's much easier to use HuggingGPT on the Hugging Face website. However, if you want to try installing it on your local Ubuntu PC, here's how. You may also be able to modify it to use more models.

1. Install git if you don't have it already.

sudo apt install git

2. Clone the Jarvis repository from your home directory.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/JARVIS

3. Navigate to the Jarvis/server/configs folder.

cd JARVIS/server/configs

4. Edit the configuration files and enter your OpenAI API key and Hugging Face tokens where appropriate. They are config.azure.yaml, config.default.yaml, config.gradio.yaml and config.lite.yaml. In this how-to, we'll only be using the gradio file, you it makes sense to edit them all. You can edit them using nano (ex: nano config.gradio.yaml). If you don't have these API keys you can get them for free from OpenAI and Hugging Face.

5. Install Miniconda if you don't have it installed already. You'll need to download the latest version from the Miniconda site. After downloading the installer, you install it by going to the Downloads folder and entering bash followed by the install script name.

bash Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

You'll be prompted to agree to a license agreement and confirm the install location. After you have installed Miniconda, close and reopen all terminal windows so that the command conda will now be in your file path. If it is not in your path, try rebooting.

6. Navigate back to the JARVIS/server directory.

7. Create and activate a jarvis conda environment.

conda create -n jarvis python=3.8conda activate jarvis

8. Install some dependencies and models.

conda install pytorch torchvision torchaudio pytorch-cuda=11.7 -c pytorch -c nvidiapip install -r requirements.txtcd modelsbash download.sh # required when `inference_mode` is `local` or `hybrid`. 

9. Return to the JARVIS/servers folder.

10. Run the command to launch the HuggingGPT local webserver using gradio.

python run_gradio_demo.py --config configs/config.gradio.yaml

You will then be given a local URL you can visit in your web browser. In my case, it was http://127.0.0.1:7860.

11. Visit the URL (ex: http://127.0.0.1:7860) in your browser. If you are using Ubuntu in a VM, use the browser within the VM.

12. Enter your OpenAPI API key into the box at the top of the web page.

13. Enter your prompt(s) in the prompt box and hit Enter.

Using the gradio server is just one possible way to interact with Jarvis under Linux. The Jarvis Github page has more choices. These include using the models server or starting a command-line based chat. 

I couldn't get most of these methods working (the command line chat worked ok but wasn't as nice an interface as the web one). Also, you may be able to install more models and get text-to-video generation going (which I could not).

What to Try with Jarvis / Hugging GPT

The bot can answer standard text questions, along  with queries asking about images, audio and video. It can also potentially generate images, sound or video for you. I say potentially because, if you use the web version, it's limited by whatever free models it can access from Hugging Face. On the Linux version, you may be able to add some additional models. 

There are some sample queries listed below the prompt box that you can click and try. These include feeding it three example images and having it count how many zebras are in them, asking it to tell a joke and show a cat picture or asking it to generate one image that looks like another one.

Since it's web-based, the way to feed it images is to send it the URLs of pictures that are online. However, if you are able to use the Linux version, you can store images locally in the JARVIS/server/public folder and refer to them by relative URLs (ex: /myimage.jpg would be in the public folder and /examples/myimage.jpg would be in the examples subfolder of public).

Most original queries I tried did not turn out particularly well. Image recognition was particularly poor. When I fed it images of M.2 SSDs and asked where I could buy one, it said that it had identified the SSDs as either a suitcase and then told me to find "a store." 

Similarly when I fed it a screenshot from Minecraft and asked it where I could buy it, it falsely claimed that it saw a kite flying through the air. It thought an RTX 4070 was a black and white photo of a computer. And when I asked where I could buy one, it said "you can purchase one of these items from our online store or from a variety of retailers near you." but there was no actual link to any real online store.

It wasn't very good at generating images on demand. For example, I asked it draw Abraham Lincoln driving a convertible and it just gave me a straightforward bust of the former president. 

In short, apart from the specific examples Microsoft suggests, most queries did not turn out particularly well. But as with other AI frameworks such as Auto-GPT and BabyAGI, the problem is in the models you use and, as the models improve, so will your output. If you want to try autonomous agents, check out our tutorials on how to use Auto-GPT and how to use BabyAGI.

Canonical has announced the latest version of its popular Linux distro, Ubuntu 23.04. This new version boasts a new installer, expanded login management and a new Steam snap package.

New with this release is a refreshed user interface for the installer. Based on Flutter and Dart, it looks bright and fresh. Sure we don't spend all of our time installing Linux distros, but when we do, we appreciate a user interface that enables any level of user to quickly start using Linux. The installer has all the basics, user creation, third-party peripherals support and media formats. But it also has options for enterprise management. An updated slideshow plays as your install progresses.

The user interface is powered by Gnome 44 and straight away our eye is drawn to the Quick Settings menu in the top right. As the name suggests, here we can tweak the everyday settings such as volume, brightness, Wi-Fi and power. If we need to delve deeper, clicking the cog icon will launch the full-blown Settings menu.

The default web browser, Firefox is installed via Snap, and in previous releases it has been criticized for being slow to start. With Ubuntu 23.04 Firefox is now thankfully starting much quicker than in previous releases.

Linux gaming is still just a small percentage compared to Windows, even with Steam Deck proving that it can be done. Ubuntu 23.04 comes with an early access beta for a Steam app, available as a Snap package. The Steam package comes with key dependencies to run old and new games. How it will stack up against Valve's Steam OS and Proton remains to be seen.

For enterprise focused users, Ubuntu 23.04 ships with native user authentication with Azure Active Directory. This means that users on Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans can authenticate Ubuntu desktops using the same credentials as they would use on Microsoft 365 or Azure. 

Linux is heavily used by developers and Ubuntu 23.04 caters to them with updates and improvements for Python, Java, Go, C, C++, Rust and .Net. This means that developers using Ubuntu can create cross-platform applications and tools. Ubuntu 23.04 also ships with the latest versions of Docker and Containerd.

Ubuntu 23.04, codenamed "Lunar Lobster" is the latest interim release from Canonical. Being an interim release means that it has nine months of support. If stability is what you crave, then an LTS (Long Term Support) release such as Ubuntu 22.04 is a better option.

Ubuntu 23.04 is available to download for x86 and Arm based machines (such as the Raspberry Pi 4) 

Star Labs, maker of Linux-equipped PCs, is taking pre-orders for the StarFighter custom laptop. This rather well-specced and highly configurable laptop comes with Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4,  a choice of Linux distributions from Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro and other configurable specifications. Privacy concerns are addressed via a snap-on magnetic camera and a Wi-Fi kill switch.

The StarFighter is a highly customizable machine. The base model of the StarFighter comes with a 12th-generation Intel i3 processor, but you can build your way to an 12th-gen i7, AMD Ryzen 7 (6800H) or even an Intel i9, all with integrated graphics. RAM can be configured all the way from 16GB to 64GB, though this depends on your processor choice, and storage from a 240GB SATA SSD to 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 flash, with lots of options in between. You can even slip in a secondary SSD if you need to, with another 2TB available. There's a pair of SODIMM slots and two M.2 sockets inside, so DIY upgrades aren’t out of the question.

There's a choice of screens, with the standard 16:10 4K (3840 x 2400) 60Hz panel being replaceable with a 16:10 1440p alternative that can manage up to 165Hz. This latter option also consumes half the power of the 4K screen. There's a choice of firmware - American Megatrends or Coreboot - and you can specify a custom keyboard layout, if that’s your thing.

Operating system options are legion, allowing you to specify Ubuntu (22.04 LTS) Elementary OS, Kubuntu, Mint, MATE alternatives, XFCE front-ends, Plasma or Gnome versions of Manjaro, Zorin OS, or even Windows 11. There's even an option to have no OS at all.

The laptop features two Thunderbolt 4 ports (if you get an Intel model, they're USB 3.2 Gen 2 on the Ryzen 7 option), plus a single USB 3 Type-A, an HDMI, SD reader and a headphone jack. There's an interesting magnetic webcam module that snaps onto a port at the back of the screen, peeking over the edge toward the user, and it can be slipped into a recess in the chassis when you’re not using it. The magnetic connector uses USB, pointing to more possible upgrades. A hardware switch on the edge allows you to cut power to the wireless module, which when activated offers Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The makers claim up to 18 hours of battery life.

The configurable nature of the laptop means it’s available at a lot of different prices, but the base cost is $1,677, plus taxes and delivery. Dispatch is expected in 4-5 months.

Fedora, the Red Hat spin-off favored by Linus Torvalds, has reached version 37, with its latest official release. It brings good news for Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 owners, as their machines are now catered for by a new operating system, but bad news if you’re hoping to upgrade on a 32-bit Arm device.

First, the bad news. The Arm v7 architecture is no longer supported, meaning that 32-bit Arm processors won’t be able to upgrade to this edition. All Arm v8 chips support 64-bit operating systems, however, and accessing all the RAM on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of memory requires this support.

The kernel at work underneath it all is 5.19, the last version of the 5-series kernels before the jump to kernel 6 and the same one found in Ubuntu 22.10. The two systems also have Gnome 43 in common, the desktop environment bringing its quick toggle and Nautilus 43 file manager to the latest OS versions. The difference is that while Ubuntu has a customized version of Gnome, the Fedora installation is more traditional, and there are also Fedora spins using the KDE Plasma, XFCE and Cinnamon desktops, among others. Fedora also doesn’t use Ubuntu’s maligned Snap system for installing new apps, preferring the Flatpak package manager.

The OS comes with updated versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and the GCC compiler. The OS benefits from improved driver support for certain Realtek wireless cards, new wake-on-LAN capabilities, increased support for the TrackPoints on Lenovo laptops, and BIG TCP, which allows larger packets on IPV6 networks and can increase transfer speeds.

Rather than release an LTS version like Ubuntu, which receives updates for many years and makes a good choice for first-timers looking for a place to start in the Linux world, Fedora puts out a new edition every six months, each of which is typically supported for a year. That’s not to say it’s not beginner-friendly - we installed it as a virtual machine and found the process straightforward, though it required a complete shutdown of the VM after installation, a reset wasn’t enough - but anyone installing this will be looking to upgrade much sooner than they would with Canonical’s OS. 

Fedora is also slightly less approachable than Ubuntu, as it presents the user with a bare desktop upon first starting, with no favorites bar, no icons, and just the Activities button in the top left for company. It does, however, have a nice default desktop wallpaper, depicting tall buildings in countryside split by a river - perfect if you find Ubuntu's orange and purple color scheme a bit much.

Fedora Workstation 37 with Gnome can be downloaded in X64 and Arm64 flavors from getfedora.org, while the spins that use different desktops can be found at spins.fedoraproject.org. Server and IoT editions are also available, along with minimal systems for cloud and containerized workloads.

Khadas has a history in single board computers. The company makes high-spec, high cost boards that outperform the Raspberry Pi in almost every area. The Raspberry Pi may still hold the throne, but there are many challengers seeking to end its reign.

The Khadas Edge 2 Pro comes in two configurations, a Maker kit and an Arm PC kit. The Maker kit is the bare board which comes in a $199 model with 8GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC 5.1 storage. For $100 ($299) more you can get the Pro version, with 16GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC 5.1. The Arm PC version costs an additional $30 more and provides a rather lovely looking case. These prices are either side of the VIM 4 which weighs in at $239.

The key difference between the Edge 2 Pro and the VIM 4 is the CPU. Contained in the Rockchip RK3588S SoC is a quad core Arm Cortex A76 running at 2.25 GHz, and an Arm Cortex A55 running at 1.8 GHz. This isn’t a big difference from the VIM 4 but hidden in the Soc is a built-in 6 TOPS Performance NPU. Which supports deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch etc.

It may look the same as the VIM 4, and be smaller than a Raspberry Pi 4, but does it have the “edge” over these boards? For that we need to put it on the bench and take it for a test drive.

Khadas Edge 2 Pro Hardware Specifications

At a glance, the Khadas Edge 2 Pro follows the design language of the VIM 4, with ports placed along the long edge of the board. The key difference is the omission of an Ethernet port, instead the Edge 2 Pro receives an additional USB-C port. This USB-C port can handle power delivery (PD), USB 3 (aka USB 3.2), and DP 1.4 which can output 4K60. The dedicated HDMI 2.1 port supports upto 8K60, but that is a feature we cannot test due to a lack of 8K display.

Along the other long edge of the board we see a series of FPC connections labelled CAM1,2,3 which can be used with compatible cameras. We tried to connect a Raspberry Pi camera but the flat flex cable was a fraction too wide, as were others in our kit.

Other omissions are the lack of an NVMe connection, not a great loss as in our tests we were unable to install an OS to NVMe, but it was useful storage. And there is no GPIO on the Edge 2 Pro. Well, there is, but they take the form of seven pogo pads behind the HDMI port and a FFC connection on the underside of the board. If you have the means to breakout these connections, then you should be able to use them via a device tree overlay. We were unable to test these connections for this review.

The first step to using the Khadas Edge 2 Pro is to install an operating system, and this process is super slick and follows the same process as for the VIM 4. Khadas online installer, OOWOW is baked into the board and ready to run. On first boot it will auto start, but we can enter OOWOW at any time by pressing Reset and Function on the side of the board.

Using OOWOW, we can update the list of available operating systems, which at the time of writing was Ubuntu 22.04 (desktop and server) and a version of Android 12. The interface reminds us of Raspberry Pi’s raspi-config which also uses the whiptail menu interface.

We used OOWOW to update the list of available operating systems and then performed a clean install of Ubuntu 22.04.The download took 60 seconds, and installation another 60 seconds, two minutes to download and install an OS ready for use is an impressive feat. Operating system download images are stored in RAM, then decompressed to the 32GB eMMC drive.

With a fresh OS installed we moved on to booting up the Edge 2 Pro for the first time. We never time the first boot as it commonly requires a few extra post-install configuration steps in order to get everything working. On the subsequent boot, the boot time is comparable to that of the VIM 4. hardly surprising as they both use eMMC 5.1 for storage. The Edge 2 Pro was slightly slower, at 27.74 seconds, compared to VIM 4’s 26 seconds. You really won’t notice the difference.

When we reviewed the Khadas VIM 4, we loved the Ubuntu user experience. It felt smooth and more like a desktop than a Raspberry Pi 4. With the extra 8GB of RAM provided in the Edge 2 Pro we really saw a difference in general performance. We tested the Edge 2 Pro for a full day, editing images in GIMP , web browsing with multiple tabs and watching YouTube videos.

For general 1080p streaming media consumption, the Edge 2 Pro does a good job. But you will need great Wi-Fi to reduce the number of dropped frames. On our Wi-Fi 5 connection, we saw great playback but encountered 400 dropped frames from a total of 2643. We wanted to isolate the problem and so we connected a USB 3 Ethernet adapter to USB 3 port and retried the test. We saw 355 dropped frames from a total of 2511, still not great. In defence of the dropped frames, we never saw a blip or stutter in the tests, but the stats don’t lie. Playing back local media, specifically a H265 encoded 720P video was perfect. Even running two instances of the same media, the aforementioned 720P H265 and a 4K H264 version via the mpv media player didn’t stress the system out.

In our tests, we connected the Edge 2 Pro to our PinePower desktop power supply’s USB-C output and saw that the unit auto-negotiated 12V, and at idle, it pulled 0.1A, giving us a 1.2W idle power consumption. When under load for our stress tests, the unit didn’t go above 12V at 0.64A, a 7.68W power consumption.

The idle consumption is the same as the VIM 4, but under stress the VIM 4 only hit 6W, compared to the 7.68W of the Edge 2 Pro. Comparing both of Khadas’ boards to the Raspberry Pi 4 which idled at 5.1V 0.2A, a 1.02W power consumption and under stress saw a peak of 5.3V at 1.2A, 6.24W. So this tells us that the three boards have comparable power consumption despite the Khadas boards having four additional CPU cores.

Power and Temperature Tests of Khadas Edge 2 Pro

With great power comes great responsibility need for cooling. While the Raspberry Pi 4 may run without a stock cooler, Khadas’ boards need active cooling to keep all eight cores in check. The large flat heatsink and fan of the Khadas Edge 2 Pro and the VIM 4 are clear indicators that the SoC can get hot.

Our tests involved a five minute idle period then a five minute all-core CPU stress test, where the temperature was logged to an external file every second. The Edge 2 Pro happily idled at 42.5 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Celsius lower than the VIM 4) and under stress it hit a high of 56.61 degrees Celsius. This is an 8 degrees Celsius difference to the VIM 4, meaning that the Edge 2 Pro runs cooler.

To give the CPU a workout, we used sysbench to verify all prime numbers up to two million. We tuned the test to use eight CPU cores for the Khadas Edge 2 Pro and saw it complete the task in 10.7 seconds, a fraction slower than the VIM 4 which came in at 10.5 seconds. There is no competition between those two boards, so we have to look at the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB time of 19.9 seconds to see that the Edge 2 Pro is much faster than the Raspberry Pi 4.

Android 12 Testing

The Edge 2 Pro supports Android 12, but, from what we understand, it is only the 32-bit version, opposed to Android 11 being 64-bit on the VIM 4. Installing Android 12 via OOWOW is far too easy. After that, it is just like using an Android tablet, albeit via our television. Under the Khadas settings menu we can change the resolution and tweak board specific settings. Other than that we have access to the Google Play Store and from there we can install a myriad of apps. We installed the Android native Real Racing 3 and went for a drive, everything played well and with zero stutter.

What about emulation? We ran PPSSPP, a Sony PSP emulator along with God of War: Chains of Olympus and thought that the extra RAM and spicier CPU choice would yield a better performance than we got on the VIM 4, which turned out to be true, but with a caveat. After tweaking the render settings between OpenGL and Vulkan we were forced to repeat the configuration that was used on the VIM 4 (frameskip and 2x resolution scaling). This brought us down to 30fps, but it was solid.

Buoyed by that success we pushed the resolution scaling to 4x, and it held a constant frame rate, but only at 24fps. For PS1, SNES and other 8 and 16-bit consoles you will have no trouble playing the classics. PS2 is possible, using AetherSX2 but performance will vary on a game-by-game basis. We tested Shadow of the Colossus and found locking it to 30fps and 2x resolution scaling with OpenGL produced the best results.

General web browsing and other consumption activities work extremely well, including YouTube playback which coasts along with 1080p and 1440p streams. 4K playback was decent , but we noticed dropped frames and the YouTube app refused to show us “the stats for nerds,” which lists this information, so we had to watch a lot of 4K Costa Rican wildlife videos to be sure.

What Projects Can We Use Khadas Edge 2 Pro For?

The small form factor and the abundance of power means that the Edge 2 Pro is at home in processing heavy applications. If you have a compatible camera then with a little code you can build machine learning / computer vision projects using any language you wish. Makers wishing to use the GPIO are best served with the VIM 4

The Edge 2 Pro’s strengths come from its raw performance; it trounces the Raspberry Pi 4, which is still largely unobtainium at this time. If you are looking for a desktop replacement, advanced AI or some good retro gaming fun, then the Edge 2 Pro has the edge.

Bottom Line

Much as with the VIM 4, we like the Edge 2 Pro, and for $299 we get a lot of board. That said, opting for the Basic model, which drops the RAM down to 8GB and storage to 32GB is a smart option.You get the same CPU performance, and $100 in your pocket. The extra 8GB of RAM is nice to have, as is the 64GB storage. But many makers will struggle to use it to its full potential.

If you would like a low power desktop replacement, and don’t fancy putting down money for an Apple M1 / M2 based device, then the Khadas Edge 2 Pro with 16GB of RAM is plenty of power for the majority of daily chores.

If you are building digital signage or a home gaming / media consumption device, then the Edge 2 Pro running Android is a reliable power house.

AMD's next generation graphics cards based on the RDNA 3 architecture have passed conformity tests with Khronos Group's Vulkan 1.3 application programming interface. The compliancy indicates that the new graphics processors from AMD are functional and their drivers can pass conformity tests. 

AMD plans to formally unveil its forthcoming graphics cards based on the RDNA 3 architecture on November 3, 2022, next week. Since the new GPUs are a little more than a week away, it's not particularly surprising that their drivers for Windows 10 and Ubuntu 5.15 Linux kernel are good enough to pass Vulkan 1.3.3.1 conformity tests, based on the list of conformant products published at Khronos.org (via VideoCardz). 

The list currently includes not only an Undisclosed Product that belongs to the AMD RDNA 3 family of GPUs, but also an Undisclosed Product that belongs to AMD's Undisclosed Family of GPUs. While we do not know for sure how many of AMD's new products are compliant with the Vulkan 1.3 API, it's safe to say that at least two of them can pass the Vulkan 1.3.3.1 conformity tests. 

AMD's codenamed Navi 3x graphics processors based on the company's RDNA 3 architecture are projected to substantially increase performance compared to existing Radeon RX 6000-series offerings. Also, the top-of-the-range Navi 31 is expected to use a multi-chiplet design. 

Unofficial sources indicate that AMD plans to reveal two high-end RDNA 3-based graphics cards — a flagship offering and the one that is positioned slightly below — this year and start their sales in the second half of December. While prices of the new boards are unknown, there are rumors that AMD might position them higher than it positioned its Radeon RX 6900 XT at launch.

As reported by Phoronix, Intel has released its first Arc GPU driver package designed specifically for Linux. The new driver package eliminates the learning curve required to manually install Intel's Arc drivers on Linux, allowing anyone to conveniently install Intel's Arc GPU drivers on supported Linux OSs. But, for now, the new driver package is designed solely for Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS and will not work on any other version.

For the uninitiated, graphics drivers in Linux do not consist of just a single driver - as you might think. Instead, to get a physical GPU fully operational within a Linux environment requires several different drivers, including DRM kernel drivers, OpenGL drivers for OpenGL rendering applications, and an ANV driver for Vulkan-supported video games - to name a few. These drivers are required on top of the actual Intel graphics driver, to make Arc GPUs fully operational with Linux.

Before Intel released its new Arc driver package, users with an Arc GPU had to ensure all these additional drivers were installed and the correct versions were also installed. On top of this, users also need to know which Linux kernel and Mesa 3d Graphics Library versions Intel supports, which will make or break compatibility with Intel's Arc GPU drivers.

With Intel's new Arc graphics driver stack, all this extra work goes away since the driver package comes with all the necessary drivers you'll need in the first place. In addition, it will make driver installation far easier for both novices and experienced Linux users alike - with a similar installation method as Windows-based driver installations.

Unfortunately, the Linux driver package only supports Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS at this time, with no word on when Intel will push out more packages for other Linux versions - for both Ubuntu and non-Ubuntu distros. There's also no word on how fast Intel will keep its graphics driver packages up to date, which could become problematic. It depends on how committed the company supports its Linux consumer base.

So depending on how things play out, you might be forced to update drivers manually if Intel does not update its driver packages regularly with the latest driver updates. But for now, we're glad to see Intel providing a driver package at all, as it will significantly reduce the learning curve required to get Arc GPUs operational for users running Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS.

Kinetic Kudu is finally here. The latest release of popular Linux distribution Ubuntu 22.10 has been announced for general release. This time there's quite a lot that’s new, including an excellent antelope-based desktop background.

Kinetic is an interim release, meaning it gets support for nine months, after which you’re expected to upgrade to the next version. This stands in contrast to the previous release, 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish, which was a long-term support, or LTS, release, which will be supported for much longer. All the way to April 2027 in fact.

Gnome 43 is the big news in Kinetic, the latest version of the popular desktop environment brings with it a number of enhancements. These include quick settings so you can toggle Wi-Fi, dark mode theme, and power schemes easily. The quick settings also makes switching between different networks and audio devices simple too. The Nautilus file manager has had a complete makeover, and elsewhere a lot of work has gone into increasing overall performance, with support for the latest processor architectures from Intel and AMD, plus the OS includes multi-threaded decompression to improve multi-core desktop Snap performance.

Talking of Snaps, the containerised app packages that have been divisive among users for being convenient but slow and buggy, Kinetic’s Steam snap comes with the latest version of Mesa, an open-source graphics library that bundles OpenGL, OpenCL, Vulkan and more into one package. Linux gaming is increasing in popularity, particularly since the launch of the Steam Deck, and useful packages like Mesa just make it easier.

Users of single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi are catered for too, with a release also being provided for our favorite single board computer. If your SBC preferences is for alternative CPUs, 22.10 has support for more RISC-V processors included. Interestingly the press release mentions support for MicroPython on a variety of microcontrollers, including the Raspberry Pi Pico W. this support boils down to software packages being available in the official repositories. There's also a lean toward Internet of Things development, with updated toolchains for Ruby, Go, GCC and the Rust programming language. “Connected devices are an exciting area of innovation that also create new digital risks in the home and the business,” said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Ubuntu parent company Canonical. “We are focused on enabling a new generation of easy to use and highly secure IoT, so these developers in particular will find a number of quality of life improvements for embedded device and remote development in Ubuntu 22.10.”

Ubuntu 22.10 is available for download and installation on x86 and compatible Arm or RISC-V devices starting today.

Debian 14 will continue the venerable Linux OS’ tradition of naming releases after Toy Story characters, according to an announcement on Debian Lists, with the release after next being named for the beloved Forky, the taped-together amalgam of spork and pipe cleaner from the fourth movie in the Disney series.

The Debian 14 is a long way in the future, though, with a possible release date of 2027 if the OS sticks to its current release cadence. Debian 12, or Bookworm (a minor character in Toy Story 3), has yet to see the inside of a release server, and will hit its first milestone, the Transition and Toolchain Freeze, on January 12 2023. Following that, Debian 13 will be called Trixie, for the triceratops character voiced by Kristen Schaal, and will release in 2025. Debian 11 Bullseye (Woody’s horse) is the current release version.

The announcement also puts out a call for help fixing bugs and other testing, including removing software packages due to bugs, and reinstating those whose bugs have been fixed to the upcoming release. An IRC channel exists for reporting bugs, and bug-squashing parties are planned.

Debian is the basis for Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS, and is also available in the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Bookworm currently uses version 5.19 of the Linux kernel (as do backported versions of Bullseye, and unstable branch Sid), rather than the 6.0 kernel recently released, or the 6.1 version (including new Rust language support) that’s likely to be available when the OS is finished. This, of course, may change, as the distro is still in active development. The experimental branch kernel currently sits at 6.0.

Desktops may change too. The Gnome 43 interface, released in September is used in the 22.10 version of Ubuntu, which makes it an excellent candidate for Bookworm, but Gnome releases come every six months, making the March 2023 Gnome 44 release a possibility, if Bookworm is still accepting merges when it becomes available.

Virtual Machines, aka VMs, provide a wonderful means to explore the world of Linux or other operating systems, without making them your primary environment. Our Windows PC can play host to a plethora of guest operating systems. We can try out the latest Ubuntu, Fedora, Manjaro or Linux Mint safe in the knowledge that we don’t need to spend a penny on extra equipment. Virtual machines aren’t just limited to Linux, we can also install Windows 11 and even macOS on top of our host. 

One of the easiest means to create a VM is Oracle’s VirtualBox, a free app, which provides an easy to use interface and lots of extra features that blend the host and guest OS into one smooth running machine.

In this how to we will download a Linux distro, and create a virtual machine on which to run the Linux OS.

Downloading a Linux Operating System

For a virtual machine it is best to keep the OS choice light. Our preference is Ubuntu so we downloaded the current Long Term Support release, 22.04 and the latest beta of 22.10. The installation for 22.10 worked, but it failed to boot, so we reinstalled using 22.04 and everything went well.

The Linux OS choice is entirely yours, but do consider how much processing power you have to spare. The more powerful the host machine, the more resources we can spare for the VM and its guest OS.

How To Install Linux in a Virtualbox Virtual Machine

1. Download and install Virtualbox to your Windows machine. Accept the default install options which include network interfaces and USB.

2. Click Finish to close the installer and open Virtualbox.

Setting up a Virtual Machine

1. Click on New to create a new virtual machine.

2. Name the Virtual Machine and click Next. Virtualbox will automatically suggest the Type and Version of the OS used in the virtual machine by using the name. In our example we are using Ubuntu 22.10 so Virtualbox set the Type to Linux, and Version to Ubuntu.

3. Set the VM’s available memory and click Next. This will vary depending on your system. We have 32GB of RAM, so we can assign 8GB (8192MB) to the VM.

4. Select a new virtual hard disk for the VM and click Create. This will start the process of creating a file that will hold the VM’s operating system.

5. Select a VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) and click Next.

6. Select a dynamically allocated disk size and click Next. If you require a specific size, select Fixed size and allocate the space accordingly. Dynamically allocated files will grow with the OS as files are created and applications are installed.

7. Set the location of the VDI hard disk and set the size of the file. Then click Create. We set the size to 20GB, large enough for an Ubuntu 22.10 install. The size is the maximum that the VM can use so make sure to set a reasonable amount of space.

Configuring a Virtual Machine

1. Select the VM and then click on Settings.

2. Select System and click on the Processor tab. Allocate as many cores as you can comfortably allow. If you have a multi-core system, you can allocate multiple cores to the VM. Extended features such as VT-x and AMD-V can also be enabled, should your CPU support them.

3. Select Display, allocate sufficient video memory and enable 3D acceleration. 16MB Should be enough for a basic install, but if you want a smoother experience, allocate as much as you can. Adding 3D acceleration isn’t essential, but it can help speed-up applications that rely on 3D acceleration.

4. Select Storage, and under Storage Devices, click on Controller IDE >> Empty and then click on the CD icon and select Choose a disk file.

5. Select the Linux ISO and click Open

6. Click on Network and create a bridged adapter to your physical network connection.

7. Click Ok to save all of the changes.

Running the VM in VirtualBox

With the installation complete we can now power up the virtual machine and run the guest OS in VirtualBox.

1. Ensure the correct VM is selected and click on Start. This will boot the VM as if it were a real computer.

2. Choose Try or Install Ubuntu from the Live CD boot menu and press Enter to start. This will load the OS into the VM’s RAM and enable us to test that the VM works before installation.

3.Try out the Live Linux OS to make sure that everything works as expected. The screen resolution may be incorrect, at this time we will have to work with it. Later in the process we will install additional drivers to enable more resolutions.

4. Install the OS to the VM.

5. Restart once installation is complete.

Tweaking the VirtualBox VM Installation

Our guest machine can be further tweaked, and helpfully there is a useful Guest Additions ISO image, available inside VirtualBox which adds extra features such as

• Mouse pointer integration: We can easily move between the host and our guest VM.
• Shared clipboard: Clipboard items can be shared between host and guest.
• File Drag and Drop: Copy files to and from the machines.
• Shared Folders: Share volumes and directories with ease.
• Better Graphics Support: Accelerated video performance.

To install the Guest Additions we need to take the following steps.

1. Open a terminal and update the list of repositories for your operating system and then run the next command to install packages necessary for the Guest Additions installer.

sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-generic 

2. Click on Devices and select Insert Guest Additions CD image. This is an ISO image that contains extra drivers and features for our VM.

3. Open the File Manager and click on the CD Drive.

4. Right click on autorun.sh and select “Run as program”.

5. Enter your password to run the script with sudo privileges. Sudo will give our user the privileges necessary to install software and make changes to the operating system.

6. When prompted, press Enter to end the installation.

7. Reboot the VM for the changes to take effect.

Changing the VM Display Resolution in VirtualBox

The guest OS is not limited to a poor resolution; we can freely change the resolution using the View menu.

1. Click on View >> Auto-resize Guest Display to alter the VM’s resolution on the fly. Drag the cursor on the VM window and set the display size.

2. To set a specific resolution, go to View >> Virtual Screen 1 and select your desired resolution.

Connecting a USB Device to Your VirtualBox VM

Adding a USB device, a USB drive, security key or even a Raspberry Pi Pico is possible via the Devices menu. Here we can add audio devices, virtual CD / DVD drives, USB and additional network interfaces. 

Adding a USB device is simple.

1. Insert the USB device into the host machine.

2. Click on Devices >> USB and select the device from the list. The device will now be ready for use.

3. To prove that the device is connected, open a Terminal and use “lsusb” to list the USB devices connected to the guest OS.

lsusb

Powering / Rebooting the Guest OS in VirtualBox

VirtualBox has the ability to control the state of the VM. It can pause a running machine, send a reset signal or even send an ACPI shutdown request to the guest OS.

1. Click on Machine and select Pause.

2. The screen will grey out, indicating the VM running the guest OS has been paused. Click on Pause to resume the VM. Here we are running the ping command to show that the OS was paused.

3. Click on Machine >> Reset to forcibly reset the machine. Note that any unsaved work will be lost. This is as if we have pressed the reset button on a PC.

4. Click Reset to confirm that you wish to forcibly reset.

5. Click Machine >> ACPI Shutdown to send a shutdown signal to the OS.

Powering down, reboot , and logout are also accessible via the guest OS menu. This works as if the machine were real hardware.

Owners of Raptor Lake and Arc Alchemist rigs desperate to escape the Microsoft hegemony and explore the world of open-source software awoke to good news today, with the announcement that version 6.0 of the Linux kernel will directly support their cutting-edge platforms. 

It’s also good news for owners of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3-powered laptops, plus other Arm-based SoCs and Chromebooks, including the Allwinner H616, found in TV streaming boxes and the NXP i.MX93 embedded processor board. Raspberry Pi 4 users also get a v3d graphics driver, updated drivers for AMD’s RDNA 3 GPUs, RISC-V platforms get additional extensions, and the H.265/HEVC codec has moved to 'stable' status. Rockchip RK3588 devices, such as the Pine64 QuartzPro64 (pictured above), also receive an MMC driver for their onboard storage.

Bigger news than that, however, is the improved support for the Chinese LoongArch CPU architecture, which received tentative backing in the previous 5.19 kernel, but was unable to boot thanks to missing drivers. That’s all fixed in kernel 6.0, opening up the OS family to a whole new set of computers. It also improves the amount of hardware that can be used in Linux on LoongArch, with initial support for PCI on the platform. This means Linux could soon run on the recently announced Loongson 16-core server chips.

The jump from 5.19, the kernel used in the new Ubuntu 22.10 beta, to 6.0 comes from a quirk of Linux overlord Linus Torvalds, who doesn’t like to see version numbers get too big. “The major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes,” he wrote in a Linux Kernel Mailing List message, adding: “Of course there's a lot of various changes in 6.0 - we've got over 15k non-merge commits in there in total.”

Torvalds did, however, hint at big things to come in the future: “Tomorrow I'll open the merge window for 6.1. Unlike 6.0, which has a number of fairly core new things lined up.”

The new kernel should be available to install in major Linux distros with a simple update as soon as the package maintainers push it through. Of course, users of smaller or more exotic flavors of the OS may have to take matters into their own hands, but that’s the joy of Linux.

Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution from Canonical, sees the latest release, 22.10 enter beta ahead of its release in October. Ubuntu 22.10 sees the integration of the Gnome 43 desktop into the free operating system, and has a really nice default desktop wallpaper image. Thanks to OMG!Ubuntu for bringing some of the information below to our attention.

Gnome 43 subtly changes the look of the OS, but this is still the Ubuntu we know and love. The splendid new ‘Kinetic Kudu’ (it’s an antelope) image on the desktop has the familiar Ubuntu brand colors, and the Favorites dock hangs on the left-hand side unless you choose to move it. The stable version is due to be released on October 20th, and the beta is meant for bug testing purposes ahead of a release candidate shortly before final release. Users of 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ from 2018 might be especially interested, as their OS goes out of support in April next year. 

Note that 22.04 LTS ‘Jammy Jellyfish’ remains the long-term support OS, and might be a better choice for newcomers. The new 22.10 is a ‘regular’ or 'interim' release and will receive nine months of support, compared to five years for 22.04. The LTS release is also the latest available for Raspberry Pi owners, and for anyone streaming the OS using its newly acquired Google Cloud integration.

New features in 22.10 include a new Quick Settings menu that lets you toggle changes rather than flying out a whole menu, including quickly changing an audio device. There's been a revamp of the Nautilus file manager, which now uses the GTK4 toolkit and has tabs, a pop-out sidebar, redesigned spacing and icons, and generally a fresh new modern look that’s (whisper it) somewhat Mac-like. You can also finally use your mouse to select multiple files by dragging a box around them.

There's a new section in the Settings app that brings together Ubuntu Desktop options in one place, and the security section has been refreshed, with information on the security status of your device’s firmware, such as secure boot being on or off. The Calendar app is refined with a new sidebar and pinch-to-zoom support, and To-Do is no longer included, while the Software app now lets you see other apps by the same developer.

Text editor fans will see Gedit replaced by Gnome’s own Text Editor, though it can be replaced easily enough if you miss it. There's a new default audio server in the form of PipeWire, which handles Bluetooth audio more reliably than PulseAudio as well as having greater hardware compatibility and reduced CPU usage. You also get the benefits of a newer kernel - 5.19 as opposed to 22.04’s 5.15. Improvements include better networking code, improved rendering for AMD GPUs, and wider hardware support. 

Kinetic Kudu can be downloaded from the Ubuntu release server, then used as a live CD or virtual machine for testing, or installed on a spare PC. Being a beta, it isn’t recommended for a mission-critical or production environment. Daily builds are being released, and you can give feedback about any problems you’ve found during the official testing week, which runs until October 6. Beta installations will update to the release version through the internal upgrade mechanism.

Usually, news stories on this august website cover things that are happening or products that exist, so it’s an unusual feeling to bring you a report that something doesn’t exist and won’t be happening. That, alas, is the case for the 22.10 version of popular Linux distro Pop!_OS, which not only doesn’t exist, but isn’t even in development, according to a report on OMG!Ubuntu.

The latest Pop!_OS release (22.04) uses Gnome 42, with System 76’s own COSMIC desktop environment over the top, and it’s the development of this that has led to the skipping of an Ubuntu generation. The new COSMIC desktop environment is being built in Rust rather than relying on Gnome extensions, and in a Reddit post, developer Michael Murphy explained why: “There is little need to rebase Pop onto 22.10. 22.10 is not a LTS release, so if we were to release it, we would be forced to repatch and rebase Pop every six months after until the next LTS in 24.04. It takes a lot of effort to support multiple releases of Ubuntu, and the 6 month release cycle really eats into development time and stability of the product.”

Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu, Canonical’s all-conquering Linux flavor that uses a year/month system for its version numbers. Releases come out every six months (April and October) and Long Term Support (LTS) releases every two years in April. Canonical's Ubuntu 22.10 release, therefore, would be October 2022 and brings a beta of the Gnome 43 desktop with it. The Ubuntu release is then used by developers such as System 76, creators of Pop!_OS, as a base to integrate its changes into their own releases. 

Happily, the latest version of Pop_OS!, 22.04, is an LTS version, so will be supported until April 2027. Xorg is its main display manager, with Wayland available as an option. The OS has supported Raspberry Pi installation since version 21.10, and the 22.04 release included UI improvements such as window tiling and automatic updates and upgrades.

Pop!_OS has out of the box support for AMD and Nvidia GPUs, and uses its own repositories as well as Ubuntu’s, and integrates some non-free software such as Wi-Fi and GPU drivers. 

So while a new Pop!_OS 22.10 featuring Gnome 43 would have been nice, a fully developed and stable COSMIC desktop environment in the near future sounds even better. If you fancy trying Pop!_OS, there are three download images, one for Nvidia users, one for Raspberry Pi owners (a tech preview), and one for everybody else.

Khadas Technology has announced the availability of a slew of its single-board computers, including one so refined it’s referring to it as an ‘Arm PC’ instead. Alongside this are more familiar SBCs for OEMs and makers and audio products, including a DAC and a Bluetooth receiver.

The Shenzen-based company has produced many Raspberry Pi alternatives in the past, such as the VIM4 we reviewed earlier this year, but neither of its new releases fit that category. The biggest news is the Edge 2, the machine it’s calling an ‘Arm PC’. It sees Rockchip’s eight-core RK3588S SoC (four Cortex-A76 cores at 2.25GHz paired with four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8GHz) snuggle up with Arm’s Mali-G610 MP4 GPU and an NPU rated for 6 TOPS. Add to this the ability to specify 8 or 16GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of built-in flash storage, and you’ve got yourself a tasty little system, especially as it’s capable of handling an 8K display (with a total of four screens supported) via its HDMI port.

You also get things like Wi-Fi 6, a 7-pin Pogo connector, three MIPI-CSI interfaces for cameras and displays, USB 2 and 3 ports, and a whole expansion module that adds SD card support and UART. Supported operating systems include Android and Ubuntu, power comes via USB-C, and the whole thing is available in a rather nice case, which adds proper buttons above the reset and power switches, as well as what appears to be a heat sink. 

Khadas claims its 3D abilities are enough to play online games and some triple-A console titles, while its desktop-class performance should also bring it to the attention of software developers. Its ability to push four displays also means it will find a home in digital signage applications.

The other board released is the VIM1S we recently previewed. A cost-effective and power-efficient solution, it features an Amlogic S905Y4 SoC that combines four Arm Cortex-A35 cores at 2GHz with a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash. It supports the decoding of four 1080p video streams, though it only has a single HDMI port. The board can run Android and Linux, and has USB 2 ports, along with a 40-pin GPIO and 30-pin FPC connector, for expansion. It should find a home in HTPC boxes thanks to its IR remote sensor, as well as nano servers and computing clusters.

Khadas’ audio products include the Tone 2 and Tone 2 Pro audiophile DACs, while the BT Magic adds Bluetooth audio streaming to the Tone products, with broad codec support.

The Edge 2 and VIM1S are available now from the Khadas online store, with the Edge 2 receiving an early-bird discount of around $40. A full Arm PC kit for the Edge 2 is also available for preorder.