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Arch Linux in April 2023
by Levente Polyak 07 May '23

07 May '23

## project management We've create a GitLab Board [0] to track all tasks related to project management and project leadership. This Board allows us to visualize the exact state of tasks using different lanes and labels, making it easier to keep track of ongoing progress. Additionally, tasks will receive comments and lane updates to reflect the latest developments. This is another step towards providing increased transparency, structure, and visibility for our staff and users alike. The Board will continuously include an issue for next month's monthly report pad, streamlining the process for staff to add noteworthy bulletpoints about their progress. ## RFC We proposed and accepted an RFC to change our packaging build flags from _FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 to _FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 for better fortification coverage. Once rolled out, this change provides enhanced buffer size detection and improves the overall fortification coverage. You can find more details about this RFC on GitLab [1]. By making this change, we will be able to further strengthen the security of our distro and better protect our users. ## infrastructure We've set up an official crates.io service account [2] and assigned ownership of relevant projects such as various alpm and arch-audit related crates. This allows us to better manage and control access. In the future we will be able to use this service account to extend release automation via GitLab. ## Python This month we've focused on the Python ecosystem and have successfully upgraded the Python interpreter and relevant packages to version 3.11. As part of this process, we've rebuilt all packages that were dependent on Python and have fixed numerous issues in the process. We're pleased to report that we've completed these upgrades by the end of April and have since moved all relevant packages over to our binary repositories. ## Docker We applied and were accepted into the Docker-Sponsored Open Source Program with our Arch Linux organization. In addition to the monthly updated Docker Official Images, being part of this program provides us with several benefits for the images distributed through our organization. One of the key benefits is that users pulling public images from our project namespace will receive access to unlimited pulls and unlimited egress. [0] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/project-management/-/boards [1] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/rfcs/-/merge_requests/17 [2] https://crates.io/users/archlinux-github

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dropping retired X.Org Packages
by Andreas Radke 04 May '23

04 May '23

Following this reminder post[1]+[2] I'm going to remove the following packages soon from the repos: xf86-input-elographics xf86-input-synaptics xf86-input-vmmouse xf86-input-void Any objections? -Andy [1]https://lore.kernel.org/distributions/1ea25603-171c-062e-bc02-bcdfc3acd01… [2]https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/doc/xorg-docs/-/blob/master/MAINTAINE…

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Call for participation: Git packaging POC 🚀🎉
by Morten Linderud 01 May '23

01 May '23

Hi everyone! Levente and I have been busy preparing a test environment for the new git package workflow, which is going to replace the svn repository. To test the new git package setup install `devtools-git-poc` from the [community] repository and use the new `pkgctl` utility. Please check each time if there is a new upgrade before playing around. The goal of the testing is to figure out UX issues, bugs and larger issues that would need to be dealt with before a git migration can happen. It's therefor very important that people sit down and play around with the tools :) Support and feedback will be dealt with in the #archlinux-projects channel. Report bugs in GitLab with the following additional information: - devtools-git-poc package version - full PKGBUILD or pkg repo including the Git hash - terminal input and output The workflow should be the following: Basic setup ----------- ### setup packager Make sure your personal `makepkg.conf` contains your packager identity and gpg key. ### authenticate to gitlab pkgctl auth maintain existing packages -------------------------- ### clone an existing package pkgctl repo clone existing-package ### build a package pkgctl build ### release a package pkgctl release pkgctl db update ### combined UX The last three steps can also be expressed as: pkgctl build --release --db-update ### rebuild into staging vim PKGBUILD pkgctl build --staging pkgctl release --staging pkgctl db update This can be completely condensed by: pkgctl build --rebuild --staging --release --db-update maintain new packages --------------------- ### create a new package repo without history pkgctl repo create new-pkgbase pkgctl repo clone new-pkgbase ### add existing AUR repo cd packagerepo pkgctl repo create pkgctl repo configure ### first official build/release Specify the target repo on first run, as the tool can't know it's destination automatically yet pkgctl build --repo extra pkgctl release --repo extra --db-update --- The packages are uploaded into a test group here: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/bot-test/packages This test also includes junior developer and junior packagers. They can only push packages into staging and testing, and not release into the stable repositories. We currently have a couple of people with these permissions to try and figure out issues on that part of the setup. If anyone is interested helping out on this please reach out on the #archlinux-projects IRC channel on Libera. Background on the changes can be found here: https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/arch-dev-public@lists.archlinux.o… Cheers!

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Python 3.11 in [staging]
by Jelle van der Waa 29 Apr '23

29 Apr '23

Early Easter suprise, After some delay Python 3.11 rebuilds are happening in [staging], so please don't start any rebuild. Thanks to felixonmars for starting and rebuilding! Thanks, Jelle van der Waa

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Away for several weeks
by Laurent Carlier 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Last week I fell from my bike and was diagnosed with a broken pelvis/ankle. So for weeks I must stay on a bed for some weeks - and away from my main computer. I was not able to build amdvlk with last releases, so if some can fix it, it'll be awesome. I hope to be back asap, so take care of you and see you soon. NB: this eMail is not signed because is sent with my phone.

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Arch Linux in March 2023
by Levente Polyak 11 Apr '23

11 Apr '23

## Git packaging sources We have improved a lot of pieces in `pkgctl` according to the feedback from the sandbox environment. Most notably it is possible to provide GitLab tokens via the `DEVTOOLS_GITLAB_TOKEN` environment variable, pass nocheck to the build command for bootstrap builds, handle subrelease pkgrels as well as several bugfixes. We are doing another round of testing and would like to proceed with the rollout afterwards. ## devtools A new version 20230307 has been released adding support for architecture-specific mount config. Furthermore `sogrep` now uses the first mirror that is configured for each repo in `pacman.conf` with a fallback to https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com. Additionally we added checks to not allow package releases of `PKGBUILD` sources with only weak cryptographic hashing algorithms. ## namcap A new version 3.4.0 has been released with a huge amount of cleanup and codebase improvements. Furthermore new checks have been added like optdepends and sodepends as well as improved pydepends. ## archiso Starting with `archlinux-2023.03.01-x86_64.iso`, the official ISO supports what is called *file system transposition* (**only on UEFI**). This means the ISO can be simply extracted (using an archiver or by mounting and copying) to the root of a FAT formatted partition and it will work™. Messing with boot loader configuration files is not required anymore. The documentation in [0] and [1] have been updated with the new simplified instructions. # mkinitcpio mkinitcpio version 35 followed by bugfix releases 35.1 and 35.2 are out! A major new feature is support for post-generation hooks a.k.a post hooks. These hooks get run after the initramfs generation and can be used to sign the generated images for Secure Boot. Examples are provided in [2] and [3]. Thanks to improvements in xz reproducibility, mkinitcpio can now use multi-threaded xz compression. [0] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archiso/-/blob/master/docs/README.tr… [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_flash_installation_medium#UEFI_only [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface/Secu… [3] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unified_kernel_image#Signing_the_UKIs_for_…

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mate 1.27 pulled from community-testing
by Alexander Epaneshnikov 25 Mar '23

25 Mar '23

Hello! By mistake, I released version 1.27 of the mate desktop environment, which is an unstable version. ref[1] I now removed mate packages from community-testing if you upgraded to mate 1.27 please downgrade to mate stack from community. [1]: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/77918 -- Sincerely, Alexander | Trusted User

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Spring cleanup '23
by Antonio Rojas 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Hello, It is that time of the year again: time for our yearly orphans cleanup. Please head to https://archlinux.org/devel/reports/unneeded-orphans/ and adopt packages that you'd like to keep in the repos. This is also a good opportunity to disown any packages you no longer want to maintain, so others can adopt them or they can be properly maintained in AUR if nobody is interested. If any non-dev TU wants to maintain some orphan in [extra], reply here and I'll move it to [community]. I will start dropping the leftovers to AUR on April 1st.

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squashfs-tools 4.6 dropped from testing
by David Runge 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Hi all, squashfs-tools 4.6 has been dropped from testing due to a regression [1]. Please make sure to downgrade. Best, David [1] https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/77914 -- https://sleepmap.de

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Arch Linux in February 2023
by Levente Polyak 18 Mar '23

18 Mar '23

## Git packaging sources All major workflow and usability requirements for the `pkgctl` tooling have been finished and a experimental `devtools-git-poc` package has been put into the repositories. Furthermore the proof of concept sandbox environment has been set up and rolled out to anyone interested in testing. In the current phase we will collect feedback to catch bugs and further usability improvements [0]. We are still very eagerly seeking for more testers. ## what can I do for Arch Linux Our new contributor website https://whatcanidofor.archlinux.org has been announced [1]. We would like to express gratitude towards the current, past as well as initial contributors for getting the ball on the road. There have been some changes since the announcement, including the Arch navbar more or less being implemented and a decent amount of work in general. ## FOSDEM 2023 A lot of arch staff has visited FOSDEM 2023 in Brussels, where we exchanged ideas, hacked on projects and participated in the open-source conference shenanigans. Overall it was a great event that yet again improved our team spirit. Foxboron held a talk at FOSDEM [2], he showcased how Arch Linux implemented support for debug packages in 2022, the improvement that was made to the pacman package manager, the infrastructure changes that were needed and how debug packages are distributed through debuginfod. [0] https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/arch-dev-public@lists.archlinux.o… [1] https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/arch-dev-public@lists.archlinux.o… [2] https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/debug_packages/

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