Netgate has released pfSense Plus software version 23.09.1 and pfSense CE software version 2.7.2, focusing on addressing potential ZFS file system corruption issues and enhancing overall security. The updates include fixes for three ZFS file system issues, two of which could result in data corruption. Additionally, the releases tackle a security advisory regarding a potential TCP denial-of-service attack, update OpenVPN to version 2.6.8, and address a potential buffer overflow issue in strongSwan (CVE-2023-41913). Bugs in the fallback implementation of AES-GCM are fixed, along with other miscellaneous issues outlined in the Release Notes. Users are encouraged to refer to the detailed Release Notes for more information. Netgate provides a comprehensive Upgrade Guide for both pfSense Plus and pfSense CE software versions, emphasizing the importance of backing up configurations before performing upgrades. The company expresses gratitude to customers and the community for their support, emphasizing that sustaining Netgate hardware, TAC, or cloud instances contributes directly to maintaining high-quality pfSense software.
One of the most noticeable changes in GNOME 45 is the new activities button. Located in the corner of the top bar, this button was previously labelled “Activities”. In GNOME 45, this static label has been replaced with a dynamic workspace indicator. The new button design is a response to user testing results over recent years, and we are confident that its purpose will be more obvious to new GNOME users. As part of this change, the old app menu (which showed the name of the currently focused app), was also retired. This retirement was another response to user testing results, and was required to make space for the new design. Search performance has been a major area of work for GNOME 45. These performance improvements have been made to a range of apps, including Software, Characters, Clocks, Files, and Calculator. Together, these changes result in faster search and reduced resource usage, which can be seen in both individual apps and in system search.
This is a small update to 13.0-U6 to update OpenZFS to version 2.1.14 and fix a data integrity issue discovered in that project (NAS-125356). While this bug has been present in OpenZFS for many years, this issue has not been found to impact any TrueNAS systems to date. This TrueNAS Community announcement has further details.
In the last three months we have released 47 security updates, most of them from the Debian base distribution. However, we have also fixed security-relevant errors in the Univention packages, e.g. password leaks via the process list. We have also further stabilized the Univention Management Console (UMC) when connecting to the individual UMC modules. We have improved the way the Univention Directory Manager (UDM) handles inconsistent user capitalization. Some data is now updated atomically by the portal, which avoids certain error patterns, and the self service now translates the forms correctly in all cases.
We are pleased to announce the release of Alpine Linux 3.19.0, the first in the v3.19 stable series. Highlights: Linux kernel 6.6; GCC 13.2; Perl 5.38; LLVM 17; Xen 4.18; PostgreSQL 16; Node.js (lts) 20.10; Ceph 18.2; GNOME 45; Go 1.21; KDE Applications 23.08 / KDE Frameworks 5.112; OpenJDK 21; PHP 8.3; Rust 1.72; Significant changes: Support for Raspberry Pi 5 was added.
In the release note dated December 5, 2023, several enhancements and fixes were implemented for the Raspberry Pi operating system. Notable updates include modifications to support Raspberry Pi 5 in serial port switching, unique identification for touch screens, and compatibility with RP1 displays. The release also features improved theme handling with on-the-fly changes, restored shortcuts, and harmonized GTK+2 and GTK+3 themes for consistent styling. Bug fixes address issues such as warning notifications, volume keyboard shortcuts, and window manager crashes. The update brings support for Mathematica and Scratch 3 on Raspberry Pi 5 in 64-bit mode, along with updates to Thonny, Chromium, and Firefox. Additional inclusions encompass gpiod binary tools and python3-venv in lite images, updated translations, and firmware/kernel updates.
In the 5.6.5 release, various fixes have been implemented, including the removal of the Rox Customise Menu entry and resolving issues such as abort loading NVIDIA SFS in initrd and a usr-merge fix for the kirkstone container. Notably, this update introduces the inclusion of a new p7zip and a rewritten download_file feature. The Global IP TV Panel 2023MK7 was added on December 5, 2023, and p7zip was compiled in OE on the same date. Additionally, the download_file function underwent a rewrite on December 5, 2023.
Sparky 7.2 “Orion Belt” is out. It is a quarterly updated point release of Sparky 7 'Orion Belt' of the stable line. Sparky 7 is based on and fully compatible with Debian 12 'Bookworm'. Changes: all packages updated from Debian and Sparky stable repos as of December 5, 2023; Linux kernel PC: 6.1.55 (6.6.4-sparky and 5.15.141-LTS-sparky in sparky repos); Linux kernel ARM: 6.1.58; LibreOffice 7.4.7; Calamares 3.2.61; KDE Plasma 5.27.5; LXQt 1.2.0; MATE 1.26; Xfce 4.18; Openbox 3.6.1; Firefox 115.5.0esr (120.0.1-sparky in Sparky repos); Thunderbird 115.5.0; VLC 3.0.20; Exaile 4.1.3.
Freespire 10 has been released by the PC/OS development team, emphasizing improvements in both internal development and user-facing front-end aspects. The release aims to provide a familiar experience for new users while offering configurability for advanced ones. Notable enhancements include improved speed, responsiveness, and hardware compatibility, with a focus on enhancing virtual machine compatibility. Freespire 10 maintains its commitment to "free software," minimizing the use of proprietary code. The release features a customized GNOME 4.2.9 interface, Linux kernel 6.2.0-36, Rhythmbox Music Player, video player, OnlyOffice 7.4, Geary mail client, Brave Web Browser 1.60, and OpenSSH Client and Server Samba. The distribution continues its tradition as a leading free desktop distribution, standing out for its adherence to free software principles.
With GNOME 45 hot off the press, Kali Linux is now supporting it! And is looking pretty in the process! For people who opt to use GNOME as their desktop environment, GNOME 45 is now here! If you do not read their changelog, below is a quick summary mixed with some of our tweaks: Full-height sidebars in many updated apps; highly improved speed of search in nautilus file manager; unfortunately the update for Nautilus was not ready for this release, but it will arrive as a later update soon; improved settings app (gnome-control-center); updated color-schemes for gnome-text-editor; updated themes for shell, libadwaita, gtk-3 and gtk-4; updated gnome-shell extensions; shell updates, including a new workspace indicator, replacing the previous Activities button; it is also possible to scroll your mouse wheel while hovering over the indicator to switch between workspaces.