Monthly Archive:: February 2025
Late last year, the MaXX Interactive Desktop, the Linux (and BSD) version of the IRIX desktop, sprung back to life with a new release and a detailed roadmap. Thanks to a unique licensing agreement with SGI, MaXX’ developer, Eric Masson, has been able to bring a lot of the SGI user experience over to Linux and BSD, and as promised, we have a new release: the final version of MaXX Interactive Desktop 2.2.0. It’s codenamed Octane, and anyone who knows their SGI history will chuckle at this and other codenames MaXX uses. Like last year’s alpha release, 2.2.0 brings an Exposé-like overview features, initial freedesktop.org integration, tons of performance improvements and bug fixes, desktop notifications, and much more. For the next release, 2.3.0 they’re planning a new file manager, support for .desktop files, a ton of new preference panes, a quick search feature, and a whole bunch of lower-level stuff. With how serious the renewed development effort seems, I hope that some day, the project will consider building MaXX out to a full Linux distribution, to gain more control over the experience and ensure normal users don’t have to perform a manual installation.
Introduction to FRP and Common Scenarios Factory Reset Protection (FRP) is a security feature introduced by Google in Android 5.1 that later prevents unauthorized access following a factory reset. Unlocking the smartphone requires the original Google account credentials and a reliable Android phone unlocker tool. Many users experience FRP lock difficulties owing to forgotten credentials, purchasing used devices, or accidental resets. While bypassing FRP can restore access, using incorrect methods may result in data loss or security problems. This article covers the best methods to bypass FRP, such as utilizing Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock, Odin Tool, FRP bypass APKs, and ADB commands. Follow our step-by-step guide on how to bypass FRP on Android safely. Why Use Dr.Fone for FRP Bypass? Factory Reset Protection (FRP) by Google blocks unauthorized access to Android devices. Moreeover, the unlock requires a factory reset. This security feature is helpful, but if you forget your Google account credentials or buy a used device with FRP, it can be a problem. Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock (Android) provides a simple, reliable way to overcome FRP without technical skills. Key Features of Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock (Android) The efficient FRP bypass tool Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock supports several Android brands. What makes it unique: Step-by-Step Guide to Bypassing FRP using Dr.Fone. Follow these steps to bypass FRP with Dr.Fone: Step 1. Launch Dr.Fone and choose “Screen Unlock” from the main menu. Step 2. To begin the process, click “Remove Google FRP Lock.” Step 3. Connect your Android device via a USB cable and pick the brand and model (e.g., Samsung, Xiaomi). Step 4. Follow the onscreen instructions: Advanced FRP Bypass Methods More complex approaches may be required if Dr.Fone or other standard procedures fail. These methods involve technical knowledge and carry dangers such as data loss or device bricking. Before using any of these options, use caution and make sure you have a backup. 1. Odin Tool for Samsung. Odin can update Samsung firmware and remove FRP locks. Carefully follow these steps: Step 1. Install the newest Odin and combo FRP reset firmware on your PC. Launch Odin as admin. Step 2. Start Download Mode on your Samsung: Step 3. USB-connect your phone to the PC. Step 4. Check “AP/CP/CSC” when Odin recognizes the device. Flash the firmware by importing the combination file and clicking Start. After rebooting, the FRP lock will be gone. 2. FRP bypass APKs FRP Bypass APK removes Google account verification on Android devices without a computer for free. It may not function on the latest Android versions. Use these steps: Step 1. Download the FRP Bypass APK from a reliable source. Copy the file to USB. Step 2. Start your FRP-locked Android device and go to the FRP interface. Step 2. Use an OTG cable to connect the USB drive. Install and launch FRP Bypass APK. Step 3. Select “Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory Data Reset.” Restart your phone to eliminate Google account verification. 3. Manual ADB Commands. For tech-savvy users, ADB (Android Debug Bridge) can overcome FRP; however, USB debugging must be turned on. Steps include: Step 1. Install the newest ADB Installer on your PC. Step 2. Launch adb-setup.exe, type ‘Y,’ and follow the steps to install ADB and Fastboot drivers. Step 3. Turn on your FRP-locked device and attach it to your PC via USB. Step 3. The ADB installation folder is normally on the “C:\” drive. Step 5. Hold Shift, right-click the folder, and choose “Open command window here.” Step 6. Type these commands and hit Enter after each: This should remove the FRP lock. Troubleshooting Common Issues Even with the proper tools, FRP bypass efforts might cause technical issues. Here’s how to address some of the most prevalent difficulties. 1. Device Not Recognized If your device is not identified by Odin, ADB, or other bypass tools, try the following solutions: 2. Stuck at Firmware Download If Odin or any other flashing tool freezes during the firmware download process: 3. Compatibility Errors If you encounter an error like “Device not supported”: Conclusion Android FRP bypass is difficult, but you may restore access safely with the appropriate approaches. Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock is reliable and easy to use for non-technical users. Those seeking advanced methods can use Odin, FRP bypass APKs, and ADB commands. Always utilize reputable tools to avoid security issues. Troubleshooting can fix problems. Follow the recommended procedures to protect your device after the FRP bypass.
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Upstart was an event-based replacement for the traditional System V init (sysvinit) system on Ubuntu, introduced to bring a modern and more flexible way of handling system startup and service management. It emerged in the mid-2000s, during a period when sysvinit’s age and limitations were becoming more apparent, especially with regard to concurrency and dependency handling. Upstart was developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, with the aim of reducing boot times, improving reliability, and making the system initialization process more dynamic. Though at first it seemed likely to become a standard across many distributions, Upstart eventually lost mindshare to systemd and ceased to be Ubuntu’s default init system. ↫ André Machado I think it’s safe to say systemd won the competition to become the definitive successor to sysvinit on Linux, but Canonical’s Upstart made a valiant effort, too. However, with a troublesome license, it was doomed from the start, and it didn’t help that virtually every other major distribution eventually adopted systemd. These days, systemd is the Linux init system, and I personally quite like it (and the crowd turns violent). I find it easy to use and it’s never given me any issues, but I’m not a system administrator dealing with complex setups, so my experience with systemd is probably rather limited. It just does its thing in the background on my machines. None of this means there aren’t any other init systems still being actively developed. There’s GNU Shepard we talked about recently, runit, OpenRC, and many more. If you don’t like systemd, there’s enough alternatives out there.
After doing more digging than I feel like I should have needed to, I found my answer: it appears that due to concerns about the fact that acknowledging the existence of certain countries can be perceived as a nominally political stance, Microsoft has opted to just avoid the issue altogether by not including country flag emojis in Windows’ system font. Problem solved! Can you imagine if, *gasp*, your computer could render a Taiwanese or Palestinian flag? The horror! ↫ Ryan Geyer Silicon Valley corporations are nothing if not massive cowards, and this is just another one of the many, many examples that underline this. Firefox solves this by including the flags on its own, but Google refuses to do the same with Chrome, because, you guessed it, Google is also a cowardly organisation. There are some ways around it, as the linked article details, but they’re all clumsy and cumbersome compared to Microsoft just not being a coward and including proper flag emoji, even if it offends some sensibilities in pro-China or western far-right circles. Your best bet to avoid such corporate cowardice is to switch to better operating systems, like any desktop Linux distribution. Fedora KDE includes both the Taiwanese and Palestinian flags, because the KDE project isn’t made up of cowards, and I’m sure the same applies to any GNOME distribution. If your delicate snowflake sensibilities can’t handle a Palestinian or Taiwanese flag emoji, just don’t type them. Bitter sidenote: it turns out WordPress, what OSNews uses, doesn’t like emoji, either. Adding any emoji in this story, from basic ones to the Taiwanese or Palestinian flag, makes it impossible to save or publish the story. I have no idea if this is a WordPress issue, or an issue on our end, since WordPress does mention they have emoji support.
Geico, an American insurance company, is building a live-patching solution for the Linux kernel, called TuxTape. TuxTape is an in-development kernel livepatching ecosystem that aims to aid in the production and distribution of kpatch patches to vendor-independent kernels. This is done by scraping the Linux CNA mailing list, prioritizing CVEs by severity, and determining applicability of the patches to the configured kernel(s). Applicability of patches is determined by profiling kernel builds to record which files are included in the build process and ignoring CVEs that do not affect files included in kernel builds deployed on the managed fleet. ↫ Presentation by Grayson Guarino and Chris Townsend It seems to me something like live-patching the Linux kernel should be a standardised framework that’s part of the Linux kernel, and not several random implementations by third parties, one of which is an insurance company. There’s a base core of functionality for live-patching in the Linux kernel since 4.0, released in 2015, but it’s extremely limited and requires most of the functionality to be implemented separately, through things like Red Hat’s kpatch and Oracle’s Ksplice. Geico is going to release TuxTape as open source, and is encouraging others to adopt and use it. There are various other solutions out there offering similar functionality, so you’re not spoiled for choice, and I’m sure there’s advantages and disadvantages to each. I would still prefer if functionality like this is a standard feature of the kernel, not something tied to a specific vendor or implementation.
Since a number of GTK developer came together at FOSDEM, the project figured now was as good a time as any to give an update on what’s coming in GTK. First, GTK is implementing some hard cut-offs for old platforms – Windows 10 and macOS 10.15 are now the oldest supported versions, which will make development quite a bit easier and will simplify several parts of the codebase. Windows 10 was released in 2015 and macOS 10.15 in 2019, which are fair cut-off points, in my book. GTK 4.18 will also bring major accessibility improvements with the AccessKit backend, giving GTK accessibility features on Windows and macOS for the first time, which is great news. Another major new feature is the new Android backend, which, while not yet complete, will allow you to run GTK applications on Android. Do note that this is experimental, so don’t expect everything to work without any issues quite yet. Lastly, the news that everyone was freaking out about over the weekend: the X11 backend has been deprecated, and will be removed in GTK 5. This freaked a lot of people out, but note that this doesn’t mean you magically can’t use GTK 4 applications on X11 anymore – it merely means that X11 support will be removed in GTK 5, which doesn’t even exist yet, and with GTK 4 being supported until GTK 6 is released, people using legacy windowing systems like Xorg will be fine for a long time to come. As the GTK project notes on Fedi: The X11 backend being deprecated mainly means that we’re not going to spend time implementing new features, like dmabuf, graphics offloading, or Vulkan support. X11 support will still exist until GTK4 is EOL, which will happen once GTK *6* is released. We’re talking about a 20 years horizon, at this point… Of course, somebody could show up tomorrow, and implement everything that the Wayland backend does, but for X11. We can always undeprecate things. We are not holding our breath, though… ↫ The GTK project on Fedi This is the right move, and I’m glad the GTK project is doing this, and is giving everyone ample time to prepare. A lot of people will still freak out, get mad, and scream bloody murder at certain individuals in the wider Linux community, and those people are, of course, free to start working on Xorg. Like the GTK developers, though, I’m not holding my breath, because despite years of excessive Wayland hate, not a single person has stood up to do the work required to keep Xorg going.
You might expect PDF files to only be comprised of static documents, but surprisingly, the PDF file format supports Javascript with its own separate standard library. Modern browsers (Chromium, Firefox) implement this as part of their PDF engines. However, the APIs that are available in the browser are much more limited. The full specfication for the JS in PDFs was only ever implemented by Adobe Acrobat, and it contains some ridiculous things like the ability to do 3D rendering, make HTTP requests, and detect every monitor connected to the user’s system. However, on Chromium and other browsers, only a tiny subset of this API was ever implemented, due to obvious security concerns. With this, we can do whatever computation we want, just with some very limited IO. ↫ LinuxPDF GitHub page I’m both impressed and concerned.
GNU Guix is a package manager for GNU/Linux systems. It is designed to give users more control over their general-purpose and specialized computing environments, and make these easier to reproduce over time and deploy to one or many devices. ↫ GNU Guix website Guix is basically GNU’s approach to a reproducible, functional package manager, very similar to Nix because, well, it’s based on Nix. GNU also has a Linux distribution built around Nix, the GNU Guix System, which is fully ‘libre’ as all things GNU are, and also makes use of the GNU Shepard init system. Both Shepard and Guix make use of Guile. The last release of the GNU Guix System is a few years old already, but it’s a rolling release, so that’s not much of an issue. It uses the Linux kernel, but support for GNU Hurd is also being worked on, for whatever that’s worth. There’s also a third-party distribution that is built around the same projects, called rde. It focuses on being lightweight, ready for offline use, and minimal distractions. It’s probably not suitable for most normal users, but if you’re a power user and you’re looking for something a little bit different, this could be for you. While it’s in active development, it’s considered usable and stable by its creators. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m definitely intrigued by what it has to offer. Nix sucks up a lot of the attention in this space, so it’s interesting to see some of the alternatives that aim for similar goals.
