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From April 27th to 30th, 2024, MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 was held at the Pampulha Campus of UFMG - Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte city.

This was the fifth time that a MiniDebConf (as an exclusive in-person event about Debian) took place in Brazil. Previous editions were in Curitiba (2016, 2017, and 2018), and in Brasília 2023. We had other MiniDebConfs editions held within Free Software events such as FISL and Latinoware, and other online events. See our event history.

Parallel to MiniDebConf, on 27th (Saturday) FLISOL - Latin American Free Software Installation Festival took place. It's the largest event in Latin America to promote Free Software, and It has been held since 2005 simultaneously in several cities.

MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 was a success (as were previous editions) thanks to the participation of everyone, regardless of their level of knowledge about Debian. We value the presence of both beginner users who are familiarizing themselves with the system and the official project developers. The spirit of welcome and collaboration was present during all the event.

2024 edition numbers

During the four days of the event, several activities took place for all levels of users and collaborators of the Debian project. The official schedule was composed of:

• 06 rooms in parallel on Saturday;
• 02 auditoriums in parallel on Monday and Tuesday;
• 30 talks/BoFs of all levels;
• 05 workshops for hands-on activities;
• 09 lightning talks on general topics;
• 01 Live Electronics performance with Free Software;
• Install fest to install Debian on attendees' laptops;
• BSP (Bug Squashing Party);
• Uploads of new or updated packages.

The final numbers for MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024 show that we had a record number of participants.

• Total people registered: 399
• Total attendees in the event: 224

Of the 224 participants, 15 were official Brazilian contributors, 10 being DDs (Debian Developers) and 05 (Debian Maintainers), in addition to several unofficial contributors.

The organization was carried out by 14 people who started working at the end of 2023, including Prof. Loïc Cerf from the Computing Department who made the event possible at UFMG, and 37 volunteers who helped during the event.

As MiniDebConf was held at UFMG facilities, we had the help of more than 10 University employees.

See the list with the names of people who helped in some way in organizing MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024.

The difference between the number of people registered and the number of attendees in the event is probably explained by the fact that there is no registration fee, so if the person decides not to go to the event, they will not suffer financial losses.

The 2024 edition of MiniDebconf Belo Horizonte was truly grand and shows the result of the constant efforts made over the last few years to attract more contributors to the Debian community in Brazil. With each edition the numbers only increase, with more attendees, more activities, more rooms, and more sponsors/supporters.

Activities

The MiniDebConf schedule was intense and diverse. On the 27th, 29th and 30th (Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) we had talks, discussions, workshops and many practical activities.

On the 28th (Sunday), the Day Trip took place, a day dedicated to sightseeing around the city. In the morning we left the hotel and went, on a chartered bus, to the Belo Horizonte Central Market. People took the opportunity to buy various things such as cheeses, sweets, cachaças and souvenirs, as well as tasting some local foods.

After a 2-hour tour of the Market, we got back on the bus and hit the road for lunch at a typical Minas Gerais food restaurant.

With everyone well fed, we returned to Belo Horizonte to visit the city's main tourist attraction: Lagoa da Pampulha and Capela São Francisco de Assis, better known as Igrejinha da Pampulha.

We went back to the hotel and the day ended in the hacker space that we set up in the events room for people to chat, packaging, and eat pizzas.

Crowdfunding

For the third time we ran a crowdfunding campaign and it was incredible how people contributed! The initial goal was to raise the amount equivalent to a gold tier of R$ 3,000.00. When we reached this goal, we defined a new one, equivalent to one gold tier + one silver tier (R$ 5,000.00). And again we achieved this goal. So we proposed as a final goal the value of a gold + silver + bronze tiers, which would be equivalent to R$ 6,000.00. The result was that we raised R$7,239.65 (~ USD 1,400) with the help of more than 100 people!

Thank you very much to the people who contributed any amount. As a thank you, we list the names of the people who donated.

Food, accommodation and/or travel grants for participants

Each edition of MiniDebConf brought some innovation, or some different benefit for the attendees. In this year's edition in Belo Horizonte, as with DebConfs, we offered bursaries for food, accommodation and/or travel to help those people who would like to come to the event but who would need some kind of help.

In the registration form, we included the option for the person to request a food, accommodation and/or travel bursary, but to do so, they would have to identify themselves as a contributor (official or unofficial) to Debian and write a justification for the request.

Number of people benefited:

• Food: 69
• Accommodation: 20
• Travel: 18

The food bursary provided lunch and dinner every day. The lunches included attendees who live in Belo Horizonte and the region. Dinners were paid for attendees who also received accommodation and/or travel. The accommodation was held at the BH Jaraguá Hotel. And the travels included airplane or bus tickets, or fuel (for those who came by car or motorbike).

Much of the money to fund the bursaries came from the Debian Project, mainly for travels. We sent a budget request to the former Debian leader Jonathan Carter, and He promptly approved our request.

In addition to this event budget, the leader also approved individual requests sent by some DDs who preferred to request directly from him.

The experience of offering the bursaries was really good because it allowed several people to come from other cities.

Photos and videos

You can watch recordings of the talks at the links below:

• Youtube
• Peertube
• video.debian.net

And see the photos taken by several collaborators in the links below:

• Google photos
• Nextcloud

Thanks

We would like to thank all the attendees, organizers, volunteers, sponsors and supporters who contributed to the success of MiniDebConf Belo Horizonte 2024.

Sponsors

Gold:

• Collabora

Silver:

• Jedai.ai
• Toradex Brasil
• Globo.com
• Policorp Tecnologia

Bronze:

• BRDSoft - Tecnologias para TI e Telecomunicações
• EITA - Cooperativa de Trabalho Educação, Informação e Tecnologia para Autogestão

Supporters

• ICTL - Instituto para Conservação de Tecnologias Livres
• Nazinha Alimentos
• DACOMPSI

Organizers

• Projeto Debian
• Comunidade Debian Brasil
• Comunidade Debian MG
• DCC/UFMG - Departamento de Ciência da Computação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

The Django Software Foundation's biggest fundraising event of the year is here!

Get 30% off PyCharm, Support Django

Each year, our friends at JetBrains, the creators of PyCharm, run an incredible deal. You get a 30% discounted year of PyCharm, AND the DSF gets 100% of the money. Yes, 100%! It's making a donation and directly getting a great product in return!

The fundraiser will be split this year, and the first half runs until June 15th! Buy PyCharm and support Django!

In the past, JetBrains through the PyCharm fundraiser has provided approximately one quarter of the Django Software Foundation's budget! 

Donations like this fundraiser allow the DSF to function. Our two wonderful Fellows, Natalia Bidart and Sarah Boyce keep Django running smoothly, picking up pieces that would otherwise not happen.

The other side of the DSF is our support for Django groups across the globe. We supported every DjangoCon, particularly with donating funding towards opportunity grants for more people to be able to attend these conferences. The DSF also supports smaller events around the world, including DjangoGirls events.

Finally, I want to tell you about PyCharm itself.

PyCharm is an integrated development environment (IDE) that helps professional Python web developers be more productive, be more confident, and write better code. It supports the full Python web workflow out of the box, including popular Python web frameworks, such as Django, frontend technologies, and databases.

Here are the main benefits of using PyCharm in your Django development:

• The built-in Django run/debug configuration type makes it easy to configure and start the Django server.
• First-in-class code assistance for Django and Django templates, including navigation between views and templates, the ability to debug templates visually.
• Code assistance for the Django REST Framework.
• Refactoring and navigation for endpoints across your project in the Endpoints tool window.
• Built-in HTTP Client.
• Database integration, including PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis and more!
• Support for your frontend stack: JavaScript, React, Node.js, Tailwind CSS, and more.

Get Django work done with PyCharm, a powerful IDE tailored for Django web development!

Consider this the easiest charitable donation you will ever make, when you get such a great product in return!

Get 30% off PyCharm, Support Django

Other ways to donate

If you would like to donate in another way, especially if you are already a PyCharm customer, here are other ways to donate to the DSF:

• On our website via credit card
• Via GitHub Sponsors
• For those able to make a larger donation, particularly corporate sponsors ($2000+), more information is here: Corporate membership

Thank you,

Catherine Holmes

DSF Assistant

Focus

This month I didn't have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble.

Changes

• ulfius: fix uwsc quiet mode
• duck: add indicators of obsolete sites (1 2)
• Debian BTS usertags: fix buildd, porter, derivatives, BSP tags
• Debian wiki pages: ArchiveQualification/loong64, BSP, DebianEvents/de/2024/FrOSCon19, DebianUnstable, Firmware/Open, HardwareQualification/riscv64, Kubernetes, Packaging/Pre-Requisites/nspawn, Ports/loong64, Ports/riscv64, Python3-six-removal, Sparc64, Teams/Cloud, WhyTheName, rt.debian.org

Issues

• Incorrect URL in fracatux
• Features in socat, lintian, KDE Plasma Shell
• Warnings in pyasn, onionshare-cli, osc
• Broken manual page in jbig2
• Incorrect EOF handling in ncat

Review

• Debian BTS usertags: changes for the month

Administration

• Debian wiki: approve accounts

Communication

• Respond to queries from Debian users and contributors on the mailing lists and IRC

Sponsors

All work was done on a volunteer basis.

NEW DATE - MidCamp returns in 2025! Mark Your Calendar - It's Gonna Be May! 

With an earlier DrupalCon next year we’ve adjusted the MidCamp dates
so make plans to be in Chicago, and join us at the DePaul University Student Center, for May 20-22, 2025.

Here’s our tentative timeline:

• Today: You read this Save the Date 

• Fall 2024: Call for speakers will open 

• Late 2024: Call for speakers closes 

• Late Jan/Early Feb: Speakers & schedule is announced! 

• May 20-22, 2025: Meet us at MidCamp! 

We will be releasing more posts with venue details, hotel and travel options, fun social events, speaker announcements and more!

Help us Make MidCamp

MidCamp doesn't run on commit credits and coffee, it takes lots of dedicated volunteers and almost 6 months of work to make it happen. We need volunteers who can commit just an hour a week from November through May to help us make the magic happen.

Join the MidCamp Slack where we make announcements from time to time. We’re also on X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon.

If you’re interested in helping further, reach out in the #midcamp-organizers channel. We'll find you a task and get you some Drupal credits.  

In this episode, we first added the Django debug toolbar to aid future troubleshooting. Then, following some PR cleanup, I added django-denied as the authorization framework for the site. With those two packages integrated, I did some polishing work and began the effort to send prompts immediately following email verification.

When working on a legacy codebase that has leading-edge C++ constructs, but also deeply legacy design decisions, sometimes there’s nifty ways to use the one against the other.

Here is a class with a needlessly public data member. I don’t know who wrote it, git history stops in 2014. At least there’s some modern C++ around it.

class Example { public: void reset(int x) { std::ranges::fill(needlesslyPublic, x); } static constexpr std::size_t publicSize = 8; int needlesslyPublic[publicSize] = {}; }; int consumer(Example & e, int index) { return e.needlesslyPublic[index]; }

Now, it so happens that I know that the only place that writes to this needlessly public data member is the member function reset(). Every other access is read-only, like in the function consumer().

Legacy codebases will also have lots of missing const, which is something clang-tidy can help with, and often use int where std::size_t is meant – but those are critiques for the function consumer(), not the Example class.

Now, I’ve got 400 places in the codebase that all access needlesslyPublic for reading, and I don’t feel like causing code-churn in those places. So I want to keep the name and its access specifier (public) intact, while ensuring read-only access from elsewhere. I don’t care about having to recompile things, though.

Narrator: Enter “the totally-bogus data-pointer”.

class Example { public: void reset(int x) { std::ranges::fill(m_needlesslyPublic, x); } static constexpr std::size_t publicSize = 8; const int * needlesslyPublic = &m_needlesslyPublic[0]; private: int m_needlesslyPublic[publicSize] = {}; };

Thanks to in-class initialization, and the fortune that the needlessly-public thing is an array, I can move the array into private, and re-introduce the public name as a pointer. It’s a legacy code base, we just love array-pointer-decay. So now needlesslyPublic[i] dereferences the pointer, but the dereferenced type is a const int & so it is read-only. The one place that writes to the array can use the private data member, which is writable.

Minimal fuss, easily detects that one other place (there’s always one) in the codebase that writes to the data member, no code-churn in read-only consumers.

Narrator: But did you forget serialization? Copying? Moves?

Ugh. While being clever about one bunch consumers, I totally forgot that this was adding the size of a pointer to each object and that this pointer was meaningless outside of the specific object and its location in memory. Copying an object should copy the contents of m_needlesslyPublic and not change the pointer. The pointer always needs to keep pointing to the array owned by this object.

Rather than going into the weeds of copy- and move-construction (rule of five), I realized that the relevant bit was operator[] on the needlessly public data member.

Narrator: Enter “the array-ish”.

Read-only consumers are only interested in needlesslyPublic[i], so what if I provide an object that has that interface, but read-only? Here is a nested class Hidden that provides such an interface:

class Example { public: void reset(int x) { std::ranges::fill(needlesslyPublic.data, x); } static constexpr std::size_t publicSize = 8; class Hidden { friend class Example; public: int operator[](std::size_t index) const { return data[index]; } private: int data[publicSize] = {}; }; Hidden needlesslyPublic; };

I don’t like the friend declaration (nobody likes friends). But it works, in the sense that consumers have no code change, read-only behavior is enforced, and only the methods of class Example can write to the hidden data. It’s like a const data member, but writable!

Narrator: What about non-array data members?

Look mr-know-it-all-narrator, if I really wanted to play silly games with member access, I would write Python and use attributes.

This particular approach works only because all my consumers use some specific syntax – array indexing – which I can capture with operator[]. If the needlessly public data member was some non-array type, then I don’t have any syntax to grab hold of.

For my particular legacy codebase, I ended up using the pointer approach to verify that all (but one) access was read-only, and then rolled it back because the Hidden class example didn’t work well with others. For the foreseeable future I need to rely on process and code reviews to keep this sane.

We are happy to announce the release of GNU Taler v0.11.

I am still here, busy as ever, I just haven’t found the inspiration to blog. So soon after the loss of my son, I have lost my only brother a couple weeks ago. It has been a tough year for our family. Thank you everyone for you love and support during this difficult time. I will do my best in re-capping my work, there has been quite a bit as I am “keeping busy with work” so I don’t dwell to much on the sadness.

KDE Snaps:

Trying to debug the unable to save files breakage in the latest Krita builds without luck.

KisOpenGLCanvas
Renderer::reportFailedShaderCompilation\[0m: Shad
er Compilation Failure:  "Failed to add vertex sh
ader source from file: matrix_transform.vert - Ca
use: "

I have implemented everything from https://snapcraft.io/docs/gpu-support , it has worked for years and now suddenly it just stopped. I have had to put it on hold for now, it is unpaid work and I simply don’t have time.

With the help of my GSOC student we are improving the Qt6 snap MR: https://invent.kde.org/neon/snap-packaging/kde-qt6-core-sdk/-/merge_requests/3 and many improvements on top of that. This exposed many issues with the kf6 snap and the linking to static libs. Those are being worked on now.

Updated qt to 6.7.1

Qt6 apps in the works: okular, ark, gwenview, kwrited, elisa

Kubuntu:

So many SRu’s for the Noble release, I will probably miss a few.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ark/+bug/2068491 Ark cannot open 7-zip files. Sadly the patches were for qt6, waiting for a qt5 port upstream.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/noble/+source/merkuro/+bug/2065063 Crash due to missing qml. Fix is in git, no upload rights. Requested sponsor.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tellico/+bug/2065915 Several applications no longer work on architectures that are not amd64 due to hard coded paths. All fixed in git. Several uploaded to oracular, several sponsorship has been requested. Noble updates rejected despite SRU, going to retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sddm/+bug/2066275 The dreaded black screen on second boot bug is fixed in git and oracular. Noble was rejected despite the SRU. Will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-meta/+bug/2066028 Broken systray submenus. Fixed in git and oracular. Noble rejected despite SRU. Will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-workspace/+bug/2067747 Long standing bug with plasma not loading with lightdm. Fixed in git and oracular. Noble rejected… will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-workspace/+bug/2067742 CVE-2024-36041Fixed in git and oracular, noble rejected, will retry.

And many more…

I am applying for MOTU in hopes it will reduce all of my uploading issues. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/scarlettmoore/MOTUApplication

Debian:

kf6-knotifications and kapidox. Will jump into Plasma 6 next week !

Misc:

Went to LinuxFest Northwest with Valorie! We had a great time and it was a huge success, we had many people stop by our booth.

As usual, if you like my work and want to see Plasma 6 in Kubuntu it all depends on you!

Kubuntu will be out of funds soon and needs donations! Thank you for your consideration.

https://kubuntu.org/donate/

Personal:

Support for my grandson: https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-william-billy-dean-scalf

I am still here, busy as ever, I just haven’t found the inspiration to blog. So soon after the loss of my son, I have lost my only brother a couple weeks ago. It has been a tough year for our family. Thank you everyone for you love and support during this difficult time. I will do my best in re-capping my work, there has been quite a bit as I am “keeping busy with work” so I don’t dwell to much on the sadness.

KDE Snaps:

Trying to debug the unable to save files breakage in the latest Krita builds without luck.

KisOpenGLCanvas
Renderer::reportFailedShaderCompilation\[0m: Shad
er Compilation Failure:  "Failed to add vertex sh
ader source from file: matrix_transform.vert - Ca
use: "

I have implemented everything from https://snapcraft.io/docs/gpu-support , it has worked for years and now suddenly it just stopped. I have had to put it on hold for now, it is unpaid work and I simply don’t have time.

With the help of my GSOC student we are improving the Qt6 snap MR: https://invent.kde.org/neon/snap-packaging/kde-qt6-core-sdk/-/merge_requests/3 and many improvements on top of that. This exposed many issues with the kf6 snap and the linking to static libs. Those are being worked on now.

Updated qt to 6.7.1

Qt6 apps in the works: okular, ark, gwenview, kwrited, elisa

Kubuntu:

So many SRu’s for the Noble release, I will probably miss a few.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ark/+bug/2068491 Ark cannot open 7-zip files. Sadly the patches were for qt6, waiting for a qt5 port upstream.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/noble/+source/merkuro/+bug/2065063 Crash due to missing qml. Fix is in git, no upload rights. Requested sponsor.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tellico/+bug/2065915 Several applications no longer work on architectures that are not amd64 due to hard coded paths. All fixed in git. Several uploaded to oracular, several sponsorship has been requested. Noble updates rejected despite SRU, going to retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sddm/+bug/2066275 The dreaded black screen on second boot bug is fixed in git and oracular. Noble was rejected despite the SRU. Will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-meta/+bug/2066028 Broken systray submenus. Fixed in git and oracular. Noble rejected despite SRU. Will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-workspace/+bug/2067747 Long standing bug with plasma not loading with lightdm. Fixed in git and oracular. Noble rejected… will retry.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-workspace/+bug/2067742 CVE-2024-36041Fixed in git and oracular, noble rejected, will retry.

And many more…

I am applying for MOTU in hopes it will reduce all of my uploading issues. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/scarlettmoore/MOTUApplication

Debian:

kf6-knotifications and kapidox. Will jump into Plasma 6 next week !

Misc:

Went to LinuxFest Northwest with Valorie! We had a great time and it was a huge success, we had many people stop by our booth.

As usual, if you like my work and want to see Plasma 6 in Kubuntu it all depends on you!

Kubuntu will be out of funds soon and needs donations! Thank you for your consideration.

https://kubuntu.org/donate/

Personal:

Support for my grandson: https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-william-billy-dean-scalf

This blog has been re-posted and edited with permission from Dries Buytaert's blog.

Although my blog has been quiet, a lot has happened with the Drupal Starshot project since its announcement a month ago. We provided an update in the first Drupal Starshot virtual meeting, which is available as a recording.

Today, I am excited to introduce the newly formed Drupal Starshot leadership team.

Meet the leadership team Product Lead: Dries Buytaert

I will continue to lead the Drupal Starshot project, focusing on defining the product vision and strategy and building the leadership team. In the past few weeks, I have cleared other responsibilities to dedicate a significant amount of time to Drupal Starshot and Drupal Core.

Technical Lead: Tim Plunkett (Acquia)

Tim will oversee technical decisions and facilitate contributions from the community. His role includes building a team of Drupal Starshot Committers, coordinating with Drupal Core Committers, and ensuring that Drupal Starshot remains stable, secure, and easy to upgrade. With 7 years of engineering leadership experience, Tim will help drive technical excellence. Acquia is providing Tim the opportunity to work full-time on the Drupal Starshot project.

User Experience Lead: Cristina Chumillas (Lullabot)

Cristina will define the design and user experience vision for Drupal Starshot. She will engage with contributors to initiate research activities and share the latest UI/UX best practices, ensuring a user-centric approach. She has been leading UX-related Drupal Core initiatives for over 7 years. Lullabot, Cristina's employer, has generously offered her the opportunity to work on Drupal Starshot full-time.

Product Owner: Pamela Barone (Technocrat)

Pam will help ensure alignment and progress among contributors, including defining and prioritizing work. She brings strong communication and organizational skills, having led Drupal projects for more than 12 years.

Contribution Coordinator: Gábor Hojtsy (Acquia)

Gábor will focus on making it easier for individuals and organizations to contribute to Drupal Starshot. With extensive experience in Open Source contribution and community engagement, Gábor will help communicate progress, collaborate with the Drupal Association, and much more. Acquia will provide Gábor with the opportunity to work full-time on the Drupal Starshot project.

Starshot Council (Advisory Board)

To support the leadership team, we are establishing the Starshot Council, an advisory board that will include:

1. Three end-users (site builders)
2. Three Certified Drupal Partners
3. Two Drupal Core Committers (one framework manager and one release manager)
4. Three Drupal Association board members, one from each of the following Board Working Groups: Innovation, Marketing, and Fundraising
5. Two staff members from the Drupal Association

The council will meet monthly to ensure the leadership team remains aligned with the broader community and strategic goals. The Drupal Association is leading the effort to gather candidates, and the members of the Starshot Council will be announced in the coming weeks.

More opportunities to get involved

There are many opportunities for others to get involved as committers, designers, developers, content creators, and more.

We have specific tasks that need to be completed, such as finishing Project Browser, Recipes and Automatic Updates. To help people get involved with this work, we have set up several interactive Zoom calls. We'll update you on our progress and give you practical advice on where and how you can contribute.

Beyond the tasks we know need to be completed, there are still many details to define. Our next step is to identify these. My first priority was to establish the leadership team. With that in place, we can focus on product definition and clarifying the unknowns. We'll brief you on our initial ideas and next steps in our next Starshot session this Friday.

Conclusion

The Drupal Starshot project is off to an exciting start with this exceptional leadership team. I am grateful to these talented individuals for stepping up to drive this important project. Their combined expertise and dedication will drive excitement and improvements for the Drupal platform, ultimately benefiting our entire community. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to make strides in this ambitious initiative.

Introduction

In my previous post I talked about how to use systemd-sysext to add software to the Steam Deck without modifying the root filesystem. In this post I will give a brief overview of two additional methods.

Distrobox

distrobox is a tool that uses containers to create a mutable environment on top of your OS.

With distrobox you can open a terminal with your favorite Linux distro inside, with full access to the package manager and the ability to install additional software. Containers created by distrobox are integrated with the system so apps running inside have normal access to the user’s home directory and the Wayland/X11 session.

Since these containers are not stored in the root filesystem they can survive an OS update and continue to work fine. For this reason they are particularly suited to systems with an immutable root filesystem such as Silverblue, Endless OS or SteamOS.

Starting from SteamOS 3.5 the system comes with distrobox (and podman) preinstalled and it can be used right out of the box without having to do any previous setup.

For example, in order to create a Debian bookworm container simply open a terminal and run this:

$ distrobox create -i debian:bookworm debbox

Here debian:bookworm is the image that this container is created from (debian is the name and bookworm is the tag, see the list of supported tags here) and debbox is the name that is given to this new container.

Once the container is created you can enter it:

$ distrobox enter debbox

Or from the ‘Debian’ entry in the desktop menu -> Lost & Found.

Once inside the container you can run your Debian commands normally:

$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install vim-gtk3 Nix

Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix-like systems. It has the property that it can be installed alongside the official package manager of any distribution, allowing the user to add software without affecting the rest of the system.

Nix installs everything under the /nix directory, and packages are made available to the user through a new entry in the PATH and a ~/.nix-profile symlink stored in the home directory.

Nix is more things, including the basis of the NixOS operating system. Explaning Nix in more detail is beyond the scope of this blog post, but for SteamOS users these are perhaps its most interesting properties:

• Nix is self-contained: all packages and their dependencies are installed under /nix.
• Unlike software installed with pacman, Nix survives OS updates.
• Unlike podman / distrobox, Nix does not create any containers. All packages have normal access to the rest of the system, just like native SteamOS packages.
• Nix has a very large collection of packages, here is a search engine: https://search.nixos.org/packages

The only thing that Nix needs from SteamOS is help to set up the /nix directory so its contents are not stored in the root filesystem. This is already happening starting from SteamOS 3.5 so you can install Nix right away in single-user mode:

$ sudo chown deck:deck /nix $ wget https://nixos.org/nix/install $ sh ./install --no-daemon

This installs Nix and adds a line to ~/.bash_profile to set up the necessary environment variables. After that you can log in again and start using it. Here’s a very simple example (refer to the official documentation for more details):

# Install and run Midnight Commander $ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.mc $ mc # List installed packages $ nix-env -q mc-4.8.31 nix-2.21.1 # Uninstall Midnight Commander $ nix-env -e mc-4.8.31

What we have seen so far is how to install Nix in single-user mode, which is the simplest one and probably good enough for a single-user machine like the Steam Deck. The Nix project however recommends a multi-user installation, see here for the reasons.

Unfortunately the official multi-user installer does not work out of the box on the Steam Deck yet, but if you want to go the multi-user way you can use the Determinate Systems installer: https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer

Conclusion

Distrobox and Nix are useful tools and they give SteamOS users the ability to add additional software to the system without having to modify the base operating system.

While for graphical applications the recommended way to install third-party software is still Flatpak, Distrobox and Nix give the user additional flexibility and are particularly useful for installing command-line utilities and other system tools.

KDE e.V., the non-profit organization supporting the KDE community, is looking for a proactive contractor to support and coordinate the KDE Goals process. The role involves providing project management, community engagement, event planning, and other needed services to help drive the success of KDE Goals. Please see the job ad for more details about this contracting opportunity.

We are looking forward to your application.

The Drupal Pune team will volunteer at PHPCamp 2024 in Pune on June 8th. Don't miss the chance to participate in this collaborative event! Secure your tickets now.

String formatting is the process of applying a proper format to a given value while using this value to create a new string through interpolation. Python has several tools for string interpolation that support many formatting features. In modern Python, you’ll use f-strings or the .format() method most of the time. However, you’ll see the modulo operator (%) being used in legacy code.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

• Format strings using f-strings for eager interpolation
• Use the .format() method to format your strings lazily
• Work with the modulo operator (%) for string formatting
• Decide which interpolation and formatting tool to use

To get the most out of this tutorial, you should be familiar with Python’s string data type and the available string interpolation tools. Having a basic knowledge of the string formatting mini-language is also a plus.

Get Your Code: Click here to download the free sample code you’ll use to learn about Python’s string formatting tools.

Take the Quiz: Test your knowledge with our interactive “Python String Formatting: Available Tools and Their Features” quiz. You’ll receive a score upon completion to help you track your learning progress:

Interactive Quiz

Python String Formatting: Available Tools and Their Features

Take this quiz to test your understanding of the available tools for string formatting in Python, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. These tools include f-strings, the .format() method, and the modulo operator.

Interpolating and Formatting Strings in Python

String interpolation involves generating strings by inserting other strings or objects into specific places in a base string or template. For example, here’s how you can do some string interpolation using an f-string:

Python >>> name = "Bob" >>> f"Hello, {name}!" 'Hello, Bob!' Copied!

In this quick example, you first have a Python variable containing a string object, "Bob". Then, you create a new string using an f-string. In this string, you insert the content of your name variable using a replacement field. When you run this last line of code, Python builds a final string, 'Hello, Bob!'. The insertion of name into the f-string is an interpolation.

Note: To dive deeper into string interpolation, check out the String Interpolation in Python: Exploring Available Tools tutorial.

When you do string interpolation, you may need to format the interpolated values to produce a well-formatted final string. To do this, you can use different string interpolation tools that support string formatting. In Python, you have these three tools:

1. F-strings
2. The str.format() method
3. The modulo operator (%)

The first two tools support the string formatting mini-language, a feature that allows you to fine-tune your strings. The third tool is a bit old and has fewer formatting options. However, you can use it to do some minimal formatting.

Note: The built-in format() function is yet another tool that supports the format specification mini-language. This function is typically used for date and number formatting, but you won’t cover it in this tutorial.

In the following sections, you’ll start by learning a bit about the string formatting mini-language. Then, you’ll dive into using this language, f-strings, and the .format() method to format your strings. Finally, you’ll learn about the formatting capabilities of the modulo operator.

Using F-Strings to Format Strings

Python 3.6 added a string interpolation and formatting tool called formatted string literals, or f-strings for short. As you’ve already learned, f-strings let you embed Python objects and expressions inside your strings. To create an f-string, you must prefix the string with an f or F and insert replacement fields in the string literal. Each replacement field must contain a variable, object, or expression:

Python >>> f"The number is {42}" 'The number is 42' >>> a = 5 >>> b = 10 >>> f"{a} plus {b} is {a + b}" '5 plus 10 is 15' Copied!

In the first example, you define an f-string that embeds the number 42 directly into the resulting string. In the second example, you insert two variables and an expression into the string.

Formatted string literals are a Python parser feature that converts f-strings into a series of string constants and expressions. These are then joined up to build the final string.

Using the Formatting Mini-Language With F-Strings

When you use f-strings to create strings through interpolation, you need to use replacement fields. In f-strings, you can define a replacement field using curly brackets ({}) as in the examples below:

Python >>> debit = 300.00 >>> credit = 450.00 >>> f"Debit: ${debit}, Credit: ${credit}, Balance: ${credit - debit}" 'Debit: $300, Credit: $450.0, Balance: $150.0' Copied!

Inside the brackets, you can insert Python objects and expressions. In this example, you’d like the resulting string to display the currency values using a proper format. However, you get a string that shows the currency values with at most one digit on its decimal part.

Read the full article at https://realpython.com/python-string-formatting/ »

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Series Overview & ToC | Previous Article | Next Article - coming June 13th Now that we have covered how to prepare for a migration, let’s put that knowledge into practice. In this article we introduce the example project: a Drupal 7 site that we will be migrating to Drupal 10. After providing an overview of project setup, we will perform an audit of the Drupal 7 site and draft a migration plan to Drupal 10. ### Example repository The repository is available on Github. We will be using DDEV to set up local development environments for Drupal 7 and 10. Refer to DDEV’s official documentation for installation instructions. If you choose to use a different development environment, adjust the commands accordingly. To get the Drupal 7 site up and running, execute the following commands: bash git clone https://github.com/tag1consulting/d7_to_d10_migration.git d7_to_d10_migration cd d7_to_d10_migration/drupal7 ddev start ddev import-db -f ../assets/drupal7_db.sql.gz ddev import-files --source ../assets/drupal7_files.tar.gz ddev restart ddev launch ddev drush uli This will clone the repository into a folder named d7_to_d10_migration. Inside, you will find a drupal7 folder with the code for a Drupal 7 installation including contrib modules. The commands also import an already populated database and user uploaded...

Read more mauricio Wed, 06/05/2024 - 14:17

Version 1.7rc is available for download from:

  git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/enscript.git

We are looking forward for your feedback.

Test your understanding of Python’s tools for string formatting, including f-strings, the .format() method, and the modulo operator.

Take this quiz after reading our Python String Formatting: Available Tools and Their Features tutorial.

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Every 2 to 3 years KDE selects 3 goals that the whole community can focus on for the coming years. For the past 2 years we have focused on improving the accessibility of our applications, worked to make our software more sustainable and automated and improved a lot of processes to make developing software in KDE smoother. To learn more about these goals check out the KDE Goals page. We will wrap up these goals at Akademy in Würzburg later this year.

It is now time to figure out what the next goals should be. We are starting this today by opening the floor for proposals. This means you (yes you!) can campaign for something you and others want to work on over the next 2 years and rally the KDE community behind it. To give you some inspiration you can have a look at the complete list of goals we’ve had in previous years.

How does it work?

You (and a small group of others) can submit a proposal by opening a ticket on this Phabricator board. Copy the template into a new ticket and explain your idea. The template gives you a few hints to help you create a meaningful proposal. This process is open until July 5th. (On July 5th we will start the refinement stage, where others can further help you improve the proposal.)

Some things to keep in mind

• The process is explicitly open to proposals from people who are not yet KDE contributors.
• The process is explicitly open to everyone, not just developers.
• We expect the champions of the goal to be the champions, not the only ones working on the goal. At the same time they will need to put in significant work to rally people around their goal.

What is different compared to previous editions?

We are tweaking the process a bit this time. If you’re familiar with the process from previous years here are the most important changes:

• We are moving from an individual champion to a small team of champions. Each goal should have someone who can carry the vision of the goal forward, someone who can technically steer it and someone to promote it. Other setups are possible where it makes sense for the particular goal but a goal needs a small team. Don’t have a team yet? That’s ok. Submit a proposal and say what you need. We will try to help find others to join.
• We are focusing the champion role more on driving the goal forward through others and less by doing all the work themselves.
• We will work with the goal champions on fundraising for specific projects that support their goal.

What’s the timeline?

• Starting today until July 5th: Propose goals and find team
• July 5th to August 15th: Refine proposals together with the community (identify issues, remove blockers, sharpen the proposal, …)
• August 15th to 31st: Voting on the proposed goals by active KDE contributors
• September 6/7th: Selected goals are announced at Akademy

Still got questions?

If you still have questions you can ask them in various places:

• In the office hour on June 14th at 7PM Berlin time. You can find the time in your timezone here. The meeting will happen on BigBlueButton.
• The KDE Goals matrix channel.
• The KDE Community mailing list.
• Reaching out to me directly.

Esmeralda Braad-Tijhoff transformed her life through Drupal, rising from poverty to a leading role in the tech industry. As a Drupal Product Owner at DICTU and a Dutch Drupal Association board member, Esmeralda shares her experiences and insights in an interview with Alka Elizabeth of The DropTimes. They discuss Esmeralda's background, transition into IT, and efforts to foster collaboration within the Drupal community. The interview also covers her advocacy for open-source solutions in government projects and her vision for the future of tech inclusivity.

Golf EMS bhavinhjoshi Wed, 06/05/2024 - 12:42 Brochure site Community E-Commerce Entertainment Small business Technology

Golf EMS is an industry-leading online registration platform, designed specifically for the unique needs of golf facilities. The platform streamlines the process of managing golf events, offering a centralised solution for handling online registrations, payments, and event management efficiently.

Before Joshi Consultancy Services came onboard, Golf EMS was encountering several challenges that impeded its growth. Their existing system was insubstantial and underperforming, not being able to support the increasing demands of their expanding user base.

Joshi Consultancy Services revamped Golf EMS's online registration platform. They replaced the outdated system with a robust, highly scalable Drupal solution. This new system significantly improved the platform's performance, allowing it to handle higher traffic and provide an enhanced user experience. As a result, Golf EMS gained the capacity to support even the most complex golf event registrations.

Moreover, by leveraging Drupal's flexibility and scalability, Joshi Consultancy Services was able to introduce new features that further streamlined Golf EMS's operations. This included advanced reporting tools, custom event registration forms, and secure payment gateways.

Joshi's mastery in Drupal was crucial in transforming Golf EMS's platform into a powerful, efficient registration tool for golf facilities. By optimising their system, Golf EMS was able to achieve their goals, boosting their market share and solidifying their position as a leader in the golf industry.

Under the guidance of Joshi Consultancy Services, Golf EMS significantly improved their operational efficiency and client satisfaction, achieving their objectives, and paving the way for their continual success in the competitive golf industry.

The Golf EMS project was a meticulous undertaking that called for a significant system overhaul. The goal for the project was to transform their existing platform into an advanced, robust system that could efficiently handle the demands of their user base and support their growth trajectory.

Goals:
The main objectives for Golf EMS included:

1. A scalable platform to support a growing user base.
2. Enhanced productivity through streamlined operations.
3. A secure platform for online registrations and payments.
4. Improved functionality with features tailored for golf event management.

Requirements:
The key requirements for the project were:

1. Development of a scalable Drupal solution.
2. Integration of APIs for third-party services.
3. Implementation of customizable features for advanced reporting and detailed customer insights.
4. A secure payment gateway.
5. Compliance with industry regulations and standards.

Outcome:
The partnership with Joshi Consultancy Services yielded remarkable results. With a revamped platform, Golf EMS experienced considerable improvements in their operations. The new Drupal solution provided the scalability they needed to handle their growing needs without compromising on performance.

The integration of APIs and the addition of customised features such as advanced reporting tools, custom event registration forms, and secure payment gateways significantly enhanced the platform's functionality.

By successfully meeting the requirements and achieving their goals, Golf EMS has cemented their position as an industry leader, offering a sophisticated online golf event management system that is trusted and relied upon by golf facilities everywhere.

Why Drupal was chosen

When it came to developing the Golf EMS platform, Drupal was the chosen content management system due to several reasons reflecting its robustness, flexibility, and scalability.

Firstly, Drupal is highly customisable, allowing for the creation and management of content types, views, user roles, and more. This was essential for a dynamic platform like Golf EMS which needed numerous custom functionalities tailored to the specific requirements of golf event management.

Secondly, Drupal’s extensive API support was a significant factor. APIs facilitate the smooth integration of third-party systems essential for expanding the platform's capabilities. With it, Joshi Consultancy Services seamlessly integrated payment gateways, reporting tools and other services into Golf EMS's platform.

Furthermore, Drupal's scalability was a crucial consideration. As Golf EMS aimed to cater to a growing user base, they needed a system that would handle increased traffic and data without affecting the website's performance. Drupal's inherent ability to scale made it the perfect fit.

Lastly, the security provided by Drupal is industry-leading. Given the sensitive data involved with online registrations and payments, Drupal's strong focus on security was pivotal to ensure that user data remained secure and well-protected.

In summary, the choice to use Drupal was driven by its customizability, robust API support, scalability, and security. These features, coupled with Bhavin Joshi's deep expertise in Drupal, ensured that Golf EMS was built on a solid foundation that could support its aims and future growth.

Drupal 7.x