Linux in The News 12-12-22
Last Updated on December 12, 2022 by KC7NYR
Armbian 22.11 Adds RISC-V 64, Banana Pi M5, ODROID-M1, and Rock Pi 4C+ Support
The Armbian team informs 9to5Linux.com today about the release of Armbian 22.11 as the latest stable version of this Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution for ARM and embedded devices.
The Armbian 22.11 release is here more than three months after Armbian 22.08 and introduces support for the Banana Pi M5, ODROID-M1, and Rock Pi 4C+ single-board computers, RISC-V 64 UEFI build support, as well as improved support for the ROCK Pi S Rockchip RK3308-based single-board computer.
This release also adds ultra minimal images that have been optimized for software deployment, improves stability by freezing kernel upgrades by default, implements Plymouth boot splash support for Linux kernel 5.19 or later, and adds support for the gpiod library to ARMhf and AArch64 server and desktop images for accessing GPIO pins/lines.
Among other noteworthy changes, Armbian 22.11 adds UEFI install support to the nand-sata-install, enables proper ES8316 audio on the Rock Pi 4 single-board computer, adds a ZFS repository, adds SKEL distribution to all existing users in the postinst script, and adds Intel sound firmware to desktop images.
Software-wise, this release adds initial configuration for the Terminator terminal emulator app, re-enables the Mozilla Thunderbird email client and adds the Codium IDE on the Debian Sid-based images, and replaces the controversial Ubuntu Pro advertisement in the terminal emulator on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS-based images.
There are also many bug fixes in Armbian 22.11 to further improve support for existing boards, including the Raspberry Pi, ODROID-XU4, PINE H64, NanoPi NEO3, JetHub D1, and ROCK Pi S. For extra reading on the changes implemented in this release, check out the full changelog.
Meanwhile, you can download Armbian 22.11 from the official website for a wide range of single-board computers as images based on Ubuntu 22.10 (Jammy Jellyfish) or Debian GNU/Linux Sid (Unstable) with the GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon, or Budgie desktop environments pre-installed.
Kubuntu 22.10 is Now Available!
Kubuntu 22.10 may not be the most exciting upgrade. But, it includes useful changes!
Kubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor that offers a lot of functionality in a refined KDE-powered package.
The release of Kubuntu 22.10 promises various improvements and a newer version of KDE Plasma.
Let us go through the highlights of this release.
Kubuntu 22.10: What’s New?
Kubuntu 22.10 is bringing in a lot of updates, some of the important ones that you can expect are:
- KDE Plasma 5.25
- Linux Kernel 5.19
- PipeWire
- Firefox 104
- Qt 5.15.6
KDE Plasma 5.25
Even though KDE Plasma 5.26 was released recently, Kubuntu 22.10 ships with KDE Plasma 5.25.
However, KDE Plasma 5.25 is still a major update over 5.24, which contained a lot of improvements such as, enhanced support for touchpads/touchscreens, upgrades to the user interface, and more.
You can read our coverage of KDE Plasma 5.25 to learn more:
Also, you can expect KDE Plasma 5.26 to come as a point release instead of being part of the launch of Kubuntu 22.10.
PipeWire Default
Like most Ubuntu 22.10-based distros, PipeWire is the default audio/video handler in this version of Kubuntu.
It replaces PulseAudio, known to not play nice with Ubuntu 22.10.
Linux Kernel 5.19
Kubuntu 22.10 features the latest Linux Kernel 5.19, this should lead to improved support for ARM SoCs, Arc Alchemist GPUs, various BTRFS improvements, initial support for AMD RDNA3 graphics, and more.
Wayland Session for Testing
Kubuntu 22.10 features initial support for a Plasma Wayland session, but it is intended for testing purposes only and is not a complete integration.
Other Upgrades
Some of the other updates include the following:
- Ability to customize desktop accent color.
- Firefox 104 snap as the default browser.
- Qt 5.15.6
- LibreOffice 7.4
- Improved App Store.
