Tag: magazine

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4 cool new projects to try in Copr for December 2025

4 package to try from the Copr repos

This article series takes a closer look at interesting projects that recently landed in Copr.

Copr is a build-system for anyone in the Fedora community. It hosts thousands of projects with a wide variety of purposes, targeting diverse groups of users. Some of them should never be installed by anyone, some are already transitioning into the official Fedora repositories, and others fall somewhere in between. Copr allows you to install third-party software not found in the standard Fedora repositories, try nightly versions of your dependencies, use patched builds of your favourite tools to support some non-standard use-cases, and experiment freely.

If you don’t know how to enable a repository or if you are concerned about whether is it safe to use Copr, please consult the project documentation.

Vicinae

Vicinae is a fast application launcher written in C++/QT. Inspired by tool Raycast, it provides instant app and file search and clipboard history. It also includes built-in utilities such as a calculator and web search, along with support for extensions written in TypeScript. It is designed to be highly responsive and native for Wayland environment. Therefore, if you like keeping your hands on the keyboard or want a customizable, extensible launcher for your desktop, Vicinae may be worth trying.

Vicinae launcher in action.

Installation instructions

The repo currently provides vicinae for Fedora 42, 43, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:

sudo dnf copr enable scottames/vicinae
sudo dnf install vicinae

UZDoom

UZDoom is a modern DOOM source port that builds upon classic GZDoom engine, offering hardware-accelerated rendering, an updated scripting system, improved mod support, and high-quality audio playback. At the same time, it maintains compatibility with classic WAD files while making the experience smooth on current systems.

Whether you are playing the original episodes or diving into extensive mod packs, UZDoom offers a convenient way to enjoy them.

Installation instructions

The repo currently provides uzdoom for Fedora 42, 43, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:

sudo dnf copr enable nalika/uzdoom
sudo dnf install uzdoom

Plasma Panel Colorizer

Plasma Panel Colorizer is a widget for KDE Plasma that allows you to customize the panel’s appearance. In addition, it offers options for background tinting, blur, custom opacity levels, shadows, floating panels, or themes that differ from the stock Plasma look. It also includes full blur support and is updated for Plasma 6, making it easy to adjust your panel exactly the way you want.

Different looks you can get with the Plasma Panel Colorizer.

Installation instructions

The repo currently provides plasma-panel-colorizer  for Fedora 42, 43, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:

sudo dnf copr enable peridot-augustus/plasma-panel-colorizer
sudo dnf install plasma-panel-colorizer

sfizz-ui

Sfizz-ui is the graphical interface for the sfizz sampler engine, which is an open-source player for SFZ instrument libraries. The UI provides an accessible way to load SFZ instruments, adjust parameters, and integrate the sampler into your workflow. It also includes plugin support such as LV2 and VST3, making it suitable for music creation in a Linux DAW environment.

For musicians, sound designers, or anyone using SFZ sample libraries, sfizz-ui offers a polished interface.

Installation instructions

The repo currently provides sfizz-ui for Fedora 41, 42, and 43. To install it, use these commands:

sudo dnf copr enable lexridge/sfizz-ui
sudo dnf install sfizz-ui

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Contribute to Fedora 39 Upgrade, Virtualization, and Cloud Test Day

Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora before, this is a perfect way to get started.

There are three test days occurring in the next two weeks covering three topics:

  • Tuesday October 03, is to test the Fedora Cloud
  • Thursday October 05 , is to test the Fedora Upgrade
  • Monday October 09 , is to test Virtualization

Come and test with us to make Fedora 39 even better. Read more below on how to do it.

Fedora Cloud test day

Fedora Linux 39 is coming close to the release date and the Fedora Cloud SIG would like to get the community together to find and squash some bugs.

The test day will occur on Tuesday October 03. This event will test Fedora Cloud Base content. See the wiki page for links to the Beta Cloud Base Images. We have qcow, AMI, and ISO images ready for testing.

Upgrade test day

As we come closer to Fedora Linux 39 release dates, it’s time to test upgrades. This release has a lot of changes and it becomes essential that we test the graphical upgrade methods as well as the command line methods.

This test day will happen on Thursday, October 05. It will test upgrading from a full updated F37 and F38 to F39 for all architectures (x86_64, ARM, aarch64) and variants (WS, cloud, server, silverblue, IoT). See this wiki page for information and details.

Virtualization test day

This test day will happen on Monday, October 09 and will test all forms of virtualization possible in Fedora. The test day will focus on testing Fedora or your favorite distro inside a bare metal implementation of Fedora running Boxes, KVM, VirtualBox and whatever you have. The general features of installing the OS and working with it are outlined in the test cases which you will find on the results page.

How do test days work?

A test day is an event where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. Test days are the perfect way to start contributing if you not in the past.

The only requirement to get started is the ability to download test materials (which include some large files) and then read and follow directions step by step.

Detailed information about all the test days are on the wiki page links provided above. If you are available on or around the days of the events, please do some testing and report your results.

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Share your game achievements with Gamerzilla

Gamerzilla is an open source game achievement system that stores and shares your game achievements. Games use libgamerzilla to easily add achievements. The Gamerzilla library is written in C but bindings exist for other languages.

Two years ago I described how to setup a Gamerzilla server. In addition to the .net implementation, php and python implementations are available. But you probably don’t want to run your own server. Here is an introduction to a public server and the Gnome interface.

Public server

My web server now hosts an instance of Gamerzilla with public registration enabled. To create an account click on the Sign In link on the top right corner. From there click the Register link next to the Login button.

The user accounts collect very little information. Simply enter a username and password. You do not need to enter your real name or email address. As a result, forgotten password is not implemented.

Accounts start as invisible. If you want the public to see your achievements after login, click on your username on the top right of the page and select Make Visible. New users must be approved before they can upload achievements. Currently no indication appears whether you are approved or not.

Getting an achievement

Before you get your first achievement, you need to install the Gamerzilla gnome shell extension with:

sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension

After installation you will need to logout and log back in. The extension needs to be enabled with the the following:

gnome-extensions enable gamerzilla@gamerzilla.identicalsoftware.com

The game controller icon appears in the top bar of the gnome shell.

Click on the controller icon and select preferences. On the resulting screen enter your gamerzilla url including the trailing slash but without the ‘trophy’ destination for the UI. If using my server, the value will be ‘https://identicalsoftware.com/ ‘. Fill in your username and password. Click on save. By default Automatic Connect is enabled. If you don’t want to always connect disable this.

Gamerzilla Controller menu

Unfortunately a bug prevents the shell extension from working right away. You need to logout and log back in again. Fixing this is high priority.

Currently Supported Games

Several games in the Fedora repository support Gamerzilla achievements. If you want to get one to try it out, I suggest Shippy 1984, Seahorse Adventures, or Anagramarama. Seahorse Adventures will store some progress as soon as you complete a single level. If you play Super Tux Kart, you may already have achievements. Simply starting the game will synch any previous completed achievements. Gamerzilla does not display any notification when achievements complete but games may implement it on their own.

Going Forward

Besides fixing the bug with connecting the first time, I want a local browser for achievements. That way you can view all your game achievements without forcing you to upload them.

Achievements do have negative aspects. Some people feel compelled to complete them. This can lead to negative play experience, if the achievements are very difficult. I understand this concern but some people enjoy these aspects as well. More importantly, to attract and retain players, I feel open source games need a game achievement system.

We need more games to implement Gamerzilla achievements. We need players to show their support for the system. I continue to add achievements to my games and other open source games I try out.

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Announcing Fedora Linux 39 Beta

The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Fedora Linux 39 Beta, the next step towards our planned Fedora Linux 39 release at the end of October.

Get the the prerelease of any of our editions from our project website:

Or, try one of our many different desktop variants (like KDE Plasma, Xfce, or Cinnamon) from Fedora Linux Spins.

You can also update an existing system to the beta using DNF system-upgrade.

Beta release highlights

In some ways, this release might seem notable largely for what isn’t here. We’d planned to update the DNF package manager to a new, speedier version.  We also hoped to showcase a long-awaited refresh to the user interface for Anaconda, our installation program. However, we decided these things just weren’t ready in time.

Don’t let this get you down, though — this is a healthy process at work. Years ago, we didn’t always have a good way to alter course once we’d accepted a change proposal. We often found ourselves in a situation where the only reasonable way forward was to forge ahead, even if we weren’t happy enough with the change for general users. Now, even though it’s somewhat disappointing, we’re recognizing that these big changes need more time to bake, and putting them back into the oven is a good thing.

I’ve got a kid that always wants to get 100% (or higher!) in every class. I keep telling her, “Really, you learn best when you’re right 80% of the time. Otherwise, you’re not getting enough of a challenge.” To keep up with Fedora’s commitment to innovation, we also need to take risks. If everything went according to plan, that would mean we’re not trying hard enough. At the same time, our process now allows us to take these risks while still making sure the Fedora Linux OS we ship for general use is of A+ quality.

We still plan to bring you these features in the near future, and if they’re of interest to you, please keep your eyes open for upcoming test announcements.

In the meantime, enjoy the many updates across all of Fedora Linux updates, ready for you to test in this new beta.

Notable updates

Fedora Workstation 39 Beta brings us GNOME 45 (itself also in beta). For everyone who needs a free and open source desktop suite, there’s LibreOffice 7.6.

Fedora Cloud images for AWS now default to less-expensive gp3 storage volumes.

We also have an update to the GNU Toolchain (gcc 13.2, binutils 2.40, glibc 2.38, gdb 13.2). Of course, developers appreciate that we include the latest tools, but these updates also include improvements to security and performance that will benefit everyone who uses Fedora Linux.

Testing needed

Since this is a beta release, we expect that you may encounter bugs or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact the Fedora Quality team via the test mailing list or in the #quality channel on Fedora Chat. As testing progresses, common issues are tracked in the “Common Issues” category on Ask Fedora.

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read how to file a bug.

What is the beta release?

A beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong resemblance to the final release. If you take the time to download and try out the beta, you can check and make sure the things that are important to you are working. Every bug you find and report doesn’t just help you, it improves the experience of millions of Fedora Linux users worldwide! Together, we can make Fedora rock-solid. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as we can. Your feedback improves not only Fedora Linux, but the Linux ecosystem and free software as a whole.

More information

For more detailed information about what’s new on the Fedora Linux 39 Beta release, you can consult the Fedora Linux 39 Change set. It contains more technical information about the new packages and improvements shipped with this release.

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Contribute at Passkey Auth, Fedora CoreOS and IoT Test Week

Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora Linux before, this is a perfect way to get started.

There are several test periods in the upcoming weeks.

  • Thursday 21 September and Friday 22 September, is to test Passkey Auth.
  • Sunday 24 September through Sunday 01 October, is to test Fedora IoT Edition.
  • Monday 25 September through Monday October 02, focuses on testing Fedora CoreOS .

Passkey Auth

Passwordless authentication methods to log into Linux systems became a hot topic in the past few years. Various organizations started to mandate more secure methods of authentication, including governments and regulated industries. FIDO2 tokens, and smartcards, represent two passwordless authentication methods mandated by the US government in their Zero Trust architecture.

FreeIPA, and SSSD in Fedora 39, enable the capability to log-in to a desktop or a console terminal with a FIDO2-compatible device, for centrally managed users enrolled in Active Directory. This is supported by the libfido2 library. Additionally, for FreeIPA, once the user is authenticated with the FIDO2-compatible device, a Kerberos ticket may be issued .

As a part of this changeset , we will be having test days on Thursday 21 September and Friday 22 September.  The idea is to run through test cases and submit results here.

Fedora IoT

For this test week, the focus is all-around; test all the bits that come in a Fedora IoT release as well as validate different hardware. This includes:

  • Basic installation to different media
  • Installing in a VM
  • rpm-ostree upgrades, layering, rebasing
  • Basic container manipulation with Podman.

We welcome all different types of hardware, but have a specific list of target hardware for convenience. This test week will occur Sunday 24 September through Sunday 01 October.

Fedora 39 CoreOS Test Week

The Fedora 39 CoreOS Test Week focuses on testing FCOS based on Fedora 39. The FCOS next stream is already rebased on Fedora 38 content, which will be coming soon to testing and stable. To prepare for the content being promoted to other streams the Fedora CoreOS and QA teams have organized test days from Monday, 25 September through 2 October. Refer to the wiki page for links to the test cases and materials you’ll need to participate. The FCOS and QA team will meet and communicate with the community in async over multiple matrix/element channels. The announcements will be made 48 hours prior to the start of test week. Stay tuned to official Fedora channels for more info.

How do test days work?

Test days or weeks are an event where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. Test days are the perfect way to start contributing if you not in the past.

The only requirement to get started is the ability to download test materials (which include some large files) and then read and follow directions step by step.

Detailed information about all the test days are on the wiki page links provided above. If you are available on or around the days of the events, please do some testing and report your results.

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Quick Fedora shirt update and sale of last stock with the old logo

There are some updates on Fedora shirts and sweatshirts.

Two years after the announcement of the current Fedora logo, we decided to clear our stock of shirts with the old logo. Soon our shirts will only be made and stocked with the new Fedora logo.

The Fedora jackets and hoodies are back again:

The old Fedora polo shirts are almost out of stock, so we have a new type with black buttons:

We have improved delivery too. No more taxes and customs paperwork within the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
If you have your own embroidery machine, the PES file for the Fedora embroidery is available here; for the Fedora Classic, here.

Check out the embroidered Fedora collection here and don’t forget to use the FEDORA5 coupon code, for the $5 discount on every Fedora shirt and sweatshirt.

When ordering, note that the old logo style items are labelled “Fedora Classic”.

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Contribute at the Fedora Linux Test Week for Kernel 6.5 and Toolbx Test Day

Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make sure changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora Linux before, this is a perfect way to get started.

There are several test periods in the upcoming weeks. Here are the first two:

  • Sunday 10 Sept through Sunday 17 Sept , is to test Kernel 6.5.
  • Thursday 14 Sept focuses on testing Toolbx .

Kernel 6.5

The kernel team is working on final integration for Linux kernel 6.5. This recently released version, will arrive soon in Fedora Linux. As a result, the Fedora Linux kernel and QA teams have organized a test week from Sunday, Sept 10, 2023 to Sunday, Sept 17, 2023. This wiki page contains links to the test images you’ll need to participate. This is also going to be the release Kernel for Fedora 39 and any help testing regression for this Kernel will be very helpful.

Toolbx

Recently, Toolbx has been made a release-blocking deliverable and now has release-blocking test criteria. Given Toolbx is very popular and has a variety of usage, we would like to run a test day to ensure nothing is broken. This test day encourages people to use containers, run apps in them ; across all platforms ie
Workstation , KDE , Silverblue and CoreOS. The details are available on this wiki and results can be submitted in the events page.

How do test days work?

A test day is an event where anyone can help make sure changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed before, this is a perfect way to get started.

To contribute, you only need to be able to download test materials (which include some large files) and then read and follow directions step by step.

Detailed information about all the test days is available on the wiki pages mentioned above. If you’re available on or around the days of the events, please do some testing and report your results. All the test day pages receive some final touches which complete about 24 hrs before the test day begins. We urge you to be patient about resources that are, in most cases, uploaded hours before the test day starts.

Come and test with us to make the upcoming Fedora Linux 39 even better.

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Fedora Linux Flatpak cool apps to try for September

This article introduces projects available in Flathub with installation instructions.

Flathub is the place to get and distribute apps for all of Linux. It is powered by Flatpak, allowing Flathub apps to run on almost any Linux distribution.

Please read “Getting started with Flatpak“. In order to enable flathub as your flatpak provider, use the instructions on the flatpak site.

Flatseal

Flatseal is a graphical utility to review and modify permissions from your Flatpak applications. This is one of the most used apps in the flatpak world, it allows you to improve security on flatpak applications. However, it needs to be used with caution because you can make your permissions be too open.

It’s very simple to use: Simply launch Flatseal, select an application, and modify its permissions. Restart the application after making the changes. If anything goes wrong just press the reset button.

You can install “Flatseal” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:

flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Also available as rpm on fedora’s repositories

Reco

Reco is an audio recording app that helps you recall and listen to things you listened to earlier.

Some of the features include:

  • Recording sounds from both your microphone and system at the same time.
  • Support formats like ALAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, and WAV
  • Timed recording.
  • Autosaving or always-ask-where-to-save workflow.
  • Saving recording when the app quits.

I used it a lot to help me record interviews for the Fedora Podcast

You can install “Reco” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:

flatpak install flathub com.github.ryonakano.reco

Mini Text

Mini Text is a very small and minimalistic text viewer with minimal editing capabilities. It’s meant as a place to edit text to be pasted, it doesn’t have saving capabilities. It uses GTK4 and it’s interface integrates nicely with GNOME.

I found this to be very useful just to keep data that I want to paste anywhere, it doesn’t have unwanted and/or unneeded rich text capabilities, just plain text with minimal editing features.

You can install “Mini Text” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:

flatpak install flathub io.github.nokse22.minitext

Tagger

Tagger is a tag editor for those of us that still save the music locally.

Some of the features are:

  • Edit tags and album art of multiple files, even across subfolders, all at once
  • Support for multiple music file types (mp3, ogg, flac, wma, and wav)
  • Convert filenames to tags and tags to filenames with ease

You can install “Tagger” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:

flatpak install flathub org.nickvision.tagger
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Contribute at the Test Week for the Anaconda WebUI Installer for Fedora Workstation

The Workstation team is working on the final integration of Anaconda WebUI Installer for Fedora Linux Workstation. As a result, the Fedora Workstation Working Group and QA teams have organized a test week from Monday, Aug 28, 2023 to Monday, Sept 04, 2023. The wiki page in this article contains links to the test images you’ll need to participate. Please continue reading for details.

How does a test week work?

A test week is an event where anyone can help ensure changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed before, this is a perfect way to get started.

To contribute, you only need to be able to do the following things:

  • Download test materials, which include some large files
  • Read and follow directions step by step

The wiki page for the Anaconda WebUI test week has a lot of good information on what and how to test. After you’ve done some testing, you can log your results in the test day web application. If you’re available on or around the days of the event, please do some testing and report your results. We have a document which provides all the necessary steps.

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Docs workshop: Virtually writing together

At the Fedora Linux 38 release party, the Docs team suggested that we take advantage of a virtual meetup to bring teamwork into documentation writing. Documentation writing shouldn’t be a solitary pursuit.

An interactive session at Flock 2023 helped exchange ideas on a collaborative way to run meetings and invite more contributions for documentation.

After months of waiting for ideas to be finalized, the Docs team is pleased to announce the workshop will begin September 2023.

If you fancy coming along, just let us know your preferred timeslot in the When-is-good scheduler by September 15 2023.

But why and how?

The idea behind a virtual writing session is to combine the power of the Fedora Podcast with advocacy of writing and maintaining excellent user documentation. Here is why.

  • Documentation in any free and open source software project provides reasons for users and contributors to stay loyal to the project and software.
  • The Docs workshop aims to facilitate individual and collaborative work through a supportive community of documentarians.
  • Documentation is more than a fix of visual presentation. We’re writing, reviewing, and deploying docs.
  • In accordance with the Fedora project motto “First”, we like to try new things in toolset, automation, and UI improvement.

Building on feedback from each session, the Docs team wants to empower people to learn about templates, issue tickets, review processes, and tool chains to improve documentation for Fedora Linux users and contributors.

Program agenda

A monthly agenda will be posted in Fedocal and Fosstodon (@fedora@fosstodon.org).

Track 1: Introduction and onboarding (odd months)
– What the Docs team is all about. What role will interest you?
– The types of user documentation Fedora Linux publishes
– How you can help improve Fedora Documentation.

Track 2: Skill-based workshop (even months)
– Technical review, Git workshop, AsciiDoc template and attributes
– Use of local build and preview script
– Test documentation quality

Format of Track 2
– Demo
– Try it yourself
– Q&A

If you come along to the Track 2 workshop, all you need is a Fedora account and Pagure account with your computer, preferably with Git and Podman (or Docker) installed.

In the meantime, if you have questions, feel free to drop by our Discussion forum. I’m looking forward to saying hello at our first virtual docs workshop someday in late September (the exact date depends on the when-is-good responses)! Let’s do it!