Heya folks! We're here to bring you another installment of Solus news!

Node.js 20 is now in the repository, and thanks to the hard work of @ReillyBrogan and @olmk2, it is co-installable with Node.js 18, the previous version that we had. While we want to have the latest and greatest versions in the repository, it takes software a long time to catch up, especially Electron applications. Having co-installable runtimes means that we can continue to build these applications.

Some applications, however, are still using very old versions of Node.js, and have not been buildable for quite some time. As such, they have to be removed. This list includes:

  • beekeeper-studio
  • mailspring
  • kitematic
  • mongosh

The emscripten package is also in need of a maintainer, or else it, too, will be removed from the repository. If you are interested, please head on over to this issue, and let us know!

Our linux-firmware is now compressed using zstd. This should save around 400-500MB on end user systems.

pinentry has been updated to 1.3.0. We now build additional frontends for it. A wrapper script will detect at launch if it is running in a GNOME or Plasma session, and will use a GTK4 or Qt6 client if so. Other systems will use the pre-existing GTK2 frontend.

Qt is now at version 6.7.2. This is a minor release, containing over 200 bug fixes, security enhancements, and other improvements. You can read the full release notes here

XWayland 24.1 has landed in the repository, bringing explicit sync for GNOME Wayland users using AMD/Intel hardware. The new release of the stable NVIDIA 555 driver did not make it in this week, so NVIDIA users will have to wait a little longer (unless they're using the beta driver).

The Steam udev rules have been moved into their own subpackage, named steam-udev-rules. People using the Steam flatpak can now install just the udev rules without having to install the entire steam client again, enabling them to use gaming controllers with the flatpak version of Steam.

Several XApps have been added to the repository this week. If you haven't heard of them, XApps are generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments that don't aim to integrate only in one environment, like GNOME applications. While XFCE develops its own set of applications, Budgie does not; Budgie is intended to be a composable desktop, meaning distributions and users can create their own experience with their application choices.

The following applications have been added:

  • xed, a text editor
  • xviewer, an image viewer based on Eye of GNOME
  • xviewer-plugins, a collection of plugins for XViewer
    • Installing xviewer-plugins will install all the packaged plugins. Plugins can be installed via individual packages if you don't want all of them.
  • xreader, a PDF viewer
  • pix, a photo organization application based on gThumb

For future Solus releases, XReader and XViewer will become the default image viewer and PDF reader on Budgie, and XReader will become the default PDF reader on XFCE.

Those aren't the only new packages this week! The repository now also contains these applications:

  • ryujinx, a Nintendo Switch emulator
  • distrobox
  • fooyin, a customizable music player
  • lime3ds, a Nintendo 3DS emulator, replacing Citra
  • nxsiv, an image viewer, replacing xsiv

Related to our effort to replace Solus Software Center with GNOME Software and Discover, we formed a taskforce to handle our repository housekeeping tasks. Right now, the taskforce consists of only a handful of people from Solus staff and the community. This taskforce will mostly do mundane, but much needed, chores for our packages repository. This includes, but is not limited to:

Most of these tasks are beginner-friendly, and can be a great way to learn Solus packaging. We invite anyone that has the time and inclination to join us!

How to join:

  1. Join Solus Packaging Room on Matrix
  2. Read and practice our packaging documentation
  3. Submit your first Pull Request. We recommend doing the homepage task
  4. Follow along the review process until your PR gets merged
  5. Continue on contributing!

Security updates

General updates

The full list of updated packages can be found here.

That’s all for this week, folks! Check back next week for the next round of news.

How did the sync go for you?

This poll has ended.

    EbonJaeger The following applications have been added:

    xed, a text editor
    xviewer, an image viewer based on Eye of GNOME
    xviewer-plugins, a collection of plugins for XViewer
    Installing xviewer-plugins will install all the packaged plugins. Plugins can be installed via individual packages if you don't want all of them.
    xreader, a PDF viewer

    Love this!

        woah, distrobox finally made it in! 😃

        I got an apparmor service failed loading profile on Gnome when starting Solus up. But I can't seems to find it in the logs.

          SethStorm666 I got an apparmor service failed loading profile on Gnome when starting Solus up. But I can't seems to find it in the logs.

          On a fully updated system using the Stable/Default repository?

              Same here, apparmor service failed on start up with plasma/stable repo

                116 packages. did not get apparmor fail message on Budgie...if that's useful for troubleshooting.

                elfprince Love this!

                xed indistinguishable from gedit whenever I've used it.
                the xviewer and xreaders I've used and they were mega-light, not sure they have the features of the budgie defaults we have now but it's been a while. they probably are. Love the deprecations and defualts being re-thought though.

                EbonJaeger Our linux-firmware is now compressed using zstd. This should save around 400-500MB on end user systems.

                nice.

                    • [deleted]

                    • Post #10

                    Apparmor service failed, apparmor.systemd[594]: Error: Unable to find AppArmor initscript functions

                    But at least Element works now under Wayland, so I'm happy with this update. Keep up the good work.

                      I stand corrected:

                       $ systemctl status apparmor
[sudo] password for brent:
× apparmor.service - Load AppArmor profiles
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apparmor.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib64/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2024-06-28 13:22:11 MST; 1h 19min ago
    Process: 415 ExecStart=/usr/lib64/apparmor/apparmor.systemd reload (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 415 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 6ms

Jun 28 13:22:11 workstation apparmor.systemd[415]: Error: Unable to find AppArmor initscript functions
Jun 28 13:22:11 workstation systemd[1]: apparmor.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jun 28 13:22:11 workstation systemd[1]: apparmor.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jun 28 13:22:11 workstation systemd[1]: Failed to start apparmor.service - Load AppArmor profiles.

                      my service failed too

                      Another apparmor service failed on start up with plasma/stable repo.
                      I tried sudo usysconf run -f which showed all actions as success but after another reboot I am still seeing apparmor service failed.
                      sudo journalctl -u apparmor Returned a long list with this entry at the bottom.
                      Jun 28 22:20:40 dell-solus apparmor.systemd[490]: Error: Unable to find AppArmor initscript functions

                      Any hints on the next step would be gratefully received. Thanks

                        Update went super smooth, sad to see Kitematic go though. Just gotta find an alternative I suppose.

                          BuzzPCSOS Similar here:
                          juin 28 23:56:00 mbp-solus apparmor.systemd[490]: Error: Unable to find AppArmor initscript functions

                            [deleted] Probably some combination of the minor mesa update (24.1.1 -> 24.1.2) or the rebuild of element with nodejs 20 (less likely but you never know).