New NVidia Linux Driver

NVidia has released a new version of Linux Driver: 319.17. This new version brings a lot of new features mentioned below:

• Added support for the following GPU:

• GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST
  GeForce GT 720M
  GeForce GT 735M
  GeForce GT 740M
  GeForce GT 745M
  GeForce GT 750M

• Fixed a regression that caused multiple BUG messages to be printed in the kernel log on SMP systems.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the X server to crash when repeatedly enabling and disabling displays.
• Updated nvidia-settings to preserve the relative positioning of displays when changing from a layout where multiple displays are on the same X screen to one where the same displays span multiple X screens.
• Fixed nvidia-settings to dlopen(3) "libvdpau.so.1", rather than "libvdpau.so".
• Added nvidia-persistenced, a daemon utility, to the driver package. nvidia-persistenced can be installed to run on system startup or manually run to allow the NVIDIA kernel module to keep persistent driver state allocated when no other user-space NVIDIA driver components are running.This can improve startup time for other user-space NVIDIA driver components.
• Fixed CVE-2013-0131: NVIDIA UNIX GPU Driver ARGB Cursor Buffer Overflow in "NoScanout" Mode. This buffer overflow, which occurred when an X client installed a large ARGB cursor on an X server running in NoScanout mode, could cause a denial of service (e.g., an X server segmentation fault), or could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution.

• For more details, see: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3290

• Added initial support for restoration of efifb consoles on UEFI systems where the primary display is driven over VGA or TMDS (e.g. DVI, HDMI, or LVDS).
• Added support for the xorg.conf Monitor section options "Ignore", "Enable", "Primary", and "Rotate".For example, to rotate a monitor identified by a specific EDID hash, one could add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf or a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d:

• Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "DPY-EDID-ee6cecc0-fa46-0c33-94e0-274313f9e7eb"
  Option "Rotate" "left"
  EndSection

• See the README and the xorg.conf(5) man page for more information.

• Added an Underscan feature in the nvidia-settings X Server Display Configuration page which allows the configuration of an underscan border around the ViewPortOut.This feature was formerly known as Overscan Compensation.
• Added support for application profiles to the NVIDIA client-side GLX implementation. See the "Application Profiles" chapter of the README for more information.
• Added support to nvidia-installer for crytographically signing the NVIDIA kernel module. See the "Installing the NVIDIA Driver" chapter of the README for more information.
• Added the "PanningTrackingArea" and "PanningBorder" MetaMode attributes.
• Added support for RandR 1.3 panning.
• Improved performance when the Accel option is disabled.
• Added initial support for RandR 1.4 Provider objects with the Source Output capability, which can be used to render the desktop on an NVIDIA GPU and display it on an output connected to a provider with the Sink Output capability, such as an Intel integrated graphics device or a DisplayLink USB-to-VGA adapter.See the README for details.
• Added nvidia-modprobe, a setuid root utility, to the driver package. nvidia-modprobe can be used by user-space NVIDIA driver components to make sure the NVIDIA kernel module is loaded and that the NVIDIA character device files are present.When possible, it is recommended to use Linux distribution native mechanisms for managing kernel module loading and device file creation. This utility is provided as a fallback to work out-of-the-box in a distribution-independent way.
• Updated the nvidia-settings command line interface to accept display device names, as well as optional target qualifiers, e.g.

• nvidia-settings -q [DVI-I-0]/RefreshRate
  nvidia-settings -q [GPU-1.DVI_I-1]/RefreshRate

• Updated the nvidia-settings command line interface to no longer assume the "X screen 0" target, when no target is specified in query and assign operations.Instead, all valid targets of the attribute are processed.
• Fixed a memory leak that occurred when destroying a GLX window but not its associated X window.
• Fixed a bug that could cause nvidia-installer to fail to delete directories created as part of a previous installation.
• Updated nvidia-installer to report failures to remove installed files or restore backed up files with a single warning message, instead of a separate message for each individual failure.
• Improved the performance of modesets in cases where the mode timings remained the same, but other parameters of the mode configuration, such as the ViewPort or panning domain, changed.
• Fixed an issue with RENDER convolution filters.The driver will no longer normalize filter kernels before accelerating them.
• Improved debuggability of the NVIDIA OpenGL libraries by including proper stack unwinding information on all supported architectures.
• Updated the dkms.conf file and the makefile for the NVIDIA Linux kernel module to allow DKMS installations on systems with separate source and output directories.
• Fixed a bug that caused RENDER Pictures to be sampled incorrectly when using nearest filtering in some cases.
• Added support for the RandR "Border" and "BorderDimensions" Output properties, which can be used to configure the ViewPortOut of an RandR output.This is functionally equivalent to the "ViewPortOut" MetaMode token.
• Fixed a bug where RRGetCrtcInfo could report incorrect size information when an RandR output has a custom ViewPortIn.
• Further improve performance of some versions of HyperMesh with Quadro GPUs.
• Added a VDPAU page to the nvidia-settings control panel, to display information about the decoding capabilities of VDPAU-capable GPUs.
• Added support for dynamic mode management through RandR, e.g. via the --newmode, --rmmode, and --delmode options in xrandr(1).
• Increased the number of pages that are shareable across multiple processes in the x86 build of libnvidia-glcore.so, by reducing its R_386_PC32 relocation count.
• Fixed a bug that caused XVideo applications to receive BadAlloc errors after VT switches and mode switches that occurred while a composite manager was running.
• Removed the X driver's support for "CursorShadow".
• Updated nvidia-installer to attempt unprelinking files whose checksums do not match the checksums recorded at installation time.
• Switched .run package compression from gzip to xz.This provides a higher level of compression.

Go grab it here (32 bit and 64 bit version)

Good Bye 2, Welcome 3

Oh well, i'm 30 years old now and Google also knows about it too. I guess it's time to say good bye to 2[0-9] and welcome 3[0-9] :)

Dropbox Auto Update Service

For those who have been using Dropbox service, you might notice that since version 2.0, Dropbox has an ability to auto-update to the latest version, meaning that we no longer need to download every update manually. Let your computer connected to the Internet and it will download the update and upgrade it automatically.

If you haven't upgraded to 2.0 yet, it's time to do so since there has been a lot of improvements since then. Please refer to Release Notes document for more information about the changes in Dropbox.

Ubuntu 13.04 Released

Ubuntu 13.04 aka Raring Ringtail has been released and it's available for download. There are several flavor: Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Chinese version (Kylin).

Here are the highlights of this release:

• Linux Kernel 3.8.8
• Unity 7
• Upstart 1.8
• LibreOffice 4.0
• CUPS 1.6.2 and cups-filter-1.0.34
• Python 3.3

There are other variants such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and UbuntuKylin which was released on the same day. Check the Release Notes for more information about this release and possible known issues.

MU Claimed Their 20th Title

After they got beaten by Manchester City to the title race last year, Manchester United finally claimed their trophy back to Old Trafford after crushing Aston Villa 3-0, thanks to Robin Van Persie's hattrick. This is 20th EPL title for MU, 13th for Sir Alex Fergusson and first for some new players who have joined MU this season, including our hero of the match, RvP and also Shinji Kagawa.

Visit Manutd's Champions 2013 page for more story about their journey to reclaim their title.

Viva Manchester United

IRIS II Completed

Finally the second season of IRIS KDrama has been completed with another same ending, the main character died. This time, it's not by gunshot, but he died due to health problem and also because he took the nuclear bomb with a helicopter to an island far away from Seoul to minimize the casualties due to the effect of nuclear explosion which was estimated of bigger than the bomb exploded in Hiroshima Japan long long ago.

It's been a great movie, but then the ending that makes me kinda disappointed with the writer. I hope they produce IRIS III with a better plot in the end.

Patrick Volkerding's CafePress Account

I saw an interesting thread on LQ about Patrick Volkerding's CafePress account. I recall few years ago, i tried to buy items from this site and yet it failed, because they weren't shipping to Indonesia and decline my transactions.

Since Ruario started this topic, i got curious if they have improved or not, so i tried to buy two items from them and it seems that they accepted my transactions this time. This is a great news since by doing this, i can directly help Slackware Project financially and it provides another alternatives to Slackware Store.

Let's wait for the next few weeks before the items reached my house. Can't wait to use them :)

Hacking Secret Ciphers With Python

If you like Cryptography and you like to learn programming language, then i would suggest you to read Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python. It's available for free in PDF format or the online HTML version or you can buy it for $25 in Amazon.

What you will get is a fun tutorial with Python on Cryptography. This book is aimed at people who have no experience programming or with cryptography. The book goes through writing Python programs that not only implement several ciphers but also can hack these ciphers.

The book's website is available on http://inventwithpython.com/hacking

H@dfex Conference

Last Saturday, i attended H@dfex conference in Royal Ambarrukmo after i got a free pass for the conference from the commitee. They even gave 5 discount voucher for students who would like to participate on this conference.

There i met several colleagues which was invited as a speaker and we had some discussions about security and also other things. Chances like this doesn't happened so often, so that's why i forced myself to attend this event even though i also have other activities on Saturday which is supervising the KKN program, but my schedule is for next week.

Thank you UII commitee for the free pass :)

Final LibreOffice 3.6.x Release

The Document Foundation has released their last release for LibreOffice 3.6.x branch. They will focus on fixing bugs on LibreOffice 4.0.x and probably working for future release of LibreOffice 4.1.x.

This is an unplanned release as LibreOffice 3.6.5 was supposed to be the last maintenance release for 3.6.x branch, but then it was decided to have another release and this is it. It brings over 50 bug fixes since LibreOffice 3.6.5.

Users who prefer stability to more advanced features should stick with this release and for those who are willing to test new features should go with LibreOffice 4.0.2 which was released last week.

You can download it from their Download page, but you will have to switch the version to 3.6 since 4.0.x is the default option picked.

NVidia Start to Support Optimus Users in Linux

NVidia has finally started to support Optimus in Linux Platform by releasing their new beta driver 319.12. By utilizing RandR 1.4, the new beta driver adds a way for drivers to work together so that one graphics device can display images rendered by another. This can be used on Optimus-based laptops to display a desktop rendered by an NVIDIA GPU on a screen connected to another graphics device, such as an Intel integrated graphics device or a USB-to-VGA adapter.

This is a great news for Optimus users as they don't have to use bumblebee project anymore and with further releases from NVidia, i think Optimus users should have smoother performance in the future.

Here's the changes in 319.12:
- Support for restoring of EFIFB consoles on UEFI systems with VGA/DVI/HDMI/LVDS/DP outputs.

- Support for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST graphics card.

- Support for application profiles to the NVIDIA client-side GLX implementation.

- Support within the NVIDIA Installer to cryptographically sign the NVIDIA kernel module as would be needed for SecureBoot.

- RandR 1.3 panning support.

- A new nvidia-modprobe user-space utility.

- Improved debugging of the NVIDIA OpenGL libraries by including proper stack unwinding information.

- RanDR Border and BorderDimensions output properties.

- Better HyperMesh performance for some versions on Quadro GPUs.

- A new NVIDIA VDPAU page is present on the NVIDIA Settings control panel to display decoding capabilities of GPUs.

- Memory leak, bug, and performance fixes.

KDE 4.10.2 on Slackware-Current

Nowadays, Slackware-Current is quite active and it's taking most of the bleeding-edge applications such as XFCE 4.10.2 and KDE 4.10.2, GLIBC 2.17, GCC 4.8.0, and many others. This is a good sign that next Slackware release will be another great release as usual and it should support major components out there without any big issues.

Next release should also mark a new milestone where it should be a UEFI-compliant version of Slackware. Patrick is working hard on this issue with the help of others.

Meanwhile, Eric Hameleers is now working on an ARM port of Slackware on his new Google Chromebook. He is targeting the next Slackware release to bring a full ARM port of Slackware that can be used for modern CPUs

New NVidia Drivers for Linux

NVidia has released three updates to their proprietary drivers for each category:
Latest Long Lived Branch version: 310.44
Latest Short Lived Branch version: 313.30
Latest Legacy GPU version (304.xx series): 304.88

All of them fixed one security update

• CVE-2013-0131: NVIDIA UNIX GPU Driver ARGB Cursor Buffer Overflow in "NoScanout" Mode. This buffer overflow, which occurred when an X client installed a large ARGB cursor on an X server running in NoScanout mode, could cause a denial of service (e.g., an X server segmentation fault), or could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution.

• For more details, see: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3290

Great news is that this driver also fixed a blank TTY problem found on 304.84. I have been waiting for this update as i can switch back to console or logged out from any DE back to my console instead of having a blank screen.

Thanks to NVidia for this update.

Firefox 20 Features

For those expecting new Mozilla Firefox 20, here are the highlight of changes implemented in the final release:

• Per-window Private Browsing 
• New download experience
• Ability to close hanging plugins, without the browser hanging
• Continued performance improvements around common browser task
• Continued implementation of draft ECMAScript 6
• New JavaScript Profiler Tool
• blend modes supported by <canvas>
• <audio> and <video> improvements 
• getUserMedia implemented for web access to the user's camera and microphone (with user permission)

You can download them in their FTP Server as of now, but expect an automatic update within 2x24 hours

MATE 1.6 is Close

MATE 1.6 is getting closer as some of the core modules has been bumped to 1.6.0 release on their GIT repository. The roadmap indicates that most of their TODO list for 1.6 release has been completed and the rest is a minor task to do. We should expect a MATE 1.6.0 release on April.

I have been working closely with Chess Griffin to bring MATE Desktop 1.6.0 for Slackware users in our MSB project and we are preparing to test the upcoming 1.6.0 release when it's released.

I have personally prepared two virtual machines which i installed Slackware-Current and Slackware64-Current on it. Both are updated with the latest patch and update from Pat.

So far, the basic desktop has been quite stable, with some minor problem as noted in the KNOWN ISSUE file. I really hope that MATE Desktop will bring another great experience for those who liked GNOME 2.