Release Notes

/releases/

The most recent release is first in this list:

  • 2024-04-09

    Release notes: UBOS Linux, Gears and apps update 2024-04-09

    Important changes – MUST READ

    The armv7h processor architecture is end-of-life

    Starting with this release, we will release on x86_64 and aarch64 only. Hardware moves on, and resources are better spend on current CPU architectures.

    UBOS Docker containers are end-of-file

    Running UBOS in a Docker container has never worked very well. That’s because Docker wants to containerize a single process, and any UBOS system runs many processes. We cannot recommend that anybody run UBOS in Docker, and so there is no point in continuing to build UBOS Docker containers.

    However, running Docker containers to bring Apps to be managed by UBOS Gears continues to work and can be very advantageous for certain Apps.

    New location of the UBOS Depot

    We distribute UBOS code through the Depot. The location of the Depot has moved from Amazon S3 to Digital Ocean, mostly because Amazon S3 now fails to serve files over HTTP that contain certain entirely valid characters, such as +, which are part of certain file names we get from our upstream distro, Arch Linux. This has unfortunately prevented some users from upgrading their Devices and we can’t have that. Digital Ocean Spaces doesn’t have that problem.

    The Depot’s domain name is also changing from depot.ubos.net to depot.ubosfiles.net. We have set up a redirect, so the old URLs should continue to work. However, it is recommended that you:

    • become root;
    • edit all files in directory /etc/pacman.d/repositories.d/ and change all occurrences of http://depot.ubos.net/ to https://depot.ubosfiles.net/. Note also the change from http to https (Due to package signing, this does not actually do much for additional security, but we might as well.)

    A new name: UBOS Gears

    Starting in this release, we introduce a new name: UBOS Gears. UBOS Gears refers to the management functionality that has been developed as part of UBOS Project, while from now on, UBOS Linux only refers to the Linux distribution that is comparable to other Linux distributions.

    There are several reasons for this change. An important one is that now we have a name for the extremely time-saving management features that UBOS Project brings to the table, instead of people simply thinking of UBOS Linux as another Linux distro like so many others.

    ubos.net website is work in progress

    You probably noticed the new layout and color scheme. We are also changing the way we talk about the UBOS Project, because the need and opportunities have grown, and our ambitions have grown, too! This is currently work in progress. Pardon our mess.

    Release overview

    New packages

    This update contains hundreds of updated and new packages, focused on UBOS Linux. There are some minor app updates as well.

    UBOS Gears has seen significant work but which will mostly only be visible in the future.

    There are new virtual machines for developers on VirtualBox, UTM, Parallels and for those developers who like to work with systemd-nspawn directly.

    To upgrade

    Warning

    If you are running UBOS on an Amazon Web Services EC2 “t2” instance, do not run this upgrade. The now fairly old t2 instances do not support the newer Linux kernel we are using, and will fail to reboot. Instead, migrate your sites to a newer instance type (e.g. “t3”), such as by creating a backup of your sites to Amazon S3 with ubos-admin backup, and then restoring them to the new instance with ubos-admin restore.

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    and make sure everything is in working order. Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    As as so many packages are new, the upgrade can take a while.

    Note

    This upgrade can take a long time (hours), because some cryptographic keys need to be updated, and the key server we depend on can be very slow. If you don’t like this, first update your keys:

    • log on as root, and run pacman-key --refresh-keys, and then
    • run ubos-admin update --nokeyrefresh

    This will take about the same amount of time, but your Sites will continue to be working while pacman-key is running. The actual update then can be much faster.

    Networking changes

    If you do not have network connectivity after you upgrade, and you are running the client netconfig, re-set your network configuration:

    % sudo ubos-admin setnetconfig client

    Known issues

    • Nextcloud reports issues with its integrity check. This is ugly but benign, see this issue.

    • tor support is currently broken.

    Need help?

    Find us in the Fediverse at @ubos@mastodon.social with an app such as Mastodon.

  • 2023-06-13

    Release notes: UBOS Linux OS and apps update 2023-06-13

    Release overview

    This update contains hundreds of updated and new packages, both on an operating system level and applications. There are a few bug fixes, but mostly this update consists of updated packages.

    Both the “yellow” and the “green” release channel have been updated.

    Notable app upgrades:

    • Nextcloud is now at version 26.
    • Mediawiki is now at version 1.39.3.
    • Decko is now at version 0.15.6.
    • Mastodon is now at version 4.1.2 (yellow channel only)

    To upgrade

    Warning

    If you are running UBOS on an Amazon Web Services EC2 “t2” instance, do not run this upgrade. The now fairly old t2 instances do not support the newer Linux kernel we are using, and will fail to reboot. Instead, migrate your sites to a newer instance type (e.g. “t3”), such as by creating a backup of your sites to Amazon S3 with ubos-admin backup, and then restoring them to the new instance with ubos-admin restore.

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    and make sure everything is in working order. Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    As as so many packages are new, the upgrade can take a while.

    Note

    This upgrade can take a long time (hours), because some cryptographic keys need to be updated, and the key server we depend on can be very slow. If you don’t like this, first update your keys:

    • log on as root, and run pacman-key --refresh-keys, and then
    • run ubos-admin update --nokeyrefresh

    This will take about the same amount of time, but your Sites will continue to be working while pacman-key is running. The actual update then can be much faster.

    Need help?

    Find us in the Fediverse at @ubos@mastodon.social with an app such as Mastodon.

  • 2023-05-15

    Release notes: UBOS Linux apps update 2023-05-15

    Note

    If you are running Nextcloud, please perform this upgrade in the next couple of weeks, as we have another one in the pipeline that is incompatible with older versions of Nextcloud.

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Nextcloud

    This release only updates Nextcloud and Nextcloud “apps”.

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    and make sure everything is in working order. Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    Note

    This upgrade can take a long time (hours), because some cryptographic keys need to be updated, and the key server we depend on can be very slow. If you don’t like this, first update your keys:

    • log on as root, and run pacman-key --refresh-keys, and then
    • run ubos-admin update --nokeyrefresh

    This will take about the same amount of time, but your Sites will continue to be working while pacman-key is running. The actual update then can be much faster.

    Known issues

    • If after the upgrade, sudo ubos-admin status reports that a service called nextcloud@aaa.service has failed, simply restart it: sudo systemctl start nextcloud@aaa.service (where aaa is a long hexadecimal number unique to your Device.

    Need help?

    Find us in the Fediverse at @ubos@mastodon.social with an app such as Mastodon.

  • 2023-05-15

    Discontinuing armv6 support

    Starting with today’s release, we are discontinuing support for armv6 devices, such as the original Raspberry Pi and Pi Zero.

    They were sweet devices for their time, but times have moved on, and few people are stilling using them. Most of the app on UBOS need more computing power anyway than those devices provided.

    Instead, that lets us focus on newer hardware platforms and innovative code. Onwards!

  • 2023-04-06

    Release notes: UBOS Linux apps update 2023-04-06

    Note

    Please perform this upgrade in the next couple of weeks, as we have another one in the pipeline.

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Matomo
    • Nextcloud
    • Webtrees
    • Wordpress

    Mastodon has also been updated in the yellow channel.

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    and make sure everything is in working order. Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    Note

    This upgrade can take a long time (hours), because some cryptographic keys need to be updated, and the key server we depend on can be very slow. If you don’t like this, first update your keys:

    • log on as root, and run pacman-key --refresh-keys, and then
    • run ubos-admin update --nokeyrefresh

    This will take about the same amount of time, but your Sites will continue to be working while pacman-key is running. The actual update then can be much faster.

    Known issues

    • If after the upgrade, sudo ubos-admin status reports that a service called nextcloud@aaa.service has failed, simply restart it: sudo systemctl start nextcloud@aaa.service (where aaa is a long hexadecimal number unique to your Device.

    Need help?

    Find us in the Fediverse at @ubos@mastodon.social with an app such as Mastodon.

  • 2022-12-06

    Release notes: UBOS Mesh update red 2022-12-06 (0.10)

    Note

    This is for developers on the red Release Channel only.

    Major changes in this version

    • MeshBase indexing is now performed by two separate Bots, and the index is now stored natively as MeshObjects in the same MeshBase. Previously, the full-text search index and the type index were implemented as bespoke code with storage outside of their MeshBase. This change simplifies and unifies application development, and opens up powerful opportunities, e.g.

      • each MeshBase now has its own index;
      • each MeshBase can now set its own indexing policy in principle, from no indexing at all, to indexing only words, or only types, or in some language vs another, or custom indexing.

    • Some operations have been sped up by reducing the need, when iterating over data, to go back to the on-disk storage system (current Mariadb).

    • Some UI improvements, including reporting some basic statistics.

    Availability

    In the repos on x86_64 and aarch64.

    Known issues

    This is pre-release software not ready yet for production. There are potentially many issues, many of which may be unknown at this time. Use at your own risk.

    This does not affect the stability and security of UBOS Linux and standalone Apps like Nextcloud.

  • 2022-09-16

    Release notes: UBOS Mesh Update on red and yellow 2022-09-16

    Note to standalone app users

    If you are a UBOS user who runs UBOS Linux with standalone Apps like Nextcloud, this update does not affect you.

    Major changes in this version

    • The Amazon Importer has been updated to Amazon’s August 2022 export format. It now imports all data – some of it semantically, and the rest of it structurally (untyped).

    • The full-text search now also indexes (untyped) Attribute values. Together, this means that if an import contains a String, it can be searched.

    • The Importer framework has gotten major new functionality that enables modular importer development: only write new importer code for those portions of an import that are actually new or different compared to an older version of the importer.

    • The AccountBar UI widget has been added that provides a login dialog and related functionality.

    • The AccessManager has been reviewed, and improved. Some potential security issues were fixed.

    • The PeerTalk handler now requires a bearer access token.

    • The history of a MeshBase now has a write API. Things that happened in the past – but that we didn’t know of at the time – can now be added into the history of the MeshBase at that historical time. There is more work to be done to integrate this with importers, although the Facebook importer has been partially migrated (and is therefore currently less functional than it was. Work in progress.)

    • New additions:

      • A new skin
      • Viewlets for Accounts, data imported from the untyped importer, and for a (so far empty) landing page.

    • Obviously, lots of other bug fixes and improvements.

    • UBOS Mesh now consists of 70 packages.

    Availability

    Pre-built packages are available in the red and yellow Release Channels. As this is pre-release software, they are not available in the green channel yet.

    You may need to add the mesh repository to your pacman configuration, e.g. by creating file cat /etc/pacman.d/repositories.d/mesh with content:

    [mesh]
Server = http://depot.ubosfiles.net/$channel/$arch/mesh

    Source code and bug tracker can be found at gitlab.com/ubos.

    Known issues

    This is pre-release software not ready yet for production. There are potentially many issues, many of which may be unknown at this time. Use at your own risk.

    This does not affect the stability and security of UBOS Linux and standalone Apps like Nextcloud.

  • 2022-07-06

    Release notes: UBOS Linux apps update 2022-07-06

    Major package upgrades in this version

    Nextcloud has been upgraded to version 24, as have many of its apps.

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    and make sure everything is in working order. Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    Note

    This upgrade can take a long time (hours), because some cryptographic keys need to be updated, and the key server we depend on can be very slow. If you don’t like this, first update your keys:

    • log on as root, and run pacman-key --refresh-keys, and then
    • run ubos-admin update --nokeyrefresh

    This will take about the same amount of time, but your Sites will continue to be working while pacman-key is running. The actual update then can be much faster.

    Known issues

    • If after the upgrade, sudo ubos-admin status reports that a service called nextcloud@aaa.service has failed, simply restart it: sudo systemctl start nextcloud@aaa.service (where aaa is a long hexadecimal number unique to your Device.

  • 2022-02-04

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2022-02-04

    Notable changes

    This is a minor bug fix release. The following issues were fixed:

    • Failed to restore from backup under some circumstances if the backup contains a symbolic link. (Link)

    • Failed to restore from backup under some circumstances if the backup contains certain JSON files. (Link)

    • SMTP setup when running Nextcloud 22. (Link)

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

  • 2022-01-17

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2022-01-17

    Major package upgrades in this version

    This release brings Nextcloud Hub II to UBOS.

    Nextcloud has been upgraded to version 23 (Hub II), as have many of its apps.

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first check the status of your Device:

    • sudo ubos-admin status

    Then create a backup of all your sites, with a command such as:

    • sudo ubos-admin backup --all --backuptodirectory ~

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    Known issues

    • If after the upgrade, sudo ubos-admin status reports that a service called nextcloud@aaa.service has failed, simply restart it: sudo systemctl start nextcloud@aaa.service (where aaa is a long hexadecimal number unique to your Device.