Release Notes

/releases/

The most recent release is first in this list:

  • 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.

  • 2021-12-14

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2021-12-14

    To upgrade

    Warning

    If you are on an ARM device, and you are running the Nextcloud News app, you need to undeploy it first, otherwise the upgrade will fail. More details below.

    To be safe, first 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

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Mastodon
    • Matomo
    • Mediawiki
    • Nextcloud. Many Nextcloud accessories have been upgraded as well.
    • phpBB
    • Webtrees
    • Wordpress. Many Wordpress skins and plugins have been upgraded as well.

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-apps-26.

    Known issues

    • If after the upgrade, Nextcloud reports an “internal error” (out-of-memory error related to the database), restart mariadb. This is easiest if you simply reboot your Device.

    • The Nextcloud News app now requires 64bit-PHP. Lower-end (ARM) devices do not meet this requirement. Upgrading such a Device running the Nextcloud News app will fail, as the Nextcloud upgrader reports an error and keeps the installation in maintenance mode. To avoid this, it is best to redeploy the Site without Nextcloud News before the upgrade. Here is a possible sequence of steps:

      1. Determine the current Site JSON and save it to a file:

        % sudo ubos-admin showsite --json > site.json

      2. Edit that file, e.g.:

        % vi site.json

        by removing the line that reads: "nextcloud-news",. Save the file.

      3. Redeploy the Site:

        % sudo ubos-admin deploy -v --file site.json

      Then upgrade your device as usual.

  • 2021-07-30

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2021-07-30

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first 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

    New: revamped developer experience

    To make packaging apps for UBOS simpler, we now provide a pair of Docker containers, and a tutorial for how to use them:

    • One container is used for building packages, and has the most common build tools pre-installed, so developers can build immediately with almost no required setup.

    • The other container simulates a typical target UBOS system, to test the built packages in a real-world environment.

    This allows developers to use any platform they love as their development platform for UBOS (as long as it runs Docker), their favorite editor and other tools on that platform, and speeds up setup very considerably.

    For developers who prefer systemd-nspawn over Docker on Linux, a second tutorial describes a very similar setup.

    Other new features and key changes

    • The developer documentation on the UBOS website has been reorganized.

    • UBOS now is easier to use inside of a Docker container; for example, UBOS has gained a Docker-specific network configuration so Docker and UBOS network management don’t get into each other’s way.

    • Some IPv6 traffic that had been incorrectly blocked by the UBOS firewall is not blocked any more.

    • UBOS can now use LLMNR to acquire an IPv6 address.

    • High load is not considered an error any more in ubos-admin status; only if the high load persists for a longer period of time.

    • ubos-admin setup-shepherd had its arguments and behavior made simpler and more consistent.

    • ubos-install can run an extra script on the installed system, at the end of the installation before the installed system is unmounted.

    • The UBOS build tool macrobuild now defines its tasks in more sane manner.

    • PHP is now at version 8.

    • All “master” branches in Git have been renamed to “main”.

    Package upgrades in this version

    • Almost 700 packages in have been updated, including apps phpBB and Wordpress.

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-25.

  • 2021-04-22

    Release notes: UBOS Linux and apps update 2021-04-22

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first 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

    New features and key changes

    • ubos-admin status has learned a number of new tricks. It can now report on IP addresses, incompletely performed upgrades, and more. It also distinguishes between “soft” and “hard” scenarios for disks getting full.

    • ubos-admin createsite is more tolerant and explains better when certain incompatible input is provided, such as adding the wrong Accessory to an App, or attempting to run an App at a Wildcard hostname.

    • If the UBOS Staff is written during boot of a Device while no network is available, the generated HTML now displays the warning message much more prominently. This was done in direct response to user feedback as previously it could easily be overlooked.

    • All MySQL databases are now provisioned, by default, as utf8mb4, a more complete UTF-8 character set implementation than the previous default.

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Mastodon
    • Matomo
    • Mattermost
    • Nextcloud. Many Nextcloud accessories have been upgraded as well.
    • Webtrees
    • Wordpress. Many Wordpress skins and plugins have been upgraded as well.

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-24.

    Known issues

    Mastodon may produce an error when posting for the first time. A sudo ubos-admin update seems to make it go away.

  • 2021-01-12

    Release notes: apps update 2021-01-12

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first 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

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Matomo is now at version 4.1.0

    • Mattermost is now at version 5.30.1

    • Nextcloud is now at version 20.0.4. Many Nextcloud accessories have been upgraded as well.

    • phpBB is now at version 3.3.2

    • Shaarli is now at version 0.12.1

    • Webtrees is now at version 2.0.11

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-apps-25.

    Known issues

    Mastodon may produce an error when posting for the first time. A sudo ubos-admin update seems to make it go away.

  • 2020-10-20

    Release notes: apps update 2020-10-20

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first 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

    Major package upgrades in this version

    • Nextcloud is now at version 20.0.0. It includes the recently release Nextcloud Dashboard, and many productivity and integration enhancements.

    • Mastodon is now at 3.2.0 (yellow channel only).

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-apps-24.

  • 2020-09-26

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2020-09-26

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first 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

    What’s new

    New features

    • ubos-install has largely been rewritten, for more options and easier extensibility in the future. It is now also able to handle a larger variety of external flash disks and controllers and won’t fail if the disk controller reports a “strange” geometry.
    • ubos-install now will refuse to start if it does not appear an internet connection is available, and downloading of UBOS packages would fail.
    • The device class odroid-xu3 enables UBOS to run on ODROID devices XU3, XU4, as well as HC1 and HC2.
    • On a Raspberry Pi 4, UBOS can now boot directly from an external USB disk. This means SD cards are not needed any more for UBOS on the Pi 4, which translates into faster speeds and higher reliability. (Depending on the version of the boot loader that your Pi 4 has, you may need to temporarily use an SD card to upgrade the bootloader, but that is a one-time operation.)
    • Logging on as the root user now requires a password. More details.

    Notable new packages:

    • Package rpi-eeprom lets you update your Raspberry Pi 4’s bootloader, so you can boot entirely without SD card from a USB stick or disk. More details.
    • Package pi-bluetooth are Bluetooth drivers for the Raspberry Pi 3.
    • Package ntfs-3g for mounting NTFS disks

    Package upgrades:

    Over 700 packages were upgraded.

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-23.

    Known problems

    Note: You may receive a message that says “Failed to refresh some expired keys”. This is harmless and you can ignore it. As part of this update, we have switched to different key servers that are less likely to have this problem.

  • 2020-08-16

    Release notes: UBOS Linux update 2020-08-16

    To upgrade

    To be safe, first create a backup of all your sites to a suitable file, with a command such as:

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

    Then, update your device:

    • sudo ubos-admin update -v

    Note: You may receive a message that says “Failed to refresh some expired keys”. This is harmless and you can ignore it.

    What’s new

    New platforms

    • The Raspberry Pi 4 is now supported, and the documentation has been updated with instructions for how to install UBOS on it.

    New features

    • App Nextcloud can now use ftp servers and SMB network drives as external storage.
    • App Nextcloud’s maximum memory and maximum upload size can now be easily configured. By default, each are 512MB, but you can set different values right in your Site JSON file. For an existing Site, export the Site JSON file with sudo ubos-admin showsite --json, look for the new customization points, change the values there, and redeploy with sudo ubos-admin deploy --file ....
    • Accessories required by other Accessories deployed at the same AppConfiguration are now deployed automatically. This often makes life easier when running commands such as ubos-admin createsite because UBOS will automatically figure out what other Accessories are required and deploy them without further ado.
    • ubos-admin status can now be run while other commands are running. This is useful for troubleshooting.
    • Easier to copy-paste site administrator passwords from the UBOS Staff: there is a new icon, and it can be used without displaying the password on screen.
    • ubos-admin listsites --with-installable allows you to just list those sites on a device that have a certain App or Accessory installed.
    • ubos-admin status now can also show snapper snapshot information

    Other improvements

    • If there is only one Site on a device, ubos-admin showsite does not require you to specify its identifier or hostname.
    • sudo ubos-admin setup-shepherd, when invoked without arguments, sets up a shepherd account with a newly generated SSH key pair.
    • Letsencrypt has gained a logrotate file, to avoid endless log files
    • ubos-admin status now has exit code 1 if there are problems, for easier scripting.
    • The HTML saved to the UBOS Staff now has a note if it was saved when no network was available. In this case, no hyperlinks will be generated either.
    • Processes on the UBOS device can now connect to localhost via IPv6.
    • ubos-admin showsite no longer shows internal customizationpoints. They are also not displayed in the HTML generated on the UBOS Staff any more.
    • Webfinger support now always uses utf-8.
    • Restoring sites from backup, and during upgrades, has become faster when there are many files to restore.
    • Values for new customizationpoints are automatically added during upgrades.
    • ubos-admin createsite does not exit any more when a package is specified as an App or Accessory that isn’t actually one.
    • ubos-install performs more checking for potential issues before attempting to install.
    • Better error messages, progress messages and sanity checks.

    Bug fixes

    The usual: fixed bugs and made improvements. You can find the closed issues on Github tagged with milestone ubos-22.