IPFire 2.11 Core 62

Michael Tremer has announced the release of IPFire 2.11 Core 62, a specialist distribution of Linux for firewalls: "Today, we are releasing the 62nd Core update for IPFire 2.11. This update fixes some security problems and also adds some new functionality. We recommend that you update your IPFire installations as soon as possible if you are using the outgoing firewall in mode Fixed: outgoing firewall permits hosts on BLUE to access the Internet. In earlier releases, it was possible for hosts on the BLUE network to access resources on the Internet which are allowed by the outgoing firewall although no permission has been granted to the host (blue access). This is a moderate risk." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information. Download for the i586 or ARM architectures: ipfire-2.11.i586-full-core62.iso (77.6MB, torrent), ipfire-2.11.2gb-ext2.armv5tel-full-core62.img.gz (126MB, torrent).

Another way to re-run the previous command

After running a command in the terminal, you can re-call it by simply hitting the up arrow button. Another way to recall the previous command you can use is to type the double exclamation marks ("!!"). In other words, when you run the double exclamation marks in the terminal, the previous command will be executed. This tip can be quite handy when you want to re-run the previous command as root. For example, instead of re-typing the whole previous command with 'sudo' or 'beesu' before it, you can just type:

 sudo !!  

or

 beesu !!  

You can look at the example image below to see how this works:

Epidemic GNU/Linux 4.0

Version 4.0 of Epidemic GNU/Linux has been released. Epidemic is a Debian-based Brazilian desktop Linux distribution featuring the KDE desktop and a number of user-friendly enhancements. Some of the custom applications in this 64-bit only release include: eMod - a graphical utility for creating a custom build of Epidemic; eUpgrade - a graphical tool designed to perform a full system upgrade; eKwin - an application which allows single-click enabling or disabling of KWin effects; Einstaller - the distribution's intuitive system installer. The release also comes with newly added support for German (besides Portuguese, English and Spanish); new user manual; an integrated theme for GRUB, Plymouth, KDM and KSplash; Linux kernel 3.2.23. Read the full release announcement (in Portuguese) for more details and screenshots. Download the live DVD image from here: epidemic-4.0-2-amd64.iso (1,479MB, MD5).

[SOLVED] Wireless Network Detected But Unable To Connect Under Ubuntu 12.04/11.10

If you can't connect to wifi networks and the buttons for connecting/enabling a wireless network are grayed out in your Network Manager indicator under Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) or Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), this means that your wireless network is disabled by hardware/software switch. This problem is common for users of laptops.

To check if there is a block on hardware/software of your wireless network, we need to run this command from the terminal:

rfkill list wlan

or

rfkill list all

Here are the outputs returned for my example:

~$ rfkill list all
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

As you can see from the example above, I can't connect to the wireless network because software is blocked. To unblock it, you need to use one of these two commands:

rfkill unblock wlan

or

rfkill unblock all

Finally, restart your network manager with this command:

sudo service network-manager restart

You can now connect smoothly to WiFi networks.

PureOS 6.0

Marc Poirette has announced the release of PureOS 6.0, a desktop Linux distribution with GNOME 3 based on Debian's "testing" branch: "PureOS 6.0 is a multilingual live CD/USB based on Debian 'testing' with GNOME. Supported locales: FR (France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland), EN (USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, India), others (Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey). Main features: Linux kernel 3.5.3 and GNOME 3.4.2 (GNOME Shell + GNOME Classic). Internet: Chromium 21.0 with Flash player. Multimedia: GNOME MPlayer. Graphics: Evince and Eye of GNOME. System: GParted, smxi/sgfxi scripts, scripts for modules management: activate, debs2lzm, debs2lzm-file, dir2lzm, lzm2dir and find2lzm. The release announcement includes the full package list and a list of download mirrors. Get the live CD image from here: PureOS_60.iso (683MB, MD5).

Arch Linux 2012.09.07

Pierre Schmitz has announced the availability of a new Arch Linux installer image, version 2012.09.07: "As is customary by now there is a new install medium available at the beginning of this month. The live system can be downloaded from the download page and used for new installs or as a rescue system. In addition to a couple of updated packages and bug fixes the following changes stand out: first medium with Linux kernel 3.5 (3.5.3); the script boot parameter works again; when booting via PXE and NFS or NBD the ISO image will be copied to RAM to ensure more stable usage; the live medium contains usb_modeswitch and wvdial which allows to establish a network connection using an UMTS USB dongle. Furthermore the newest versions of initscripts, systemd and netcfg are included. Here is the brief release announcement. Download: archlinux-2012.09.07-dual.iso (392MB, MD5, torrent). Don't miss the excellent installation guide that will guide you through the initial Arch Linux setup.