New KNOPPIX Release, LibreOffice 5.1.6, Rosa Down
In Linux news today KNOPPIX 7.7.1 was released to the public based on Debian with GNOME 3.22, KDE 5.7.2, and "Everything 3D." The Rosa project is experiencing network issues and folks may experience problems trying to connect to their services the next few days. LibreOffice 5.1.6 was announced today by The Document Foundation, the sixth update to the Still branch for stable users, and a new vulnerability was disclosed in GNU Tar.
KNOPPIX 7.7.1 was released today with an emphasis on "3d design and 3d printing." To that end KNOPPIX ships with OpenScad for 3D CAD, Slic3r code generator, Blender, and FreeCAD. KNOPPIX also specializes in providing accommodations to persons with hearing impairments through talking menus and programs. Other that that, KNOPPIX is a desktop distribution that uses LXDE by default but also provides GNOME and KDE. This release includes experimental UEFI and Secure Boot support. The hybrid 32/64-bit system automagically boots the proper kernel. The kernel is post-Dirty Cow 4.7.9 with cloop, aufs, BFQ, TCP Stealth. Other key versions include GCC 4.6.1, Xorg X Server 1.18.1, LibreOffice 5.2.2, Firefox 49, and GIMP 2.8.18. See the release notes for more information and download locations.
LibreOffice 5.1.6 was announced today bringing nearly 70 fixes to the sixth release of the 5.1 "Still" branch. Some of the bugs fixed include not able to undo font customizations in Impress, Writer not saving hyperlinks, pagination crashes in imported docx, Calc crash when deselecting all filters, and auto-save stopped responding after a "Save as." Downloads available at the usual locations.
The Rosa project today announced "the mail, the mirrors, the ABF build farm, the name & time servers, sites etc." may be unavailable until October 31 due to "receiving a new AS number for our networks." They expect to start experiencing issues Friday, October 28 and occurring throughout the weekend. The project said it should all be resolved by Monday, October 31.
Phoronix.com today reported on the latest vulnerability to hit Linuxland, this time GNU Tar. Owner writer Micheal Larabel explained, "The GNU Pointy Feather vulnerability comes down to a pathname bypass on the Tar extraction process. Regardless of the path-name(s) specified on the command-line, the attack allows for file and directory overwrite attacks using specially crafted tar archives." Be on the lookout for the update from your distribution.