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Caution 
Proprietary and untested third-party software sources (Linuxes) can threaten the system.
Apache v2.4 web server and ISSO | A way to an own lightweight commenting platform
The codes are written in Python and JavaScript. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for »Disqus«. »ISSO« itself is a lightweight alternative to the »Disqus« blog comment hosting service for web sites and online communities. »ISSO« allows to put the server code on your own web server so that the comment data never goes through a third party. That means, it does not require any logins into some social media account just to comment anything.
It supports comments written in Markdown, Disqus import, I18N, website integration via JavaScript.
All comments are stored in SQLite.
It is as well free of charge and in addition Open source. 
Official website.
root@raspberry:# apt install isso
The original packages (even with the lastest Debian Buster) are antique and bugged.
This will be a really tough nut to break through.
20-Feb 2021
Bug in the installer | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS re-released
A week ago, Canonical released Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS »Focal Fossa«, a point release of the current LTS version. Due to a bug in the installer, the original image for the desktop was withdrawn and replaced by new images.
This affects Ubuntu as well as Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Kylin and Xubuntu. Although Kubuntu and Lubuntu use Calamares as an installer, new images have also been created here, presumably to avoid confusion due to different times of release.
The bug in the Ubiquity installer, which was discovered on 4 February, only affected certain hardware, which also had to be connected to the network during the installation. The installation could not be started afterwards because the kernel was missing. If the installation took place offline, the system started perfectly from the installed kernel. The error only affects new installations of the desktop version, cloud and server products were not affected.
The problem with affected devices could only be fixed by booting into a »chroot« environment and subsequently installing the kernel from there. The developers decided the bug was severe enough to warrant a re-release of the affected images after fixing it in the installer.
The bug shows once again that Canonical would do well to develop a new installer for Ubuntu on the desktop, because Ubiquity has many still unresolved bugs. Anyone who has downloaded an image of Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS or the other affected variants before 9 February but has not yet used them should download the new image. The server variant is not affected by the error, as it has already had a modernised installer since 2018 with Subiquity.
14-Feb 2021
Adobe Flash Player EOL | General Information Page
Since Adobe will no longer be supporting Flash Player after December 31, 2020 and Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021, Adobe strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems. Some users may continue to see reminders from Adobe to uninstall Flash Player from their system.
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html
01-Jan 2021
Projects for GNOME 40
The next GNOME release is still a few months away. However, there are already indications of what might be new features. First there is the new versioning. Instead of GNOME 3.40, the next version will be called GNOME 40. The number of pre-releases before the stable release will also be adjusted. In the future there will be only three of them.
GNOME 40 comes on 24 March : The bugfix releases of the stable edition are then numbered consecutively: GNOME 40.1, GNOME 40.2, etc. The first release under this scheme will be GNOME 40 alpha on 9 January 2021, followed by the beta on 13 February, a release candidate on 13 March and the stable release on 24 March. GNOME 41 will follow in autumn 2021. Developers expect this new scheme to give them more freedom in development, especially as it will also eliminate the need to tie in with the releases of the underlying GTK toolkit.
Development site GNOME Extensions : A big development site for the upcoming GNOME release are the extensions that are important to many users. Their development and updating has been relatively unorganised so far, so that extensions are often broken during updates. The Extensions Rebooted initiative is intended to remedy this situation. Plans are that developers of GNOME extensions will continue to be able to develop extensions on any platform, but will also have to make their extensions available on GNOME Gitlab. This would allow for an automated review process that would raise the alarm during GNOME development if an extension did not work. It would also strengthen the community around the extensions.
30-Nov 2020
GitHub | Youtube-dl officially online again
As per code-hoster GitHub reports on its blog, the repository of the popular tool Youtube-dl, which was removed on 24 October by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), is back online after the developers removed incriminating parts. As early as November 4, a fork posted on GitHub that no longer contained the offending parts was no longer subject to complaint. This was a unit-test of references to copyright-protected video material.
GitHub justifies the restoration of Youtube-dl in its old place by stating that the code in its current form does not violate the DMCA. GitHub is basing its argumentation on the analysis of a lawyer from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Following the RIAA's unusual use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by not directly incriminating copyrighted material, but merely criticizing the possibility of the code of YouTube-dl bypassing copy protection mechanisms, GitHub has changed its policy for DMCA requests. GitHub has changed its guidelines for DMCA requests to be more in tune with the needs of developers by having such requests, which involve the circumvention of technical copy protection, reviewed technically and legally by experts on a case-by-case basis, rather than being granted the request immediately. Before removal, the developer will be given room to object. In case of doubt, GitHub will decide in favor of the developer.
17-Nov 2020
🌐 About censorship
GeoIP based country blocking with Apache v2.4 web server
Today I have installed the geoip module for Apache v2.4 via the apt install package management.
The only remaining flaw is to set up the latest and the most reliable »GeoIP.dat« file for the Raspberry Pi.
Source located in /usr/share/GeoIP/
At the moment my web server is dealing with one »GeoIP.dat« file which was created on 29-Dec 2020.
https://pkgs.org/download/geoip-database | https://mailfud.org/geoip-legacy/ (updated GeoIP db)
Especially for people who want to tinker and try something, can plunge into the world of Linux and coding.
The next days and weeks will consist with observing Apache's log files.
I have to have to look out for the Code 403 - Forbidden entries.
root@raspberry:# tail -f -n +1 /var/log/apache2/access.log | cut -c -$COLUMN
Files = 0, Web server usage stats, June 2022
Read the complete article about.
04-Nov 2020
Updated 19-May 2021
GitHub | Youtube-dl removed from GitHub
A total of 18 projects, all related to Youtube-dl, including Youtube-dl itself, were removed from the code hosting platform GitHub yesterday. The reason was a request for removal based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Youtube-dl is a very popular command line program for downloading songs and videos from YouTube and other video platforms.
In its letter to GitHub, the RIAA argues that the apparent purpose of the YouTube-dl library is to circumvent technical safeguards used by streaming services such as YouTube to protect the copyright of the works offered there. YouTube-dl allows users to download and distribute music videos and sound recordings without authorisation.
According to the letter, the source code contains examples of the library's use, explicitly mentioning works protected by copyright by name. If this is so, it is an inexplicable stupid lapse by the developers and probably the deathblow to the popular application, because in my opinion this should make the case watertight in court.
GitHub responded to the call by removing Youtube-dl and 17 related projects and forums that the RIAA had listed by name. Youtube-dl, one of the most popular 72k star repositories on GitHub, is not illegal per se, as the RIAA suggests, but has many legal uses, since YouTube not only contains copyrighted material, but also a lot of public domain content.
What is questionable about the use of a DMCA takedown notice to remove software that does not in itself constitute copyright infringement is that it sets a precedent that lays the foundation for future abuse of the DMCA.
The official download of Youtube-dl from the project homepage is no longer available. Those who still have the package on their computer or can still obtain it from a mirror server can continue to use it. However, there will probably be no more updates, so that in time users run the risk that cyber criminals will develop attack scenarios for the software. In addition, Google and other video platform vendors could lock the tool and thus shut it down.
26-Oct 2020
VirtualBox 6.1.16 supports Linux 5.9
About 6 weeks after 6.1.14 Oracle has released VirtualBox 6.1.16 and thus supports kernel 5.9. This applies to hosts as well as guests. This means that both host systems with Linux 5.9 can run VirtualBox 6.1.16 and guests can also be run with this kernel version.
In addition, for VirtualBox 6.1.16 many bugs have been fixed and some new features have been implemented. On our own account, the network integration behind some proxies for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) was repaired. With RHEL 8.3 Beta the guest extensions can be rebuilt. Two bugs were fixed in the Virtual Machine Monitor. 3D support was restored via VMSVGA when using Hyper-V with Linux guests. A second bug related to Hyper-V has been fixed by removing a memory error within a virtual machine. Fixed an error in the Audio section where the sound output of a Linux guest would falter when the Windows 10 host went into suspend mode. Localisation detection when using VBoxManage unattended install is now working again. The changelog lists all further changes.
The virtualisation software VirtualBox, originally developed by the company InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH from Baden-Wurttemberg and added to Oracle's portfolio through the takeover of Sun Microsystems, is offered for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Solaris and Windows.
24-Oct 2020
Debian with Raspberry Pi Desktop is the Foundation’s operating system for PC and Mac. You can create a live disc, run it in a virtual machine, or even install it on your computer.
Debian Raspbian Desktop is one of some official flavors of Debian. It uses the lightweight desktop environment which is a fork of Xfce, which is designed to be light on resources. This flavor is often used to resurrect old PCs because of the low system requirements.
Xfce as desktop environment is available in its own official version - »Xubuntu«. However, since it is no longer a »pure Xfce« (various GNOME components have been integrated to increase comfort), the above mentioned advantages are now only minor. Nevertheless for human beings switching from »MS Windows XP«, »Vista« or »Windows 7« a highly recommendable alternative.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspberry-pi-desktop/
It is Debian Buster 32-bit-PC (i386) with an appropriate Kernel to match the CPU architecture. I tried this out and the object of desire for the reactivation was a netbook.
Model Samsung Netbook NC10 (purchase date 09-2009) Spot images @duck.com
CPU 1 x Intel Atom N270 / 1.6 GHz / 32-bit (i386) technology
Memory 2 x 1 GB / DDR2 SDRAM
GPU Intel GMA 950
Display 1024 x 600 WSVGA / SuperBright
HDD 160 GB
Others 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 10/100 Ethernet, keyboard, touchpad, bluetooth,
3-in-1 card reader, webcam
My installation of Raspbian Buster - Debian 10 - went smoothly, as would be expected of any Linux system used. Raspbian does not deliver a lot of extra software and updates and extra multimedia codecs were installed, so everything was ready to go upon reboot. Like under Ubuntu, you can install missing software via apt, apt-get or snap.
A boot loader is necessary to be able to start operating systems on a computer at all. GRUB 2 (GRand Unified Bootloader) is a completely new development, so it differs from GRUB Legacy in many ways, especially with regard to configuration. During the setup process you will be asked to install GRUB.
Just do it [Yes].
Have the feeling that Raspberry Pi Desktop is even snappier than the praised lightweight Lubuntu which I tried out before on this netbook.
Hints
The pre-installed software like Scratch, Python Games, etc. can be removed under the menu »Recommended Software«.
As well as I recommend the installation of the »Vivaldi« web browser (32-bit) https://vivaldi.com, herefore the Firefox-ESR is really too lame.
Enlarged picture in new tab or window
Do you like dark desktop themes ? I do.
You will not find any within Raspbian PC Desktop, but it has at least a light and good one handy.
root@PC:/home/user# apt update && apt upgrade
root@PC:/home/user# ...
root@PC:/home/user# apt install arc-theme
Summary
It is a good method to re-use old PCs, notebooks & netbooks and still get very good performance out of it.
Regarding language translations : the German translation packages are with some lacks, means incomplete.
23-Oct 2020
Raspbian | RPI distribution »Raspbian« upgraded
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new version of the Debian-based distribution for the Raspberry Pi. New features include several improvements in the file manager, the Orca screen reader and system updates. Several operating systems are available for the Raspberry Pi, with Linux playing a special role since the introduction of the minicomputer. One of the reasons for this is »Raspbian« - an in-house distribution that provides easy access to the hardware and functions of the mini systems. The product, based on »Debian 10 Buster«, allows the user not only to start and control a Raspberry Pi, but also to use it as a regular system. A modified version of LXDE called »PIXEL« (Pi Improved Xwindows Environment, Lightweight) is used as the graphical user interface. The system can be installed on micro-SD cards and is largely preconfigured, which is why it is very popular.
The update that has now been released comes several months after the last major version and brings several new features. The file manager has been enhanced and, among other things, the »Places« button has been added. In addition, the icons have been updated and the design of the application has been optimized. As the Raspberry Pi Foundation behind the distribution announced, it was important to the organization to adapt the distribution to the needs of disabled people. With the integration of the Orca screen reader, Raspbian has been adapted to the needs of visually impaired users. Two new Python games were also added to the distribution.
Other new features of the current version of Raspbian include updates to the system and applications. The volume control has been revised and new elements have been added. In addition, the screen shutdown can be better controlled.
The new version of Raspbian Buster is available for free download in three versions. Besides a 2530 MB image containing the desktop and all recommended software, there is a 1136 MB image without the additional software and a 434 MB image with a minimal system.
22-Oct 2020
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