Linux_Util Desktop v0.3.1 (stable)

Linux_Util Desktop 0.3.1

Bundles linux_util v1.12.0 and fixes an empty utilities list.

Changed

• The run panel now uses linux_util's own signals to tell when a question is waiting, when nothing needed changing, and when xrdp must stay running for a connected RDP user.
• Bundles linux_util v1.12.0 (was v1.10.0): adds Multimedia Codecs, bat, ripgrep, GPU Task Manager, LM Studio, Codex, Hermes Agent and Xodus Nexus; NVIDIA Drivers on Rocky Linux and other RHEL clones can enable RPM Fusion again; on KDE Plasma 6.8 and newer, Enable RDP recommends krdp; Enable RDP's Uninstall can switch between xrdp and krdp; under WSL 2, runs that changed something offer to restart WSL so the Windows Start menu shows the changes.

Fixed

• Switching to a short category after scrolling a long one no longer shows an empty utilities list (#18).

Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Upgrading: use Install update in the app, or install the .deb, .rpm or AppImage from this release. Nothing else is needed.

v0.3.1-beta.3

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Changed

• The run panel now relies on linux_util's own signals instead of reading
  its output text: linux_util says when a question is waiting, exits 3 when
  there was nothing to change, and leaves xrdp running while anyone is
  connected over RDP. The app's own versions of these are gone, apart from the
  question signals for a run that could not get a terminal.
• Bundles linux_util v1.11.0 (was v1.10.0), which adds Xodus Nexus. Its
  Enable RDP → xrdp no longer restarts xrdp while anyone is connected over
  RDP, refuses to uninstall it then, and stops with an error on KDE when the
  Plasma X11 session can't be installed. System Updates with nothing to update
  now ends with its own "No changes: System Updates" line.

Fixed

• Switching to a short category no longer shows an empty utilities list
  (#18). After scrolling down a long category, picking one with only a few
  items (Web Browser Tweaks, File Transfer) left the list blank until you
  scrolled again. The list now starts at the top whenever the category,
  subcategory or search changes.

v0.3.1-beta.2

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Changed

• The run panel now relies on linux_util's own signals instead of reading
  its output text: linux_util says when a question is waiting, exits 3 when
  there was nothing to change, and leaves xrdp running while anyone is
  connected over RDP. The app's own versions of these are gone, apart from the
  question signals for a run that could not get a terminal.
• Bundles linux_util v1.11.0 (was v1.10.0), which adds Xodus Nexus. Its
  Enable RDP → xrdp no longer restarts xrdp while anyone is connected over
  RDP, refuses to uninstall it then, and stops with an error on KDE when the
  Plasma X11 session can't be installed. System Updates with nothing to update
  now ends with its own "No changes: System Updates" line.

Fixed

• Switching to a short category no longer shows an empty utilities list
  (#18). After scrolling down a long category, picking one with only a few
  items (Web Browser Tweaks, File Transfer) left the list blank until you
  scrolled again. The list now starts at the top whenever the category,
  subcategory or search changes.

v0.3.1-beta.1

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Changed

• The run panel now relies on linux_util's own signals instead of reading
  its output text: linux_util says when a question is waiting, exits 3 when
  there was nothing to change, and leaves xrdp running while anyone is
  connected over RDP. The app's own versions of these are gone, apart from the
  question signals for a run that could not get a terminal.
• Bundles linux_util v1.11.0 (was v1.10.0), which adds Xodus Nexus. Its
  Enable RDP → xrdp no longer restarts xrdp while anyone is connected over
  RDP, refuses to uninstall it then, and stops with an error on KDE when the
  Plasma X11 session can't be installed. System Updates with nothing to update
  now ends with its own "No changes: System Updates" line.

v0.3.0

0.3.0

New

• The app can add a desktop icon, a taskbar icon (KDE, GNOME) and an app menu entry. It offers them on first launch; Settings → Shortcuts turns each on or off.
• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, instead of at every run.
• Runs look and behave like a terminal window: colours, progress bars, and an answer box only while a question is waiting.
• While "Answer yes to installer questions" is on, the main window says so.
• Bundles linux_util v1.10.0.

Security

• Updates are installed only from releases signed with this project's key.
• The administrator password is given only to the app's own runs.

Fixed

• A run no longer hangs when the password is first asked for during the run (Fedora on WSL).
• Installers that ask a question on the terminal, such as NVIDIA Drivers on Fedora, no longer fail.
• Single-key questions get the key you pressed, not the default.
• Hidden answers, such as SMB passwords, are no longer shown or logged.
• Reboot now works with passwordless sudo.
• The app no longer crashes on start under WSL.

Upgrading: use Install update in the app, or install the .deb, .rpm or AppImage from this release. Nothing else is needed. Bundles linux_util v1.10.0

v0.3.0-beta.3

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Added

• Desktop icon, taskbar icon and app menu entry. On its first launch the
  app offers a desktop icon, a taskbar icon on KDE or GNOME, and when run as an
  AppImage an app menu entry too, which the AppImage never had. The desktop
  icon and menu entry are launcher files pointing at the one installed copy.
  The question is asked once, also after upgrading, and skipped when they are
  already there; Settings → Shortcuts turns each one on or off.
• The main window shows when installer questions are answered for you
  (#13). While Settings → "Answer yes to installer questions" is on, "Answering
  yes to questions" appears next to Dry run; clicking it opens Settings.

Changed

• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, as
  linux_util asks before its menu, instead of at the start of every run, even
  runs that needed no administrator rights. It is kept in memory only and asked
  again only once sudo's own timeout has passed with nothing running.

  Systems where commands run without a password but sudo -v still asks for
  one, such as Fedora on WSL (its first user has both the wheel rule and a
  NOPASSWD rule), are now asked at start-up too. The app used to skip the
  question there and ask in the middle of the first run, because linux_util
  starts every run with sudo -v (#14).

• The run panel shows the run as a terminal window does. Output arrives as
  one stream in the order it was written, with linux_util's colours, spinners
  and package-manager progress bars, and "Copy log" copies what is on screen.
  The answer box appears only while a question is waiting: a line or menu
  number with Enter, a single key on its own, or a hidden answer such as a
  password.

• CI now runs the tests and linters (#11): cargo test, cargo clippy
  with warnings as errors, cargo fmt --check and shellcheck, besides the
  build. The Rust code was reformatted once to the new src-tauri/rustfmt.toml.

Fixed

• System Updates with nothing to update ended with "Failed: System
  Updates" in the output, although the run was counted as succeeded. That
  line from linux_util is no longer shown after "No package changes were made."

• Single-key questions got the wrong answer. Snapper, Timeshift, Bootloader
  Manager, Xen Guest Utilities and others ask for one key. The app sent the key
  with Enter, and the leftover Enter answered the next question with its
  default. A single-key question now gets just the key.

• Hidden answers were shown and logged. Mount SMB Share and Update Mount ask
  for a password with hidden input; the answer box showed it and copied it into
  the log. It is now a password field and the answer is never shown.

• "Copy log" put each answered question below the lines that came after it.

• Every run started with "Script directory is not a git repository; cannot
  self-update." The bundled copy is updated with the app, so runs now tell
  linux_util to skip its own update check.

• Installers that ask a question on the terminal were cancelled. NVIDIA
  Drivers on Fedora asked "enable RPM Fusion now?" by reading /dev/tty, which
  the app's scripts did not have, so the install failed with "No such device or
  address". Each script now runs on its own pseudo-terminal, so those prompts
  appear in the run panel and take your typed answer, as in a terminal.

  An item that left a process running in the background, such as the NVIDIA
  install on Fedora, then stayed "running" with no question asked, because the
  app waited for that process to let go of the terminal. The item now ends two
  seconds after the script itself exits.

  Questions written straight to the terminal by programs other than the script,
  such as chsh asking for your password in Zsh + Oh My Zsh, never appeared;
  they now show in the run panel like any other question.

• Reboot now failed on systems with passwordless sudo. The reboot used
  sudo only when a password had been collected during the run, and with
  passwordless sudo none ever is. It then fell back to systemctl reboot as the
  user, which needs a desktop authentication agent and is denied where there is
  none, such as Fedora on WSL ("Interactive authentication has not been
  enabled"). It now tries sudo first, without a password when none was given,
  and only falls back to plain systemctl reboot if that fails.

• The app crashed on start under WSL. WebKit segfaulted on WSLg's dzn
  graphics driver, so nothing opened from the terminal or the Windows Start
  menu. On WSL the app now renders in software, unless LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE
  or WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE is already set in the environment.

• One internal error could break every later action (#13). If a
  background task failed while holding the app's run state, each later click
  (run, cancel, answer, reboot) failed too until the app was restarted. The app
  now carries on with that state.

Security

• Updates are installed only from releases signed with this project's key
  (#9). The app checked a download against the SHA256SUMS of the same
  release, which catches a damaged file but not a replaced release. Releases
  now also carry SHA256SUMS.minisig, a minisign signature made by the Release
  workflow, and the app refuses an update whose SHA256SUMS lacks a valid
  signature from the key built into it. Earlier app versions ignore the
  signature, so they still update as before.

• The administrator password goes only to the app's own runs (#8). While a
  run was going, any program of the same user could connect to the app's
  password socket and be handed the password. The app now asks the kernel who
  connected and answers only processes it started itself; any other program
  gets nothing, and the run's own sudo still gets the password after it.

  When the password was first asked for during a run rather than at start-up,
  the run then hung: the dialog stayed on "Checking…" after the password was
  entered, Cancel stopped the script but the run never ended, and no other
  action could start until the app was closed (#14).

• Release builds no longer read LU_RELEASES_URL (#10). The variable
  pointed the update check at another server and let it download from any
  address; it was meant for testing only. Only debug builds read it now; a
  release build always checks and downloads from this repo's GitHub releases.

• The app window has a Content Security Policy (#13). It loads scripts,
  styles and images only from the app itself and talks only to the app's own
  backend, where before no policy was set.

v0.3.0-beta.2

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS, signed in SHA256SUMS.minisig.

Added

• Desktop icon, taskbar icon and app menu entry. On its first launch the
  app offers a desktop icon, a taskbar icon on KDE or GNOME, and when run as an
  AppImage an app menu entry too, which the AppImage never had. The desktop
  icon and menu entry are launcher files pointing at the one installed copy.
  The question is asked once, also after upgrading, and skipped when they are
  already there; Settings → Shortcuts turns each one on or off.
• The main window shows when installer questions are answered for you
  (#13). While Settings → "Answer yes to installer questions" is on, "Answering
  yes to questions" appears next to Dry run; clicking it opens Settings.

Changed

• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, as
  linux_util asks before its menu, instead of at the start of every run, even
  runs that needed no administrator rights. It is kept in memory only and asked
  again only once sudo's own timeout has passed with nothing running.
• The run panel shows the run as a terminal window does. Output arrives as
  one stream in the order it was written, with linux_util's colours, spinners
  and package-manager progress bars, and "Copy log" copies what is on screen.
  The answer box appears only while a question is waiting: a line or menu
  number with Enter, a single key on its own, or a hidden answer such as a
  password.
• CI now runs the tests and linters (#11): cargo test, cargo clippy
  with warnings as errors, cargo fmt --check and shellcheck, besides the
  build. The Rust code was reformatted once to the new src-tauri/rustfmt.toml.

Fixed

• System Updates with nothing to update ended with "Failed: System
  Updates" in the output, although the run was counted as succeeded. That
  line from linux_util is no longer shown after "No package changes were made."

• Single-key questions got the wrong answer. Snapper, Timeshift, Bootloader
  Manager, Xen Guest Utilities and others ask for one key. The app sent the key
  with Enter, and the leftover Enter answered the next question with its
  default. A single-key question now gets just the key.

• Hidden answers were shown and logged. Mount SMB Share and Update Mount ask
  for a password with hidden input; the answer box showed it and copied it into
  the log. It is now a password field and the answer is never shown.

• "Copy log" put each answered question below the lines that came after it.

• Every run started with "Script directory is not a git repository; cannot
  self-update." The bundled copy is updated with the app, so runs now tell
  linux_util to skip its own update check.

• Installers that ask a question on the terminal were cancelled. NVIDIA
  Drivers on Fedora asked "enable RPM Fusion now?" by reading /dev/tty, which
  the app's scripts did not have, so the install failed with "No such device or
  address". Each script now runs on its own pseudo-terminal, so those prompts
  appear in the run panel and take your typed answer, as in a terminal.

  An item that left a process running in the background, such as the NVIDIA
  install on Fedora, then stayed "running" with no question asked, because the
  app waited for that process to let go of the terminal. The item now ends two
  seconds after the script itself exits.

  Questions written straight to the terminal by programs other than the script,
  such as chsh asking for your password in Zsh + Oh My Zsh, never appeared;
  they now show in the run panel like any other question.

• Reboot now failed on systems with passwordless sudo. The reboot used
  sudo only when a password had been collected during the run, and with
  passwordless sudo none ever is. It then fell back to systemctl reboot as the
  user, which needs a desktop authentication agent and is denied where there is
  none, such as Fedora on WSL ("Interactive authentication has not been
  enabled"). It now tries sudo first, without a password when none was given,
  and only falls back to plain systemctl reboot if that fails.

• The app crashed on start under WSL. WebKit segfaulted on WSLg's dzn
  graphics driver, so nothing opened from the terminal or the Windows Start
  menu. On WSL the app now renders in software, unless LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE
  or WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE is already set in the environment.

• One internal error could break every later action (#13). If a
  background task failed while holding the app's run state, each later click
  (run, cancel, answer, reboot) failed too until the app was restarted. The app
  now carries on with that state.

Security

• Updates are installed only from releases signed with this project's key
  (#9). The app checked a download against the SHA256SUMS of the same
  release, which catches a damaged file but not a replaced release. Releases
  now also carry SHA256SUMS.minisig, a minisign signature made by the Release
  workflow, and the app refuses an update whose SHA256SUMS lacks a valid
  signature from the key built into it. Earlier app versions ignore the
  signature, so they still update as before.
• The administrator password goes only to the app's own runs (#8). While a
  run was going, any program of the same user could connect to the app's
  password socket and be handed the password. The app now asks the kernel who
  connected and answers only processes it started itself; any other program
  gets nothing, and the run's own sudo still gets the password after it.
• Release builds no longer read LU_RELEASES_URL (#10). The variable
  pointed the update check at another server and let it download from any
  address; it was meant for testing only. Only debug builds read it now; a
  release build always checks and downloads from this repo's GitHub releases.
• The app window has a Content Security Policy (#13). It loads scripts,
  styles and images only from the app itself and talks only to the app's own
  backend, where before no policy was set.

v0.3.0-beta.1

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS.

Added

• Desktop icon, taskbar icon and app menu entry. On its first launch the
  app offers a desktop icon, a taskbar icon on KDE or GNOME, and when run as an
  AppImage an app menu entry too, which the AppImage never had. The desktop
  icon and menu entry are launcher files pointing at the one installed copy.
  The question is asked once, also after upgrading, and skipped when they are
  already there; Settings → Shortcuts turns each one on or off.

Changed

• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, as
  linux_util asks before its menu, instead of at the start of every run, even
  runs that needed no administrator rights. It is kept in memory only and asked
  again only once sudo's own timeout has passed with nothing running.
• The run panel shows the run as a terminal window does. Output arrives as
  one stream in the order it was written, with linux_util's colours, spinners
  and package-manager progress bars, and "Copy log" copies what is on screen.
  The answer box appears only while a question is waiting: a line or menu
  number with Enter, a single key on its own, or a hidden answer such as a
  password.

Fixed

• System Updates with nothing to update ended with "Failed: System
  Updates" in the output, although the run was counted as succeeded. That
  line from linux_util is no longer shown after "No package changes were made."

• Single-key questions got the wrong answer. Snapper, Timeshift, Bootloader
  Manager, Xen Guest Utilities and others ask for one key. The app sent the key
  with Enter, and the leftover Enter answered the next question with its
  default. A single-key question now gets just the key.

• Hidden answers were shown and logged. Mount SMB Share and Update Mount ask
  for a password with hidden input; the answer box showed it and copied it into
  the log. It is now a password field and the answer is never shown.

• "Copy log" put each answered question below the lines that came after it.

• Every run started with "Script directory is not a git repository; cannot
  self-update." The bundled copy is updated with the app, so runs now tell
  linux_util to skip its own update check.

• Installers that ask a question on the terminal were cancelled. NVIDIA
  Drivers on Fedora asked "enable RPM Fusion now?" by reading /dev/tty, which
  the app's scripts did not have, so the install failed with "No such device or
  address". Each script now runs on its own pseudo-terminal, so those prompts
  appear in the run panel and take your typed answer, as in a terminal.

  An item that left a process running in the background, such as the NVIDIA
  install on Fedora, then stayed "running" with no question asked, because the
  app waited for that process to let go of the terminal. The item now ends two
  seconds after the script itself exits.

  Questions written straight to the terminal by programs other than the script,
  such as chsh asking for your password in Zsh + Oh My Zsh, never appeared;
  they now show in the run panel like any other question.

• Reboot now failed on systems with passwordless sudo. The reboot used
  sudo only when a password had been collected during the run, and with
  passwordless sudo none ever is. It then fell back to systemctl reboot as the
  user, which needs a desktop authentication agent and is denied where there is
  none, such as Fedora on WSL ("Interactive authentication has not been
  enabled"). It now tries sudo first, without a password when none was given,
  and only falls back to plain systemctl reboot if that fails.

• The app crashed on start under WSL. WebKit segfaulted on WSLg's dzn
  graphics driver, so nothing opened from the terminal or the Windows Start
  menu. On WSL the app now renders in software, unless LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE
  or WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE is already set in the environment.

v0.2.2-beta.5

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS.

Changed

• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, as
  linux_util asks before its menu, instead of at the start of every run, even
  runs that needed no administrator rights. It is kept in memory only and asked
  again only once sudo's own timeout has passed with nothing running.
• The run panel shows the run as a terminal window does. Output arrives as
  one stream in the order it was written, with linux_util's colours, spinners
  and package-manager progress bars, and "Copy log" copies what is on screen.
  The answer box appears only while a question is waiting: a line or menu
  number with Enter, a single key on its own, or a hidden answer such as a
  password.

Fixed

• System Updates with nothing to update ended with "Failed: System
  Updates" in the output, although the run was counted as succeeded. That
  line from linux_util is no longer shown after "No package changes were made."

• Single-key questions got the wrong answer. Snapper, Timeshift, Bootloader
  Manager, Xen Guest Utilities and others ask for one key. The app sent the key
  with Enter, and the leftover Enter answered the next question with its
  default. A single-key question now gets just the key.

• Hidden answers were shown and logged. Mount SMB Share and Update Mount ask
  for a password with hidden input; the answer box showed it and copied it into
  the log. It is now a password field and the answer is never shown.

• "Copy log" put each answered question below the lines that came after it.

• Every run started with "Script directory is not a git repository; cannot
  self-update." The bundled copy is updated with the app, so runs now tell
  linux_util to skip its own update check.

• Installers that ask a question on the terminal were cancelled. NVIDIA
  Drivers on Fedora asked "enable RPM Fusion now?" by reading /dev/tty, which
  the app's scripts did not have, so the install failed with "No such device or
  address". Each script now runs on its own pseudo-terminal, so those prompts
  appear in the run panel and take your typed answer, as in a terminal.

  An item that left a process running in the background, such as the NVIDIA
  install on Fedora, then stayed "running" with no question asked, because the
  app waited for that process to let go of the terminal. The item now ends two
  seconds after the script itself exits.

  Questions written straight to the terminal by programs other than the script,
  such as chsh asking for your password in Zsh + Oh My Zsh, never appeared;
  they now show in the run panel like any other question.

• Reboot now failed on systems with passwordless sudo. The reboot used
  sudo only when a password had been collected during the run, and with
  passwordless sudo none ever is. It then fell back to systemctl reboot as the
  user, which needs a desktop authentication agent and is denied where there is
  none, such as Fedora on WSL ("Interactive authentication has not been
  enabled"). It now tries sudo first, without a password when none was given,
  and only falls back to plain systemctl reboot if that fails.

• The app crashed on start under WSL. WebKit segfaulted on WSLg's dzn
  graphics driver, so nothing opened from the terminal or the Windows Start
  menu. On WSL the app now renders in software, unless LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE
  or WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE is already set in the environment.

v0.2.2-beta.4

Beta build from the dev branch, for testing before it reaches main. Checksums for every file are in SHA256SUMS.

Changed

• The administrator password is asked once, when the app starts, as
  linux_util asks before its menu, instead of at the start of every run, even
  runs that needed no administrator rights. It is kept in memory only and asked
  again only once sudo's own timeout has passed with nothing running.
• The run panel shows the run as a terminal window does. Output arrives as
  one stream in the order it was written, with linux_util's colours, spinners
  and package-manager progress bars, and "Copy log" copies what is on screen.
  The answer box appears only while a question is waiting: a line or menu
  number with Enter, a single key on its own, or a hidden answer such as a
  password.

Fixed

• Single-key questions got the wrong answer. Snapper, Timeshift, Bootloader
  Manager, Xen Guest Utilities and others ask for one key. The app sent the key
  with Enter, and the leftover Enter answered the next question with its
  default. A single-key question now gets just the key.

• Hidden answers were shown and logged. Mount SMB Share and Update Mount ask
  for a password with hidden input; the answer box showed it and copied it into
  the log. It is now a password field and the answer is never shown.

• "Copy log" put each answered question below the lines that came after it.

• Every run started with "Script directory is not a git repository; cannot
  self-update." The bundled copy is updated with the app, so runs now tell
  linux_util to skip its own update check.

• Installers that ask a question on the terminal were cancelled. NVIDIA
  Drivers on Fedora asked "enable RPM Fusion now?" by reading /dev/tty, which
  the app's scripts did not have, so the install failed with "No such device or
  address". Each script now runs on its own pseudo-terminal, so those prompts
  appear in the run panel and take your typed answer, as in a terminal.

  An item that left a process running in the background, such as the NVIDIA
  install on Fedora, then stayed "running" with no question asked, because the
  app waited for that process to let go of the terminal. The item now ends two
  seconds after the script itself exits.

  Questions written straight to the terminal by programs other than the script,
  such as chsh asking for your password in Zsh + Oh My Zsh, never appeared;
  they now show in the run panel like any other question.

• Reboot now failed on systems with passwordless sudo. The reboot used
  sudo only when a password had been collected during the run, and with
  passwordless sudo none ever is. It then fell back to systemctl reboot as the
  user, which needs a desktop authentication agent and is denied where there is
  none, such as Fedora on WSL ("Interactive authentication has not been
  enabled"). It now tries sudo first, without a password when none was given,
  and only falls back to plain systemctl reboot if that fails.

• The app crashed on start under WSL. WebKit segfaulted on WSLg's dzn
  graphics driver, so nothing opened from the terminal or the Windows Start
  menu. On WSL the app now renders in software, unless LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE
  or WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE is already set in the environment.