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LordOS 0.8.8-beta

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@lordbasex lordbasex released this 03 Nov 12:22
· 16 commits to main since this release
v0.8.8-beta
6b32156

Added

  • Screen-sharing API (docs/SCREEN-SHARING.md): a separate door for an app the launcher started, with its own socket and parser, a system prompt on first use, grants in a root-owned file, an indicator with Stop on screen before any frame leaves, and ⌃⌥⇧Esc in C. It ends in lord-server the moment the session locks or leaves the monitor, delivers no picture and takes no input until the person signs in again, and doesn't exist on the login screen. One door at a time per session: while a share runs a remote desktop sign-in is told to wait, and a connected remote desktop viewer keeps a share from starting.
  • Packaged apps with a companion (docs/PACKAGED-APPS.md): a third, root-owned app root, /usr/lib/lordos-apps/<id>/, for a package a Verified author signed, checked at every load. Such an app may run one signed helper program in a strict sandbox, started with the app and stopped with it, and may use the screen-sharing API with screen-share and remote-input.
  • Live media for packaged apps: a companion hands what it receives to a sandboxed decoder, and the app shows it in a <MediaView>, with sound. The camera and microphone of a call come back through the same link, behind the same permissions and indicators.
  • An item by the clock for any app, with the status-item permission: the app describes it, the system draws it.
  • Store: a Remote access section, shown once the catalog has an app in it.
  • Settings → Wallpaper: your own PNG or JPEG picture on the desktop and on the login screen, in every theme. It is converted by a process running as you, and the login screen gets its own copy in a system folder, so it never reads your home (#13).
  • Install in free space: on a GPT disk with an EFI partition, booted through UEFI, the installer can add LordOS beside what is there, as one new partition, leaving every existing partition as it was (#7).
  • An OVA image for amd64 (lordos-<version>-amd64.ova, tools/iso/build-ova.sh): open it in VirtualBox or VMware. It starts with 4 CPUs and 4 GB of memory, the minimum for a virtual machine; 16 GB is the ideal with many apps. Until you create your own account in the installer's screens on its first boot, it starts in a setup session whose administrator account has no password, reachable only at the machine's own console: finish that step before leaving it running.
  • French is now a built-in interface language, selectable in Settings, in the installer, on the login screen and from a boot entry (#5).
  • App switcher: 1 to 9 go straight to an app, the selected app's windows show live in a row, Z or the key under Esc moves through them; Settings → Keyboard chooses the keys, which apps show, size and look.
  • Settings: Desktops in Desktop & Dock (how many, the Ctrl arrows, the four finger swipe), and Mouse & Trackpad always shows, with a mouse's speed and wheel direction.
  • Terminal: ❖+click or Ctrl+click on a web address opens it in the default browser.
  • lordos-issue: what a bug report needs, with names and addresses replaced, ready to paste into an issue, with an integrity check. lord-server --check-apps shows each app's signature state.
  • Broadcom Wi-Fi firmware on the ISOs, so a BCM43602 card works from the live system (#3).
  • .local names resolve: libnss-mdns on the images and in the lordos package's recommended list.

Changed

  • The system file dialog looks and works like Files, with Files' own icons, sidebar, list and path: Home, the user's folders and the local disks mounted for the user on the side, name, date and size in the list, a click selects and a double click opens, and Enter, Esc and the arrows work. Local disks are new here: apps that ask through the dialog can now be given a file on one, when the person picks it.

Fixed

  • Copying from a native Wayland app with a long clipboard type name reached no other app: the name was cut at 63 characters and the app dropped its data.
  • Linux apps with no file dialog of their own can now open and save files: LordOS answers org.freedesktop.portal.FileChooser with its own dialog, inside the home folder (#4).
  • An app installed outside the Store, from a terminal or by another app's installer, now shows in search and in the app lists the next time they open.
  • The administrator password prompt shows a caret and its dots at once, like the login screen. Terminal: Esc closes Open Quickly and the other text popups when the focus left their field.
  • Firefox looked frozen: tabs, the toolbar and pages ignored the mouse. The compositor ignored wl_surface.set_input_region, so the pointer went to Firefox's content surface, which has asked for no input, instead of the window below it (#11).
  • Wi-Fi stayed off after a reboot when its driver finished loading after the network service started, or udev renamed it late: an interface now gets its saved state whenever it appears, not only at the moment of boot. Turning on an interface saved as off keeps it on (#8).
  • The volume, mute, screen brightness and keyboard light keys did nothing, on any layout and in every theme, and went to the app in front: they now work, without Fn on a laptop's top row (#12).
  • Linux apps that ask for administrator rights with pkexec, such as a launcher updating itself, no longer stop with error 127: LordOS now ships polkit and shows a system prompt that names the app and the command (#4).
  • VirtualBox's default VMSVGA display reached no desktop: the driver it needs was kept for VMware (#9).
  • The pointer no longer jumps back to the middle of the screen on Intel laptops with a motion sensor: it was read as a tablet (#2).
  • Files: the folder's name appeared twice, in the title bar and in the toolbar. It stays in the title bar and the toolbar keeps the space (#10).
  • Wi-Fi's country rules on the images: the regulatory database was missing, so the kernel couldn't load them.
  • Settings: the Ctrl arrows switch for Desktops showed off and couldn't be turned off.
  • The ISO's boot menu showed six of its seven entries: the last one, copy to RAM, was off the list. The list is taller now.
  • Install in free space: a partition ending off the 1 MiB alignment, as on a disk filled to its last sector, was reported as a damaged table.
  • lordos-fetch and the system report showed a 16 GB board as 17 GB: memory is now counted in binary sizes.
  • A stopped lord-media no longer stays a zombie until the next video or song: helpers are waited for on every pass of the session's main loop, not only while another media source exists.
  • A sandboxed helper lost name resolution at the first DHCP renewal: /etc/resolv.conf was replaced by a new file each time, even with the same contents. It is now written in place, and only when it changes.

Security

  • Screen sharing: a fullscreen Linux window no longer covers the sharing indicator, and a visitor can't click or type in the windows of the app that let them in.
  • A Linux app can no longer take a package's identity: an id starting lpk- no longer starts in a scope that reads as that package's.
  • The session's remote socket takes only root: lord-sessiond and its bridge connect as root, so a process of the same user can no longer read the screen or send input through remote.sock.

Known issues and limitations

  • Video while sharing the screen: on a Raspberry Pi 5, sharing the screen drops frames from a video playing on it. Measured with AV1 at 1080p: 0.5 % without sharing, 36 % in a short sample with go-link. Playback without sharing is not affected.

  • Install in free space has never run to the end. The wizard, the disk checks and the rollback were tested, and nothing outside the free space was touched, but the copy, the boot loader, the firmware entry and a reboot beside another system need a password and were not run (#7).

  • Administrator rights for Linux apps: tested on a virtual machine with a launcher updating itself: the right password, a wrong one and cancel. The three-try limit is untested. Only pkexec is covered: programs that ask polkit over D-Bus still find no agent. The prompt takes a physical keyboard only (#4).

  • The OVA's first account: tested in VirtualBox: the account is made, the system restarts into the login screen and asks for its password. The same steps passed in VMware Fusion after its own import (File → Import). VMware Workstation was not tried. Until the account is made, a setup account with an empty password logs in on the console.

  • Brightness and keyboard light keys have never fired end to end: no test machine has either. Volume and mute were tested with a virtual keyboard, not on a laptop's top row (#12). Esc with the fr(mac) keyboard variant could not be reproduced, and nothing was changed for it.

  • Wi-Fi after a reboot was tested on a simulated radio, not on a real late-loading card (#8). Turning an interface off is still not remembered across a reboot.

  • The pointer on Intel laptops was tested with a simulated sensor, not on the reporter's machine (#2). The Broadcom firmware is on the ISO, but no such card was tested (#3).

  • Firefox: tested from the launcher on a virtual machine and on the Raspberry Pi 5, with tabs, typing, links and menus. Touch input and two displays were not tried. Input regions now apply to every app, and only Firefox, Chromium, Mousepad and xterm were exercised (#11).

  • Full screen during a share: while an app shares the screen, Linux apps can't go full screen, so a game or video drops to a window while a visitor is connected.

  • Your own wallpaper: PNG and JPEG only. Not tried on a 4K or second display.

  • French is a first translation with no native review, and sizes still read GB and MB (#5).

  • VirtualBox: the ISO was tested on 7.2.22 on one host, on all three display controllers with BIOS and EFI. The arm64 ISO and the Raspberry Pi image of this version were built and ship, but were not booted or tested for this release.

Upgrading

  • Store: the package index gained French names, so its format changed. The old index is refused after the update and rebuilt by the next check for updates; until then package actions ask for an update check.
  • /usr/bin/pkexec is now diverted to lord-pkexec, a small unprivileged front for the real program. Going back to an older package leaves a dangling link: run dpkg-divert --remove by hand.
  • The go-link Desk package needs LordOS 0.8.8 or later.
  • A package update reaches the running session after a restart, as the Store says: the session and its network helper keep running through it, on purpose.

Downloads

File What it is
lordos-live-0.8.8-amd64.iso Live and installable image for 64-bit PCs (UEFI and BIOS). Write it to a USB stick as is; Secure Boot off.
lordos-0.8.8-amd64.ova Virtual machine image for VirtualBox and VMware: open it and the machine is imported. You create your own account on its first boot.
lordos-live-0.8.8-arm64.iso Live and installable image for generic arm64 machines and virtual machines with UEFI. Secure Boot off.
lordos-0.8.8-rpi5-arm64.img.xz Image for the Raspberry Pi 5, for the LordOS Imager (below) or Raspberry Pi Imager ("Use custom"), an SD card or an NVMe drive.
lordos_0.8.8_amd64.deb The LordOS package for an existing Debian 13 on a PC (installed by install.sh, or with apt install ./…).
lordos_0.8.8_arm64.deb The same package for Debian 13 on arm64.
lordos-hwdata_<date>_all.deb The signed tested-hardware snapshot for System Information's Compatibility panel, which the LordOS package depends on (both architectures; install.sh installs it with the package, or apt install ./lordos-hwdata_…_all.deb ./lordos_…). Newer ones arrive through Store → Updates between releases.
lordos_imager_0.8.6_universal.dmg LordOS Imager for Mac (both processor families, signed and notarized): writes LordOS to an SD card or a USB stick and prepares the Raspberry Pi 5's first boot.
lordos_imager_0.8.6_x64_setup.exe LordOS Imager for Windows (64-bit installer; not code-signed yet, so the system asks before running it).
lordos_imager_0.8.6_amd64.deb LordOS Imager for Linux (Debian 13 and similar, amd64; needs udisks2).
install.sh The one-line installer for Debian 13: curl -fsSL https://lordos.org/install.sh | sh. It checks the signature before installing.
SHA256SUMS The SHA-256 of every file in this release.
SHA256SUMS.sig The Ed25519 signature of SHA256SUMS with the LordOS release key (base64).
lordos_0.8.8_<arch>.spdx.json Software bill of materials (SPDX 2.3) for each package: what it bundles and the Debian packages it depends on.

Verifying the downloads

The LordOS release public key is lordos-release.pub.pem (in the repository, or at https://lordos.org/lordos-release.pub.pem). Its fingerprint, the SHA-256 of the DER public key, is:

c7155b8e6bbbb180f907381994d06af76d333016cd6f3facf67cadd053ea108e

With OpenSSL 3, in the folder with the downloads:

openssl pkey -pubin -in lordos-release.pub.pem -outform DER | sha256sum   # must match the fingerprint
base64 -d SHA256SUMS.sig > SHA256SUMS.sig.bin
openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -inkey lordos-release.pub.pem -rawin -in SHA256SUMS -sigfile SHA256SUMS.sig.bin
sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

"Signature Verified Successfully" and "OK" for each downloaded file mean the files are the ones we published. Details: docs/SIGNING.md.

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