and lots of LINUX LINUX PRO MAGAZINE FREE USB PASSWORD SAFER BOOT DVD other timely Making Secure Boot MANAGER and useful tools work with Linux ISSUE ISSUE 206 Double-Sided DVD JANUARY 2018 JANUARY 2018 JANUARY INSIDE! SAFER Safer Boot Safer UEFI Shim TPM Backup Tools Stacer DDoS Attacks Pi FM Radio Volumio 2 Volumio Radio FM Pi Attacks DDoS Stacer Backup Tools TPM Shim UEFI BOOT Keeping control of the startup process UEFI Tricks Add a custom app that runs from the firmware Automated 5 Backup Tools Pi FM Radio DDoS Attack Stacer Build a stairway Avoiding a denial Clean up your to maker heaven of service nightmare Linux system Issue 206 Jan 2018 FOSSPicks US$ 15.99 CAN$ 17.99 FOSS • qutebrowser 1.0 0 74820 58049 Marke • Storyboarder t • CoreFreq ing • Marketing Free Software Audacity ffmpeg • Fragment synthesizer • Phipps: FOSS Communities Need Equal Rights Tutorials 3 • Digitize Your LPs with Audacity • ffmpeg 01 WWW.LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM EDITORIAL Welcome TOMORROW’S NEWS Dear Reader, When I started working for this magazine, way back in 2004, of lobbyists and marketing professionals who keep chipping Linux was really picking up momentum. That was back in away at public opinion when everyone else has gone back to those years when every year was supposed to be “the year of their day jobs. the Linux desktop,” and the epic Linux vs. Windows battle Software has no shape or solid edges. The value of a software was revving to a full burn. product is simply what whoever owns it says they will charge One of the best examples of the Linux juggernaut was the city you for it. If you try to buy a Windows desktop system as a of Munich, which declared it would be transitioning all its single user, you get one price. If you buy a large number of li- computers to Linux in 2004. We at Linux New Media were censes, you get a different price, depending on how much Mi- particularly excited about this move because, at the time, the crosoft wants to close the deal. In the case of Munich, Micro- world headquarters of our small company was located in Mu- soft really really really didn’t want to see this major European nich, and our German colleagues were part of that ground- city become a test case for Linux adoption. swell of Linux support that launched the transition. Ultimately, though, one city flipping back to Windows isn’t Over the years, the City of Munich worked hard on Linux inte- such a big victory for Microsoft – or a big defeat for Linux. Is a gration, even maintaining their own Linux distribution city government really the best place for Linux to make its (LiMux, an Ubuntu derivative) and building their own LibreOf- mark? Linux is secure and efficient, and it will save you fice extension set (WollMux). The move to Linux was officially money, but you have to tune in to it – you have to make a real completed in 2013, but the solution still never really settled in. effort to make it work in a world where Windows is still very Now, 13 years after the announcement that Munich was much the default for non-technical users. switching to Linux, they have decided they are switching back Linux has all kinds of success stories in the corporate sector, to Windows. The move has been brewing for some time, with where energy and innovation translate more fluidly into profit city officials signaling it might happen for a couple years. and career advancement. Companies like Red Hat, SUSE, Ca- What happened with Linux in Munich? It depends on who you nonical, and IBM make billions of dollars installing Linux sys- ask. In a blog post earlier this year, Björn Schießle of the Free tems (including Linux desktop systems) in Fortune 500 com- Software Foundation Europe wrote, “In 2014, Dieter Reiter panies around the world. On the server side, Linux is stronger was elected new mayor of Munich. He had referred to himself than ever, and even Microsoft has to acknowledge the impor- as ‘Microsoft fan’ even before he took office. He prides himself tance of Linux to the booming cloud and container business. with having played a major part in the decision to move the But really, regardless of how Munich or any other city Microsoft Germany headquarters to downtown Munich. He chooses to spend their IT budget, the truth is, all the things we started to question the LiMux strategy as soon as his term were fighting about back in 2004 were settled long ago. Desk- started, and asked Accenture, a Microsoft partner in the same top operating systems aren’t as important as we used to think building as Microsoft, to analyze Munich’s IT infrastructure.” they were. Microsoft doesn’t think Linux is a cancer anymore According to Accenture’s study (and to other observers), the (in fact, they say they love Linux), and everyone in IT is aware problems with Linux in Munich were mainly organiza- of the power and importance of Free Software. tional – not technical. Another issue identified by Linux crit- Like many in the Linux community, I have a feeling the people ics was the amount of city-government-related application of Munich are going to spend a lot more money in the long software that simply wouldn’t run on Linux, which meant run by climbing back into the proprietary software time ma- that the city found itself in the position of doing its own soft- chine, but hey, that’s tomorrow’s news. nnn ware development. (This, again, is not really a problem with Linux, but with the habits and priorities of the software de- velopment industry.) It probably would have helped if more cities had joined Mu- Joe Casad, Editor in Chief nich to spread the brainshare for development and imple- mentation knowledge. But then, the battle is never really over as long as a well-funded opponent has a stake in turning Info the tables. Environmental groups and historical preservation [1] LiMux: https:// en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ LiMux groups have encountered the same scenario: Non-profit [2] WollMux: https:// www. wollmux. net/ wiki/ Main_Page communities can turn out lots of people with big hearts to [3] “What Happened in Munich”: wave placards, but a huge corporation can unleash an army https:// fsfe. org/ news/ 2017/ news-20170301-01. en. html LINUX-MAGAZINE.COM | LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 206 JANUARY 2018 3 LINUX MAGAZINE JANUARY 2018 WHAT'S INSIDE This month we look at the Linux boot process and explore some COVER STORIES tools and tricks for better and safer startup, including the Shim first-stage bootloader and the Trusted Platform 14 UEFI 26 Trusted Platform Module The traditional BIOS dates back decades The Trusted Platform Module on your Module (TPM) chip. Other highlights and has not been able to keep up with computer’s motherboard could lead to include: the rapid development of PCs and better security for your Linux system. • DDoS Defense – Some laptops. Its powerful successor, UEFI, providers offer special takes over its tasks and provides more services aimed at thwarting features, more convenience, and better denial-of-service attacks. security. (page 46). • MakerSpace – Check out 20 Linux Secure Boot with Shim our articles on FM radio and The Shim bootloader lets Linux users regain some control over the Secure Boot Volumio audio playback on process. the Raspberry Pi. (page 58). Elsewhere up ahead, LinuxVoice looks at audio and video with Audacity and the FFmpeg command-line video editor, and Graham puts the focus on small stuff with minimal browsers NEWS REVIEWS and minimal text editors in this month’s FOSSPicks. 08 News 30 Automatic Backup • Samsung to bring Linux to the Backing up data is an unpopular task Galaxy phone that many users consider a chore. What • System76 releases Pop!_OS better reason for automation? We look • Linux comes to Windows at some command-line automatic SERVICE • Docker embraces Kubernetes backup tools. • We are under a Bad Rabbit 3 Comment attack 6 DVD 96 Featured Events 97 Call for Papers 11 Kernel News 98 Preview • I3C support • Fixing mmap() • Tracing RAM usage in OOM conditions 4 JANUARY 2018 ISSUE 206 LINUX-MAGAZINE.COM | LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM LINUX MAGAZINE JANUARY 2018 IN-DEPTH MAKERSPACE 38 Stacer 58 Smart Cities Check out this handy graphical tool for Making the city of Messina, Italy, smarter cleaning up your Linux system. with open source and IoT. 60 Pi FM Radio TWO TERRIFIC Build a simple FM radio with a Raspberry DISTROS Pi, an RTL-SDR USB dongle, an LCD HAT, and some Python code DOUBLE-SIDED DVD! 64 Volumio 2 Volumio and a Raspberry Pi can add SEE PAGE 6 FOR DETAILS smart functions to any stereo system. The combination of smartphone control, a Raspberry Pi Display, and Volumio 70 Open Hardware – Signet 42 Programming Snapshot – outperforms many commercial solutions. At the intersection of free software and AI Sequences crowdfunding, a USB password manager Can intelligence tests devised by offers innovation in security. psychologists be cracked with modern AI state machines? 46 DDoS Defence To ward off DDoS attacks, websites and services often seek the protection of Internet giants, such as Amazon, but you have other ways to protect your connectivity. 50 Peek Create screencasts in the blink of an eye and then 75 Welcome 82 Digitizing Analog Music Media export them to This month in Linux Voice. Armed with the Audacity sound popular file editor, you can convert the analog formats. 76 The Universal Donor content of LPs, tapes, and cassettes Open source communities need to the digital world.