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In the first part of iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC & router review, I had a look at the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the Intel Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N computer and also noticed the device booted to a UEFI shell. So for the second part of the review, I will report my experience installing Proxmox VE on the iKOOLCORE R2 and setting up and using Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense 2.7.2, and OpenWrt 23.05 virtual machines, making sure I can still use a physical display, keyboard, and mouse with Ubuntu while pfSense firewall is running.
As a side note, the previous generation iKOOLCORE R1 mini PC that was sent to Ian for review with Proxmox VE and various virtual machines preinstalled OpenWrt, Debian 11, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC set to Chinese language by default. As I understand it, iKOOLCORE still does that for the Chinese market, but not for the overseas markets potentially because they don’t want to handle two versions and potential customs issues. This review will be a bit different than other mini PCs, as I’ll mostly report my experience of using the iKOOLCORE R2 with Proxmox VE and the steps I had to follow to make everything work the way I wanted with Ubuntu 22.04 and pfSense OS running simultaneously.
The first step is to download ProxmoxVE ISO and I selected Proxmox VE 8.1 ISO Installer (updated on November 23, 2023).
The Startup Disk Creator is Ubuntu 22.04 did not seem to like the Proxmox ISO file, so I went with dd instead as per the official instructions to flash the ISO to a USB flash drive:
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sudo dd bs=1M conv=fdatasync if=./proxmox–ve_8.1–1.iso of=/dev/sdb |
Since the mini PC only comes with two USB Type-A ports, and I need two RF dongles, one for the mouse, and one for the keyboard, I had to use a USB hub to connect the USB flash drive, but the installation went smoothly.
I went to the “Install Proxmox VE (graphical)” option in the installation menu, followed the instructions, and soon enough the installation was complete, and upon reboot, I was presented with a GRUB menu showing Proxmox VE GNU/Linux.
The boot ends with a text login prompt on the HDMI display telling us to configure the server in a web browser at the address https//:<ip_address>:8006.
The login requires root user and the password is the one provided during the Proxmox VE installation.
Note some of the screenshots will use 192.168.31.6 and others 192.168.31.249 as the second time I installed Proxmox VE, I changed the static IP address to something not covered by the DHCP server range from my router…
The Proxmox Virtual Environment dashboard shows the iKOOLCORE-R2-CNX node and storage volumes, some buttons to create a VM (Virtual Machine) or CT (Container), and a Tasks section at the bottom showing all main events.
Before going further we might want to have a look at the Wiki that tells us to install a script in order to enable hardware passthrough on the iKOOLCORE R2 and display system information in the Proxmox VE dashboard:
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export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF–8 apt update apt –y install git git clone https://github.com/KoolCore/Proxmox_VE_Status.git cd Proxmox_VE_Status bash ./passthrough.sh |
I did the above in an SSH terminal, but you could also do so in the _Shell section directly in the Proxmox VE dashboard. Nevertheless, I could access system information in the Summary tab in the dashboard.
We are now ready to install the operating we need for this review. So I loaded Ubuntu 22.04 (upload from local machine) and pfSense (downloaded from URL) to Promox VE in the local->ISO image section of the dashboard.
We’ll also install OpenWrt 23.05, but it’s more complicated, and some people will just tell users to simply install pfSense and skip OpenWrt on this type of hardware.
I’ve already documented the method to install Ubuntu 22.04 in Proxmox VE with hardware passthrough on Alder Lake-N hardware in order to have access to the physical interfaces such as HDMI and USB-C (DisplayPort) video output and connect a wireless keyboard and mouse to the device. The Ubuntu 22.04 VM was configured to use eight cores, 128GB storage and 4GB RAM out of the 8GB RAM in my iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC
I then repeated the same procedure for pfSense 2.7.2 (minus the hardware passthrough steps) with two cores, 2GB RAM, and 32GB storage, and also installed OpenWrt 23.05.2 following the instructions linked above, except I used the openwrt.tar.gz file from https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.2/targets/x86/64/ insteadL
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wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.2/targets/x86/64/openwrt-23.05.2-x86-64-rootfs.tar.gz pct create 102 openwrt–23.05.2–x86–64–rootfs.tar.gz —arch amd64 —hostname openwrt–23.05 —rootfs local–lvm:20 —memory 512 —cores 2 —ostype unmanaged —unprivileged 1 |
At this point, I had three OS running in Proxmox VE:
The first time I installed Ubuntu 22.04 without hardware passthrough and desktop would show on the Proxmox VE dashboard.
But once I enabled hardware passthrough for specific PCIe and USB ports as explained in our how-to, the Ubuntu desktop shows on the display connected to the iKOOLCORE R2 either via HDMI or USB-C port.
At this point, we haven’t talked about using the four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports on the iKOOLCORE R2 just yet, and my goal is to use pfSense as a firewall with two Ethernet ports, have the Ubuntu VM behind the firewall while using it as a mini PC with a single 2.5GbE port, and the last RJ45 port will be used to access Proxmox VE interface even if pfSense is shut down.
I’ll be mostly following the pfSense setup instructions from Zenarmor in this section and creating Linux bridges for the three Ethernet ports that are not used yet by going to iKOOLCORE-R2-CNX and System->Network, and clicking on Create->Linux bridge.
The name is automatically generated, but we need to enter the IPv4/CIDR and bridge ports. So I ended up with four Linux bridges as follows:
One important note is that the IPv4/CIDR field is only used by the Proxmox VE and not the guest OS. I failed to understand that at the beginning and set 192.168.31.1 for the LAN port of both pfSense and Proxmox VE and it created conflicts making the system not work properly. For the same reason, none of the IP addresses there should be in the DHCP range of any of the DHCP servers used.
I have configured all those ports, but I don’t actually know where they are yet on the iKOOLCORE R2, so I used the command line to properly map each Ethernet port to the correct device/bridge by plugging a cable to each port in turn:
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root@iKOOLCORE–R2–CNX:~# ip a | grep ‘enp|enx’ 2: enp1s0: <NO–CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq master vmbr2 state DOWN group default qlen 1000 3: enp3s0: <NO–CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq master vmbr1 state DOWN group default qlen 1000 4: enp4s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq master vmbr0 state UP group default qlen 1000 5: enx009027f41845: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000 |
We can check the UP and DOWN state to find out which device/bridge corresponds to a specific RJ45 jack on the mini PC. For example, enp4s0 (vmbr0) is the middle RJ45 jack in the top row. I can now write my network and connect everything with the final result looking like that:
Proxmox VE and the pfSense WAN ports are connected directly to the modem router from the ISP, the pfSense LAN port creates a new 192.168.33.0 subnet to switch I connected the Ubuntu VM RJ45 port and a laptop through a TP-Link network switch. There’s also a CCTV camera not shown there. If you wanted WiFi devices behind the firewall you’d also install an access point/router in the 192.168.33.0 subnet.
We can now to the console for the pfSense VM to complete the configuration. We’ll skip VLAN configuration, and assign vtnet0 to WAN and vtnet1 to LAN in the configuration wizard.
After a little while we’ll reach the pfSense configuration menu as shown below. (I had not connected the WAN port correctly at the time, as otherwise the WAN IP address would show)
We can now select option 2 to configure the LAN interface using 192.168.33.1 IP address with a 24 CIDR, and no IPv6 address.
We’ll also want to enable the DHCP server and allow DHCP clients in the 192.168.33.2 to 192.168.33.200 range, and keep using HTTPS for the webConfigurator.
Once done we should see both the WAN and LAN IP address configured as below and we can update pfSense from the console by typing 13.
Time to go to the pfSense webConfiguration with the provided address and log in with the default admin username and pfsense password.
We’ll now enter the setup wizard. The dashboard complains about the admin account password, but do not change it right now, as it’s one of the steps of the setup wizard.
Now click on Next until we get to the general information window where we can set the Hostname (e.g. R2-CNX-pfSense).
The next step configures the time server and I manually set the timezone to Asia/Bangkok.
The next screens are for WAN and LAN configuration (I used the default settings), change admin password, reload configuration, and a final screen congratulating you for the completion of the setup wizard.
Both my laptop and Ubuntu VM in Proxmox got an IP address in the 192.168.33.0 subnet, I can browse the web without issue, and both systems should be protected behind the firewall. I also quickly tested the CCTV camera connected through the firewall and I can still access the stream with the Reolink app.
I’m supposed to have 300 Mbps broadband internet, which I tested with Speedtest on my Ubuntu laptop behind the firewall.
All good that means nothing bad happened…
I also added a new host to the 192.168.33.0 subnet, namely UP Xtreme i11 edge mini PC (192.168.33.18) to independently test the Intel and Realtek networking interfaces on the iKOOLCORE R2.
Let’s start with the RealTek 2.5GbE USB chip in the Ubuntu VM:
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jaufranc@R2–CNX–Ubuntu:~$ iperf3 –t 60 –c 192.168.33.18 –i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.33.12 port 51060 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 3.13 MBytes [ 5] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 1 3.13 MBytes [ 5] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 3.13 MBytes [ 5] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 3.13 MBytes [ 5] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 3.13 MBytes [ 5] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 3.13 MBytes – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 1 sender [ 5] 0.00–60.05 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
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jaufranc@R2–CNX–Ubuntu:~$ iperf3 –t 60 –c 192.168.33.18 –i 10 –R Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.33.18 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.33.12 port 32880 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00–60.04 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
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jaufranc@R2–CNX–Ubuntu:~$ iperf3 –t 60 –c 192.168.33.18 –i 10 —bidir Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.33.12 port 58772 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ 7] local 192.168.33.12 port 58780 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID][Role] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 1 3.14 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.54 GBytes 2.18 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.72 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 3.14 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.53 GBytes 2.17 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 3.14 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.53 GBytes 2.17 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 3.14 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.53 GBytes 2.17 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 1134 2.79 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.59 GBytes 2.23 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.72 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 3.01 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.54 GBytes 2.18 Gbits/sec – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID][Role] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 1135 sender [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–60.05 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec receiver [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–60.00 sec 15.3 GBytes 2.18 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–60.05 sec 15.3 GBytes 2.18 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
Excellent, even though the speed dropped to around 2.18 Gbps in one direction in full-duplex mode.
Let’s now switch to one of the Intel i226V interfaces (Proxmox VE via 192.168.33.249 – vmbr2 – enp1s0):
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root@iKOOLCORE–R2–CNX:~# iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.33.18 -i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.33.201 port 47188 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.36 Gbits/sec 0 669 KBytes [ 5] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 744 KBytes [ 5] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.09 MBytes [ 5] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.09 MBytes [ 5] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.09 MBytes [ 5] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.63 MBytes – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00–60.05 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 |
root@iKOOLCORE–R2–CNX:~# iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.33.18 -i 10 -R Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.33.18 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.33.201 port 52794 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00–60.04 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 |
root@iKOOLCORE–R2–CNX:~# iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.33.18 -i 10 –bidir Connecting to host 192.168.33.18, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.33.201 port 33410 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ 7] local 192.168.33.201 port 33412 connected to 192.168.33.18 port 5201 [ ID][Role] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.02 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–10.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.02 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 10.00–20.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.53 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 20.00–30.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 1 1.07 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 30.00–40.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 43 1.13 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 40.00–50.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec [ 5][TX–C] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 1.70 MBytes [ 7][RX–C] 50.00–60.00 sec 2.73 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ ID][Role] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 44 sender [ 5][TX–C] 0.00–60.04 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–60.00 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 7][RX–C] 0.00–60.04 sec 16.4 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec receiver
iperf Done. |
Perfect. Both the RealTek and Intel interfaces are working well, but the Intel i226V controller works slightly better in full-duplex mode.
The networking part is done with pfSense firewall and up running, and the 2.5GbE interfaces of the iKOOLCORE R2 are shown to perform up to our expectations. I will now check whether Ubuntu 22.04 works as well in Promox VE as natively by both running benchmarks and testing some features.
Let’s start by running SBC Bench script from Thomas Kaiser:
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jaufranc@R2–CNX–Ubuntu:~$ sudo ./sbc–bench.sh –r Starting to examine hardware/software for review purposes...
sbc–bench v0.9.59
Installing needed tools, cpuminer. Done. Checking cpufreq OPP. Done. Executing tinymembench. Done. Executing RAM latency tester. Done. Executing OpenSSL benchmark. Done. Executing 7–zip benchmark. Done. Throttling test: heating up the device, 5 more minutes to wait. Done. Checking cpufreq OPP again. Done (13 minutes elapsed).
Results validation:
* No swapping
Full results uploaded to http://sprunge.us/wOWOLV
# Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) kvm/QEMU VM
Tested with sbc–bench v0.9.59 on Tue, 19 Dec 2023 12:03:55 +0700. Full info: [http://sprunge.us/wOWOLV](http://sprunge.us/wOWOLV)
### General information:
i3–N300, Kernel: x86_64 / kvm, Userland: amd64
CPU sysfs topology (clusters, cpufreq members, clockspeeds) cpufreq min max CPU cluster policy speed speed core type 0 0 0 – – i3–N300 1 0 0 – – i3–N300 2 0 0 – – i3–N300 3 0 0 – – i3–N300 4 0 0 – – i3–N300 5 0 0 – – i3–N300 6 0 0 – – i3–N300 7 0 0 – – i3–N300
3891 KB available RAM
### Clockspeeds (idle vs. heated up):
Before:
cpu0: Measured: 3781
After:
cpu0: Measured: 3779
### Performance baseline
* memcpy: 11315.1 MB/s, memchr: 17750.4 MB/s, memset: 10613.9 MB/s * 16M latency: 131.4 124.8 130.9 125.7 130.7 108.9 103.7 109.4 * 128M latency: 141.5 141.3 141.8 140.9 141.2 130.3 122.2 123.5 * 7–zip MIPS (3 consecutive runs): 22363, 22419, 22564 (22450 avg), single–threaded: 4080 * `aes–256–cbc 901939.58k 1312635.61k 1357618.77k 1365799.59k 1371286.19k 1372389.38k` * `aes–256–cbc 903119.93k 1310872.34k 1355180.54k 1365037.06k 1370802.86k 1371755.86k`
### Storage devices:
* 128GB Virtual disk: /dev/sda, Driver=virtio–pci
### Swap configuration:
* /swapfile on /dev/sda2: 3.8G (1.3M used)
### Software versions:
* Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS * Compiler: /usr/bin/gcc (Ubuntu 11.4.0–1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0 / x86_64–linux–gnu * OpenSSL 3.0.2, built on 15 Mar 2022 (Library: OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022)
### Kernel info:
* `/proc/cmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz–6.2.0–39–generic root=UUID=18abae82–acb6–446b–bb19–da0a88ae5671 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7` * Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl * Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization * Kernel 6.2.0–39–generic / CONFIG_HZ=250
All known settings adjusted for performance. Device now ready for benchmarking. Once finished stop with [ctrl]–[c] to get info about throttling, frequency cap and too high background activity all potentially invalidating benchmark scores. All changes with storage and PCIe devices as well as suspicious dmesg contents will be reported too.
Time CPU n/a load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq Temp 12:03:55: n/a MHz 6.92 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% °C |
Since we are in a virtual machine, the temperature and CPU frequency testing does not seem to work with sbc-bench.sh. Due to time constraints, I won’t try to reproduce the results in a native Ubuntu installation, we can use the results from the Weibu N10 (Core i3-N305) mini PC review for reference.
[Update: Since Proxmox VE is Debian-based we can run sbc-bench.sh natively as well. I did it while the Ubuntu 22.04 and pfSense VM were running (and mostly idling) for a direct comparison with the results above
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root@iKOOLCORE–R2–CNX:~# ./sbc-bench.sh
Average load and/or CPU utilization too high (too much background activity). Waiting...
Too busy for benchmarking: 16:20:55 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.32, 0.20, 0.13, cpu: 1% Too busy for benchmarking: 16:21:00 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.29, 0.20, 0.13, cpu: 1% Too busy for benchmarking: 16:21:05 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.27, 0.19, 0.13, cpu: 1% Too busy for benchmarking: 16:21:10 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.25, 0.19, 0.13, cpu: 1% Too busy for benchmarking: 16:21:15 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.31, 0.20, 0.13, cpu: 1% Too busy for benchmarking: 16:21:20 up 2:31, 1 user, load average: 0.28, 0.20, 0.13, cpu: 2%
sbc–bench v0.9.59
Installing needed tools: apt –f –qq –y install gcc make build–essential lm–sensors sysstat lshw powercap–utils p7zip, tinymembench, ramlat, mhz, cpufetch. Done. Checking cpufreq OPP. Done (results will be available in 7–10 minutes). Executing tinymembench. Done. Executing RAM latency tester. Done. Executing OpenSSL benchmark. Done. Executing 7–zip benchmark. Done. Checking cpufreq OPP again. Done (7 minutes elapsed).
Results validation:
* Measured clockspeed not lower than advertised max CPU clockspeed * Swapping occured -> https://tinyurl.com/3h222wnh * Background activity (%system) OK * Too much other background activity: 1% avg, 3% max -> https://tinyurl.com/mr2wy5uv * Powercap detected. Details: “sudo powercap-info -p intel-rapl” -> https://tinyurl.com/4jh9nevj
Memory performance memcpy: 11026.0 MB/s memset: 10958.8 MB/s
7–zip total scores (3 consecutive runs): 23101,23268,23246, single–threaded: 4238
OpenSSL results: type 16 bytes 64 bytes 256 bytes 1024 bytes 8192 bytes 16384 bytes aes–128–cbc 1102858.52k 1669343.42k 1826090.41k 1871562.07k 1887881.90k 1891341.65k aes–128–cbc 1109703.91k 1668637.65k 1825153.11k 1874709.85k 1888168.62k 1889391.96k aes–192–cbc 1075252.71k 1430323.09k 1544505.69k 1582064.30k 1590981.97k 1591208.62k aes–192–cbc 1077114.43k 1432635.11k 1544703.15k 1580479.15k 1592300.89k 1590476.80k aes–256–cbc 960164.45k 1255560.21k 1339470.51k 1365235.37k 1374281.73k 1374366.38k aes–256–cbc 960240.39k 1254501.72k 1339013.97k 1364885.50k 1374461.95k 1376299.69k
Unable to upload full test results. Please copy&paste the below stuff to pastebin.com and provide the URL. Check the output for throttling and swapping please. |
The full test results can be found on pastebin.com. The native results are only very slightly higher than in the Ubuntu VM as expected]
iKOOLCORE R2 got 22,450 points in 7-zip on average, while the Weibu N10 reached up to 20,000 points, and the AES-256 results are 1371755.86k vs 1377211.73k. The results are in the same ballpark, so if there’s any impact on performance due to running Ubuntu 22.04 in Proxmox VE it does not show in sbc-bench.sh…
But that’s still a headless test, so let’s run Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 to test the GPU at 1920×1080 resolution.
It worked fine, and the performance looks OK considering the Weibu N10 achieved 17.9 fps and a score of 451 points in the same test.
I’ve already tested USB ports with the RF dongles, and HDMI and USB-C video output by connecting the CrowView laptop monitor to either. But I haven’t tried to connect two displays just yet. Let’s do that by adding the 10-inch RPI “All-in-One” display.
It works! Here’s the screenshot of the two displays for reference.
I then played a YouTube 4Kp60 video in Firefox that looked smooth, but there were a few frames dropped (770 out of 11,618).
There was no audio through HDMI though, and when I looked at the audio settings I could only see a digital output (S/PDIF) audio device with the volume varying while playing the video. It’s probably outputting to the USB-C audio port, but I have no idea how to use it as there’s no information about it in the Wiki.
It’s probably possible to enable HDMI audio by adding one or more raw PCIe devices to the Proxmox VE configuration, but again it’s not clear which one to select…
Here’s a final storage benchmark to evaluate the SSD performance:
|
jaufranc@R2–CNX–Ubuntu:~$ sudo iozone –e –I –a –s 100M –r 4k –r 16k –r 512k –r 1024k –r 16384k –i 0 –i 1 –i 2 Iozone: Performance Test of File I/O Version $Revision: 3.489 $ Compiled for 64 bit mode. Build: linux–AMD64
random random bkwd record stride kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write read rewrite read fwrite frewrite fread freread 102400 4 71747 81129 72689 71015 31129 76241 102400 16 235112 245085 198403 191845 115866 265999 102400 512 1038676 1094485 977397 1006340 914327 973856 102400 1024 1193902 1097994 1126587 1146786 1129907 1127664 102400 16384 1383684 1265712 1588750 1633476 1635562 1440625
iozone test complete. |
That would be a 1.58 GB/s sequential read speed and 1.38GB/s sequential write speed in the Ubuntu VM.
The iKOOLCORE R2 will consume more power than your usual Alder Lake-N mini PC since you may have four 2.5GbE connections. I measured the power consumption with a wall power meter with the mini PC having all four 2.5GbE active, two RF dongles for the keyboard and mouse, and a display connected via HDMI with its own power supply:
Reviewing the iKOOLCORE R2 was an interesting and challenging experience, as I did not have any experience with Proxmox VE and pfSense, and the learning curve was such that I estimate having spent over 25 hours on this three-part review.
The Intel Core i3-N300 device can be used simultaneously as a mini PC running Ubuntu 22.04 (or Windows 11, or other desktop OSes) and a firewall or network appliance with an OS such as pfSense. Once configured correctly the little dual-use device works great, and I found 2.5GbE networking to work great, and most Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop features work great through Proxmox VE, with no obvious impact on performance, except for audio where I was unable to make HDMI audio work, and it’s unclear how we are supposed to use the USB-C audio port.
I’d like to thank iKOOLCORE for sending the R2 mini PC / router for review in a configuration with an Intel Core i3-N300 octa-core processor, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The iKOOLCORE R2 model reviewed here can be purchased for $389 on the iKOOLCORE store, and you should be able to use the CNXSOFT coupon to lower the price by 5%. Pricing currently starts at $239 for the N95 model with 8GB RAM and no storage.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
TrueNAS is a Network Attached Storage software you can deploy to your LAN or a third-party cloud host. But don’t be fooled by the “NAS” part of the name, as this platform can do much more than just storage. In fact, there are a number of other features that can be added to or used by TrueNAS, such as virtual machines and even containers.
That’s right, you can work with Docker images in TrueNAS and deploy apps like Colabora, Nextcloud, and more. Even better, it’s much easier than you might think.
I’m going to walk you through the steps required to get TrueNAS ready to work with Docker Images.
To work with Docker images and other apps, you’ll need TrueNAS up and running. You can deploy the platform as a virtual machine with VirtualBox, so long as you’ve enabled Nested VT-x/ADM-V support in the Processor tab of the System section in Settings for the VM.
Without that feature enabled, TrueNAS won’t be able to use virtual machines or Docker images. You’ll also need to have added at least two extra drives to the VirtualBox VM, in order to create a Pool for TrueNAS to use.
This is actually easier than you might think because you don’t have to bother formatting the added drives (TrueNAS will take care of that for you).
To add a new drive to the VirtualBox VM, make sure the virtual machine is stopped (not paused). Select the VM from the VirtualBox left sidebar and click Settings. In the Storage section of the Settings window, select Controller: SATA and click the far right green + (Figure 1).
Figure 1: My VM is still running, so I can’t add the new drives.
The drive wizard will open. Make sure to create a drive with a fixed size, otherwise, it might cause problems with the pool (or TrueNAS won’t be able to successfully create the pool).
You must add two new drives to the VM, in order for TrueNAS to create the pool, so re-create the same steps. Once you’ve done this, close the settings and boot the VM.
After logging into TrueNAS, click Storage and, when prompted, click Create Pool (Figure 2).
Figure 2: The Storage Dashboard needs a pool.
In the resulting window (Figure 3), click Suggest Layout and your newly added drives will show up in the right pane. Make sure to give the pool a name and then click Create.
Figure 3: Creating a new TrueNAS pool.
The pool should be created fairly quickly. Once it’s done, you’re ready to move on.
By default, TrueNAS has a number of pre-defined apps to install. To install a different app, you must add a new catalog, which will include a list of available containerized applications that can be installed. To do this, click Apps and then click the Manage Catalogs tab (Figure 4).
Figure 4: The Manage Catalogs tab in the Applications window of TrueNAS.
Click Add Catalog and in the resulting popout (Figure 5), add the following:
Figure 5: Adding a new catalog to TrueNAS, so more applications are available for installation.
Click Save to save the information. Because there are a lot of apps in this catalog, it will take some time for this process to complete (between 5-20 minutes, depending on your network speed). When the pull completes, click on the Apps tab again and you should see a considerable amount of containerized apps that can be deployed (Figure 6).
Figure 6: There are now many more apps available for installation.
Locate the app you want to add and click the associated Install button. Each of these applications is containerized, so when you click Install, you’ll find some of the configuration options (Figure 7) to be quite familiar (if you’ve worked with containers before).
Figure 7: Deploying the Focalboard app with TrueNAS.
Once you’ve gone through the entire configuration, scroll to the bottom and click Save. The container will deploy, based on the chart and your configurations. Once the deployment completes, you can access the app.
You can check the status of the deployment by clicking Installed Applications, where you should see the app listed as ACTIVE (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Focalboard successfully deployed.
Click Open and a new tab will open to the app you’ve installed. In the case of Focalboard, you’ll be taken to a login screen, where you can click to register a new account.
And that’s how you can deploy containerized applications using TrueNAS. With this easy-to-use system, you can use TrueNAS as a launching pad to deploy any number of applications to your LAN, from project management tools, cloud services, development tools, and more. All the while, you also have an outstanding network-attached storage solution available to you and your organization.
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Jack Wallen is what happens when a Gen Xer mind-melds with present-day snark. Jack is a seeker of truth and a writer of words with a quantum mechanical pencil and a disjointed beat of sound and soul. Although he resides…
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MakuluLinux Shift is one solution to standardizing the Linux desktop.
From a marketing standpoint, two big impediments block a more widespread adoption of the Linux operating system for business and consumer desktop use. One is easily selecting a desktop environment from among varied options. The second is wading through the myriad of independently developed Linux distributions.
These two barriers are both a blessing and a curse of open-source desktop computing. MakuluLinux offers a simplified solution to both.
MakuluLinux, around since 2013, does not have the name recognition of more popular desktop distributions. But do not overlook a gem that gets shinier with each new release.
Jacque Montague Raymer, developer and creator of MakuluLinux, released the latest upgrade on June 13 to his new Shift distro. It continues to revolutionize the Linux user interface scenario.
These innovations push the Linux desktop to new limits. No other Linux OS is developing at this level.
The shift distro should provide other Linux developers with a solid concept to pursue similar innovations.
The Shift 2022 release is an ideal computing platform for Linux newcomers and seasoned users alike. Shift removes any need for Linux users to distro hop to find their ideal desktop experience.
Shift is a uniquely designed multi-desktop platform that bundles up to 16 of the best user interfaces (UIs) with performance features not found elsewhere. One of Shift’s most unique features, which Raymer greatly expanded in this year’s release, lets you modify major design elements effortlessly. Hence its name.
MakuluLinux Shift is a rolling release distro with a variety of one-click desktop layout transformations built in.
Shift does more than repaint a pretty desktop picture. It does a system-wide adjustment of all things desktop-related. The entire desktop literally changes before your eyes with a click of a button.
Say goodbye to downloading multiple ISOs and installing separate versions of the same distro just to try new desktop environments. Within seconds, the complete operating system is transformed. That includes menus, docks, icon sets, cursors, panels, styles, and themes.
Earlier versions of MakuluLinux offered a choice of Xfce, KDE, and Enlightenment 17 desktops. Rebuilt from the ground up in 2015, Raymer re-engineered his distro into three different editions.
With this year’s release, Raymer dropped many of the separate distros designs he added along the way; they are no longer needed. With his click-and-change “live” desktop shifting scheme, downloading separate versions with their own single desktops is redundant and old school.
The new Shift distro comes in two versions. The fully functional free option has eight desktop designs from which to choose. But Raymer stripped out some of the higher-end features in favor of adding them to a Pro version for users who want a higher level of options.
Of course, he also needed an innovative way to keep the lights on.
Shift Pro, a $30 upgrade, offers 16 desktop transformations. Just click the upgrade button from within Shift’s regular 2022 version to pay for the Pro version. That upgrade purchase automatically downloads the scripts to install the additional eight desktops and other premium features.
“It has been a long journey, and putting together such a complex/unique distro has been very challenging,” said Raymer in his website release announcement.
Shifting desktops internally is not a one-time option. You can repeatedly move from one included desktop to another. No limits impede transitioning among the bundled desktops.
It takes just seconds for the transformation process to complete. Shifting gears, so to speak, transforms the entire desktop, including panels, docks, menus, wallpapers, themes, icon sets, extensions, cursor options, special effects, color schemes, and even scripts that handle third-party applications and menu entries.
I have followed the progress of MakuluLinux since its debut. I ran several earlier versions on numerous computers. Now, those separate distros are bundled into one OS. This all-in-one transformative design does not disappoint.
Last year’s Shift rebuild impressed me. It worked out of the box as advertised. Shift 2022 works even better.
“We are aware that some other distros can change the layout of the desktop in some form or other. However, those are merely simple overlay theme changes or moving of a panel or dock. Shift takes it to another level,” noted Raymer.
Shift does not just switch to a different layout. It completely removes the old desktop with all its adornments. All of that is replaced with the appearance and performance of the selected desktop, including the placements of menus, docks, panels, icons, themes, and color grading,
The transformation takes between 10 and 30 seconds, depending on the hardware. The process includes configuring extensions and setting up effects. All of this is done offline. No special scripts or packages need to be downloaded first.
End users simply think a theme overlay change was implemented, observed Raymer. They are completely unaware of all the complex scripts that have just been activated on their system.
If the ability to transform desktops was not enough, Shift also allows users to save their own desktop layout style with all the modifications with a single click. They can restore their layout configurations again with one click.
The normal or free build of Shift 2022 is fully functional. You can use it just fine as a daily driver in both home and business environments. Based on Ubuntu Jammy, it comes with the typical daily computing tools to handle web work, office suits, and more.
The release comes with ample support for hardware drivers and audio/video codecs. You need a 64-bit CPU to run MakuluLinux.
The eight desktop layouts include three that previously were separate MakuluLinux releases: Core, Flash, and LinDoz. Core, which introduced some radical changes, uses a highly customized desktop forked from Xfce and Cinnamon with elements of GNOME. Flash comes from MakuluLinux’s in-house Xfce desktop. LinDoz features an in-house modification of the Cinnamon desktop.
The other five included layouts are Unity, GNOME, Plasma, Dash, and Simple. Dash is from a previous MakuluLinux offering that resembled a simplified, traditional, style the likes of Matte.
The Software Center in both Makulu Shift versions fully supports both Flathub and Snaps. Users can install free, open-source software from a selection of thousands of titles for business and personal tasks, including games.
Both the free and the Pro versions of Shift 2022 have their own eclectic, colorful collections of wallpaper artwork.
Each desktop design configuration has its own eclectic, colorful collection of wallpaper artwork.
Shift is designed on the GNOME framework, so it supports the use of GNOME extensions. You can either make use of the current extensions or install your own. A large inventory is available at the GNOME extension web hub.
The “shift” to a premium tier of the MakuluLinux Shift distro this release cycle is an unfortunate development. But Raymer insists it is a necessary one to continue developing his distributions.
Previous fundraising campaigns since the pandemic hit have not been as fruitful as he hoped. Thus, taking some of the best features of the Shift OS and offering them for a fee was his only course of action.
Clearly, many newcomers to MakuluLinux are well served using the less-endowed “regular” Shift. But those users serious about going to the next level of functionality will not be unhappy with the premium features.
Shift Pro brings eight more desktop layouts that really expand the computing experience. I was hoping for more of a standard collection of popular layouts. Instead, Raymer cobbled together numerous design variations that seem to mix and alter some of the basic designs. The names are Pop, Flipped, Docky, Runner, Remmer, Roller, Eleven, and Panel.
In the free version, the layouts are locked, so you can only modify them for the current session but not save them for permanent recall. The Pro version removes that limitation.
Other paid tier features — some of which used to be in the previous Shift release — include:
MakuluLinux is one of the more up-and-coming distributions in terms of its innovation. It offers features that really engage users and enhance their computing experience.
For instance, with Wine preinstalled on Shift, you can also run Windows applications out of the box. Shift is game-ready with PlayOnLinux preinstalled. Shift fully supports Steam plus Proton as well.
Coming soon is the final release of the GameR Edition of MakuluLinux. This is specifically tailored to hardcore gamers using platforms such as Steam, Lutris, GameHub, Itch, GeForce Now, and Epic Games.
Also under development is a Debian version of Shift due later this year.
Finally, if you’re interested in running Android apps on your Linux desktop, be sure to check out MakuluLinux Droid.
Is there a Linux software application or distro you’d like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?
Email your ideas to me, and I’ll consider them for a future column.
And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!
Enlarge / CentOS Linux will be sleeping with the fishes in 2022.
Aurich Lawson / Getty Images
On Tuesday, Red Hat CTO Chris Wright and CentOS Community Manager Rich Bowen each announced a massive change in the future and function of CentOS Linux. Moving forward, there will be no CentOS Linux—instead, there will (only) be CentOS Stream.
Originally announced in September 2019, CentOS Stream serves as “a rolling preview of what’s next in RHEL”—it’s intended to look and function much like a preview of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as it will be a year or so in the future.
CentOS—which is short for Community Enterprise Linux Operating System—was founded in 2004. CentOS’s first 2004 release was named version 2—to coincide with then-current RHEL 2.1. Since then, each major version increment of RHEL has resulted in a corresponding new major version of CentOS, following the same versioning scheme and built largely from the same source.
Traditional CentOS is a free-as-in-beer rebuilding of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system, built from RHEL’s own source code—but with Red Hat’s proprietary branding removed and without Red Hat commercial support. This allowed CentOS to enjoy guaranteed binary compatibility with “proper” RHEL.
As a non-paywalled, no-hassles version of RHEL, CentOS appealed to a broader market of developers, tinkerers, and others who might eventually decide to upgrade to commercially supported RHEL. It also made it easier for developers to build and manage dev environments that would be guaranteed-compatible to their commercially supported RHEL production environments.
Although CentOS was and is a wildly popular distribution—for a couple of years, it was the most commonly used Web server distro in the world—it suffered its share of community struggles. CentOS founder Lance Davis drifted away from the project in 2008 but retained control of its domains and financials. A year later, the CentOS team made contact with Davis and regained control of the project, but this didn’t entirely repair significant damage to public perception of CentOS.
In 2014, the CentOS development team still had a distribution with far more marketshare than resources. So when Red Hat offered to partner with the CentOS team in production of the distribution, the deal looked good to both sides. Red Hat gained control of an entity it saw as coloring the reputation of its own brand, and CentOS developers got Red Hat jobs allowing them to work on CentOS full time while still keeping the lights on.
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Part of the deal involved a new governance board for CentOS—one with a mandatory, permanent Red Hat majority. Although the new deal was marketed as a partnership, it was an acquisition in all but name—Red Hat now both funded and controlled CentOS.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for the perennially resource-starved distribution. Red Hat funding meant more dev hours and fewer hassles—and being brought in-house gave CentOS access to RHEL’s legal team and a guarantee that any further questions of trademark use could be resolved amicably, rather than with simmering hostilities.
This put CentOS in much the same position as Fedora—a “community” distribution that was nevertheless effectively a Red Hat property in all but name. To be fair to Red Hat, the company is widely and accurately considered an excellent steward for the Fedora Project, and for the next several years, it was for the renewed CentOS project as well.
The current version of CentOS is CentOS 8, itself built atop RHEL 8. Normally, CentOS enjoys the same ten-year support lifecycle as RHEL itself—which would give CentOS 8 an end-of-life date in 2029. This week’s announcement puts a headstone on CentOS 8’s grave much sooner, in 2021. (CentOS 7 will still be supported alongside RHEL 7, through 2024.)
Current CentOS users will need to migrate either to RHEL itself or to the newer CentOS Stream project, originally announced in September 2019. The distribution FAQ states that CentOS Stream will not be “the RHEL beta test platform,” but CentOS Community Manager Rich Bowen’s own announcement describes Stream as “the upstream (development) branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.”
The line between “development branch” and “beta version” strikes us as vanishingly thin, and it seems to strike many CentOS community members the same way. The comments on the community announcement are legion and are overwhelmingly negative.
Red Hat’s own corporate announcement doesn’t share those negative comments, likely because it has no comment section in the first place. Red Hat CTO Chris Wright takes a more direct stab at what the company expects CentOS Stream to be—and explicitly declares that it will not be a replacement for CentOS Linux.
CentOS Stream isn’t a replacement for CentOS Linux; rather, it’s a natural, inevitable next step intended to fulfill the project’s goal of furthering enterprise Linux innovation. Stream shortens the feedback loop between developers on all sides of the RHEL landscape, making it easier for all voices, be they large partners or individual contributors, to be heard as we craft future versions of RHEL.
Wright goes on to state that Red Hat will move its own internal projects to CentOS Stream, neatly backstopping Bowen’s description of it as the “development branch” of RHEL itself. He gives examples of large enterprise partners enthusing about Stream.
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Facebook, Wright says, is now migrating its millions of servers to an OS the company derives from CentOS Stream and “continues to drive internal innovation on CentOS Stream” while having “recognized the value in collaborating within the Red Hat platform.” He also quotes a bland endorsement from an Intel VP, stating that Intel is “excited about the potential of CentOS Stream within our customer ecosystem.”
Wright ends Red Hat’s announcement with a section titled “building a broader, more diverse community”—but community, at least in the traditional open source sense, seems to be exactly what’s missing from this initiative. His closing statement—”Red Hat intends to provide the tools, support, and expertise to help all use cases transition to the new innovation hub for RHEL”—sounds well-intended, but we suspect it will hit most CentOS Linux users as just what it is—a top-down corporate initiative rather than a true community outreach.
CentOS co-founder Greg Kurtzer is one of the many community members who isn’t happy about Red Hat’s decision to shutter CentOS Linux. Prior to CentOS, Kurtzer ran a Red Hat rebuild project called Caos Linux. Kurtzer’s work merged with that of Rocky McGough and Lance Davis to form the CentOS Project.
Kurtzer issued the following press statement Wednesday:
I was just as shocked as the rest of the community with the news from Red Hat. When I started CentOS 16 years ago, I never imagined the incredible reach and impact it would have around the world on individuals and companies who rely on CentOS for Linux distribution.
In response to this unexpected shift, I am proud to announce the launch of a new project, Rocky Linux, in honor of my late CentOS co-founder Rocky McGough. I’ve started calling on participation from the global community and quickly assembling a team to further our founding commitment of ensuring seamless continuity of business operations for companies running CentOS 8 far beyond 2021. In just one day, we’ve seen an overwhelming response from thousands of supporters eager to join the project.
For the moment, Rocky Linux is nothing but a name and a determination—its Github repo currently boasts two commits, both to README.md. But Kurtzer’s name adds considerable weight to the project as a concept, along with the several thousand signatures an unrelated petition to CentOS’s governing board accumulated in a few hours.
It seems likely that the same market pressures that drove the original creation of CentOS will likely drive its rebirth as a once-again independent community project.
“Upgrade Your Linux Experience: Discover Bodhi Linux 7.0 for All Devices”
As a seasoned SEO specialist and copywriting expert, I am excited to announce the highly-anticipated release of Bodhi Linux 7.0. This cutting-edge distro, based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, boasts unparalleled performance even on lower-end hardware. With its sleek Enlightenment-based desktop and Moksha window manager, Bodhi Linux 7.0 is the perfect choice for both resource-limited devices and high-end systems.
But what’s new in Bodhi Linux 7.0? Let’s dive in and find out. The new green theme and revamped Plymouth boot screen give a fresh and eye-catching look to the startup experience. Plus, the login screen theme and “MokshaGreen” combination of themes and icons add a touch of elegance to the overall interface.
One of the standout features of Bodhi Linux is its modularity through Moksha. And in this latest release, numerous modules have been improved and updated. From a new keybinding viewer to the ability to snap windows to screen edges and drag menu items onto the desktop, Bodhi Linux 7.0 offers enhanced customization options.
In terms of applications, Bodhi Linux 7.0 comes with Chromium as the default web browser (with the option to install others via the included web browser manager app), Terminology terminal client, LeafPad text editor, and Thunar file manager. And for improved performance, Moksha now automatically trims its own memory, keeping the user interface responsive.
Ready to upgrade your Linux experience? Bodhi Linux 7.0 is available to download in three different versions: Standard ISO, HWE ISO, and s76 ISO. Whether you’re using older or newer hardware, there’s a suitable option for you. Don’t wait any longer – visit the official download page and get your hands on Bodhi Linux 7.0 today. Experience the power and versatility of this exceptional distro for yourself.
“Experience the Revolution: Bodhi Linux 7.0 Enhances User Experience, Performance and Embraces Community Collaboration”
The highly anticipated Bodhi Linux 7.0 has arrived, setting a new standard for Linux distributions. Built on Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), this release boasts an extensive range of updates and changes that prioritize user experience, performance, and community collaboration. With Bodhi 7.0, the possibilities of open-source technology are redefined.
Comment The AlmaLinux distribution’s goal is shifting from being one-to-one, bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to being application binary interface (ABI) compatible. But this represents a larger shift in the enterprise Linux market.
Management has published its third statement of direction following Red Hat’s withdrawal of publicly accessible source code for its RHEL distribution. In a post entitled “The Future of AlmaLinux is Bright”, project lead Benny Vasquez says that from now on, AlmaLinux will aim to be compatible with RHEL at the ABI level, rather than an exact clone as it originally set out to be.
This follows its earlier statements, “Impact of RHEL changes to AlmaLinux” and “Our Value Is Our Values”. Vasquez’s post also defines what this new goal means:
This is a fairly substantial climb down for the project, and it also represents a significant point of divergence between AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux. In combination with the recent comment from Oracle and SUSE’s announcement of a fork, the RHEL rebuild landscape seems to be changing rapidly – which is presumably what Red Hat wanted to happen.
One executive summary of the story so far could run something like this: Rocky Linux is trying to do whatever it can to find ways of accessing the Red Hat source code that’s now only available to customers, so that it can continue to offer a one-to-one clone. However, its statement that “while we continuously explore other options, the aforementioned approaches are subject to change” sounds like a quiet expression of caution. This may be why it is now working with SUSE. The German enterprise Linux giant says it’s doing something significantly different: a free fork of RHEL.
SUSE, as we said, had already built an internal RHEL clone, originally code named Liberty Linux. We are not privy as to whether that project has been ticking along in maintenance mode, but even if it hadn’t, it wouldn’t be so hard to revive something it had already constructed.
Part of the original plan was to run this on top of a version of its own enterprise kernel from its SLE distribution. Yes, arguably, the company is helping to create a competitor to its own paid-for product line – but the contrasting interpretation is that it’s helping to maintain an existing free competitor to the flagship product of its largest commercial rival. In openSUSE Leap, it already offers a free build of its enterprise kernel; it already offers free public build infrastructure, the Open Build Service.
Combine these with source code obtained from the RHEL universal base images (UBIs), and you have a low-cost way to reduce a competitor’s profit margin… and arguably to exhibit and promote your enterprise kernel, its stability, its driver ecosystem, and your build tooling. Not such a bad deal, all in all.
Oracle isn’t actually saying anything very technically specific at all, just general statements about openness, to which we’d respond: let’s see you open up openSolaris again, then, and while you’re at it, all the other Sun code that you no longer sell. We suspect that because the company already offers its own variant kernel for its RHEL clone, it feels that it can continue with business as usual. It seems possible that future Oracle Linux releases will switch to only offering Oracle’s UEK, its Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, and quietly drop the Red Hat Compatible Kernel, or RHCK, package.
Putting these things together, it could be that what’s going to happen is this: Oracle Linux continues, but henceforth offers only its own kernel build, the UEK. If Rocky’s clever cloud-VM-instance route is cut off, it may be getting ready to switch to a SUSE-built kernel. And AlmaLinux looks like it might be getting ready to go it alone, possibly building kernels based on the CentOS Stream project.
We remain confident that, thanks to its armies of lawyers, the Big Purple Hat is sticking strictly to the letter of the law when it comes to license compliance, especially the GPL.
No other Linux distribution has exact replicas out there in production use quite like this, although the relationship between openSUSE Leap and SLE comes very close, especially since SUSE synchronized their code bases a few years ago.
Even so, Red Hat’s move continues to anger a great many people in the wider FOSS community. We have seen arguments that it is counter to the spirit of open source, as well as ones that the RHEL clones contribute indirectly but significantly to the company’s success, such as by providing tools for people to get familiarity and skills with the distro. One strong position is that RHEL is built on the back of code that people have contributed for the good of the community, and as such, Red Hat doesn’t get to gatekeep access to that code – for example, by restricting people’s Four Freedoms via customer contracts or usage policies.
This may be true, but it would be hard to prove in a court of law. It also must be said that Red Hat itself does provide free licences for people to develop their skills, along with two free-to-use distributions: CentOS Stream and the Fedora family. We don’t think Red Hat is going to back down on this, and it looks increasingly like the move has been successful, inasmuch as the company sought to eliminate free identical clones of its paid-for distro. It looks like it’s done so, but at the price of destroying some goodwill… a commodity of which it did not have an abundance in the first place.
Overall, as well as being good for Red Hat’s profits, at least in the short term, we think that this will be good for the greater enterprise Linux market and ecosystem. It could turn out to be beneficial for SUSE and for Canonical, but we also hope to see it result in more investment in, and sponsorship of, Debian and its financial backer, Software in the Public Interest. ®