GL.iNet has released the Flint2 (also known as GL-MT6000), a new AX6000 router based on the MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) ARM SoC. This router supports VPN speeds of up to 900 Mbps using WireGuard and 190 Mbps with OpenVPN. Compared to previous GL.iNet routers like the Spitz AX and the Beryl AX, which were based on the Filogic 820 (MT7981B) CPU with transfer rates of up to 300 Mbps using WireGuard, the Flint2 is expected to triple the VPN performance.

The GL.iNet Flint2 router comes with the following specifications:

• SoC – MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking
• System Memory – 1GB DDR4
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash
• Networking:
  • 2x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports
  • 4x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports
  • 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 with 4x external Wi-Fi antennas
    • Up to 1,148 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz
    • Up to 4,804 Mbps @ 5 GHz
    • DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) support
  • VPN – OpenVPN server/client tested up to 190 Mbps, and WireGuard server/client tested up to 900 Mbps (tests over Ethernet in client mode)
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port
• Dimensions – 233 x 137 x 57mm

The GL.iNet Flint2 router comes pre-installed with OpenWrt 23.05 (or a fork) with Linux 5.15 and the GL.Inet Admin Panel, which is common to all GL.iNet routers. It supports four different network modes: router, access point, extender, and WDS. The router also includes features such as AdGuard Home, parental controls, and Cloud remote management.

The significant improvement in WireGuard performance, tripling the previous model’s speed, is noteworthy. While the upgrade from a 1.3 GHz dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU to a 2.0 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU partially explains the increase, the main reason is likely the switch from Linux 5.4 to Linux 5.15. The Filogic 830-based router benefits from in-kernel WireGuard support introduced in Linux 5.6. As a point of comparison, the first Flint router achieves speeds of up to 500 Mbps with WireGuard.

The Filogic 830 SoC used in the Flint2 is also found in other devices, such as the Banana Pi BPI-R3 and BPI-R3 Mini router SBCs.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Redox OS, the open-source Rust-written operating system, has announced its plans for the future, and among these are a server version, reports Phoronix.

The project is shifting focus to develop a server version, prioritizing it over the desktop edition due to its smaller scope. The team is working on optimizing drivers, especially network drivers, to improve performance. They aim to host the Redox website on Redox using virtual machines, with recent advancements making it feasible. This could potentially lead to Redox running on cloud platforms. Ongoing efforts in virtual machine support and device virtualization are expected to drive further progress.

Source: Phoronix.

Simply NUC has introduced the Zircon, a new compact desktop computer that is not only one of the company’s cheapest offerings but also a highly configurable option. Priced at $199 and up, the Zircon is equipped with a 15-watt Intel N95 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor, support for up to three 4K displays, and a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port.

The Zircon stands out among other mini PCs with Alder Lake-N chips due to its SO-DIMM slot that supports DDR4-3200 memory. The base model, priced at $199, comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SATA SSD, but both of these can be upgraded. The system can support up to 32GB of RAM and includes an M.2 2280 slot for PCIe Gen 3 NVMe or SATA solid-state drives, as well as a 2.5-inch bay for a hard drive or SSD.

In terms of connectivity, the Zircon features an Intel AC7265 wireless card that supports WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. The system has a variety of ports, including 2 HDMI 2.0, 1 USB 3.0 Type-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode, 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 2.5 GbE Ethernet (Intel i225-V), 1 3.5mm headset jack, and 1 microSD card reader.

Overall, the Simply NUC Zircon offers a compelling option for those seeking a mini PC with a QuickSync enabled processor and 2.5 GbE Ethernet interface, making it suitable for applications such as media servers.

Source: Liliputing.

The Linux Foundation, BastionZero, and Docker have collaborated to launch the OpenPubkey project. OpenPubkey is an open-source cryptographic protocol that aims to enhance the security of the open-source software ecosystem through zero-trust passwordless authentication.

OpenPubkey was developed as part of BastionZero’s secure infrastructure access product. It allows users to securely bind cryptographic keys to users and workloads by transforming an OpenID Connect Identity Provider (IdP) into a Certificate Authority (CA). In conjunction with the launch of OpenPubkey, BastionZero has integrated it for Docker container signing, further strengthening the security of the software supply chain. Developers can leverage OpenPubkey to build software supply chain or security applications. By augmenting OpenID Connect, OpenPubkey enables users and workloads to sign artifacts under their OpenID identity. These cryptographic keys can be used for secure remote access, as well as signed builds, deployments, and code commits for software supply chain security.

For more information about OpenPubkey, including how to get involved, contribute, and join the community, visit the GitHub page.

Gitea has announced the release of version 1.20.5 of their software. This update includes important bug fixes, making it highly recommended for users to update to this version.

To create this release, the Gitea team merged 24 pull requests. Users can download pre-built binaries for their specific platform from the downloads page. Detailed installation instructions can be found in the installation guide.

The changelog for version 1.20.5 includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

Enhancements:

• Fix z-index on markdown completion
• Use secure cookie for HTTPS sites

Bug Fixes:

• Fix git 2.11 error when checking IsEmpty
• Allow get release download files and lfs files with oauth2 token format
• Fix orphan check for deleted branch
• Quote table release in sql queries
• Fix release URL in webhooks
• Fix successful return value for SyncAndGetUserSpecificDiff
• Fix pagination for followers and following
• Fix issue templates when blank issues are disabled
• Fix context cache bug & enable context cache for dashboard commits’ authors
• Fix INI parsing for value with trailing slash
• Fix PushEvent NullPointerException jenkinsci/github-plugin
• Fix organization field being null in POST /orgs/{orgid}/teams
• Fix bug of review request number

Additionally, there have been improvements in testing and documentation, as well as miscellaneous changes.

The contributors to this release include:

• @Infinoid
• @KN4CK3R
• @lunny
• @sebastian-sauer
• @wxiaoguang

Argo CD, a declarative continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, has announced the release of release candidate version v2.9.0-rc2. Argo CD enables users to manage their Kubernetes applications through GitOps, providing a streamlined and efficient approach to continuous delivery of infrastructure.

The new v2.9.0 is set to introduce several new features and improvements to Argo CD. Some of the notable additions in the release candidates include:

• Support for ignoring application differences in appset
• Health status and force-sync action for PushSecret
• AnsibleJob CRD health checks
• Kustomize patches field
• Support for AzureDevops Webhooks in appset
• Dynamic rebalancing of clusters across shards
• Tree view option in output flag for app sync, app wait, and app rollback
• Automatic application of extension configs without restarting API-Server
• Addition of patch_ms and setop_ms timings to reconciliation logs
• Button for wrapping lines in pod logs viewer in the UI
• Tree view option in output flag for app get and app resources CLI commands
• Support for preserving labels and global fields in appset
• Enablement of haproxy metrics through Helm Chart
• Shorthand flags for follow and container in app logs
• Additional environment variable for cluster cache list page buffer size
• Improved RBAC support for discovery/sync
• Addition of Dott to users
• Upgraded notification engine
• Support for extra attributes for opentelemetry
• Parallel execution of refresh from UI
• Topic filter for Gitlab SCM in appset
• Timeout option for update cluster info
• Support for apply out of sync flag only in CLI
• Support for AzureDevops Webhooks
• SCM Provider option for Gitlab generator to filter shared projects from subgroups projects
• Short revision in ARGOCD_APP_REVISION_SHORT env variable
• Integration of kubelogin capability to argocd-k8s-auth
• Alias application as apps for consistency with notifications engine
• Restriction of SCM provider URLs
• Autosync_enabled field in the argocd_app_info gauge
• Support for self-signed TLS/Certificates for Gitlab SCM Provider
• Respect RBAC for resource exclusions/inclusions

In addition to these new features, the rc2 release candidate includes various bug fixes and improvements.

For a complete list of changes and enhancements being introduced in v2.9.0, users can refer to the full changelogs of v2.9.0-rc1 and v2.9.0-rc2.