The OpenZFS project has released version 2.1.13, of the open-source implementation of the ZFS file system and volume manager. ZFS supports features like data compression, data deduplication, copy-on-write clones, snapshots, and RAID-Z. It also supports the creation of virtual devices.

The new version is compatible with Linux kernels 3.10 to 6.5 and FreeBSD releases starting from 12.2-RELEASE. The release includes various changes and fixes, including improvements for Linux compatibility and bug fixes for issues related to automounted snapshots, L2ARC write size calculation, and memory leaks. The update also includes enhancements for zed, zfs-dkms rpm, and bash completion. Overall, the release brings improved stability and compatibility for users of OpenZFS/ZFS on Linux.

ZFS is a great choice for home servers and use on DIY network attached storage units, and is the file system that TrueNAS uses. It can also run perfectly well on the Raspberry Pi.

See the full release notes here.

The highly anticipated Raspberry Pi 5 has been announced, boasting significant performance improvements and new features. Priced at $60 for the 4GB variant and $80 for the 8GB variant, the Raspberry Pi 5 offers a no-compromises user experience. It features a 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, a VideoCore VII GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2, dual 4Kp60 HDMI display output, a 4Kp60 HEVC decoder, and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 5.0. Additionally, it includes two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet with PoE+ support, and a PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals.

In a home lab context, the Raspberry Pi 5 is a powerful and affordable option for enthusiasts to create their own server. The improved performance makes it ideal for running virtual machines, hosting websites, and running containers. With its PCIe 2.0 interface, enthusiasts can connect fast peripherals such as NVMe SSDs, expanding storage capabilities for server applications. The dual 4Kp60 HDMI output and the 4Kp60 HEVC decoder are useful for media server applications, allowing for smooth streaming of high-resolution content. The inclusion of Gigabit Ethernet with PoE+ support further enhances its server capabilities, simplifying power management for networked devices.

For server use enthusiasts, the Raspberry Pi 5 offers a reliable and cost-effective platform for various applications. The improved CPU and GPU performance allow for faster processing and rendering, making it suitable for tasks such as data analysis and media transcoding. The inclusion of a PCIe 2.0 interface opens up possibilities for connecting high-speed peripherals, such as network cards or storage devices, to enhance server performance and expand storage capacity. The dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 support provide flexibility for wireless connectivity options in server setups. Overall, the Raspberry Pi 5’s upgraded specifications make it a compelling choice for enthusiasts looking to build and customize their own server for various server use cases.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is available to pre-order today, and is expected to by the end of October 2023.

The openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 Beta has been released, offering a lightweight Linux operating system designed for containers and virtualized workloads. As the community version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro, openSUSE Leap Micro focuses on reliability and caters to container and virtualization use-cases. One of the major changes in this release is improved Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) support. A release candidate for Leap Micro 5.5 will be available soon, with the official general availability (GA) release expected in early October. For more information and to download the Leap Micro 5.5 Beta, visit the openSUSE website.

Source: Phoronix.

Phoronix reports that the first part of MSG_ZEROCOPY preparations for the VirtIO-Vsock driver has been queued into net-next, with plans for introduction in the Linux 6.7 kernel. This feature aims to improve performance within virtual machines by enabling message zero-copy support for the VirtIO/Vsock code. By allowing for more zero-copy of buffers, rather than creating extra copies on transmissions, this feature can lead to significant efficiency gains. Benchmarks on the patch series have shown impressive gains, particularly for buffer sizes at 32KB and larger. This development is of particular interest for home labs and virtual machine environments, as it has the potential to enhance virtual machine performance.

Source: Phoronix.

Matrix Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, has released its latest version, v1.93.0. This release comes as a result of continuous development efforts since 2014, with the first stable version, v1.0.0, being launched in 2019.

For those unfamiliar, Matrix is an open standard for internet communications that supports federation, encryption, and Voice over IP (VoIP) functionality.

The latest version, v1.93.0, includes a number of bug fixes and security updates. Notable security fixes include low-severity vulnerabilities identified as GHSA-4f74-84v3-j9q5/CVE-2023-41335 and GHSA-7565-cq32-vx2x/CVE-2023-42453. More detailed information about these security issues can be found in the advisories.

In addition to the security updates, Synapse v1.93.0 introduces several new features and improvements. Some of these include:

Features:

• Automatic purge after all users have forgotten a room
• Room purge/shutdown restoration after a Synapse restart
• Support for resolving homeservers using matrix-fed DNS SRV records from MSC4040
• Ability to use G (GiB) and T (TiB) suffixes in configuration options that refer to numbers of bytes
• Addition of span information to requests sent to appservices
• Ability to enable/disable registrations when using CAS
• Routing the /notifications endpoint to workers
• Enabling users to easily unsubscribe from notification emails via the List-Unsubscribe header
• Reporting whether a user is “locked” in the List Accounts admin API and excluding locked users by default

Bugfixes:

• Fixing a long-standing bug that caused high load due to presence for multi-device accounts
• Fixing a bug for appservices using MSC2409 to receive to_device messages, where only messages for one user were received
• Fixing a bug when using workers that resulted in repeated re-requesting of the same remote device
• Fixing a long-standing bug that caused repeated re-requesting of a remote server’s key, potentially causing delays in receiving events over federation
• Avoiding temporary storage of sensitive information
• Fixing a bug introduced in Synapse 1.49.0 when using dehydrated devices and refresh tokens
• Fixing a long-standing bug where invalid receipts would be accepted
• Using the standard name for the UTF-8 charset in emails
• Avoiding refetching device lists for users on remote hosts marked as “down”

The latest release also includes various improvements to documentation, internal changes, and updates to locked dependencies.

With these updates and improvements, Synapse v1.93.0 continues to enhance the functionality and security of Matrix homeservers, providing a reliable and efficient platform for communication and collaboration.

For more information and to download Synapse v1.93.0, visit Synapse on GitHub.

The latest release of glauth, a secure and easy-to-use LDAP server with configurable backends, brings several important updates and fixes. Version v2.2.1 focuses on resolving plugin incompatibility issues and introduces the ability to use custom S3 endpoints.

One of the key improvements in this maintenance release is the fix to plugin incompatibility. The developers have addressed this issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused by the previous version. The pull requests included in this release cover various aspects of the project. Some of the other notable updates include organizing users as an organizational unit, removing references to deprecated io/ioutil, updating TRIM_FLAGS to use -trimpath, and preparing for future releases by implementing sum types.