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MAT1 is being retired from the Arch Repo


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MAT(Metadata Anonymization Tool) Version 1 is finally being retired from the
[ninjaos] Arch Linux repository along with its remaining python2 depedencies.
This program was maintained FAR longer than it really should have been, but
was kept in production because there was NO *suitible replacement for the GUI.
Suitable? Yes, its amazing that some people actually consider usability a show
stopping feature on GNU Plus Linux, but I am one of them. The workflow of MAT1
was very fast. Drag, Drop, Action button, and then click the X. bam. Version 2
released as a fork MAT2, was CLI only as their favorite python widgets had no
py3 fork. For whatever reason, this was not deemed essential, and replaced by
a KDE dolphin shortcut, because people actually use KDE or Dolphin.

Now supported in [ninjaos], and will be in future releases is the package
"metadata-cleaner", a 3rd party frontend for MAT2 written in python3 with gtk3
It is recommended anyone using this repo on an Arch system switch to this new
package. It supports most of the features of MAT with some new ones, and is
rather usable.

As per policy, Ninja OS will be sunsetting python2 as soon as possibe. All
packages that depend on python2 that aren't immediately nesseccary will be
dropped from the [ninjaos] repo. All upstream(as in Arch Linux) packages that
depend on python2 that aren't strictly vital will be uninstalled. Search will
begin for replacement applications that use python2 and if they aren't ported,
will be replaced with modern programs of similar function.
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Focus on streaming packages


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Since the Beginning, we understood the value of media tools on the desktop.
We strive our best to have a relatively "complete" as set of tools for viewing
and editing media, even if we do prefer lightweight tools over the heavyweight
large project tools. For Audio, Video, and Still Pictures, we present tools
to both view and edit as many formats as reasonably possibly under linux.

To this end, today we re-shuffle some of our installed media packages. Up until
now, darkice and darksnow where explicitly supported for streaming to icecast
or shoutcast servers, while idjc was supported in the repo. While this might
have made sense in 2010 terms, its not only anarchronistic, but it reflects a 
reality that never truely existed: the popularity of icecast/shoutcast servers.

Its also jarring as darkice/snow doesn't have complete Pulse Audio support and
is still based largely around ALSA/OSS with pulse as an afterthought.

It is video, not audio streaming that is central to culture now. Darksnow and
Darkice will continue to be supported in the repo, but are no longer default
installs. OBS studio is now a thing we are looking at as a secondary target,
and is being considered for default install. StreamFX and Websocket plugins
are now in the repo.
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Cloud, VM, Direction

When we started with what would ultimately become Ninja OS in early 2010, Live OSs where the latest hotness. Insperation came from previous generations of Live CD distributions. Mostly early versions of TAILs that left users wanting as well as AnonymOS, and other live Desktop OSes generally that got burned to Optical disks such as CD and DVD. Initially, we did in fact provide an ISO9660 image for use with what is now legacy technology.

In the modern world, the Live OS has lost its lustre as well. Increasingly people rely on virtual machines, and even distributions like Qubes which is a management interface for virtual machines. The Live USB stick is not completely worthless, and it will be kept.

As a concept, Ninja OS will move forward as a family of operating systems, and tooling. They will all use the same Arch install base and similar and/or complementory packages(such as client and server).

Conceptualized Components:

  • [ninjaos] - Arch Linux Repo
  • Ninja LiveUSB
  • Ninja VM Desktop
  • Ninja remote VDI
  • Ninja Cloud Server Template

i686 support being dropped

Its a long time comming, but we are discontinuing the last of i686 support, effectively immediately. i686 has been discontinued from upstream Arch Linux for some time, and we have been following the Archlinux32 project. The last two releases did not see an i686 release as the quality would be signifigantly less and some major packages like firefox-esr do not build at all. A direct port is no longer possible. a proper fork would require a lot of effort, for very little gain.

In addition there are errors like Archlinx32 not fully repackaging their perl packages for new versions, tripping errors. Many upstream repos and projects do NOT test for 32 bit x86 on linux anymore.

More and more PKGBUILDs start to fail.

Today, we hit OOM errors attempting to build packages, even with enough swap space installed, and the memory limit of the arch kernel with 4GB of ram is not enough to maintain this repo. To rememedy this, we would need to maintain a seperate kernel with PAE enabled, just for the build environment. While configuring a kernel is trivial, maintaining one is not. Especially when you maintain a seperate kernel for production.

All for less and less people actually using this obsolete archecture. We feel that 64-bit PC penetration is sufficient to make the change.

In the future, if Archlinux32 improves and we are able to make a full compile, we MIGHT, repeat MIGHT release a pentium4 fork. Pentium4 has the added benefit of SSE2 instructions, that might make this feasible to run on more modern 32-bit machines.

Adding cross compile tools and updates

We are adding some cross compile tools to the [ninjaos] repository. apple-darwin-osxcross for compiling darwin/OSX binaries, and mingw-w64 gcc toolchain for compiling Windows binaries.

These will definately be available for x86_64, but we are having trouble with i686. Issues like this are the reason we no longer support i686. Archlinux32 is not supported as well as Arch Linux propper. It is also considerably(weeks) behind upstream, as in that its not possible to match patch levels.

We cannot maintain i686 forever. It is starting to get a little long in the tooth

Emergency bugfix release Version 0.12.2

¡OFFICIAL RELEASE - Version 0.12.2!


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Release: Version 0.12.2

See Downloads page

EMERGENCY BUGFIX.

A bug made it into the release of  version 0.12.1 that we deemed serious enough
to issue a recall. Zeroize conflicts with drive watcher causing a panic when
SD/Zeroize is run. It is recommended you update IMMEDIATELY if running 0.12.1

Updates from 0.12.0:

This is a minor release. Mostly version bumps, but some notable features.

1. New Kernel. based on 5.4 added -hardened patch set from Arch. This provides
ability to lock USB ports with kernel parameter as well.

1a. Self Destruct now forbids new USB connections
1b. Lockscreen now locks USB ports, previous lockstate restored upon unlock
1c. usbctl tool, and menu item for controlling USB lock state

2. CDN - Downloads and projects are now sourced from the CDN. Should provide
a bigger

3. slock patched with bgimage set for using a image file for the lockscreen
background. Will be used as camoflauge in future versions.

4. Version bumps

5. Minor tweaks

6. Some work on Ninja EWS/IDS

7. Fixed Zeroize/drive watch bug in 0.12.1
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¡OFFICIAL RELEASE - Version 0.12.2!

0.12.1 Release

¡OFFICIAL RELEASE - Version 0.12.1!


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Release: Version 0.12.1

See Downloads page

This is a minor release. Mostly version bumps, but some notable features.

1. New Kernel. based on 5.4 added -hardened patch set from Arch. This provides
ability to lock USB ports with kernel parameter as well.

1a. Self Destruct now forbids new USB connections
1b. Lockscreen now locks USB ports, previous lockstate restored upon unlock
1c. usbctl tool, and menu item for controlling USB lock state

2. CDN - Downloads and projects are now sourced from the CDN. Should provide
a bigger

3. slock patched with bgimage set for using a image file for the lockscreen
background. Will be used as camoflauge in future versions.

4. Version bumps

5. Minor tweaks

6. Some work on Ninja EWS/IDS
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¡OFFICIAL RELEASE - Version 0.12.1!

New Site

Hello World!


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After leaving the Ninja OS site in a depreciated emergency mess after our
previous site was pulled by the ISP, we have, at long last, made a new site.
Staticly Generated in Nikola, This should allow for easy updates.

You can now check back here for updates regarding Ninja OS developement and
release announcements.
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