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    Linux Format - October2023-Sanet - ST

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    E-=| Making online admin | J Enjoy smart photo am ae ey eM Tekst CoS BC Ce ae WW storage with DigiKam Store data in your own cloud! | LOCAL MAPPING FORTRANDAYS | NEXT-GEN WI-FI Create enhanced local The oldest of code How fast will your next maps with open source remains the fastest wireless upgrade be? EX oad Car, home and travel insurance plus = breakdown cover and more. Get more info or compare quotes, for over 40 products, at go.compare Ta Meal aul ts yr EN Ca 3 CHOICE. — = Go beet >> MEET THE TEAM The big newsis that Linux gaming has leapfrogged Mac OS on Steam for the first time. Which classic game would you love to play again on your Linux PC? Matthew Holder ‘A, that wonderful smell of nostalgia. One othe first games I got hooked on was Pipe Mania on the Archimedes ASOOO. The ‘ aim was to rotate pipes and make sure liquid could flow around the board. an honourable mention goes tothe E-Type driving game, to. Les Pounder Blackpool inthe 80s was wall-to-wall arcades and | loved it My mother worked atthe Pleasure Beach, which afforded me early access. The si down ‘Star Wars cabinet is where I cut my teeth basting vector spaceships and defeating the evil empire. Mayank Sharma | got my start on 8-bit side scrollers and shoot“em-ups, before maturing to strategy games inthe 90s. And that's where I till am, Thankfully retro gaming an open source speciality and between the RPi and my Linux box, can easly escape to my happy place. ic Peers “Thank othe brian atocera noc (hep: /batocer or) reto-gaing 05, have all ny ol favourite games from the 80s and 90s at my fingertips You can run it alongside your existing distro or boot {rom a USB tick ever time the eto-gaming urge ites Michael Reed im happy to hear the Linux percentages on Steam are up, no doubt thanks tothe Steam Deck It's reached the stage where | assume ‘that most games will work, but doa quick check on PotonDB to be safe, Fostpunk, Fallout 76 and No Man's Sty are among my curent installs vwtecradarcomipeoinus WELCOME Smarter Pi Guy Were not fighting the tide of the ‘Al phenomenon = in fact, you might say we're embracing it though I can safely say the clunky prose you! find littering the magazine is entirely human- generated, We've tried using Chatbots to write Linux copy andit turned out even ess inteligible than usual For this issue, though, we're here to prove that you don't need a server farm of high-end $10,000 Nvidia A100 Tensor kit to use machine learning. We've got projects powered by nothing more than a humble Raspberry Pi. From voice recognition to the classic chatty bots, the Raspberry Piis (ust) powerful enough to run optimised versions of large language models at home. The ramifications are that anyone can get started with ‘machine-learning projects, experimenting with nothing more than a low-cost Pi, open source software and an internet connection. They can then deploy their solutions quickly and easily on what s now a standard embedded industrial device. ‘he fact that the Raspberry Pi Foundation ishelping advise (on education policy in the UK (and around the globe) should hopefully put young codersin a strong position for the futur. In the meantime, we can have fun getting a Pito recognise who's atthe front door. What's not to enjoy? f Nell Mobr Editor neil mohr@tuturenet.com Subscribe & save! On digital and print: see page 16 (October 2023 waar 3 SUBSCRIBE NOW! Page 16 A.-POWERED RASPBERRY Pi BCU M reece Cee) Rue teat eas since its first —— CNSR Ut) + REVIEWS Wo Black 8TB HDD, 9 Itturns out that Shane Downing would like more performance from his performance products sd alana Ev | eS wtnsomuch Cor aenrans cconetiion nies on amusing thes to workout whether ERC cH thenew Radon RX 7600 " does enough to Bad Eis beat the pack, Window Maker Live 2 Nate Drake gets into the frame of things with Window Maker -a desktop experience reminiscent of a’90s Mac OPNSense 237, B Nate Drake has the good sense to try out OPNSense,a top-notch firewall distro based on FreeBSD, Rhino Linux 20234 2% Nate Drake takes a ice on the Rhino - the Ubuntu-based developer build - exploring, the Unicom desktop, as wellas the pleasures and peri of roling releases, Mask ofthe Rose. 26 Personal cloud servers 28 Fre/e/ your phone 48 There's an indescribable horror inthe Michael eed compares five open source Tired of being tracked and spied upon basement. Managementjustemployedit cloud servers tofind out whether they'te _by popular mobile OSes, Jonni Bidwell todo the accounting, and Joshua Wolens _realy free, what takes to install them and__is itching Android and taking back his has tomakeit tea. ifyoushould store your data on them! privacy with /e/0S, swvninuxtormatcam 4] 1207 October 2023 (CREDIT Magictorch ‘CREDIT: cetty Images Murena ‘CREDIT: Getty imaoes, wkimediaons 333 Pinews 43 Introduced by Les Pounder, who's looking forward to enjoying the slut of Ps that's due to hit the shelves. 52Pi Rack Tower 44 Les Pounder owns multiple Raspberry Pis but has yet to make a cluster. Perhaps this willsee him put alot his Pis onthe shelf? Elegoo Neptune & 45 “Smoke me a Kipper. be beck for breakfast" cres Denise Bertacch feasting her eyes on this tasty 30 printer, Control a Pi bot with a Wiimote... 46 Les Pounder travels back to 2014, the last time he held a Wimote that wasn't embedded in an LCD TV. peala) Certo tthe Text adventures: now in full colour...90 Nate Drake embraces ancient graphics and dinky sound effectsin the final part of our text adventure cading series. Blast apart Breakout gaming code.....9% “Matt Holder discovers that rewriting 2 classic game isnt as simple as he thought, so has plenty of tips to ease the process. Next-gen Wi-Fi 18 ‘Another new wireless technology, ‘already? Darien Graham-Smith looks ‘ahead to the next-generation networking standard, Wi-FI7. vwotecradarcomipeainus ADMINISTERIA Administeria 1% ‘Stuart Burns discusses the UK ‘government’ threat to encrypted ‘messages, plus offers tips for sysadmins. Bitwarden 6 ‘A powerful feature-packed open source password manager with a free option and decent pricing, thinks Mike Jennings. ExpressVPN n Looking behind the hype machine, Mike Wiliams wonders whether this VPN service sas good as it sounds. ia SY les News 6 Valve's game-changing Proton turns five kemel 65 hits the streets; Vim creator Bram Molenazr dies; happy birthday to Debian plus Distro Watch, and more stories from the world of open source. Kernel watch 10 Answers, " Divinginto the darkest recesses of his ‘enormous brain, Nell Bothwick crags ‘ut solutions to readers’ problems with backing storage, sting running GUlappsin a terminal upgrading Linux Mint, and more Mailserver 4 Readers share their experience of firewalls ‘and FORTRAN, while others ask for advice, CONTENTS arr ‘TERMINAL: Bring images to life 2 Not known forislove of cameras, Shashank Sharma stil knows how to turn imagesinto presentable GIFs and video Clips into masterpieces. KDE MARBLE: Mapping made easy ......54 Nick Peers raveals how easy itisto navigate the word using avarety of ‘maps without leaving the comfort of your home PC. DIGIKAM: Manage your photos. 58 Mike Bedford explains how Digikam enables you to manage your photos, finding what you're looking for wth the most powerful of tools. FORTRAN: The is high-level language. 64 Itmighthave been the worlds fst high-level language, but Mike Bedford discovers that FORTRAN stil alive and well today \VIRTUALMIN: Managea VPS. Cy avid Bolton demonstrates how to set Up Virtualmin on tree VPS and how to configure itto add websites. STEAM DECK-Better gamingtips.......72 From external controllers toan external clsplay, Neil Mob offers a fistful of handy gaming tips for your Steam Deck, Subscriptions 6 Get your monthly Linux dose, grab yourself an Alexa Aquablaster and save money! Back issues a Get hold of previous Linux Format editions. Overseas subscriptions 63 Get Linux Format shipped around the globe. HotPicks 8 Mayank Sharma would steer people away froma future Star Wars/Star Tek crossover ‘movie and towards HotPicks, so they could read about Onionshare, Bul, Sweeper Min, KDiskMark,OniontMecka X, Pall, Nostlan, DevilutionX, Paper Clip and Menu Editor Next month 98 October 2023 LxR07 5 Newsdesk THIS ISSUE: Valve’s game-changing Proton turns five » Kernel 6.5 hits the streets » Vim creator dies » Happy birthday to Debian Proton turns five and Linux overtakes Mac OS Valve's launch of Proton in August 2018 changed the face of Linux gaming for ever. Linux numbers on Steam are also “through the roof”. ind the clock back just five short years to early 2018. Valve's gaming Steam Machine had just been removed from its online store after fling to sellin sufficient ‘numbers. There were various reasons for this, but the biggest culprit was that Steam Machine Was using a Linux operating system, which wasn't compatible with most Windows games. Valve did try to be more platform-agnostic by offering Steam Play. One of the perks of this was thatif players bought, say, the Windows version of a game, they could also access the Linux version. Still most developers declined to 0 to the trouble of creating Linux versions of Windows games, so it was litle use to players Valve's next move was a game changer to.end all game changers. Partnering with CodeWeavers, the two companies jointly developed a beefed-up fork of the Wine compatiblity layer to create Proton. Initially Proton was only compatible with a small number of Valve-selected titles but over time, it's allowed many more Windows games to run virtually flawlessly in Linux. The ProtonDB, Which tracks such things, reports over 11,000 titles for Windows and other platforms can run in Linux thanks tothe Proton compatibility ayer. ‘What does this mean specifically for Linux gaming? It's clear that the power and customisabilty of Proton was a major reason for Valve to release its Steam Deck in 2021, which runs on SteamOS, a variant of Arch Linux Shortly afterwards, Valve released its own Deck Rating system to score how well the 6| wxr07 October 2023, ‘Steam Deck running Proton worked with Windows games. As of June 2023, there were ‘over 10,000 titles rated as either Verified or Playable, including gaming greats such as The Last of Us. 5) Of course, these numbers only \ apply to games available for purchase or download via the Steam Store. Players can easily install titles they/ve bought elsewhere on to the Steam Deck via its Desktop Mode. That ‘means it's likely the hand-held console is actually compatible witha great many more titles. Retro gamers, in particular, have enjoyed playing games for older consoles, suchas the SNES, via EmuDeck, although, naturally, this doesnt require Proton to run. ‘According to the Gaming on Linux websites Steam Tracker, players using both Linux and a Steam Deck amount ; tojust 196% of users (that’s just” 258 milion) as of July 2023, Stil, that's a0.52% increase on the previous month, meaning that, for the first time ever, Linux has overtaken Mac 0S users, who account for just 184%, Even combined, these figures pale into nothing compared with Windows users, but Proton’s constantly updated changelog proves that t's more than capable of keeping up. Proton reports hat ver 1000 fumes arrow compote with Vales Steam Deck which uses the Paton compat ayer Wahout Proton. we almost certainly woud have the Ste Dek shown hare running Armored Core Vi with rinimal performance sss. swvninuxformatcom Linux kernel 6.5 ready to ship The stable version of kernel 6.5 has a number of exciting updates, especially for Intel and AMD users. ‘9th July, Linus Torvalds announced the general availabilty for public testing ofthe first Release Candidate (RO) development milestone of Linux kernel 6.5. ‘As of 27th August, the stable version has been released and willbe incorporated into operating ‘systems such as Ubuntu 2310 later this year The kernel now defaults to AMD P-State Active EPP for modern Ryzen systems, which \wilimprove power efficiency. (EDAC) Error Detection And Correction subsystem updates for the Ryzen 7000 series have also been included, which will allow for reporting of hardware errors via the kernel og. Gamers will be delighted to discover an improved controller driver for the Nila Shield, as wellas rumble support for Xbox controller. Kemel 6.5 also includes intial support for USB 4 v20 thanks to Intel, which has also, contributed intial enablement ofits new Barlow Ridge discrete controller. Updates to the networking subsystem include preparations for Wi-Fi 7, with the lion's share of code contributed by intel. This has chiefly centred around! code for its IWLWIFI Updates to version 85 of the karnaincude etter sport fo the rumble Fatrein Nbxcontrlers driver and forthcoming 802.11be chipsets, but kernel 65 will also have better support for \Wi-FIs MLO (Muti-Link Operation) mode. This allows devices to simultaneously send and. receive across multiple frequency bands, provided you have Wi-Fi7-compatible hardware. The sound subsystem now supports MIDI 2.0. The raw MIDI driver and sequencer API have been extended to support the new UMP protocol. The USB audio driver has also been ‘extended with MIDI 20 interface support. Learn more at wwwkemeLorg, Death of Bram Molenaar The creator of Vim and other projects dies, aged 62. 11968, Dich sotware engineer (Samii cnes te it verona Vin ih door eV tation Tsretecod Brant ers a Greotoa workin txtedior at ortrey Sree en maneren Beers reuters ec i inborn aoc te ost dubbing himself as its BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Lie). ‘Moolenaar was a member of the Dutch Unix user group, NLUUG, which presented him with ‘an award during its 25th anniversary for his Creation of Vim and his contributions to open source software in general He advocated for ICCF Holland, an popular text editors ever, Although ee NGO supporting AIDS victims in. it’s chiefly associated with Linux, ‘ber Uganda, and used Vim's popularity to valle fora rumber of ators, solct donations 3 incuing Windows and MacOS, (On Sth August, Bram family Ei cian dase esate announced his passing du t0"8 3 build tool A-A-P, which was written in medical condition that progressed eat os aN ati Eg arr Ss ret a ere asec rea Peer aioe ea E codersmore productve. However he laaeratete” Nethernds onieth August Vin Ecaltoundthetine toworkon Vin fecerocalend’ wilbe contewedbyco-contibtor B atmos daly tor over 30 years thelpnig Chistian rabendt ‘wwetochradarconvpofinux NEWSDESK OPINION GAME OVER! Joe Brockmeier wad of community, Percona 66 mene: ‘mainstream today and Inwidespread usage, but its ‘also under attack from just about every angle. This time its through subversion and dilution rather than the frontal assaults open source ‘advocates and projects ‘endured in the early 2000s Consider the moves away ‘rom open source licences to source available licences, ike the Business Source License (BuSL), or others with use restrctions."We have to ‘compete and "Developers realy don't care about licences," they say. But their bad business plan isn'ta reason for the community to ‘accept bad licences. ‘And if developers don't care about licences? That's because we've falled to educate people. Users also need open source to protect their ‘options long-term, So.do businesses. The right to fork, something that st preserved by the BuSt, is important for organisations building applications and infrastructure that will stand fora decade or more. We have got complacent We believed open source: hhad won and got tired of doing Open Source 101 ‘education and advocacy. But open source can no ‘more win than aperson can be fit, once and fora Butt can lose through slow terasion of values and apathy, Hwolettitstimetor uustoppush back, October 2023x3077 NEWSDESK OPINION NVK HAS LANDED Fath Bstand is an engineering fellow at collabora SGN erent ‘open source Vulkan liver for Nvidia GPUs, has finaly landed in the main ‘Mesa branch Included as anexperimental driver in the 23:3 release of Mesa, its the culmination of over ayear of work by myself as wellas Karol Herbst and Dave Airlie at Red Hat, and abouta dozen ‘community contributors Special thanks also goes toDanilo Krummrich at Red Hat, who has been hard at work building Nouveau kernel support for the new memory binding and execution ‘API required by NVK. ‘With ths fist release, NVK brings support for Turing (RTX20XX and GTX16X and later GPUs. We plan to eventually support hardware as far back as Kepler (GeForce 600 and 700 series), but those are currently poorly tested at best and missing a few essential features. Itrunsonthesame Nouveau kernel diver as the old OpenGL drivers butit requires an entirely new userspace API. This API willbe included in Linux 66 and later kemels, You may have to build your own kemeland Mesa ifyouwant to giveita ty, but now that NVK is finally out there, youare more tranwalcometoniy Gy with it 2] wxP07 detober 2023, Happy birthday! Debian turns 30 And the Debian Project shows. no sign of slowing down. 6 August 1999, telat andre Oe Linaeleseasenaeanate 01S Gottandng Lina ystems) The rare ot we aportmanteau ot la then wit Bela rm adi oun Sicesse Delon struon code ames frabars ontheranoshersctars to the Toy Stay ns sucht st oot Debio 12 Boker Taleses dt elo afhed schedule bit cometh every wo years Untabe SUSE goes private SUSE has plans to be taken private once again by owner EQT Partners. USE, the company behind SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), has had a number of owners over the years. The German Linux distributor was originally founded in 1992 and was later acuired by American software ‘company Novellin 2003. Novellitsolf was ‘acquired by the Attachmate Group in 2011 ‘Attachmate and Micro Focus merged in 2014, ‘only to selloff SUSE to private equity firm EQT Partners in 2018, Despite an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021, EQT is now taking SUSE private once again. It expects SUSE to delist in the last quarter of the year. Existing shareholders can stil retain private investments in the company, Ina statement, SUSE said the move willallow itto “focus fully onits operational priorities and ‘execution ofits long-term strategy”. No doubt this strategy will Involve continuing its work ‘on SUSE's own fork of RHEL, after Red Hat's decision to restrict the availability ofits source code to Linux distributors, Vea” debian Debian remain ne ofthe most popular ince lstrs. doe tis stability and refi. releases are always code-named Sid, after the ‘character who regularly mutilated his toys. Despite its great age, millons of users, and ‘the factit's the basis for other popular Linux distros, such as Ubuntu, Debian isnt the longest actively maintained Linux project. That honour belongs to Slackware, which turned 30 in uly. Debian birthday parties are taking place in Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil the Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal and Turkey. You're invited to join in the fun at httpsv/wikidebian.org/ DebianDay/2023. LibreOffice 7.6 released The Document Foundation releases another version of its powerful office suite. he Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 7.6 Community on its blog on 2ist August. This willbe the last release numbered in this ‘way, as TDF intends to switch to acalendar- based system moving forward, We took the time to view the helpful ‘YouTube video summarising the main upgrades (https://youtube/AB7TbrkCTSA\, For instance, the suite now supports touch zoom gestures for touchpads in the main view, while the Linux Format team was also delighted to discover that Writer now incorporates one-step insertion of page numbers. You can find out more at https://wiki, documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.6. brie 26 comes witha video showeasngits new Featres, inching beter support or ‘pen Document templates SESHES nS swvanusformatcom What's behind the free software sofa? MAGEIA 9 Mageia started life in September 2010 as a fork of Mandtiva Linux. Unite its forebear, the OS is a community-based, not- {for-profit project, and is based in France. ‘Although Mandriva fell by the wayside in 201, Mageia has ‘enjoyed nine stable releases since its inception. ‘The default desktop is KDE, Magela’s online repositories also support installation of every other major desktop ‘environment, and prebuilt images are available for Gnome and Xfce, as wells the Plasma desktop. Learn more at www.magelaorg. KALI LINUX 2023.3 ‘Afavourite of penetration testers everywhere, Kallis named after the Hindu goddess who maintains the balance of good and evil This reflect the fact that the OS contains a number Cf tools used for hacking but which are intended to help users, improve their network security. Version 2023.3 includes the Kali Autopilot automated attack framework It also incorporates nine new tools, including Rekono, an automation platform combining different hacking tools for pentesting. You can read more at www.kaliorg. SIDUCTION 2023.10 ‘Siduction is based on the unstable Debian Sid branch. It usually follows a roling release model but version 202310 ‘was released specially honour of Debien's 30th birthday in August (See opposite) I's based on a snapshot of Sid, ‘combined with some extra packages and the ever- indispensable Calomares installer. Live installation media are available offering the KDE Plasma desktop, as well as LXQt, Xfce, Xorg and noX. Find out more at https://siduction og. SMARTOS 20230824 SSmart0S isan open source Unix-like operating system based on llumos, a community fork of (now discontinued) ‘OpenSolais ts designed to be particularly suitable for building clouds and generating appliances, so has no default desktop environment. Releases are issued every second Thursday and include the FS ftesystemVlogical volume manager, as well as muitiple Virtualisation solutions, including Zones, KVM and bhyve. Interestingly the development team claims SmartOS containers can run securely on bare metal Leam more at wwwstritondatacenter;com/smartos. ‘otechradarconvpatinux OQ magela Mela was bul rom the aches ofthe Former dtr Mand. ~ KALI LINUK e siduction The Siduction eam crested a special release to celebrate Debian 30 bicthday Smart0S SmatOSis ever enoughta be lato rncontainere securely ontore etal, NEWSDESK OPINION QUALITY CONTROL f 1a Vignol ‘one ofthe LibreOffice and The Document Foundation founders. GG sien srcortce wes bor, the developers ‘changed the approach from OpenOffice.org, launching a source code clean-upactivty that resulted ina significantly better quay office suite. As part of this, the developers, ‘also revised their approach to ‘quality assurance, setting up ‘anautomated process based onstate-of-the-art tech. The LibreOffice project uses Gerrit asa patch review tool forts integration with Git. The source codes regularly compiled by a battery of Tinderboxes,andif the compilation is successful, itundergoesa series of automated tests that verity the software's behaviour This is complemented by the quality assurance team’s Work which uses tools such as Bugzila to manage both ‘bugs and regressions, and to report them to developers for fixing the source code, The quality of source code has improved significantly since developers started sing Coverity Scan services In2012.LibreOffice now has one of thelonestrates of defects in its source code of allsoftware packages. Thestats fromCoverity Scanare testament tothe ‘leaning and refactoring of LibreOffice source code donesince 2010. They also Confirm the extent ofthe ‘technical debtinherited from OpenOffice.org, which was complete rescved within four years. (October 2023 uaa” | NEWSDESK OPINION PLUMB LINE @ Jon Masters sa kernel hacke who's been involved with Linux energy-efficient ARM serves. GG saiistetistsite US Labor Day holiday weekend, the unofficial end of summer that signals one last hurrah before it's back to'school or the kids, and time to hunker down for the adults for the final push ahead of the end-of-year holidays. This summer has {ett more ‘normal’ than the past few, and it has been great to actually sea whole bunch of folks face to face at assorted events, ‘This year, m super- excited about the Linux Plumbers Conference.l'm looking forward to having hallway catchups with many people ve not see over the past few years, but also Participating in discussions around a number of exciting technologies coming along at once. One of the biggest tome is confidential compute (or CoCo}, in Which virtual machines are ‘encrypted’ and their contents can't be examined, leven by the operator. Finally, want to say afew words about the early death of Kris Nova, who passed away ina climbing accident. ‘She was in the prime of her career and was particularly well known in the Kubernetes community She also founded and ran the popular Hachydermio Mastodon server from her basement lab. | didn't know Kris, ut from what Ive seen ofher online, she had an outsizdineactand Gg will be missed 10| t907 October 2023 Kernel Watch Jon Masters keeps up with all the latest happenings in the Linux kernel, so you don’t have to. Jnus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.5, noting he had a “nagging feeling that alot of people ‘are on vacation and that things have been ‘uiet partly due to that”, but no giant issues hhad been ralsed during the development ‘oycle. As aresult ofthe 6.5 release, the ‘merge window (period of time during which » A QUICK REFERENCE TO... RECOMPILING YOUR KERNEL How often have youseena ‘question answered with a glib “recompile your kernel with ‘option X". It may sound scary, butit’s quite simple to modify a kernel setup. First, make package lke bulld-essentials that installs all you need for compiling software. Opena terminal and rune $ cd fusr/src/linux $ sudo make menuconfig configuration file containing the same options used to build your current kernel, so you only need to find what tochange.Press / tobring up the search boxand type ‘asked, Now compile and install the kernel with: $ sudo make all modules install install| This builds everything, installs the kerne! modules sure youhave the correct You'l want to enlarge inthenameof theitem you then copies the kernel to kernel source package your terminal window, need. Thisshows yousome boot Run update-grub installed; the one that, because this opens details and akey tojumpto _to.add yournew kernel to ‘matches your existing kemel__ the kernel configuration it~ press Space toselectit, the boot menuand reboot, isthe place tostart.Youalso program with gazilions ot __-Repeatforanyother options Incase of problems, boot fneedtheGCCcompilerand options. Thekernelsource __thenfollowtheexitsigns, your old kerneland revisit friends~ many distroshavea package shouldincludea saving the config when the options you changed. Youmay have to install wmctl from your distro's package manager. Itcan also listopen desktops and other information about the desktop environment as well an ‘manipulate your open windows: moving, closing or resizing them. Button it Ineeda utility to disable the third and fourth mouse buttons on my Logitech Marble Mouse. | use Advanced Mouse ‘Manager on Windows, but can't find an equivalent for Linux Mint Ryan Scott (a) You can do this with the xinput ‘command, without installing any extra software, or there isa graphical program you can use. To use xinput , you need to get your mouse’s ID by running: ‘xinpat ist Then you need to find the number of each button you want to remap, which may be different from what you think because scroll wheelsare also seen as buttons. Run $ev-event button ina terminal. It opens a window showing Information about input events; the event ‘option limits the display to button presses soyou avoid reams of outputas you move the mouse. Press each of the buttons you want to disable and note its number Let's, say they are 6 and 7 ~ so, using the ID of your mouse, run: $input set-button-map [1D]123450089 ‘What xinput doesis remap the mouse buttons. The order of the arguments is the original button numbers, the arguments, are the buttons to map them to, so this ‘command remaps the sixth and seventh buttons to button 0, which disables them You can also use this to swap buttons around, So,toswap buttons Land 3, the left and right buttons, for those who prefer left-handed mouse, run: $xinput set-button-map[1D]321456789 The xinput command runs for the current session only, soif you mess. things up, simply log out or reboot and everything willbe back to normal, Once you find the command that gives you What you want, adit to~/xinitre orset your desktop environment torun this, command at startup, Input Remapper enables yu to change the behaviour of mouse bultons and keyboard, as welas big a goed ‘ayo ply practical jokes on rend: wha leave hei computes unlock. 12|twF7 October 2023, For a graphical approach, there is Input Remapper available from https! sithub com/sezanzeb/input-remapper. Thisis not in most distros’ repositories, but instalation files, including a DEB for Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, are on the releases ‘page. Once installed, you need to enable ‘and start the Input Remapper service: $ sudo systemctl enable now input remapper Then you can run the graphical program to modify the behaviour of your mouse and other input devices. Different kernels installed the HWE kernel on ‘my Linux Mint system a few years ago ‘when! gota new computer and the stock kernel didnt yet support the graphics. "Now it does, and rm unsure what steps should follow to bring things back to the standard configuration. Kernels in Update Manager shows 519.0-50 as installed and active, and ‘the only other installed kernelis 5.19.0- AL The 5.15 seriesis listed but none are installed. Apt shows six HWE packages in place: linux-generic-hwe, inux-headers- ‘generic-hwe,linuxchwe-5:19-headers, Tinux-image-generic, systemd-hwe-hwdb. Will it work toinstall and make active the newest 5:15 kernel, boot, and then (when 'msureiit's working) uninstall the HWE packages with Apt? Will the presence of the HWE packages interfere with putting 2 5.15 kemel in place? (In other words, should Ido the Apt removal first?) Will have to remove the 519 kernels myself? ‘Luke Thomson (a) Provided there is sufficient space In boot, you can have as many kernels installed as you want and they do not interact with each other. So, you can Install the newest 515 kernel using Apt (ora graphical software manager, then swvninuxformatcom ‘choose it from the GRUB menu when you reboot. Dont remove any other kernel until you are sure the new one works, or yyoucould end up with an unbootable ‘computer. To be safe, we recommend leaving the HWE kernel installed for a while; the computer booting from the new kernels a good sign, but there isthe possibilty that it could cause problems in certain situations ~ however unlikely. Because of the lower version numbers ‘on the standard kernels, they may appear below the HWE kernels in the GRUB ‘menu, meaning the default is stil to boot ‘rom HWE. You can fix tis by changing the setting for GRUB_DEFAULT in ete! default/grub. Either setit toa different number - the menu entries are counted from zero -or sett as: GRUB DEFAULT-saved GRUB SAVEDEFAULT-true Then GRUB remembers which kernel yyoubooted and usesit as the default for next time. Youneed torun $ update-grub after editing Jete/default/grub to apply ‘the changes to the menu configuration. Fresh Mint amcurrently using Linux Mint 20.2and want to install Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria. During the installation, where itis asking to create a user, can use the ‘same username ‘dave' from Linux Mint 20? Andifluse the same username, will all my files and contig files stillbe therein ‘Thome/dave or willit erase everything? Harvey Shepherd Thisis not a good idea. Installing over the existing sotup erases not ‘only the operating system but also your personal files. Thats if you have gone with the default Mintinstallation of having ‘everything ona single partition. f you have shome on a separate filesystem from Jyou can install over the existing distro without affecting your personal files. However, you stil erase any system-wide configuration you have done. That Includes any software you have installed in ‘dition tothe basic distro. Even ifyou do this, Linux bases file permissions on the numeric IDs of users - the namesarea convenience for us mere humans. If you only have one user, then that user is Ikely tobe created with the same UID - users normally start with UID 1000, IDs below that are reserved for system services. But ifyouhave more than one user, you need ‘totensure the IDs match ‘The Mint developers have saidin the past that reinstalling is not the way to go, as there isa way toupgrade to the new version without reinstaling everything, ‘and then having to reconfigureit First vwtecradarcomipeoinus ANSWERS parade to Linux Mint 21 "Vanessa cere Theres no ned to reinstall Linu Mint when anew versions released, Mint Updter provides a simaath vanstian beeen eases yourneed tomake sure you have the latest version 20 installed. Open the Update Manager as usual and under the Edit menu you should find an option to upgrade to ‘the next version of the distro. AS you are currently on 20.2, this should be 20.3 (Once you are at the latest version of Mint 20, open aterminal to install and run the Mintupgrade tool - this handles major version updates: $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install mintupgrade $eudo mintupgrade The first command updates the package list. hen Mintupgrade opens a ‘graphical program to guide you through ‘the upgrade process. Doing it this way, you keep all your existing software - but Upgraded to the latest available versions and fles with no need to change to configure anything. Make sure you hit the Refresh button each time you start the Update Manager, so that it downloads the latest list of available software, © Backing up tent Thavea text fle containing a numberof ins each containing several ‘words. The numberof words on each line ‘ares, but need to remove the ast word fromeachline. know lcanuse cut or awk toldentiy the fast word, and could thenuse sed toremoveit but this seems complexand prone terror. there a Simple way to seript this operation? Lucy Doyle (a) ‘Theres an easy way to remove the first word froma line with cut: Sout d'-f2- system.txt Ispoi>> systemtxt Ispoi-w >> system.tat (October 2023 Ua 13 ‘yroseureieufuBdjey pewe snes ouzetau sy suopaaeanS ‘WRITE TO US Doyovhavea burning Linux rested issue thatyouwantto Secu? ite tousat Linux Format Future Publishing Quay House The Ambir, Bath, BAA or cemallettersa louxfarmat.com, Asli shove yutarey ahordware real Helpdex No sense! While | agree that you can't run pfSense ona Raspberry take issue with the assumption that pfSense doesn't support the ARM architecture (Build Your Own Hardware Firewall, LXF305).| ‘own one of Netgate's 1100 appliances, which is based on a dual-core ARM Cortex-A53 1.2GHz processor. Likewise, the Negate 2100 is also based fon the same processor. ‘Admittedly, users have to purchase these ARM- based products from Netgate to run pfSense on ‘ARM and cannot just install this code on their own generic ARM device. ‘One feature | would advocate that wasn't ‘mentioned in your article is being able to monitor the firewall via a console port, which is particularly Useful if you tend to install regular pfSense updates Cr tinker with the firewall. The remote Webgul Interface is the much preferred option when configuring the pfSense firewall - however, when upgrading or rebooting the firewall, the console port Is extremely useful for monitoring progress and Viewing any errors. The Netgate appliances have a console port as, standard, | also have a generic x86 fanless four- network port box configured as a backup firewall, 1 we wautint complin that were or upd vio, {and this product also has a separate console output (RS-232 COM port), which connects to.alaptop USB port. Given that pfSense upgrades can take 10 to 20 minutes or so to download and install on slower devices, it really helps to be able to view the progress and resist the urge to reboot before the upgrade is complete. Chaz Curran Neil says. Tobe fair, we were talking about publicly available builds of pfSense. While Im sure it's possible, ‘compiling ARM binaries on non-ARM systems (which alot of readers would be doing) can be a pain and takes an age. But that's great advice about the serial interface that is easily overlooked these days, Upscale funk Asallong-time subscriber it's great to see the magazine filled with such useful features. ve ‘enjoyed reading about new Al-based software to upscale and improve images, but is there anything lke this to improve videos? Ihave a few videos recorded in formats such 3GP and MPEG on mobile phones, and | would love to be able to improve the ‘quality of both the picture and sound. Is anything like this available? Tom Morgan Neil says. Thisis a great suggestion. I've seen plenty of people ‘out there popping out SD upscales of video, so it's an interesting topic we should tackle. Idon't think. IVE GOTA QUESTION IS TT BECAUSEIUSE YOURE ONLY Bur ‘ABOUT THE ‘STORING TERATING (CODE REVIEW INSTEAD OF ao ilies | std:map ‘You Just POSTED, stesunordered_ map 7 WiLL BE EASIER, Asis SORTED 14 |LaFaa7 October 2023 swvnnuxformatcom ‘CREDIT wrenetzatecom ‘udnt hve ta run Windowsina itu machine bit hace ako Fe safe Mayank has covered anything in HotPicks, but | did spot this, though not sure ifit's maintained: https:// github comvk4yt3x/video2x. We'll look into it Want to know more? So, for work Ihad to use Debian in VirtualBox running ‘on Windows 10, and I ended up loving it. Over the ‘few months Iwas using Debian, | learned so much, ‘and now Windows as my default OS leaves me feeling. bit et down. | stllplay some games, though, sso don't want to entirely doy Ideally fd switch, using Linux as the primary and Windows in VirtualBox, preferably using the GPU. What would I need to do, because I don't want to ‘mess anything up? Are there any other options | should consider? ‘Marty Combe Neil says. Ournormal advice for people wanting to run both Windows and Linuxis to pick upa second hard drive and dual boot. SSDs are pretty damn cheap now 24068 will set you back around £15 for either a SATA or last-gen PCle v3 NVMe model. Install Windows. first and then your fiavour of Linux. You can stil run Windows'in a VM if you want, but unless you have a pretty recent processor and graphics card, software Virtualisation of the GPU won't be an option and pass-through s apain to configure. ED SUCH IMPROVED oprics USING AITO MPROVE THE QUALITY RECEIVED BY THREE OF THE FIVE SENSES SUCH IMPROVED MAILSERVER >> LETTER OF THE MONTH Aight card! {always enjoy articles about how programming used to be done — particularly in FORTRAN. This was the fst computer language | was, {employed to write, 1979, Theres one problem that never seems to bbementioned - how do we store the sourcecode forthe program? Inthe early years, source cade was stored on cards inherited from the textile industry. Ina FORTRAN program, each line of code was stored on one card. As there could be several thousand nes of code, one program could easily have this number of cards. ‘The GOTO statement wasa very useful device to minimise the number of ins of code and hence the number of cards in 2 program. lremember working on one program, which, after reduction using GOTOs, was still over 1200 lines long. Inorder to understand the program and modify it, needed to expand, eliminating the GOTO diversions. cid this by printing out ‘ona continuous sheet of paper,cuttingit up with scissors, laying the pieces of paper on my desk, and writing the reordered program together with the GOTO target sections that had been duplicated. After Ihad done ths, there were more than 2,000 lines of code. Ecltng ~ changing the program to do something different - was not practical. A new set of cards would be needed anyway. I was {quicker and, in my opinion, safer to write the new program from Scratch, Spaghetti code resulted from a design method that hada ‘main aim of reducing the number oflines of code. As programmers id not understand why program length reduction was useful, they persisted in writing spaghetti code far longer than was needed. Reynolds Neil says... Many thanks for your insightful letter I's great when readers tellus their own experiences with these systems decades on.It really helps paint a better picture of what was entailed in dealing with them. wow! wow! SucH mPROVED ‘Acoustics ‘AROMATICS vwwtecadarcomipeoinus (October 2023 Ua07 15 ‘CREDIT: Arno enhold, CCBY-SA 25 htp=//commonswvkimediaorg Waki lafertranCardPROVO3S.agtng SUBSCRIBE Save money today! With every print or bundle subscription, receive an Worth £49.99! www.magazinesdirect.com/LIN/C45D Pee [eer] Save money today! SUBSCRIBE >) sori => COl[UISI Ve [oXek— sion Co the Linux Format subs area! Thousands of DRM-free PDF back issues and articles! Get instant 66 (May 2005) with tutorials, interviews, : features and reviews. PNM acer) Includes 5 years Of Linux User Develover issues Lo} LOO) OU TNO OVC] AI tinicsunes Vues) e Na ee a keel et Kem aR Leh seriber you a year's worth of issues in a flexible, affordable way. “ails ber GET READY TO BECOME ATRUE PYTHON EXPERT Make Python work for you with tutorials on coding with Django, Flask, Pygame and even more useful third-party frameworks. raRtene Lear he WO Black is supposed to be the pinnacle of ‘consumer hard drives and resides above the WD Blue in WD's product stack, but things » Rating 7/10 swvnnuxformatcom BSD distribution REVIEWS OPNSense 23.7 Nate Drake has the good sense to try out OPNSense, a powerful firewall distro based (in a roundabout fashion) on FreeBSD. What do you mean, “We only ‘cover Linux?” This open source BSD- based 0S hast allza slick setup, clear Uland advanced features for beyond your basic firewall CPU:IGHz dual-core Mem: 2G8 HDD: 8GB Builds: x86_64 PNSenseis one of the ‘most popular specialist operating systems designed specifically for firewalls ‘and routers. It boasts a proud ancestry, given the OS isa fork of pfSense, which itslfis a fork of the now (sadly) defunct mOnOwall, built ‘on the FreeBSD operating system, We've delved into OPNSense's, lineage as FreeBSD places a strong ‘emphasis on security, such as ACLs (access control lists}, MAC (mandatory access control) and ‘support for OpenSSH, Like FreeBSD, OPNSense also has an integrated mechanism to handle automatic updates. Unlike FreeBSD, which can be run on virtually any chipset known to man, the only offical build for OPNSense is for x86. 64. This is balanced by an easy installer, available in the tractional ISO format, as well, aS VGA, serial and nano images for USB sticks. Our installer was just 413MB, expanding tos L6GB ISO. Guess the password On fist aunch, you can choose to run inlive mode as root oras instal. This is where we hit our fst issue, ‘swe were encouraged to use the defaut password, without any mention of what tis, Luckly, OPNSenses extensive online documentation came tothe rescue revealing the password tobe opnsense ‘tr this, t was a simple matter of choosing a keymap instal configuration and harddisk, before setup was underway, Once complete, ust navigate to 192,168.11 to interact with your shiny new frewa Wesay firewall but OPNSenseis capable of mach more than blocking traffic nie intrusion prevention s provided care of Suricata and Proofpoints Emerging “Threats open rules, which are bultin to the OS. ts web proxy offers access contro and suppor for external Diackists to fier unwanted traffic. Other options include rewallalases and DNS blacksting COPNSense also integrates sunpor for OpenVPN, wellas WireGuard. You can login to user-created VPNs Via 2FA as wel 2s the user interface itselt. ‘You can expand the OS's capabilities even further via plugins such as ZenArmonr which has a uit in threat intellgence systom. There's both a free and a paid version ‘OPNSenso itself released under a FreeBSD licence but developer Deciso also sols Business Eeltion ofthe latest version of the OS code-named Restloss Roacrunnen, Thsincludes extra features stich as a commercial fimware repostory, an OVA, vwwtecradarcomipeoinus \UeetheUlto st real ues OPNSene ala supports athe features, suchas\VPN, andi can beexpandd futher with etensans image of the OS, an integrated GeolP database, as well ‘asa discount on business subscriptions. Just spending a few minutes setting up OPNSense ‘and creating some basic LAN rulesis enough to see hy itremains one of the most popula firewall distros, The user interface is very intuitive and wel laid out. There are three main support tiers, from Critical to Community. Community users are well served by the documentation section, though paid subscribers also benefit from support from the OPNSense core team. If this weren't enough, the team bundles an ebook, Practical OPNSense, free with business subscriptions. (Hard copies are available for more tactile firewall, users) The manual gives a fullrundown of OPNSense's more advanced features, such as intrusion prevention app control, web fering and malware detection. Having criticised OPNSense’s lack of availabilty for rnon-X86 devices, said documentation has instructions ‘on how to build the OS for your own chipset using, OPNSense Tools (https:/github.com/opnsense/tools) ‘The forum has multiple accounts of users successfully running the OS on their Pi but if you want to useit ina ‘serious way, we recommend sticking to bare metal. Waite DEVELOPER: Deciso ttpsi/opnsense.org LICENCE: Simplified BSD/FreeBSD FEATURES on0 PERFORMANCE 10/10 EASEOFUSE 9/10 DOCUMENTATION 10/10 LOPNSence i the last word in Firewal, Setups smple and canbe easly managed fom theinbtve Ul » Rating 9.5/10 (October 2023 tFa07 [23 REVIEWS Linux distribution Rhino Linux 2023.1 Nate Drake takes a ride on the Rhino, exploring the rich Unicorn desktop, as well as the pleasures and perils of rolling releases. Rhino Linux isaworthy successor toits predecessor, providing an amazing Xfce- based desktop incorporating the latest Ubuntu code. If you can handle potential instability take the Rhino by the horn, (CPU: 1.5GHz dual-core Mem: 268 HDD: 2068 Builds: x86_64 arch64 hey say that Rome wasn't built in a day and the same is true for Rhino Linux. The project went through five betas before its official release in August. If the name sounds familia, it may be because lead developer ‘AJ Strong worked on Rolling Rhino Remix a utility to convert Ubuntu into a rolling release Linux distro by tracking the devel packages, ‘While Rhino Remix reached end of lfelast October, Rhino Linux has, picked up the cudgels and also follows a rolling release model using the Ubuntu devel repos. Asitisa ling distro, the team also made the decision to use the Pacstall package ‘manager, which allows users to install packages from the Arch User Repository (AUR). The developers claim this allows updates to be delivered faster. Ifan AUR inspired package manager weren't enough, the OS also includes Rhino-pgk, a meta package manager written in Bash, which combines Apt, Pacstall Flatpak and Snap into a compact UL. It can be used to install, remove, search and upgrade all package managers at once by running commands suchas rhino-pkg update ‘Andi this weren't bleeding-edge enough, Rhino also comes with its own customised version of the Xfce 418 desktop, code-named Unicorn. You can take Unicorn fora ride by testing Rhino in live mode, just as for stock Ubuntu, (Indeed, the boot screen stil says Kubuntu 23.04’, revealing its roots) ‘The desktop is extremely colourful and slick. The developers claim to have been inspired by Gnome in creating Unicorn, which is obvious from the plank >> ROLLING RHINO REMIX 1 Usethe seach arto tack own sand programs Launch ath iano the desktop eft launch bar on the left of the screen. This even helpfully tucks itself away when you maximise a window. Even if you're a fan of Xfce, you should take the time toopen the Gnome-inspired app grid. Youll find some familar default applications, including the Thunar file manager, Mousepad and the Xterm terminal utility. The team at Rhino has also created some custom tools ofits own. Try clicking the U to launch the search bar. t has a similar function to KDE Plasma's KRunner but seems to integrate better with the desktop itselt, similar to Mac OS's Spotlight. Other exciting home-made features include RhinoDrop. This s tauted as an open source alternative to Apple's AirDrop, to allow file sharing between devices. Currently the tool is accessible only via https//drop.rhinolinux.org but the Rhino Team has confirmed there are plans in the works for a GTK4 port Hyoupress ahead with installation, you'l find this is. 1no different from traditional Debian or Ubuntu setups, given i's done through Calamares. This means Rhino Rolling Rhino Remix was the brainchild of Rhino Linux developer Al Strong, also known as httpilamaz and MrBeeBenson. It reached its end of life in October 2022, Itexisted as an unofficial Ubuntu flavour to convert the Ubuntu operating system Into arolling release Linux distribution by tracking ‘the Ubuntu devel series. In theory, this saves Ubuntu users the time and trouble of having to upgrade their OS every six months. AJ modestly claims he ‘made Rolling Rhino Remix with "ttle effort”. Stil it became an incredibly popular tool with the addition of scripts and utilities that ‘made it progressively more stable. Ina biog post, AJ also referred to discussions hetd had with Ken Vandine, an engineering manager at 24) LAPT October 2023, Canonical, who told him about a potential new project, tohavea rolling release version of Ubuntu, which ‘would have an LTS base, with the Linux kernel itself being a Snap package. Evenif true, this wouldn't necessarily push distros like Rhino Linux out of the market. Thisis because Rhino setts based on the latest Ubuntu development branch, as wellas the fact it doesn't make exclusive use ‘of Snap packages. Rhino also sets itself apart from traditional Ubuntu by Using the AUR Pacstall package manager. Writing as MrBeeBenson on Reddit in ‘August, AJ explained that the (0S will nevertheless continue to bebased on Ubuntu instead of Arch Linux, given allthe support the original Rhino project had from the development community swvnnuxformatcom Theintgratedapp dower lacie ota rome Ueto eiplre the ef applets. supports the same features as stock Ubuntu, including ‘encrypting the hard drive via LUKS and offering alternative filesystems to ext4, such as Btrfs This is where we ran into issues, as the first Rhino Linux SO we downloaded failed to boot at all, citing an invalid DMI header’. The second ISO completed instal but when booted, dropped to an initramfs console after ‘we entered the password for the LUKS partition We assume this is part and parcel of basing a distro ‘on the Ubuntu development repos, which keeps you on the bleeding edge of system and app development at the cost of system stability Itwas only on our third install attempt with the second ISO that we were able to install Rhino successfully sans encryption. Assuming your first install works, the OS launches its Setup Wizard (another Rhino original), which frst asks you to choose a light or dark theme. Next, itasks you to choose which package managers to use, suchas Flatpaks, Snaps and Applmages. (By default only Flatpaks are enabled) The Extra Settings also enables Nala by default - 3 very elegant Apt package manager front-end. From here you can also enable GitHub CLI tointeract with ‘the website via the terminal and the Apport crash reporting system. Reboot to apply your changes. This is also a good time to explore another of Rhino's home-grown apps, called Your System, created by developer Axtloss. This handy utlity gives you an ‘excellent rundown of vital system information, ike your board, CPU, available memory, disk space and s0 on. Its here that we learned that this latest version of Rhino Linuxis based on version 6.4.8 ofthe Linux kernel. This is also a good opportunity to explore the ‘app drawer alittle further to view the default apps that don't traditionally come bundled with Xfce, such as the latest version of Firefox (116.0.x) and the Like ever good desktop environmen. Uricarn can ah wich Bezwean werkspices Do expel oo mach From he Rio wil hgh wtecadarcomipeainus Linux distribution ‘so-called Debian Sensible Browser. Email is provided by the builtin Mail Reader. {As there's no pre-installed office suite or dedicated ‘email program, we decided this was as good a time as. any to try out the Nala Apt package manager front- fend. twas a breeze tofire up Xterm and run sudo nala install thunderbird . We then launched the app immediately using Rhino's integrated search bar. Regular readers know how much stock we place ‘on good quality backgrounds, which is why we were delighted to see that there are no fewer than 14 on offer. Just as with the regular Xfce desktop, you can also switch between backgrounds at fixed intervals. We also took this opportunity to experiment with the workspace switcher and found it extremely easy to flick between different desktops. Overall, Rhino Linux places you on the cutting edge ‘of Ubuntu development without the hassle of creating, your own custom distro, It gives you the latest system updates and apps versus ether cstros forked rom teeattinn Ubuntu, like Zorin OS, which base themselves on the Format were most recent LT tong term support release. coy Natural the potential price you payissimiartothe | Rwaferyou admonitions given by the Debian team forusing the | Kwhihyoren unstable version ofthe distro Sid Installation and chen updates can go wrong, Packages may be broken. If you place your faith in an OS that is constantly updated, you also need to ensure your backups are up to the minute. But this is true of every distro of this kind, ands not specific criticism of Rhino Linux. fwe were tonitpick, the wiki doesnt offer much beyond basic installation instructions. No doubt this willbe fleshed out as more people start using the latest stable version of Rhino. Rhino Linux Team httpsi/thinolinuxorg, GPL-30 EASE OF USE [DOCUMENTATION FEATURES PERFORMANCE Rhine Linuxkeeps youon the bleeding edge of development vith an neredbly rich ane eas-to-naigate user interface Rating (ctobor 2023 ta07 [25 Adventure Mask of the Rose There's an indescribable horror in the basement. Management just employed it to do the accounting, and Joshua Wolens has to make it tea. {shard to believeit’s taken Failbetterthislong totyitshand at a visual novel. The studio has always had the most engrossing, amusing ‘and evocative writing in the business, butit has an uncanny knack for hiding that writing behind mechanics that wear on ‘our nerves, Between browser games and roguelikes, the studio's wit keeps ending up blunted by repetitive gameplay loops, Only Sunless Skies, so far has ‘managed to strike a good balance. ‘Sot must feel ike Fallbetter has finally found a perfect home with the visual novel genre right? Wel kind of While many of Mask ofthe Rose ‘mechanics are interesting ideas, they often feel a touch Lnderbaked, leaving us groping in the dark without a full understanding of the decisions we're making. Up tonow, every game set in fallen London has taken place decades after the actual fll, but Mask of the Rose sits squarely in 1862, kicking off 260 days ater bats blackened the sky and absconded with the capita of the British Empire. This is where, and when, you find yourself. Precisely who 'you' are in Mask of the Rose is open to elastic definition. Your background and gender are all pleasantly fui, Plus, it might calltseif a dating sim, but you can make it clear from the oft just what kind of relationships you're open to. You can keep everything, platonic, or physical but not romantic, or swing the doors \Wide open to anything that comes your way. You can, if you like, only involve yourself in omance by playing ‘matchmaker, or breaker, with the est ofthe game's cast Is admirably open-ended, and should give anyone room to play without feeling uncomfortable. Even f you stor rare oem 26) LAPT October 2023, Sra upintresing and unsal now riendshps! ‘mark yourself as down for whatever on Victorian Tinder, the game regularly checks in about what kind of relationship youre pursuing, iFany, with each of the ‘characters, including the giant bat and the squid-man. Your relationships, whether platonic, romantic, indifferent or hostile, withthe game's cast are the heart (of Mask ofthe Rose, soits a good job they/te rewarding ‘to pursue, So soon after London’ fall all sorts of histories and identities are bumping up against each ‘other inthe citys shifting streets. Men and women, high-born and low-born, Jewish, Hindu and Christian allrattie around trying to find stations for themselves inanew world, even as otherworldly newcomers start making appearances. Itsrichly textured and a pleasure to delve into, but ‘your ability to do sos constrained by how limited your time is in Mask of the Rose's London. Youre constantly making choices - and every choice takes time ~as the game progresses. Even the clothes you wear toan ‘encounter can alter how people react to you and the ciatogue options you have during it, and Failbetter clearly wants you to go through them again and again to see the impacts your choices can have. Youcan get through a fullrun of the game in three or four hours, butt means you leave plot threads dangling and lots of Felationshis at a halfway point when you hit credits, Even going through with anew character background and some different choices, we ended up feeling ike we were repeating certain sections of the game to get back to where we were previously. Take, for example, what youcan probably describe as Mask of the Rose's ‘main plot. Much lke realife, the game's part dating sim, part murder mystery, and a significant part of the game's midsection s. vwonatinuxformaticom ‘taken up by trying to prove your friend has been falsely accused of murder (don't worry the victim got better, ur frst time through, unaware of howlitle time we had, we accidentally left our friend to hang because we got distracted pursuing various other plotines: fomenting revolution, taking London's census, trying to woo someone attractive even though they're definitely 2 Tory. The second? We tried to balance ‘our responsibilities and left them all ha finished, The third time through, we ‘focused and finally managed to assemble ‘one of many possible cases for why our boy was innocent ‘The third time through was the most satisfying, naratively, even if we're ‘execrable Phoenix Wrights, butt fet ike we had to laser in on the murder case atthe expense of everything else the game had to offer. We could have ignoredit like we accidentally did the frst time, but it ‘eels atad strange to leave our amiable Scottish chum to the gibbets whims because we're too busy trying to holp a different friend with their writers block We assemble our case using Mask of the Rose's storycrafting system, the jewel in ts mectanical crown. Its essentially a kind of Mad Libs that asks us to pick a protagonist, a motive and an action from alist we get new ones by deepening our relationships with the ‘game's different characters) to craft narrative solutions {or various puzzles So, for instance, the storycrafting section forthe murder case required us to picka culprit, their motive and how they did it, plus some other stuff, andif we picked ones that made sense, we got anew theory in our ‘arsenal that we could go and harangue people about to {further our investigation, In theory, it’ great, and lord knows it fits impeccably wellwith the themes of Faibetter's London and its entire vibe asa stuio, but more often than not we found ‘ourselves thwarted trying to use it Either weld input a narrative that we thought made sense but that didn’t sive usa new story to goand talk to people about, or ‘we wouldnt quite have the building blocks necessary to construct the theory we had in our actual, real-life head. Certainly, we could go and chat to the relevant people, hoping the conversation gave us what we needed to Reconnect th ibngs verter pooratein stor! wontectradarcom/peofinux Adventure ‘construct our hypothesis, but sometimes chat wouldn't yield any new storycrafting material at al even when we felt lke it should, Sometimes we would go to speak with ‘someone only for the conversation to digress down ‘some side channel that meant we never got a chance to

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