Skywave Linux 4.1.0 Uploading VERY SHORTLY

Skywave Linux v4.1.0 (Released 11/15/2020)

"Fix things that are broken; take upgrades if available."

SLNW: Skywave Linux Is Not Windows:

• I'm not even close to cutting my hair and going mainstream.
• Not pretending to assimilate with slick graphical environments.
• i3 window manager or the terminal, friends...
• Hardware support: recent rt kernel, plus extra drivers and firmware are installed.

If it won't run on your machine, toss your machine into a dumpster and find a Linux friendly machine.

Main Upgrades:

• New realtime linux kernel 5.9.1
• SDR drivers are the latest SoapySDR and Gr-osmoSDR releases.
• i3 tweaks (tabbed arrangement, no auto floats, floats scale to screen resolution)
• Firefox version and bookarks updated; dark reader and container tabs added
• Gqrx updated 2.13
• Both Gqrx and CubicSDR installed as AppImages (Fresher than Ubuntu repos)
• Alacritty set as default terminal (Mate-term, Xterm still available)

Neovim: For Writing Code / Hacking Your SDR Software:

• Neovim plugins changed (Airline -> Lightline, config'ed for more speed)
• Support for Bash, Python, Go, Java / Javascript refined
• Enough plugins to help; not so much to weigh it down
• Start time reduced by about 60 milliseconds

Lesser Updates:

• SDR scripts bash refined slightly (trimming milliseconds off exec times)
• Adjusted volume levels for consistency on different interfaces
• Went from 5 to 3 main audio buses (Built-in Analog, Virtual 1, Virtual 2)
• Added 4 LOOPBACK buses for internal audio routing
• USB reset-helper set up with fzf for "no yank" reset of pluggable devices
• Adjusted apearance and behavior of the bash shell for normal vs root usage

VPN / Proxy Upgrades:

• System proxy prerun / postrun configs more robust
• Psiphon-tunnel-core: binary updated and more egress points
• Lantern: updated
• Wireguard management easy with bash aliases

Searching Finding Files (and things in files)

• fzf, fd, ripgrep all set up

Internet Search: Surfraw

• Fuzzy find your search engine from over 120
• Auto opens Firefox
• Also available in the terminal
• "sr" to search in w3m
• "surfraw" to search in Firefox

Backups and Installation

• We run Skywave as a live environment
• TimeShift is installed for backups or manual installations
• You can also use rsync to install the filesystem
• Did I mention... Skywave is a live environment system?
• Save your files on a separate drive or they vanish on shutdown
• Persistence with casper-rw partition works
• For persistentt multi-iso devices see the Chris Titus "Multiboot USB" video on YT
• Consider "YUMI" or "Ventoy" for making UEFI and legacy bootable devices

Conclusion

• It is updated and verified to run well on modest AMD / Intel 64 bit machines.
• Enjoy the raw, bare metal and sharp corners.