Skywave Linux v5.4 Released

Fellow Linux and SDR enthusiasts,

Here is a brief message to blog subscribers to advise that I have upgraded Skywave Linux to version 5.4, bringing a kernel upgrade and several software updates and fixes for a few bugs.

This release comes fairly soon after the last one, but Linux Kernel 6.12 is worth the effort, as it has significant improvements in efficiency and hardware support. Kernel 6.12 notably brings realtime preempting to the mainline releases, for reduced and consistent latency - good for audio, video, and SDR hardware.

There are a few other tweaks which are easy to notice. The SDR-Map script is now incorporated into SuperSDR-Wrapper. If you call it up in the terminal, the command has changed from:

sdrmap

to

supersdr-wrapper --map

Using Rofi to call up the SDR map has not changed.

If you bring up the internet SDR list in Firefox, note that you can preset the modes and frequencies before clicking on a server. Enter the frequency (e.g. 5970) in the text box first, then click a mode button (e.g. USB or AM) before selecting the server. Several more PhantomSDR+ sites are now added to the right hand column.

In an effort to reduce the iso size, I removed Chromium. Firefox is now the one gui browser. W3M remains, for web browsing in the terminal. For working with Python packages and setting up virtual environments, uv is now added to Skywave Linux. It is nice. Not only fast, but it can do several tasks and do them well.

Last, but not least, TwitGrid has been changed to Bluetabs, because Twitter / X has devolved into a complete shitshow. Bluetabs can work with feeds on X, when not blocked, and Threads, but the main focus is Bluesky.

Cheers,
Phil C / Skywave Linux