Welcome to mintCast

the Podcast by the Linux Mint Community for All Users of Linux

This is Episode 460!

This is Episode 460.5!

Recorded on Sunday, April 27, 2025.

Having trouble staying awake again im Joe; working hard, I’m Moss; sightseeing I’m Majid; Bill and Eric called in sick today, so let’s go!

— Play Standard Intro —

First up in the news: Ubuntu 25.04 released, Ardour advances, Commodore OS 3.0 released, and OpenMandriva brings us TWO new releases;
In security and privacy: US warns of new Zambian cybersecurity law, and Hackers can now imitate official Google mail;
Then in our Wanderings: Joe gets recontained, Moss waits, Majid goes to Cambridge

In our Innards section: Open discussion!
In Bodhi Corner, we discuss the magic of modules;
And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions.
Please remember if you want to follow along with our discussions, the full show notes for this episode are linked in the show’s description at mintcast.org/show-notes.

— Play News Transition Bumper —

The News

20 minutes

Ubuntu 25.04 Release Now Available for Download Majid
- from OMGUbuntu
- Pull the party poppers and unpack the cake as today is Ubuntu release day — and Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ is now available to download.
- The latest short-term release of the world’s best-known desktop Linux operating system, Ubuntu 25.04 receives ongoing support until January 2026 — not long, but Ubuntu 25.10 is out in October, with direct upgrades available from this version.
- Over the past six months Ubuntu engineers, developers and community contributors have baked plenty of improvements into this release — arguably the most polished & performant to date!
- —Yeah, I know; I say that every six months, but it keeps being true!
- Regular readers among you should be up to speed on what’s new in Ubuntu 25.04, especially if you read my deep-dive on the best Ubuntu 25.04 features last month (if not, I’d encourage you to read that post for more detail and screenshots).
- Not got the time? No worries — skip down to the downloads section to grab the ISO while it’s hot, or read on on for a run-through of what makes Plucky Puffin a near-perfect release.
- Every Ubuntu install starts with, y’know, installing it! Improvements here mean Ubuntu’s installer can now ‘replace’ an existing Ubuntu install, partition disks with other OSes more effectively, and better handle dual-boots if Windows BitLocker is enabled.
- Ubuntu 25.04 gets a big UX uplift courtesy of GNOME 48, an update that intros (among other things) HDR support, new Wellbeing controls, and grouped notifications – the latter certain to please anyone who’s left a chat app running in the background!
- Hit play to see grouped notifications in action in Ubuntu 25.04
- Foundational stuff: Ubuntu 25.04 runs the latest Linux kernel 6.14 release and Mesa 25.0.x graphics drivers (with in-distro access to newer NVIDIA drivers, for those needing them), and brings ‘full support’ for new Intel Arc Xe iGPUs and Battlemage discrete GPUs.
- Ubuntu gamers benefit from gaming-focused changes Linux 6.14 offers (i.e., huge frame-rate boosts when playing games made for Windows) and, on supported hardware, NVIDIA Dynamic Boost being enabled out of the box in Ubuntu 25.04.
- Ubuntu 25.04 highlights at-a-glance:
  - Linux 6.14 – latest kernel release with misc improvements
  - OS installer – better dual-boot support, ‘replace Ubuntu’ option + more
  - GNOME 48 – HDR support, screen time controls, alert grouping + more
  - Visual refresh – resized icons, contrast enhanced, new wallpaper + more
  - New Document Viewer app – upstream Papers replaces Evince
  - BeaconDB geolocation – powering Night Light & timezone features
  - New graphics drivers – Mesa 25.0.x, Intel Arc Xe + Battlemage dGPus
  - NVIDIA Dynamic Boost support – enabled for compatible laptops
  - AppArmor profile updates – improved security handing for apps
  - Unified ARM64 ISO – works with Snapdragon X Elite laptops
  - JPEG-XL support – enabled out-of-the-box
- There are reams of smaller buffs and bugs fixes, package and tooling updates, security tweaks and accessibility adjustments and the myriad low-level changes you’d expect – all welcome, and all ensuring this release runs well for many.
- However, reading only tells you so much.
- The most impactful changes in Ubuntu 25.04 are best felt: speed, fluidity, performance. The only way to sample those, and assess the rest of what the Plucky Puffin has to offer is to download an ISO, boot it up, and try it out for yourself.
- You can download Ubuntu 25.04 for 64-bit Intel/AMD devices from the official release server. The desktop ISO weighs in ~6GB, so you’ll need to flash it to a USB that’s at least 8GB in size.
- System requirements for Ubuntu 25.04 on desktop are:
  - 2 GHz dual-core processor or better
  - 4 GB RAM
  - 25 GB of free hard drive space
- To download the Ubuntu 25.04 ISO for ARM64 devices (hardware support in this varies but newer Snapdragon X Elite laptops are now supported) or the official Ubuntu 25.04 WSL image for Windows on ARM, head to the Ubuntu cdimage server instead.
- You can find an official pre-installed image for Raspberry Pi devices there also, as well as a pre-installed Ubuntu 25.04 Server image for use on compatible RISC-V SBCs, tablets and laptops.
- Running Ubuntu 24.10? You can upgrade to Ubuntu 25.04 directly, without needing to reinstall anything. The upgrade prompt usually appears on the day of release but can take longer – if you don’t see the prompt straight away, be patient!
- A hearty pat on the back to the engineers, developers, and community members who make Ubuntu. As the world’s most popular desktop Linux distro, meeting such a wide range of use cases, needs, and requirements is challenging – to pull it off so well in Plucky is no mean feat!
Ardour, the free and open DAW, is better than ever – and Ardour 9 is coming
- from CDM.link
- Ardour, the criminally underrated free and open source DAW for Mac, Windows, and Linux, has been a little quiet lately. Over the weekend, we learned what’s coming in Ardour 9.0/9+, and why the devs have been busy. Not sure where to start? Check out how-to videos, including voice-activated recording(!)
- Ardour serves a key role in the music software landscape, even if it’s not a household name. The free code base and community support give the DAW a direction that proprietary software can’t always take. Over the years, it’s also been a source of significant innovations. And while it’s great that proprietary software like Bitwig Studio can run on Linux, those free operating systems do need a fully free/libre DAW choice, too (not least because they can be built with the distro). None of that should dissuade you from running on macOS or Windows, either; a subscription of as little as $1 a month gets you access to pre-built software and supports development.
- Ardour technology is also the basis of the excellent Harrison Mixbus and LiveTrax, in an unsung use case of open source technology that’s essential to many studio and live sound applications. That means what the community builds here has additional upstream, professional uses, with all the additional functionality, gloss, and support Harrison provides.
- Ardour creator Paul Davis gave us some hints about what’s in progress in Ardour 9, and it’s exciting – and maybe another reason to cough up a few dollars to support development, at least, as well as toying around with the software.
- These all come with the disclaimer that they may not make that 9.0 release, but it’s nice to see what the 9+ cycle in general has in store:
  - Multi-touch GUI. Linux/Windows-level support for multi-touch interactions. That’s exciting for supporting multiple machines.
  - UI layout reorganization. No image of this yet, but expect some visual rearrangement of the UI. (That’s the Ardour 8 image pictured here, since that’s what you can currently use!)
  - Pianoroll editors of MIDI regions. You’re not limited to the timeline for this any more – essential to any of us working more with MIDI; there’s both a pop-up and a window.
  - MIDI, audio cue editing. This is what you think of as clips in Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, and most recently Apple Logic Pro, and each will now have its own page for editing. (see below for more on cues…)
  - Region FX. Ah, this is very cool and not something I can think of working quite like this elsewhere – apply effects by region, offline, not only to a whole track, etc.
  - Spectral analyzer.
  - Improved macOS GUI draws.
  - …and various fixes
- See the full description and discussion at What’s coming in Ardour 9.0
- Now, if you’ve missed what’s been coming in recent Ardour 8 builds, there’s been some terrific stuff, with fixes through February 2’s Ardour 8.11.
- The big addition has been cues (think “clips”), follow actions, and the like, which while they’re familiar from other DAWs take on some unique function and utility in the Ardour context.
- Some other highlights as far as functionality:
  - Track dragging
  - MIDI Scene markers
  - Parallel disk I/O and storage improvements (which evidently will impact Ardour 9)
  - Plugin improvements (across LV2, VST3, and AU)
  - Broad hardware support – like the Launchkey MK4 from Novation that I’ve written favorably about, including pointing out that it has a programmers’ guide
  - Note splitting (or “tupling” but split and join makes more sense to me)
  - No-strobe options (in 8.4) which removes a barrier to anyone sensitive to blinking
- Ardour is sometimes way behind other DAWs – although other DAWs are sometimes way behind other DAWs. But it’s also often far ahead. Its rate of development follows Paul and those contributors and what the community is focused on, which is important in itself. And it has rich Lua scripting, extensive localization in multiple languages… the list goes on. I think because of that update cadence, I often miss stuff, but I’ll try to stay on top of Ardour 9.
Commodore OS Vision 3.0 released Majid
- from Distrowatch
- Commodore OS Vision is a 64-bit Linux distribution which maintains a retro C64 style and ships with many games pre-installed. The project’s latest release, version 3.0, includes over 200 games. “Commodore OS Vision 3.0 is the largest, games oriented, Linux distribution ever produced, featuring 200+ free linux compatible games as well as an assortment of classic Commodore games and demos that will undoubtedly scratch your nostalgic itch. Commodore OS now has its own BASIC. Commodore OS BASIC V1 is a modern BASIC implementation featuring 3D graphics, built-in sprites, built-in tilemaps, 2D and 3D physics and user types. Future development will be geared towards compiling software for the original C64 and Amiga hardware. With Commodore emulation all set up, a plentitude of pixel based graphics editors (including C64 sprite and charset editors), as well as Amiga MOD and C64 SID trackers, why not build you dream retro game on Commodore OS?” Additional information can be found on the project’s release announcement page. Download is at this link.
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Rock The Spring Release Moss
- from OpenMandriva blog
- The independent, community controlled distribution OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 fixed point release (as opposed to the rolling release branch), is out right now.
- Main features:
  - – KDE Plasma 6 desktop by default (X11 and Wayland available)
  - – Community spins featuring latest desktop environments LXQt 2.2.0, GNOME 48.1; XFCE and COSMIC 1.0 alpha
  - – This also features the first official stable release of the OpenMandriva Server edition (more on this near the end of the announcement)
- If you run OMLx 6.0 inside VirtualBox, we strongly recommend using the X11 version, since there are some known problems with Wayland on VirtualBox emulated GPU.
- VirtualBox users may need to set VMSVGA controller to boot successfully.
- It works fine on most hardware and in QEmu with KVM.
  - – OM-Welcome Startup and Configuration tool, specifically designed for OpenMandriva KDE Plasma desktop environment received some more improvements.
  - – Software upgraded to the most recent version, as default in the ISO install media or available in repositories, such as:
- Desktop Environments: Plasma Desktop 6.3.4 (and 5.27.12), KDE Applications 25.04.0 (and 23.08.5), KDE Frameworks 6.13.0 (and 5.116), Qt 6.9.0 (and 5.15.15)
- Kernel: 6.14.2 and 6.15.0-rc2, built with clang
- LibreOffice Suite 25.2.3 with Qt 6 and Plasma 6 integration, Chromium Browser 135.0.7049.84 patched with Google spyware disabled and JPEG-XL support re-enabled, Firefox 137.0.2 patched with spyware disabled, Falkon 25.04.0, GIMP 3.0.2, VirtualBox 7.1.8
  - – Development Tools: LLVM/Clang 19.1.7, GCC 14.2.1, Glibc 2.41, Systemd 257.5, Mesa 25.0.4, Java 24
  - – Available in OpenMandriva repository proton and proton-experimental, which make Proton available outside of Steam, without the need to install any non-free code
  - – Security and privacy: promptly addressed all the recent security vulnerabilities
- Users of OMLx 5.0 are strongly advised to opt for a fresh installation of Rock 6.0 to enjoy the new Plasma6 desktop.
- First official release of the Server Edition
- Servers and desktops are different in many ways – more than most general purpose Linux distributions would make you believe.
- In OpenMandriva, we have opted to make those different use cases possible by building radically different versions. While the desktop editions are meant to be so easy to use and learn that a first time Linux user can instantly get things done, the server edition assumes users know what they’re doing – most notably it does not have a graphical user interface (which would just waste space and get on the way in a typical headless server).
- Also, server images are released as a disk image instead of the ISO image format for desktops — that way, they can be deployed in virtualization solutions like qemu, OpenStack, various cloud providers etc. without an installation process (just load the image into the VM and start using it).
- Of course, it is also possible to install OpenMandriva Server on hardware – simply dd the disk image to a USB storage device, boot from it, and use the install-openmandriva script in user omv’s home directory to install it to the destination disk. This is a different installer from the GUI installer present in the desktop versions: It is a shell script that experienced admins can easily adapt to any custom needs.
- The Server images come with a minimal set of packages preloaded – the idea is to install just what is needed for the user’s specific needs, be it nginx or apache, powerdns or bind, postgresql or mariadb, …
- Packages of most relevant server software are available for easy installation with dnf install.
- The OpenMandriva Server images come with a preconfigured user omv with password omv. They also support cloud-init to allow customizations in cloud providers.
- Server images are available for generic x86_64, aarch64 (ARM64) with UEFI support (tested in VMs and on Ampere eMAG and Altra servers), and AMD Zen (EPYC, Threadripper, Ryzen – the generic x86_64 version works for those processors as well, but the special version is more optimized).
- Please read Release Notes and Errata at OpenMandriva wiki official documentation.
- Official Forum
- OpenMandriva Wiki

— Play Security Transition Bumper —

Security and Privacy

10 minutes

US issues warning over new Zambian cyber-security law
- from BBC
- The US embassy in Zambia has warned its citizens to be wary of a new “intrusive” cyber-security law introduced in the southern African country.
- The embassy issued an alert telling Americans “in or planning to visit Zambia of a new law that requires the interception and surveillance of all electronic communications in the country”.
- This includes calls, emails, texts and streamed content “in-country to assess if they include any transmission of ‘critical information,’ a term the law defines so broadly that it could apply to almost any activity”, the embassy says.
- Zambia’s government said the law was needed to tackle online fraud and child pornography, as well as the spread of disinformation.
- Following the alert from the US embassy, Zambia’s foreign ministry released a statement saying that the new Cyber Security Act was “not intended to invade any person’s privacy” – whether Zambians or foreigners.
- “The Law does not authorize mass or random surveillance. Any interception or data request requires a court-issued warrant,” it said.
- The statement added that the “classification of ‘critical information'” referred to national security, “and any assessments or actions taken are carried out by authorized institutions, in line with due process”.
- There are fears that the law could be used against anyone who criticises the government, especially with elections due next year.
- Some Zambians have expressed concern that a new cyber-security unit is being set up in the president’s office.
- Joan Chirwa, founder of the Free Press Initiative Zambia campaign group, told the BBC “it was a sad day for Zambia”.
- She said the law wouldn’t “just affect journalists, or civil society organisations. It will affect everyone in Zambia”.
- The new measure empowers a law enforcement officer with a warrant to enter any premises to search and seize a computer or computer system containing material that is either evidence necessary to prove an offence or acquired by a person as a result of an offence.
- It also allows the government to extradite Zambians deemed to have committed any offence under the law, with a range of jail terms prescribed.
- Offenders may be fined or jailed for between five and 15 years, depending on the crime they have committed.
- Among other provisions, the legislation requires Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies to proactively intercept all electronic communications.
- It was signed into law by President Hakainde Hichilema on 8 April with very little publicity and the first many Zambians knew about it was when the US embassy posted its alert on Facebook.
- “As this new law introduces an intrusive surveillance ecosystem significantly different from privacy protection provisions that prevail in many countries, the embassy of the United States encourages Americans living in Zambia or considering visiting the country to carefully assess the implications of this law and adjust accordingly,” the US statement said.
- The alert came as a surprise to many as the US has widely been seen to enjoy a warm relationship with the Hichilema-led administration, although the ambassador has recently been critical of alleged corruption in the government.
- Zambia had enjoyed a frosty relationship with the US after the former government expelled its pro-gay rights ambassador Daniel Foote in 2019 but relations had improved since Hichilema was elected in 2021.
- Social commentator and civil rights activist Laura Miti accused the US embassy of “hypocrisy”, while also labelling the new law “tyrannical”.
- “Until Edward Snowden revealed the matter, the US secretly surveilled its citizens for years. He remains in exile and one of the most wanted people by American law enforcement,” she wrote on Facebook. “That raises an eyebrow about this from the American embassy. Hypocritical really.”
- However, she also condemned the new law. “This… is a very tyrannical law which the government only needs because it feels insecure.”
- In 2021, while still in opposition, Hichilema opposed a similar law when the former government wanted to pass it, writing: “The Cyber Security and Crime Bill is not about preventing cyber-bullying. It is about clamping down on freedom of expression and spying on citizens.”
- Opposition lawmaker Miles Sampa has accused Hichilema of performing a U-turn now that he is president.
- “My question is when did you change this stance to now sign a law that almost 100% prohibits us citizens from expressing ourselves on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, etc., without being jailed for 25 years or life imprisonment,” he wrote on Facebook.
- “In the current state of the Cyber Laws that you have assented to, Mr President, you may as well also sign a martial law (State of Emergency) to discard democracy so we all stop talking and leave it to your good self to express alone.”
Beware, hackers can apparently now send phishing emails from “[email protected]” Moss
- from TechRadar
- Researchers have discovered a clever and elaborate phishing scheme that abused Google’s services to trick people into giving away their credentials for the platform.
- Lead developer of the Ethereum Name Service, Nick Johnson, recently received an email that seemed to have come from [email protected]. The email said that law enforcement subpoenaed Google for content found in his Google Account.
- He said that the email looked legitimate, and that it was very difficult to spot that it’s actually fake. He believes less technical users might very easily fall for the trick.
- Apparently, the crooks would first create a Google account for me@domain. Then, they would create a Google OAuth app, and put the entire phishing message (about the fake subpoena) in the name field.
- Then, they would grant themselves access to the email address in Google Workspace.
- Google would then send a notification email to the me@domain account, but since the phishing message was in the name field, it would cover the entire screen.
- Scrolling to the bottom of the email message would show clear signs that something was amiss, since at the bottom one could read about getting access to the me@domain email address.
- The final step is to forward the email to the victim. “Since Google generated the email, it’s signed with a valid DKIM key and passes all the checks,” Johnson explained how the emails landed in people’s inbox and not in spam.
- The attack is called a “DKIM replay phishing attack,” since it leans on the fact that in Google’s systems, DKIM checks only the message and the headers, not the envelope. Since the crooks first registered the me@domain address, Google will show it as if it was delivered to their email address.
- To hide their intentions even further, the crooks used sites.google.com to create the credential-harvesting landing page. This is Google’s free web-building platform and should always raise red flags when spotted.

— Play Wanderings Transition Bumper —

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

30 minutes (~5-8 mins each)

Joe
- Not much getting done by me over the last couple of weeks.
- I keep needing to get out to the shipping place to send Moss some stuff but it still hasn’t happened yet.
- I did get openWRT with openVPN working on the server rack. I had to wipe out the previous build I tried and start over from scratch and follow the walk through that I found, step by step.
- It does remind me of the set up that I used to have with Docker doing something similar. But with much better control and I hope I wont have to rebuild it every couple of months.
- So now I can pass the internet from any container, LXC or VM, and the container will have the IP provided by the VPN. But at the same time with the way that it is set up each container still has access to local IPs.
- This means that things like barrier and SMB shares still work with no issues and no lag while the external IP is in the location of the VPN. I still need a way to access the VPN/container with a singular browser window that isn’t logged into anything else.
- I also started building an arr stack based on that. Thinking that I may be able to decommission my VM that I use for automation. Trying to offload more work from my PC to my rack.
- I also finally got back to setting up Jellyfin. I resetup the mappings so that all of my library was available to the docker image. I may switch to a barebones install but I want to give this a chance. I do have a couple of accounts setup on it including one for moss. My only issue with it is the item matching. Well that and the folder setup that does not automatically put multiple seasons together.
- Had some 3D printing fun again. Mostly printer issues though. Tried multiple times on one print over several days. Nearly every time I had a problem with bed adhesion on one location on the bed. Even after flipping and then replacing the magnetic build plate, still the same spot. Then when I finally did get it to print, it got about half way through the print and the y belt snapped.
- Thankfully I had a replacement from the set I purchased when the x belt snapped. Not as difficult as I thought it would be and I had the printer up and running again in no time.
- Then that same spot in the bed had issues and I noticed that there were several portions of the bed that seemed either higher or lower. It could be two different things. But I chose to go with option A since I had a replacement magnetic sheet lying around and I replaced it. The old one I stuck to the side of my metal filing cabinet and will use to hold a spare build plate.
- The other option to check is that the x arm is still tight and the hot end has not worked itself loose. If none of these options work I will probably try out a BLTouch to account for the wavy bed. Its either that or replace the whole heated bed.
- Speaking of which while I had the thing apart to replace the belt I also upgraded the springs and replaced the adjustment wheels with larger ones since I also had all of those sitting around.
- I am also going to replace the extruder gear and re-calibrate again since I am noticing wall separation again and is usually a sign of under extrusion and after I re-calibrated last time it should not be an issue.
- Which I did, but I was getting some odd numbers while calibrating the extrusion. Almost random how much was actually extruded independent of the extrusion multiplier. Even after replacing and tightening the gears. Maybe needs a new motor? They are only like 12 bucks so I might try it.
- However the bed after I replaced the stick on magnetic sheet is still very not level. High spots and low spots all over the place. Might try to add a BLTouch but my birthday is a few months away and I already know that my daughters are getting together to get me a Elegoo Centauri Carbon but since I probably will give this printer to my son.
- Starting to feel like Theseus’s ship…
- Also want to say a special thank you to Adda for the Ko-fi donation and the kind words:
  - Enjoying the podcasts and your inputs very much. Thank you for all you are doing. I wish you all the best, and now that the first coffees have arrived, many more to come.
- These donations are greatly appreciated and like I said I will be putting them towards future projects that I will be talking about on the show.
Moss
- I shipped both my PineTab 2 and my Chromaharp to new homes. I have wiped my Kindle Oasis but have not posted it to eBay yet. And I’m still hoping to hear about success in repurposing my Kindle Fire HD8 whenever Joe gets around to looking at his.
- My Surface Pro 6^th gen took its dear sweet time leaving Texas. I ordered it on the 14^th, and it spent from the 18^th through the 23rd somewhere in Texas. It finally made it to Knoxville on Thursday, and seems to work ok, although the boxing was substandard. Now I have to figure out how to get Linux on this puppy, not going to keep Windows aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh
- I received, and lost, a new spinner ring. It fell off a few times before it did so without me noticing. I’d like to order a replacement (in a smaller size) but probably can’t clear that with my wife.
- We have registered for SELF. The hotel had no rooms left, we’re waiting to hear from the concom about them adding more. So, for the first time, I’m actually going to make it there. As usual, it will be at a hotel near the Charlotte NC airport. I hope we can find food trucks we can stomach… the convention is not allowed to bring in catering or even host a con suite, but the hotel will have a variety of food trucks. I guess I finally get to meet Jackie, if he’s well enough to go this year.
Majid
- Been off! Went to Cambridge. I do like AirBNB
- Ubuntu 25.04 ARM issues and installs
- Vision OS
- Nextcloud fails x2
- Atypical Doctor
  - Episode 2 with the Boylans (part of a podcast marathon!)
  - More website work
  - getting hang of audacity
  - easter egg
  - next interview
  - discord server
- Criminal Record, Daredevil Terminator Zero finished.
- Mobland, Andor
- Devil May Cry, Last of Us
- IPL

— Play Innards Transition Bumper —

Linux Innards

30 minutes (~5-8 minutes each)

–Play Bodhi Corner Transition Bumper*–

Bodhi Corner

3-5 minutes

Introduction to Moksha Modules
- One of the things that makes Bodhi Linux so powerful is its flexibility. Whether you’re running it on older hardware or building your dream desktop environment, Bodhi can be tailored to your needs. At the heart of this customization are Moksha Modules—tiny plugins that can transform your desktop experience.
- In today’s Corner, we’re diving into what modules are, how they work, and how you can explore and enable them to get the most out of your Bodhi system.
- A module is like a plugin that adds new functionality to the Moksha desktop. They’re not required for the window manager to function, but they enhance and extend it—sometimes in small ways, sometimes dramatically.
- You can load or unload modules at any time by going to:
  - Main Menu → Settings → Modules
- More advanced users may know one can also manage modules using the enlightenment_remote command.
  - $E_HOME_DIR/config/$E_CONF_PROFILE
- They’re stored as compressed .eet files and are not human-readable and not really intended to be edited manually (though technically possible if you know what you’re doing).
Do Modules Use Memory?
- Not until you load them.
- Modules are extremely efficient—thanks to the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL)—and use very little memory even when active. But if you’re working with very limited RAM, it’s good to be mindful of what you have enabled.
- Behind the scenes, modules are shared libraries (usually .so files) stored here:
  - $E_LIB_DIR/enlightenment/modules/
- On most systems, that path looks something like:
  - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/enlightenment/modules/
Core Modules in Moksha
- There are around 50 modules in the Moksha source code. Not all are compiled or included by default in Bodhi Linux—we only ship what’s needed for a lean, usable desktop. One special module, E_Wizard, is hidden and runs behind the scenes during the initial setup.
- Here are a few essential modules you’ll find active by default (or ones you’ll probably want):
  - Mixer Module – Control your system sound
  - Taskbar Module – View open/minimized windows
  - Key Bindings Module – Customize keyboard shortcuts
  - Notification Module – Get on-screen notifications
  - Systray Module – Show tray icons for apps like Network Manager, Telegram, CherryTree, etc.
  - Start Module – Adds a Start menu for launching applications
  - and many more.
- Some modules, such as the Forecasts Module, aren’t installed by default., nor are they a part of the Moksha source code. That’s part of our minimalist design philosophy. But you can easily add them from the Bodhi Linux software repositories.
- To install extra modules, use:
  - Synaptic Package Manager
    - (Main Menu → Applications → System Tools → Synaptic)
  - AppCenter
  - Or from the terminal (using apt or nala)
- All extra modules follow this naming convention:
  - moksha-module-<mod_name>
- We currently have over 30 extra modules in the repo. Some highlights include:
  - moksha-module-compton – Adds compositing (transparency, shadows, etc.)
  - moksha-module-forecasts – Displays the current weather
  - moksha-module-moon – Shows the current moon phase in high definition
  - moksha-module-stickynotes – Sticky notes on your desktop
  - moksha-module-wallscape – Animated or rotating desktop backgrounds
- The nice thing about modules is that they don’t use any memory unless they’re loaded. So you don’t need to uninstall Extra Modules unless you really want to reclaim disk space.
- To completely remove any Extra Module, just uninstall it like any other package using:
  - Synaptic Package Manager
  - apt (or nala) remove moksha-module-<mod_name>
- You can’t remove modules that are built into Moksha, and we don’t recommend trying to delete them manually. Even if you do, a future update will just restore them.
- Moksha Modules are one of the best parts of the Bodhi experience. You can keep your desktop lean and clean—or build it up with exactly the features you need. Whether you’re a minimalist or a tinkerer, modules give you that power.
- Got a favorite module? Let us know in the Bodhi Forums!
As always, we would like to encourage you to:
- Visit our page at Distrowatch
- Join our Forum and Discord channel
- Join our team!

— Play Vibrations Transition Bumper —

Vibrations from the Ether

20 minutes (~5 minutes each)

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Check This Out

10 minutes

Housekeeping & Announcements

Thank you for listening to this episode of mintCast!
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Next Episode – 2 pm US Central time on Sunday, May 11, 2025.
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for 460 Next Roundtable Live Stream – 2 pm US Central time on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
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for 460.5 Next Roundtable Live Stream – 2 pm US Central time on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
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Livestream information is at mintcast.org/livestream

Wrap-up

Joe – Tllts.org, linuxlugcast.com, [email protected], Buy Joe a coffee
Moss – Full Circle Weekly News, [email protected], Mastodon @[email protected], occasionally on HPR
Bill – [email protected], Bill_H on Discord, @[email protected] on Mastodon, also checkout the other two podcasts I am on, Linux OTC (with Eric & Majid) and 3 Fat Truckers
Majid – [email protected] @[email protected], AtypicalDr on Instagram and Threads and The Atypical Doctor Podcast on Spotify and also Linux OTC.
Eric – I can be reached by email at [email protected].

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible:

Bill for our audio editing and for hosting the server which runs our website, website maintenance, and the NextCloud server on which we host our show notes and raw audio
Archive.org for hosting our audio files
Hobstar for our logo, initrd for the animated Discord logo
Londoner for our time syncs and various other contributions
The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about <Thanks, Clem … and co!>

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Episode 460 Show Notes