Arch Linux

1. Providing a license for package sources

   Arch Linux hasn't had a license for any package sources (such as PKGBUILD files) in the past, which is potentially problematic. Providing a license will preempt that uncertainty.

   In RFC 40 we agreed to change all package sources to be licensed under the very liberal 0BSD license. This change will not limit what you can do with package sources. Check out the RFC for more on the rationale and prior discussion.

   Before we make this change, we will provide contributors with a way to voice any objections they might have. Starting on 2024-11-19, over the course of a week, contributors will receive a single notification email listing all their contributions.

   • If you receive an email and agree to this change, there is no action required from your side.
   • If you do not agree, please reply to the email and we'll find a solution together.

   If you contributed to Arch Linux packages before but didn't receive an email, please contact us at package-sources-licensing@archlinux.org.

2. Manual intervention for pacman 7.0.0 and local repositories required

   With the release of version 7.0.0 pacman has added support for downloading packages as a separate user with dropped privileges.

   For users with local repos however this might imply that the download user does not have access to the files in question, which can be fixed by assigning the files and folder to the alpm group and ensuring the executable bit (+x) is set on the folders in question.

   $ chown :alpm -R /path/to/local/repo
   

   Remember to merge the .pacnew files to apply the new default.

   Pacman also introduced a change to improve checksum stability for git repos that utilize .gitattributes files. This might require a one-time checksum change for PKGBUILDs that use git sources.

3. The sshd service needs to be restarted after upgrading to openssh-9.8p1

   After upgrading to openssh-9.8p1, the existing SSH daemon will be unable to accept new connections (see https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/openssh/-/issues/5).
   When upgrading remote hosts, please make sure to restart the sshd service using systemctl try-restart sshd right after upgrading.

   We are evaluating the possibility to automatically apply a restart of the sshd service on upgrade in a future release of the openssh-9.8p1 package.

4. Arch Linux 2024 Leader Election Results

   Recently we held our leader election, and the previous Project Leader Levente "anthraxx" Polyák ran again while no other people were nominated for the role.

   As per our election rules he is re-elected for a new term.

   The role of of the project lead within Arch Linux is connected to a few responsibilities regarding decision making (when no consensus can be reached), handling financial matters with SPI and overall project management tasks.

   Congratulations to Levente and all the best wishes for another successful term! 🥳

5. Increasing the default vm.max_map_count value

   The vm.max_map_count parameter will be increased from the default 65530 value to 1048576.

   This change should help address performance, crash or start-up issues for a number of memory intensive applications, particularly for (but not limited to) some Windows games played through Wine/Steam Proton. Overall, end users should have a smoother experience out of the box with no expressed concerns about potential downsides in the related proposal on arch-dev-public mailing list.

   This vm.max_map_count increase is introduced in the 2024.04.07-1 release of the filesystem package and will be effective right after the upgrade.

   Before upgrading, in case you are already setting your own value for that parameter in a sysctl.d configuration file, either remove it (to switch to the new default value) or make sure your configuration file will be read with a higher priority than the /usr/lib/sysctl.d/10-arch.conf file (to supersede the new default value).