openSUSE Leap 15.0

Release Notes

openSUSE Leap is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or
Server. You can surf the Web, manage your e-mails and photos, do office work,
play videos or music and have a lot of fun!

Publication Date: 2018-05-14, Version: 15.0.20180514

1 Installation
2 System Upgrade
3 Packaging Changes
4 Desktop
5 Security
6 More Information and Feedback

The release notes are under constant development. To find out about the latest
updates, see the online version at https://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes. The
English release notes are updated whenever need arises. Translated language
versions can temporarily be incomplete.

If you upgrade from an older version to this openSUSE Leap release, see
previous release notes listed here: http://en.opensuse.org/
openSUSE:Release_Notes.

Information about the project is available at https://www.opensuse.org.

To report bugs against this release, use the openSUSE Bugzilla. For more
information, see http://en.opensuse.org/Submitting_Bug_Reports.

1 Installation

This section contains installation-related notes. For detailed upgrade
instructions, see the documentation at https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/
leap/startup/html/book.opensuse.startup/part.basics.html.

1.1 Minimal System Installation

The minimal system installation lacks certain functionality that is often taken
for granted:

  • It does not contain a software firewall front-end. You can install the
    package firewalld additionally.

  • It does not contain a YaST. You can install the pattern 
    patterns-yast-yast2_basis additionally.

1.2 UEFI—Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

Prior to installing openSUSE on a system that boots using UEFI (Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface), you are urgently advised to check for any
firmware updates the hardware vendor recommends and, if available, to install
such an update. A pre-installation of Windows 8 or later is a strong indication
that your system boots using UEFI.

Background: Some UEFI firmware has bugs that cause it to break if too much data
gets written to the UEFI storage area. However, there is no clear data of how
much is “too much”.

openSUSE minimizes the risk by not writing more than the bare minimum required
to boot the OS. The minimum means telling the UEFI firmware about the location
of the openSUSE boot loader. Upstream Linux kernel features that use the UEFI
storage area for storing boot and crash information (pstore) have been disabled
by default. Nevertheless, it is recommended to install any firmware updates the
hardware vendor recommends.

1.3 UEFI, GPT, and MS-DOS Partitions

Together with the EFI/UEFI specification, a new style of partitioning arrived:
GPT (GUID Partition Table). This new schema uses globally unique identifiers
(128-bit values displayed in 32 hexadecimal digits) to identify devices and
partition types.

Additionally, the UEFI specification also allows legacy MBR (MS-DOS)
partitions. The Linux boot loaders (ELILO or GRUB 2) try to automatically
generate a GUID for those legacy partitions, and write them to the firmware.
Such a GUID can change frequently, causing a rewrite in the firmware. A rewrite
consists of two different operations: Removing the old entry and creating a new
entry that replaces the first one.

Modern firmware has a garbage collector that collects deleted entries and frees
the memory reserved for old entries. A problem arises when faulty firmware does
not collect and free those entries. This can result in a non-bootable system.

To work around this problem, convert the legacy MBR partition to GPT.

1.4 Installing the Nvidia Driver Manually

On openSUSE Leap 15.0, you need to uninstall the package drm-kmp-default first,
before you can manually install Nvidia drivers using the .run shell script
archive:

zypper rm drm-kmp-default

If you install the RPMs provided by Nvidia, you will not be affected by this
issue, because in that case, the package drm-kmp-default is replaced during the
driver installation automatically.

If you decide to uninstall Nvidia's driver later, make sure to reinstall the
package drm-kmp-default.

For more information, see https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1044816.

1.5 Scaling the Installer UI on Computers with High-DPI Displays

The YaST installer does not scale its UI for High-DPI displays by default. If
you have a computer with a high-DPI display, you can set YaST to scale its UI
automatically for the display. To do so, add the parameter
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1 to the bootloader command line.

2 System Upgrade

This section lists notes related to upgrading the system. For detailed upgrade
instructions, see the documentation at https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/
leap/startup/html/book.opensuse.startup/cha.update.osuse.html.

Additionally, check Section 3, “Packaging Changes”.

2.1 Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 42.3

2.1.1 Postfix Admin Uses Backwards-Incompatible Directory Layout

Starting with the version 3.2, as shipped in openSUSE Leap 15.0, Postfix Admin
(package postfixadmin) uses a new and backwards-incompatible directory layout:

  • The configuration files moved to /etc/postfixadmin.

  • The PHP code moved to /usr/share/postfixadmin.

  • The Smarty cache moved to /var/cache/postfixadmin.

Postfix Admin no longer reads configuration files from their previous locations
and the configuration is not migrated automatically. Therefore, you need to
migrate the following items manually:

  • Move config.local.php from /srv/www/htdocs/postfixadmin to /etc/
    postfixadmin.

  • If you made customizations to config.inc.php, ideally merge these
    customizations into /etc/postfixadmin/config.local.php. We recommended
    keeping config.inc.php unmodified.

  • In the Apache configuration, add or enable the alias /postfixadmin:

      â–¡ To make the alias available on all virtual hosts, run:

        a2enflag POSTFIXADMIN && rcapache2 restart

      â–¡ To make the alias available only on a specific virtual host only, add
        the alias to the config of that virtual host.

3 Packaging Changes

3.1 Deprecated Packages

Deprecated packages are still shipped as part of the distribution but are
scheduled to be removed the next version of openSUSE Leap. These packages exist
to aid migration, but their use is discouraged and they may not receive
updates.

To check whether installed packages are no longer maintained: Make sure that 
lifecycle-data-openSUSE is installed, then use the command:

zypper lifecycle

4 Desktop

This section lists desktop issues and changes in openSUSE Leap 15.0.

4.1 KDE on Wayland Is Not Supported with Proprietary Nvidia Driver

The KDE Plasma Wayland session is not supported with the proprietary Nvidia
driver. If you are using KDE and the proprietary Nvidia driver, stay with the X
session.

4.2 No Default Compose Key Combination

In previous versions of openSUSE, the compose key combination allowed typing
characters that were not part of the regular keyboard layout. For example, to
produce “å”, you could press and release Shift–Right Ctrl and then press a
twice.

In openSUSE Leap 15.0, there is no longer a predefined compose key combination
because Shift–Right Ctrl does not work as expected anymore.

  • To define a system-wide custom compose key combination, use the file /etc/
    X11/Xmodmap and look for the following lines:

    [...]
    !! Third example: Change right Control key to Compose key.
    !! To do Compose Character, press this key and afterwards two
    !! characters (e.g. `a' and `^' to get 342).
    !remove  Control  = Control_R
    !keysym Control_R = Multi_key
    !add     Control  = Control_R
    [...]

    To uncomment the example code, remove the ! characters at the beginning of
    lines. However, note that the setup from Xmodmap will be overwritten if you
    are using setxkbmap.

  • To define a user-specific compose key combination, use your desktop's
    keyboard configuration tool or the command-line tool setxkbmap:

    setxkbmap [...] -option compose:COMPOSE_KEY

    For the variable COMPOSE_KEY, use your preferred character, for example
    ralt, lwin, rwin, menu, rctl, or caps.

  • Alternatively, use an IBus input method that allows typing the characters
    you need without a Compose key.

4.3 Use update-alternatives to Set Login Manager and Desktop Session

In the past, you could use /etc/sysconfig or the YaST module /etc/sysconfig
Editor to define the login manager and desktop session. Starting with openSUSE
Leap 15.0, the values are not defined using /etc/sysconfig anymore but with the
alternatives system.

To change the defaults, use the following alternatives:

  • Login manager: default-displaymanager

  • Wayland session: default-waylandsession.desktop

  • X desktop session: default-xsession.desktop

For example, to check the value of default-displaymanager, use:

sudo update-alternatives --display default-displaymanager

To switch the default-displaymanager to xdm, use:

sudo update-alternatives --set default-displaymanager \
  /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/xdm

To enable graphical management of alternatives, use the YaST module 
Alternatives that can be installed from the package yast2-alternatives.

4.4 No Screen Lock When Using GNOME Shell But Not GDM

When using GNOME Shell together with a login manager other than GDM, such as
SDDM or LightDM, the screen will not blank or lock. Additionally, switching
users without logging out is not possible.

To be able to lock the screen from GNOME Shell, enable GDM as your login
manager:

 1. Make sure that the package gdm is installed.

 2. Open YaST and from it, open /etc/sysconfig Manager.

 3. Navigate to Desktop › Display manager › DISPLAYMANAGER.

 4. In the text box, specify gdm. To save, click OK.

 5. Reboot.

4.5 Scaling the SDDM UI on Computers with High-DPI Displays

The default login manager for KDE, SDDM, does not scale its UI for High-DPI
displays by default. If you have a computer with a high-DPI display, you can
set SDDM to scale its UI automatically for the display using the configuration
file /etc/sddm.conf:

[XDisplay]
ServerArguments=-dpi DPI_SETTING
EnableHiDPI=true

Replace DPI_SETTING with an appropriate DPI value, such as 192. For best
scaling results, use a DPI value that is a multiple of the default 96 DPI.

4.6 Scaling the YaST UI on Computers with High-DPI Displays

YaST does not scale its UI for High-DPI displays by default. If you have a
computer with a high-DPI display, you can set YaST to scale its UI
automatically for the display. To do so, set the environment variable
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1.

4.7 Screen Sharing Does Not Work in Firefox or Chromium on Wayland

Firefox and Chromium normally allow Web-based tools such as videoconferencing
applications to share the entire screen or individual application windows. This
functionality is currently not supported in either browser when using a Wayland
session.

To be able to share your screen in Firefox or Chromium, use an X session
instead.

4.8 Playing MP3 Media Files

The codecs to play MP3 media files are shipped as part of the standard
repository.

To use this decoder in gstreamer-based applications and frameworks, such as
Rhythmbox or Totem, install the package gstreamer-plugins-ugly.

4.9 No Support for Type-1 Fonts in LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.3 and higher do not support legacy Type-1 fonts (file extensions
.afm and .pfb) anymore. Most users should not be affected by this, as current
fonts are available either in the format TrueType (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf)
formats.

If you are affected by this, convert Type-1 fonts to a supported format, such
as TrueType and then use the converted fonts. Conversion is possible with the
application FontForge (package fontforge) which is included in openSUSE. For
information on scripting such conversions, see https://fontforge.github.io/
en-US/documentation/scripting/.

4.10 FreeType Font Rendering Changes

FreeType 2.6.4 has a new default glyph hinting interpreter (version 38) that
more closely matches other operating systems but may look “more fuzzy” to some.
To restore the previous FreeType behavior, set the following environment
variable at any level (system-wide, user-specific, or program-specific) of your
choice:

FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"

4.11 Enabling KDE Plasma Browser Integration

Plasma browser integration for Firefox and Chromium/Chrome allows monitoring
multimedia and downloads using KDE system tools and gives quick access to tabs
via the Run Command bar of the KDE Plasma desktop.

The browser integration functionality consists of two parts that need to work
together:

  • The desktop part that can be installed using the system package 
    plasma-browser-integration.

  • The browser part that needs to be installed from the add-on store of your
    browser:

      â–¡ Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/plasma-integration/

      â–¡ Chromium/Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/
        plasma-integration/cimiefiiaegbelhefglklhhakcgmhkai

Note that this functionality is officially still in development and openSUSE
Leap 15.0 ships with an early version of it.

4.12 Loading the Emacs psgml Module

Because of conflicts with Emacs modules from the default installation, openSUSE
Leap 15.0 can no longer load the psgml module automatically. For more
information, see the file README from the package psgml.

5 Security

This section lists changes to security features in openSUSE Leap 15.0.

5.1 systemctl stop apparmor Does Not Work

In the past, there could be confusion over the difference between how the very
similarly named systemctl subcommands reload and restart worked for AppArmor:

  • systemctl reload apparmor properly reloaded all AppArmor profiles. (It was
    and continues to be the recommended way of reloading AppArmor profiles.)

  • systemctl restart apparmor meant that AppArmor would stop, thereby
    unloading all AppArmor profiles and then restart which left all existing
    processes unconfined. Only newly started processes would then be confined
    again.

Unfortunately, systemd does not provide a solution within its unit file format
for the issue posed by the restart scenario.

Starting with AppArmor 2.12, the command systemctl stop apparmor will not work.
As a consequence, systemctl restart apparmor will now correctly reload AppArmor
profiles.

To unload all AppArmor profiles, use the new command aa-teardown instead which
matches the previous behavior of systemctl stop apparmor.

For more information, see https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=996520
and https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=853019.

6 More Information and Feedback

  • Read the README documents on the medium.

  • View a detailed changelog information about a particular package from its
    RPM:

    rpm --changelog -qp FILENAME.rpm

    Replace FILENAME with the name of the RPM.

  • Check the ChangeLog file in the top level of the medium for a chronological
    log of all changes made to the updated packages.

  • Find more information in the docu directory on the medium.

  • For additional or updated documentation, see https://doc.opensuse.org/.

  • For the latest product news, from openSUSE, visit https://www.opensuse.org.

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