Firmware Work Continues

This week, as promised, engineers continued the work on automated firmware updates on System76 computers. We began spinning up the infrastructure to build and sign the firmware. This work will go into place on the production line, where we will conduct testing and learn how to improve the process based on what snags we encounter there.

In order to do firmware updates correctly, we have been working on security architecture that combines both software and hardware components. The plans for that architecture will be made public soon and we hope community members will be able to provide their expertise and audit our plans to ensure we have the best security in place.



Installer Simplified Further

If you’ve been following us you will know that we have been working on improving the installation and initial user setup on Pop!_OS. Last week we announced a sprint we are hosting, where we will work with the team from elementary OS on a better installer overall. We’re excited about working alongside our open source allies during that sprint, but that doesn’t mean we’re standing still.

This week, System76 engineer Jeremy worked on simplifying the installer even further – changing the order of prompts and removing the timezone slide from the process. This results in a shorter time between setup and using the operating system, which matches one of our goals for the Pop!_OS project.



Bite-sized bugs and Pop!_Chat



Our bite-sized bugs program has been greeted with excitement from the community and we’re glad that there is so much interest. This week there are some interesting bite-sized bugs that are listed via the shortlink below (great way to get to the list quickly. A couple of them simply need more testing in order to get them closed. So you don’t even need to be a developer to help squash them!

Check out our Bite-sized Bugs: http://s76.co/bsb

One of the best aspects of having Pop!_Chat in place would have to be the real-time collaboration that we can do with potential contributors. We encourage those reading this to check out the bite-sized bugs over on the Pop!_OS issue tracker and share their code and ideas in real-time with us. Our engineers are present in the chat, open to answering questions for those who want to improve Pop!_OS and move our shared mission of a polished, powerful, and beautiful Linux desktop forward.

Join Pop!_Chat: https://chat.pop-os.org

Volume Settings to be Improved

Upstream Ubuntu has been working on a problem with volume settings that we here at System76 agree with 100%. Currently, the ability to raise the volume above 100% is present in GNOME/Ubuntu, this exists because some devices at 100% can still come across as fairly quiet. But there is a problem when using the keyboard volume keys, as that action only recognizes a 100% volume limit, meaning if the user had the volume set to more than 100% and hit the volume up key it would result in the volume being changed to 100% thus turning the volume down.

The Ubuntu team is looking to fix the aforementioned issue by porting a feature that allows the sound to go above 100% and be manageable even with the volume keys. This is great work and provides for a better experience. We look forward to including this improvement in Pop!_OS.

That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed this update and please join us on Pop!_Chat and get involved in the conversation. Or check out our subreddit!