pudc - A PID 1 process that barks to the internet by mssola

Description

As a fun exercise in order to dig deeper into the Linux kernel, its interfaces, the RISC-V architecture, and all the dragons in between; I'm building a blog site cooked like this:

• The backend is written in a mixture of C and RISC-V assembly.
• The backend is actually PID1 (for real, not within a container).
• We poll and parse incoming HTTP requests ourselves.
• The frontend is a mere HTML page with htmx.

The project is meant to be Linux-specific, so I'm going to use io_uring, pidfs, namespaces, and Linux-specific features in order to drive all of this.

I'm open for suggestions and so on, but this is meant to be a solo project, as this is more of a learning exercise for me than anything else.

Goals

• Have a better understanding of different Linux features from user space down to the kernel internals.
• Most importantly: have fun.

Resources

• https://github.com/mssola/pudc

---

x64id: An x86/x64 instruction disassembler by m.crivellari

Description

This is an old side project. An x86/x64 machine code decoder. It is useful to get instructions' length and identify each of its fields.

Example:

C7 85 68 FF FF FF 00 00 00 00

This is the instruction:

MOV DWORD PTR SS:[LOCAL.38],0

What follows are some of the information collected by the disassembler, based on the specific instruction:

RAW bytes (hex): C7 85 68 FF FF FF 00 00 00 00
Instr. length: 10
Print instruction fields:
        Located Prefixes 0:

        OP: 0xC7
        mod_reg_rm: 0x85
        disp (4): 0xFFFFFF68
        Iimm: 0x0

Lacks the mnemonic representation: from the previous machine code is not able to produce the "MOV..." instruction, for example.

Goals

The goal is almost easy: partially implement the mnemonic representation. I have already started during the weekend, likely tomorrow I will push the branch!

Resources

• The project: https://github.com/DispatchCode/x64-Instruction-Decoder/
• This is useful to avoid gdb and objdump in local: https://defuse.ca/online-x86-assembler.htm
• Another interesting resource is https://godbolt.org/

Progress

• An initial implementation can be found at: https://github.com/DispatchCode/x64-Instruction-Decoder/tree/mnemonic-support It is described under the "Mnemonic translation" in the README file!

Let's consider this example:

[...other bytes...] 43 89 44 B5 00 01 00 [...other bytes...]

---

Improve the picotm Transaction Manager by tdz

Picotm is a system-level transaction manager. It provides transactional semantics to low-level C operations, such as

• memory access,
• modifying data structures,
• (some) file I/O, and
• common interfaces from the C Standard Library and POSIX.

Picotm also handles error detection and recovery for all it's functionality. It's fully modular, so new functionality can be added.

For the Hackweek, I want to dedicate some time to picotm. I want to finish some of the refactoring work that I have been working on. If there's time left, I'd like to investigate two-phase commits and how to support them in picotm.

Picotm is available at http://picotm.org/.

---

Port OTPClient to GTK >= 4.18 by pstivanin

Project Description

OTPClient is currently using GTK3 and cannot easily be ported to GTK4. Since GTK4 came out, there have been quite some big changes. Also, there are now some new deprecation that will take effect with GTK5 (and are active starting from 4.10 as warnings), so I need to think ahead and port OTPClient without using any of those deprecated features.

Goal for this Hackweek

• fix the last 3 opened issues (https://github.com/paolostivanin/OTPClient/issues/402, https://github.com/paolostivanin/OTPClient/issues/404, https://github.com/paolostivanin/OTPClient/issues/406) and release a new version
• continue the rewrite from where we left last year
• if possible, finally close this 6 years old issue: https://github.com/paolostivanin/OTPClient/issues/123

---

Smart lighting with Pico 2 by jmodak

Description

I am trying to create a smart-lighting project with a Raspberry Pi Pico that reacts to a movie's visuals and audio that involves combining two distinct functions: ambient screen lighting(visual response) and sound-reactive lighting(audio response)

Goals

• Visuals: Capturing the screen's colour requires an external device to analyse screen content and send colour data to the MCU via serial communication.
• Audio: A sound sensor module connected directly to the Pico that can detect sound volume.
• Pico 2W: The MCU receives data fro, both inputs and controls an LED strip.

Resources

• Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W
• RGB LED strip
• Sound detecting sensor
• Power supply
• breadboard and wires

---

Update M2Crypto by mcepl

There are couple of projects I work on, which need my attention and putting them to shape:

• M2Crypto

Goal for this Hackweek

• Put M2Crypto into better shape (most issues closed, all pull requests processed)
• More fun to learn jujutsu
• Play more with Gemini, how much it help (or not).
• Perhaps, also (just slightly related), help to fix vis to work with LuaJIT, particularly to make vis-lspc working.

---

Bring to Cockpit + System Roles capabilities from YAST by miguelpc

Bring to Cockpit + System Roles features from YAST

Cockpit and System Roles have been added to SLES 16 There are several capabilities in YAST that are not yet present in Cockpit and System Roles We will follow the principle of "automate first, UI later" being System Roles the automation component and Cockpit the UI one.

Goals

The idea is to implement service configuration in System Roles and then add an UI to manage these in Cockpit. For some capabilities it will be required to have an specific Cockpit Module as they will interact with a reasource already configured.

Resources

A plan on capabilities missing and suggested implementation is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZhX-Ip9MKJNeKSYV3bSZG4Qc5giuY7XSV0U61Ecu9lo/edit

Linux System Roles:

• https://linux-system-roles.github.io/
• https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/ansible-linux-system-roles Package on sle16 ansible-linux-system-roles

First meeting Hackweek catchup

• Monday, December 1 · 11:00 – 12:00
• Time zone: Europe/Madrid
• Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/rrc-kqch-hca

---

Liz - Prompt autocomplete by ftorchia

Description

Liz is the Rancher AI assistant for cluster operations.

Goals

We want to help users when sending new messages to Liz, by adding an autocomplete feature to complete their requests based on the context.

Example:

• User prompt: "Can you show me the list of p"
• Autocomplete suggestion: "Can you show me the list of p...od in local cluster?"

Example:

• User prompt: "Show me the logs of #rancher-"
• Chat console: It shows a drop-down widget, next to the # character, with the list of available pod names starting with "rancher-".

Technical Overview

1. The AI agent should expose a new ws/autocomplete endpoint to proxy autocomplete messages to the LLM.
2. The UI extension should be able to display prompt suggestions and allow users to apply the autocomplete to the Prompt via keyboard shortcuts.

Resources

GitHub repository

---

Enhance git-sha-verify: A tool to checkout validated git hashes by gpathak

Description

git-sha-verify is a simple shell utility to verify and checkout trusted git commits signed using GPG key. This tool helps ensure that only authorized or validated commit hashes are checked out from a git repository, supporting better code integrity and security within the workflow.

Supports:

• Verifying commit authenticity signed using gpg key
  
• Checking out trusted commits
  

Ideal for teams and projects where the integrity of git history is crucial.

Goals

A minimal python code of the shell script exists as a pull request.

The goal of this hackweek is to:

• DONE: Add more unit tests
  • New and more tests can be added later
    
• Partially DONE: Make the python code modular
  
• DONE: Add code coverage if possible
  

Resources

• Link to GitHub Repository: https://github.com/openSUSE/git-sha-verify

---

Help Create A Chat Control Resistant Turnkey Chatmail/Deltachat Relay Stack - Rootless Podman Compose, OpenSUSE BCI, Hardened, & SELinux by 3nd5h1771fy

Description

The Mission: Decentralized & Sovereign Messaging

FYI: If you have never heard of "Chatmail", you can visit their site here, but simply put it can be thought of as the underlying protocol/platform decentralized messengers like DeltaChat use for their communications. Do not confuse it with the honeypot looking non-opensource paid for prodect with better seo that directs you to chatmailsecure(dot)com

In an era of increasing centralized surveillance by unaccountable bad actors (aka BigTech), "Chat Control," and the erosion of digital privacy, the need for sovereign communication infrastructure is critical. Chatmail is a pioneering initiative that bridges the gap between classic email and modern instant messaging, offering metadata-minimized, end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) communication that is interoperable and open.

However, unless you are a seasoned sysadmin, the current recommended deployment method of a Chatmail relay is rigid, fragile, difficult to properly secure, and effectively takes over the entire host the "relay" is deployed on.

Why This Matters

A simple, host agnostic, reproducible deployment lowers the entry cost for anyone wanting to run a privacy‑preserving, decentralized messaging relay. In an era of perpetually resurrected chat‑control legislation threats, EU digital‑sovereignty drives, and many dangers of using big‑tech messaging platforms (Apple iMessage, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Instagram, SMS, Google Messages, etc...) for any type of communication, providing an easy‑to‑use alternative empowers:

• Censorship resistance - No single entity controls the relay; operators can spin up new nodes quickly.
  
• Surveillance mitigation - End‑to‑end OpenPGP encryption ensures relay operators never see plaintext.
  
• Digital sovereignty - Communities can host their own infrastructure under local jurisdiction, aligning with national data‑policy goals.
  

By turning the Chatmail relay into a plug‑and‑play container stack, we enable broader adoption, foster a resilient messaging fabric, and give developers, activists, and hobbyists a concrete tool to defend privacy online.

Goals

As I indicated earlier, this project aims to drastically simplify the deployment of Chatmail relay. By converting this architecture into a portable, containerized stack using Podman and OpenSUSE base container images, we can allow anyone to deploy their own censorship-resistant, privacy-preserving communications node in minutes.

Our goal for Hack Week: package every component into containers built on openSUSE/MicroOS base images, initially orchestrated with a single container-compose.yml (podman-compose compatible). The stack will:

• Run on any host that supports Podman (including optimizations and enhancements for SELinux‑enabled systems).
  
• Allow network decoupling by refactoring configurations to move from file-system constrained Unix sockets to internal TCP networking, allowing containers achieve stricter isolation.
• Utilize Enhanced Security with SELinux by using purpose built utilities such as udica we can quickly generate custom SELinux policies for the container stack, ensuring strict confinement superior to standard/typical Docker deployments.
• Allow the use of bind or remote mounted volumes for shared data (/var/vmail, DKIM keys, TLS certs, etc.).
  
• Replace the local DNS server requirement with a remote DNS‑provider API for DKIM/TXT record publishing.
  

By delivering a turnkey, host agnostic, reproducible deployment, we lower the barrier for individuals and small communities to launch their own chatmail relays, fostering a decentralized, censorship‑resistant messaging ecosystem that can serve DeltaChat users and/or future services adopting this protocol

Resources

• The links included above
• https://chatmail.at/doc/relay/
• https://delta.chat/en/help
• Project repo -> https://codeberg.org/EndShittification/containerized-chatmail-relay

---