Hello TUXEDO Fans and Open-Source Enthusiasts!
A large share of the software running on your TUXEDO is created by volunteers in their spare time. Under German tax law, however, this work does not yet count as volunteering. A petition to the German Bundestag aims to change that: open-source contributors should, for example, be able to receive tax-free expense allowances. Around 15,000 signatures are still missing to reach the target of 30,000, and collection ends on November 23. Only signatures from Germany count toward the target.
The Digital Independence Day , DI.DAY for short, is also about digital self-determination. On the first Sunday of every month, the initiative shows how to move step by step from big tech companies to free alternatives. In Augsburg, we have already hosted two DI.DAY meetups with an install party. Now DI.DAY has been nominated for the Grimme Online Award, and you can vote for the audience award until November 16 at 11:00 CET. To our readers outside Germany, our apologies, with a wink, for giving German topics so much room in this introduction.
In this issue, we also introduce Smb4K, which conveniently mounts network shares from NAS systems and other computers. To match, the tip of the week shows the opposite direction: you share a folder of your own directly from Dolphin on the network so that Windows PCs and other Linux machines can access it. As usual, we round things off with news from TUXEDO OS and security updates.
Enjoy reading,The TUXEDO OS Team
Note: With the TWIX series, we keep you up to date with the latest developments around TUXEDO OS. We also introduce interesting applications and share practical tips and tricks for the KDE desktop and TUXEDO OS. At the same time, TWIX thrives on your feedback. We always welcome your suggestions, topic ideas, and proposals for improvement. Feel free to join the discussion in our TWIX thread on Reddit , where you can reach us directly. Of course, you are also welcome to contact us via any of our other social media channels.
Updates in TUXEDO OS
firefox 2:159.0.1~tux1
On Linux, some WebGL sites showed red and blue swapped, for example in background effects during video calls. This has been fixed.
Passkey sign-in works again on sites that share passkeys across related domains, such as Facebook and Instagram. The dot a tab uses to ask for attention is clearly visible again with some themes and accent colors.
More in the security updates section and in the Firefox 159.0.1 release notes .
TUXEDO Control Center 3.1.3
The tccd background service could crash when it repeatedly tried to reach a missing D-Bus interface and opened too many connections in the process. It now cleans up old connections and restarts automatically after a failure.
For keyboards with white backlighting, the Control Center supports another D-Bus path, as found on Fedora, for example.
All changes in the changelog .
Kernel 7.0.0–113042.42~24.04.1tux1
The new kernel includes security fixes from the upstream kernel.
Other Packages
chromium 156.0.8078.79 (security update, see below)
Important Security Updates
firefox 2:159.0.1~tux1
Fixes a high-rated vulnerability in page layout caused by incorrect boundary conditions (CVE-2026–120572).
Details in security advisory MFSA 2026–123 .
chromium 156.0.8078.79
Fixes 21 vulnerabilities, one of them critical: a use-after-free in MediaStream (CVE-2026–76024). 19 are rated high, including an out-of-bounds write in the V8 JavaScript engine (CVE-2026–119262) and several incorrect authorization bugs in FileSystem. Google does not mention any exploitation.
Details on the Chrome Releases blog.
Updates at TUXEDO
Motorcomm Driver Temporarily Returns to DKMS
Since kernel 7.0, the driver for the Motorcomm YT6801 Ethernet chip has been part of the Linux kernel itself. On devices with Intel processors, however, it increases power consumption during suspend. This mainly affects the InfinityBook Pro Gen9 and Gen10 as well as some models of the InfinityBook Max and Stellaris series. These devices therefore use the DKMS version of the driver again for the time being, which is rebuilt automatically with every kernel update. You do not need to do anything. More in the article… Motorcomm Driver Temporarily Returns to DKMS
KDE App of the Week: Smb4K – Convenient Management of Network Shares
If you run a NAS at home or regularly access shared folders on other computers, you know the SMB protocol. It lets Linux, Windows, and other systems exchange files. On KDE Plasma, the Dolphin file manager already opens such shares. The Smb4K application goes one step further: it manages network shares and mounts them permanently.
Finding and Mounting Network Shares
After launch, Smb4K scans the local network for reachable computers and their shares. To do so, the application uses the Samba library libsmbclient , DNS-SD , and optionally WS-Discovery , among others. Servers and shares it finds appear in a tree view. If you run a NAS from Synology or QNAP, for example, or a Linux computer with Samba, you can select its shared directories right there.
After scanning the network, Smb4K shows the reachable computers and their shares in a tree view.
Unlike access via smb:// in Dolphin, Smb4K mounts shares into the local file system using the CIFS file system . As a result, they are available as regular directories not only to the file manager but also to other applications and the terminal. This helps, for example, when programs that do not speak SMB themselves need to edit files on a NAS. If the automatic scan does not find a server, you can add the share by hand via a network path such as //server/share .
Bookmarks and Automatic Mounting
You can save frequently used shares as bookmarks and sort them into categories. If you like, Smb4K remounts the shares you used last when the application starts the next time. The application also notices when shares are mounted or unmounted outside of Smb4K. Smb4K stores credentials securely via the QtKeychain library. For individual servers or shares, you can also store custom settings in case devices on the network behave differently.
In its settings, Smb4K defines how shares are mounted, among other things. Dolphin offers nothing comparable when opening a share.
If you use your notebook both at home and at work, you can also create profiles for different network environments. This lets you keep private NAS shares separate from the resources of a company network, for example.
More Everyday Features
Using the Rsync tool, Smb4K can also synchronize mounted shares with local directories. Synchronization works in both directions and can be adjusted via various options. Via Wake-on-LAN, it wakes up suitably configured computers over the network.
In the Mounted Shares tab, the context menu offers the Synchronize command. It synchronizes directories in both directions.
Who Is Smb4K For?
If you only occasionally copy files from another computer, Dolphin is usually all you need. Smb4K plays to its strengths when you regularly need several shares or want them to be available to other applications as well. This applies above all to home networks with a NAS and to mixed Linux and Windows environments.
Installation
Smb4K is free software under the GPL and is available in the package sources of TUXEDO OS and many other Linux distributions. Besides Linux, the project also supports various BSD systems. You can find a detailed guide in the Smb4K documentation .
Info: Are you interested in Plasma development and want to know what new features are planned and which programs have been recently updated? You can find a detailed overview in the weekly column This week in Plasma by KDE developer Nate Graham.
TUXEDO OS Tips & Tricks: Share a Folder on the Network from Dolphin
Smb4K lets you mount shares from other computers. Often, though, you need the opposite: a folder on your notebook should be reachable from the family’s Windows PC or a second Linux machine. You do not have to write a Samba configuration by hand for that. Dolphin handles it through the properties dialog, and TUXEDO OS already ships the required extension. The first time, Dolphin walks you through a few steps; after that, a new share takes only a few clicks.
Install Samba and Join the Group
In Dolphin, right-click the folder you want to share, choose Properties , and switch to the Share tab. If the Samba service is not installed yet, Dolphin offers an Install Samba button here. After you enter your password, the system downloads the packages and starts the service.
If the Samba service is missing, the Share tab in a folder’s properties installs it with a single click.
Only members of the sambashare group may create shares. Clicking Make Me a Group Member adds your user account, which you also confirm with your password. If an error message appears afterwards because the helper did not respond, adding you to the group usually worked anyway. Restart the computer once so that the new group membership takes effect.
Without membership in the sambashare group, Dolphin does not allow any shares. The button adds your account to the group.
Set a Samba Password
Samba keeps its own user database, separate from the system accounts. After the restart, the Share tab therefore asks you to set a dedicated password via Set Samba password . You will later use your user name and this password to log in from other computers. It may match your login password, but it does not have to. Dolphin rejects empty passwords.
Samba manages its users separately from the system. You will use the Samba password to log in from other computers.
Set Up the Share
If the folder is located in your home directory, a notice points out missing permissions. Fix Permissions then only allows other users to pass through your home directory; they still cannot see its contents. Next, tick Share this folder with other computers on the local network and adjust the share name if needed.
Below that, you set the permissions. Everyone defaults to Read Only ; for your own account, choose Full Control so that you can also save files from other devices. No Access locks out individual users. Allow guests to connect opens the share to everyone on the network without a password. This option is only suitable for a trusted home network.
Via View Addresses, Dolphin lists the network paths under which other computers can reach the share.
Access from Other Computers
Clicking View Addresses lists the paths to the share, such as \\tuxedo-os.local\Shared or a variant with the computer’s IP address. On Windows, type this address into the File Explorer address bar. In Dolphin on another Linux computer, it reads smb://tuxedo-os.local/Shared . Smb4K finds the share as well. You log in with your user name and the Samba password. If you untick the box in the Share tab again, the share is removed immediately.
Ubuntu Security Updates
The Ubuntu security updates listed here are generally incorporated directly into TUXEDO OS. Some updates are only available from Ubuntu for a fee and are therefore not made available to the community until a later date. Unfortunately, we have no control over this:
USN-9001–1: ca-certificates update
USN-9000–1: twisted vulnerability
USN-8999–1: pillow vulnerabilities
USN-8997–1: net-snmp vulnerability
USN-8996–1: apt vulnerability
USN-8985–1: libnet-easytcp-perl vulnerability
USN-8975–1: libsoup2.4, libsoup3 vulnerabilities
USN-8974–1: pcre2 vulnerabilities
USN-8973–1: libmspack vulnerability
USN-8972–1: haproxy vulnerabilities
USN-8971–1: gnome-shell vulnerability
USN-8970–1: gvfs vulnerabilities
USN-8969–1: bind9 vulnerabilities
USN-8959–1: linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp, linux-hwe-7.0, linux-ibm, linux-oracle vulnerabilities
