SerenityOS update (February 2024)

Summary

Andreas, Andrew, and Nico host a monthly update on SerenityOS developments. They showcase new features including automatic escalation to superuser when launching apps requiring root access, a ported Sonic fan game, interactive copy utility prompts before overwriting files, hexadecimal dumping utilities, improved calendar event handling, FAT filesystem creation utility, enhancements to hex editor's toolbars and popouts, progress on RISC-V support, and PDF rendering improvements like better colors, more rendered text glyphs, and new image format support.

Takeaways

• 😀 A new password prompt was added when launching apps that require root access from the taskbar
• 📝 Improvements were made to the SDL port while getting the Sonic Robo Blast 2 game running on SerenityOS
• ➕ The cp command now has an interactive mode that asks before overwriting files
• i The cut command gained a new -c flag to select specific characters
• 🔎 The xxd hex dump utility was added to complement the existing hexdump tool
• 🗓 Enhancements were made to the calendar app like better month/year views and basic event support
• 💾 A new utility can create empty FAT filesystem images that could be mounted with future loop device support
• ⚙️ The Hex Editor sidebar panels were improved using a widget container for detachability
• 🤝 Progress was made on RISC-V bringup targeting the SiFive HiFive Unleashed board
• 🖨 PDF rendering gained text support, better colors via CMYK simulation, and CCIT image decoding

Q & A

What new feature was added to help applications that require super user access launch from the taskbar?

A password prompt was added so that applications like Partition Editor that need root access can request escalation to super user when launched from the taskbar instead of just failing to run.

What game was ported to SerenityOS this month and helped drive SDL improvements?

A Sonic the Hedgehog fangame called Sonic Robo Blast 2 was ported to SerenityOS by contributors like refrag and yella.

What new flag was added to the CP command line utility?

An interactive mode flag was added so CP asks if you want to override an existing file when copying instead of just overwriting it automatically.

What is the hex dump utility that was added this month?

The xxd hex dump utility was added by Nils, providing an alternative hex dumping tool to the existing hexdump command.

What improvements were made to the calendar application this month?

Domino refactored the month and year views to use GML properties for cleaner code, and senel made it so calendar events now show up when you double click on a day.

What new FAT filesystem creation tool was added?

A new ms.fat utility was added that can format image files as FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32 filesystems.

How were Hex Editor's side toolbars improved?

The search results, value inspector, annotations, etc. were moved to use the dynamic widget container, allowing them to be popped out, moved around, and docked.

What Progress was made on the RISC-V port?

Son and Leon made lots of progress booting Serenity on the HiFive Unleashed board, adding missing kernel functionality needed for RISC-V hardware.

What text rendering improvements were made in the PDF viewer?

More PDF text glyphs are now rendered instead of omitted, and CMYK images are better simulated to match real printed output.

What new image format can the PDF viewer now display?

Support was added for the CCIT image compression format thanks to work by Lucas.