Add the June 2024 report

content/news/this-month-240630.md

++++
+title = "This Month in Redox - June 2024"
+author = "Ribbon and Ron Williams"
+date = "2024-06-30"
++++
+
+June was a very exciting month for Redox! Here's all the latest news.
+
+## Donate to Redox
+
+If you would like to support Redox, please consider donating or buying some merch!
+
+- [Donate](https://www.redox-os.org/donate/)
+- [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/redox_os)
+- [Merch](https://redox-os.creator-spring.com/)
+
+## Funding!
+
+### NLnet NGI Zero Core
+
+We are very excited to announce that the [NGI Zero Core](https://nlnet.nl/thema/NGIZeroCore.html) program
+from the [NLnet Foundation](https://nlnet.nl/)
+will be funding our project [Redox OS Unix-style Signals](https://nlnet.nl/project/RedoxOS-Signals/).
+
+Redox currently has a basic implementation of Signals, but this project will allow us to move most of signals code
+out of the kernel into user-space, and bring us much closer to POSIX compliance.
+
+The project also includes a Process Manager Daemon in user-space,
+to manage the session/process group/process/thread hierarchy, especially with respect to signals,
+and to help support [sigqueue](https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/sigqueue.html).
+
+4lDO2 will do the heavy lifting on this project,
+with the Redox team creating a test suite for the work and acting as backup for bug fixes.
+
+### Radworks
+
+[Radworks](https://radworks.org/) has very generously provided a donation of $13,000 USD in USDC and Rad tokens
+using the [Drips Network](https://drips.network/), to support Redox's [termion](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/termion) library.
+
+The [Radicle](https://radicle.xyz/) project is funded by Radworks.
+"Radicle is a sovereign peer-to-peer network for code collaboration, built on top of Git."
+
+The `termion` library, a Redox sub-project, is a terminal manipulation library used for writing text-based user interfaces (TUI),
+written in Rust, and supporting Linux, Redox, BSD, and Mac OS X.
+`termion` is a dependency of Radicle.
+
+## New Orbital Visual
+
+We changed our default wallpaper, title bar and panel bar colors to make the user experience more pleasant, you can see it below:
+
+![New Orbital Visual](/static/img/screenshot/orbital-visual.png)
+
+The wallpaper is the [Tarantula Nebula](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/041/01GA76MYFN0FMKNRHGCAGGYCVQ) from NASA, also available on the COSMIC desktop.
+
+## Software Showcase 1
+
+We have uploaded our first software showcase to our [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@RedoxOS)!
+This is just a small part of the software that works on Redox.
+We will be uploading more showcases in the near future.
+Like, Subscribe, and Comment to help bring more attention to Redox!
+
+<iframe width="800" height="640" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s-gxAsBTPxA?si=EbIRLwIrnuiwfvYZ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+## Performance Improvements
+
+4lDO2 doubled the RedoxFS performance by reducing the number of context switch roundtrips per block read and write.
+
+He also applied this improvement on the SATA, NVMe, USB SCSI and VirtIO Block drivers.
+
+## Relibc Improvements
+
+The `pread()` and `pwrite()` functions are now implemented using the proper syscalls (rather than seek-based emulation) in relibc.
+This is part of an effort to improve the handling of file offsets across Redox.
+
+## Scheme Improvements
+
+4lDO2 improved the `redox-scheme` crate and the scheme protocol to provide a cleaner API for drivers and daemons.
+
+He updated `bootstrap` and `initfs` to use the new scheme interface.
+
+## User-Space Debugging From GDB
+
+Thanks to bjorn3, the GNU Debugger, running outside the VM,
+can read the Redox user-space tasks when the `gdbserver` is not available.
+This is helpful if you are debugging, for example, drivers during startup, but is not for general use.
+
+## USB Improvements
+
+bjorn3 added a 2ms sleep on the poll loop of the xHCI driver to reduce the CPU usage a lot,
+while we await the implementation of xHCI interrupts.
+
+Quoting his MR description:
+
+"This significantly reduces cpu usage. On my laptop before this change a
+single core would be fully loaded while running at 3-4GHz. With this
+change it would only be loaded for about 50% while running at 1-2GHz.
+This improves battery lifetime while also preventing the fan from
+spinning up to a distracting level.
+
+This shouldn't noticably affect latency given that most keyboards and
+mice don't support polling at 500Hz anyway."
+
+## PCI Improvements and Cleanup
+
+Continuing his work on driver cleanup and improvement,
+bjorn3 did a wide-ranging cleanup of the PCI/PCIe driver, refactoring, removing unneeded code,
+and generally improving the clarity and maintainability of the code.
+
+## VirtIO Improvements
+
+bjorn3 implemented the Modern transport for our x86 VirtIO drivers.
+The original implementation was using the Legacy transport,
+which is not commonly used.
+
+## Recoverable Components
+
+4lDO2 adapted the `lived` system component to use the new offset-based read/write scheme protocol!
+
+On microkernel-based operating systems, it is desirable to have most system components able to be restarted in case of a crash,
+without needing a system reboot.
+Using the offset-based read/write protocol allows us to remove file position tracking from the driver,
+bringing us one step closer to having the ability to restart drivers.
+
+## Programs
+
+Ribbon added an ABI separation on the LLVM recipe, to protect programs with a dependency on LLVM from breakage when the LLVM version is updated.
+
+(Like most Linux distributions does)
+
+He also fixed many recipe scripts, many Rust programs built successfully for the first time!
+
+Many Rust libraries were fixed with the recent changes on Redox, Ribbon is checking the TODOs of each program.
+
+Many WIP software ports were missing cross-compilation scripts for CMake, Ribbon fixed this.
+
+These CMake scripts may be incomplete but it saves a lot of time from packagers trying to complete our cross-compilation scripts.
+
+## Build System Improvements
+
+Contributor grnmeira discovered that our "server-minimal" variant lacked network support and created confusion about the name.
+
+Based on 4lDO2's suggestion for the new variant name, Ribbon renamed the "server-minimal" configuration to "minimal".
+
+He also created the "minimal-net" configuration for network support.
+
+Now the most minimal OS image is called "minimal"
+
+We have not yet attempted to make the "minimal" system suitable for a truly minimal computer,
+but we have several ideas for future improvement.
+
+Ribbon added the "Development Tools" package group from Fedora to our setup script `bootstrap.sh`, to avoid missing any development packages and reduce the number of items to be installed for the Fedora target in the script.
+
+## USB Support Status
+
+When we announced the support for USB input devices on the [April report](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240430/) we neglected to update the documentation to change the USB status.
+
+We recently added support for USB input devices, and this support is being improved,
+but it is to be expected that some devices are not working.
+
+Our nightly images have been frozen since May 30, so if you tested after that date you would not have received the latest improvements for USB.
+
+If you want to test the latest USB improvements we recommend that you download the build system and build the Redox image, you can learn how to that on [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-05-building-redox.html) page.
+
+## Documentation
+
+Ribbon updated the book to say that USB input devices are supported, improved the [binary packages explanation](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-07-configuration-settings.html#binary-packages) and documented the [environment leakage](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch08-05-troubleshooting.html#environment-leakage) problem.
+
+He also documented how Redox took inspiration from OpenBSD on the "BSD" part of [this](https://www.redox-os.org/faq/#how-redox-is-inspired-by-other-systems) section of the website FAQ.
+
+Quoting the section:
+
+- [OpenBSD](https://www.openbsd.org/) - Redox took inspiration from the [system call](https://man.openbsd.org/pledge.2), [filesystem](https://man.openbsd.org/unveil.2), [display server](https://www.xenocara.org/) and [audio server](https://man.openbsd.org/sndiod.8) sandbox and [others](https://www.openbsd.org/innovations.html).
+
+## Website
+
+Ribbon improved our FAQ as always, he improved some benefits of Redox and the image variants information.
+
+He also updated the FAQ to report that we support USB HID devices, improved the Community page to recommend Fractal instead of Nheko as a Matrix client alternative for Element, because it's written in Rust, better maintained and has advanced features.
+
+## Discord Server
+
+We now have a Discord server! It's for people that don't want to use Matrix, and hopefully it will be more convenient.
+
+The messages from Matrix are sent to Discord and the messages from Discord are sent to Matrix througn a Matrix bridge bot.
+
+Once you join the server, request to be a member on the #join-requests room.
+
+You can open the invite [here](https://discord.gg/JfggvrHGDY).
+
+## Join us on Matrix Chat
+
+If you want to contribute, give feedback or just listen in to the conversation,
+join us on [Matrix Chat](https://matrix.to/#/#redox-join:matrix.org).