Coming from Uberspace 7?¶

This page highlights the key differences between Uberspace 7 and Uberspace 8 to help you transition smoothly.

With Uberspace 8, we've moved to Arch Linux, which provides up-to-date packages and libraries. No more waiting for backported patches or dealing with outdated software – everything is fresh and current. Our goal is to offer all programming languages that you know from Uberspace 7 for Uberspace 8 as well.

Platform Changes¶

Uberspace 7 is based on CentOS 7, which prioritized stability over newer features. Although CentOS 7 has reached its End of Life, we keep our Uberspace 7 servers secure through extended lifecycle patches provided by TuxCare.

Uberspace 8 is based on Arch Linux, which follows a rolling release model. This means you get access to recent software versions without having to wait for backported patches.

What's Changed¶

Subdomains¶

In Uberspace 5, 6, and 7, every Asteroid had a $USER.$HOST.uberspace.de subdomain for web and mail. With Uberspace 7, we deprecated this type of domain – you could still use it, though we didn't actively communicate this. Now it's gone for good. Use $USER.uber.space or your own domains instead.

Services¶

supervisord is gone – systemd services are the replacement. Practically every modern Linux distribution uses systemd. If you're familiar with Linux system administration, you're already familiar with managing systemd services. This also means more documentation and community resources are available for troubleshooting.

Mail¶

Several significant changes have been made to the mail system:

Mail Storage¶

Mails no longer reside in your home directory (~/Maildir or ~/users). Mail storage is now managed centrally by the mail system.

No More .qmail Files¶

.qmail files are gone. We deprecated .qmail with Uberspace 7, and now they've been fully removed. Use Sieve filters for routing and mail aliases/forwards for address management.

ARC Headers¶

Incoming mails now include an ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) header. This helps preserve authentication results when mail is forwarded, making forwarded mail more trustworthy for other servers.

Unified DNS Records¶

The DNS records for mail domains are now the same for all domains, making setup simpler:

@                      IN  MX     in-mx.uberspace.de.
@                      IN  TXT    "v=spf1 include:spf.uberspace.de ~all"
uberspace1._domainkey  IN  CNAME  dkim1.uberspace.de.
uberspace2._domainkey  IN  CNAME  dkim2.uberspace.de.

Mailbox Separation per Domain¶

On Uberspace 7, mailbox@domain1.com and mailbox@domain2.com shared the same inbox. Now they are two completely separate addresses. If you need the old behavior, you can set up alias domains.

Sender Verification¶

On Uberspace 7, we didn't verify the sender address, which allowed spoofing – for example, apprentice@ could send mail appearing to be from boss@. This is no longer possible; sender addresses are now verified.

Maildrop Replaced by Sieve¶

Maildrop is no longer available. Use Sieve for mail filtering instead.

What's New¶

systemd Journal¶

You can read your Systemd journal with journalctl --user.

systemd Timers¶

Systemd timers are now available in userspace, giving you more powerful scheduling options than cron. You can still use cron if you prefer the classic approach.

Improved uberspace Commands¶

The uberspace command-line tool now features:

Tab completion – press Tab to autocomplete commands and options
Built-in help – use --help on any command for usage information
Blazing fast execution – commands complete almost instantly

[isabell@moondust ~]$ uberspace --help

 Usage: uberspace [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

 Uberspace command for managing your Asteroid configurations.


╭─ Options ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ --help  -h        Show this message and exit.                                │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Commands ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ web       Manage web configuration                                           │
│ tool      Manage tools/languages                                             │
│ mail      Manage mail configuration                                          │
│ ssh       Manage SSH configuration                                           │
│ cmd       Manage command configuration                                       │
│ service   Manage systemd user services                                       │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

API¶

There is now a documented API to automate your Asteroid management. You can use it to programmatically manage domains, mailboxes, and more.

Dashboard¶

Configure backends, SSH keys, remove your SSH password and much more through the web interface. The dashboard uses the same API as the command-line tools, so you'll get feature parity between both interfaces.

And finally: Two-factor authentication (2FA) is now available to secure your account.