--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/30/ Debian Weekly News - August 6th, 2002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. The former Debian developer zhaoway wrote a [1]Chinese article about Jigdo for IBM developerWorks/China. Nice to see the word spread. This seemed to be an easy week, many developer were probably enjoying their holliday, but the security team became hyperactive. That also applies to Branden Robinson, apparently, since he [2]announced Debian packages for XFree86 4.2. 1. http://www-900.ibm.com/developerWorks/cn/linux/platform/debian/jigdo/index.shtml 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-x-0208/msg00041.html Ceasing Security with the DMCA? CNET News.com [3]reports about an incident invoking the controversial [4]Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Hewlett Packard has threatened to sue a team of researchers who published a vulnerability in Tru64 Unix. Since HP distributes Debian and two members of the Debian Security Team are U.S. citizens, are they in danger of a similar threat? One week later, HP released a [5]press release saying that they will not use the DMCA to stifle research or impede the flow of information that would benefit their customers and improve their system security. 3. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947325.html 4. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: 5. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947740.html Backing up a Debian System. Drew Daniels wrote a [6]report that describes methods of backing up a Debian system. This includes uses of the program cruft to find files that are not covered by properly installed packages. The sysadmin guide also includes a chapter about making [7]backups. 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg02232.html 7. http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-backup.html There aint no such Thing as a Free Font? Ben Armstrong did some [8]research on truetype fonts included in the Debian distribution. Alarmed by a non-free font in a package he maintains, Ben started looking for a suitable replacement font under a DFSG-free license. However, he was disappointed to find that virtually every so-called 'free' font he found failed the DFSG. 8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0208/msg00080.html Debian Release Party in Germany. It's been [9]announced recently that some German developers planned a [10]Debian Release Party next weekend. The party is meant to be fun after all and only a barbecue and breakfast are planned, despite interesting discussions and probably hacking. The [11]party takes place in Minden, Germany and people should [12]sign up in time. 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0208/msg00200.html 10. http://www.debian.org/events/2002/0810-party 11. http://www.infodrom.org/Debian/party/ 12. http://www.infodrom.org/Debian/party/signon.php3 Packaging Dock Apps. Josselin Mouette started a [13]discussion about packaging WindowMaker dock apps. There are currently 28 such dock apps packaged for Debian and [14]dockapps.org lists even 90 of them. All of these dockapps are likely to be packaged one day or another by DD's using them. Packaging each dock app as single package and packaging all dock apps as one large package seem to be suboptimal, though. 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0208/msg00149.html 14. http://dockapps.org/ New ping and inetd Packages. Marco d'Itri [15]announced that he plans to replace the version of ping and inetd with programs from OpenBSD. The new inetd is already up for public [16]review. It supports IPv6, built-in libwrap support, binding to specific addresses and socket buffers tuning. 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0208/msg00170.html 16. http://www.bofh.it/~md/ipv6/ Installing Debian on IBM RS/6000 Workstation. Rolf Brudeseth released a [17]howto document describing how to install Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 on an IBM RS/6000 44P-170 workstation. It should also work for other low-end systems such as the 260, 270 and B80, even though this wasn't exactly tested. Rolf also expects the installation to work similar on the mid- and high-end POWER3 systems. 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0208/msg00008.html Sarge CD Images? Anthony Towns [18]requested that CD images for sarge should be automatically generated every week. He explained that don't need to be bootable yet, but should be available as jigdo images. Getting CD images out as soon as possible is important if we're going to get off on the right foot for releasing sarge any time soon. 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0208/msg00006.html Debian Woody CD Covers. Robert Dodd [19]announced that he created 3 covers for Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename "Woody"). The images are freely available from [20]here. If the covers need more information or if anyone wants to use it but needs more information on the cover or a different format, [21]Robert Dodd would be happy to fix that. 19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0207/msg00372.html 20. http://www.dodddigitaldesign.com/debian_cd_covers.htm 21. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed. * [22]gallery -- Remote exploit. * [23]super -- Format string vulnerability. * [24]libpng -- Buffer overflow. * [25]mpack -- Buffer overflow. * [26]OpenAFS -- Integer overflow. * [27]Kerberos -- Integer overflow. * [28]wwwoffle -- Security related problems. 22. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-138 23. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-139 24. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-140 25. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-141 26. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-142 27. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-143 28. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-144 New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the Debian archive recently or contain important updates. * [29]acme -- Enables the "multimedia buttons" found on laptops. * [30]affix -- User space utilities for the Affix Bluetooth protocol stack. * [31]amsn -- An MSN messenger written in tcl. * [32]dnotify -- Execute a command when the contents of a directory change. * [33]docbookide -- An Emacs Major Mode for Editing DocBook Documents. * [34]dvbtune -- Simple tuning application for DVB cards. * [35]ekg -- Console gadu gadu client for UNIX systems. * [36]facturalux -- ERP/CRM software for Linux. * [37]framerd -- a scalable knowledge base development and application platform. * [38]minc-tools -- MNI medical image format tools. * [39]mtink -- Status monitor for epson inkjet printer. * [40]printbill -- Sophistocated print billing / accounting system for lprng. * [41]rockdodger -- Dodge and blow up rocks with your spaceship. * [42]snui-client -- Simple Network User Information - Client. * [43]xshisen -- Shisen-sho puzzle game for X11. * [44]xtunes -- electronic music library. 29. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/acme.html 30. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/affix.html 31. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/amsn.html 32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/dnotify.html 33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/docbookide.html 34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/dvbtune.html 35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ekg.html 36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/facturalux.html 37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/framerd.html 38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/minc-tools.html 39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/mtink.html 40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/printbill.html 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/rockdodger.html 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/snui-client.html 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/xshisen.html 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/xtunes.html Orphaned Packages. 2 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 97 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [45]WNPP pages for the full list, and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA: if you plan to take over a package. 45. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/ * [46]cvsweb -- A CGI interface to your CVS repository. ([47]Bug#155047) * [48]wavtools -- WAV play, record, and compression. ([49]Bug#155263) 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cvsweb.html 47. http://bugs.debian.org/155047 48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/wavtools.html 49. http://bugs.debian.org/155263 Seen something interesting? Please drop us a note whenever you see something noteworthy that you think is appropriate for inclusion in DWN. We don't notice everything, unfortunately. Of course, we are also thankful for completely written items from volunteer writers. Please see the [50]contributing page. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 50. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 51. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- The only stupid question is the unasked one. Please always Cc to me when replying to me on the lists.
