--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/23/ Debian Weekly News - June 10th, 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 23rd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. There is a nice little [1]quiz up at BBspot which correlates your personality with an operating system. Amazingly enough, Debian is one of the possible outcomes. Find out if you are a true Debian user! Unfortunately, the result is printed as a graphics, lynx and w3m users are kept out apparently. 1. http://bbspot.com/News/2003/01/os_quiz.php Debian X Strike Force Subversion Repository. Branden Robinson [2]announced that Debian's XFree86 packages are becoming team-maintained. In practice they have always been to some extent, thanks to contributions large and small from many people. As another improvement Branden has established a Subversion [3]repository. With the Debian XFree86 packages under version control, he expects the quality and pace of the work to increase. 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-x-0306/msg00039.html 3. http://necrotic.deadbeast.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/ Freedesktop Menu System. Chris Cheney [4]asked what was going to happen to plans for the Debian menu system to migrate to the [5]desktop menu specification from freedesktop.org. Bill Allombert, the menu system maintainer, [6]replied that he wasn't sure what the Debian menu system needed to do. Colin Walters [7]explained that the Free Software world seems to have settled on the .desktop format as the standard for menus. The whole idea was to supplant the myriad of incompatible menu systems used by various distributors. 4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg02035.html 5. http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu/draft/menu-spec/menu-spec.html 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg02051.html 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg02071.html Status of Sarge Release Issues. Drew Scott Daniels [8]posted another updated list of sarge release issues. This is a list of things to be done before sarge can be released, with status information and an estimated priority (of 1-3). Debian-Installer [9]work and [10]porting remain high on the list and the [11]transition to GCC 3.3 needs attention. Other issues include [12]problems in testing, the Linux kernel needs to be [13]handled differently, the [14]X Strike Force could use some [15]help getting 4.3.0 ready, [16]GNOME 2 should be in testing soon and libpng is in [17]transition. 8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00112.html 9. http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/TODO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup 10. http://people.debian.org/~mckinstry/ports-status.html 11. http://people.debian.org/~rmurray/c++transition.html 12. http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/testing_probs.html 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg01334.html 14. http://people.debian.org/~branden/xsf/ 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-x-0305/msg00134.html 16. http://people.debian.org/~walters/gnome2.html 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg01880.html Version Control for Packages File. Glenn McGrath [18]suggested putting the Packages file under some sort of version control in order to minimise bandwidth requirements. Most people [19]agreed that this would be a positive move. Anthony Towns [20]pointed out that [21]apt-pupdate can do this, and Nicolas Kratz [22]suggested trying [23]apt-rsync. 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00128.html 19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00236.html 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00209.html 21. http://people.debian.org/~bjb/ 22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00176.html 23. http://home.tiscali.cz:8080/~cz210552/aptrsync.html Problems Linking to OpenSSL. As has been [24]discussed at length, the OpenSSL license is incompatible with the GNU [25]General Public License (GPL). This week, MySQL developers planned to [26]allow MySQL to link with OpenSSL by offering a blanket exception covering combined work licensed under one or more OSI approved licenses. The developer of the gaim-encryption plugin found himself in a similar position, but plans to [27]rewrite his code to cease dependence on OpenSSL. 24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/debian-legal-200210/msg00113.html 25. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0306/msg00061.html 27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00107.html ACPI Howto. Emma Jane Hogbin [28]announced the second draft of her [29]Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Howto. ACPI allows control of power management from within the operating system. The document summarises the process of installing and using ACPI on a Debian laptop with a patched 2.4.20 Linux kernel. 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-0306/msg00985.html 29. http://xtrinsic.com/geek/articles/acpi.phtml Debian's 10th Birthday. The word is out as Alexander Neumann [30]noticed and Debian will turn 10 this August. Anniversary parties are planned on several places on this planet. Details are not yet available and there will probably be more parties organized, but preparations for events in [31]Japan, [32]Australia, [33]Germany, [34]Great Britain and the [35]US were already started. 30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00058.html 31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00061.html 32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00066.html 33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00075.html 34. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/debian-uk/2003-June/001487.html 35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00202.html Recommendations for Knoppix DVD. Klaus Knopper [36]announced that he is currently working on a DVD edition of Knoppix for [37]LinuxTag 2003. He would like to know which software people would like to see on a full featured edition, which will probably contain Fabian Franz' new Knoppix installer as well. Additional software packages need to be free, stable and available in binary and source form. 36. http://mailman.linuxtag.org/pipermail/debian-knoppix/2003-June/003062.html 37. http://www.linuxtag.org/2003/en/index.html Call For Votes: Voting Method GR. The Debian Project Secretary has [38]posted a call for votes in a Voting Method General Resolution (GR). Developers are asked to vote on a General Resolution to [39]amend the constitution to update the Voting Mechanism. Votes may either be cast in favour of the Clone Proof SSD Condorcet Amendment, or in favour of further discussion. Votes must be received by 23:59:59, Friday, June 20th, 2003. 38. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0306/msg00004.html 39. http://www.debian.org/vote/2003/vote_0002 Debian GNU/FreeBSD Self-Hosting. Robert Millan [40]announced that he has managed to get [41]GNU/FreeBSD installed self-hosting. The kernel runs init, which initialises swap and filesystems, and spawns 8 nice gettys. He has built a new base [42]tarball (26.9 MB), with only the minimal utilities plus APT. He has also [43]set up an APT repository for his GNU/FreeBSD packages, including the toolchain and XFree86. 40. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0306/msg00002.html 41. http://people.debian.org/~rmh/gnu-freebsd/ 42. http://people.debian.org/~rmh/gnu-freebsd/pub/ 43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0306/msg00004.html Accessing CVS with Kerberos. Jennifer Vesperman, author of the book [44]Essential CVS, wrote an [45]article about using CVS with Kerberos 5 and [46]GSSAPI (Generic Security Services API) on an unstable Debian system. The document explains how to compile [47]cvs to use GSSAPI and demonstrates its use. Jennifer also explained several problems that are likely to occur and how to fix them. 44. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cvs/index.html?CMP=IL7015 45. http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2003/05/22/cvs_gssapi.html 46. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/kerberos-faq/general/section-84.html 47. http://www.cvshome.org/ Running Debian on an Acer Tablet PC. Dean Townsley managed to install Debian GNU/Linux on the [48]Acer Travelmate C100 which is a tablet PC that can also act as normal notebook. Anyone who has setup a few systems and compiled their own kernel before should be able to install and set up Debian on such a machine. He [49]described in detail how the system is booted from the network and how X needs to be configured in order to support the pen. 48. http://global.acer.com/products/tablet_pc/tmc100.htm 49. http://prometheus.physics.ucsb.edu/~dean/TmC100/AcerTmC100.html Debian on a Rocket. Andrew Greenberg and Brian O'Neel from the Portland State Aerospace Society [50]built a 12 pound rocket which shall launch this September and will travel at three times the speed of sound to 55,000 feet. The [51]team builds [52]suborbital rockets that are smaller than commercial rockets, but larger and more powerful than hobby ones. In addition, the project relies on [53]Free Software, such as Debian, and hardware, which can dramatically improve the performance of the rockets. 50. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59144,00.html 51. http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix03/activities.html#rocket 52. http://twiki.psas.pdx.edu/bin/view/PSAS/Projects 53. http://twiki.psas.pdx.edu/bin/view/PSAS/Usenix2003Paper Packaging large I18n Files. Ben Burton would like to [54]package internationalisation (i18n) files for [55]koffice, but unfortunately this would add another 21 MB to the archive. He came up with three scenarios which all have drawbacks. Adding 37 different packages, one for each language, or adding one large package containing all packages, or adding these language files to the kde-i18n-lang packages. All three don't seem favourable. 54. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0306/msg00445.html 55. http://packages.debian.org/koffice Open Software License. Joey Hess [56]dug out a new license which is used by elfutils, which is included in RPM 4.2. However, Walter Landry [57]pointed out that this license is not compatible with the GNU GPL. Branden Robinson even [58]considered the license to be not compliant with the [59]Debian Free Software Guidelines. 56. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0306/msg00025.html 57. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0306/msg00043.html 58. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0306/msg00050.html 59. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines Status of UTF-8 Debian Changelogs. Jérôme Marant [60]asked about the status of using UTF-8 in Debian changelog files, since he's seen some UTF-8-encoded debian/changelog files. However, he hasn't seen anything yet mentioning it is allowed in Debian Policy. Josip Rodin [61]explained that the Debian policy does not need to precede the implementation. 60. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy-0306/msg00021.html 61. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy-0306/msg00025.html Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed. * [62]gzip -- Insecure temporary file creation. * [63]eterm -- Buffer overflow. * [64]xaos -- Improper setuid-root execution. * [65]Linux 2.4.18 -- Several vulnerabilities. * [66]Linux 2.4.18 (powerpc) -- Several vulnerabilities. 62. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-308 63. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-309 64. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-310 65. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-311 66. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-312 New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates. * [67]bash-minimal -- The GNU Bourne Again SHell (minimal version). * [68]bash-static -- The GNU Bourne Again SHell (static version). * [69]boa-constructor -- RAD tool for Python and WxWindows application. * [70]debnest -- Nested Build System of Debian Source Package. * [71]drivel -- LiveJournal client for the GNOME desktop. * [72]firehol -- Easy to use but powerful iptables stateful firewall. * [73]foo2zjs -- Support for printing to ZjStream-based printers. * [74]gforge -- Collaborative development tool. * [75]guidedog -- NAT/masquerading/port-forwarding configuration tool for KDE. * [76]jukebox-mercury -- Mercury NSM CD Jukebox Access Utility. * [77]kq-data -- Graphics and audio data for kq, an adventure game in the spirit of Final Fantasy. * [78]latex-ucs -- Support for using UTF-8 input encoding in LaTeX documents. * [79]lg-issue91 -- Issue 91 of the Linux Gazette. * [80]mozilla-firebird -- Light-weight browser based on Mozilla. * [81]packit -- Network Injection and Capture. * [82]rsplib1 -- Prototype implementation of the IETF RSerPool architecture. * [83]scponly -- Restricts the commands available to scp- and sftp-users. * [84]siptoolbox -- Scilab image processing toolbox. * [85]tau-python-common -- Tuning and Analysis Utilities - support for python bindings. * [86]ted-gtk -- Graphical RTF (Rich Text Format) editor, experimental GTK+ version. * [87]xmule -- eMule client. * [88]yasr -- General-purpose console screen reader. 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/shells/bash-minimal.html 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/shells/bash-static.html 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/boa-constructor.html 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/debnest.html 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/drivel.html 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/firehol.html 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/foo2zjs.html 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gforge.html 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/guidedog.html 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/jukebox-mercury.html 77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/kq-data.html 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/latex-ucs.html 79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/lg-issue91.html 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mozilla-firebird.html 81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/packit.html 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/rsplib1.html 83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/scponly.html 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/siptoolbox.html 85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/tau-python-common.html 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/ted-gtk.html 87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/xmule.html 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/yasr.html Orphaned Packages. 3 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 186 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [89]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. 89. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/ * [90]epic4-script-splitfire -- The only |<-lame irc script! ([91]Bug#196473) * [92]libzvt2.0-0 -- The GNOME 2 zvt (zterm) widget. ([93]Bug#195969) * [94]skipstone -- Web Browser based on Mozilla's embed component. ([95]Bug#196457) 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/epic4-script-splitfire.html 91. http://bugs.debian.org/196473 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libzvt2.0-0.html 93. http://bugs.debian.org/195969 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/skipstone.html 95. http://bugs.debian.org/196457 Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers who investigate the Debian community and report about events in the community. Please see the [96]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 96. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 97. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
