--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/45/ Debian Weekly News - November 11th, 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. According to the latest data from [1]Netcraft the number of websites running on the Apache web server has shown a significant gain over the last month and is now at 67.41 percent. James Maguire wanted to [2]know if Java is dead and concluded that nothing could be further from the truth. Also, another [3]update for the stable Debian release (codename woody) is being [4]prepared. 1. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/11/03/november_2003_web_server_survey.html 2. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22629.html 3. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/45/index.en.tmp.html 4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00004.html Exec-Shield for Debian? Russell Coker [5]looked at [6]exec-shield which adds a certain amount of precaution similar to what [7]PaX does, which is the most desirable feature in [8]GRSecurity. Exec-shield also has support for 2.6 and looks like it will be a standard feature in Red Hat. Russell proposed to add exec-shield to the standard Debian kernel source. If adding exec-shield to the Debian kernel is not considered a good idea then he'll create a kernel-patch package for exec-shield. 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00047.html 6. http://people.redhat.com/mingo/exec-shield/ 7. http://pageexec.virtualave.net/docs/pax.txt 8. http://www.grsecurity.net/ Clarification of DFSG Clause 1. Roland Stigge [9]proposed to alter the [10]Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) in order to add a little bit of clarification to clause one. This is a reminiscence of the [11]discussion about the legal status of LaTeX2HTML. Henning Makholm [12]added that this complies with the consensus on debian-legal. 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00013.html 10. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines 11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0310/msg00383.html 12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00014.html Debian Jr. joins OSEF. Ben Armstrong [13]announced that [14]Debian Jr. joined the [15]Open Source Education Foundation (OSEF). Ben is also a new board member of their newly expanded board. This will strengthen both Debian Jr. and OSEF. Both groups aim to improve the quality of Debian Jr. packages and they share the common goal to introduce children to Free Software. 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00000.html 14. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr/ 15. http://www.osef.org/ Discussion about the Social Contract. Branden Robinson [16]summarized part of the thread about his proposed amendment of the Social Contract. He stated that he would be willing to consider breaking up the proposal, and is seeking guidance from the Project Secretary. Anthony Towns stated that if he were to propose a rewrite of the [17]Social Contract it would include [18]points like building a free and superior operating system, supporting the community, being open and supporting all the software that Debian can. 16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00139.html 17. http://www.debian.org/social_contract 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00148.html SPI Board Vote begins. Wichert Akkerman [19]announced that the voting period has begun to elect three new directors to the Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI) board of directors. The candidates are [20]David Graham ("cdlu"), [21]Ian Jackson, [22]Jimmy Kaplowitz ("Hydroxide"), and [23]Martin Schulze ("Joey"). All contributing members can cast their vote [24]online until November 21st. People who become contributing members during this period are also eligible for voting. Newsflash: There will be a debate with all candidates on Monday, November 17th, at 17:00 UTC on Channel #SPI on irc.oftc.net. 19. http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2003/000060.html 20. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/DavidGraham.xhtml 21. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/IanJackson.xhtml 22. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/JimmyKaplowitz.xhtml 23. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/MartinSchulze.xhtml 24. https://members.spi-inc.org/vote/ Package Version Numbering. Mark Johnson [25]wondered how he is supposed to update the [26]docbook-simple package from version 1.0cr2 to version 1.0. Neil Roeth [27]suggested to use 1.0.0 as version string. Andreas Metzler [28]explained that removing the old package from the archive and uploading a new one would not solve the problem, because anybody who has already installed the old version would not be upgraded automatically if the new upload had a lower version-number in dpkg's understanding. 25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00438.html 26. http://packages.debian.org/docbook-simple 27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00454.html 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00447.html New proposed Apache License. The [29]Apache Software Foundation is [30]considering the adoption of a new set of [31]licenses for their open source projects. They have invited the public to review and comment on the proposed 2.0 [32]license and related material. Brian Carlson has [33]doubts that part of the new license are even legal, at least in the U.S. 29. http://www.apache.org/ 30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00052.html 31. http://www.apache.org/licenses/proposed/ 32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00053.html 33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00054.html Debian Installer Beta 1. Joey Hess [34]announced the first beta release of [35]debian-installer, the new installation system for sarge. This first beta is available for the i386 and powerpc architectures only. More architectures were said to follow in later betas. Please see the [36]todo if you want to help out. 34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00003.html 35. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ 36. http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/TODO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup Debian-Installer Floppies with BRLTTY. Mario Lang [37]announced a new [38]floppy set based on the new Debian-Installer for Sarge with support for BRLTTY included. He has also installed a fresh system with them, so they appear to work. You need to pass a kernel option to lilo when the first floppy boots, to tell brltty what display you have, and where it is connected. 37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-accessibility-0310/msg00023.html 38. http://people.debian.org/~mlang/install/ New Skolelinux CD Image. Petter Reinholdtsen [39]announced the new Skolelinux CD [40]image, prerelease 41. He included the changelog which notes several security and language updates besides updates in the Debian installer such as improved support for PCMCIA and USB as well as hardware detection. 39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-0311/msg00000.html 40. ftp://developer.skolelinux.no/skolelinux-cd/ Debian XML/SGML Policy Draft. Mark Johnson [41]announced a [42]policy draft for XML and SGML resources. At this point, only chapters 2 and 3 (covering directory layouts, etc.) are anywhere near being finished. Feedback should be sent to the [43]debian-sgml list. 41. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00005.html 42. http://people.debian.org/~mrj/xml-sgml-policy/debian-policy/ 43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/ Collaborative XML/SGML Packaging Project. Mark Johnson [44]invited all XML/SGML package maintainers to join a collaborative packaging and maintenance effort hosted on [45]Alioth. Motivation is provided by the implementation of the OASIS XML Catalog specification and the proliferation of newly available XML resources. Another motivation is to eliminate the hassles of non-maintainer uploads. 44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00010.html 45. http://debian-xml-sgml.alioth.debian.org/ Debian MiniConf3 in Adelaide. The Debian [46]MiniConf will once again be held in conjunction with [47]Linux Conference Australia in Adelaide. [48]Registration for the conference also includes registration for the Debian MiniConf, and the organisers are currently [49]calling for papers. 46. http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/ 47. http://lca2004.linux.org.au/ 48. http://lca2004.linux.org.au/register/ 49. http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/cfp/ Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 2.3. Martin Michlmayr [50]noted that [51]FHS 2.3 will be released soon, but there is currently some controversy over [52]/srv and [53]/media. He thought it would be good if Debian had an opinion about this and encouraged people to look at and comment on the proposals. 50. http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb-0311/msg00009.html 51. http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3402935&forum_id=3128 52. http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16 53. http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27 Debian wins several Readers' Choice Awards. The Debian project [54]announced that this year was quite successful and it has won several readers' choice awards from major GNU/Linux magazines. Debian has won in the category of "Favourite Distribution" of the [55]Linux Journal 2003 Readers' Choice Awards, in the category "Best Enterprise Distribution" of [56]Linux Enterprise Reader's Choice 2003 and in the category "Best Distribution" of the [57]Linux New Media Award 2003. 54. http://www.debian.org/News/2003/20031110 55. http://pr.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=785 56. http://www.linuxenterprise.de/itr/service/show.php3?id=104&nodeid=35 57. http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2003/12/award/award.html Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed. * [58]PostgreSQL -- Buffer overflow. * [59]conquest -- Local conquest exploit. * [60]EPIC4 -- Denial of service. * [61]omega-rpg -- Local games exploit. 58. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-397 59. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-398 60. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-399 61. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-400 New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates. * [62]aap -- Make-like "expert system" for building software. * [63]anteater -- MTA log analyser written 100% in C++. * [64]aqmoney -- Command line utility for HBCI homebanking. * [65]arc -- Archive utility based on the MSDOS ARC program. * [66]arptables -- ARP table administration. * [67]chasen-dictutils -- Japanese Morphological Analysis System - utilities for dictionary. * [68]cutter -- Disconnect routed IP connections. * [69]digikam -- Digital Camera Application for KDE 3.x. * [70]discus -- Pretty version of df(1) command. * [71]dvdauthor -- Create DVD-Video file system. * [72]dvdrtools -- DVD writing program. * [73]eagle -- Printed circuit board design tool. * [74]eciadsl -- User-space driver for the Globespan-based USB ADSL modems. * [75]festalon -- NSF player for OSS (/dev/dsp). * [76]fisg -- Fast IRC Statistics Generator. * [77]gngeogui -- GUI frontend for gngeo. * [78]gnome-office -- The GNOME Office suite. * [79]gnusound -- Powerful sound editor. * [80]ifmetric -- Set routing metrics for a network interface. * [81]lg-issue96 -- Issue 96 of the Linux Gazette. * [82]opendb -- Web Open Lending Database. * [83]osdsh -- Overlays your screen with various system information. * [84]powernowd -- Control CPU speed and voltage using 2.6 kernel interface. * [85]prelude-lml -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Log Monitoring Lackey ]. * [86]prelude-manager -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Report Manager ]. * [87]prelude-nids -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Network sensor ]. * [88]pxe -- Free PXE daemon. * [89]qalculate -- Powerful and easy to use desktop calculator. * [90]smbget -- Downloader for the SMB/CIFS protocol. * [91]sng -- Specialized markup language for representing PNG contents. * [92]tcltls -- TLS OpenSSL extension to Tcl. * [93]toursst -- RSS channel news items where you want them. * [94]vpnc -- Cisco-compatible VPN client. * [95]vqadmin -- Web based control panel for vpopmail. * [96]waproamd -- WLAN roaming daemon. 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/aap.html 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/anteater.html 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/aqmoney.html 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/arc.html 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/arptables.html 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/chasen-dictutils.html 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/cutter.html 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/digikam.html 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/discus.html 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdauthor.html 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdrtools.html 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/eagle.html 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/eciadsl.html 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/festalon.html 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/fisg.html 77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gngeogui.html 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-office.html 79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gnusound.html 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ifmetric.html 81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/lg-issue96.html 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/opendb.html 83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/osdsh.html 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/powernowd.html 85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-lml.html 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-manager.html 87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/prelude-nids.html 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pxe.html 89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/qalculate.html 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/smbget.html 91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/sng.html 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/tcltls.html 93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/toursst.html 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/vpnc.html 95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/vqadmin.html 96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/waproamd.html Orphaned Packages. 3 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 187 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [97]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. 97. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/ * [98]ipmasq -- Securely initializes IP Masquerade forwarding/firewalling. ([99]Bug#219173) * [100]php4-apc -- Caches PHP scripts to get them loaded much faster. ([101]Bug#219571) * [102]snd -- Sound file editor. ([103]Bug#219837) 98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ipmasq.html 99. http://bugs.debian.org/219173 100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/php4-apc.html 101. http://bugs.debian.org/219571 102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/snd.html 103. http://bugs.debian.org/219837 Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the [104]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 104. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 105. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
