--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/41/ Debian Weekly News - October 11th, 2005 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 41st issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. The Georgia Tech Marine Robotics Group has built an underwater [1]vehicle with Debian as the [2]base operating system. Matt LaPlante started a [3]series of articles that describe the set up and configuration of a firewall based on Debian, including DHCP, DNS, proxy services and dynamic DNS. 1. http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/underwater/ 2. http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/underwater/software.htm 3. http://www.cyberdogtech.com/firewalls/ Debian Security Infrastructure. The Debian project [4]announced that the security network has been improved by splitting off the public frontend to a new [5]host. This was a required step after an [6]advisory recently caused the outgoing bandwidth of the old server to be totally [7]saturated. Two more were [8]added afterward. 4. http://www.debian.org/News/2005/20051004 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-news/debian-news-2005/msg00047.html 6. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-816 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/debian-security-announce-2005/msg00206.html 8. http://www.infodrom.org/~joey/log/?200510050938 Dealing with Wiki Spam. Carlos Parra Camargo [9]noticed that several pages in the old [10]Wiki were defaced by a user and restored to the last revision. Riku Vopio [11]pointed to the [12]instructions on dealing with spam in the Wiki. 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00604.html 10. http://wiki.debian.net/ 11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00607.html 12. http://wiki.debian.org/?DealingWithSpam Security Updates for Mozilla and Friends. With [13]DSA 810 the security team announced that security problems in Mozilla, Firefox, Galeon and Thunderbird have to be fixed by more or less using the new upstream version but [14]keeping the old version number. Thanks to the work done by Eric Dorland and Alexander Sack this hasn't caused the problems yet that were already anticipated. 13. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-810 14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00632.html Reviving the Debian FAQ. Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña [15]called for help with maintaining the [16]Debian FAQ. Together with Santiago Vila he has cleaned up a lot of sections, but more improvements are required. Osamu Aoki [17]added that the scope of the FAQ should be limited to brief answers and defer to other documents for the details. 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00667.html 16. http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01122.html Cross-Chroot Account Information. Rob Browning [18]wondered how to configure multiple chroot environments so that the account databases will stay synchronous to the host system. An [19]LDAP backend as well as [20]schroot and [21]bind mounts were mentioned. Daniel Jacobowitz [22]pointed to his [23]shadow etc effort implemented with help of fuse, the filesystem in userspace. 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00716.html 19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00734.html 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00763.html 21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00737.html 22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00868.html 23. http://return.false.org/~drow/fuse/ Maintaining local Debian Patches. Sylvain Beucler [24]wondered if there was a mechanism to keep local patches applied to Debian packages even upon an upgrade. Francesco Lovergine [25]pointed him to [26]apt-src that is able to take over part of the job. Paul Hampson [27]explained that using a sane version number will stop [28]apt-get from updating the package from the Debian source. 24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00802.html 25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00803.html 26. http://packages.debian.org/apt-src 27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01072.html 28. http://packages.debian.org/apt Hotplug Blacklists obsolete. Marco d'Itri [29]reported that the new hotplug and coldplug subsystem that has been integrated into [30]udev cannot handle the former blacklisting of modules anymore but only its own. He later [31]added that he has implemented support for user-supplied files in /etc/hotplug/blacklist.d/ in modprobe. 29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00830.html 30. http://packages.debian.org/udev 31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01311.html Big Endian ARM Port. Lennert Buytenhek [32]announced the [33]intention to work on a big endian ARM port for consumer devices such as the Linksys NSLU2 or Synology DS101. Wouter Verhelst [34]offered his help with maintaining a build daemon within the secondary buildd [35]network. 32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg00860.html 33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2005/08/msg00011.html 34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01051.html 35. http://experimental.buildd.net/ Linux Documentation Project License. Francesco Poli [36]discussed the freeness of the Linux Documentation Project License version 2. Matthew Garrett [37]responded positively and pointed out that only the so called dissident test is a problem since the person who is making modifications needs to be identified. 36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/09/msg00503.html 37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/09/msg00504.html Debian Linux Kernel Handbook. Jurij Smakov et al. have published the Debian Linux kernel [38]handbook which will help in documenting the internals of the Debian Linux kernel build process. The document is still work in progress with a lot of sections missing, but it's a giant step in the right direction. 38. http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed. * DSA 843: [39]arc -- Insecure temporary files. * DSA 844: [40]mod-auth-shadow -- Authentication bypass. * DSA 845: [41]mason -- Missing init script. * DSA 846: [42]cpio -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 847: [43]dia -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 848: [44]masqmail -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 849: [45]shorewall -- Firewall bypass. * DSA 850: [46]tcpdump -- Denial of service. * DSA 851: [47]openvpn -- Denial of service. * DSA 852: [48]up-imapproxy -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 853: [49]ethereal -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 854: [50]tcpdump -- Denial of service. * DSA 855: [51]weex -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 855: [52]weex -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 856: [53]py2play -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 857: [54]graphviz -- Insecure temporary file. * DSA 858: [55]xloadimage -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 859: [56]xli -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 860: [57]ruby -- Safety bypass. * DSA 861: [58]uw-imap -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 862: [59]ruby1.6 -- Safety bypass. 39. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-843 40. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-844 41. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-845 42. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-846 43. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-847 44. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-848 45. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-849 46. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-850 47. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-851 48. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-852 49. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-853 50. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-854 51. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-855 52. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-855 53. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-856 54. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-857 55. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-858 56. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-859 57. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-860 58. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-861 59. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-862 New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive [60]recently or contain important updates. 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main * [61]connect-proxy -- Establish TCP connection using SOCKS4/5 and HTTP tunnel. * [62]dangen -- Shoot 'em up game where accurate shooting matters. * [63]fruit -- Chess engine, to calculates chess moves. * [64]gtkhtml3.8 -- HTML rendering/editing library - bonobo component binary. * [65]japitools -- Java API compatibility testing tools. * [66]keurocalc -- Universal currency converter and calculator. * [67]lprof -- Hardware Color Profiler. * [68]mozilla-biofox -- Extension of bioinformatics tools to Mozilla and Firefox browsers. * [69]tilda -- Terminal with first person shooter console likeness. * [70]wmii -- Lightweight tabbed and tiled X11 window manager. 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/connect-proxy 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/dangen 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/fruit 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gtkhtml3.8 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/japitools 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/keurocalc 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/lprof 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/mozilla-biofox 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/tilda 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/wmii Orphaned Packages. 9 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 200 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [71]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. 71. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/ * [72]heaplayers -- High-performance memory allocators. ([73]Bug#332536) * [74]libend-perl -- Generalized END {}. ([75]Bug#333186) * [76]libhoard -- Fast memory allocation library. ([77]Bug#332538) * [78]libhtml-table-perl -- Perl module for creating HTML tables. ([79]Bug#333188) * [80]libintl-perl -- Uniforum message translations system compatible i18n library. ([81]Bug#333190) * [82]libnews-nntpclient-perl -- News::NNTPClient, Perl support for accessing NNTP servers. ([83]Bug#333192) * [84]libperlmenu-perl -- Menu and Template (curses-based) UI for Perl. ([85]Bug#333193) * [86]libterm-prompt-perl -- Perl extension for prompting a user for information. ([87]Bug#333194) * [88]libtest-reporter-perl -- Sends test results to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ([89]Bug#333195) 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/heaplayers 73. http://bugs.debian.org/332536 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libend-perl 75. http://bugs.debian.org/333186 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libhoard 77. http://bugs.debian.org/332538 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libhtml-table-perl 79. http://bugs.debian.org/333188 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libintl-perl 81. http://bugs.debian.org/333190 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libnews-nntpclient-perl 83. http://bugs.debian.org/333192 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libperlmenu-perl 85. http://bugs.debian.org/333193 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libterm-prompt-perl 87. http://bugs.debian.org/333194 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libtest-reporter-perl 89. http://bugs.debian.org/333195 Removed Packages. 17 packages have been [90]removed from the Debian archive during the past week: 90. http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt * doc-debian-ko -- Debian FAQ and other documents to Korean [91]Bug#327764: Request of maintainer, orphaned, outdated * php3 -- server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language [92]Bug#330656: Request of maintainer, superseded by php4/php5 * busybox-cvs -- Tiny utilities for small and embedded systems [93]Bug#331153: Request of QA, RC-buggy, superseded by busybox * login.app -- A login application designed with the NeXTStep look in mind [94]Bug#256681: Request of QA, inactive upstream, alternatives exist * gupsc -- GNOME client for the Network UPS Tools Package (nut) [95]Bug#263613: Request of QA, abandoned upstream, alternatives exist * cantus -- Gnome tool to mass-rename/tag mp3 and ogg files [96]Bug#287985: Request of QA, outdated, better alternatives * xml-soap -- SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) implementation in Java [97]Bug#307284: Request of QA, superseded by axis * chastity-list -- blacklists for SquidGuard [98]Bug#321594: Request of QA, abandoned upstream, very outdated * cyrus-imapd -- CMU Cyrus mail system (administration tool) [99]Bug#330696: Request of maintainer, obsolete * pd-externals -- PD external collection [100]Bug#331385: Request of maintainer, few users; out-of-date; buggy * bidwatcher -- Tool for watching and bidding on eBay auctions [101]Bug#331684: Request of maintainer, broken; security issues * ghc5 -- GHC - the Glasgow Haskell Compilation system [102]Bug#331701: Request of maintainer, superseded by ghc6 * nhc98 -- aNother Haskell Compiler (the nhc98 Haskell Compiler) [103]Bug#331704: Request of maintainer, obsolete * oftpd -- Secure anonymous FTP server [104]Bug#332186: Request of maintainer, dead upstream; security issues * jpilot-mail -- Mail plugin for jpilot (Palm Pilot desktop) [105]Bug#332636: Request of maintainer, has never been part of a stable release; RC bugs * libosip -- Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) library [106]Bug#331167: Request of maintainer, superseded by libosip2 * python-gtkextra -- Python module for the GtkExtra widget set extension [107]Bug#279541: Request of QA, obsolete, unneeded 91. http://bugs.debian.org/327764 92. http://bugs.debian.org/330656 93. http://bugs.debian.org/331153 94. http://bugs.debian.org/256681 95. http://bugs.debian.org/263613 96. http://bugs.debian.org/287985 97. http://bugs.debian.org/307284 98. http://bugs.debian.org/321594 99. http://bugs.debian.org/330696 100. http://bugs.debian.org/331385 101. http://bugs.debian.org/331684 102. http://bugs.debian.org/331701 103. http://bugs.debian.org/331704 104. http://bugs.debian.org/332186 105. http://bugs.debian.org/332636 106. http://bugs.debian.org/331167 107. http://bugs.debian.org/279541 Want to continue reading DWN? 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