--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Project News http://www.debian.org/News/project/2008/09/ Debian Project News - August 18th, 2008 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Some of the topics covered in this issue include: * Debian turns 15 * 8th annual Debian Conference finished * Freespire 5 to be based on Debian * ... and much more. Debian turns 15 On 16 August 1993 Ian Murdock [1]announced a new Linux distribution named "Debian". 15 years later the project started by him is the biggest Linux distribution worldwide, offering more than 20 000 software packages maintained by over 1'000 volunteers, supporting more hardware architectures than any other Linux distribution, and providing a base for more than twenty active derivatives, like [2]Knoppix, [3]Skolelinux or [4]Ubuntu. 1: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.development/msg/a32d4e2ef3bcdcc6 2: http://www.knoppix.net 3: http://www.skolelinux.org 4: http://www.ubuntu.com/ [5]Users, [6]journalists, and [7]Debian Developers congratulated, sometimes [8]just happy, sometimes [9]thoughtfully, and celebrated the birthday of the Debian project [10]worldwide with parties and single day conferences (sometimes even with live streams of the sessions). Even a [11]virtual birthday party was held in Second live (a virtual world powered by [12]Debian) where musicians Blue4u Nowicka and Jaggpro McCann gave concerts as an opener to the virtual party. In Argentina Steve McIntyre, current Debian Project Leader, opened the 8th Debian Conference with a talk describing the current state of the Debian project and the long way it has come until today. His talk is already available as a downloadable [13]video. 5: http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2008/08/msg00132.html 6: http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/08/debian-15-is-it-still-relevant.html 7: http://www.michaelandkrissy.com/node/87 8: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20064/53/ 9: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3765826/Debian+GNU/Linux:+15+Years+Old+and+at+the+Crossroads.htm 10: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianDay2008 11: http://tinyurl.com/DPN080903 12: http://www.debian.org/users/com/lindenlab 13: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2008/debconf8/high/490_Debian.ogg The Debian project would like to thank its users and developers for the confidence placed in our distribution over the last 15 years and is looking forward to the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" and many happy returns. Freespire 5 to be based on Debian Recently acquired by the Xandrox Corporation, the upcoming release of Freespire will be based on the Debian GNU/Linux "Lenny" release. The current release of Freespire (2.0.8) is still based on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). "A combined Xandros/Linspire development effort will return Freespire to its Debian GNU/Linux roots and put it in sync with Xandros Desktop Pro," [14]said Andreas Typaldos, Xandros CEO. Freespire 5 is slated to be released in the fourth quarter of 2008. 14: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/freespire-returns-debian-roots/story.aspx?guid={21713CB4-464B-4292-89EB-BE41F67FDD92}&dist=hppr 8th annual Debian Conference finished The [15]8th annual Debian Conference, allowing Users and Developers to come together, learn new techniques and discuss further development has finished yesterday on the 17th August 2008. Some results of the discussions which took place there are mentioned in this issue. Videos of the conference sessions are available (or will be soon) at the [16]meetings archive. The video team asks for [17]feedback. It is also possible to give [18]feedback to speakers and topics. Since most attendees are still on their way home, the next issue of the Debian Project News will have a deeper coverage of the Debian Conference and the associated [19]Debian Day at Buenos Aires. 15: http://debconf8.debconf.org/ 16: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2008/debconf8/ 17: http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf8/Videoteam/Thanks 18: http://blog.debconf.org/blog/debconf8/jj_feedback.dc 19: http://debconf8.debconf.org/debianday.xhtml Debian on the OpenMoko FreeRunner [20]Joachim Breitner announces the start of an official Debian port to the OpenMoko FreeRunner, a smartphone that was designed and developed in a free and open manner. This enables Debian users to use the distribution of their choice even on their telephone. [21]Installation instructions can be found on the Debian wiki. 20: http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/smartphones-standards/2008-August/000232.html 21: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnFreeRunner Bits from the X Strike Force Julien Cristau [22]reports on the newest developments within the X Strike Force. The X Strike Force is happy to announce that the configuration of the Xorg server has been considerably simplified and it is now also possible to configure video output at runtime. Furthermore new drivers have been packaged, namely the [23]nouveau driver, a reverse-engineering effort for nVidia cards and [24]openchrome, which will support via chipsets instead of the unmaintained via driver. The nouveau driver does not yet have release-quality but the X Strike Force asks for testing of the experimental build. xorg-server 1.5 and mesa 7.1 are also currently in experimental and are scheduled to advance to sid after the Lenny release. At around the same time, the team plans to enable hotplugging of input devices, and their configuration through hal. The X Strike Force concludes their report with a call for maintainers (DDs and non-DDs). People interested in joining the team can contact them on #debian-x on irc.debian.org, or on [EMAIL PROTECTED] 22: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/08/msg00010.html 23: http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/ 24: http://www.openchrome.org/ Request for adoption: The Debian Jr. project Ben Armstrong [25]is looking for someone to take over the [26]Debian Jr. project, since he is currently too involved with other Debian-internal projects and can no longer spend the necessary time on it. He recommends several measures to move the project forward and hopes to find a new leader for the project who will tackle these and other tasks and carry on his work on a child-friendly custom Debian distribution. 25: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/08/msg00004.html 26: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianJr Upcoming changes to supported architectures One of the problems discussed during this year's Debian Conference was ftp-master.debian.org, the main host for the Debian archive, running into resource constraints. [27]Joerg Jaspert announced the results: Hardware architectures, which have failed to be included in 2 successive official releases, will be moved to an other host (e.g. [28]debian-ports.org). The main purpose is to free space for architectures that are in a better shape and therefore have higher chances of being in an release. 27: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/08/msg00009.html 28: http://debian-ports.org The current [29]candidates for removal are m68k, hurd-i386 and arm (which will be replaced by armel anyway), while kfreebsd-i386 and kfreebsd-amd64 as well as [30]other architectures could now be added to the official Debian archive machines. Of course removed architectures can be re-added to the main archive, when they have proven to be fit for release. 29: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00369.html 30: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00371.html Dropping packages in main building packages in contrib Joerg Jaspert [31]wondered if it is a necessary feature, that source packages of a specific component (main, contrib or non-free) may create binary packages within an other component. Some source packages in Debian main use that feature to create binary packages in contrib. Dropping this feature would ease a re-design of the central project database. When asked for the benefits of dropping this feature, Stefano Zacchiroli [32]explained further that the database should reflect the structure of the project, especially since only the component main is an official part of Debian. Blurring the difference might confuse our users and is "weird at best". 31: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00148.html 32: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00173.html Bits from the GNU/kFreeBSD porters Aurelien Jarno gave a [33]status report about the kFreeBSD port. Overall it is in very good shape. Currently i386 and AMD64 based architectures are supported. It has a complete toolchain (including java) and more than 85% of all packages are built. He asked for help to qualify as a releasable architecture, since a port of the debian-installer is currently missing. 33: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/08/msg00007.html FAI developer workshop at the Linuxhotel in Essen/Germany At the weekend from 8th until 10th of August, the FAI (Fully Automatic Installation - an installation and update-management framework for Debian and other distributions) developer team met at the Linuxhotel in Essen, Germany, to make FAI fit for the Lenny release. In a productive as well as fun meeting, seven people got a lot of things done, but most importantly, they did a lot of testing of the current FAI functionality in the Lenny context. Important bugs were found and solved and future development has been discussed, e.g. integrating tests for classes as well as software regressions, how to deal with copyright issues and how contributors should be mentioned in the Debian copyright files. Further issues that were tackled during the meeting were how more developers could be attracted to add their code into FAI, how to make it available for testing by users, and how to get external patches into mainline FAI - which is currently only written to by the main developer. An first documentation of the meeting's outcome can be found in the [34]faiwiki. The meeting was sponsored by the [35]Linuxhotel Essen, the [36]Linux Information Systems AG and [37]LT-ec. 34: http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/DeveloperWorkshopAugust2008#Documentation 35: http://www.linuxhotel.de 36: http://www.linux-ag.de 37: http://lt-ec.de/ Debian Lenny to Support Low-Power NAS Systems Martin Michlmayr [38]updated kernels for MIPS and ARM for kernel version 2.6.26. These kernel updates bring major improvements to the ARM architecture support, which helps running Debian on low-power NAS devices like the [39]QNAP TS-409. With 2.6.26 coming closer to lenny, lenny is coming closer to run on these devices. 38: http://www.cyrius.com/journal/debian/2.6.26-udebs 39: http://www.cyrius.com/debian/orion/ Future of snapshot.debian.net Since [40]snapshot.debian.net - a service storing all versions of all Debian packages ever uploaded to the archive including useful symlinks e.g. for browsing to specific days - has problems from time to time keeping up its disc space, Eddy Petrisor [41]wondered, if a distributed, user supported structure for storing this huge amount of data would be a good idea. Andrew Pollock [42]answered that Debian could spend some of its fund for this service. Cyril Brulebois [43]added that it has been [44]announced that snapshot.debian.net should be made an official service provided by Debian, making it easier to spend funds on it. 40: http://snapshot.debian.net 41: http://tinyurl.com/DPN080901 42: http://blog.andrew.net.au/2008/08/16#fund_snapshot.debian.net 43: http://ikibiki.org//blog/2008/08/16/snapshot.debian.org/ 44: http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2008/08/msg00060.html Artwork and Desktop themes for Debian "Lenny" Valessio Brito [45]announced that the work for artwork and themes for the upcoming stable release of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0" Lenny has been started during [46]DebCamp the hacking session before the annual Debian Conference. In the meantime and [47]updated version of the [48]desktop-base package has been uploaded including a new default theme as well as a [49]second one. 45: http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2008/08/msg00000.html 46: http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20080804.231055.943faaa6.en.html 47: http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2008/08/msg00068.html 48: http://packages.debian.org/desktop-base 49: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArtThemesNightly CD/DVD Image Downloads - A Reminder / rsync on ftp.debian.org [50]Josip Rodin noted that there seems to be a rush of CD/DVD image hoarding happening. Particularly, it seems that many people are not only downloading the first image, but the additional images (CDs 2-20+) as well. The full set of images is published so that they can be downloaded by those who do not have regular access to a reliable internet connection. However, for those who do have solid Internet connections, it is more efficient to retrieve packages directly from the repositories. 50: http://lists.debian.org/debian-mirrors/2008/08/msg00000.html In related news Josip Rodin [51]noted that the rsync service on ftp.debian.org has been deprecated since 2001 and has now been disabled completely. Everyone who has used that mirror to synchronise his own mirror using rsync should switch to an other mirror. A complete list of Debian mirrors is available at [52]http://www.debian.org/mirror/list. 51: http://lists.debian.org/debian-mirrors/2008/08/msg00018.html 52: http://www.debian.org/mirror/list Bits from the DPN editors The editors of the Debian Project News sent a first [53]status report on the start-up period of the DPN. After a rough start a workflow has now been established which overall works but still has some issues, including the often missing time for native speakers to proofread the drafts and for translators to prepare versions of the project news in their own language, to be sent out simultaneously with the original news. But most importantly more people are needed to contribute to the Debian Project News by writing small texts on the noteworthy news collected at each issue's [54]development page. 53: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/08/msg00008.html 54: http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/Issues/Current Other news Lucas Nussbaum [55]wondered if the technical solution of freezing the propagation of packages from the unstable development branch to the to-be-released-soon testing branch is adequate. Since the requirement of non-disruptive changes are more a social problem, it shouldn't be solved by strict technical measures and manual approval of exceptions. 55: http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=305 Joey Schulze [56]announced the 2008 M68k Linux Porter Meeting, which will take place from August 29th to 31st at the University of Kiel, Germany. 56: http://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/2008/08/msg00002.html Lucas Nussbaum [57]asked for final reviews for the Debian Enhancement Proposal 1, which tries to improve the way how to deal with "non maintainer uploads" (NMUs). 57: http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2008/08/msg00071.html Sandro Tosi [58]noticed that the [EMAIL PROTECTED] channel topic is often used to give status messages in the case of severe or exceptional situations (outages, downtimes, etc). In order to stay informed even if not connected to oftc he recommends subscribing to the [59]Debian Wiki page that mirrors that channel's topic. 58: http://tinyurl.com/DPN080902 59: http://wiki.debian.org/TopicDebianDevel Neil Williams [60]summarized the usage of [61]PO for anything for maintaining translations of various documents, including manpages. 60: http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/serendipity/index.php?/archives/129-po4a-translation-support-from-any-format.html 61: http://packages.debian.org/po4a Nicolas Francois [62]announced that the services hosted on i18n.debian.net (for example the web frontend to the Debian Package Description Translation Project) is now available via SSL, too. 62: http://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n/2008/08/msg00041.html Stefano Zacchiroli reported [63]several [64]improvements he did for the [65]package tracking system. He fixed several bugs and feature request including tighter integration with [66]lintian, a tool for checking Debian packages for common errors, and [67]mentors.debian.net, a service used by package maintainers searching for Debian Developers to "sponsor" their upload to the Debian archive. 63: http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2008/08/improved_integration_among_PTS_and_Lintian/ 64: http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2008/08/PTS_integrated_with_mentors_and_gifts/ 65: http://packages.qa.debian.org 66: http://packages.debian.org/lintian 67: http://mentors.debian.net Lucas Nussbaum [68]blogged about an important usecase for the Ultimate Debian Database, a Google Summer of Code project integrating several information sources within Debian: recently removals of important packages from the testing Distribution have caused some discussion. Tracking these important packages will be easier through this database. 68: http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=303 Debian Project at FrOSCon 2008 >From Saturday the 23rd of August 2008 to Sunday the 24th of August 2008, the Debian Project will participate with a booth at Free and Open Source Software Conference 2008 in St. Augustin, Germany. Please see the respective [69]events page for further details. 69: http://www.debian.org/events/2008/0823-froscon Important Debian Security Advisories Debian's Security Team hasn't released any important advisories since the last issue. If you would like to be kept up to date about the security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please subscribe to the [70]mailing list for security announcements. 70: http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/ New and noteworthy packages The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently ([71]among others): * [72]autorun4linuxcd -- Menu for Debian Live under Windows * [73]bluemindo -- really simple but powerful audio player * [74]cdebconf-gtk-terminal -- cdebconf gtk plugin dislaying a terminal * [75]daptup -- reporter of changes in list of available packages from repositories * [76]etherpuppet -- create a virtual interface from a remote Ethernet interface * [77]freealchemist -- simpler figure block game * [78]guake -- A drop-down terminal for GNOME Desktop Environment * [79]ink-generator -- Inkscape extension to automatically generate files from a template * [80]jaranalyzer -- Dependency management utility for jar files * [81]uboot-envtools -- read/modify the environment for the bootloader U-Boot * [82]xorriso -- command line iso9660+RR manipulation tool 71: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg 72: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/autorun4linuxcd 73: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/bluemindo 74: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cdebconf-gtk-terminal 75: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/daptup 76: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/etherpuppet 77: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/freealchemist 78: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/guake 79: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ink-generator 80: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jaranalyzer 81: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/uboot-envtools 82: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xorriso Work-needing packages Currently 468 packages are orphaned and 120 packages are up for adoption. Please take a look at the [83]recent [84]reports to see if there are packages you are interested in or view the complete list of [85]packages which need your help. 83: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00212.html 84: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/08/msg00372.html 85: http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested Want to continue reading DPN? Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers to watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the [86]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 86: http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute 87: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Martin Michlmayr, Joachim Breitner, Rainer Dorsch, Henning Sprang, Jeff Richards, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl and Meike Reichle. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? 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