------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/ Debian Project News [email protected] May 18th, 2010 http://debian.org/News/project/2010/03/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's third issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include: * DebConf10 update * Squeeze freeze * Debian-Ubuntu relationship * Debian installation media and non-free firmware * ... and much more. DebConf10 update ---------------- Deadlines are looming for DebConf10 - some have already passed. For example, the last day to submit a BoF (Birds of a Feather) talk has come and gone. There is still lots you can do for DebConf10 however including volunteering time, lending equipment, and even donating money. Sponsors and donors are needed to help defray the costs of holding DebConf10 as Raphael Geissert wrote on his blog [6]. 6 : http://my.opera.com/atomo64/blog/2010/05/04/debconf10-needs-your-help Joey Hess also blogged about DebConf10 [7] saying "Let us get you to DebConf -- I promise you won't regret it!" There is still time (you have until the 15th of May) to contact Joey about this year's special funding to get you to DebConf10. 7 : http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/Sponsoring_non-regulars_for_DebConf10/ Squeeze freeze -------------- Adam Barratt and the release team sent out an update on the status of transitions, Release Critical bugs and a Timeline of the Squeeze freeze. In short, we have a way to go before Squeeze is frozen and it is difficult for the release team to estimate when Squeeze will get frozen. Adam writes "In order to help us keep a clearer picture of which changes still need to occur before we can freeze, we will be introducing a 'transition freeze' before the end of this month. If you have not yet discussed your transition with the Release Team, please ensure that you have done so before May 21st." The release team is already working on some transitions now, like Qt4 and gnome-desktop, which are finished. The KDE team is working on KDE 4.4 with the goal of having as up-to-date and stable version of the KDE suite as is possible. To quote Adam: "We're also close to completing the evince / totem-pl-parser transition, which means we're well on the way to have GNOME 2.30 in Squeeze." "Even though the descending slope of theRC bug graph [8] is pretty impressive [2], we still have about 400 RC bugs in Squeeze. Some of them are waiting for packages to transition from unstable to testing, but there's still a large number which need working on. On this every DD can help out by NMUing packages which are currently affected by RC bugs. Please remember that releasing is a collective effort and it is not enough to just have your own packages RC-bug free (although it's a good start) to be able to release. So, if you can help, please choose an RC bug [9], fix it :-) and NMU it, possibly to the DELAYED queue so that the maintainer can react if needed." 8 : http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/ 9 : http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/debian/all.html Debian-Ubuntu relationship -------------------------- Being invited to the recent Ubuntu Developer Summit, Debian Project Leader Stefano Zacchiroli gathered feedback [10] and examples about the relationship between the two projects. Most interesting where of course success stories, "epic fails" and requests from the Debian Project at large to the Ubuntu community. Later he posted a link to his slided [11] (a video is also available [12]) also containing some figures, e.g. that roughly 75% of all packages in Ubuntu are taken without further patches directly from Debian. Stefano later posted a summary of his talk [13] and the feedback he got. 10 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2010/05/msg00083.html 11 : http://upsilon.cc/~zack/stuff/debian-uds-m.pdf 12 : http://blip.tv/file/3622104 13 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2010/05/msg00084.html Debian installation media and non-free firmware ----------------------------------------------- With Debian's Kernel Team moving firmware files (binary data needed for some hardware like network interface cards) in separate packages in Debian's non-free section, Kurt Roeckx wondered [14], if that approach could lead to usage problems especially during installation and if these files should be added to the installation media. Several people pointed out, that the debian installation system already supports loading firmware [15] from a separate installation media, e.g. a USB stick. That however would still be to complicate for many users or use cases (e.g. remote installation). In the end Steve Langasek proposed [16] to offer normal installation media without non-free firmware files and an easy to use tool, which would add the distributable non-free firmware files to the installation media image. 14 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] 15 : http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/i386/ch06s04.html 16 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2010/05/msg00081.html Other news ---------- The 22nd issue of the miscellaneous news for developers [17] has been released and covers the following topics: 17 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00006.html * LWN subscriptions * ubuntudiff.debian.net * TXT records on debian.net * Debian Sysadmin Team seeks for help * Receive Ubuntu bugs by mail via PTS mips* porter Andreas Barth gave a status update [18] about the mips and mipsel ports [19]. While the situation for mipsel have been improved dramatically, the situation for mips remains unchanged [20]. 18 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00005.html 19 : http://www.debian.org/ports/mips/ 20 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/04/msg00010.html Debian System Administrator Martin Zobel-Helas announced [21] a new version of the "Debian Machine Usage Policies" becoming effective on July 04th, 2010. The DMUP basically covers what Debian Developers may or may not do with their accounts on debian.org hardware. The change was necessary to clarify responsibilities between the Debian System Administrators and the Debian Account Managers. 21 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00001.html Debian New Maintainer Frontdesk Member Enrico Zini reminded [22] Developers on how to properly advocate applicants for the new maintainer process. While advocation message don't need to be cumbersome and long, he highlights that only persons, who already have actively contributed to Debian should be advocated. 22 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00003.html Debian System Administrator Peter Palfrader welcomed some volunteers for maintaining porter chroot environments [23] on different architectures. He also gave some guidelines on how developers should request installation of packages in these chroot environments. 23 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00002.html Bdale Garbee bloged about sponsored LWN subscriptions [24] where HP [25] sponsors the subscription fee to access LWN.net [26] for Debian Developers and - just recently introduced - for Debian Maintainers. He also noted, that currently 571 Debian Contributors use this service. 24 : http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/Debian_and_LWN.html 25 : http://www.hp.com/go/linux 26 : http://lwn.net/ Debian System Administrator Peter Palfrader asked [27] that all bug reports concerning the removal of undistributable packages should also be sent to the maintainers of the snapshot.debian.org [28] service. 27 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/05/msg00004.html 28 : http://snapshot.debian.org/ Sune Vuorela, member of the KDE package maintenance team, wondered if distribution specific tools [29] are missing for Debian. 29 : http://pusling.com/blog/?p=163 Martin Michlmayr announced the availability of a Debian 5.0 [30] "Lenny" installation system for Marvell's Kirkwood based systems like the SheevaPlug [31] or the QNAP TS-11x/TS-21x [32]. 30 : http://www.cyrius.com/journal/debian/kirkwood/lenny-installer 31 : http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/ 32 : http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ Jan Dittberner added [33] links to UbuntuDiff, piuparts and patch tracker to the Debian Developer Portfolio Service [34]. 33 : http://www.dittberner.info/en/content/small-update-debian-developer-portfolio-service 34 : http://ddportfolio.debian.net/ Stefano Zacchiroli co-authored a paper introducing the The Ultimate Debian Database [35] a collection of several data sources to scientists doing data mining on software repositories. 35 : http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2010/05/UDD_-_consolidating_bazaar_metadata_for_QA_and_data_mining/ New Developers and Maintainers ------------------------------ 9 applicants have been accepted [36] as Debian Developers and 6 applicants have been [37] accepted [38] as Debian Maintainer since the previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Deepak Tripathi, Daniel Nurmi, Paul Gevers, Thomas Goirand, Pino Toscano, Johan Euphrosine, Kanru Chen, Mikhail Gusarov, Obey Arthur Liu, Thierry Soloniaina Randrianiriana, Ritesh Sarraf, Tommi Vainikainen, Thomas Weber, Hideki Yamane and Serafeim Zanikolas into our project! 36 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] 37 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] 38 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] Release-critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release --------------------------------------------------------- According to the unofficial RC-bugs count [39], the upcoming release, Debian 6.0 "Squeeze", is currently affected by 370 release critical bugs. 72 of them have already been fixed in Debian's "unstable" branch. Of the remaining 298 release critical bugs, 37 already have a patch (which might need testing) and 20 are marked as pending. 39 : http://bts.turmzimmer.net/details.php Ignoring these bugs as well as release critical bugs for packages in contrib or non-free, 180 release critical bugs remain to be solved for the release to happen. Important Debian Security Advisories ------------------------------------ Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages (among others): mediawiki [40], iscsitarget [41], vlc [42], mplayer [43] and phpgroupware [44]. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures. 40 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2041 41 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2042 42 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2043 43 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2044 44 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2046 Please note that these are a selection of the more important security advisories of the last weeks. If you need to be kept up to date about security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please subscribe to the security mailing list [45] for announcements. 45 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/ New and noteworthy packages --------------------------- The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently (among others [46]): 46 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg * akonadiconsole -- the Management and Debugging Console for Akonadi [47] * asciio -- dynamically create ASCII charts and graphs with GTK+2 [48] * astk -- Code_Aster build/control system and front-end -- Tcl client [49] * blogilo -- blogging client based on the KDE Platform [50] * cantor -- interface for mathematical applications [51] * chordii -- Text file (chordpro format) to music sheet converter [52] * chromium-browser -- Chromium browser [53] * cmospwd -- decrypt BIOS passwords from CMOS [54] * coffeescript -- interpreter and compiler for the CoffeeScript language [55] * dh-autoreconf -- debhelper add-on to call autoreconf and clean up after the build [56] * ditaa -- convert ASCII diagrams into proper bitmap graphics [57] * ecm -- prepares CD image files so they compress better [58] * eiskaltdcpp -- EiskaltDC++ is graphical client for Direct Connect [59] * emerillon -- map viewer for the GNOME desktop [60] * etsf-io -- Binary tools to check, merge and read ETSF files [61] * fso-specs -- freesmartphone.org DBus XML specification & documentation [62] * gnome-color-manager -- Color management integration for the Gnome desktop environment [63] * gnome-icon-theme-extras -- GNOME Desktop icon theme (additional icons) [64] * google-mock -- Google's framework for writing and using C++ mock classes [65] * granatier -- Bomberman clone [66] * iputils-clockdiff -- Measure the time difference between networked computers [67] * jbig2dec -- JBIG2 decoder library - tools [68] * jedit -- A plugin-based editor for programmers [69] * kbluetooth -- KDE Bluetooth Framework [70] * kde-config-cddb -- KDE CDDB Retrieval configuration [71] * kde-config-cron -- program scheduler frontend [72] * kde-config-phonon-xine -- advanced Phonon Xine configuration [73] * kde-l10n-cavalencia -- Southern Catalan (Valencian) (c...@valencia) files for KDE [74] * kde-l10n-eo -- Esperanto (eo) localization files for KDE [75] * kde-l10n-id -- Indonesian (id) localization files for KDE [76] * kde-l10n-si -- Sinhala (si) localization files for KDE [77] * kdelibs5-plugins -- core plugins for KDE Applications [78] * kdevelop-l10n-cavalencia -- Southern Catalan (Valencian) (c...@valencia) files for the KDevelop IDE [79] * kdevelop-l10n-da -- Danish (da) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [80] * kdevelop-l10n-de -- German (de) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [81] * kdevelop-l10n-engb -- British English (en_GB) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [82] * kdevelop-l10n-es -- Spanish (es) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [83] * kdevelop-l10n-et -- Estonian (et) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [84] * kdevelop-l10n-fr -- French (fr) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [85] * kdevelop-l10n-gl -- Galician (gl) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [86] * kdevelop-l10n-it -- Italian (it) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [87] * kdevelop-l10n-nds -- Low Saxon (nds) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [88] * kdevelop-l10n-ptbr -- Brazilian Portugese (pt_BR) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [89] * kdevelop-l10n-pt -- Portugese (pt) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [90] * kdevelop-l10n-sv -- Swedish (sv) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [91] * kdevelop-l10n-tr -- Turkish (tr) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [92] * kdevelop-l10n-uk -- Ukrainian (uk) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [93] * kdevelop-l10n-zhcn -- Chinese Simplified (zh_CN) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [94] * kdevelop-l10n-zhtw -- Chinese Traditional (zh_TW) localization files for the KDevelop IDE [95] * kdoctools -- various tools for accessing application documentation [96] * kigo -- Open-source implementation of the popular Go game [97] * llvm-2.7 -- Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) [98] * mailavenger -- Highly configurable, MTA-independent SMTP filter server [99] * marble-plugins -- plugins for Marble [100] * mongodb-clients -- An object/document-oriented database (client apps) [101] * mongodb-server -- An object/document-oriented database (server package) [102] * ojs -- Journal management and publishing system [103] * olpc-kbdshim -- OLPC XO keyboard support daemon [104] * olpc-powerd -- OLPC XO power management support daemon [105] * opticalraytracer -- A virtual lens design workshop [106] * php-textile -- PHP parser for the Textile markup [107] * plasma-desktop -- The KDE Plasma workspace for desktop and laptop computers [108] * plasma-netbook -- The KDE Plasma workspace for netbook computers [109] * ploader -- Application to upload your pictures to your Piwigo gallery [110] * posterazor -- splits an image into multiple sheets for assembly into a poster [111] * psi-plus-icons -- Icons for Psi+ [112] * psi-plus-skins -- Skins for Psi+ [113] * python-django-countries -- provides a country field for Django models [114] * python-django-djblets -- Re-usable components for Django projects [115] * python-django-markupfield -- custom Django field for easy use of markup in text fields [116] * python-flask -- micro web framework based on Werkzeug, Jinja2 and good intentions [117] * python-nids -- Python binding for libnids (aka pynids) [118] * python-prctl -- Python interface to the prctl() syscall [119] * python-prctl -- Python interface to the prctl() syscall [120] * python-xklavier -- Python binding for libxklavier, a X Keyboard Extension API [121] * rabbitvcs-cli -- Command line interface for RabbitVCS [122] * rabbitvcs-gedit -- Gedit extension for RabbitVCS [123] * rabbitvcs-nautilus -- Nautilus extension for RabbitVCS [124] * rocs -- graph theory IDE [125] * shiboken -- CPython bindings generator for C++ libraries [126] * skrooge -- personal finance manager for KDE [127] * sylph-searcher -- Full-text search program for Sylpheed or MH folders [128] * tempest-for-eliza -- demostrate electromagnetic emissions from computer systems [129] * torque-client -- command line interface to Torque server [130] * torque-client-x11 -- GUI for torque clients [131] * torque-scheduler -- scheduler part of Torque [132] * torque-server -- PBS-derived batch processing server [133] * totem-plugin-arte -- A totem plugin to watch streams from arte.tv [134] * trac-icalviewplugin -- Provides iCalendar feeds for ticket queries [135] * vala-dbus-binding-tool -- Vala binding-generator for xml introspection files [136] * vowpal-wabbit -- fast and scalable online learning algorithm [137] * xul-ext-monkeysphere -- Iceweasel/Firefox extension for using Monkeysphere on the web [138] * yorick-mira -- optical intreferometry image reconstruction within Yorick [139] 47 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/akonadiconsole 48 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/asciio 49 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/astk 50 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/blogilo 51 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cantor 52 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/chordii 53 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/chromium-browser 54 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cmospwd 55 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/coffeescript 56 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/dh-autoreconf 57 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ditaa 58 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ecm 59 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/eiskaltdcpp 60 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/emerillon 61 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/etsf-io 62 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fso-specs 63 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gnome-color-manager 64 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gnome-icon-theme-extras 65 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/google-mock 66 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/granatier 67 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/iputils-clockdiff 68 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jbig2dec 69 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jedit 70 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kbluetooth 71 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-config-cddb 72 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-config-cron 73 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-config-phonon-xine 74 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-l10n-cavalencia 75 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-l10n-eo 76 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-l10n-id 77 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kde-l10n-si 78 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdelibs5-plugins 79 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-cavalencia 80 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-da 81 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-de 82 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-engb 83 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-es 84 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-et 85 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-fr 86 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-gl 87 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-it 88 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-nds 89 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-ptbr 90 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-pt 91 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-sv 92 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-tr 93 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-uk 94 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-zhcn 95 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdevelop-l10n-zhtw 96 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdoctools 97 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kigo 98 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/llvm-2.7 99 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mailavenger 100 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/marble-plugins 101 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mongodb-clients 102 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mongodb-server 103 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ojs 104 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/olpc-kbdshim 105 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/olpc-powerd 106 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/opticalraytracer 107 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/php-textile 108 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/plasma-desktop 109 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/plasma-netbook 110 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ploader 111 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/posterazor 112 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/psi-plus-icons 113 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/psi-plus-skins 114 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-django-countries 115 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-django-djblets 116 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-django-markupfield 117 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-flask 118 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-nids 119 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-prctl 120 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-prctl 121 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-xklavier 122 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rabbitvcs-cli 123 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rabbitvcs-gedit 124 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rabbitvcs-nautilus 125 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rocs 126 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/shiboken 127 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/skrooge 128 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sylph-searcher 129 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/tempest-for-eliza 130 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/torque-client 131 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/torque-client-x11 132 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/torque-scheduler 133 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/torque-server 134 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/totem-plugin-arte 135 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/trac-icalviewplugin 136 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/vala-dbus-binding-tool 137 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/vowpal-wabbit 138 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xul-ext-monkeysphere 139 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/yorick-mira Work-needing packages --------------------- Currently 607 packages are orphaned and 120 packages are up for adoption. Please take a look at the recent [140] reports [141] to see if there are packages you are interested in or view the complete list of packages which need your help [142]. 140 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] 141 : http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] 142 : 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 contributing page [143] to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [email protected] [144]. 143 : http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute 144 : mailto:[email protected] This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Jeremiah C. Foster and Alexander Reichle-Schmehl [145]. 145 : mailto:[email protected] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
