------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/ Debian Project News debian-public...@lists.debian.org May 2nd, 2011 http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2011/07/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's seventh issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include: * Debian Project mourns the loss of Adrian von Bidder * Upcoming changes for the Linux kernels on the i386 architecture * Bits from the DPL * Berkeley Database plans for the future * Mono 2.10.1 now in "experimental" * Report from FAI developer meeting * The popcon problem * Further interviews * Other news * New Debian Contributors * Important Debian Security Advisories * New and noteworthy packages * Work-needing packages * Want to continue reading DPN? Debian Project mourns the loss of Adrian von Bidder --------------------------------------------------- The Debian Project lost Adrian von Bidder [2], who was involved in Debian, represented the project at numerous events and was one of the founding members and current secretary of debian.ch [3]. He also founded the "NTP Pool [4]" (crowd-sourced time synchronisation), which our project has since fully adopted. 2 : http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110423 3 : http://debian.ch 4 : http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/ Upcoming changes for the Linux kernels on the i386 architecture --------------------------------------------------------------- Ben Hutchings announced some upcoming changes [5] for the Linux kernels [6] in the i386 architecture [7] (aka 32-bit PC). The most notable change with the 2.6.39 kernel packages will be the drop of the 686 flavour, even so it's the most widely used. Ben explains that only a very limited set of processors are not able to use the 686-bigmem flavour, which has less limitations and supports more that 4GB of RAM (on top of some other benefits). He also points out that these processors not supported by the 686-bigmem flavour seem to gain performance with the 486 flavour. Without the 686 flavour, the 686-bigmem will be renamed to 686-pae. 5 : http://womble.decadent.org.uk/blog/upcoming-changes-in-debian-linux-packages-for-i386.html 6 : http://packages.debian.org/src:linux-2.6 7 : http://www.debian.org/ports/i386/ He also said, that the amd64 flavour will be dropped as soon as migration from a 32-bit userland with 64-bit kernel to a 64-bit userland with 64-bit kernel is implemented and has been tested. Before that, Ben blogged about changes introduced with 2.6.38 [8] kernels. One change is the introduction of a user space daemon [9] providing the kernel with country specific regulations for wireless usage from a database [10]. 8 : http://womble.decadent.org.uk/blog/recent-changes-in-debian-linux-packages.html 9 : http://packages.debian.org/crda 10 : http://packages.debian.org/wireless-regdb Bits from the DPL ----------------- Ignoring the result of his reelection [11], Stefano Zacchiroli sent his last bits from the DPL [12], where he was glad to refer to the Debian Derivatives Exchange project [13] recently launched and the high activity on the debian-devel [14] and debian-project [15] mailing lists. He enjoyed spreading the Debian verb in Bosnia, Taiwan and France; and is looking forward at the LinuxTag in Berlin [16], the Greek Free and Open Source Software Society [17] conference and the Ubuntu Developer Summit [18]. Stefano discussed the relationships with others: the GNOME Foundation invited Debian at the GNOME.Asia summit [19] where Josselin Mouette attended on behalf of Debian, John Sullivan who become the new executive director at FSF, and Graziano Sorbaioli, the gNewSense community manager. He finally kept us posted about the upcoming DebConf preparation, sprints and other expenses. 11 : http://www.debian.org/vote/2011/vote_001 12 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/04/msg00010.html 13 : http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110318 14 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/ 15 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/ 16 : http://www.linuxtag.org/2011/ 17 : http://www.ellak.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6874/ 18 : http://uds.ubuntu.com/ 19 : http://www.gnome.asia/ After being reelected as Debian Project Leader, Stefano Zacchiroli sent his first bits from the DPL in this term [20]: "Thanks! I'm flattered by the support and trust in me you have shown. It's a honor to be confirmed as Debian Project Leader, as well as it's a honor to represent Debian before the Debian community and the world out there. I'll try very hard not to disappoint any of you." Stefano described what is the DPL role and how people can help and contact him. 20 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/05/msg00000.html Berkeley Database plans for the future -------------------------------------- Ondrej Surý reported from the plans of the Berkeley DB maintainers [21] to reduce the number of BDB versions [22] shipped in stable releases. Debian 5 "Lenny" and Debian 6 "Squeeze" both contained three different versions which where needed to supported during the release as well as during upgrades, which was often quite difficult. In the future, each stable release should have only one version as default as well as the tools for the previous one to ensure smooth upgrades. 21 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg01030.html 22 : http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/BerkeleyDB Mono 2.10.1 now in "experimental" --------------------------------- Mirco Bauer notified us about his recent upload of Mono 2.10.1 into Debian's [23] "experimental" branch. The biggest change from a packaging point of view is making Mono even more modular with one library per package. This reduces the install size. 23 : http://www.meebey.net/posts/the_big_split_mono_2.10_debian_packaging/ Report from FAI developer meeting --------------------------------- Michael Prokop blogged about the FAI developer meeting [24] held last month in Cologne, Germany. The meeting was very fruitful: as Micheal reported, during the two days were made 134 Subversion commits, regarding a new release candidate version, various website improvements, and the documentation. The team has also discussed about the release management (deciding to use 3.4.x version as long term stable release and 4.x as developer version) and has defined its future goals. 24 : http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2011/04/21/report-from-fai-developer-meeting-042011/ The popcon problem ------------------ Joey Hess wrote an interesting post about popcon [25] where analyzes various issues regarding the use of the Debian Popularity Contest [26]. First of all, noticed Joey, there's a measuring problem: popcon units are unknown and the only way to resolve this ambiguity is the use of ratios of values. Also, it is deceptive to compare popcon scores of packages with different functions and targets: in fact, some packages are installed by default on a wide range of machines, while others are more specific. At the end, Joey noticed that one of the most interesting aspect of Debian is that you can find in it even uncommon and specific -- but not necessarily popular or widespread -- software: so, "every removal of a package for "low popcon score" runs the risk of silently degrading this overall value of Debian." 25 : http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/the_popcon_problem/ 26 : http://popcon.debian.org/ Further interviews ------------------ There has been a further "People behind Debian" interview withMeike Reichle [27], Press Officer and member of the Debian Women project. 27 : http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/04/21/people-behind-debian-meike-reichle-member-of-debian-women/ Other news ---------- Alexander Reichle-Schmehl noted that repository used to draft this newsletter has just seen it's 2000th commit [28]. 28 : http://lists.debian.org/4dae970a.4030...@schmehl.info Tom Marble noted [29] that, according to popcon [30], openjdk-6-jre [31] installations on Debian surpassed sun-java6-jre [32]. Well done, OpenJDK Team! 29 : http://identi.ca/notice/71944067 30 : http://qa.debian.org/popcon-graph.php?packages=sun-java6-jre,+openjdk-6-jre&show_installed=on&want_percent=on&want_legend=on&want_ticks=on&from_date=&to_date=&hlght_date=&date_fmt=%25Y-%25m&beenhere=1 31 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openjdk-6-jre 32 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-free/sun-java6-jre Russel Coker blogged about valid policies for Security-Enhanced Linux [33] (SELinux). 33 : http://etbe.coker.com.au/2011/04/29/valid-se-linux-policy/ After her recent [34] "People behind Debian" interview, Press Officer Meike Reichle followed up in her blog about "What it's like to do Debian Press Work [35]" . 34 : http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/04/21/people-behind-debian-meike-reichle-member-of-debian-women/ 35 : http://blog.alphascorpii.net/english/debian/press-work.html Jan Hauke Rahm called for help for Debian's presence at the upcoming LinuxTag in Berlin [36]. 36 : http://blog.jhr-online.de/283 Daniel Kahn Gillmor blogged about his experience with the new systemd packages [37] available for Debian "Sid" and "experimental". While he agrees that "systemd seems to get some things right" , he's a bit concerned about the Linux-centricism of systemd and the general "bloat" of it. 37 : http://debian-administration.org/users/dkg/weblog/78 It seems that Mike Hommey is already working on iceweasel 5 [38] packages. 38 : http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1981 Bastien Roucaries asked if Debian intends to do a consolidation of cryptographic libraries [39] similar to Fedora [40]. In the following discussion, it was agreed to be a good idea, but it should ensured that there were no regressions. 39 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg01062.html 40 : http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraCryptoConsolidation Christian Perrier activated the Uyghur language in Debian Installer [41], which is the language of Xinjiang or East Turkestan [42] spoken by nearly nine millions people. 41 : http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2011/04/21#di-uyghur 42 : http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2011/04/25#east-turkestan New Debian Contributors ----------------------- 16 people have started to maintain packages [43] since the previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Robin Sheat, Gabriel de Perthuis, Andriy Beregovenko, Koichi Akabe, Denis Roio, Arno Töll, Onur Aslan, Keith Lawson, Shravan Aras, Swapnil Kulkarni, Sana Khan, Bill Cox, Luciana Fujii Pontello, Geoffroy Youri Berret, Sebastian Bator, and LuboÅ¡ Novák into our project! 43 : http://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/new-maintainers.cgi Important Debian Security Advisories ------------------------------------ Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages (among others): xmlsec1 [44], request-tracker3.6 and request-tracker3.8 [45], libmojolicious-perl [46], tinyproxy [47], doctrine [48], openjdk-6 [49], asterisk [50], libmodplug [51], iceape [52], iceweasel [53], spip [54], and qemu-kvm [55]. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures. 44 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2219 45 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2220 46 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2221 47 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2222 48 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2223 49 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2224 50 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2225 51 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2226 52 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2227 53 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2228 54 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2229 55 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2230 Debian's Backports Team released an update announcement for the package: request-tracker3.8 [56], Please read it carefully and take the proper measures. 56 : http://lists.debian.org/201104201741.10701.w...@cyconet.org 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 [57] (and the separate backports list [58], and stable updates list [59] or volatile list [60], for "Lenny" , the oldstable distribution) for announcements. 57 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/ 58 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/ 59 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/ 60 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/ New and noteworthy packages --------------------------- 402 packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently. Among many others [61] are: 61 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg * 7kaa -- Seven Kingdoms Ancient Adversaries -- real-time strategy game [62] * abacas -- Algorithm Based Automatic Contiguation of Assembled Sequences [63] * aglfn -- Adobe Glyph List For New Fonts [64] * apparmor -- User-space parser utility for AppArmor [65] * apparmor-notify -- AppArmor notification system [66] * apparmor-profiles -- Profiles for AppArmor Security policies [67] * apparmor-utils -- Utilities for controlling AppArmor [68] * aspcud -- CUDF solver based on Answer Set Programming [69] * asterisk-dahdi -- DAHDI devices support for the Asterisk PBX [70] * asterisk-ooh323 -- H.323 protocol support for the Asterisk PBX - ooH323c [71] * asterisk-voicemail -- simple voicemail support for the Asterisk PBX [72] * ckport -- portability analysis and security checking tool [73] * cliquer -- clique searching program [74] * crtmpserver -- High performance RTMP/RTSP streaming server [75] * d-push -- an implementation of the ActiveSync protocol [76] * darktable -- virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers [77] * darnwdl -- WDL document format viewer [78] * db5.1-sql-util -- Berkeley v5.1 SQL Database Utilities [79] * etoolbox -- Toolbox for LaTeX class and package authors [80] * expeyes -- hardware & software framework for developing science experiments [81] * figtree -- graphical phylogenetic tree viewer [82] * freegish -- a physics based arcade game [83] * fs2ram -- manage post-mount/pre-unmount scripts for tmpfs across reboot [84] * gaduhistory -- EKG history viewer [85] * gbrowse -- The GMOD Generic Genome Browser [86] * gofigure2 -- Tool for visualizing, processing and analysing of bioimages [87] * gpick -- advanced GTK+ color picker [88] * herculesstudio -- Hercules GUI front-end [89] * hg-fast-export -- mercurial to git converter using git-fast-import [90] * ideviceinstaller -- Utility to manage installed applications on an iDevice [91] * ikiwiki-hosting-dns -- ikiwiki hosting -- dns server [92] * ikiwiki-hosting-web -- ikiwiki hosting -- web server [93] * imhangul-common -- Common files for imhangul [94] * jsxgraph -- Interactive Geometry with JavaScript [95] * kdocker -- lets you dock any application into the system tray [96] * keepass2 -- Password manager [97] * lcrt -- graphic linux remote login tool [98] * logreq -- LaTeX compiling helper [99] * mana -- opensource 2D MMORPG platform client [100] * maqview -- graphical read alignment viewer for short gene sequences [101] * mediathekview -- View streams from German public television stations [102] * minitunes -- Simple but sophisticated graphical music player [103] * modsecurity-crs -- modsecurity's Core Rule Set [104] * mothur -- sequence analysis suite for research on microbiota [105] * mpd-sima -- Automagically add title to mpd playlist [106] * mpikmeans-tools -- Standalone applications for MPIKmeans [107] * msgpack-python -- Python implementation of MessagePack format [108] * nigiri -- D-Bus-based IRC suite (terminal client) [109] * nwchem -- High-performance computational chemistry software [110] * oasis -- Architecture for building OCaml libraries and applications [111] * openbabel-gui -- Chemical toolbox utilities (graphical user interface) [112] * passwordmaker-cli -- creates unique, secure passwords - cli version [113] * polygraph -- performance testing tool for caching proxies and more [114] * postler -- desktop mail client built in vala [115] * proftpd-mod-vroot -- ProFTPD module mod_vroot [116] * racket -- extensible programming language in the scheme family [117] * runlim -- tool for sampling time and memory usage [118] * rygel-preferences -- GNOME UPnP/DLNA services - preferences tool [119] * scolasync -- graphic tool to copy data to or from a set of USB storage media [120] * scrypt -- File encryption utility using scrypt for key derivation [121] * serdi -- lightweight RDF syntax library - serdi tool [122] * showq -- MIDI controllable audio player [123] * snappy -- Powerful media player with a minimalistic interface [124] * sonic -- Simple utility to speed up or slow down speech [125] * spark -- SPARK programming language toolset [126] * spek -- acoustic spectrum analyser [127] * squizz -- Sequence/alignment converter [128] * synapse -- semantic file launcher [129] * tekka -- D-Bus-based IRC suite (graphical client) [130] * tetraproc -- Tetrahedral Microphone Processor for Ambisonic Recording [131] * torchat -- decentralized instant messenger built on top of the Tor Network [132] * tumbler -- D-Bus thumbnailing service [133] * twittering-mode -- a Twitter client for Emacs [134] * ultracopier -- Advanced graphical file copy system [135] * unhide.rb -- Forensic tool to find processes hidden by rootkits [136] * uxlaunch -- quick X and user desktop starter [137] * xul-ext-compactheader -- Icedove extension to reduce header size to one or two lines [138] * yade -- Platform for discrete element modeling [139] 62 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/7kaa 63 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/abacas 64 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/aglfn 65 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/apparmor 66 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/apparmor-notify 67 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/apparmor-profiles 68 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/apparmor-utils 69 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/aspcud 70 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/asterisk-dahdi 71 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/asterisk-ooh323 72 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/asterisk-voicemail 73 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ckport 74 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cliquer 75 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/crtmpserver 76 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/d-push 77 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/darktable 78 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/darnwdl 79 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/db5.1-sql-util 80 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/etoolbox 81 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/expeyes 82 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/figtree 83 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/freegish 84 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fs2ram 85 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gaduhistory 86 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gbrowse 87 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gofigure2 88 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gpick 89 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/herculesstudio 90 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/hg-fast-export 91 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ideviceinstaller 92 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ikiwiki-hosting-dns 93 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ikiwiki-hosting-web 94 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/imhangul-common 95 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jsxgraph 96 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kdocker 97 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/keepass2 98 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/lcrt 99 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/logreq 100 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mana 101 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/maqview 102 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mediathekview 103 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/minitunes 104 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/modsecurity-crs 105 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mothur 106 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mpd-sima 107 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mpikmeans-tools 108 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/msgpack-python 109 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/nigiri 110 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/nwchem 111 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/oasis 112 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openbabel-gui 113 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/passwordmaker-cli 114 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/polygraph 115 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/postler 116 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/proftpd-mod-vroot 117 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/racket 118 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/runlim 119 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rygel-preferences 120 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/scolasync 121 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/scrypt 122 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/serdi 123 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/showq 124 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/snappy 125 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sonic 126 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/spark 127 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/spek 128 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/squizz 129 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/synapse 130 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/tekka 131 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/tetraproc 132 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/torchat 133 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/tumbler 134 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/twittering-mode 135 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ultracopier 136 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/unhide.rb 137 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/uxlaunch 138 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xul-ext-compactheader 139 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/yade Work-needing packages --------------------- Currently 312 packages are orphaned [140] and 151 packages are up for adoption [141]: please visit the complete list of packages which need your help [142]. 140 : http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/orphaned 141 : http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/rfa 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 debian-public...@lists.debian.org [144]. 143 : http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute 144 : mailto:debian-public...@lists.debian.org This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Justin B. Rye, Francesca Ciceri, Jeremiah C. Foster, David Prévot and Alexander Reichle-Schmehl [145]. 145 : mailto:debian-public...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-news-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110502185336.gp12...@melusine.alphascorpii.net
