Debian Weekly News - October 25th, 2005
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/43/
Debian Weekly News - October 25th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 43rd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Jörg Jaspert [1]noticed that the rate of
package [2]rejections out of the NEW queue is rising, mostly due to
incomplete copyright files and suggested to investigate the included
files before the upload. Debian users in Japan will hold Debian
[3]mini conference in Osaka, Japan at the coming weekend (28th and
29th of October).
1. http://ganneff.de/blog/2005/10/23
2. http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html
3. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/1028-jdmc
Etch Release Progress. Steve Langasek [4]thanked those who have spent
large amounts of time on the [5]sarge release and proposed a timeline
for the release of [6]etch. This allows for the first freeze of the
toolchain and kernel in July and a general freeze in October. Meeting
these milestones would then lead to a [7]release of etch in December
2006.
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/10/msg00004.html
5. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/
6. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
7. http://release.debian.org/etch_rc_policy.txt
Graphical Debian-Installer. Christian Perrier [8]reported about the
[9]graphical frontend to the [10]debian-installer as part of the most
recent [11]minutes of the monthly Debian Installer team [12]meeting.
Davide Viti earlier [13]announced a nearly working graphical installer
and a small [14]ISO image for trial.
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2005/10/msg00980.html
9. https://debian.polito.it/downloads/d-i_gtk_snapshots/
10. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
11. http://people.debian.org/~bubulle/d-i/irc-meeting-20051019/minutes
12. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstallerMeetings
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2005/10/msg00406.html
14. http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/images/daily/gtk-miniiso/mini.iso
Port Assignments during System Boot. Gernot Salzer [15]noticed that
some network ports get assigned dynamically during the boot process
and sometimes clash with daemons that use fixed ports. Javier
Fernández-Sanguino Peña [16]explained that the assignment happens
inside the GNU C library and [17]started the portsreserve package to
prevent such cases.
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01062.html
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01071.html
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01148.html
Default local Hostname. Christoph Haas [18]discovered that the local
hostname after the installation defaults to localhost.localdomain
instead of just localhost. Joey Hess [19]explained that the
configuration has already been changed after the sarge release in
reaction to Bug#[20]247734.
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01063.html
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00254.html
20. http://bugs.debian.org/247734
Plus Signs in Package Names. Andres Salomon [21]intended to rename the
binary packages of [22]mysql++ package from [23]libsqlplus1 to
[24]libmysql++ since several users were confused by the older name and
wondered if the plus signs could pose a problem for the packaging
tools. Henning Glawe [25]pointed out that the plus sign has a special
meaning for apt-get but Henning Makholm [26]added that this doesn't
matter here since the soname will have to be added to it anyway.
21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01290.html
22. http://packages.debian.org/src:mysql++
23. http://packages.debian.org/libsqlplus1
24. http://packages.debian.org/libmysql++2
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00081.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00083.html
S-Lang Module Naming. Rafael Laboissiere [27]noted that there is
currently no policy about naming S-Lang modules. Applications such as
[28]slsh or [29]slrn are prefixed with "sl" while modules for other
languages use the full name of the language in the package name. He
[30]acknowledged to rename the package to [31]slang-gdbm as this
module is more interesting for S-Lang developers.
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01291.html
28. http://packages.debian.org/slsh
29. http://packages.debian.org/slrn
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01309.html
31. http://packages.debian.org/slang-gdbm
Pbuilder Status Update. Junichi Uekawa [32]reported that he has moved
the development to [33]Alioth as a preparation for team maintenance
and switched to [34]cdebootstrap. For several distributions
dependencies are not [35]resolved with regards to priorities, though.
They could be adjusted [36]en bloc or [37]during the entire
development cycle before the release.
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01317.html
33. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/pbuilder
34. http://packages.debian.org/cdebootstrap
35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01450.html
36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00035.html
37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00052.html
Proposed teTeX Transition. Frank Küster [38]wondered if there is a
possibility to prevent a normal transition for teTeX packages since
the new version 3.0 should be available in unstable but release
managers have asked him not to start another transition at the moment.
Andreas Barth [39]agreed that providing the old library version for a
while would help and not block packages as usual.
38. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01349.html
39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01353.html
New uClibc Ports. Daniel Ruoso is [40]interested in an i386 port of
Debian based on the uClibc instead of the GNU C library for older and
slower hardware. Simon Richter is in [41]need of a big endian ARM port
using uClibc for embedded systems and proposed to exchange only a
small set of packages with their uClibc versions. Riku Voipio
[42]pointed to the [43]woody port using uClibc.
40. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01362.html
41. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01367.html
42. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01449.html
43. http://people.debian.org/~andersee/uwoody/
cURL Status Update. Domenico Andreoli [44]updated the cURL package in
the experimental suite so that one variant is linked against OpenSSL
and another is linked against GNU TLS. This will fix license problems
with applications released under the [45]GNU GPL that are indirectly
linked against OpenSSL.
44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/09/msg01389.html
45. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
PHP License for PEAR Packages? Piotr Roszatycki [46]wondered how to
handle packages in the Debian archive that use the [47]PHP [48]license
for something that is not PHP itself since one such package was
rejected from the archive. Jörg Jaspert [49]pointed out that the
license isn't suited for modules and applications written in or for
PHP but only for the core PHP language itself.
46. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00122.html
47. http://www.php.net/license/2_02.txt
48. http://www.php.net/license/3_0.txt
49. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/08/msg00128.html
New Source Packages and Binaries. Frank Küster [50]noticed that a new
source package that provides existing binary package does not have to
go through NEW processing. This way accidently overwritten binary
packages won't get noticed before they reach the archive. Jeroen van
Wolffelaar [51]explained that this will soon change.
50. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00153.html
51. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg00187.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 866: [52]mozilla -- Several vulnerabilities.
* DSA 867: [53]module-assistant -- Insecure temporary file.
* DSA 868: [54]mozilla-thunderbird -- Several vulnerabilities.
* DSA 869: [55]eric -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 870: [56]sudo -- Arbitrary command execution.
* DSA 871: [57]libgda2 -- Arbitrary code execution.
52. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-866
53. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-867
54. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-868
55. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-869
56. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-870
57. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-871
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [58]recently or contain important updates.
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [59]acpidump -- Utilities to dump system's ACPI tables to an ASCII
file.
* [60]adplay -- Console-based OPL2 audio player.
* [61]araneida -- Programmable web server written and extended in
Lisp.
* [62]bbe -- Sed-like editor for binary files.
* [63]bcp -- Tool for extracting subsets of Boost C++ Libraries.
* [64]dmraid -- Tool to manage some hardware (S)ATA raid
controllers.
* [65]hunspell -- Spell checker and morphological analyser
(program).
* [66]jmp -- Profiler for Java to trace object and method timings.
* [67]kgeography -- Geography learning tool.
* [68]lcd4linux -- Grabs information and displays it on an external
lcd.
* [69]sextractor -- Source extractor for astronomical images.
* [70]soundconverter -- Convert sound files to other formats.
* [71]ssss -- Shamir's secret sharing scheme implementation.
* [72]tix -- Tix library for Tk, version 8.1 -- runtime package.
* [73]wxmaxima -- wxWidgets GUI for the computer algebra system
maxima.
* [74]xmoto -- 2D motocross platform game.
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/acpidump
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/adplay
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/araneida
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/bbe
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/bcp
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/dmraid
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/hunspell
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/jmp
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kgeography
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/lcd4linux
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/sextractor
70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/soundconverter
71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ssss
72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/tix
73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/wxmaxima
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/xmoto
Orphaned Packages. 7 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 204 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [75]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.
75. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [76]dcgui -- Direct connect graphical client (GTK+) (peer-based
file-sharing). ([77]Bug#334492)
* [78]dctc -- Direct connect text client. ([79]Bug#334488)
* [80]goldedplus -- Offline mail reader for Fidonet and Usenet.
([81]Bug#334743)
* [82]juke -- Curses-based jukebox program. ([83]Bug#334375)
* [84]jwhois -- Improved caching Whois client. ([85]Bug#334543)
* [86]tspc -- Client to configure an IPv6 tunnel to freenet6.
([87]Bug#335095)
* [88]xmms-crossfade -- XMMS Plugin for crossfading / continuous
output. ([89]Bug#335091)
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/dcgui
77. http://bugs.debian.org/334492
78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/dctc
79. http://bugs.debian.org/334488
80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/goldedplus
81. http://bugs.debian.org/334743
82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/juke
83. http://bugs.debian.org/334375
84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/jwhois
85. http://bugs.debian.org/334543
86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/tspc
87. http://bugs.debian.org/335095
88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/xmms-crossfade
89. http://bugs.debian.org/335091
Removed Packages. 2 packages have been [90]removed from the Debian
archive during the past week:
90. http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt
* di-packages-build -- Helper packages for Debian-Installer packages
build
[91]Bug#334148: Request of maintainer, superseded by debhelper;
no rev-build-deps
* lg-* -- Linux Gazette packages
[92]Bug#321795: Request of maintainer, non-free license
91. http://bugs.debian.org/334148
92. http://bugs.debian.org/321795
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
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page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
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93. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
94. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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