Debian Weekly News - July 18th, 2006
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/29/
Debian Weekly News - July 18th, 2006
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Welcome to this year's 29th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Harald Welte [1]announced the availability of a
root [2]filesystem based on Debian sarge and a corresponding kernel
plus instructions for EZX phones. Raphaël Hertzog has the
[3]impression that the Debian project is merely trying to keep
packages up-to-date and that the project is not making any significant
improvements.
1. http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/2006/05/12#20060512-sarge-root
2. http://people.openezx.org/laforge/
3. http://www.ouaza.com/wordpress/2006/05/26/improving-debian-as-a-whole/
Debian Server restored after Compromise. James Troup [4]reported that
gluck.debian.org was compromised. The machine was taken down for
investigation and the system was reinstalled. The intruder got
[5]access via a compromised developer account and used a local kernel
[6]vulnerability to elevate privileges.
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/07/msg00003.html
5. http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060713
6. http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-2451
Updated Sarge CD Images with newer Kernel. Kenshi Muto [7]announced
updated CD [8]images for the [9]i386 architecture for [10]sarge that
use a more recent kernel. With Linux 2.6.16-15 from [11]backports.org
several base utilities such as grub, udev and parted have been updated
as well.
7. http://kmuto.jp/b.cgi/debian/d-i-2616.htm
8. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge
9. http://www.debian.org/ports/i386/
10. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/
11. http://www.backports.org/
Old debian-devel Channel on Freenode. Erich Schubert [12]discovered
that the old debian-devel IRC channel on [13]freenode is officially
flagged as abandoned. After the irc.debian.org alias has been
[14]transferred from freenode to [15]OFTC the old channel wasn't used
much anymore. The remaining users in the channel are encouraged to
switch over to the one on OFTC.
12. http://blog.drinsama.de/erich/en/linux/debian/2006071302-dd-on-freenode
13. http://www.freenode.net/
14. http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060604
15. http://www.oftc.net/
Swap on a logical Volume. David Härdeman [16]wondered whether to
[17]change LVM packages so that the swap partition is created as a
logical volume rather than a separate partition during the
installation. This would allow swap space to be easily enlarged and
shrunk using the regular tools when needed.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg00974.html
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2005/10/msg00842.html
New Wildcard Behaviour of tar. Bdale Garbee [18]explained that the new
version of [19]tar incorporates a new behaviour with respect to
wildcards passed to the program. The upstream developers have altered
tar in order to make it conform to the UNIX98 specification and
compatible with the original version of the utility. The change is
documented in detail in a special NEWS.Debian file.
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01108.html
19. http://packages.debian.org/tar
Packages to be removed. Kevin McCarty [20]updated the [21]list of
packages that have open release-critical bugs older than one month and
only very few users recorded in [22]popcon. 15 out of 52 source
packages have been fixed and 8 source packages have received an
acknowledgement from the maintainer to be removed.
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00042.html
21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/05/msg00026.html
22. http://popcon.debian.org/
Support for Intel-based Macs. Junichi Uekawa [23]announced his effort
to foster Debian support for Intel-based Mac computers. Frans Pop
[24]added that some work has already been done on the [25]installer.
Owners of such machines are welcome to jump in and contact the
developers on the [26]debian-boot list.
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01210.html
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01213.html
25. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/
Debian Packages for Squid 3. Luigi Gangitano [27]announced his
[28]intent to package the new version of [29]squid, the Internet
object [30]cache, for Debian. It has been rewritten from scratch and
provides a number of new features. The [31]squid3 packages may be
installed in parallel with the older packages.
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/04/msg00818.html
28. http://bugs.debian.org/364652
29. http://packages.debian.org/squid
30. http://www.squid-cache.org/
31. http://packages.debian.org/squid3
Packages Diff Files. Tyler MacDonald [32]wondered if index diff files
should be used for local archives at all. They have been invented to
avoid the need to download several megabytes of Packages files upon
upgrade, especially for machines with low or limited bandwidth. Alec
Berryman [33]pointed out how to disable this feature. Mike Hommey
additionally [34]reported that after a long time without an update and
with decent bandwidth it actually takes more time merging all diff
files than downloading the full file.
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01216.html
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01229.html
34. http://bugs.debian.org/372712
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 1109: [35]rssh -- Privilege escalation.
* DSA 1110: [36]samba -- Denial of service.
* DSA 1111: [37]Linux 2.6.8 -- Privilege escalation.
35. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1109
36. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1110
37. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1111
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [38]recently or contain important updates.
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [39]adacontrol -- Ada rules controller.
* [40]amap-align -- Protein multiple alignment by sequence
annealing.
* [41]apbs -- Adaptive Poisson Boltzmann Solver.
* [42]aspell-fa -- Persian dictionary for GNU Aspell.
* [43]casper -- Debian Live initramfs generator.
* [44]courierpassd -- Change courier user passwords using poppassd
interface.
* [45]gapcmon -- Apcupsd monitor GUI.
* [46]gbdfed -- X11 font editor.
* [47]haxe -- Web programming language generating Flash, AJAX or
Neko.
* [48]last-exit -- Last.fm audio player.
* [49]lphoto -- Digital photo manager.
* [50]mcabber -- Small Jabber console client.
* [51]opencity -- 3D city simulator game.
* [52]oping -- Sends ICMP_ECHO requests to network hosts.
* [53]pgagent -- Job scheduler for PostgreSQL.
* [54]ploticus -- Script driven business graphics package.
* [55]refit -- Graphical boot-loader for EFI-based ia32 systems.
* [56]skyeye -- Embedded Hardware Simulation.
* [57]squid3 -- Full featured Web Proxy cache (HTTP proxy).
* [58]syrep -- Generic file repository synchronisation tool.
* [59]tclxapian -- Xapian search engine interface for Tcl.
* [60]tikiwiki -- Groupware and content management system.
* [61]tntnet -- Modular, multi-threaded web application server for
C++.
* [62]treeviewx -- Displays and prints phylogenetic trees.
* [63]wormux -- Funny fight game on 2D maps.
* [64]zmakebas -- Convert text files into ZX Spectrum Basic
programs.
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/adacontrol
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/amap-align
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/apbs
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/aspell-fa
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/casper
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/courierpassd
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/gapcmon
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gbdfed
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/haxe
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/last-exit
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/lphoto
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/mcabber
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/opencity
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/oping
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/pgagent
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/ploticus
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/refit
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/skyeye
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/squid3
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/syrep
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/tclxapian
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/tikiwiki
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/tntnet
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/treeviewx
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/wormux
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/zmakebas
Orphaned Packages. 12 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 326 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [65]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. To find out which orphaned packages are
installed on your system the wnpp-alert program from devscripts may be
helpful.
65. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [66]cl-awk -- Common Lisp package with the features of AWK and
more. ([67]Bug#377919)
* [68]cl-lexer -- Lexical-analyser-generator package for Common
Lisp. ([69]Bug#377920)
* [70]cl-parse-number -- Provides functions to parse any Common Lisp
number string. ([71]Bug#377921)
* [72]cl-regex -- Common Lisp regular expression compiler/matcher.
([73]Bug#377922)
* [74]cl-tclink -- Common Lisp bindings to the TrustCommerce
transaction system. ([75]Bug#377923)
* [76]dtmfdial -- DTMF Tone Dialer. ([77]Bug#377869)
* [78]ld.so.preload-manager -- Utility to manage the libraries in
/etc/ld.so.preload. ([79]Bug#377867)
* [80]libxbox -- Library for Xbox Linux utilities ([81]Bug#377861)
* [82]printop -- Graphical interface to the LPRng print system.
([83]Bug#377924)
* [84]rolldice -- Virtual dice roller. ([85]Bug#377870)
* [86]sipp -- Development library for sipp. ([87]Bug#377925)
* [88]xbox-cromwell -- Xbox BIOS image. ([89]Bug#377862)
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-awk
67. http://bugs.debian.org/377919
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-lexer
69. http://bugs.debian.org/377920
70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-parse-number
71. http://bugs.debian.org/377921
72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-regex
73. http://bugs.debian.org/377922
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-tclink
75. http://bugs.debian.org/377923
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/dtmfdial
77. http://bugs.debian.org/377869
78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/ld.so.preload-manager
79. http://bugs.debian.org/377867
80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libxbox0
81. http://bugs.debian.org/377861
82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/printop
83. http://bugs.debian.org/377924
84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/rolldice
85. http://bugs.debian.org/377870
86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/sipp
87. http://bugs.debian.org/377925
88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/xbox-cromwell
89. http://bugs.debian.org/377862
Removed Packages. 5 packages have been [90]removed from the Debian
archive during the past week:
90. http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt
* bcm4400-source -- Module source for Broadcom's bcm4400 ethernet
driver
[91]Bug#271798: Request of maintainer, unmaintained and
unnecessary
* messagewall -- SMTP proxy daemon, designed to help keep out
unwanted email
[92]Bug#274732: Request of QA, orphaned, dead upstream
* libdbix-class-loader-perl -- Dynamic definition of DBIx::Class sub
classes.
[93]Bug#369556: Request of Maintainer, dead upstream; superseded
by libdbix-class-schema-loader-perl
* libcharles0 -- Data structure library for Ada95 modelled on the
C++ STL
[94]Bug#377927: Request of Maintainer, superseded by gnat-4.1
* xmbdfed -- X11 font editor
[95]Bug#377954: Request of Maintainer, licensing issues
91. http://bugs.debian.org/271798
92. http://bugs.debian.org/274732
93. http://bugs.debian.org/369556
94. http://bugs.debian.org/377927
95. http://bugs.debian.org/377954
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community
and report about what is going on. Please see the [96]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [97]dwn@debian.org.
96. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
97. mailto:dwn@debian.org
This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Sebastian Feltel
and Martin 'Joey' Schulze.
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