Debian Project News - June 14th, 2010
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The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/
Debian Project News debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
June 14th, 2010 http://debian.org/News/weekly/2010/05/
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Welcome to this year's fifth issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian
community. Topics covered in this issue include:
* Debian Community Poll
* Automatic installation of hardware-specific packages
* Desktop artwork and themes for Debian "Squeeze"
* Debian Installer string freeze coming up
* Provisional list of talks for DebConf10
* License usage in Debian
* ... and much more.
Debian Community Poll
---------------------
After getting the idea during the recent Mini Debian Conference [8] in
Berlin, Torsten Werner prepared [9] a poll for users of the Debian
Operating System [10] asking different types of questions like the usage
of derivatives, about the Debian Free Software Guidelines [11] and
firmwares and of course releases.
8 : http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Miniconf-LT-Berlin/2010
9 : http://twerner.blogspot.com/2010/06/debian-community-poll.html
10 : http://tinyurl.com/3y33ska
11 : http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
The Poll is available at http://tinyurl.com/3y33ska [12]. Torsten asks to
spread the link to as many users as possible.
12 : http://tinyurl.com/3y33ska
Automatic installation of hardware-specific packages
----------------------------------------------------
Petter Reinholdtsen introduced a new change into the Debian installation
system allowing the installation of hardware-specific packages [13] at
installation time (or on an already installed system). This is useful for
certain RAID controllers, graphic adapters and other hardware, and is
done by mapping PCI and USB IDs to the names of Debian packages. Petter
welcomes help maintaining this list.
13 : http://lists.debian.org/2fly6f0ypze.fsf@login2.uio.no
He also pointed out that for hot swappable devices this approach won't
work, and wonders whether the existing discover [14] package should be
adapted to also support listening to DBus events, or whether PackageKit
[15] could be ported to Debian.
14 : http://packages.debian.org/discover
15 : http://www.packagekit.org/
Desktop artwork and themes for Debian "Squeeze"
-----------------------------------------------
Valessio Brito started [16] to collect ideas and proposals for the
desktop artwork used in Debian 6.0 [17] "Squeeze" . This artwork would be
the base for common themes throughout the system. Yves-Alexis Perez
started to list possible uses [18] for that artwork ranging from themes
for different desktop environments through boot splash screens to website
banners. He also asked for more comments about the artwork from other
users.
16 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2010/06/msg00003.html
17 : http://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopArtworkSqueeze
18 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2010/06/msg00004.html
Debian Installer string freeze coming up
----------------------------------------
Christian Perrier proposed [19] a "string freeze" in order to officially
notify translators that they should consider completing their current
work. Christian wrote: "During the string freeze, developers would be
required to avoid committing changes that involved modifications to
localizable strings. Each of these would require a prior discussion in
debian-boot and a formal ACK to commit." He proposedSunday July 4th as
deadline for the string freeze [20]. Time to finish up those
translations!
19 : http://lists.debian.org/20100606071056.GA16165@mykerinos.kheops.frmug.org
20 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n/2010/06/msg00015.html
Provisional list of talks for DebConf10
---------------------------------------
Ana Guerrero announced [21] the publication of a provisional list of
talks for DebConf10 [22]. She also mentioned the opportunities for ad-hoc
events to be scheduled during DebConf, in order to plan a last minute
event with others once at DebConf. Details on the scheduling of these
events will be available at the conference.
21 : http://lists.debian.org/20100609025528.GA19122@pryan.ekaia.org
22 : https://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events.en.html
Some of the planned highlights are "Bits from the Debian Project
Leader", "Debian in (and on) the cloud", "Debian/kFreeBSD from the
FreeBSD Point of View", "Multimedia Patents vs. Debian", "RC bug fixing +
NMU = Fun" and "The Nexenta Project: OpenSolaris + APT + GNU".
License usage in Debian
-----------------------
While working on requests to add specific license texts to
/usr/share/common-licenses/, Russ Allbery wrote a script to check which
licenses are used how often in the Debian archive. He also published his
results [23]. Unsurprisingly, the most used licenses are the different
forms and versions of the GNU General Public License.
23 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2010/06/msg00099.html
Other news
----------
Ana Guerrero announced [24] that the migration of the Debian-Women wiki
[25] into Debian's wiki is now complete. There's still a little work to
do: if you want to contribute, take a look at the migration TODO list
[26].
24 : http://lists.debian.org/20100525173727.GA5200@pryan.ekaia.org
25 : http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWomen
26 : http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWomen#migrationTODO
Adrian von Bidder announced that he will now take orders [27] for Debian
Umbrellas [28].
27 : http://blog.fortytwo.ch/archives/84-Order-Your-Debian-Swirl-Umbrella-Now.html
28 : http://blog.fortytwo.ch/archives/80-Yay!-Debian-Logo!.html
Bill Allombert announced that circular dependencies in unstable reached
an all-time low [29]. Even if fixing some might be too intrusive for
"Squeeze" , Petter Reinholdtsen noticed that some of them may also
causeupgrades from [30] "Lenny" to "Squeeze" to fail.
29 : http://lists.debian.org/20100606132103.GJ11095@yellowpig
30 : http://lists.debian.org/2flr5kgozc0.fsf@login2.uio.no
Andrew Pollock blogged about his recent progress on the ISC DHCP 4.1
package [31]: packages in experimental appear to work, and upgrade
cleanly from the 3.1 packages, so they will soon reach unstable.
31 : http://blog.andrew.net.au/2010/06/08#dhcp_4.1_progress_report2
The previous issue of the Debian Project News [32] mentioned that the
boot loader LILO [33] was about to removed from Debian due to missing
upstream development. In the following discussion [34] Joachim Wiedorn
volunteered to take over upstream development, while the Debian
Maintainer William Pitcock will continue taking care of packaging [35]
once upstream development created a release that actually has merit.
32 : http://www.debian.org/News/project/2010/04/
33 : http://packages.debian.org/lilo
34 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00117.html
35 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00137.html
Bastian Blank wondered whether Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" should be shippedXen
3.4 or 4.0 [36] and listed some pros and cons for both versions.
36 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00220.html
New Developers and Maintainers
------------------------------
Six applicants have been accepted [37] as Debian Developers and two
applicants have been accepted [38] as Debian Maintainer since the
previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Dominique
Belhachemi, Sylvain Beucler, Scott Kitterman, Giovanni Mascellani,
Alessio Treglia, Ulises Vitulli, Hannes von Haugwitz and Tang Ke into our
project!
37 : http://lists.debian.org/E1OLPhC-0004Dr-AN@merkel.debian.org
38 : http://lists.debian.org/E1OJ5es-00033L-A1@ries.debian.org
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 424 release critical bugs.
81 of them have already been fixed in Debian's "unstable" branch. Of the
remaining 343 release critical bugs, 46 already have a patch (which might
need testing) and 14 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, 211 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): bind9 [40], OpenOffice.org [41], zonecheck [42],
mysql-dfsg-5.0 [43], glibc [44], pcsc-lite [45] and cacti [46]. Please
read them carefully and take the proper measures.
40 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2054
41 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2055
42 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2056
43 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2057
44 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2058
45 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2059
46 : http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2060
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 [47] for announcements.
47 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/
New and noteworthy packages
---------------------------
The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently
(among others [48]):
48 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg
* ants -- advanced normalization tools for brain and image analysis [49]
* bucardo -- asynchronous replication system for PostgreSQL [50]
* bup -- highly efficient file backup system based on git [51]
* cloc -- statistics utility to count lines of code [52]
* connectagram -- word unscrambling game [53]
* desktopnova -- utility that changes the wallpaper automatically [54]
* emdebian-crush -- emdebian crossbuilding helpers [55]
* espeakedit -- A multi-lingual software speech synthesizer - editor [56]
* eucalyptus-cloud -- Elastic Utility Computing Architecture - Cloud controller [57]
* fcgiwrap -- simple server to run CGI applications over FastCGI [58]
* fetch-crl -- Downloads Certificate Revocation Lists [59]
* freespacenotifier -- free space notification module for KDE [60]
* frontaccounting -- A web based double-entry accounting and ERP program [61]
* glpeces -- Tangram (puzzle) game clone [62]
* grr.app -- RSS reader for GNUstep [63]
* gst123 -- GStreamer based command line media player [64]
* guayadeque -- lightweight music player [65]
* haskell-debian-utils -- Various helpers to work with Debian packages [66]
* hpanel -- minimalist panel for X [67]
* html2markdown -- convert HTML page into ascii markdown format [68]
* jackmeter -- a basic command line meter for the JACK audio system [69]
* jkmeter -- horizontal or vertical bargraph audio level meter for Jack Audio Connection Kit [70]
* jpegjudge -- determine which of two given jpegs (same size) is the original [71]
* kraft -- small business-management application [72]
* ltpanel -- lightweight tasklist panel for minimalist WMs [73]
* lunch -- distributed process launcher [74]
* mango-lassi -- Share mouse and pointer with other computers [75]
* nam -- the Network Animator [76]
* ns2 -- Ns is a discrete event simulator targeted at networking research [77]
* openstv -- single transferable vote and instant runoff voting software [78]
* otcl-shells -- OTcl shells [79]
* pdebuild-cross -- cross-building support for pbuilder [80]
* plymouth-x11 -- Graphical Boot Animation and Logger [81]
* quvi -- command line tool for parsing video download links [82]
* radicale -- simple calendar server - daemon [83]
* radiotray -- online radio streaming player [84]
* rawtherapee -- A free RAW converter and digital photo processing software [85]
* ruby-tomoe -- Handwriting recognition engine (ruby binding) [86]
* rxp -- A validating XML parser [87]
* sakura -- simple but powerful libvte-based terminal emulator [88]
* sentinella -- System monitor that can react to user chosen conditions [89]
* sflphone-gnome -- SIP and IAX2 compatible VoIP phone - GNOME client [90]
* silentjack -- silence detector for the JACK audio system [91]
* smarty3 -- Template engine for PHP [92]
* stterm -- an extremely simple terminal for windowed system [93]
* tiled -- generic tile map editor [94]
* ttf-denemo -- Music Notation Symbol Fonts for denemo [95]
* u-boot -- A boot loader for embedded systems [96]
* ufraw-batch -- batch importer for raw camera images [97]
* upnp-router-control -- simple program that manages UPnP compliant routers [98]
* vainfo -- Video Acceleration (VA) API for Linux -- info program [99]
* wiki2beamer -- Tool to create LaTeX beamer presentations in wiki syntax [100]
* xen-tools -- Tools to manage Xen virtual servers [101]
* yoshimi -- A software synthesizer based on ZynAddSubFX [102]
* zynjacku -- JACK based host for LV2 synths and LV2 plugins [103]
49 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ants
50 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/bucardo
51 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/bup
52 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cloc
53 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/connectagram
54 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/desktopnova
55 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/emdebian-crush
56 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/espeakedit
57 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/eucalyptus-cloud
58 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fcgiwrap
59 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fetch-crl
60 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/freespacenotifier
61 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/frontaccounting
62 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/glpeces
63 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/grr.app
64 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gst123
65 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/guayadeque
66 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/haskell-debian-utils
67 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/hpanel
68 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/html2markdown
69 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jackmeter
70 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jkmeter
71 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jpegjudge
72 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/kraft
73 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ltpanel
74 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/lunch
75 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mango-lassi
76 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/nam
77 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ns2
78 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openstv
79 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/otcl-shells
80 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/pdebuild-cross
81 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/plymouth-x11
82 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/quvi
83 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/radicale
84 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/radiotray
85 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rawtherapee
86 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ruby-tomoe
87 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rxp
88 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sakura
89 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sentinella
90 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sflphone-gnome
91 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/silentjack
92 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/smarty3
93 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/stterm
94 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/tiled
95 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ttf-denemo
96 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/u-boot
97 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ufraw-batch
98 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/upnp-router-control
99 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/vainfo
100 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/wiki2beamer
101 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xen-tools
102 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/yoshimi
103 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/zynjacku
Work-needing packages
---------------------
Currently 627 packages are orphaned and 132 packages are up for adoption.
Please take a look at the recent [104] reports [105] to see if there are
packages you are interested in or view the complete list of packages
which need your help [106].
104 : http://lists.debian.org/E1OKKlx-0007DT-Va@merkel.debian.org
105 : http://lists.debian.org/E1OMs6i-0006PZ-Rt@merkel.debian.org
106 : 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 [107] to find out how to help. We're
looking forward to receiving your mail at
debian-publicity@lists.debian.org [108].
107 : http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute
108 : mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Jeremiah Foster, David
Prévot and Alexander Reichle-Schmehl [109].
109 : mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
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