Debian Project News - November 7th 2011
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The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/
Debian Project News debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
November 7th, 2011 http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2011/14/
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Welcome to this year's fourteenth issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:
* Updated Debian: 6.0.3 and 5.0.9 released
* DebConf12 official dates
* Debian Installer localisation
* Feedback after DebConf11
* Uses of Emdebian
* Bits from the DPL
* New Member process
* Further interviews
* Other news
* New Debian Contributors
* Important Debian Security Advisories
* New and noteworthy packages
* Work-needing packages
* Want to continue reading DPN?
Updated Debian: 6.0.3 and 5.0.9 released
----------------------------------------
The third update for Debian 6.0 (codename [1] "Squeeze") and the ninth
update for Debian 5.0 (codename [2] "Lenny") have been released. These
updates mainly add corrections for security problems to the stable and
oldstable releases, along with some adjustments for serious problems.
1 : http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20111008
2 : http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20111001
DebConf12 official dates
------------------------
The DebConf team announced the final and official dates for DebConf12
[3]: DebCamp will be held from July 1 to 7 2012, followed by DebConf from
July 8 to 14, in Managua, Nicaragua. DebConf will be preceded by a day
during which the doors are opened to the general public, commonly called
Debian Day. For further information, please visit the DebConf12 web pages
[4].
3 : http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20111102
4 : http://debconf12.debconf.org/
Debian Installer localisation
-----------------------------
Christian Perrier reported some new progress [5] in Debian Installer
localisation [6]. Nineteen languages are now up to date for D-I's core
files; eight (Czech, Dutch, French, German, Persian, Portuguese, Russian
and Swedish) are 100% complete for the moment, and many more should reach
this hall of fame pretty soon, thanks to the translators.
5 : http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2011/10/31#di-l10n-update-2011-5
6 : http://d-i.debian.org/l10n-stats/
Feedback after DebConf11
------------------------
After his "This week in Debian" interview, Adnan Hodzic wrote a summary
of DebConf11 and its consequences [7]. He offers an inside view of
DebConf organisation, sharing some of the stresses and the amazing
experiences he had with other organisers. Among the after-effects: the
Government of Republika Srpska may seriously consider free and open
source software for their own use, and Adnan has taken a vacation to
prepare himself for his next projects.
7 : http://foolcontrol.org/?p=1310
Uses of Emdebian
----------------
Continuing his series on Emdebian [8], Neil Williams posted an article
about the use of Emdebian on special purpose computers [9]. The common
features of special purpose computers include: single task only,
single-user support, single mode input, restricted connectivity,
constrained user data. On this kind of computer Emdebian is very popular
for many reasons, such as the multi-tasking kernel and userspace which
provide a responsive machine, or the mere fact that in Emdebian (unlike
proprietary competitors) the graphical software is trivially separated
from the core software. But the most important reason is that Emdebian
Grip allows better debugging: in fact, "Emdebian Grip is binary
compatible with the equivalent Debian suite and when a bug appears in the
high level user interface, it is much easier to debug that on the desktop
than on the device", said Neil.
8 : http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/serendipity/index.php?/archives/217-Documenting-Emdebian-intro.html
9 : http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/serendipity/index.php?/archives/230-Uses-of-Emdebian-special-purpose-computers.html
Bits from the DPL
-----------------
Stefano Zacchiroli reminded us that Wheezy is a few months away from its
freeze [10]: everyone can help. He reported about some discussions that
are worth attention [11]; about maintainers' and porters'
responsibilities [12]; reasons not to use private email aliases [13];
etc. Stefano gave updates about sprints (for coordinating which there is
a new mailing list [14]) and the trademark policy. He also recently
attended the "Linux Day" in Parma, Italy, and the Ubuntu Developer
Summit in Orlando, Florida.
10 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/06/msg00003.html
11 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/10/msg00001.html
12 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/08/msg00685.html
13 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2011/09/msg00062.html
14 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-sprints/
New Member process
------------------
Enrico Zini announced that the"New Maintainer process" has changed its
name, to become the "New Member process [15]": the procedure is still the
same, and even its initials are unchanged, but its name is no longer
confusing and ambiguous. Thanks to Stefano Zacchiroli for hisproposal
[16]. Jan Hauke Rahm also joined the New Member Front Desk, which can now
be reached at nm@debian.org [17].
15 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/10/msg00004.html
16 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-newmaint/2011/10/msg00028.html
17 : mailto:nm@debian.org
Further interviews
------------------
Since the last issue of the Debian Project News, two new issues of the
[18] "This week in Debian" podcast have been published: with Jonathan
Nadeau [19], who talks about the Ohio LinuxFest and his internship at the
FSF; and with Adnan Hodzic [20], who talks about DebConf11.
18 : http://wiki.debian.org/ThisWeekInDebian
19 : http://frostbitemedia.libsyn.com/this-week-in-debian-episode-28
20 : http://frostbitemedia.libsyn.com/this-week-in-debian-episode-29-1
Other news
----------
Julien Cristau announced that in the current testing Debian distribution,
the default Python version pointed at by the /usr/bin/python symlink is
now Python 2.7 [21].
21 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/10/msg00000.html
Meike Reichle officially announced the Wheezy Bug Squashing Party
Marathon [22], starting in Hildesheim on December 2, 2011 [23].
22 : http://wiki.debian.org/BSPMarathonWheezy
23 : http://wiki.debian.org/BSP2011/Hildesheim
New Debian Contributors
-----------------------
Twenty-four people have started to maintain packages [24] since the
previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Harish
Badrinath, Andrew Harvey, Michael Jumper, Jakub Adam, Tiziano Zito,
Zlatan Todoric, Ivo Maintz, Judit Foglszinger, Daniel Hughes, Mark Owen,
Rico Rommel, Alex Chiang, Daniel Schaal, Alexander Chernyakhovsky, Jerome
Robert, Shell Xu, Sebastian Eichelbaum, Jeroen Nijhof, Michael Milligan,
Emmanuel Thomas-Maurin, Arthur Gautier, Kouhei Maeda, Rodolphe
Pelloux-Prayer and Ahmed Toulan into our project!
24 : 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): linux-2.6 [25], openjdk-6 [26], iceape [27], iceweasel
[28], puppet [29], openoffice.org [30], quagga [31], icedove [32],
cyrus-imapd-2.2 [33], policykit-1 [34], dokuwiki [35], moin [36],
bugzilla [37], radvd [38], wireshark [39], kfreebsd-8 [40], pam [41],
libfcgi-perl [42], freetype [43], torque [44], simplesamlphp [45], tor
[46], python-django [47], phpldapadmin [48], mahara [49], man2html [50]
and xen [51]. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.
25 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2310
26 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2311
27 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2312
28 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2313
29 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2314
30 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2315
31 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2316
32 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2317
33 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2318
34 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2319
35 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2320
36 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2321
37 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2322
38 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2323
39 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2324
40 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2325
41 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2326
42 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2327
43 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2328
44 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2329
45 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2330
46 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2331
47 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2332
48 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2333
49 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2334
50 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2335
51 : http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2337
Debian's Backports Team released advisories for these packages: puppet
[52] (updated announce [53]) and iceweasel [54], Please read them
carefully and take the proper measures.
52 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/10/msg00000.html
53 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/10/msg00003.htm
54 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/10/msg00001.html
Debian's Stable Release Team released update announcements for the
packages: tzdata [55] (last updated announce [56]) and clamav [57].
Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.
55 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/2011/09/msg00000.html
56 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/2011/11/msg00000.html
57 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/2011/10/msg00003.html
Debian's Volatile Team released update announcements for the packages:
tzdata [58] (last updated announce [59]) and clamav [60]. Please read
them carefully and take the proper measures.
58 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/2011/msg00006.html
59 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/2011/msg00009.html
60 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/2011/msg00007.html
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 [61] (and the separate backports
list [62], and stable updates list [63] or volatile list [64], for
"Lenny" , the oldstable distribution) for announcements.
61 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/
62 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/
63 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/
64 : http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/
New and noteworthy packages
---------------------------
Hundreds of packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently.
Among many others [65] are:
65 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg
* dff -- powerful, efficient and modular digital forensic framework [66]
* ebook-speaker -- eBook reader that reads aloud in a synthetic voice [67]
* openteacher -- learn words in a foreign language [68]
* openxenmanager -- full-featured graphical management tool for Xen using XenApi [69]
* ptex2tex -- easy generation of (possibly complex) LaTeX environments [70]
* qxw -- advanced interactive crossword construction tool [71]
* rbenv -- simple per-user Ruby version manager [72]
* shinken -- flexible monitoring tool [73]
* unbound-anchor -- utility to securely fetch the root DNS trust anchor [74]
* x2 -- brand new text editor for the GNOME desktop [75]
66 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/dff
67 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ebook-speaker
68 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openteacher
69 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openxenmanager
70 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ptex2tex
71 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/qxw
72 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rbenv
73 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/shinken
74 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/unbound-anchor
75 : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/x2
Work-needing packages
---------------------
Currently 400 packages are orphaned [76] and 145 packages are up for
adoption [77]: please visit the complete list of packages which need your
help [78].
76 : http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/orphaned
77 : http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/rfa
78 : 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 [79] to find out how to help. We're
looking forward to receiving your mail at
debian-publicity@lists.debian.org [80].
79 : http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute
80 : mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Francesca Ciceri, David
Prévot, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl, Alexander Reshetov and Justin B Rye
[81].
81 : mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
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