Debian Weekly News - July 30th, 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/29/
Debian Weekly News - July 30th, 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 29th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. If you ever wanted to know how you could fund
Free Software development, see what Drew Scott Daniels [1]sent us. You
may also find a good job in the UK, that recently released a
[2]policy for using Free Software within the UK government.
1. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/29/mail#1
2. http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/news/newonsite/oss-policy.htm
New Jigdo Howto. This week we found out that Peter Jay Salzman wrote a
[3]Debian Jigdo mini-Howto which was added to the Linux Documentation
Project recently. Getting Debian ISOs has always been a painful, slow
and supremely inefficient process. Jigdo is a new tool for obtaining
Debian iso images in an easy, fast and very efficient manner. This
HOWTO describes why you should use jigdo, adds a small explanation how
it works and how it is used to get and update Debian iso images.
3. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Debian-Jigdo/
Policy for Woody Point-Releases. [4]Several [5]developers [6]would
[7]like to add new packages and updates to their packages to the
recently released stable distribution of Debian. Adding new packages
and random updates to the stable distribution, however, would nullify
the entire idea of having a stable release, Joey [8]explained. Hence,
the same policy as before will be used for point-releases of woody.
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01411.html
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01416.html
6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01614.html
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01483.html
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01641.html
Gnome2 for Woody. Gustavo Noronha Silva [9]announced that he was
backporting Gnome2 for Woody. For installing his packages, you have to
add the line deb http://gluck.debian.org/~kov/debian woody gnome2 to
your /etc/apt/sources.list. Gustavo is backporting some applications
as well. Here are screenshots of [10]gdm2 and [11]Gnome2.
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-gtk-gnome-0207/msg00222.html
10. http://people.debian.org/~kov/shots/gdm2-woody.png
11. http://people.debian.org/~kov/shots/gnome2-woody.png
A Review of the Release Process. Anthony Towns [12]wrote a review
about the woody release process. He gave a short summary of the
release history and pointed out the main blocking things: a six month
delay before trying to release, the twelve-month-development of
boot-floppies, the fact that the CDs weren't ready in time and the
late noticing that security wasn't ready. His wishlist for sarge
includes less wasted time, better communication and transparency and a
testing distribution which is kept permanently in a releasable state.
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0207/msg00094.html
Help Needed with GIMP Bugs. Martin Michlmayr [13]investigated bug
reports against packages for GIMP 1.0 and 1.1. Both were removed from
Debian a while ago, but several bug reports are still open. Martin is
looking for someone who has some time and knows GIMP well to go
through these bug reports and either close them with an appropriate
message if it's fixed in 1.2 or reassign them to the corresponding
gimp1.2 package.
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01274.html
Solving the libpng Problem. Marcelo Magallon [14]investigated the
situation with libpng version 2 and 3 and lists development packages
that depend on the older version of this library. Junichi Uekawa
[15]proposed an upgrade path for libraries that depend on the old
libpng package. However, people disagree on the need to change the
library's SONAME when changing the version of a library dependency.
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01106.html
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01319.html
Ceasing Support for Linux 2.0 in Glibc. Ben Collins [16]announced that
he's going to cease support for Linux kernel prior to 2.2.0 in the
upcoming glibc release for Debian unstable. This change only affects
the architectures i386 and m68k. All others already have a similar
default. This means that if you have machine that runs a 2.0.X kernel
and Debian unstable, you'd better stay with woody or upgrade the
kernel.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0207/msg01627.html
Status of the debian-installer. Tollef Fog Heen wrote a [17]status
report about what is supposed to be the installer for sarge. Tollef
will lead its development and says that it already works for users on
i386 if you tell them what buttons they are supposed to press. Anthony
Towns added some interesting [18]bits to that. For those who would
like to try it, [19]here are step-by-step instructions for building
the system.
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0207/msg00546.html
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0207/msg00548.html
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0207/msg00441.html
Future glibc Maintenance. Ben Collins [20]announced that he copied the
Debian part of the glibc package into [21]CVS. In order to use it,
you'll need the glibc_2.2.5.orig.tar.gz tarball from the archive to go
with it. Log messages of code commits are forwarded to the
[22]debian-glibc list so people stay updated.
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-glibc-0207/msg00020.html
21. http://cvs.debian.org/glibc-package/?cvsroot=glibc
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-glibc/
Perl 5.8.0. Raphaël Hertzog [23]reports that Perl 5.8.0 is released
and once again we have a binary incompatibility for binary modules.
With Debian growing, this affects more packages than last time, of
course. Brendan O'Dea, the current Perl maintainer, [24]intends to set
up a [25]staging area in his home directory on people.debian.org that
should help a smooth transition. In order to speed up this effort,
non-maintainer uploads (NMU) are discussed.
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-perl-0207/msg00016.html
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-perl-0207/msg00019.html
25. http://people.debian.org/~bod/perl/README
Reviving SuperH. It seems that the Debian SuperH people would like to
revive the SuperH port -- and add four new architectures with it.
Takeshi Yaegashi [26]requested the creation of binary directories for
the four architectures sh3, sh4, sh3eb and sh4eb. There is still an
ongoing [27]discussion about the binary incompatibility between SH3
and SH4, though.
26. http://bugs.debian.org/154179
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-superh-0207/msg00016.html
Ceasing /usr/doc/. Joey Hess [28]wondered what other developers think
about if he would remove the code in debhelper that makes postinst
scripts manage /usr/doc links. Joey added that since we'll be
recompiling a lot of packages the gcc 3.0 transition anyway, we will
lose the links in /usr/doc stuff essentially for free. However, Adam
Heath [29]objected to this proposal in order to support backwards
compatibility.
28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy-0207/msg00023.html
29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy-0207/msg00039.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [30]OpenSSL -- Multiple remote exploits.
* [31]MM -- Insecure temporary files.
30. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-136
31. http://www.debian.org/security/2002/dsa-137
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
Debian archive recently or contain important updates.
* [32]apt-build -- Frontend to apt to build, optimize and install
packages.
* [33]apt-src -- Manage Debian source packages.
* [34]bluez-sdp -- BlueZ Bluetooth SDP daemon and tool.
* [35]elinks -- Character mode WWW/FTP browser.
* [36]exif -- Command-line utility to show EXIF information in JPEG
files.
* [37]frost -- A graphical filesharing and messaging client for
Freenet.
* [38]gsendfile -- GNOME frontend to sendfile.
* [39]haddock -- Documentation tool for annotated Haskell source
code.
* [40]jabber -- Daemon for the jabber.org Open Source Instant
Messenger.
* [41]ninvaders -- A space invaders-like game using ncurses.
* [42]openbox -- A window manager for X.
* [43]posh -- Policy-compliant Ordinary SHell.
* [44]totd -- Small DNS proxy that supports IPv6/IPv4 record
translation.
* [45]vcheck -- Utility to check and download the most recent
program version.
* [46]vegastrike -- A 3d space combat game.
32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/apt-build.html
33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/apt-src.html
34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/bluez-sdp.html
35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/elinks.html
36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/exif.html
37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/frost.html
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gsendfile.html
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/haddock.html
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/jabber.html
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/ninvaders.html
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/openbox.html
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/shells/posh.html
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/totd.html
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/vcheck.html
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/vegastrike.html
Orphaned Packages. 15 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 97 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [47]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.
47. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [48]ada-mode -- Ada mode for Emacs and XEmacs. ([49]Bug#154094)
* [50]adacgi -- CGI programs in Ada. ([51]Bug#154089)
* [52]adasockets -- Bindings for the socket services in Ada.
([53]Bug#154104)
* [54]asis -- Ada Semantic Interface Specification. ([55]Bug#154095)
* [56]erlang -- A real-time, concurrent and distributed functional
language. ([57]Bug#154107)
* [58]erlang-doc-html -- Erlang HTML pages. ([59]Bug#154096)
* [60]erlang-manpages -- Erlang man pages. ([61]Bug#154097)
* [62]gnat -- The GNU Ada 95 compiler. ([63]Bug#154098)
* [64]gnat-doc -- Documentation for the GNU Ada compiler.
([65]Bug#154099)
* [66]gnat-glade -- Distributed systems in Ada. ([67]Bug#154100)
* [68]gnat-glade-doc -- GNAT Distributed Systems Annex
documentation. ([69]Bug#154101)
* [70]gvd -- GNU Visual Debugger. ([71]Bug#154103)
* [72]libgtkada -- Ada binding for the GTK library. ([73]Bug#154105)
* [74]simulpic -- Microchip PIC simulator. ([75]Bug#154106)
* [76]ubit -- Development files for libubit0. ([77]Bug#154093)
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/ada-mode.html
49. http://bugs.debian.org/154094
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/adacgi.html
51. http://bugs.debian.org/154089
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/libadasockets0.html
53. http://bugs.debian.org/154104
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libasis-3.14p-1.html
55. http://bugs.debian.org/154095
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-us/erlang.html
57. http://bugs.debian.org/154107
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/erlang-doc-html.html
59. http://bugs.debian.org/154096
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/erlang-manpages.html
61. http://bugs.debian.org/154097
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gnat.html
63. http://bugs.debian.org/154098
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/gnat-doc.html
65. http://bugs.debian.org/154099
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gnat-glade.html
67. http://bugs.debian.org/154100
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/gnat-glade-doc.html
69. http://bugs.debian.org/154101
70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gvd.html
71. http://bugs.debian.org/154103
72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libgtkada1.html
73. http://bugs.debian.org/154105
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/simulpic.html
75. http://bugs.debian.org/154106
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libubit0.html
77. http://bugs.debian.org/154093
Seen something interesting? Please drop us a note whenever you see
something noteworthy that you think is appropriate for inclusion in
DWN. We don't notice everything, unfortunately. Of course, we are also
thankful for completely written items from volunteer writers. Please
see the [78]contributing page. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [79]dwn@debian.org.
78. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
79. mailto:dwn@debian.org
Reply to: