Debian Weekly News - April 15th, 2003
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/15/
Debian Weekly News - April 15th, 2003
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Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Watch your machines people, because if you
don't, bad things can happen. If you notice a burning smell, check
your power supply for [1]loitering dragonfly brooches as Hugh Saunders
[2]experienced.
1. http://h.arqz.com/broachfan.jpg
2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-curiosa-0303/msg00008.html
Libcupsys2 Splitting. Jeff Licquia [3]announced that following a
grave bug filed against libcupsys2, he has built the libcupsimage
libraries and header files as separate "libcupsimage2{-dev}" packages
(as of version 1.1.18-3). Although it was technically [4]possible to
address the bug by splitting only the -dev packages, Jeff had other
[5]good reasons and also generally prefers not to have foo-dev
packages without corresponding foo packages.
3. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00581.html
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00617.html
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00645.html
Debian Popularity Contest Web Pages. Bill Allombert [6]thought the
Debian [7]Popularity Contest was a good idea, but wondered if it
could be improved. The Popularity Contest uses anonymised data
gathered from users who install the popularity-contest package to find
out which packages are most popular. Igor Genibel [8]advised that he
is integrating the Popularity Contest information into the [9]Debian
Developer's Packages Overview. The Popularity Contest maintainer,
Avery Pennarun, [10]said that each week the number of user submissions
increases, but he does not have time to improve the system.
6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00607.html
7. http://people.debian.org/~apenwarr/popcon/
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00609.html
9. http://qa.debian.org/developer.php
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00632.html
New Debian Menu System proposed. Enrico Zini [11]thought that Debian's
current desktop menu system needs some redesign to keep up and
integrate with the other existing systems. He proposes that Debian
switches to the format of the [12]Desktop Menu Specification for
desktop entries, and that Debian continues to provide menu information
for applications that do not have their own. Colin Walters, who
maintains the [13]Debian Desktop subproject, gave his backing to the
proposal.
11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00800.html
12. http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu/draft/menu-spec/menu-spec.html
13. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-desktop/
Information Law Training for Debian Developers. James Miller has been
teaching an online course in information law at Southeastern
University. He is [14]considering offering the course to interested
Debian Developers. The course is demanding but gives those in computer
science and information technology fields an understanding of the
sources of law in the U.S., the major substantive areas of law, and
issues of intellectual property. Students could apply that knowledge
to regulatory infrastructures and the internet, privacy, and security.
James envisages having 10-15 students in the course, however there is
currently a need to buy an expensive textbook.
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0304/msg00126.html
Removal of orphaned Packages. Martin Michlmayr [15]announced that he
intends to request the removal of several packages in two weeks time,
since they have been on the [16]Work Needed and Prospective Packages
list for a long time. These packages are not maintained in Debian
anymore and contain release-critical bugs. If anyone wants to keep one
these packages they should ensure they follow the steps Martin has
outlined. This issue is being discussed on [17]debian-devel.
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0304/msg00005.html
16. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00872.html
Status of the m68k Port. Marco d'Itri [18]asked whether the m68k
architecture is currently in a state ready for release, after he spent
quite a while figuring out why Mutt doesn't build on this architecture
anymore. Wouter Verhelst [19]explained that some of the buildds failed
recently and that there were severe problems with the toolchain, which
were fixed recently, with kudos to Matthias Klose.
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00355.html
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00432.html
Categories or Sections? Erich Schubert [20]announced a new version of
his [21]Package Browser that intends to help categorise Debian
packages. This should improve browsing packages through hierarchical
categories instead of sections as he earlier [22]proposed. Mark Howard
[23]considered freshmeat style trove categorisation is a quite
interesting idea. However this would be problematic for the existing
tools.
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0303/msg01371.html
21. http://debian.vitavonni.de/packagebrowser/
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0111/msg00253.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00451.html
Debian User Analysis. Enrico Zini [24]posted a document about user
analysis as part of usability improvements. He saw many practical
proposals about Debian improvements, but rarely saw them backed with
an analysis identifying the needs and the goals that they are supposed
to address. He identified four types of interesting information to
gather. Understanding users expectations should help us understand the
usability problems.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00503.html
Debian for x86-64? Daniel Whelan is [25]interested in a port to the
Opteron processor (x86-64) from AMD and wondered about the status of
this port. Michael Banck [26]said we would have to sign a
non-disclosure agreement to get access to hardware, and Adam Conrad
[27]reported that [28]SuSE has already done the groundwork with kernel
and glibc. Masanori Goto [29]added that this architecture is capable
of running 64- and 32-bit programs, requiring special considerations.
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00700.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00723.html
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00711.html
28. http://www.suse.com/
29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0304/msg00726.html
Debian NetBSD for Sparc. Matthew Garrett [30]demonstrated his success
in building a Debian system on the Sparc architecture on top of the
[31]NetBSD kernel. Additionally Joel Baker [32]reported about
significant work for the NetBSD/x86 port, such as dpkg and APT, that
will work without additional patches.
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0304/msg00001.html
31. http://www.netbsd.org/
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0303/msg00009.html
Debian-Gentoo Collaboration on Hurd? Robert Millan [33]suggested that
Debian and Gentoo porters for the Hurd work together closely. Both
share the same goal, to port a lot of Free Software. Many patches for
applications were reported through the Debian [34]bugtracking system
and applied either in the Debian package or upstream.
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd-0303/msg00125.html
34. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/
Alioth Updated. Wichert Akkerman [35]reported that [36]alioth was
changed to GForge, partly due to a request from [37]VA Software not to
use their logo and name. This change had already been planned for a
later date however the work caused some unforseen problems that are
being resolved. If you discover any other problems, please do not
hesitate to file a support request using the support request
[38]tracker for the [39]siteadmin project.
35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0304/msg00006.html
36. http://alioth.debian.org/
37. http://www.vasoftware.com/
38. https://alioth.debian.org/tracker/?group_id=1
39. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/siteadmin/
New SPI Board Members elected. Branden Robinson [40]announced that
Bruce Perens, John Goerzen, and Benjamin "Mako" Hill have been
appointed to the [41]Board of Directors of [42]Software in the Public
Interest, Inc. (SPI), as of 11 March 2003. This action recognizes and
implements the outcome of the recent election. The board now consists
of 10 people and should be in a proper state for meetings again.
40. http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2003/000051.html
41. http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/board
42. http://www.spi-inc.org/
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [43]glibc -- Arbitrary code execution.
* [44]xfsdump -- Insecure file creation.
* [45]kdegraphics -- Arbitrary command execution.
* [46]lprng -- Insecure temporary file creation.
* [47]gs-common -- Insecure temporary file creation.
* [48]epic -- DoS and arbitrary code execution.
43. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-282
44. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-283
45. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-284
46. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-285
47. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-286
48. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-287
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates.
* [49]ara -- Utility for queries on the Debian package database.
* [50]aspell-sv -- The Swedish dictionary for GNU aspell.
* [51]bbappconf -- Configuration tool for Blackbox application
windows.
* [52]ctrlproxy -- IRC proxy with multiserver support.
* [53]ctxextensions -- Context Menu Extensions for Mozilla.
* [54]debbuggtk -- GTK applications for managing Debian bug reports.
* [55]dnstop -- Console tool to analyze DNS traffic.
* [56]ipython -- Enhanced interactive Python shell.
* [57]karamba -- Program improving the eyecandy of KDE.
* [58]mailfront -- Mail server network protocol front-ends.
* [59]mozplugger -- Plugin allowing external viewers to be launched
inside Mozilla.
* [60]sqcwa -- Workaround for Squid not caching some pages.
* [61]tabextensions -- Tabbed browsing extensions for Mozilla.
* [62]therion -- Cave surveying - 2D and 3D drawing software.
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ara.html
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/aspell-sv.html
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/bbappconf.html
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ctrlproxy.html
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/ctxextensions.html
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/debbuggtk.html
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/dnstop.html
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/ipython.html
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/karamba.html
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/mailfront.html
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mozplugger.html
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/sqcwa.html
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/tabextensions.html
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/therion.html
Orphaned Packages. 12 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 200 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [63]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.
63. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [64]fribidi -- Free Implementation of the Unicode BiDi algorithm.
([65]Bug#188662)
* [66]gap4 -- Testfiles for GAP4. ([67]Bug#188800)
* [68]gap4-doc-dvi -- DVI-Docu files for GAP4. ([69]Bug#188803)
* [70]gap4-doc-html -- HTML Documentation for GAP4. ([71]Bug#188801)
* [72]gap4-doc-ps -- Postscript files for GAP4. ([73]Bug#188798)
* [74]gap4-gdat -- Group data libraries for GAP4. ([75]Bug#188802)
* [76]gap4-tdat -- Table data libraries for GAP4. ([77]Bug#188799)
* guppi -- GNOME graph and plot component, interface to Gnumeric.
([78]Bug#188498)
* [79]libgd-gif -- GD Graphics Library with gif support (development
version). ([80]Bug#188456)
* [81]nail -- BSD mail(1) supporting MIME, SMTP, POP3/SSL and UTF-8.
([82]Bug#188806)
* [83]pam-pgsql -- PAM module to authenticate using a PostgreSQL
database. ([84]Bug#188658)
* [85]prboom -- clone of the legendary first person shooter Doom.
([86]Bug#188807)
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libfribidi0.html
65. http://bugs.debian.org/188662
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4.html
67. http://bugs.debian.org/188800
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4-doc-dvi.html
69. http://bugs.debian.org/188803
70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4-doc-html.html
71. http://bugs.debian.org/188801
72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4-doc-ps.html
73. http://bugs.debian.org/188798
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4-gdat.html
75. http://bugs.debian.org/188802
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/gap4-tdat.html
77. http://bugs.debian.org/188799
78. http://bugs.debian.org/188498
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libgd-gif1.html
80. http://bugs.debian.org/188456
81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/nail.html
82. http://bugs.debian.org/188806
83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-us/libpam-pgsql.html
84. http://bugs.debian.org/188658
85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/prboom.html
86. http://bugs.debian.org/188807
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87. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
88. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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