Debian Weekly News - May 14th, 2003
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/19/
Debian Weekly News - May 14th, 2003
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Welcome to this year's 19th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Debian users in Virginia, USA, may get in
[1]conflict with the law by only installing a regular Debian package,
since it may be a [2]delict to own tools like [3]bulkmail or
[4]smartlist which can be used to deliver mass email or modify
regular mail headers.
1. http://www.governor.state.va.us/Press_Policy/Releases/2003/Apr03/0429b.htm
2. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?031+ful+CHAP0987
3. http://packages.debian.org/bulkmail
4. http://packages.debian.org/smartlist
Update for DebConf 3 in Oslo. Tollef Fog Heen sent an [5]update for
DebConf 3, which will take place in Oslo, Norway, from July 18th to
20th, with DebCamp preceding it from July 12th to 17th. DebCamp will
be a work camp where urgent things like debian-installer or big mean
bugs will be worked on. Depending on the weather, the evenings will be
spent with barbecue, mosquitos and other fun things. HP and Lindows
thankfully sponsor this event. Interested people should [6]register
online.
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0305/msg00002.html
6. http://www.debconf.org/debconf3/registration/
Font Uglification after Upgrade. Andreas Tille [7]noticed rather ugly
fonts in status bars, menus and most importantly in Emacs, which makes
it nearly unusable. Ian Wienand [8]reported that the offending
package seems to be gsfonts-x11 and after its removal his fonts looked
as before. Branden Robinson [9]explained that the new Type1 Helvetica
font distributed with XFree86 looks ugly. Removing it or moving it at
the end of the font list solves the problem.
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00207.html
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00284.html
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00379.html
Additional Calendar Files. There has been a [10]discussion if Debian
should include a calendar file (with bsdmainutils or not) that would
contain Debian specific dates, such as release dates and days of death
of fellow developer. Three more public calendar [11]files could be
used by anybody interested in using calendar with some recent dates.
Bob Proulx [12]suggested to use a separate package with a cronjob to
inform users which is subject of disagreement.
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00058.html
11. http://www.infodrom.org/projects/calendar/
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00115.html
GNU GPL and OPL. Tatsuya Kinoshita [13]wondered if the [14]Open
Publication License (OPL) is compatible with the [15]GNU GPL. He
quoted a paragraph from the OPL that seems to be incompatible with the
GPL. He would also like to see the Debian [16]web pages be
dual-licensed under both the OPL and the GNU GPL instead of only under
the OPL as it is currently.
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0305/msg00003.html
14. http://opencontent.org/openpub/
15. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
16. http://www.debian.org/
Splitting off Documentation. Andreas Tille [17]wondered if it is
documented when documentation should be split off of a package. Oliver
Elphick [18]explained that the point of splitting out a documentation
package is to reduce download time for people who want to install a
package without its documentation. This has to be balanced against the
load on the archive of having extra packages.
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00218.html
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00241.html
New Translation Effort in Poland. Bartosz Fenski [19]announced (in
Polish only) a new translation effort called [20]Polish Debian
Documentation Project (PDDP). There are no Debian developers in PDDP
yet, but this is likely to change. The main goal of this group is to
translate Debian documentation into Polish as well as to help
translating DWN. Currently, they are translating the [21]Debian
Reference.
19. http://7thguard.net/news.php?id=2990
20. http://debian.linux.org.pl/
21. http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#quick-reference
Confirmed Tag for the BTS. Anthony Towns [22]announced that there is
now a "confirmed" tag for maintainers to use with the bug tracking
system (BTS). The tag should be used to indicate that those bugs that
have been looked at, understood, and basically agreed with, but
haven't yet been fixed. Bugs marked "unreproducible" or "moreinfo"
generally can't be "confirmed". Bugs marked "help" could be depending
on what sort of help is required. The BTS [23]search form can be used
to list a package's confirmed or un-confirmed bugs as well as the
various other tags.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00374.html
23. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/
Explaining why a Package is not in Testing. Björn Stenberg [24]wrote a
[25]script that parses [26]update_excuses.html and
[27]update_output.txt and tries to give human-readable answers to
questions in the form "Why is package X not in testing yet?" The
script takes a package name and outputs the reasons why the package is
not in testing yet. For example, it explains that libbonoboui is
waiting for gnome-vfs2, which in turn is waiting for fam, etc.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00350.html
25. http://bjorn.haxx.se/debian/
26. http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/update_excuses.html
27. http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/update_output.txt
Status of Sarge Release Issues. Drew Scott Daniels [28]posted an
updated list of sarge release issues. This is a list of things to be
done before sarge can be released, with status information and an
estimated priority (of 1-3). Some of the issues listed include
[29]problems in testing, the [30]XFree86 status, [31]porting of
debian-installer, the possibility of using [32]Linux Kernel 2.6 in
sarge, and the [33]status of Java.
28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00271.html
29. http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/testing_probs.html
30. http://people.debian.org/~branden/xsf/
31. http://people.debian.org/~mckinstry/ports-status.html
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00274.html
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00334.html
License problems with DBD::mysql? A [34]bug report from Steve Langasek
started a [35]discussion on whether Debian may distribute a
GPL-incompatible script which uses a free interpreter and free
libraries. Because the new libmysqlclient12 package is licensed under
the GPL, any GPL-incompatible application which depend on
libdbd-mysql-perl (DBD::mysql) would be in violation of the
libmysqlclient12 license.
34. http://bugs.debian.org/189164
35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0304/msg00171.html
Using the GNU FDL against itself. Peter Galbraith [36]suggested to add
an invariant section to the Emacs info files that explains why
documentation authors should not use the [37]GNU Free Documentation
License (FDL). Brian M. Carlson [38]added that Debian can't legally
[39]distribute such an info document. Because the GNU FDL is
incompatible with the GPL, it is prohibited to even create an info
document from GNU FDL'd texinfo source.
36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0304/msg00181.html
37. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
38. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0304/msg00205.html
39. http://bugs.debian.org/183860
GNU Emacs containing non-free Components? Jérôme Marant [40]wondered
if [41]two [42]essays that are distributed with GNU Emacs, use a
non-free license. Both are distributed differently on the FSF web
pages, though. Some people say that these files are manifest documents
and not regular documentation, hence, the are permitted to be
non-modifiable.
40. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0304/msg00373.html
41. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
42. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html
Discovering the used Character Encoding. Bob Hilliard [43]wondered
whether it is possible to determine what character encoding is used in
a document without manually scanning the entire file. Martin von
Loewis [44]explained that this can't be done automatically. If one
knows what text to expect, one can try a number of encodings, and see
which of the encodings gives the characters one expects. As a manual
procedure, this is best done with the help of
/usr/share/i18n/charmaps.
43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00575.html
44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0305/msg00582.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [45]libgtop -- Buffer overflow.
* [46]fuzz -- Insecure temporary file creation.
45. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-301
46. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-302
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates.
* [47]apt-doc -- Documentation for APT.
* [48]flex-old -- Old versions of the fast lexical analyzer
generator.
* [49]pointless -- Presentation tool based on OpenGL.
* [50]roundup -- Issue tracking system.
* [51]xt-strategoxt -- Language transformation tools for
programmers.
* [52]zope-translationservice -- Location-aware translation service
for Zope.
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/apt-doc.html
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/flex-old.html
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/pointless.html
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/roundup.html
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/xt-strategoxt.html
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/zope-translationservice.html
Orphaned Packages. 29 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 190 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [53]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.
53. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [54]apcupsd -- APC UPS Power Management. ([55]Bug#192672)
* [56]axyftp -- Graphical ftp program with Lesstif interface.
([57]Bug#192677)
* [58]dotfile -- The Dotfile Generator tcsh module. ([59]Bug#192682)
* [60]dvi2ps -- TeX DVI-driver for NTT jTeX, MulTeX and ASCII ptex.
([61]Bug#192686)
* dvi2ps-fontdata -- Font data of Adobe Japanese fonts (futomin,
futogo, jun101). ([62]Bug#192691)
* [63]elvis -- Much improved "vi" editor with syntax highlighting.
([64]Bug#192673)
* [65]equivs -- Circumventing Debian package dependencies.
([66]Bug#192678)
* [67]fda -- C malloc debug library. ([68]Bug#192657)
* [69]gps -- Remote gPS poller. ([70]Bug#192655)
* [71]gtksql -- GTK front end to the postgresql database.
([72]Bug#192667)
* [73]hpscanpbm -- HP ScanJet scanning utility. ([74]Bug#192661)
* [75]levee -- Very small vi clone. ([76]Bug#192651)
* [77]libparagui1.0 -- Standard themes for the widget set library.
([78]Bug#192681)
* [79]libsdl-mm0.1 -- Development files for SDL C++ wrapper.
([80]Bug#192683)
* [81]libtest-unit-perl -- Unit testing interface for Perl.
([82]Bug#192649)
* [83]lookup -- Utility to search text files quickly and powerfully.
([84]Bug#192687)
* [85]lprngtool -- GUI frontend to LPRng based /etc/printcap.
([86]Bug#192653)
* [87]mosix -- Mosix development files (static library and header
files). ([88]Bug#192697)
* [89]mosixview -- Graphical tool to administrate a mosix cluster.
([90]Bug#192696)
* [91]ntaim -- Curses-based AIM client. ([92]Bug#192650)
* [93]opengate -- H.323 voice over IP gatekeeper. ([94]Bug#192453)
* [95]propaganda-debian -- Propaganda background image volume for
Debian. ([96]Bug#192656)
* [97]psh -- Interactive shell with the power of perl.
([98]Bug#192652)
* [99]sup -- Software Upgrade Protocol implementation.
([100]Bug#192670)
* [101]timidity-patches -- Instrument files for software-only MIDI
sequencer. ([102]Bug#192669)
* [103]xisp -- User-friendly X interface to pppd/chat.
([104]Bug#192679)
* [105]xjdic -- Japanese-English dictionary search program.
([106]Bug#192688)
* [107]xlogmaster -- Program to monitor logfiles. ([108]Bug#192676)
* [109]xpvm -- Graphical console and monitor for PVM.
([110]Bug#192886)
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/apcupsd.html
55. http://bugs.debian.org/192672
56. http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/axyftp-lesstif.html
57. http://bugs.debian.org/192677
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/dotfile.html
59. http://bugs.debian.org/192682
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/dvi2ps.html
61. http://bugs.debian.org/192686
62. http://bugs.debian.org/192691
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/elvis.html
64. http://bugs.debian.org/192673
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/equivs.html
66. http://bugs.debian.org/192678
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/fda.html
68. http://bugs.debian.org/192657
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/gps.html
70. http://bugs.debian.org/192655
71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-us/gtksql.html
72. http://bugs.debian.org/192667
73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/hpscanpbm.html
74. http://bugs.debian.org/192661
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/levee.html
76. http://bugs.debian.org/192651
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libparagui1.0.html
78. http://bugs.debian.org/192681
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libsdl-mm0.1.html
80. http://bugs.debian.org/192683
81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libtest-unit-perl.html
82. http://bugs.debian.org/192649
83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/lookup.html
84. http://bugs.debian.org/192687
85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/lprngtool.html
86. http://bugs.debian.org/192653
87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/mosix.html
88. http://bugs.debian.org/192697
89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/mosixview.html
90. http://bugs.debian.org/192696
91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ntaim.html
92. http://bugs.debian.org/192650
93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/comm/opengate.html
94. http://bugs.debian.org/192453
95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/propaganda-debian.html
96. http://bugs.debian.org/192656
97. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/shells/psh.html
98. http://bugs.debian.org/192652
99. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/sup.html
100. http://bugs.debian.org/192670
101. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/timidity-patches.html
102. http://bugs.debian.org/192669
103. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/xisp.html
104. http://bugs.debian.org/192679
105. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/xjdic.html
106. http://bugs.debian.org/192688
107. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/xlogmaster.html
108. http://bugs.debian.org/192676
109. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/xpvm.html
110. http://bugs.debian.org/192886
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteer writers who investigate the Debian
community and report about events in the community. Please see the
[111]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward
to receiving your mail at [112]dwn@debian.org.
111. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
112. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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