Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 2004
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/26/
Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 2004
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Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. The online-forum debianHELP is carrying an
online [1]Debian Trivia Quiz for you to see if you can put yourself
into the hall of fame. In retrospect of this year's [2]Debian
conference Joey Hess [3]complained about being not very productive at
conferences and high expectations that also block productivity and
socialising.
1. http://www.debianhelp.org/index.php?module=vquiz
2. http://www.debian.org/events/2004/0526-debconf
3. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/being_productive_at_conferences-2004-06-09-18-56.html
Quantian 0.5.9.1 released. Dirk Eddelbuettel [4]announced a new
release of Quantian, a re-mastered version of [5]Knoppix for use by
applied or theoretical workers in quantitative or data-driven fields.
This version is intended for DVDs and no longer fits on a CD-ROM.
Users without a DVD can use their hard disk to [6]boot the ISO image.
4. http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2004/06/14/#uploaded_0.5.9.1
5. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
6. http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2004/06/16#howto_winboot
GNOME 2.6 moves into testing. The latest version of GNOME has started
to propagate into Testing (Sarge), less than a month after the release
managers [7]gave permission for GNOME 2.6 to migrate from
experimental to unstable. Jordi Mallach [8]provided temporary
workarounds for several packaging bugs.
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/05/msg00126.html
8. http://oskuro.net/~jordi/blog/freesoftware/gnome-mayhem-2004-06-18-00-33.html
Future of Debian X11 Packages. Fabio Massimo Di Nitto, the current
Debian X11 release manager, [9]inquired about which direction these
packages should go. Because of a licensing change Debian can no longer
use [10]XFree86 as upstream. Keith Packard [11]suggested moving away
from a monolithic source package and switching to [12]X.org as the new
upstream. Daniel Stone [13]described several of the options.
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg00979.html
10. http://www.xfree86.org/
11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01006.html
12. http://www.x.org/
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01051.html
Mozilla Public License 1.1. MJ Ray [14]posted an update about the
[15]Mozilla license 1.1, claiming that there is no consensus about all
MPL-covered works and they should be checked individually, as before.
The discussion continues and more information are sought, in
particular about the US venue choice.
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/06/msg00514.html
15. http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.1.html
Preparing for Debian-Installer TC2. Joey Hess posted an [16]update on
the important and unresolved issues remaining in [17]debian-installer
testing. He has tried to track release critical issues, and get the
fixes into testing. His plan is to wait for the
[18]libdebian-installer and busybox fixes to reach testing and then do
another official debian-installer images build on the autobuilders.
That build will then be blessed as Test Candidate 2, and there will be
another round of testing to see if it is finally in a releasable
state.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/06/msg02369.html
17. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
18. http://packages.debian.org/libdebian-installer
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD live CD. Robert Millan [19]created a GNU/kFreeBSD
[20]live CD. A new installation guide is also [21]available. This ISO
image contains a basic rescue system with GNU/kFreeBSD. It is usable
for simple tasks and for just testing, but doesn't setup writable
filesystems for you or has development tools installed.
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd/2004/06/msg00014.html
20. http://people.debian.org/~rmh/livecd/
21. http://svn.debian.org/viewcvs/glibc-bsd/trunk/web/kfreebsd/INSTALL?view=auto&rev=65
Debian-Women List operational. Pascal Hakim [22]announced that the
[23]debian-women list has now been created. It is an un-moderated
mailing list for Debian users and developers who wish to involve more
women in the Debian project. It is for discussion and sharing of ideas
as well as project collaboration.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/2004/06/msg00000.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/
Dropping Freeswan for Openswan. Rene Mayrhofer [24]discussed his
current difficulties with freeswan. He noted that the list of bugs on
the freeswan packages is too long and although it is improved over a
year ago he is unable to fix all possible combinations of freeswan and
kernels. Rene's preferred option for dealing with the situation is to
remove freeswan in favour of openswan.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01460.html
Removal of outdated Translations. Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña
[25]discovered that translations are removed from the website after
six months of not being updated. He thought that since some version
changes in the English wml files are merely cosmetic, the translations
may not need updating. He asked that only translations that are way
too outdated be removed (more than 5 versions behind). Peter Karlsson
[26]did not agree there was a problem. He thought six months without
any reaction from the translation team qualified as way too outdated.
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2004/07/msg00015.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2004/07/msg00019.html
Fingerprint of the Archive Signing Key. Martin F Krafft [27]noted that
as APT 0.6 will check for package signatures, the archive signing key
will become more relevant to Debian users. However, he could not find
a place on the web page from which the key is linked, nor information
on how to get it or how to verify it. He proposed having a web page
explaining the key and its trust basis, and also publishing the key's
fingerprint. As Frank Lichtenheld [28]pointed out the key is indeed
[29]linked from the web pages, though not very visible.
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01499.html
28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01525.html
29. http://www.debian.org/releases/
State of Sarge Debian-Installer: Broken. Joey Hess [30]looked at
sarge's debian-installer and concluded that it is broken. He sees many
instances of changes that break dependencies. He thought it likely
that sid's d-i now has less bugs than sarge's and that sid is
diverging too far from sarge for it to be easy to keep maintaining
sarge. He may throw away the plan of incremental copying of binary
packages into sarge, and revert to taking a snapshot, hoping that it
mostly works and copying everything to sarge in one go for a release.
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/07/msg00053.html
Debian used in German Agencies. The German [31]agency for security in
the information technology (BSI) [32]released (German only) the so
called "agency-desktop" ERPOSS which was developed in collaboration
with [33]credativ GmbH and uses Debian GNU/Linux, KDE 3.2, a
preconfigured and activated personal firewall and among other software
the mail client KMail with integrated virus and spam protection. BSI
offers a [34]live CD and an [35]installation CD.
31. http://www.bsi.bund.de/
32. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48828
33. http://www.credativ.de/
34. http://www.bsi.bund.de/produkte/erposs3/ERPOSS3_LIVECD.ISO
35. http://www.bsi.bund.de/produkte/erposs3/ERPOSS3_INSTALLATION.ISO
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [36]webmin -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [37]pavuk -- Buffer overflow.
36. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-526
37. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-527
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [38]recently or contain important updates.
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [39]archzoom -- Web-based Arch repository browser.
* [40]asc -- Turn-based strategy game.
* [41]barrage -- Rather violent action game.
* [42]bicyclerepair -- Refactoring tool for python.
* [43]bittornado-gui -- Bittorrent client with enhanced GUI
interface.
* [44]cpqarrayd -- Monitoring tool for HP (Compaq) SmartArray
controllers.
* [45]cream -- VIM macros that make the VIM easier to use for
beginners.
* [46]dlume -- Handy and easy to use addressbook.
* [47]fastdep -- Fast dependency generator for C/C++ files.
* [48]ghextris -- Tetris-like game on a hexagonal grid.
* [49]glosstex -- Prepare glossaries and lists of acronyms.
* [50]hydra -- Very fast network logon cracker.
* [51]k3d -- 3D modeling and animation system.
* [52]keyanalyze -- OpenPGP key analysis.
* [53]links2 -- Web browser running in both graphics and text mode.
* [54]medussa -- Distributed password cracking system.
* [55]metapixel -- Generator for photomosaics.
* [56]moaggedit -- Map editor for the Moagg game.
* [57]mp3roaster -- Perl hack for burning audio CDs out of
MP3/OGG/FLAC files.
* [58]oggz-tools -- Utilities for mangling Ogg streams.
* [59]orpie -- RPN calculator for the terminal.
* [60]otrs -- Open Ticket Request System.
* [61]rbldnsd -- Small and fast DNSBL nameserver daemon.
* [62]rpl -- Intelligent recursive search/replace utility.
* [63]samidare -- Web page updates checker.
* [64]sip4 -- Python/C++ bindings generator.
* [65]smb4k -- Samba (SMB) share advanced browser for KDE.
* [66]unrar -- Unarchiver for .rar files.
* [67]vino -- VNC server for GNOME.
* [68]wmhdplop -- Hard drive activity monitor dockapp.
* [69]yaret -- Console tool to turn CDs into encoded music.
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/archzoom
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/asc
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/barrage
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/bicyclerepair
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/bittornado-gui
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/cpqarrayd
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/cream
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/dlume
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/fastdep
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/ghextris
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/glosstex
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/hydra
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/k3d
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/keyanalyze
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/links2
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/medussa
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/metapixel
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/moaggedit
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/mp3roaster
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/oggz-tools
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/orpie
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/otrs
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/rbldnsd
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rpl
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/samidare
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/sip4
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/smb4k
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/unrar
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/vino
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/wmhdplop
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/yaret
Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian
package is [70]featured from the testing distribution. If you know
about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send
it to [71]Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following
packages last week.
70. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
71. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=debaday
* [72]ecasound -- Multitrack-capable audio recorder and effect
processor.
* [73]firehol -- Easy to use but powerful iptables stateful
firewall.
72. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/21115.html
73. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/21856.html
Orphaned Packages. 3 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 171 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [74]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.
74. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [75]lavaps -- Lava lamp of currently running processes.
([76]Bug#257561)
* [77]linuxlogo -- Color ANSI System Logo. ([78]Bug#256685)
* [79]login.app -- Login application designed with the NeXTStep look
in mind. ([80]Bug#256681)
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/lavaps
76. http://bugs.debian.org/257561
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/linuxlogo
78. http://bugs.debian.org/256685
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/login.app
80. http://bugs.debian.org/256681
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community
and report about what is going on. Please see the [81]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [82]dwn@debian.org.
81. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
82. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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