Debian Weekly News - July 27th, 2004
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/29/
Debian Weekly News - July 27th, 2004
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Welcome to this year's 29th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Pablo Lorenzzoni [1]reported that the
[2]Brazilian Debian community has decided to celebrate a huge
nation-wide party on August 21st for Debian's 11th birthday.
1. http://hackers.propus.com.br/~pablo/blog/?id=34
2. http://www.debian-br.org/
New License Test. Branden Robinson and Matthew Palmer [3]developed
the Dictator Test, which has the ability to determine if a license is
not compliant with the [4]Debian Free Software Guidelines. A license
is not Free if it prohibits actions which, in the absence of
acceptance of the license, would be allowed by copyright or other
applicable laws.
3. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/07/msg00097.html
4. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
Update on Java in Main. Arnaud Vandyck [5]reported that [6]kaffe has
entered testing recently. A lot of the effort of [7]moving Java into
main was based on building these Java packages with Kaffe. Another
good news is that a lot of these packages can now be build with
[8]SableVM, which is also in testing.
5. http://www.livejournal.com/users/avdyk/4713.html
6. http://packages.debian.org/kaffe
7. http://java.debian.net/index.php/MovingJavaToMain
8. http://packages.debian.org/sablevm
Proposed General Resolution: Force AMD64 into Debian. Manoj Srivastava
[9]opened the proposal and amendment discussion period for the
general resolution proposed by Josselin Mouette to force the pure
AMD64 port into sarge and sid. However, with Chris Cheney
[10]rescinding his second the [11]proposal [12]lacks enough sponsors.
The project leader also [13]noted that there is no agreement at all
among the amd64 porters concerning the inclusion in sarge.
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/07/msg00341.html
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/07/msg00344.html
11. http://www.debian.org/vote/2004/vote_005
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/07/msg00349.html
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/07/msg00355.html
Lightweight GNU/Linux Desktop. Knut Yrvin [14]cited an [15]article
from eWeek in which Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports about
lightweight approaches to the GNU/Linux desktop, i.e. a GNU/Linux
thin-client solution with [16]LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project). To
deploy LTSP properly without expertise in the house one can use
Skolelinux, which was designed for school use with minimal resources
in every sense of the word.
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2004/07/msg00170.html
15. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1624113,00.asp
16. http://ltsp.sourceforge.net/
New debtags Alioth Project created. Given the raise of interest grown
around debtags, Enrico Zini [17]spun debtags development from
Deb-Usability into an Alioth [18]project of its own. With the spin
off, new infrastructure has been added including a developers
[19]mailing list for developers interested in contributing or
integrating [20]debtags in their own projects.
17. http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debtags-devel/2004-July/000000.html
18. http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/
19. http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debtags-devel
20. http://svn.debian.org/viewcvs/debtags
Debian Booth Appearance Charter. Alexander Schmehl [21]resumed the
presence at this year's [22]LinuxTag which was quite successful. He
described several issues that caused problems or were nasty and
therefore should be done better next year. This discussion is not
limited to the presence at LinuxTag, so everybody is invited to
[23]join it.
21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2004/06/msg00094.html
22. http://www.linuxtag.org/
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/
The Release Problem. Joey Hess [24]complained that the
[25]debian-installer team experiences problems that Debian has in
overall release management in Debian, in miniature. He reported about
a string freeze that was turned into a waterfall of new strings
instead which also broke all kinds of stuff. This behaviour is quite
natural, though.
24. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/the_release_problem-2004-07-22-23-23.html
25. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Sarge Release Status. Steve Langasek [26]announced the release team
has been hard at work on finalising a viable release schedule. With
the release of debian-installer's second test candidate at the
beginning of August, there is a need to provide a fixed target for
them. Hence, starting 31 July, no more non-RC changes are allowed into
testing for base packages or for packages of priority standard and
higher.
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/07/msg00016.html
New Crypto Library for Sarge? Matthias Urlichs [27]wanted to update
[28]gcrypt and [29]gnutls to the current version, especially since the
upstream developers have requested this. This would alter the
dependencies for the [30]debian-installer, though. Ray Dassen
[31]reminded him of the fiasco in connection with the last upgrade,
but Andreas Metzler [32]explained why this update will be smoother.
However, Steve Langasek [33]asserted that the packages need to be
present in unstable and Matthias finally found a [34]path to go.
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/07/msg00075.html
28. http://packages.debian.org/libgcrypt11
29. http://packages.debian.org/gnutls10
30. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/07/msg00076.html
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/07/msg00077.html
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/07/msg00080.html
34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/07/msg00086.html
Draft Summary of Creative Commons 2.0 Licenses. Evan Prodromou sent in
a [35]draft summary of comments about various [36]creative commons
licenses. Comments and criticism welcome and should be sent to the
[37]debian-legal mailing list.
35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/07/msg01193.html
36. http://creativecommons.org/
37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [38]php4 -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [39]libapache-mod-ssl -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [40]courier -- Cross-site scripting vulnerability.
* [41]mailreader -- Directory traversal vulnerability.
38. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-531
39. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-532
40. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-533
41. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-534
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [42]recently or contain important updates.
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [43]allegro-demo -- Cool game, demonstrating power of the Allegro
library.
* [44]cpp-3.4 -- The GNU C preprocessor.
* [45]crip -- Terminal-based ripper/encoder/tagger tool.
* [46]debian-builder -- Rebuild Debian packages from source code.
* [47]doscan -- Port scanner for discovering services on large
networks.
* [48]freebsd-sendpr -- FreeBSD fork of send-pr (from GNU GNATS).
* [49]freepats -- Free patch set for MIDI audio synthesis.
* [50]g++-3.4 -- The GNU C++ compiler.
* [51]g77-3.4 -- The GNU Fortran 77 compiler.
* [52]gcc-3.4 -- The GNU C compiler.
* [53]gcj-3.4 -- The GNU compiler for Java(TM).
* [54]gij-3.4 -- The GNU Java bytecode interpreter.
* [55]gnat-3.4 -- The GNU Ada compiler.
* [56]gobjc-3.4 -- The GNU Objective-C compiler.
* [57]gpc-2.1-3.4 -- The GNU Pascal compiler.
* [58]mpatrolc102 -- Library for debugging memory allocations.
* [59]orange -- Extracts CAB files from self-extracting installers.
* [60]rsnapshot -- Local and remote filesystem snapshot utility.
* [61]rzip -- Compression program for large files.
* [62]sitebar -- Web based bookmark manager written in PHP.
* [63]synce-serial -- SynCE connection manipulation scripts.
* [64]treelang-3.4 -- The GNU Treelang compiler.
* [65]ttf-alee -- A Lee's GPL'd Hangul truetype fonts.
* [66]ttf-arabeyes -- Arabeyes GPL TrueType Arabic fonts.
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/allegro-demo
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/cpp-3.4
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/crip
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/debian-builder
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/doscan
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/freebsd-sendpr
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/freepats
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/g++-3.4
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/g77-3.4
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gcc-3.4
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gcj-3.4
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gij-3.4
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gnat-3.4
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gobjc-3.4
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gpc-2.1-3.4
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mpatrolc102
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/orange
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rsnapshot
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rzip
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/sitebar
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/synce-serial
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/treelang-3.4
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/ttf-alee
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/ttf-arabeyes
Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian
package is [67]featured from the testing distribution. If you know
about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send
it to [68]Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following
packages last week.
67. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
68. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=debaday
* [69]smartmontools -- Control and monitor storage systems using
S.M.A.R.T.
* [70]unclutter -- Hides the cursor in X after a period of
inactivity.
* [71]filelight -- Show where your diskspace is being used.
* [72]unison -- File-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows.
69. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/25127.html
70. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/25403.html
71. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/25740.html
72. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/25950.html
Orphaned Packages. 8 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 173 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [73]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.
73. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [74]gif2png -- GIF to PNG conversions. ([75]Bug#261583)
* [76]if-transition -- Change in the Weather, an interactive short
story (non-free). ([77]Bug#260720)
* [78]imgvtopgm -- PalmPilot/III Image Conversion utility.
([79]Bug#261584)
* [80]int-fiction-installer -- Installer for interactive fiction
games from the if-archive. ([81]Bug#260719)
* [82]librsync -- Binary diff library based on the rsync algorithm.
([83]Bug#261580)
* [84]mmake -- Makefile generator for Java programs.
([85]Bug#261581)
* [86]modemu -- Telnet services for communication programs.
([87]Bug#261585)
* [88]rdiff-backup -- Backup program to use deltas for history.
([89]Bug#261578)
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/gif2png
75. http://bugs.debian.org/261583
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/weather
77. http://bugs.debian.org/260720
78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/imgvtopgm
79. http://bugs.debian.org/261584
80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/int-fiction-installer
81. http://bugs.debian.org/260719
82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/librsync1
83. http://bugs.debian.org/261580
84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mmake
85. http://bugs.debian.org/261581
86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/modemu
87. http://bugs.debian.org/261585
88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rdiff-backup
89. http://bugs.debian.org/261578
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 [90]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [91]dwn@debian.org.
90. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
91. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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