Debian Weekly News - January 4th, 2005
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/01/
Debian Weekly News - January 4th, 2005
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to this year's 1st issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community. Martin Michlmayr [1]announced that Jörg Jaspert has
been appointed as an additional Debian account manager. The Debian
project [2]announced another update of their [3]stable release. Joey
Hess [4]published a list of security problems fixed in unstable but
pending in sarge.
1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00277.html
2. http://www.debian.org/News/2005/20050101
3. http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/12/msg00198.html
New Arch and Subversion Server. Wichert Akkerman [5]announced the
move of all arch and subversion repositories to a new server. The
switch to the fsfs backend for subversion will fix problems resulting
from dead locks, stalled processes and incorrect access lists. He
later [6]reported that the move was successful.
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/12/msg00009.html
6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/12/msg00011.html
Meaning of GNU/Linux. Ed White [7]pointed out that Debian's
interpretation of the term GNU/Linux is wrong according to a recent
[8]interview with Richard Stallman where he explained that the term
GNU/Linux means that the system started out as GNU, with Linux added.
Peter Karlsson [9]explained that it's just a matter of
interpretation. Either one starts with the Linux kernel and adds the
GNU tools, then the wording on the Debian web pages is correct, or one
starts with the GNU tools and adds a kernel, for instance Linux.
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00269.html
8. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00272.html
Mozilla Trademark Restrictions. Alexander Sack [10]noted that the
Debian project can be forced to change the name of all Mozilla related
packages because of the Mozilla [11]trademark restrictions. He also
asked if this naming restrictions would make the packages non-free.
Several suggestions for new names included Freebird, Freefox and
Freezilla with or without the distribution name. Don Armstrong
[12]suggested a distribution-neutral naming scheme for non-official
Mozilla packages.
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00328.html
11. http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/policy.html
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00331.html
Debian Eyecatcher Project started. Alexander Schmehl [13]announced
that he has started the [14]Eyecatcher project. The idea is to create
some kind of informative and funny presentation about Debian which
could be run in a loop on fairs, when the booth personnel have nothing
else to show or while it is busy with other visitors. Help on this
project would be appreciated.
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc/2005/01/msg00029.html
14. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/eyecatcher/
On Packaging MPEG Encoders. The [15]question why lame couldn't be
packaged and distributed in Debian recently came up. Chris Cheney
[16]explained that it is patent-encumbered by a company enforcing its
patents. Florian Weimer [17]added that even while software cannot be
patented in Europe currently, it can infringe patent claims, which is
more relevant for Debian.
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02199.html
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02201.html
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02219.html
Experimental Buildd Network? Frank Küster [18]wondered if packages in
experimental were autobuilt. Martin Michlmayr [19]pointed out that
Andreas Barth is running a buildd network for experimental. He
[20]added that versioned build-dependencies from experimental are not
[21]supported.
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02271.html
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02272.html
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02275.html
21. http://people.debian.org/~aba/buildd/exp-dep.html
ITP Reminder Mails. Justin Pryzby [22]wondered if he should send
reminder mails to those who opened an intent-to-package (ITP) bug
report and where the bug report hasn't seen any traffic in the last
four months. This effort was mostly appreciated last time and the
[23]results sent to the QA group.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02310.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/04/msg00094.html
Origin of the Debian Swirl Logo. Martin F. Krafft [24]wondered where
the current Debian [25]logo is from. Florian Ernst [26]directed
readers to the [27]readme file in the webserver source that explains
that Raul M. Silva has created the logo. The Debian project has
[28]announced the new logo back in August 1999 as a result of a GIMP
contest and a subsequent vote among Debian developers.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg02328.html
25. http://www.debian.org/logos/
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/12/msg03402.html
27. http://cvs.debian.org/webwml/english/logos/README?cvsroot=webwml&rev=HEAD
28. http://www.debian.org/News/1999/19990826
Detecting uninstalled Packages. Martin Michlmayr [29]asked for a list
of packages that are not installed by anybody or only by a few people.
Frank Lichtenheld [30]revealed that this refers to about 230 (or 600
for less than two installations) packages according to the
[31]popularity contest.
29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/12/msg00043.html
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/12/msg00044.html
31. http://popcon.debian.org/
Using the Term Debian. Jürgen Lüters [32]wondered if he may use the
term Debian as part of "Debian extended Xterminal" or whether there
are legal obstacles even though the scripts will be released under the
[33]GNU GPL as well. Brian Thomas Sniffen [34]pointed out that the
[35]trademark could indeed prevent him from using the term.
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00312.html
33. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00325.html
35. http://www.debian.org/News/1998/19980306a
Bug Squashing Party next Weekend. Frank Lichtenheld [36]announced a
bug squashing party to take place from January 7th to 9th in
#debian-bugs on irc.debian.org. He wrote that over the last weeks the
release-critical bug count has increased again. There are probably
several reasons this has happened (e.g. many people on vacation,
stalls in the testing migration due to gcc and perl problems etc.).
36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/01/msg00000.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 619: [37]xpdf -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 620: [38]perl -- Several vulnerabilities.
* DSA 621: [39]cupsys -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 622: [40]htmlheadline -- Insecure temporary files.
* DSA 623: [41]nasm -- Arbitrary code execution.
37. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-619
38. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-620
39. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-621
40. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-622
41. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-623
Orphaned Packages. 29 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 256 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [42]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.
42. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [43]audio-cd -- Library to handle CDDB and low-level cd io calls.
([44]Bug#288209)
* [45]cantus -- GNOME tool to mass-rename/tag mp3 and ogg files.
([46]Bug#287985)
* [47]cantus3 -- GNOME tool to mass-rename/tag mp3 and ogg files.
([48]Bug#287986)
* [49]check -- Unit test framework for C. ([50]Bug#288213)
* [51]curator -- Turn directories of images into static web content.
([52]Bug#288256)
* [53]disc-cover -- Generates CD-disc covers for jewel-cases.
([54]Bug#288210)
* [55]eco5000 -- Orga Eco 5000 smartcard reader PCSC and CT-API
driver. ([56]Bug#288228)
* [57]fvwm-shell -- Fvwm2 based desktop environment.
([58]Bug#288333)
* [59]gcombust -- GTK+ based CD mastering and burning program.
([60]Bug#288267)
* [61]gkdial -- PPP dial-up configuration and dialing tool.
([62]Bug#287992)
* [63]gnupod-tools -- Collection of Perl-scripts for iPod.
([64]Bug#287987)
* [65]gsmartcard -- Smart card reading, writing and managing program
for Gnome. ([66]Bug#288229)
* [67]imagefs -- Creates a virtual FAT12 file system in a single
file. ([68]Bug#288334)
* [69]imaze -- Multiplayer network maze game like MidiMaze.
([70]Bug#288335)
* [71]jadetex -- Generator of printable output from SGML or XML
using Jade. ([72]Bug#288204)
* [73]ldp-docbook-stylesheets -- Linux Documentation Project's XSL
stylesheets. ([74]Bug#288330)
* [75]libcrypto++ -- Crypto++ library. ([76]Bug#288433)
* [77]libhttpfetcher -- Small library that downloads files via HTTP.
([78]Bug#288338)
* [79]log4cpp -- C++ library for flexible logging. ([80]Bug#288336)
* [81]log4cpp-doc -- C++ library for flexible logging
(documentation). ([82]Bug#288337)
* [83]rawrec -- Buffered raw audio recorder/player. ([84]Bug#288215)
* [85]slbreflex -- Reflex 62/64 smartcard reader PCSC and CT-API
driver. ([86]Bug#288230)
* [87]smartcard -- Smartcard utility for Linux. ([88]Bug#288231)
* [89]sound-recorder -- Direct-to-disk recording and play-back
programs. ([90]Bug#288211)
* [91]soundgrab -- Play a raw audio file and interactively select
and save pieces. ([92]Bug#288216)
* [93]strategoxt -- Language transformation tools for programmers.
([94]Bug#288007)
* [95]towitoko -- Towitoko smartcard reader PCSC and CT-API driver.
([96]Bug#288232)
* [97]vcg -- A Visualization Tool for compiler graphs.
([98]Bug#288379)
* [99]wav2cdr -- Converts wav files into CD-ROM audio file format.
([100]Bug#288212)
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libaudio-cd-perl
44. http://bugs.debian.org/288209
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/cantus
46. http://bugs.debian.org/287985
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/cantus3
48. http://bugs.debian.org/287986
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/check
50. http://bugs.debian.org/288213
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/curator
52. http://bugs.debian.org/288256
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/disc-cover
54. http://bugs.debian.org/288210
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libcteco50000
56. http://bugs.debian.org/288228
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/fvwm-shell
58. http://bugs.debian.org/288333
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/gcombust
60. http://bugs.debian.org/288267
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/gkdial
62. http://bugs.debian.org/287992
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gnupod-tools
64. http://bugs.debian.org/287987
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gsmartcard
66. http://bugs.debian.org/288229
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/imagefs
68. http://bugs.debian.org/288334
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/imaze-xaw
70. http://bugs.debian.org/288335
71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/jadetex
72. http://bugs.debian.org/288204
73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/ldp-docbook-dsssl
74. http://bugs.debian.org/288330
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libcrypto++5.2
76. http://bugs.debian.org/288433
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libhttpfetcher1
78. http://bugs.debian.org/288338
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/liblog4cpp1c102
80. http://bugs.debian.org/288336
81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/liblog4cpp-doc
82. http://bugs.debian.org/288337
83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/rawrec
84. http://bugs.debian.org/288215
85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libslbreflex2
86. http://bugs.debian.org/288230
87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/smartcard
88. http://bugs.debian.org/288231
89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/sound-recorder
90. http://bugs.debian.org/288211
91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/soundgrab
92. http://bugs.debian.org/288216
93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/xt-strategoxt
94. http://bugs.debian.org/288007
95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libtowitoko2
96. http://bugs.debian.org/288232
97. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/vcg
98. http://bugs.debian.org/288379
99. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/wav2cdr
100. http://bugs.debian.org/288212
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 [101]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [102]dwn@debian.org.
101. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
102. mailto:dwn@debian.org
Reply to: