Debian Weekly News - March 8th, 2005
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/10/
Debian Weekly News - March 8th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 10th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Several developers use the campaigning period of
this year's project leader election intensely on the [1]debian-vote
list and ask the candidates to clarify their position. John Goerzen
[2]announced that [3]SPI can now [4]accept donations by check from
Canada.
1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/
2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/03/msg00000.html
3. http://www.spi-inc.org/
4. http://www.spi-inc.org/news/2005/20050218
Debian Project Leader Election. [5]Anthony Towns, [6]Jonathan
Walther, [7]Branden Robinson and [8]Angus Lees have also nominated
themselves for the upcoming [9]project leader election, so that the
developers can choose among six candidates. The campaigning period has
already will last until March 21st. Helen Faulkner and Martin F.
Krafft will conduct an [10]IRC debate on March 19th and [11]called for
suggestions for questions to be put to the candidates.
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00119.html
6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00121.html
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00123.html
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00114.html
9. http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/vote_001
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/03/msg00071.html
11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00130.html
The Debian Release Family. Jason Perlow [12]explained that Debian is
not only one distribution but a family of derived distributions. He
emphasised that one should not have to install Debian on the same
system twice or more often. He continued to introduce several
distributions that are derived from pure Debian.
12. http://www.linuxmagazine.com/content/view/45/115/
Better Asian Support. Two Asian companies [13]announced to jointly
develop a universal Debian GNU/Linux infrastructure and actively
promote the adoption of Debian-based systems in both the Japan and
China markets. "In Asia, especially in Japan and China, Open Source is
getting huge publicity and is now well-received," said Tetsuya Ueda,
President and CEO of VA Linux in Tokyo. Osamu Aoki [14]added that
there are currently not enough Asian developers to develop Asian
support for the various tools and systems.
13. http://www.valinux.co.jp/en/newsroom/2005/0301/01/
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/03/msg00013.html
Release Team Meeting. Steve Langasek [15]reported that developers
affiliated with the release process have had a meeting in Vancouver,
thankfully sponsored by NUUGF. They discussed the needs to get sarge
out the door, and began preparations for a timely release of etch.
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/03/msg00015.html
Debian Project Leader Team. Jeroen van Wolffelaar [16]announced the
project Scud that consists of a number of developers who intend to
support the new project leader after the election. The idea is to lead
the Debian project with better decisions than a single individual
could do. Due to the diversity of the team, but at the same time, the
commitment to cooperate and discuss possible ways of achieving
something in a constructive manner they believe to be able to lead
Debian well.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/03/msg00035.html
APT Migration Status Report. Florian Weimer [17]sent in the first
[18]status report covering the migration of [19]APT 0.6 into sarge
which lists showstoppers and tasks. He also asked for volunteers to
install the new version, recompile their favourite frontend and report
success and problems. Recompilation is required due to a change in the
exported binary interface.
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00969.html
18. http://www.enyo.de/fw/software/apt-secure/
19. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/base/apt
Automatic Changelog Generation with Subversion. Torsten Landschoff
[20]wondered if there was a tool that could automatically update the
debian/changelog file when a change is made to the Subversion
repository. Joey Hess [21]provided a script that will use parts of the
changelog file for the log message.
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01181.html
21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01258.html
Handling Buildd Problems. Thomas Bushnell [22]started a discussion
about build problems with the buildd network with regards to the new
XFree86 package. While on one architecture the problem is just missing
disk space, the problem on other architectures is more difficult.
Steve Langasek [23]asked the developers to send a mail to the buildd
admin and the release team in such cases.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01198.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01260.html
Proper Encoding in Manual Pages. Eric Lavarde [24]noticed that single
quotes and hyphens in manual pages don't always look like they should.
In a response, Clint Adams [25]explained which characters to use for a
hyphen and for a minus sign. Additionally, Adeodato Simó [26]pointed
out a workaround described in the [27]groff package.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01320.html
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01321.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg01322.html
27. http://packages.debian.org/groff
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 691: [28]abuse -- Local root exploit.
* DSA 692: [29]kdenetwork -- Privileged file descriptor leak.
28. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-691
29. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-692
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [30]recently or contain important updates.
30. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [31]bazaar -- Arch revision control system.
* [32]beep-media-player-scrobbler -- Beep plugin to send track
information to audioscrobbler.
* [33]capiutils -- Utilities for CAPI-capable ISDN cards.
* [34]doodled -- desktop search engine (daemon).
* [35]kdoomsday -- Countdown timer panel applet for KDE.
* [36]rails -- MVC ruby based framework geared for web application
development.
* [37]rake -- Ruby build program.
* [38]recoverjpeg -- Recover JPEG pictures from a filesystem image.
* [39]resmgr -- Resource manager library daemon and PAM module.
* [40]robotour -- Control mobile robots in this programmer's game.
* [41]rssreader.app -- RSS reader for GNUstep.
* [42]xmms-scrobbler -- XMMS plugin that sends your track
information to audioscrobbler.
31. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/bazaar
32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/beep-media-player-scrobbler
33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/capiutils
34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/doodled
35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kdoomsday
36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/rails
37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/rake
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/recoverjpeg
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/resmgr
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/robotour
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/rssreader.app
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/xmms-scrobbler
Orphaned Packages. 25 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 225 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [43]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.
43. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [44]acl-installer -- Installer for Franz' Allegro 6.2 Lisp Trial
Edition. ([45]Bug#297344)
* [46]admesh -- Tool for processing triangulated solid meshes.
([47]Bug#297345)
* [48]albert -- Common Lisp -> DocBook documenter. ([49]Bug#297346)
* [50]busybox -- Standalone rescue shell with tons of builtin
utilities. ([51]Bug#298363)
* [52]cl-postoffice -- SMTP, POP, & IMAP interface library for
Common Lisp Programs. ([53]Bug#297382)
* [54]cl-rsm-memo -- McIntire's Common Lisp Memoization Library.
([55]Bug#297395)
* [56]cl-rsm-mpoly -- McIntire's Common Lisp Multivariate Polynomial
Library. ([57]Bug#297398)
* [58]enbd -- Enhanced Network Block Device support kernel patch.
([59]Bug#298388)
* [60]gtk-engines-mac2 -- Mac2 theme for GTK+. ([61]Bug#298151)
* [62]hindent -- Reformats HTML code. ([63]Bug#297424)
* [64]langband -- Langband Common lisp game. ([65]Bug#297426)
* [66]langband-data -- Langband sound/image/etc files for langband
engine. ([67]Bug#297427)
* [68]libmp3hip -- Python interface to the libmp3hip library.
([69]Bug#298386)
* [70]lw-per-installer -- Installer for Lispworks ANSI Common Lisp
System, Personal Edition. ([71]Bug#297429)
* [72]lw-pro-installer -- Installer for Xanalys' Lispworks ANSI
Common Lisp System. ([73]Bug#297431)
* [74]lw-pro-installer-43 -- Installer for Xanalys Lispworks Common
Lisp System, version 4.3. ([75]Bug#297432)
* [76]neon -- Header and static library files for libneon24.
([77]Bug#298370)
* [78]onlisp -- Book on Common Lisp programming techniques.
([79]Bug#297436)
* [80]openmcl -- Native code ANSI Common Lisp compiler and runtime
environment. ([81]Bug#297473)
* [82]openmcl-build-tools -- OpenMCL Common Lisp tools for building
system. ([83]Bug#297475)
* [84]pdp1-lisp -- Early Lisp interpreter for a PDP-1 emulator.
([85]Bug#297441)
* [86]python-aima -- Python code for the an Artificial Intelligence
book. ([87]Bug#297443)
* [88]pyzor -- Spam-catcher using a collaborative filtering network.
([89]Bug#297922)
* [90]spamprobe -- C++ Bayesian spam filter. ([91]Bug#298368)
* [92]styx -- Combined parser/scanner generator documentation.
([93]Bug#298369)
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/acl-installer
45. http://bugs.debian.org/297344
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/admesh
47. http://bugs.debian.org/297345
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/albert
49. http://bugs.debian.org/297346
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/busybox
51. http://bugs.debian.org/298363
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-postoffice
53. http://bugs.debian.org/297382
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-rsm-memo
55. http://bugs.debian.org/297395
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cl-rsm-mpoly
57. http://bugs.debian.org/297398
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/enbd
59. http://bugs.debian.org/298388
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/gtk-engines-mac2
61. http://bugs.debian.org/298151
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/hindent
63. http://bugs.debian.org/297424
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/langband-engine
65. http://bugs.debian.org/297426
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/langband-data
67. http://bugs.debian.org/297427
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libmp3hip0
69. http://bugs.debian.org/298386
70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lw-per-installer
71. http://bugs.debian.org/297429
72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lw-pro-installer
73. http://bugs.debian.org/297431
74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lw-pro-installer-43
75. http://bugs.debian.org/297432
76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libneon24
77. http://bugs.debian.org/298370
78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/onlisp-code
79. http://bugs.debian.org/297436
80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/openmcl
81. http://bugs.debian.org/297473
82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/openmcl-build-tools
83. http://bugs.debian.org/297475
84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/pdp1-lisp
85. http://bugs.debian.org/297441
86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-aima
87. http://bugs.debian.org/297443
88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/pyzor
89. http://bugs.debian.org/297922
90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/spamprobe
91. http://bugs.debian.org/298368
92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/styx
93. http://bugs.debian.org/298369
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 [94]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [95]dwn@debian.org.
94. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
95. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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