Debian Project News - December 17th, 2008
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Debian Project News
http://www.debian.org/News/project/2008/17/
Debian Project News - December 17th, 2008
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Welcome to this year's 17th issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian
community. Topics covered in this issue include:
* Release Update
* General Resolution: Project membership procedures
* Better backports.org Support
* ... and much more.
Release Update
Luk Claes [1]reported about the state of the upcoming stable release
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny". While there are still a lot of release
critical bugs open, he explained that there is only "a `short list' of
bugs that must absolutely be fixed for Lenny". At the moment the most
important blocking issue is the missing second release candidate for
the debian-installer, which is still [2]being worked on. Christian
Perrier [3]pointed out, that the best way to help the debian-installer
team is to test the so called "daily" builds of the installation
images, which are available from the [4]debian-installer website.
1: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/12/msg00006.html
2: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/12/msg00209.html
3: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/12/msg00228.html
4: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
The release could also be affected by the outcome of the recently
[5]started vote on the General Resolution titled "Lenny and resolving
DFSG violations". The vote has been discussed controversially on the
debian-vote mailing list; for the full discussion please refer to the
mailing list [6]archives.
5: http://www.debian.org/vote/2008/vote_003
6: http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote
In related news, Peter Palfrader [7]wondered whether the PA-RISC
architecture (also known as "HPPA") is currently fit to be released
with Lenny, since Debian's own HPPA infrastructure is in very bad
shape. When several people offered their private HPPA hardware, Martin
Zobel-Helas [8]pointed out, that the real problem is not missing
hardware, but a kernel related issue, which needs to be fixed. Helge
Deller [9]reported on progress regarding that issue, but it is not yet
fixed completely.
7: http://lists.debian.org/debian-hppa/2008/12/msg00000.html
8: http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2008/12/msg00381.html
9: http://lists.debian.org/debian-hppa/2008/12/msg00009.html
General Resolution: Project membership procedures
A recently finished [10]General Resolution was concerned with the
proposal by Debian Account Manager Jörg Jaspert about [11]Debian
membership changes, especially in regard to non technical /
package-oriented contributions to the project. Lucas Nussbaum
[12]blogged about the different options, and the general meaning of
this General Resolution. In the end, the second option, "Invite the DAM
to further discuss until vote or consensus, leading to a new proposal",
won.
10: http://www.debian.org/vote/2008/vote_002
11: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/10/msg00005.html
12: http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=322
Better backports.org Support
Gerfried Fuchs [13]announced two services that facilitate the tracking
of what's going on on [14]backports.org, an unofficial service offering
updated packages for the current stable release. One of the new
services is a [15]security tracker, the other one is a version
[16]comparison between the different Debian releases and the package
versions available on backports.org.
13: http://alfie.ist.org/blog/debian/backports-support.en.html
14: http://www.backports.org
15: http://security-tracker.debian.net/tracker/status/release/stable-backports
16: http://backports.deb.at/
Future of GTK 1.2
Since version 1.2 of the [17]GTK tool kit has been orphaned by its
upstream developers as well as its Debian maintainers for quite some
time and has also collected a number of [18]bugs in the meantime, it is
scheduled to be removed during the releasing cycle for Debian
"Squeeze", the version following Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny". However,
several packages are still depending on that library. Josselin Mouette
[19]created a list of the concerned packages and tried to find
alternative applications.
17: http://packages.debian.org/src:gtk+1.2
18: http://bugs.debian.org/src:gtk+1.2
19: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00294.html
Morten Kjeldgaard [20]argued, that there are still a lot of useful
(scientific) applications depending on GTK+ 1.2, which are still in
use. Charles Plessy [21]explained, that with nobody taking care of GTK+
1.2, there is no other choice but to port these applications to newer
versions of that tool kit, which has worked very well for other
examples.
20: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00304.html
21: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00355.html
Bug Squashing Party held at MIT
Greg Price [22]reported about a Bug Squashing Party which was held last
Sunday and was hosted by the student computing group of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 15 people contributed to
resolutions or partial resolutions of 11 RC bugs, lowering the number
of release critical bugs to 105. Greg also pointed to [23]some scripts
they found useful to create lists of relevant bugs.
22: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00513.html
23: http://debathena.mit.edu/debian-bts/
Other news
The 11th issue of the [24]miscellaneous news for developers has been
released and covers the following topics:
* CD/DVD images for Lenny
* License AGPL v3.0 is suitable for main
* Building CD/DVD images made easier
* Mono 2.0 transition in progress
* SOAP interface to the PTS
* Tracking GCC 4.4 related build errors
* Mirror of git repositories on Alioth
24: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/12/msg00001.html
Charles Plessy [25]wondered if it would help the release to file
properly justified 'requests for removal' bugs for packages that have a
low [26]popularity contest value, more or less inactive maintainers and
generally seem to be in bad shape, maybe even orphaned upstream-wise.
Christian Perrier [27]answered affirmed this idea.
25: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00108.html
26: http://popcon.debian.org
27: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00113.html
Jörg Jaspert [28]announced that Frank Lichtenheld has been added to the
FTP team.
28: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/12/msg00003.html
Junichi Uekawa [29]announced an upcoming meeting taking place in
[30]Tokyo, Japan.
29: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00256.html
30: http://tokyodebian.alioth.debian.org/2008-12.html
Charles Plessy [31]proposed a peer review system for the copyright
files of Debian packages.
31: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00442.html
New Maintainer
One applicant has been [32]accepted as Debian Maintainer since the
prior issue of the Debian Project News.
Please welcome Eugene V. Lyubimkin into our project!
32: http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2008/12/msg00049.html
Release-critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release
According to the [33]unofficial RC-bugs count, the upcoming release
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" is currently affected by 112 release
critical bugs. 39 of them have already been fixed in Debian's
"unstable" branch. Of the remaining 83 release critical bugs, 30
already have a patch (which might need testing) and 7 are marked as
pending.
33: http://bts.turmzimmer.net/details.php
Ignoring these bugs as well as release critical bugs for packages in
contrib or non-free, 34 release critical bugs remain to be solved for
the release to happen.
Important Debian Security Advisories
Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages
(among others):
* [34]cups,
* [35]perl,
* [36]clamav,
* [37]Linux 2.6.24,
* [38]squirrelmail,
* [39]uw-imap and
* [40]linux-2.6.
34: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1677
35: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1678
36: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1680
37: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1681
38: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1682
39: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1685
40: http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1687
Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.
Please note that these are a selection of the more important security
advisories of the last two weeks. If you need to be kept up to date
about security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please
subscribe to the [41]security mailing list for announcements.
New and noteworthy packages
The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive
recently ([42]among others):
* [43]cppcheck -- C/C++ code analyzer
* [44]debirf -- build a kernel and initrd to run Debian from RAM
* [45]fwsnort -- Snort-to-iptables rule translator
* [46]gnomint -- x509 Certification Authority management tool for
GNOME
* [47]impressive -- PDF presentation tool with eye candies
* [48]multiget -- graphical download manager
* [49]pdfsam -- PDF Split and Merge
* [50]pyke -- Prolog-inspired Python logic programming toolkit
* [51]python-django-dmigrations -- Database migration tool for Django
projects
* [52]setroubleshoot -- Tool to help troubleshoot SELinux problems
* [53]transmission-daemon -- lightweight BitTorrent client (daemon)
* [54]ttyload -- Console based color-coded graphs of CPU load average
* [55]vidalia -- controller GUI for the Tor software
* [56]apt-forktracer -- a utility for tracking non-official package
versions
* [57]assogiate -- editor of the MIME file types database
* [58]atmailopen -- elegant and intuitive ajax webmail client
* [59]ditz -- distributed issue tracker
* [60]e2dbg -- The Embedded ELF debugger
* [61]elfsh -- The ELF shell
* [62]esekeyd -- multimedia keyboard daemon for Linux
* [63]etrace -- The Embedded ELF tracer
* [64]evarista -- Program transformer and data-flow analyzer for
binary programs
* [65]fabric -- Simple Pythonic remote deployment tool
* [66]ffmpegthumbnailer -- fast and lightweight video thumbnailer
* [67]freedink -- adventure and role-playing game
* [68]gadmin-openvpn-client -- GTK+ configuration tool for openvpn
(client)
* [69]gadmin-openvpn-server -- GTK+ configuration tool for openvpn
(server)
* [70]last-align -- genome-scale comparison of biological sequences
* [71]linux-image-2.6-xen-amd64 -- Linux 2.6 image on AMD64, oldstyle
Xen support
* [72]maildir-utils -- Set of utilities to deal with Maildirs
(upstream name mu)
* [73]monkeysphere -- use the OpenPGP web of trust to verify ssh
connections
* [74]openerp-client -- Enterprise Resource Management (client)
* [75]openerp-server -- Enterprise Resource Management (server)
* [76]openvas-server -- Remote network security auditor, the server
* [77]rtl8187se-source -- source for realtek's 8187SE driver
* [78]sdl-ball -- brick-breaking game like DX-Ball/Arkanoid
* [79]theseus -- superimpose macromolecules using maximum likelihood
* [80]unetbootin -- installer of Linux/BSD distributions to a
partition or USB drive
* [81]vuurmuur -- netfilter frontend (utilities)
42: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg
43: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cppcheck
44: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/debirf
45: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fwsnort
46: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gnomint
47: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/impressive
48: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/multiget
49: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/pdfsam
50: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/pyke
51: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-django-dmigrations
52: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/setroubleshoot
53: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/transmission-daemon
54: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ttyload
55: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/vidalia
56: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/apt-forktracer
57: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/assogiate
58: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/atmailopen
59: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ditz
60: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/e2dbg
61: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/elfsh
62: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/esekeyd
63: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/etrace
64: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/evarista
65: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fabric
66: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ffmpegthumbnailer
67: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/freedink
68: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gadmin-openvpn-client
69: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gadmin-openvpn-server
70: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/last-align
71: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/linux-image-2.6-xen-amd64
72: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/maildir-utils
73: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/monkeysphere
74: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openerp-client
75: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openerp-server
76: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openvas-server
77: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rtl8187se-source
78: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sdl-ball
79: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/theseus
80: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/unetbootin
81: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/vuurmuur
Debian Package of the Day featured the packages [82]gcompris (an
educational suite for children) and [83]ferm (a straightforward
firewall configuration tool).
82: http://debaday.debian.net/2008/12/07/gcompris-educational-suite-for-children/
83: http://debaday.debian.net/2008/12/14/ferm-a-straightforward-firewall-configuration-tool/
Work-needing packages
Currently 492 packages are orphaned and 118 packages are up for
adoption. Please take a look at the [84]recent [85]reports to see if
there are packages you are interested in or view the complete list of
[86]packages which need your help.
84: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00285.html
85: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/12/msg00483.html
86: http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested
Want to continue reading DPN?
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87: http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute
88: mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org
This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Meike Reichle and
Alexander Reichle-Schmehl.
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