Debian Weekly News - February 24th, 2004
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/08/
Debian Weekly News - February 24th, 2004
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Welcome to this year's eighth issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Finally, we can send mail using [1]morse code,
since the [2]International Telecommunications Union assigned a new
[3]code (. - - . - .) for the "@" sign. Andreas Barth [4]reported
that 16 packages were broken by a recently uploaded broken tar
version, that was fixed later.
1. http://www.npg.si.edu/edu/brush/guide/unit2/morse.html
2. http://www.itu.int/
3. http://www.cjonline.com/stories/021704/pag_morsecode.shtml
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0402/msg00591.html
Storing RRD Data and Graph Files. Jean-Michel Kelbert [5]asked where
to store [6]RRD files. Since it is [7]impossible to rebuild RRD
files without data loss due to log rotation, it must not be stored in
/var/cache, he asserts later. However, since the graph files are
generated from the data files, they have to go into /var/cache.
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0402/msg00960.html
6. http://packages.debian.org/rrdtool
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0402/msg01015.html
Investigation of the new XFree86 License. Branden Robinson
[8]inspected the new [9]license for XFree86 4.4 and higher. He
concluded that the de facto impact of the change to the XFree86
Project, Inc.'s own license is to render the XFree86 source
distribution GPL-incompatible in many aspects. Keith Packard
[10]asserted that he has a strong desire to make the released software
on freedesktop.org from that source completely [11]DFSG-free.
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0402/msg00102.html
9. http://www.xfree86.org/legal/licenses.html
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0402/msg00116.html
11. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
Expiration of the GIF/LZW Patent. Roland Stigge [12]wondered if it is
still possible for sarge to be released before 7 July 2004. If not,
Debian could start preparing to move GIF/LZW patent encumbered
packages from non-free and contrib to main since that's the day when
the patent US4558302 expires internationally.
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0402/msg00168.html
Report from Solutions Linux. Julien Blache wrote a [13]report about
this years' [14]Solutions Linux exhibition and conference in France.
Several Debian developers met at the Debian booth inside the .Org
pavilion and were even interviewed by a French web radio station about
Debian in general and the upcoming release of sarge. The number of
interested visitors at the booth was also higher, compared to past
events.
13. http://www.debian.org/events/2004/0203-solutionslinux-report
14. http://www.debian.org/events/2004/0203-solutionslinux
Release Progress Report. Colin Watson wrote a new [15]report about
progress made with the release of sarge since December 1st. He said
that the [16]debian-installer is improving, that GNOME 2.4 and KDE
3.1.5 have entered testing and that XFree86 4.3 has been uploaded to
unstable recently. An important task left is to finish
debian-installer and port it to the [17]remaining architectures. There
are also still 350 release-critical bugs on packages in testing. This
isn't something we can release with.
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0402/msg00009.html
16. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0401/msg00015.html
Pure 64-Bit AMD64 Port? John Goerzen [18]proposed to stay with a pure
64-bit port to the [19]AMD64 architecture. When a way forward with the
multiarch is finally laid out they can transition to becoming a
multiarch platform while still supporting those that want a pure
64-bit environment. Josh Hansen [20]added that both efforts will
continue as long as people are willing to devote time to them.
18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64-0402/msg00235.html
19. http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/
20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64-0402/msg00263.html
Mozilla Firefox Packages. Eric Dorland [21]announced that he had
uploaded packages for Mozilla Firefox 0.8. Since the package has gone
through a name change (the package was formerly known as phoenix, then
as firebird) it will take about one week until they appear in the
archive. For the interested and impatient he has copied the files to
[22]people.debian.org as well.
21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0402/msg01501.html
22. http://people.debian.org/~eric/debian/
Man-pages to be moved to non-free? A recent [23]change in the upstream
[24]man-pages project was detected. As of version 1.65 manual pages
from the POSIX standard are [25]included in the upstream man-pages
distribution. Their copyright, however, doesn't talk about
distribution and modification, but the latter is explicitly not
permitted, according to the upstream maintainer. Since this would
render the entire package non-free, its packaging has changed slightly
so that non-free parts are stripped off in time.
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0402/msg00190.html
24. ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages/
25. http://linuxpr.com/releases/6599.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [26]Linux 2.4.18 (alpha+i386+powerpc) -- Local root exploit.
* [27]Linux 2.4.16 (arm) -- Local root exploits.
* [28]Linux 2.4.17 (powerpc/apus) -- Local root exploits.
* [29]Linux 2.4.17 (mips+mipsel) -- Local root exploit.
* [30]Linux 2.4.17 (s390) -- Local root exploits and more.
* [31]XFree86 -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [32]Linux 2.4.17 (ia64) -- Local root exploit.
* [33]lbreakout2 -- Buffer overflow.
* [34]synaesthesia -- Insecure file creation.
* [35]hsftp -- Format string vulnerability.
* [36]pwlib -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [37]metamail -- Arbitrary code execution.
26. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-438
27. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-439
28. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-440
29. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-441
30. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-442
31. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-443
32. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-444
33. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-445
34. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-446
35. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-447
36. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-448
37. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-449
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]aclock -- Analog dockapp clock for GNUstep.
* [40]arabtex -- Arabic/Hebrew macros for TeX/LaTeX.
* [41]attal -- Turn by turn game in the spirit of HoMM II.
* [42]directoryassistant -- Small LDAP address book manager.
* [43]efp -- Escape from Pong NES game.
* [44]fgetty -- Very small, efficient, console-only getty and login.
* [45]fwatch -- Kernel module, reporting changes on files to
/dev/fwatch.
* [46]gmines -- Minesweeper for GNUstep.
* [47]impose+ -- Postscript utilities for two-up printing, bbox,
etc.
* [48]javacc -- Parser generator for use with Java.
* [49]latex-beamer -- LaTeX class to produce presentations.
* [50]mined -- Small, easy to use, unicode-capable text editor.
* [51]munin -- Network-wide graphing framework (grapher/gatherer).
* [52]openggsn1 -- OpenSource Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).
* [53]par2 -- Parity Archive Volume Set, for checking and repair of
files.
* [54]pdftk -- Tool for manipulating PDF documents.
* [55]pm-dev -- Proxy management protocol development files.
* [56]proxycheck -- Simple tool to quickly recon a running open
proxy server.
* [57]pvpgn -- Gaming server that emulates Battle.net(R).
* [58]rapidsvn -- GUI client for subversion.
* [59]renaissance -- GNUstep GUI Development Framework.
* [60]rng-tools -- Daemon to use the Intel/AMD/VIA Hardware RNG.
* [61]squid-prefetch -- Simple page-prefetch for Squid web proxy.
* [62]steptalk -- The GNUstep Scripting Framework.
* [63]tdom -- XML/DOM/XPath/XSLT implementation for Tcl.
* [64]uim -- Simple, secure, and flexible input method collection
and library.
* [65]util-vserver -- Tools for Virtual private servers and context
switching.
* [66]waiho -- Simple FTP client for GNUstep.
* [67]xrestop -- X11 server resource usage monitor.
* [68]yafray -- Modern, xml-speaking raytracing-based rendering
system.
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/aclock
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/arabtex
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/attal
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/directoryassistant
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/efp
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/fgetty
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/fwatch
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gmines
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/impose+
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/javacc
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/latex-beamer
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/mined
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/munin
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/openggsn1
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/par2
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/pdftk
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/pm-dev
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/proxycheck
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pvpgn
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/rapidsvn
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/renaissance
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rng-tools
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/squid-prefetch
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/steptalk
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/tdom
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/uim
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/util-vserver
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/waiho
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xrestop
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/yafray
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 [69]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [70]dwn@debian.org.
69. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
70. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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