Debian Weekly News - November 9th, 2004
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/44/
Debian Weekly News - November 9th, 2004
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Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Anibal Monsalve Salazar [1]summarised the latest
DebConf5 preparation meeting. Joey Hess [2]reported that he has been
able to test the new [3]debian-installer remote via network on
different architectures which helps ensure that it will run properly.
1. http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DebConf5Meeting20041101
2. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/_and_all_through_the_house-2004-10-28-03-15.html
3. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Distributable Firmware sought. Theo de Raadt of [4]OpenBSD fame was
[5]interviewed in response to OpenBSD's [6]effort to contact Texas
Instruments to distribute firmware for their wireless cards under an
acceptable license. OpenBSD has similar [7]problems to Debian with
binary-only firmware blobs that they cannot legally distribute with
their operating system.
4. http://www.openbsd.org/
5. http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/4118
6. http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/4061
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0404/msg00309.html
Alioth Project Naming Convention. Marcelo E. Magallon [8]noticed that
there is a policy for naming projects on [9]Alioth. For package
repositories that are used to co-maintain a package with other
developers, a "pkg-" prefix in the project name is required. Roland
Mas added that this is required to be able to differentiate projects
dedicated to Debian packaging from projects where Alioth is the main
repository of "upstream" code.
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/11/msg00113.html
9. http://alioth.debian.org/
Free Documentation Licenses. Jonathan Corbet [10]reviewed various
options for a free documentation license, including the GNU [11]Free
Documentation License (FDL), the [12]Open Publication License, and two
[13]Creative [14]Commons licenses. He concluded that putting a
BSD-like license on a document makes some sense and that the
restrictions imposed by the FDL are quite strong, too strong for a
book he co-authored.
10. http://lwn.net/Articles/108250/
11. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
12. http://opencontent.org/openpub/
13. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
14. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Installing Debian on a Desktop. Tarun Agnani [15]installed Debian
GNU/Linux on a desktop computer and reported that no other
distribution comes close to Debian, which is the old grandfather of
Linux. He [16]finishes with configuring APT and installing those
applications that are common for a Desktop system.
15. http://www.linuxtimes.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=211
16. http://www.linuxtimes.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=211&page=2
German Conference News. Alexander "CEO" Schmehl [17]reported that the
Debian booth during this year's [18]Linuxworld Expo was the most
crowded one and that the booth will probably be larger next year. He
will help build the entire .Org pavilion next year. For next year's
CeBIT exhibition (Mar 9-15) the Debian project has been offered a
booth of their own as well.
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2004/11/msg00000.html
18. http://www.debian.org/events/2004/1026-lwe
Installing Debian on RAID 1. Jorrit Waalboer has written
[19]instructions for installing Debian GNU/Linux on a RAID 1 pair. He
recommended using [20]Knoppix as the installer. From this the RAID is
set up and debootstrap is used to install Debian. Norbert Tretkowski
also provides [21]instructions on installing Debian via Knoppix.
19. http://juerd.nl/site.plp/debianraid
20. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
21. http://www.inittab.de/manuals/debootstrap.html
Improving the Development Processes. Thomas Schorpp [22]proposed
applying several quality management techniques known in conventional
software development to Debian. Jeroen van Wolffelaar [23]noticed a
high level of buzzwords, though, and it is [24]questionable if these
techniques and metrics apply to Free Software at all.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/11/msg00000.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/11/msg00023.html
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/11/msg00022.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 583: [25]lvm10 -- Insecure temporary directory.
* DSA 584: [26]dhcp -- Format string vulnerability.
* DSA 585: [27]shadow -- Unintended behaviour.
* DSA 586: [28]ruby -- Denial of service.
* DSA 587: [29]freeamp -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 588: [30]gzip -- Insecure temporary files.
* DSA 589: [31]libgd1 -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 590: [32]gnats -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 591: [33]libgd2 -- Arbitrary code execution.
25. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-583
26. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-584
27. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-585
28. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-586
29. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-587
30. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-588
31. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-589
32. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-590
33. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-591
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [34]recently or contain important updates.
34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [35]backupninja -- Backup Utility written in PHP.
* [36]basket -- User-friendly way to run programs and manage links
in KDE.
* [37]getmail4 -- Mail retriever with support for POP3, IMAP4 and
SDPS.
* [38]gkrellshoot -- Plugin for gkrellm to lock the screen and make
screenshots.
* [39]gmpc -- GNOME Music Player Client (graphical interface to
MPD).
* [40]hping3 -- Active Network Smashing Tool.
* [41]lakai -- Transfers samples between a PC and an AKAI sampler.
* [42]lkcdutils -- Utilities to capture and analyse kernel crash
dumps.
* [43]mp3splt -- Splits MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files without reencoding.
* [44]mp3wrap -- Utility for MP3 wrapping (rolling multiple MP3s
into one).
* [45]msmtp -- Light SMTP client with support for server profiles.
* [46]mxv -- Wave file editor with signal processing operators and
analysis.
* [47]sepol-utils -- Security Enhanced Linux policy utility
programs.
* [48]spambayes -- Python-based spam filter using statistical
analysis.
* [49]spew -- I/O performance measurement and load generation tool.
* [50]vnstat -- Console-based network traffic monitor.
* [51]wput -- Tiny wget-like ftp-client for uploading files.
* [52]xwnc -- Mix of Xvnc and XDarwin with improved protocol.
35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/backupninja
36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/basket
37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/getmail4
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gkrellshoot
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gmpc
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/hping3
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/lakai
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lkcdutils
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/mp3splt
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/mp3wrap
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/msmtp
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/mxv
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/sepol-utils
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/spambayes
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/spew
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/vnstat
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/wput
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xwnc
Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian
package is [53]featured from the testing distribution. If you know
about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send
it to [54]Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following
packages last week.
53. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
54. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=debaday
* [55]kuvert -- Wrapper for encrypting or signing outgoing mail.
* [56]quintuple-agent -- Secure store for secrets (passphrases,
etc.).
* [57]guarddog -- Firewall configuration utility for KDE.
* [58]guidedog -- NAT/masquerading/port-forwarding configuration
tool for KDE.
* [59]exiftran -- Transform digital camera JPEG images.
55. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/37223.html
56. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/37427.html
57. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/37837.html
58. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/37981.html
59. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/38238.html
Orphaned Packages. 61 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 226 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [60]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.
60. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [61]aegis -- Aegis Web based user interface. ([62]Bug#279518)
* [63]aegis3 -- Aegis Web based user interface. ([64]Bug#279517)
* [65]autofs -- Kernel-based automounter for Linux. ([66]Bug#279872)
* [67]cook -- Remote execution scripts for cook. ([68]Bug#279521)
* [69]fhist -- Documentation for the fhist package. ([70]Bug#279516)
* [71]freewrl -- VRML browser and Netscape plugin. ([72]Bug#279757)
* [73]html2ps -- HTML to Postscript converter. ([74]Bug#279769)
* [75]htp -- HTML pre-processor. ([76]Bug#280023)
* [77]ibcs -- IBCS Emulator Modules for Linux (2.2.x kernel).
([78]Bug#279770)
* [79]icecast-client -- Streaming MPEG Layer III feeder.
([80]Bug#279526)
* [81]java2-common -- Common facilities for all Java2 environments.
([82]Bug#279772)
* [83]libapache-asp-perl -- Perl Apache::ASP - Active Server Pages
for Apache with mod_perl. ([84]Bug#279773)
* [85]libapache-filter-perl -- Perl Apache::Filter - Alter the
output of previous handlers. ([86]Bug#279774)
* [87]libapache-ssi-perl -- Perl Apache::SSI - Implement Server Side
Includes in Perl. ([88]Bug#279775)
* [89]libauthen-sasl-cyrus-perl -- Perl extension for Cyrus SASL
library. ([90]Bug#279776)
* [91]libbusiness-ups-perl -- Perl interface to the UPS shipping
costs web-site. ([92]Bug#279777)
* [93]libcdk -- Curses Development Kit. ([94]Bug#279779)
* [95]libcdk-perl -- Curses Development Kit for Perl.
([96]Bug#279778)
* [97]libchart-perl -- Chart Library for Perl. ([98]Bug#279780)
* [99]libcorba-orbit-perl -- ORBit module for Perl.
([100]Bug#279781)
* [101]libcurses-widgets-perl -- Curses widget interface for Perl.
([102]Bug#279782)
* [103]libfile-counterfile-perl -- Persistent counter class for
Perl. ([104]Bug#279784)
* [105]libfont-afm-perl -- Font::AFM - Interface to Adobe Font
Metrics files. ([106]Bug#279785)
* [107]libfrontier-rpc-perl -- Perl module to implement RPC calls
using XML requests. ([108]Bug#279786)
* [109]libgnome-gnorba-perl -- Gnorba module for Perl.
([110]Bug#279788)
* [111]libgtk-perl -- Perl module for the libgtkxmhtml library.
([112]Bug#279790)
* [113]libhtml-simpleparse-perl -- Perl HTML::SimpleParse - a
bare-bones HTML parser. ([114]Bug#279791)
* [115]libhttp-dav-perl -- HTTP:DAV - WebDAV client library for
Perl. ([116]Bug#279792)
* [117]libnet-finger-perl -- Perl Module providing an API for Finger
queries. ([118]Bug#279794)
* [119]libnet-snmp-perl -- Script SNMP connections.
([120]Bug#279795)
* [121]libnewt-perl -- Perl bindings for Erik Troan's newt text-mode
windowing toolkit. ([122]Bug#279798)
* [123]libopengl-perl -- Perl module to display 3D data using
OpenGL, GLU, GLUT, and GLX. ([124]Bug#279799)
* [125]libplot-perl -- Perl interface to plot library.
([126]Bug#279800)
* [127]libtangram-perl -- Orthogonal Object Persistence in
Relational Databases. ([128]Bug#279804)
* [129]libtest-unit-perl -- Unit testing interface for Perl.
([130]Bug#279805)
* [131]libtie-cache-perl -- Perl Tie::Cache - LRU Cache in Memory.
([132]Bug#279807)
* [133]linup -- Client for the Uptimes Project. ([134]Bug#279505)
* [135]liveice -- Live audio streaming application.
([136]Bug#279527)
* [137]masqdialer -- Daemon for remote control of masqueraded
dial-up links. ([138]Bug#279398)
* [139]perl-byacc -- Berkeley LALR parser generator, Perl version.
([140]Bug#279811)
* [141]perl-tk -- Perl module providing the Tk graphics library.
([142]Bug#279823)
* [143]perlftlib -- Perl module for the FreeType library.
([144]Bug#279824)
* [145]pgperl -- Perl interface to the pgplot plotting library.
([146]Bug#279820)
* [147]pilrc -- PalmOS resource compiler and editor.
([148]Bug#279825)
* [149]plotutils -- GNU plotutils (plotting utilities) package.
([150]Bug#279827)
* [151]prc-tools -- Development toolchain for PDAs using the PalmOS
(utilities). ([152]Bug#279828)
* [153]python-gtkextra -- Python module for the GtkExtra widget set
extension. ([154]Bug#279541)
* [155]radiuscontext -- Radius log parser and report generator.
([156]Bug#279592)
* [157]reppu -- Network render program for blender.
([158]Bug#280028)
* [159]sdd -- File duplication and conversion tool, similar to 'dd'.
([160]Bug#279515)
* [161]sfio -- Enhanced library for managing I/O streams.
([162]Bug#279812)
* [163]thttpd -- Support utilities for thttpd. ([164]Bug#279522)
* [165]ubit -- Ubiquitous Brick Interactive Toolkit.
([166]Bug#279815)
* [167]vcr -- V4l video capture program. ([168]Bug#279593)
* [169]vrel -- Virtual Reality Engine Language parser.
([170]Bug#279816)
* [171]vreng -- Virtual Reality Engine. ([172]Bug#279817)
* [173]vrweb -- VRML browser and editor. ([174]Bug#279818)
* [175]waimea -- Highly customisable window manager based on
blackbox. ([176]Bug#279546)
* [177]xbanner -- Beautify your X login screen. ([178]Bug#279819)
* [179]xmms-cdread -- Input plugin for XMMS that reads audio data
from CDs. ([180]Bug#279514)
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/aegis
62. http://bugs.debian.org/279518
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/aegis3
64. http://bugs.debian.org/279517
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/autofs
66. http://bugs.debian.org/279872
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cook
68. http://bugs.debian.org/279521
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/fhist
70. http://bugs.debian.org/279516
71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/freewrl
72. http://bugs.debian.org/279757
73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/html2ps
74. http://bugs.debian.org/279769
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/htp
76. http://bugs.debian.org/280023
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/ibcs-base
78. http://bugs.debian.org/279770
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/icecast-client
80. http://bugs.debian.org/279526
81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/java2-common
82. http://bugs.debian.org/279772
83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libapache-asp-perl
84. http://bugs.debian.org/279773
85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libapache-filter-perl
86. http://bugs.debian.org/279774
87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libapache-ssi-perl
88. http://bugs.debian.org/279775
89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libauthen-sasl-cyrus-perl
90. http://bugs.debian.org/279776
91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libbusiness-ups-perl
92. http://bugs.debian.org/279777
93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libcdk4
94. http://bugs.debian.org/279779
95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libcdk-perl
96. http://bugs.debian.org/279778
97. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libchart-perl
98. http://bugs.debian.org/279780
99. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libcorba-orbit-perl
100. http://bugs.debian.org/279781
101. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libcurses-widgets-perl
102. http://bugs.debian.org/279782
103. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libfile-counterfile-perl
104. http://bugs.debian.org/279784
105. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libfont-afm-perl
106. http://bugs.debian.org/279785
107. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libfrontier-rpc-perl
108. http://bugs.debian.org/279786
109. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libgnome-gnorba-perl
110. http://bugs.debian.org/279788
111. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libgtk-perl
112. http://bugs.debian.org/279790
113. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libhtml-simpleparse-perl
114. http://bugs.debian.org/279791
115. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libhttp-dav-perl
116. http://bugs.debian.org/279792
117. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libnet-finger-perl
118. http://bugs.debian.org/279794
119. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libnet-snmp-perl
120. http://bugs.debian.org/279795
121. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libnewt-perl
122. http://bugs.debian.org/279798
123. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libopengl-perl
124. http://bugs.debian.org/279799
125. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libplot-perl
126. http://bugs.debian.org/279800
127. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libtangram-perl
128. http://bugs.debian.org/279804
129. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libtest-unit-perl
130. http://bugs.debian.org/279805
131. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libtie-cache-perl
132. http://bugs.debian.org/279807
133. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/linup
134. http://bugs.debian.org/279505
135. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/liveice
136. http://bugs.debian.org/279527
137. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/masqdialer
138. http://bugs.debian.org/279398
139. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/perl-byacc
140. http://bugs.debian.org/279811
141. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/perl-tk
142. http://bugs.debian.org/279823
143. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libft-perl
144. http://bugs.debian.org/279824
145. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/pgperl
146. http://bugs.debian.org/279820
147. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/pilrc
148. http://bugs.debian.org/279825
149. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/plotutils
150. http://bugs.debian.org/279827
151. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/prc-tools
152. http://bugs.debian.org/279828
153. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-gtkextra
154. http://bugs.debian.org/279541
155. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/radiuscontext
156. http://bugs.debian.org/279592
157. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/reppu
158. http://bugs.debian.org/280028
159. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/sdd
160. http://bugs.debian.org/279515
161. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/sfio2000
162. http://bugs.debian.org/279812
163. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/thttpd
164. http://bugs.debian.org/279522
165. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libubit1
166. http://bugs.debian.org/279815
167. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/vcr
168. http://bugs.debian.org/279593
169. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/vrel
170. http://bugs.debian.org/279816
171. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/vreng
172. http://bugs.debian.org/279817
173. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/vrweb
174. http://bugs.debian.org/279818
175. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/waimea
176. http://bugs.debian.org/279546
177. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xbanner
178. http://bugs.debian.org/279819
179. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/xmms-cdread
180. http://bugs.debian.org/279514
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 [181]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [182]dwn@debian.org.
181. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
182. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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