Debian Weekly News - July 5th, 2005

Posted by dave on Jul 5, 2005 1:25 PM EDT
Mailing list; By Martin Schulze
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Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. David Nusinow announced Debian packages for X.Org that he also planned to upload into unstable. Norbert Tretkowski has built backports for sarge. Rajiv Battula has published a small review of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 in which he demonstrates how simple installing Debian has become.

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/27/
Debian Weekly News - July 5th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. David Nusinow [1]announced Debian [2]packages for X.Org that he also planned to upload into unstable. Norbert Tretkowski has built [3]backports for sarge. Rajiv Battula has published a small [4]review of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 in which he demonstrates how simple installing Debian has become.

1. http://www.livejournal.com/users/gravityboy/14794.html 2. http://people.debian.org/~dnusinow/xorg/ 3. http://people.debian.org/~nobse/xorg-x11/ 4. http://www.reviewlinux.com/articles/26/1/Debian-3.1-Review

Release Team Meeting. Andreas Barth sent in the [5]minutes of the release team meeting last week. During the meeting they discussed issues learned from releasing sarge, list release goals for etch and proposed a timeline. Potential release blockers are the toolchain transition, the introduction of X.Org, freeing documentation, the archive split, the addition of amd64 and securing apt.

5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2005/06/msg00241.html

Ongoing Installer Development. Joey Hess [6]reported about his ongoing effort to keep the [7]debian-installer working after the release. The worst breakage so far has been in [8]debootstrap and the Slang 2 [9]transition seems to cause new problems as well. He also referred to the first CD images for etch, which don't work, though.

6. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/d-i_after_sarge-2005-06-28-00-27.html 7. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ 8. http://packages.debian.org/debootstrap 9. http://wiki.debian.net/?EtchSlang2upgrade

Request for Packaging? Lars Wirzenius [10]wondered if RFP (request for packaging) [11]bugs are still useful since there are about thousand of them. He mentioned [12]freshmeat and [13]gnomefiles as sites where to look for new stuff to package. As the average age of such requests is about 200 days, Lars proposed a 365 day maximum age for RFP bugs.

10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/06/msg00299.html 11. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/requested 12. http://freshmeat.net/ 13. http://www.gnomefiles.org/

Structured Program Output. Olaf van der Spek [14]wondered if there were plans to add means to emit structured output for several command line utilities. He noticed that some fields of the output get truncated if the corresponding values are too wide. Gabor Gombas [15]explained that those programs are intended to be parsed by humans and that there are certain other means for programs to gain comprehensible information.

14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01024.html 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01118.html

Ongoing Firefox Trademark Problems. Eric Dorland [16]reported about the [17]trademark policy that is not compatible with adding random patches to Debian packages of Firefox and Thunderbird without infringing their upstream trademarks. In the long discussion Florian Weimer [18]added that for PHP and Apache Debian has simply ignored their trademark policy and considered the software sufficiently free.

16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01160.html 17. http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/policy.html 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01190.html

GLADE Transition. Martin Michlmayr [19]proposed to move from [20]libglade1 to [21]libglade2 since it has been orphaned two years ago. Matthew Garrett [22]added that this would require a transition from GTK1 to GTK2 for all affected packages. Steve Langasek [23]explained that several packages that use the old library represent libraries for GNOME 1 that don't have an equivalent for GNOME 2.

19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01199.html 20. http://packages.debian.org/libglade0 21. http://packages.debian.org/libglade2-0 22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01200.html 23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01319.html

Dealing with offensive Material. Ralf Hildebrandt [24]wondered how to deal with potentially offensive content in a screensaver. Lars Wirzenius [25]suggested not to install a screensaver that does more than blank the screen. Alexander Schmehl [26]contributed a piece of the Fedora patch that removes potentially offending words.

24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01388.html 25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01400.html 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01435.html

Tilde in Package Versions. Paul Hampson [27]asked if the tilde symbol may be used in package version now that sarge has been released. Steve Langasek [28]explained that the required changes have not yet been made to the archive suite (DAK) to make this possible for etch. Adam Heath [29]added that DAK uses the symbol as separator internally.

27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01425.html 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01482.html 29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg01483.html

Sixth annual Debian Conference. The Debian project [30]announced the sixth annual Debian [31]conference which will be held at the Computer Science department of the Helsinki University of Technology in Espoo, Finland from July 9th to July 17th 2005. On the first day, several developers will [32]talks aiming at the general public.

30. http://www.debian.org/News/2005/20050705 31. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/0710-debconf 32. http://www.debconf.org/debconf5/about/debianday

Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.

* DSA 733: [33]crip -- Insecure temporary files. * DSA 734: [34]gaim -- Denial of service. * DSA 735: [35]sudo -- Pathname validation race. * DSA 736: [36]spamassassin -- Potential denial of service.

33. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-733 34. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-734 35. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-735 36. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-736

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive [37]recently or contain important updates.

37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main

* [38]cedar-backup2 -- Secure backup to CD-R and CD-RW media. * [39]gajim -- Jabber client written in PyGTK. * [40]gchangepass -- Password changer for GNOME. * [41]gnochm -- CHM file viewer for GNOME. * [42]pads -- Passive Asset Detection System. * [43]polypaudio -- Pluggable sound server. * [44]pootle -- Toolkit assisting in the localisation of software. * [45]qsf -- Small and fast Bayesian spam filter. * [46]schroot -- Execute commands in a chroot environment. * [47]zope2.6 -- Open source web application server.

38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/cedar-backup2 39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gajim 40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gchangepass 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnochm 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pads 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/polypaudio 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/pootle 45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/qsf 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/schroot 47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/zope2.6

Orphaned Packages. 7 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 222 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [48]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.

48. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/

* [49]coda -- Server for the Coda distributed file system. ([50]Bug#316014) * [51]coda-doc -- Documentation files for Coda distributed file system. ([52]Bug#316015) * [53]ipac-ng -- IP Accounting for iptables (kernel>=2.4). ([54]Bug#316896) * [55]lwp -- LWP thread library. ([56]Bug#316016) * [57]rpc2 -- Remote procedure call library 2. ([58]Bug#316017) * [59]rvm -- Recoverable Virtual Memory. ([60]Bug#316018) * [61]tramp -- Remote file access in Emacs. ([62]Bug#316739)

49. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/misc/coda-server 50. http://bugs.debian.org/316014 51. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/doc/coda-doc 52. http://bugs.debian.org/316015 53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ipac-ng 54. http://bugs.debian.org/316896 55. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/libs/liblwp2 56. http://bugs.debian.org/316016 57. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/libs/librpc23 58. http://bugs.debian.org/316017 59. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/libs/librvm1 60. http://bugs.debian.org/316018 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/tramp 62. http://bugs.debian.org/316739

Removed Packages. 29 packages have been [63]removed from the Debian archive during the past few weeks:

63. http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt

* axkit-xsp-webutils -- AxKit XSP tab library for building web applications [64]Bug#210201: Request of QA, long time orphaned, seems pretty much dead too * axkit -- An XML Application Server for Apache [65]Bug#210198: Request of QA, long time orphaned, seems pretty much dead too * dbix-cgi-perl -- CGI Extension for libdbix-easy-perl [66]Bug#288255: Request of QA, obsolete and outdated * battfink -- GNOME Power Management Configuration [67]Bug#307644: replaced by the new HAL GNOME Power system * mdctl -- Dummy package for transition to 'mdadm'. [68]Bug#308702: Request of Maintainer, obsolete transition package * rspfd -- Radio Shortest Path Daemon [69]Bug#244078: Request of Maintainer, Dead upstream, lack of interest * yh -- Yan Huang Chinese Platform, a console Chinese environment [70]Bug#311940: Request of Maintainer, Too buggy, alternatives (cce, zhcon) exist * octave-ci -- Contributed functions for the GNU Octave language [71]Bug#312587: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by octave itself * octave2.0 -- The GNU Octave language for numerical computations (2.0 branch) [72]Bug#312588: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by octave2.1 * mconfig -- Kernel configuration tool [73]Bug#313255: Request of Maintainer, Request of QA, obsoleted by improved 2.6 kernel config * gnofin -- GNOME financial manager [74]Bug#313269: Request of Maintainer, Dead upstream * bug -- Reports problems with the Debian distribution (transition package [75]Bug#313270: Request of Maintainer, transitional package * regexplorer -- A visual regular expression explorer [76]Bug#271737: Request of QA, Dead upstream * libgtop -- gtop daemon for monitoring remote machines (part of Gnome) [77]Bug#307913: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by libgtop2 * java-gnome -- Dummy package to aid upgrade [78]Bug#313199: Request of Maintainer, obsolete dummy packages * freebsd-buildutils -- Utilities for building FreeBSD sources [79]Bug#313409: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by freebsd5-buildutils * prozgui -- FLTK-based GUI front end for prozilla [80]Bug#313484: Request of Maintainer, obsolete, orphaned upstream * glade-2 -- GTK+ 2 User Interface Builder [81]Bug#313662: Request of Maintainer, being replaced with 'glade' * cxx -- Compaq C++ Compiler for Linux Alpha [82]Bug#314228: Request of Maintainer, unusable with current binutils, superseded by ccc * getmail -- POP3, APOP mail gatherer/forwarder (obsolete) [83]Bug#314599: Request of Maintainer, superseded by getmail4 * plex86 -- Plex86 Empty Disk Image Utility [84]Bug#314669: Request of Maintainer, obsolete dummy package for bochs * gcc-2.96 -- The GNU C preprocessor [85]Bug#315147: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by gcc-4.0 * raidtools2 -- transitional dummy package that can safely be removed [86]Bug#312578: Request of Maintainer, obsolete dummy package * nautilus-media -- Multimedia goodies for Nautilus [87]Bug#315012: Request of Maintainer, superseded by totem * mird -- Mird database library (developer files) [88]Bug#315223: Request of Maintainer, Dead upstream, better replacements like sqlite exist * nemesi -- standards-compliant multimedia streaming client [89]Bug#315245: Request of QA, Has never been free of RC bugs * libpgsql-ocaml -- OCaml bindings to PostgreSQL's libpq [90]Bug#315568: Request of Maintainer, Superseded by libpostgresql-ocaml * btools -- miscellaneous Java utility classes [91]Bug#315632: Request of Maintainer, obsolete * svn-devscripts -- Dummy package for upgrade purposes only [92]Bug#314961: Request of Maintainer, obsolete dummy package

64. http://bugs.debian.org/210201 65. http://bugs.debian.org/210198 66. http://bugs.debian.org/288255 67. http://bugs.debian.org/307644 68. http://bugs.debian.org/308702 69. http://bugs.debian.org/244078 70. http://bugs.debian.org/311940 71. http://bugs.debian.org/312587 72. http://bugs.debian.org/312588 73. http://bugs.debian.org/313255 74. http://bugs.debian.org/313269 75. http://bugs.debian.org/313270 76. http://bugs.debian.org/271737 77. http://bugs.debian.org/307913 78. http://bugs.debian.org/313199 79. http://bugs.debian.org/313409 80. http://bugs.debian.org/313484 81. http://bugs.debian.org/313662 82. http://bugs.debian.org/314228 83. http://bugs.debian.org/314599 84. http://bugs.debian.org/314669 85. http://bugs.debian.org/315147 86. http://bugs.debian.org/312578 87. http://bugs.debian.org/315012 88. http://bugs.debian.org/315223 89. http://bugs.debian.org/315245 90. http://bugs.debian.org/315568 91. http://bugs.debian.org/315632 92. http://bugs.debian.org/314961

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 [93]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [94]dwn@debian.org.

93. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 94. mailto:dwn@debian.org

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