Debian Weekly News - April 25th, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/17/ Debian Weekly News - April 25th, 2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to this year's 17th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. The Debian Live Initiative that aims to produce a pure Debian live CD summarises links to mailing lists, ISO images and other resources on their [1]website. Aníbal Monsalve Salazar is [2]soliciting ASCII armoured public keys for the keysigning [3]party at the upcoming [4]Debian Conference.

1. http://live.debian.net/ 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/04/msg00733.html 3. http://debconf.org/ksp/ksp-dc6.html 4. http://www.debian.org/events/2006/0514-debconf

Using Alioth for Packaging. Raphaël Hertzog [5]provided [6]documentation on maintaining Debian packages via [7]Alioth. For single packages the [8]collab-maint project is probably sufficient. Maintaining a set of related packages is best done by a new dedicated project and Subversion configured to send commit notifications to the package tracking system.

5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/04/msg00013.html 6. http://wiki.debian.org/AliothPackagingProject 7. http://alioth.debian.org/ 8. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/collab-maint/

Google Summer of Code 2006. Google is organising a [9]Summer of Code event like last year. This is a program where Google sponsors the creation and future development of open source software. Petter Reinholdtsen [10]asked whether Debian should participate and set up an Wiki [11]page were ideas for Debian-related projects are collected. Anthony Towns [12]approved this and applied for the Debian project.

9. http://code.google.com/soc/ 10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/04/msg00259.html 11. http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2006 12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/04/msg00282.html

Debian from Scratch. John Goerzen [13]informed about the availability of a new release of the Debian From Scratch [14]CD. With this CD it is possible to install a Debian system in a Gentoo fashioned manner by compiling the programs just before installing them. This CD also offers a fully functional rescue system with a lot of filesystem tools, backup and repair utilities, administrative tools and so on.

13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/04/msg00633.html 14. http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/dfs/

Upgrade Conflict: Kernel and GRUB. Bastian Blank [15]pointed out anticipated problems with regards to the kernel and [16]grub when upgrading from [17]sarge to [18]etch since the new [19]kernel-package [20]utilises [21]debconf for user interaction. He asserted that grub needs to be updated before the kernel image.

15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/04/msg00081.html 16. http://packages.debian.org/grub 17. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/ 18. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/ 19. http://packages.debian.org/kernel-package 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/04/msg00084.html 21. http://packages.debian.org/debconf

Properly Closing old resolved Bug Reports. Adam Majer [22]wondered if it is appropriate to close old resolved bugs with the most recent changelog entry if they were fixed with an older upload already. Matthew Palmer [23]confirmed that a changelog entry should only document the changes and resolved bugs in this particular upload.

22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/04/msg00145.html 23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/04/msg00146.html

Removing Mozilla. Andreas Metzler [24]reported that current release of Mozilla is the last and that it isn't supported upstream anymore. Hence, it should be [25]removed from the Debian distribution as well. All functionality that is needed to embed gecko and friends has been moved to [26]xulrunner on which these packages should depend upon. The interface shouldn't have changed, so that the conversion should be fairly simple.

24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/04/msg00133.html 25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/04/msg00151.html 26. http://packages.debian.org/xulrunner

Project Leader Bits. Anthony Towns [27]reported that he has added Steve McIntyre as "Second In Charge" to share some of the regular project leader responsibilities. Manoj Srivastava has kindly agreed to continue as project secretary for another year, and is eager to do some more work on the devotee scripts.

27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/04/msg00015.html

AMD64 added to the Etch. Anthony Towns [28]reported that the [29]AMD64 architecture has been added to the [30]etch release. It should be possible to bootstrap this architecture at this point and it only lacks X. From now on developers with AMD64 machines are able to upload new versions of their packages built locally. AMD64 is also now included in the [31]buildd [32]graphs.

28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/04/msg00011.html 29. http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/ 30. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/ 31. http://buildd.debian.org/ 32. http://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph-week-big.png

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

* DSA 1037: [33]zgv -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1038: [34]xzgv -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1039: [35]blender -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 1040: [36]gdm -- Local root exploit. * DSA 1041: [37]abc2ps -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1042: [38]cyrus-sasl2 -- Denial of service.

33. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1037 34. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1038 35. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1039 36. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1040 37. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1041 38. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1042

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive [39]recently or contain important updates.

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

* [40]apt-watch-gnome -- Applet that monitors apt sources for upgrades. * [41]deutex -- Composition tool for doom-style WAD files. * [42]ggz-utils -- GGZ Gaming Zone: utilities. * [43]ivman -- Daemon to auto-mount and manage media devices. * [44]latex-make -- Easy compiling of complex (and simple) LaTeX documents. * [45]mono-mbas -- Mono Basic compiler. * [46]mono-mjs -- Mono JScript compiler. * [47]mono-runtime -- Mono runtime. * [48]php-cache -- Framework for caching of arbitrary data. * [49]pykaraoke -- Free CDG/MIDI/MPEG karaoke player. * [50]synfigstudio -- Vector-based 2D animation package (graphical user interface). * [51]tk2 -- Tk GUI for the ICOM IC-R2 receiver.

40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/apt-watch-gnome 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/deutex 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ggz-utils 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ivman 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/latex-make 45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mono-mbas 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mono-mjs 47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/mono-runtime 48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/php-cache 49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/pykaraoke 50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/synfigstudio 51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/tk2

Orphaned Packages. 17 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 302 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [52]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.

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

* [53]3dchess -- 3D chess for X11. ([54]Bug#363498) * [55]atitvout -- ATI TV Out Support Program. ([56]Bug#364342) * [57]autopilot -- Monitor the DTR line of /dev/palm and run a command to start sync. ([58]Bug#364470) * [59]distributed-net -- Donate unused CPU cycles - client for distributed.net [non-free]. ([60]Bug#363503) * [61]emelfm -- File manager for X/Gtk. ([62]Bug#364442) * [63]epic4-script-light -- Light - It's Just Not Lame. ([64]Bug#363500) * [65]eroaster -- GNOME CD burning frontend. ([66]Bug#364280) * [67]hwb -- The Hardware Book. ([68]Bug#363504) * [69]mgapdesk -- Configuration tool for Matrox video card. ([70]Bug#364344) * [71]pfe -- Portable Forth Environment, ANS standard, all wordsets. ([72]Bug#363497) * [73]rfb -- VNC Server for X11 - exports current display. ([74]Bug#364347) * [75]rhyme -- Console based rhyming dictionary. ([76]Bug#363499) * [77]svncviewer -- Virtual network computing client software for SVGA. ([78]Bug#364499) * [79]xclass -- C++ GUI toolkit for X. ([80]Bug#364349)

53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/3dchess 54. http://bugs.debian.org/363498 55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/atitvout 56. http://bugs.debian.org/364342 57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/autopilot 58. http://bugs.debian.org/364470 59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/distributed-net 60. http://bugs.debian.org/363503 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/emelfm 62. http://bugs.debian.org/364442 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/epic4-script-light 64. http://bugs.debian.org/363500 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/eroaster 66. http://bugs.debian.org/364280 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/hwb 68. http://bugs.debian.org/363504 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/mgapdesk 70. http://bugs.debian.org/364344 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/pfe 72. http://bugs.debian.org/363497 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/rfb 74. http://bugs.debian.org/364347 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/rhyme 76. http://bugs.debian.org/363499 77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/svncviewer 78. http://bugs.debian.org/364499 79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/xclass-common 80. http://bugs.debian.org/364349

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 [81]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [82]dwn@debian.org.

81. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 82. mailto:dwn@debian.org

This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Sebastian Feltel, Mohammed Adnène Trojette and Martin 'Joey' Schulze.