Debian Weekly News - July 25th, 2006

Posted by Scott_Ruecker on Jul 25, 2006 7:27 PM EDT
; By Martin Schulze
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Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Christoph Berg implemented an overview page for tasks in the packages overview. He also announced that the repository has been moved to Subversion and that notifications are now handled by the Package Tracking System directly.

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/30/
Debian Weekly News - July 25th, 2006
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Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Christoph Berg [1]implemented an overview page for tasks in the [2]packages overview. He also [3]announced that the repository has been moved to [4]Subversion and that notifications are now handled by the Package Tracking System directly.

1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00055.html 2. http://qa.debian.org/developer.php 3. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00086.html 4. http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/qa/trunk/

DzongkhaLinux launched. The Debian project [5]announced the release of [6]DzongkhaLinux, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 that has been localised into Bhutan's national language. The system [7]consists of one CD which can be either installed or used as a live system. The Bhutan Department of Information Technology chose Debian for its high versatility and reliability as well as the guarantee to always remain 100 % Free Software.

5. http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060719 6. http://dzongkha.sourceforge.net/ 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/06/msg00001.html

Consolidating SSL Certificates. Jaldhar Vyas [8]wondered if Debian should change all SSL certificate using packages to use the snake oil certificate from the [9]ssl-cert package. Petter Reinholdtsen [10]explained that [11]Debian-Edu already configures several services with SSL certificates automatically and that such a change would simplify this.

8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/06/msg01288.html 9. http://packages.debian.org/ssl-cert 10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/07/msg00087.html 11. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu

Dealing with Documentation Issues in Stable. Osamu Aoki [12]asked for an faq tag for the [13]bug tracking system. In many cases, a bug report against [14]stable is a frequently asked question and the answer is hidden under an obscure location. Closing such bug reports or tagging them wontfix doesn't sound right.

12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/07/msg00064.html 13. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/ 14. http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Handling Assets for the Project. Manoj Srivastava [15]proposed an amendment to the Debian [16]constitution and sought seconds. This will bring the constitution in line with current needs and practices of handling assets globally, and allowing the project to add and remove partner organisations currently authorised to hold assets for Debian.

15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2006/07/msg00005.html 16. http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution

Package Tracking System Update. Raphaël Hertzog [17]reported that the Package Tracking System can be used to relay information from derivative distributions as well. This allows interested people to receive regularly small patches instead of big monolithic ones. He is also seeking help for new [18]features.

17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/07/msg00006.html 18. http://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/pts

Release Status Update. Marc Brockschmidt [19]commented on the [20]etch release status. He clarified the meaning of the release goals and asked developers to work on lowering the number of critical issues affecting the release. Bug squashing [21]parties will be organised [22]around the world. The upcoming release will probably carry 4.0 as version number and may include Python 2.4, Linux 2.6.17 or newer, X.org and most of the architectures [23]sarge was released for plus [24]AMD64.

19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/07/msg00005.html 20. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/ 21. http://wiki.debian.org/BSP 22. http://wiki.debian.org/BSPMarathon 23. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/ 24. http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/

Finishing the /usr/doc Transition. Amaya Rodrigo Sastre [25]asked for a semi-automatic way to test the archive again to make sure there are no more packages installing a symlink under /usr/doc. Stefan Hühner [26]suggested the use of an existing [27]lintian check. Joey Hess [28]confirmed that this is the way he initially used to report bugs and Luk Claes [29]added that piuparts is also useful for such a check.

25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00044.html 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00045.html 27. http://lintian.debian.org/reports/Tpostinst-should-not-set-usr-doc-link.html 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00084.html 29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/07/msg00050.html

Beta 3 of the Debian Installer. Frans Pop [30]announced the start of the third beta [31]release of the [32]debian-installer now that Linux 2.6.16 is available in [33]etch. He explained that the installer consumes more memory because of crypto support which will be improved after the beta release and due to more supported languages.

30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/07/msg00895.html 31. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/EtchBeta3Prep 32. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ 33. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/

Labelling enhanced CD/DVD Sets. Radu-Cristian Fotescu [34]wondered how prominent a distributor of an enhanced [35]sarge CD needs to mark that it's not an official and original sarge CD. MJ Ray [36]pointed out that the official designation may only be used for official CDs and that changed CDs are to be [37]labelled "unofficial".

34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2006/07/msg00066.html 35. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/ 36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2006/07/msg00076.html 37. http://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#whatlabel

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

* DSA 1112: [38]mysql-dfsg-4.1 -- Denial of service. * DSA 1113: [39]zope2.7 -- Information disclosure. * DSA 1114: [40]hashcash -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1115: [41]gnupg2 -- Denial of service. * DSA 1116: [42]gimp -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1117: [43]libgd2 -- Denial of service. * DSA 1118: [44]Mozilla -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 1119: [45]hiki -- Denial of service. * DSA 1120: [46]Mozilla Firefox -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 1121: [47]postgrey -- Denial of service. * DSA 1122: [48]libnet-server-perl -- Denial of service. * DSA 1123: [49]libdumb -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1124: [50]fbi -- Potential deletion of user data.

38. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1112 39. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1113 40. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1114 41. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1115 42. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1116 43. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1117 44. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1118 45. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1119 46. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1120 47. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1121 48. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1122 49. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1123 50. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1124

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive [51]recently or contain important updates.

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

* [52]awffull -- Web server log analysis program. * [53]cdpr -- Cisco Discovery Protocol Reporter. * [54]courieruserinfo -- Retrieve courier user account information. * [55]dates -- Calendar optimised for embedded devices. * [56]dwm -- Dynamic window manager. * [57]fslint -- Toolkit to fix various problems with filesystems' data. * [58]ggzd -- GGZ Gaming Zone: main server. * [59]gnome-user-guide -- GNOME user's guide. * [60]jpegoptim -- Utility to optimise JPEG files. * [61]jwchat -- Full featured, web-based Jabber chat client. * [62]jython -- Python seamlessly integrated with Java. * [63]klamav -- Graphical front-end for ClamAV. * [64]live-package -- Debian Live framework. * [65]min12xxw -- Printer driver for KonicaMinolta PagePro 1[225]xxW. * [66]pcf2bdf -- Convert X11 font from PCF to BDF format. * [67]pootle -- Web-based translation and translation management tool. * [68]pypar2 -- Graphical frontend for the par2 utility. * [69]qemu-launcher -- GTK+ front-end to QEMU computer emulator. * [70]ri-li -- Toy simulator game. * [71]scim-thai -- Thai Input Method Engine for SCIM. * [72]sudoku -- Console based sudoku. * [73]trigger -- Free 3D rally racing car game. * [74]unicode-data -- Property data for the Unicode character set. * [75]yeahconsole -- Drop-down X terminal emulator wrapper. * [76]zimpl -- Mathematical modelling language for optimisation problems.

52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/awffull 53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/cdpr 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/courieruserinfo 55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/dates 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/dwm 57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/fslint 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/ggzd 59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-user-guide 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/jpegoptim 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/jwchat 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/jython 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/klamav 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/live-package 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/min12xxw 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/pcf2bdf 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/pootle 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/pypar2 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/qemu-launcher 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/ri-li 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/scim-thai 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/sudoku 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/trigger 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/unicode-data 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/yeahconsole 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/zimpl

Orphaned Packages. 40 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 355 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [77]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. To find out which orphaned packages are installed on your system the wnpp-alert program from devscripts may be helpful.

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

* [78]alicq -- Flexible ICQ client in pure Tcl/Tk. ([79]Bug#379599) * [80]apollon -- KDE-based interface to the giFT file-sharing system. ([81]Bug#379346) * [82]aptconf -- Debconf infrastructure for setting up apt sources. ([83]Bug#379037) * [84]atari800 -- Atari emulator for X/curses/SDL. ([85]Bug#379022) * [86]cbrowser -- C/C++ source code indexing, querying and browsing tool. ([87]Bug#378796) * [88]configlet -- Alternative debconf configuration interface: core API. ([89]Bug#379031) * [90]cscope -- Interactively examine a C program source. ([91]Bug#378802) * [92]cthugha -- Oscilloscope on acid. ([93]Bug#378946) * [94]discover -- Hardware identification library. ([95]Bug#379043) * [96]discover-data -- Data lists for Discover hardware detection system. ([97]Bug#379044) * [98]etherconf -- Debconf interface to Ethernet device configuration. ([99]Bug#379032) * [100]fbi -- Linux frame buffer image viewer. ([101]Bug#379250) * [102]gnome-tasksel -- GNOME interface to Debian tasks. ([103]Bug#379038) * [104]gtm -- Multiple files transfer manager. ([105]Bug#379000) * [106]htmlgen -- Python library for the generation of HTML. ([107]Bug#379679) * [108]ida -- Image viewer & editor. ([109]Bug#379257) * [110]kernel-patch-nfs-swap -- Patch to Linux to enable swapping over NFS. ([111]Bug#378928) * [112]krecord -- KDE sound recorder. ([113]Bug#379252) * [114]libapache-mod-python -- Apache module that embeds Python 2.4 within the server. ([115]Bug#379680) * [116]libooc-vo -- VisualOberon GUI class library for Oberon-2. ([117]Bug#379221) * [118]libooc-x11 -- X11 specific modules for the oo2c compiler (devel). ([119]Bug#379223) * [120]libooc-xml -- XML parser for the oo2c Oberon-2 compiler (devel). ([121]Bug#379222) * [122]libpcd -- Library for reading PhotoCD images. ([123]Bug#379254) * [124]libqt-perl -- Perl bindings for the Qt library. ([125]Bug#379681) * [126]localeconf -- Debconf interface to locale configuration. ([127]Bug#379033) * [128]mercury -- New logic/functional programming language. ([129]Bug#379682) * [130]motv -- Motif TV application. ([131]Bug#379256) * [132]mozilla-locale-zh-cn -- Mozilla Simplified Chinese (China) language/region pack. ([133]Bug#378751) * [134]mozilla-locale-zh-tw -- Mozilla Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) language/region pack. ([135]Bug#378752) * [136]oo2c -- Optimising Oberon-2 to ANSI-C Compiler. ([137]Bug#379224) * [138]openmotif -- Open Motif. ([139]Bug#379258) * [140]picax -- Tool for creation of aptable media. ([141]Bug#379039) * [142]python-adns -- Python bindings to the asynchronous DNS resolver library. ([143]Bug#379683) * [144]python-biggles -- Scientific plotting package for Python [dummy package]. ([145]Bug#379684) * [146]python-parted -- Python bindings for GNU Parted. ([147]Bug#379034) * [148]tcldom -- DOM binding for Tcl. ([149]Bug#379404) * [150]timezoneconf -- Debconf interface to system timezone, date, and time. ([151]Bug#379035) * [152]tv-fonts -- X11 fonts for TV applications. ([153]Bug#379255) * [154]wv -- Programs for accessing Microsoft Word documents. ([155]Bug#379466) * [156]xawtv -- Collection of TV and radio applications. ([157]Bug#379251)

78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/alicq 79. http://bugs.debian.org/379599 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/apollon 81. http://bugs.debian.org/379346 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/aptconf 83. http://bugs.debian.org/379037 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/atari800 85. http://bugs.debian.org/379022 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cbrowser 87. http://bugs.debian.org/378796 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/configlet-frontends 89. http://bugs.debian.org/379031 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cscope 91. http://bugs.debian.org/378802 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/cthugha 93. http://bugs.debian.org/378946 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/discover 95. http://bugs.debian.org/379043 96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/discover-data 97. http://bugs.debian.org/379044 98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/etherconf 99. http://bugs.debian.org/379032 100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/fbi 101. http://bugs.debian.org/379250 102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-tasksel 103. http://bugs.debian.org/379038 104. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gtm 105. http://bugs.debian.org/379000 106. http://packages.debian.org/stable/python/htmlgen 107. http://bugs.debian.org/379679 108. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/ida 109. http://bugs.debian.org/379257 110. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/kernel-patch-nfs-swap 111. http://bugs.debian.org/378928 112. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/krecord 113. http://bugs.debian.org/379252 114. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/libapache-mod-python 115. http://bugs.debian.org/379680 116. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libooc-vo 117. http://bugs.debian.org/379221 118. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libooc-x11 119. http://bugs.debian.org/379223 120. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libooc-xml 121. http://bugs.debian.org/379222 122. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libpcd2 123. http://bugs.debian.org/379254 124. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libqt-perl 125. http://bugs.debian.org/379681 126. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/localeconf 127. http://bugs.debian.org/379033 128. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mercury 129. http://bugs.debian.org/379682 130. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/motv 131. http://bugs.debian.org/379256 132. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mozilla-locale-zh-cn 133. http://bugs.debian.org/378751 134. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mozilla-locale-zh-tw 135. http://bugs.debian.org/378752 136. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/oo2c 137. http://bugs.debian.org/379224 138. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libmotif3 139. http://bugs.debian.org/379258 140. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/picax 141. http://bugs.debian.org/379039 142. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-adns 143. http://bugs.debian.org/379683 144. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-biggles 145. http://bugs.debian.org/379684 146. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-parted 147. http://bugs.debian.org/379034 148. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/tcldom 149. http://bugs.debian.org/379404 150. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/timezoneconf 151. http://bugs.debian.org/379035 152. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/tv-fonts 153. http://bugs.debian.org/379255 154. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/wv 155. http://bugs.debian.org/379466 156. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xawtv 157. http://bugs.debian.org/379251

Removed Packages. 10 packages have been [158]removed from the Debian archive during the past week:

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

* kernel-latest-powerpc -- Linux kernel headers on PowerPC [159]Bug#353717: Request of maintainer, outdated, unmaintained * kernel-image-2.4.27-alpha -- Headers for building modules for Linux 2.4.27 [160]Bug#367518: Request of maintainer, outdated, not used anymore, ftbfs * sfio -- Enhanced library for managing I/O streams (development) [161]Bug#279812: Request of QA: rc-buggy, unmaintained, almost no users * doxymacs -- E-lisp package for making doxygen usage easier under Emacs [162]Bug#321821: Request of QA: rc-buggy, unmaintained, no users * tcltk8.0-ja -- Japanese localised version of Tcl 8.0 [163]Bug#360500: Request of QA, uninstallable, obsolete version of Tcl/Tk * gnome-ruby -- Ruby binding of libart [164]Bug#367680: Request of maintainer: obsolete * xmule -- eMule client for the edonkey2000 network [165]Bug#370524: Request of maintainer, rc-buggy, unmaintained at the moment * barrendero -- delete messages on the spool dir depending on their age [166]Bug#378485: Request of maintainer, old, unused, buggy * ipsc -- IP Subnet Calculator for X [167]Bug#378772: Request of QA, rc-buggy (uninstallable), obsolete, dead upstream, maintainer MIA * ipfwadm -- Linux 2.0.x firewalling tools [168]Bug#378548: Request of QA: unmaintained, very outdated, doesn't work anymore on more recent kernels

159. http://bugs.debian.org/353717 160. http://bugs.debian.org/367518 161. http://bugs.debian.org/279812 162. http://bugs.debian.org/321821 163. http://bugs.debian.org/360500 164. http://bugs.debian.org/367680 165. http://bugs.debian.org/370524 166. http://bugs.debian.org/378485 167. http://bugs.debian.org/378772 168. http://bugs.debian.org/378548

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 [169]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [170]dwn@debian.org.

169. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 170. mailto:dwn@debian.org

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

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