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Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Andreas Barth told us privately that the mipsel architecture is back in the list of supported architectures for testing. It's been reported that Bdale Garbee's young daughter Elizabeth, who has been a Debian user since she was nine, will deliver a talk about extending Tuxracer at the upcoming Linux conference Australia.
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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/06/
Debian Weekly News - February 9th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community. Andreas Barth told us privately that the mipsel
architecture is back in the list of supported architectures for
testing. It's been [1]reported that Bdale Garbee's young daughter
Elizabeth, who has been a Debian user since she was nine, will deliver
a [2]talk about extending Tuxracer at the upcoming [3]Linux
conference Australia.
1. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39186360,00.htm
2. http://linux.conf.au/abstract.php?id=199
3. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/0418-linuxconf
Debian Kernel IRC Meeting. Maximilian Attems [4]announced an IRC
meeting of Debian's kernel maintainers in order to decide the kernel
versions for the sarge release. Dann Frazier [5]added a [6]table of
available kernels. Steve Langasek provided a [7]log of the discussion
where the pros and cons of the 2.6.8 and 2.6.10 kernel trees were
identified. 2.6.10 is not in a releasable condition for sparc
currently, hence, the installer will [8]stay with 2.6.8 for now.
4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2005/01/msg00896.html
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2005/02/msg00015.html
6. http://people.debian.org/~dannf/kernel-stats/kernel-avail.html
7. http://minbar.dodds.net/~vorlon/kernel-2.6.10-discussion.log
8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2005/02/msg00244.html
Package Uploading without http://FTP. Since the [9]compromise of Debian
servers in 2003 normal developers don't have SSH access to ftpmaster.
As a result, Bartosz Fenski [10]wondered if there was a way to upload
packages without using http://FTP. Andreas Barth [11]suggested using the
[12]delayed queue on gluck which [13]forwards packages every 15
minutes.
9. http://www.debian.org/News/2003/20031202
10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/01/msg01960.html
11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/01/msg01965.html
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00068.html
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00007.html
Report from Solutions Linux. Julian Blache submitted a [14]report
about the Debian booth at this year's [15]Solutions Linux exhibition
in Paris. Apparently this was the best booth they ever managed at this
type of exhibition. Many visitors were interested in sarge release
plans and in Babelbox, a demonstration machine that reinstalls itself
automatically with a different language at each iteration.
14. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/0203-solutionslinux-report
15. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/0203-solutionslinux
Debian on the Mac Mini. William Sowerbutts [16]reported that he has
Debian running on his new [17]Mac Mini, a PowerPC system in a small,
quiet and attractive chassis. He has written up some [18]notes on the
installation process and explained partitioning. Basically, only a
recent CD-R of the new [19]installer and a weak lemon drink are all
one needs.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2005/02/msg00095.html
17. http://www.apple.com/macmini/
18. http://sowerbutts.com/linux-mac-mini/
19. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Becoming a Debian Developer. Bruce Byfield [20]explained how one
becomes a Debian developer (DD). The process includes agreeing to the
[21]Social Contract, an identity check, and proving the candidate has
the required technical skills. All candidates must be recommended by
an advocate who is already a DD. In recent years the pass rate for
those who complete the various hurdles has been almost 100 %, though
the drop-out rate is high as well.
20. http://programming.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/28/1618201
21. http://www.debian.org/social_contract
Software Vendors supporting Debian. Christian Perrier [22]reported
about a software vendor that approached Debian during the
[23]Solutions Linux exhibition due to the growing demand for
supporting Debian. They didn't know how to support Debian and its
kernels best. In France, some ministries are requiring contractors to
support Debian. Joey Schulze [24]explained that it's probably a good
idea to follow Debian development by using an idle sid box.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00030.html
23. http://www.debian.org/events/2005/0203-solutionslinux
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00362.html
A Peek into the NEW Queue. Al Stone [25]wondered how to see what's in
the NEW queue of the Debian archive. Jeroen van Wolffelaar [26]pointed
out the [27]queue summary. Steve Langasek [28]explained that
increasing the rate at which new packages flow into unstable is not
something that should be a priority when Debian is trying to fix
release-critical [29]bugs in preparation of a new release.
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00087.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00090.html
27. http://developer.skolelinux.no/~pere/debian-NEW.html
28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00127.html
29. http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/
Valid and invalid Usernames. Marc Haber [30]sought public opinion on
usernames with dots and starting with digits. Alastair McKinstry
[31]added that POSIX already permitted dots in the username and
Michelle Konzack [32]revealed that chown from woody already supported
this. Usernames starting with digits probably [33]ask for trouble. A
new [34]adduser package has been uploaded to experimental to implement
this.
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00226.html
31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00229.html
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00231.html
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00234.html
34. http://packages.debian.org/adduser
Debug Packages in the Archive. Josselin Mouette [35]noticed an
increasing number of -dbg packages in the archive that are only useful
for debugging. Joey Hess [36]proposed to introduce a separate section
in the archive or a separate archive dedicated to debug packages.
35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00257.html
36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00278.html
Naming wireless Interfaces. Wichert Akkerman [37]brought up a
discussion on naming wireless interfaces in Debian and Linux since
some are called eth* while others are named wlan*. Christoph Hellwig
[38]asserted that all drivers in the mainline kernel use eth*. David
Goodenough [39]added that some drivers use other interface names and
that wlan* is far from being the standard name.
37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00307.html
38. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00327.html
39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00314.html
Choice of Venue. Glenn McGrath [40]wondered why a license which states
the choice of venue is non-free. Steve Langasek [41]explained that the
problem with choice of venue clauses is that anyone who accepts the
license must also accept the burden of defending themselves against
charges of license violation in a court which is likely to have an
implicit bias in favour of the copyright holder.
40. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/02/msg00036.html
41. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/02/msg00037.html
Debian Project Leader Elections. Manoj Srivastava [42]announced the
opening of the nomination period for this year's Debian Project Leader
[43]elections. [44]Matthew Garrett and [45]Andreas Schuldei have
nominated themselves already. Further nominations will be accepted
until February 28th, followed by the campaigning period until March
21st and the voting period until April 11th.
42. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00004.html
43. http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/vote_001
44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00006.html
45. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/02/msg00011.html
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* DSA 664: [46]cpio -- Insecure file permissions.
* DSA 665: [47]ncpfs -- Unauthorised file access.
* DSA 666: [48]python2.2 -- Unauthorised XML-RPC internals access.
* DSA 667: [49]squid -- Several vulnerabilities.
* DSA 668: [50]postgresql -- Arbitrary library loading.
* DSA 669: [51]php3 -- Several vulnerabilities.
* DSA 670: [52]emacs20 -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 671: [53]xemacs21 -- Arbitrary code execution.
* DSA 672: [54]xview -- Potential arbitrary code execution.
46. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-664
47. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-665
48. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-666
49. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-667
50. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-668
51. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-669
52. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-670
53. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-671
54. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-672
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [55]recently or contain important updates.
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [56]evince -- Document (postscript, pdf, dvi) viewer.
* [57]maint-guide-ko -- Korean translation of Debian New
Maintainers' Guide.
* [58]myspell-he -- Hebrew dictionary for myspell.
* [59]myspell-nl -- Dutch dictionary for myspell.
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/evince
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/maint-guide-ko
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/myspell-he
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/myspell-nl
Orphaned Packages. 2 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]bootcd-dvdplus -- Bootcd extension to use DVD+ media.
([62]Bug#293909)
* [63]prcs -- The Project Revision Control System. ([64]Bug#293805)
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/bootcd-dvdplus
62. http://bugs.debian.org/293909
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/prcs
64. http://bugs.debian.org/293805
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 [65]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [66]dwn@debian.org.
65. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
66. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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