Debian Weekly News - March 29th, 2005

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/13/
Debian Weekly News - March 29th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 13th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. James Troup [1]announced the addition of two
developers to the ftpmaster team, who will work on new packages in
particular. Rob Bradford eventually [2]announced the founding of a an
Debian UK society that will deal with donations in the UK.

 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2005/03/msg00142.html
 2. http://www.robster.org.uk/blog/2005/03/20#founding-20050320

Debian-Installer RC3 released. Joey Hess [3]announced the third
release candidate of the [4]debian-installer. The most significant
change in this release are updated versions of all kernels that
include numerous security fixes. The partitioner has also been
improved with regards to other operating systems.

 3. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2005/20050323
 4. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

New Mailing-Lists created. Pascal Hakim [5]announced the creation of
a few lists. There are three new localisation lists
([6]debian-l10n-arabic, [7]debian-l10n-czech, and
[8]debian-l10n-korean), as well as two new infrastructure lists.
[9]debian-testing-changes will be used to show changes to the testing
distribution, while [10]debian-dak will be used for discussion
relating to dak and buildd related components.

 5. http://www.redellipse.net/stuff/Debian/Lists/new-list-day.story
 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-l10n-arabic
 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-l10n-czech
 8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-l10n-korean
 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-testing-changes
 10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-dak

Election Resources. David Schmitt [11]published a [12]summary of the
questions asked and answers given by the 2005 [13]project leader
candidates during the election campaign. Thaddeus H. Black also
[14]distilled a semantical [15]transcript from the live 2005 DPL
debate's [16]chronological log, organised for coherent reading the
questions, answers and discussions of the debate's second part.

 11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/03/msg00829.html
 12. http://debian.edv-bus.at/vote-2005/
 13. http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/vote_001
 14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/03/msg00848.html
 15. http://home.ntelos.net/~b-tk/vote/2005/Log-debian-dpl-debate-reordered.html
 16. http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/Log-debian-dpl-debate

Build-Dependency against libtool 1.4. Andrew Pollock [17]noticed that
five packages still declare a build-dependency against [18]libtool 1.4
which is orphaned and will be [19]removed. Frank Lichtenheld
[20]proposed to open bug reports against packages that use libtool 1.4
files to upgrade to version 1.5 which was [21]considered a good idea.
Henrique de Moraes Holschuh also [22]suggested to force the use of
newer [23]libtool, [24]autoconf and [25]gettext utilities.

 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00075.html
 18. http://packages.debian.org/libtool1.4
 19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00077.html
 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00078.html
 21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00079.html
 22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00081.html
 23. http://packages.debian.org/libtool
 24. http://packages.debian.org/autoconf
 25. http://packages.debian.org/gettext

Quality Assurance Hacking Event. Luk Claes [26]proposed to organise an
official QA hacking work camp in Helsinki right before the Debian
conference. This would consist of bug fixing for [27]lintian and
[28]linda, removing obsolete packages from the archive, cleaning up
[29]WNPP pages, fixing bugs in QA group maintained packages and of
other subjects within the scope of the QA group.

 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2005/03/msg00084.html
 27. http://packages.debian.org/lintian
 28. http://packages.debian.org/linda
 29. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/

Finishing a foreign ITP. Shachar Shemesh [30]noticed that an
[31]Intent to package (ITP) for [32]Open Xchange hasn't seen any
progress and wondered what to do in case he had packaged the software
on his own. Matthew Palmer [33]suggested to add a note to the bug
report and offer help before actually uploading the package.

 30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2005/03/msg00259.html
 31. http://bugs.debian.org/269329
 32. http://mirror.open-xchange.org/ox/EN/community/
 33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2005/03/msg00260.html

Spelling Correction for Package Descriptions. Florian Zumbiehl
[34]noticed another common mistake that developers make in package
descriptions. He added a list of words, which are mostly acronyms,
where "a" and "an" are often used wrongly. Joey Hess [35]pointed out
that some acronyms such as FAQ are ambiguous, since they can be
pronounced differently.

 34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/03/msg01170.html
 35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/03/msg01173.html

PHP and derived Works. The PHP licenses have been [36]investigated
with regards to distributing derived works. Francesco Poli [37]pointed
out that [38]PHP 3 is dual-licensed with the [39]GNU GPL. The
[40]license for PHP 4 contains a paragraph that prohibits derived work
to be called PHP or contain the word PHP in the name. Andi Gutmans
[41]explained that minor changes and security fixes are no problem and
that [42]Apache is licensed the same way.

 36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/02/msg00222.html
 37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/02/msg00346.html
 38. http://packages.debian.org/php3
 39. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
 40. http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/p/php4/php4_4.3.10-10/php4.copyright
 41. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/03/msg00169.html
 42. http://packages.debian.org/apache

CD/DVD Images Release Progress. Steve McIntyre sent in a [43]summary
of the release progress from the CD team. Since the disk space has
been increased on [44]cdimage.debian.org it can host full images for
woody and sarge for a period after the release. Due to the sheer
amount of sarge more than one binary DVD image will be produced per
architecture. The list of prospective images and files contain
Torrents and Jigdo files, of course.

 43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/03/msg00013.html
 44. http://cdimage.debian.org/

Low Voter Turnout. In the second [45]call for votes on the current
project leader [46]election Manoj Srivastava reported that we have the
lowest participation ever in a project leader election since tracking
voting rates. In an [47]interview he assumed that several developers
are disillusioned after the [48]changes of the [49]social contract,
the problems with AMD64 and the [50]Vancouver prospectus.

 45. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/03/msg00026.html
 46. http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/vote_001
 47. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39186281,00.htm
 48. http://www.debian.org/vote/2004/vote_003
 49. http://www.debian.org/social_contract
 50. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/03/msg00012.html

Marcus Brinkmann on Hurd/L4. In an [51]interview Marcus Brinkmann
explained the Hurd and that the Mach microkernel was discarded as
basis because of poor virtual memory management. Instead, the new goal
was to port the Hurd to the L4 microkernel which has reached the step
of being able to [52]execute programs recently. The interview gives a
lot of insight into different areas as well.

 51. http://portal.wikinerds.org/brinkmann-interview-mar2005
 52. http://portal.wikinerds.org/gnu-hurd-l4-first-program

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

 * DSA 697: [53]netkit-telnet -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 698: [54]mc -- Buffer overflow.
 * DSA 699: [55]netkit-telnet-ssl -- Arbitrary code execution.

 53. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-697
 54. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-698
 55. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-699

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [56]recently or contain important updates.

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

 * [57]asciidoc -- Highly configurable text format for writing
   documentation.
 * [58]atomix -- Puzzle game for building molecules out of isolated
   atoms.
 * [59]bmon -- Portable bandwidth monitor and rate estimator.
 * [60]bookmarkbridge -- Tool to synchronise bookmarks between
   browsers.
 * [61]cbios -- Open source MSX BIOS roms.
 * [62]checkstyle -- Check Java source against a coding standard.
 * [63]cpufrequtils -- Utilities to deal with the cpufreq Linux
   kernel feature.
 * [64]decompyle2.2 -- Old version of the Python byte-code
   decompiler.
 * [65]didiwiki -- Simple Wiki implementation with built-in
   webserver.
 * [66]dosage -- Powerful webcomic downloader / archiver.
 * [67]dumputils -- Simple configuration and dump recovery utilities
   for LKCD.
 * [68]dvbsnoop -- DVB / MPEG stream analyser.
 * [69]encfs -- Encrypted virtual filesystem.
 * [70]flexloader -- Utility to configure SRAM based ALTERA devices.
 * [71]fondu -- Convert between Mac and UNIX font formats.
 * [72]gaim-encryption -- Gaim plugin that provides transparent
   encryption.
 * [73]gnomebaker -- Application for CD/DVD creation in the GNOME
   desktop.
 * [74]gphpedit -- Development environment for PHP/HTML/CSS.
 * [75]graveman -- Graphical CD burning application.
 * [76]gromit -- GTK based tool to make annotations on screen.
 * [77]gwget -- GNOME front-end for wget.
 * [78]heaplayers -- High-performance memory allocators.
 * [79]horde3 -- The Horde Web Application Suite.
 * [80]icheck -- C interface ABI/API checker.
 * [81]kdissert -- Mindmapping tool.
 * [82]kwirelessmonitor -- Wireless interface monitor for KDE
   systray.
 * [83]latex-svninfo -- LaTeX support for Subversion.
 * [84]leafpad -- GTK+ based simple text editor.
 * [85]lsscsi -- List all SCSI devices (or hosts) currently on
   system.
 * [86]maildirsync -- Simple and efficient Maildir synchronisation
   utility.
 * [87]mcelog -- Tool to collect and decode Machine Check Exception
   on x86-64 machines.
 * [88]moc -- Ncurses based console audio player.
 * [89]nanoblogger -- Small weblog engine for the UNIX command line.
 * [90]odyssey -- PIC micro controller programming application.
 * [91]ooo2dbk -- Converts OpenOffice.org SXW documents to DocBook
   XML.
 * [92]pasmo -- Easy to use Z80 cross-assembler.
 * [93]pong2 -- Remake of old arcade classic in OpenGL.
 * [94]reprepro -- Debian package repository producer.
 * [95]rhino -- JavaScript engine written in Java.
 * [96]rsyncrypto -- Rsync friendly encryption.
 * [97]rubilicious -- Ruby bindings for Delicious, social bookmarks
   manager.
 * [98]scmail -- Mail filter written in Scheme.
 * [99]sgcontrol -- GUI to multiple communications receivers using
   the Hamlib library.
 * [100]skippy -- Full-screen X11 task/window switcher, similar to
   OSX Expose.
 * [101]srg -- Fast, Flexible and Detailed log analysis for the Squid
   Proxy.
 * [102]stress -- Tool to impose load on and stress test a computer
   system.
 * [103]svn-arch-mirror -- One-way mirroring from Subversion to Arch
   revision control.
 * [104]telak -- Display remote or local pictures on your desktop.
 * [105]xprint -- X11 print system.
 * [106]xrsh -- Remote execution of XWindow programs.
 * [107]xwine -- Graphical user interface for the WINE emulator.
 * [108]yacpi -- Ncurses based ACPI monitor for text mode.
 * [109]zeroconf -- IPv4 link-local address allocator.

 57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/asciidoc
 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/atomix
 59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/bmon
 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/bookmarkbridge
 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/cbios
 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/checkstyle
 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/cpufrequtils
 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/decompyle2.2
 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/didiwiki
 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/dosage
 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/dumputils
 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/dvbsnoop
 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/encfs
 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/flexloader
 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/fondu
 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-encryption
 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnomebaker
 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gphpedit
 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/graveman
 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gromit
 77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gwget
 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/heaplayers
 79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/horde3
 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/icheck
 81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kdissert
 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kwirelessmonitor
 83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/latex-svninfo
 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/leafpad
 85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/lsscsi
 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/maildirsync
 87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/mcelog
 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/moc
 89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/nanoblogger
 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/odyssey
 91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/ooo2dbk
 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/pasmo
 93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/pong2
 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/reprepro
 95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/rhino
 96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rsyncrypto
 97. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/rubilicious
 98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/scmail
 99. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/sgcontrol
 100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/skippy
 101. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/srg
 102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/stress
 103. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/svn-arch-mirror
 104. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/telak
 105. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xprint
 106. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xrsh
 107. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/xwine
 108. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/yacpi
 109. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/zeroconf

Orphaned Packages. 4 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 [110]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.

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

 * [111]bbappconf -- Configuration tool for Blackbox application
   windows. ([112]Bug#301762)
 * [113]openwebmail -- WebMail based on Neomail. ([114]Bug#301561)
 * [115]partimage -- Linux/UNIX utility to save partitions in a
   compressed image file. ([116]Bug#301562)
 * [117]scoop -- Web-based collaborative media application.
   ([118]Bug#301754)

 111. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/bbappconf
 112. http://bugs.debian.org/301762
 113. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/openwebmail
 114. http://bugs.debian.org/301561
 115. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/partimage
 116. http://bugs.debian.org/301562
 117. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/scoop
 118. http://bugs.debian.org/301754

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 [119]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [120]dwn@debian.org.

 119. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 120. mailto:dwn@debian.org


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