Debian Weekly News - August 31st, 2004

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/34/
Debian Weekly News - August 31st, 2004
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Welcome to this year's 34th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. In an [1]interview, id Software's Timothee
Besset confirmed that he loves the Debian distribution. In a different
[2]review Leo Spalteholz described how he tried to escape Debian and
switch to an "easier" distribution, but ended up with Debian again.

 1. http://www.linuxgames.com/?dataloc=articles/ttimo/
 2. http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7314

Splitting the Packages File. Daniel Ruoso [3]wondered how he could
keep a 486 with 8 MB RAM updated in unstable with only PPP on the
serial line. He proposed to split the Packages file into sections so
that clients can operate on smaller files. Peter Eisentraut
[4]asserted that with more than 30 sections this would make the
sources.list file unmaintainable. He added that most but very
specialised clients would probably need to include all sections
anyway.

 3. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01221.html
 4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01234.html

Standard 2.4 kernel for Sarge? Dann Frazier [5]proposed to use 2.4.27
as the 2.4 kernel for all architectures with 2.4 kernels in the
upcoming release. The strongest [6]argument is that this version
supports several architectures natively and binary packages for all
architectures supporting 2.4 are already available. Joey Hess
contributed a [7]d-i kernel update checklist and Steve Langasek
[8]agreed that this is the way to go.

 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/08/msg00381.html
 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2004/08/msg00632.html
 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/08/msg00389.html
 8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/08/msg00405.html

Debian Cloaks on Freenode. Göran Weinholt [9]announced that he is a
group contact for Debian on the [10]freenode IRC network. He is
currently the only one and is supposed to be some sort of relay
between the Debian project and the freenode staff. His main reason for
volunteering for this position is so that we can get cloaks working
for all interested Debian developers whose nickname is [11]registered.

 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/08/msg00136.html
 10. http://freenode.net/
 11. http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#nicksetup

Sarge Release Update. Steve Langasek sent in an [12]update on the
upcoming sarge release. Several library transitions were finished and
brought GIMP 2.0 to sarge, among other packages. Instead of only a
flurry of new and fixed packages it was more like a snowstorm, keeping
the buildd network busy. The number of release critical bugs is lower
than last time, but not as low as hoped. Hence, there is progress
towards the release, but it is going slower than expected.

 12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/08/msg00017.html

What's new in Sarge? Bartosz Fenski [13]asked about the most important
changes between woody and sarge. Kevin McCarty [14]named several
packages that will be updated to a newer version or added. Among
others these are GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2, GIMP 2, Firefox and Thunderbird,
Linux 2.6 and OpenOffice.org.

 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01487.html
 14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01495.html

Ceasing Upstream Development... Daniel Burrows [15]wondered if he
should request the removal of [16]noteedit, a music editor for KDE,
since upstream has decided to cease development. He has already
orphaned the package, so it's not properly maintained in Debian
anymore either. Roland Stigge [17]mentioned the nice list of import
and export formats and reminded people that a package in a stable
Debian release isn't changed a lot during its lifetime.

 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01527.html
 16. http://packages.debian.org/noteedit
 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/08/msg01601.html

Outdated Packages for contrib and non-free. Jeroen van Wolffelaar
[18]reminded maintainers of packages in contrib and non-free, that
they are responsible for getting all supported architectures in sync.
More recent versions of these packages won't be able to be released at
the same time as sarge otherwise. These packages cannot be auto-built.

 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/08/msg00399.html

Debian experimental Kaffe runs Tomcat4 on PowerPC. Arnaud Vandyck
[19]wrote that the free Java environment has reached an important
milestone. He asserted that although free Java environments are not as
full as proprietary ones, in some cases, they are far better. After
experiencing multiple problems with IBM's proprietary JDK on the
PowerPC architecture he managed to get the free environment running
Tomcat4.

 19. http://www.livejournal.com/users/avdyk/6508.html

GNU/Linux on the Desktop. KDE Developers Kévin Ottens and Peter Rockai
[20]spoke about their work on the [21]Kalyxo project, which aims to
improve KDE integration on Debian systems as well as making KDE and
non-KDE applications work well together. They are working on a common
look and feel as well, which is why they packaged the
[22]qt-gtk-engine for Debian users.

 20. http://dot.kde.org/1093794087/
 21. http://www.kalyxo.org/
 22. http://www.kalyxo.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GtkQtEngine

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

 * [23]Qt -- Arbitrary code execution and denial of service.
 * [24]krb5 -- Several vulnerabilities.

 23. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-542
 24. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-543

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [25]recently or contain important updates.

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

 * [26]adtool -- Command line utility for Active Directory
   administration.
 * [27]bld -- Black List Daemon, automatically build blacklists.
 * [28]buffy -- Heavy duty browser for mail folders.
 * [29]codegroup -- Convert any file, including binary, into 5 letter
   code.
 * [30]freeradius-dialupadmin -- Set of PHP scripts for administering
   a FreeRADIUS server.
 * [31]gfc-examples -- GTK+ Foundation Classes Examples.
 * [32]gnome-nettool -- Network information tool for GNOME.
 * [33]gweled -- Diamond Mine puzzle game.
 * [34]ikvm -- Java virtual machine/compiler implemented in .NET
   (Mono).
 * [35]kitchensync -- Synchronization framework.
 * [36]kleopatra -- KDE Certificate Manager.
 * [37]kompose -- Full screen task manager for KDE.
 * [38]lxdoom -- Unix port of boom, an enhanced version of DOOM.
 * [39]lxmusserv -- Linux music server for Doom and Heretic.
 * [40]mathomatic -- Portable computer algebra system.
 * [41]ncompress -- Original Lempel-Ziv compress/uncompress programs.
 * [42]netapplet -- User-friendly network interface control applet.
 * [43]pnet -- DotGNU C# compiler, runtime, (dis)assembler.
 * [44]randomplay -- Command-line based shuffle music player that
   remembers songs between sessions.
 * [45]silky -- SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) GTK+ based
   client.
 * [46]wininfo -- Displays information about X windows under the
   mouse cursor.
 * [47]xmldiff -- Tree 2 tree correction between xml documents.

 26. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/adtool
 27. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/bld
 28. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/buffy
 29. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/codegroup
 30. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/freeradius-dialupadmin
 31. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gfc-examples
 32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-nettool
 33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gweled
 34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ikvm
 35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kitchensync
 36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/kleopatra
 37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kompose
 38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/lxdoom
 39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/lxmusserv
 40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/mathomatic
 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ncompress
 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/netapplet
 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/pnet
 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/randomplay
 45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/silky
 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/wininfo
 47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/xmldiff

Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian
package is [48]featured from the testing distribution. If you know
about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send
it to [49]Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following
packages last week.

 48. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
 49. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=debaday

 * [50]dictd -- Dictionary Server.
 * [51]samhain -- Data integrity and host intrusion alert system.
 * [52]privoxy -- Privacy enhancing HTTP Proxy.

 50. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/31531.html
 51. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/31897.html
 52. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/32035.html

Orphaned Packages. 12 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 184 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [53]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.

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

 * [54]dip -- Tool for handling SLIP/PPP dialup IP connections.
   ([55]Bug#268909)
 * [56]distmp3 -- Perl client and daemon for distributed audio
   encoding. ([57]Bug#267912)
 * [58]libapache-mod-gzip -- HTTP compression module for Apache.
   ([59]Bug#268738)
 * [60]mico -- Fully compliant CORBA implementation. ([61]Bug#268868)
 * [62]noteedit -- KDE Music Editor. ([63]Bug#268206)
 * [64]siege -- HTTP regression testing and benchmarking utility.
   ([65]Bug#268739)
 * [66]terraform -- Height field manipulation program.
   ([67]Bug#267911)
 * [68]tex4ht -- LaTeX and TeX for Hypertext (HTML). ([69]Bug#268126)
 * [70]x10 -- Operate X-10 electrical power control modules.
   ([71]Bug#268912)
 * [72]x10-automate -- GUI interface for x10 power line control
   utility. ([73]Bug#268911)
 * [74]xpaint -- Reasonably versatile X-based image editing tool.
   ([75]Bug#268910)

 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/dip
 55. http://bugs.debian.org/268909
 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/distmp3
 57. http://bugs.debian.org/267912
 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/libapache-mod-gzip
 59. http://bugs.debian.org/268738
 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/mico
 61. http://bugs.debian.org/268868
 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/noteedit
 63. http://bugs.debian.org/268206
 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/siege
 65. http://bugs.debian.org/268739
 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/terraform
 67. http://bugs.debian.org/267911
 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/tex4ht
 69. http://bugs.debian.org/268126
 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/x10
 71. http://bugs.debian.org/268912
 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/x10-automate
 73. http://bugs.debian.org/268911
 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/xpaint
 75. http://bugs.debian.org/268910

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 [76]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [77]dwn@debian.org.

 76. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 77. mailto:dwn@debian.org


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