Debian Weekly News - September 19th, 2006

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/38/
Debian Weekly News - September 19th, 2006
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Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. David Barker [1]thanked the project for the
well developed [2]etch distribution. Joey Schulze [3]contemplated
etch to be ready for release already. From Friday to Sunday a bug
squashing [4]party will be organised in [5]Berlin, Germany.

 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/09/msg00042.html
 2. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 3. http://www.infodrom.org/~joey/log/?200609102259
 4. http://wiki.debian.org/BSPMarathon
 5. http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/de/Berlin

Status of GNOME 2.16 in Debian. Frederic Peters [6]announced a status
[7]page that helps tracking packages of [8]GNOME 2.16 which has been
released recently. Josselin Mouette [9]added that it is planned to
push packages for version 2.16 into [10]experimental as soon as
possible.

 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-gtk-gnome/2006/09/msg00004.html
 7. http://www.0d.be/debian/debian-gnome-2.16-status.html
 8. http://www.gnome.org/
 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-gtk-gnome/2006/09/msg00005.html
 10. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/

Report from Come 2 Linux. Joey Schulze [11]reported about the Debian
[12]presence at the [13]Come 2 Linux event in Essen, Germany. The
Debian project maintained a booth in the exhibition area and delivered
two talks which were well received. There was enough time and space at
the booth to take care of visitors without many people queueing up.

 11. http://www.infodrom.org/~joey/log/?200609122039
 12. http://www.debian.org/events/2006/0909-come2linux-report
 13. http://www.debian.org/events/2006/0909-come2linux

Local DebConf7 Team Meeting. Steve McIntyre [14]reported about several
developers having [15]met in Edinburgh, Scotland, to work out the bits
that are needed for the Debian conference 7 next year. The team
visited Teviot, the student centre that is planned to use, and checked
out several of the local hostels and public houses for suitability.

 14. http://blog.einval.com/2006/09/11#dc_team_20060909
 15. http://wiki.debian.org/DebConf7Meetings/Minutes/2006-09-09

The Hurd with WLAN and PCMCIA. Michael Banck [16]reported that the
current GNU Mach upload has brought PCMCIA and WLAN with WEP
encryption support to Debian GNU/Hurd. Earlier he [17]stated that the
latest [18]gnumach and [19]hurd packages are up-to-date with the
developer CVS repository and hence include the work towards Berkeley
Packet Filter support.

 16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2006/09/msg00025.html
 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2006/09/msg00000.html
 18. http://packages.debian.org/gnumach
 19. http://packages.debian.org/hurd

Debian Steering Committee? David Nusinov [20]pondered about setting up
a distribution steering committee. Ingo Jürgensmann [21]considered
this a good idea in general. David [22]added that the bottom-up
structure instead of top-down is a defining feature of Debian. Raphaël
Hertzog [23]suggested to replace the project leader with a steering
board.

 20. http://gravityboy.livejournal.com/29046.html
 21. http://blog.windfluechter.net/?q=node/134
 22. http://gravityboy.livejournal.com/29306.html
 23. http://www.ouaza.com/wordpress/2006/09/03/steering-committee-or-board/

Setting up Subversion. Bert Heymans [24]described in detail the
required steps to set up a Subversion server including [25]websvn with
code colouring for easy repository browsing. This document includes
the configuration of Apache 2 for Subversion WebDAV and contains some
Subversion test commands.

 24. http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_subversion_websvn
 25. http://packages.debian.org/websvn

PostgreSQL Transition Strategy. Peter Eisentraut [26]explained that
currently etch users who wish to install the [27]postgresql package
will end up with the older version and asked for advice. This
situation occurs due to the transition to versioned PostgreSQL
packages that can be installed in parallel.

 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/09/msg00127.html
 27. http://packages.debian.org/postgresql

APT Upgrade Problem. Ingo Jürgensmann [28]discovered that when
upgrading from [29]sarge to [30]etch, apt-get complains about
untrusted source of packages because signatures couldn't be verified.
Alexander Schmehl [31]added that [32]aptitude behaves the same and
hence opened a release-critical [33]bug report asking for a dependency
against [34]debian-archive-keyring.

 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/09/msg00062.html
 29. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/
 30. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/09/msg00106.html
 32. http://packages.debian.org/aptitude
 33. http://bugs.debian.org/386800
 34. http://packages.debian.org/debian-archive-keyring

Debian Installer Stance on non-free Firmware. Frans Pop [35]stated
that the installer team will not accept any structural changes to
support loading firmware in the installer at this late stage before
the release. In the long-term he would also prefer a solution that
wouldn't require adding the entire non-free or contrib to the
sources.list file.

 35. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2006/09/msg00190.html

Using Wikis for Discussions? Russell Coker [36]suggested to use
another mechanism instead of discussions lead via mail. He believes
that endless discussions are more an illustration of the failings of
mailing list culture than of failings of Debian. If each side had a
Wiki page that they could modify then in a small amount of time there
would be a set of two main consensus opinions which would each be
explained clearly and summarised well.

 36. http://etbe.blogspot.com/2006/09/mailing-list-culture.html

Debian Boot Dependency Graph. Petter Reinholdtsen [37]created a
dependency graph of boot scripts now that a sufficiently large number
of init scripts use the LSB convention. There's also a status
[38]summary for the packages used in a desktop installation. Nathanael
Nerode [39]added that the [40]udev dependency information is not
accurate since a lot of packages depend on udev running first.

 37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/09/msg00136.html
 38. http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/lsblist.html
 39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/09/msg00198.html
 40. http://packages.debian.org/udev

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

 * DSA 1174: [41]openssl096 -- RSA signature forgery cryptographic
   weakness.
 * DSA 1175: [42]isakmpd -- Replay protection bypass.
 * DSA 1176: [43]zope2.7 -- Information disclosure.
 * DSA 1177: [44]usermin -- Denial of service.
 * DSA 1178: [45]freetype -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1179: [46]alsaplayer -- Denial of service.
 * DSA 1180: [47]bomberclone -- Several vulnerabilities.

 41. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1174
 42. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1175
 43. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1176
 44. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1177
 45. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1178
 46. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1179
 47. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1180

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [48]recently or contain important updates.

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

 * [49]pyste -- Boost.Python code generator.
 * [50]tomcat5.5 -- Java Servlet 2.4 engine with JSP 2.0 support.
 * [51]ttf-vlgothic -- Japanese TrueType font from VineLinux.
 * [52]wsjt -- Weak-signal amateur radio communications.

 49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/pyste
 50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/tomcat5.5
 51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/ttf-vlgothic
 52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/wsjt

Orphaned Packages. 12 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 315 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. To find out which orphaned packages are
installed on your system the wnpp-alert program from devscripts may be
helpful.

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

 * [54]binutils-h8300-hms -- GNU cross assembler for H8/300[HS],
   linker and binary utilities. ([55]Bug#387772)
 * [56]brickos -- Alternative OS for LEGO(r) Mindstorms RCX. Supports
   devel. in C/C++. ([57]Bug#387769)
 * [58]divine -- Automatic IP configuration detection for laptops.
   ([59]Bug#387774)
 * [60]exdbm -- EXode database manager. ([61]Bug#387773)
 * [62]gcc-h8300-hms -- The GNU C/C++ cross-compilers for the Hitachi
   H8/300[HS] processors. ([63]Bug#387771)
 * [64]gpsim-led -- LED module for gpsim. ([65]Bug#387778)
 * [66]gpsim-logic -- Logic module for gpsim. ([67]Bug#387777)
 * [68]gsetroot -- C/Gtk-based front-end for Esetroot.
   ([69]Bug#387474)
 * [70]lnpd -- Daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS.
   ([71]Bug#387770)
 * [72]png2html -- Transforms a PNG image to a web page.
   ([73]Bug#387477)
 * [74]rpl -- Intelligent recursive search/replace utility.
   ([75]Bug#388131)
 * [76]vfu -- Versatile text-based file-manager. ([77]Bug#387478)

 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/binutils-h8300-hms
 55. http://bugs.debian.org/387772
 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/brickos
 57. http://bugs.debian.org/387769
 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/divine
 59. http://bugs.debian.org/387774
 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/exdbm
 61. http://bugs.debian.org/387773
 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gcc-h8300-hms
 63. http://bugs.debian.org/387771
 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/gpsim-led
 65. http://bugs.debian.org/387778
 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/gpsim-logic
 67. http://bugs.debian.org/387777
 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gsetroot
 69. http://bugs.debian.org/387474
 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lnpd
 71. http://bugs.debian.org/387770
 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/png2html
 73. http://bugs.debian.org/387477
 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rpl
 75. http://bugs.debian.org/388131
 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/vfu
 77. http://bugs.debian.org/387478

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 [78]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [79]dwn@debian.org.

 78. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 79. mailto:dwn@debian.org

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


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