Debian Weekly News - December 26th, 2006

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/42/
Debian Weekly News - December 26th, 2006
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Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. DWN is currently not being published weekly but
when authors have contributed enough items because its editor can't
ignore other duties while the Debian project is indirectly paying some
developers. In the meantime Christian Perrier has opened the
[1]400,000th bug report. Jonathan Oxer [2]called for participation
in the sixth Debian [3]mini conference which will be part of
[4]Linux Conference Australia in Sydney.

 1. http://bugs.debian.org/400000
 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/11/msg00008.html
 3. http://miniconf6.debconf.org/
 4. http://lca2007.linux.org.au/

20.000 Submitters for Popularity Contest. Petter Reinholdsen
[5]reported that Debian's [6]Popularity Contest project passed
20,000 submitters. By installing the [7]popularity-contest package
users can collect and submit the list of installed packages on their
systems which helps our developers to [8]see how popular their
packages are and where a need for additional packages is.

 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/11/msg01031.html
 6. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/popcon/
 7. http://packages.debian.org/popularity-contest
 8. http://popcon.debian.org/

Five Years debianforum.de. On December, 20th the German speaking
Debian discussion board [9]debianforum.de is celebrating its fifth
anniversary. Created in late 2001 by Sebastian Feltel debianforum.de
was build upon the ideals and ideas that made Debian what it is now.
Today the forum with more than 17,000 members is one of the largest
discussion boards for Debian where beginners and advanced users help
each other in an friendly and constructive manner. With booths at
several Free Software events the forum is also active outside the
world wide web.

 9. http://www.debianforum.de/

ARM now third most-popular Debian Architecture. Rod Whitby
[10]reported that the Linksys [11]NSLU2 is responsible for driving the
[12]ARM port to be the third most popular architecture among Debian
Linux users who run popularity-contest. NSLU2 Debian installations are
easily [13]tracked and make up 90 % of all ARM installations reported
by popcon.

 10. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3535328630.html
 11. http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
 12. http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/
 13. http://people.debian.org/~igloo/popcon-graphs/index.php?packages=nslu2-utils

Installing Debian without CD-ROM. Rainer Dorsch [14]figured out how to
install Debian on laptops with USB floppy but without bootable CD-ROM
drive, such as a number of Sony Vaio [15]laptops. Debian [16]etch may
be installed on these devices using [17]PXE-on-a-disk, TFTP for
retrieving the installation media from an TFTP server, and
[18]netbooting. The installer for [19]sarge supported such notebooks,
but the 2.6.18 kernel has grown so big that support for USB floppies
had to be [20]dropped.

 14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/12/msg00372.html
 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/12/msg00078.html
 16. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 17. ftp://ftp.scyld.com/private/jlehan/pxe-on-a-disk.html
 18. http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/i386/ch04s06
 19. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/
 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/12/msg00088.html

Etch-CD with KDE as default Desktop. Joey Hess [21]announced that he
has created an special [22]etch installation [23]CD image which
installs [24]KDE as the default desktop environment. The same is
possible with the original CD images when using more than one
installation medium or installing using a mirror [25]server. This is
because Debian placed the [26]GNOME packages on the first installation
medium rather than the KDE ones.

 21. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/KDE_CD.html
 22. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 23. http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-kde-CD-1.iso
 24. http://www.kde.org/
 25. http://www.debian.org/mirror/list
 26. http://www.gnome.org/

Etch frozen. Andreas Barth, member of the [27]Debian Release team,
[28]announced the freeze of the upcoming [29]etch release. Packages
contained in this distribution will only be updated after manual
approval by the release team. Before etch can be released, several
issues need to be addressed, especially [30]release-critical bugs and
security support.

 27. http://release.debian.org/
 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/12/msg00004.html
 29. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 30. http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/

Debian powers Australia's largest Satellite Network. Rodney Gedda
[31]reported that Australia's largest Internet via satellite
[32]network is powered by Debian GNU/Linux based routers. In the state
of New South Wales 75 towns spanning upwards of 800,000 square
kilometres are linked together with a combination of wireless LAN and
satellite based Internet uplinks. Debian has been chosen as operating
system for the network routers due to its known reliability and ease
of package management.

 31. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;55499617;fp;4;fpid;18
 32. http://www.nswnet.net/rurallink/

Debian Package of the Day. Lucas Nussbaum [33]announced that he is
resurrecting [34]Debian package a day featuring reviews of Debian
packages. For the beginning the site will be updated twice a week,
provided that readers [35]contribute reviews. Interested people can
subscribe via RSS and Atom feeds. The old [36]site from Andrew Sweger
was [37]discontinued in 2004 and finally found successor.

 33. http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=221
 34. http://debaday.debian.net/
 35. http://debaday.debian.net/contribute/
 36. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
 37. http://www.infodrom.org/~joey/log/?200610071323

New daily CD and DVD Builds. Steve McIntyre [38]announced more types
of [39]daily built CD and DVD images, including business card and
network installation images for [40]etch and [41]sid for all
architectures except for S/390. Building these sets is triggered by
the mirror pulse twice a day. The total build time for all 44 images
is approximately 45 minutes. Full CD and DVD sets for all
architectures are [42]built weekly and also provide special KDE and
XFCE variants of the first CD. Additionally, multi-architecture
network installation CD and DVD are provided for AMD64, PowerPC and
x86.

 38. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/12/msg00006.html
 39. http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/
 40. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/
 41. http://www.debian.org/releases/sid/
 42. http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/

Extremadura Work Meetings Evaluation. Andreas Schuldei [43]asked
participants of Extremadura meetings held in Spain as [44]announced at
the end of 2005. The [45]work sessions are over and he would like to
gather information about the success of these. Andreas will collect
impressions from Extremadura people as well and will report his
findings.

 43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/12/msg00148.html
 44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/12/msg00003.html
 45. http://wiki.debian.org/WorkSessionsExtremadura

FOSDEM Debian Developer's Room. Wouter Verhelst [46]called for talks
for next year's [47]Free and Open Source Developers' European Meeting
(FOSDEM) that takes place on February 24th and 25th in Brussels,
Belgium. The Debian project will maintain the room for the entire
weekend to give talks and organise developer meetings. In addition to
this room the project will staff a booth to present the new
distribution to other developers present in Brussels.

 46. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/12/msg00002.html
 47. http://www.debian.org/events/2007/0224-fosdem

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

 * DSA 1221: [48]libgsf -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1222: [49]proftpd -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1223: [50]tar -- Arbitrary file overwrite.
 * DSA 1224: [51]mozilla -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1225: [52]mozilla-firefox -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1226: [53]links -- Arbitrary shell command execution.
 * DSA 1227: [54]mozilla-thunderbird -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1228: [55]elinks -- Arbitrary shell command execution.
 * DSA 1229: [56]asterisk -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1230: [57]l2tpns -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1231: [58]gnupg -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1232: [59]clamav -- Denial of service.
 * DSA 1233: [60]Linux 2.6.8 -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1234: [61]ruby1.6 -- Denial of service.
 * DSA 1235: [62]ruby1.8 -- Denial of service.
 * DSA 1236: [63]enemies-of-carlotta -- Missing sanity checks.
 * DSA 1237: [64]Linux 2.4.27 -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1238: [65]clamav -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * DSA 1239: [66]sql-ledger -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 1240: [67]links2 -- Arbitrary shell command execution.
 * DSA 1241: [68]squirrelmail -- Cross-site scripting.

 48. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1221
 49. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1222
 50. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1223
 51. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1224
 52. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1225
 53. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1226
 54. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1227
 55. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1228
 56. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1229
 57. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1230
 58. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1231
 59. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1232
 60. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1233
 61. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1234
 62. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1235
 63. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1236
 64. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1237
 65. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1238
 66. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1239
 67. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1240
 68. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1241

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [69]recently or contain important updates.

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

 * [70]abntex -- LaTeX class for writing documents in ABNT standard.
 * [71]acidlab -- Analysis Console for Intrusion Databases.
 * [72]apt-cross -- Retrieve, build and install libraries for
   cross-compiling.
 * [73]clamassassin -- E-mail virus filter wrapper for ClamAV.
 * [74]cryopid -- Dumps a process into a self-executing file.
 * [75]dnshistory -- Translating and storing of IP addresses from log
   files.
 * [76]dot2tex -- Graphviz to LaTeX converter.
 * [77]dtc -- Web control panel for admin and accounting hosting
   services.
 * [78]exaile -- Flexible audio player.
 * [79]fantasdic -- Dictionary application.
 * [80]fatresize -- FAT16/FAT32 filesystem resiser.
 * [81]flashrom -- Universal flash programming utility.
 * [82]freedroidrpg -- Isometric RPG influenced by Paradroid.
 * [83]fuzzyocr -- Spamassassin plugin to check image attachments.
 * [84]gamazons -- Amazons boardgame for Gnome.
 * [85]genisoimage -- Creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem images.
 * [86]git-buildpackage -- Suite to help with Debian packages in Git
   repositories.
 * [87]glpi -- IT and asset management software.
 * [88]gmorgan -- MIDI rhythm station emulator software.
 * [89]gnujump -- Platform game where you have to jump up to survive.
 * [90]grhino -- Othello/Reversi boardgame.
 * [91]gwhere -- Removable media catalog manager.
 * [92]helium -- Compiler used for learning the programming language
   Haskell.
 * [93]hlbr -- IPS that runs over layer 2 (no TCP/IP stack
   required).
 * [94]icedax -- Creates WAV files from audio CDs.
 * [95]iceweasel-greasemonkey -- Iceweasel extension that enables
   customisation of webpages with user scripts.
 * [96]iceweasel-webdeveloper -- Web developer extension for the
   Iceweasel web browser.
 * [97]isdexport -- Export isd files to other formats.
 * [98]ipplan -- Web based IP address management software and
   tracking tool.
 * [99]iwatch -- Realtime filesystem monitoring program using
   inotify.
 * [100]karchiver -- Work with compressed files.
 * [101]kcheckers -- Checkers boardgame.
 * [102]keyutils -- Linux Key Management Utilities.
 * [103]lsongs -- All-in-one media player.
 * [104]lybniz -- Mathematical function graph plotter.
 * [105]mbpeventd -- Apple MacBook Pro & MacBook hotkeys event
   handler.
 * [106]meep -- MIT Electromagnetic Equation Propagation.
 * [107]metacafe-dl -- Download videos from metacafe.com.
 * [108]nec2c -- Translation of the NEC2 FORTRAN source code to the C
   language.
 * [109]ocsigen -- Web programming framework in OCaml.
 * [110]pybridge -- Online contract bridge game.
 * [111]scalpel -- Frugal, High Performance File Carver.
 * [112]scribble -- Popular crossword game, similar to Scrabble(R).
 * [113]slime -- Superior LISP Interaction Mode for Emacs.
 * [114]samizdat -- Collaboration and open publishing engine.
 * [115]smbnetfs -- User-space filesystem for SMB/NMB (Windows)
   network servers and shares.
 * [116]sonata -- GTK+ client for the Music Player Daemon.
 * [117]tepache -- code sketcher for Python that uses pygtk and
   glade.
 * [118]tk5 -- Experimental Software for the ICOM IC-R5 Receiver.
 * [119]trmxml -- MusicBrainz TRM Generator.
 * [120]uncrustify -- C, C++, C#, D, Java and Pawn source code
   beautifier.
 * [121]unidesc -- Tools for finding out what is in a Unicode file.
 * [122]urlscan -- Extract and browse the URLs contained in an
   e-mail.
 * [123]vbuf -- Virtual Ring Buffer library - shell interface.
 * [124]vinetto -- Forensics tool to examine Thumbs.db files.

 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/abntex
 71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/acidlab
 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/apt-cross
 73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/clamassassin
 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/cryopid
 75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/dnshistory
 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/dot2tex
 77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/dtc
 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/exaile
 79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/fantasdic
 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/fatresize
 81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/flashrom
 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/freedroidrpg
 83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/fuzzyocr
 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gamazons
 85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/genisoimage
 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-buildpackage
 87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/glpi
 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gmorgan
 89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gnujump
 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/grhino
 91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/gwhere
 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/helium
 93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/hlbr
 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/icedax
 95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/iceweasel-greasemonkey
 96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/iceweasel-webdeveloper
 97. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/isdexport
 98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/ipplan
 99. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/iwatch
 100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/karchiver
 101. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/kcheckers
 102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/keyutils
 103. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/lsongs
 104. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/lybniz
 105. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/mbpeventd
 106. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/meep
 107. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/metacafe-dl
 108. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/nec2c
 109. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ocsigen
 110. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/pybridge
 111. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/scalpel
 112. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/scribble
 113. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/slime
 114. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/samizdat
 115. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/smbnetfs
 116. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/sonata
 117. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/tepache
 118. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/tk5
 119. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/trmxml
 120. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/uncrustify
 121. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/unidesc
 122. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/urlscan
 123. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/vbuf
 124. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/vinetto

Orphaned Packages. 14 packages were orphaned last month and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 349 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [125]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.

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

 * [126]armagetron -- Common files for the Armagetron packages.
   ([127]Bug#402225)
 * [128]ava -- Algebraical Virtual Assembler for Atmel's AVR MCUs.
   ([129]Bug#404466)
 * [130]avra -- Assembler for Atmel AVR micro controllers.
   ([131]Bug#404467)
 * [132]avrp -- Programmer for Atmel AVR micro controllers.
   ([133]Bug#404468)
 * [134]drscheme -- PLT Scheme Programming Environment.
   ([135]Bug#402589)
 * [136]klineakconfig -- KDE configurator for lineakd.
   ([137]Bug#401134)
 * [138]ksimus-floatingpoint -- KSimus floating point package.
   ([139]Bug#401135)
 * [140]libapache-mod-gzip -- HTTP compression module for Apache.
   ([141]Bug#401682)
 * [142]lush -- Lisp Universal Shell Executable. ([143]Bug#402989)
 * [144]mailscanner -- E-mail virus scanner and spam tagger.
   ([145]Bug#401510)
 * [146]python-uncertainities -- Python module for working with
   uncertain numbers. ([147]Bug#401136)
 * [148]siege -- HTTP regression testing and benchmarking utility.
   ([149]Bug#401680)
 * [150]texmacs -- WYSIWYG mathematical text editor using TeX fonts.
   ([151]Bug#404375)
 * [152]texmacs-extra-fonts -- Extra fonts for the mathematical text
   editor TeXmacs. ([153]Bug#404376)

 126. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/armagetron
 127. http://bugs.debian.org/402225
 128. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/ava
 129. http://bugs.debian.org/404466
 130. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/avra
 131. http://bugs.debian.org/404467
 132. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/avrp
 133. http://bugs.debian.org/404468
 134. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/drscheme
 135. http://bugs.debian.org/402589
 136. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/klineakconfig
 137. http://bugs.debian.org/401134
 138. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/ksimus-floatingpoint
 139. http://bugs.debian.org/401135
 140. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/libapache-mod-gzip
 141. http://bugs.debian.org/401682
 142. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lush
 143. http://bugs.debian.org/402989
 144. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/mailscanner
 145. http://bugs.debian.org/401510
 146. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-uncertainities
 147. http://bugs.debian.org/401136
 148. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/siege
 149. http://bugs.debian.org/401680
 150. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/texmacs
 151. http://bugs.debian.org/404375
 152. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/texmacs-extra-fonts
 153. http://bugs.debian.org/404376

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 [154]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [155]dwn@debian.org.

 154. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 155. mailto:dwn@debian.org

This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Sebastian Feltel,
Rod Whitby, Rainer Dorsch, Andre Lehovich, Felipe Augusto van de Wiel
and Martin 'Joey' Schulze.


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