Debian Weekly News - November 29th, 2005

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2005/48/
Debian Weekly News - November 29th, 2005
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Welcome to this year's 48th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Andreas Schuldei sent out a [1]reminder for the
DebConf call for papers. Martin Krafft [2]announced a [3]bug
squashing party that lasts until December 14th and rewards 25 bug
squashers with a [4]book.

 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/11/msg00017.html
 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/11/msg00019.html
 3. http://wiki.debian.org/BSP
 4. http://debiansystem.info/

Possible Freetype Library Transition. Steve Langasek [5]reported that
[6]libfreetype probably requires a transition as well due to upstream
[7]changes. There are currently 583 packages in unstable which depend
on the libfreetype library, which would result in the largest
transition. He asked library maintainers to improve their packages by
using [8]libtool and [9]pkg-config.

 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/11/msg00016.html
 6. http://packages.debian.org/libfreetype6
 7. http://bugs.debian.org/314385
 8. http://packages.debian.org/libtool
 9. http://packages.debian.org/pkg-config

Improved binary NMU Handling. Goswin Brederlow [10]announced a new
behaviour of the archive suite for binary non-maintainer uploads
(NMUs). A [11]build daemon can thus be told to rebuild a package as a
binary NMU automatically. They will use a new version scheme and mark
such uploads by adding +b1 (+b2, +b3) to the old version. Manual
binary NMUs should best be prepared with the CVS version of
[12]sbuild.

 10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/11/msg00018.html
 11. http://www.debian.org/devel/buildd/
 12. http://packages.debian.org/sbuild

Configuration File Handling. Frank Küster [13]wondered if a failing
postinst script because of changes to a configuration file that were
not accepted by the local admin is considered a bug, especially if
this causes an upgrade to be aborted. Petter Reinholdtsen
[14]suggested to implement a multilevel configuration system where
local information are stored in a separate file.

 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/10/msg01219.html
 14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/11/msg00017.html

Versioned Dependencies. Peter van Eynde [15]wondered how he could get
rid of a fatal versioned dependency to an architecture independent
package. This causes the [16]build daemon to fail building a newer
version. Florian Weimer [17]proposed to bootstrap the package manually
on all supported architectures.

 15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/11/msg00093.html
 16. http://www.debian.org/devel/buildd/
 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/11/msg00072.html

Virtual Servers with Debian Sarge. BJ Dierkes wrote a detailed
[18]description about the use of Debian [19]3.1 as a base for several
kernel-based [20]virtual servers. This requires to build a custom
kernel with a special vserver patch applied. When the virtual server
is created a new distribution has to be bootstrapped inside.

 18. http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_vserver_debian
 19. http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/
 20. http://www.linux-vserver.org/

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

 * DSA 907: [21]ipmenu -- Insecure temporary file creation.
 * DSA 908: [22]sylpheed-claws -- Arbitrary code execution.
 * DSA 909: [23]horde3 -- Cross-site scripting.
 * DSA 910: [24]zope2.7 -- Arbitrary file inclusion.
 * DSA 911: [25]gtk+2.0 -- Several vulnerabilities.

 21. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-907
 22. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-908
 23. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-909
 24. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-910
 25. http://www.debian.org/security/2005/dsa-911

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [26]recently or contain important updates.

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

 * [27]bbrun -- Elegant tool for the Blackbox window manager that
   runs commands.
 * [28]bip -- Multiuser IRC proxy with conversation replay and more.
 * [29]fai-kernels -- Special kernels for FAI (Fully Automatic
   Installation).
 * [30]feynmf -- Set of LaTeX macros for creating Feynman diagrams.
 * [31]git-core -- Stupid content tracker.
 * [32]gitk -- Stupid content tracker (revision tree visualiser).
 * [33]istanbul -- Desktop session recorder.
 * [34]knemo -- Network interfaces monitor for KDE's systray.
 * [35]kpowersave -- Frontend to powersave for setting user specific
   policies.
 * [36]ksudoku -- Sudoku puzzle generator and solver.
 * [37]linsmith -- Tool to generate Smith Charts.
 * [38]ngircd -- Next generation IRC Server.
 * [39]ofx -- Open Financial Exchange programs.
 * [40]opencubicplayer -- UNIX port of Open Cubic Player.
 * [41]pcmanx-gtk2 -- User-friendly telnet client mainly targets BBS
   users.
 * [42]powersaved -- Power management daemon.
 * [43]qlo10k1 -- ALSA ld10k1 utility.
 * [44]rapple -- Lightweight XML based tool for creating websites.
 * [45]stopwatch -- Virtual stopwatch and timer.
 * [46]tablix2 -- High school timetable generator.
 * [47]xchat-xsys -- X-chat plugin that can display your current
   system statistics.
 * [48]xoscope -- Digital oscilloscope.

 27. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/bbrun
 28. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/bip
 29. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/fai-kernels
 30. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/feynmf
 31. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core
 32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gitk
 33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/istanbul
 34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/knemo
 35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/kpowersave
 36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/ksudoku
 37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/linsmith
 38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ngircd
 39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/ofx
 40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/opencubicplayer
 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/pcmanx-gtk2
 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/powersaved
 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/qlo10k1
 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/rapple
 45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/stopwatch
 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/tablix2
 47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/xchat-xsys
 48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xoscope

Orphaned Packages. 5 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 187 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [49]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.

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

 * [50]autobook -- GNU autoconf, automake and libtool book.
   ([51]Bug#340937)
 * [52]php-clamav -- PHP bindings for libclamav. ([53]Bug#340738)
 * [54]rsplib -- Prototype implementation of the IETF RSerPool
   architecture. ([55]Bug#340940)
 * [56]sctplib -- Userland implementation of the SCTP protocol RFC
   2960. ([57]Bug#340938)
 * [58]socketapi -- Socket API library for sctplib. ([59]Bug#340939)

 50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/autobook
 51. http://bugs.debian.org/340937
 52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/php-clamav
 53. http://bugs.debian.org/340738
 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/rsplib1
 55. http://bugs.debian.org/340940
 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/sctplib1
 57. http://bugs.debian.org/340938
 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/socketapi1
 59. http://bugs.debian.org/340939

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 [60]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [61]dwn@debian.org.

 60. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 61. mailto:dwn@debian.org