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#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2004-10-12" SUMMARY="SPI, Desktop, Documentation, Bugs, Spam, Packaging, DVDs, LSB"
# $id: index.wml,v 1.2 2004/07/06 20:09:11 joey Exp $
<p>Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community. Christian Perrier <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n/2004/10/msg00022.html">reported</a>
the new <a href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-installer/">debian-installer</a> can be
understood by two thirds of the world population since it is translated into 40
languages.</p>
<p><strong>2003 SPI Annual Report.</strong> David Graham <a
href="http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2004/000103.html">announced</a>
the <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/~jgoerzen/ar2004/">annual report</a> for
<a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software in the Public Interest, Inc.</a>
(SPI), the non-profit corporation which manages Debian's bank accounts and
other legal affairs. The report discusses SPI bylaws, membership, and
finances as well as hardware donations and reports that wxWidget was invited
to become a SPI member project.</p>
<p><strong>Consistent Themes for Debian.</strong> Jaap Haitsma <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2004/10/msg00005.html">noticed</a>
that there are many nice themes for grub, bootsplash, GDM, desktop splash and
backgrounds, but in general it's difficult to find a combination that fits
together nicely. Therefore he created <a href="http://debblue.debian.net/">\
DebBlue</a>, a set of themes, which can be used to give a nice consistent look
to the Debian Desktop from boot until shutdown.</p>
<p><strong>Developers Reference revisited.</strong> Andreas Barth <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/10/msg00003.html">\
reported</a> that he has updated large parts of the <a
href="$(HOME)/doc/developers-reference/">developers reference</a>. This
includes, among others, synchronisation with the <a
href="$(HOME)/devel/wnpp/">Work needed and prospective packages</a>, updated
information about upload queues, ftp-master features and the testing
distribution. A new <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/developers-reference">package</a> is pending
and some <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/developers-reference">bugs</a> need
more input.</p>
<p><strong>Different Types of Bug Submitters.</strong> Benjamin Drieu <a
href="http://www.grassouille.org/blogmax/041009.html">classified</a> bug
submitters based on his experience as Debian developer and upstream software
developer. He described the enthusiast, the anonymous clueless submitter, the
rigorous, the clever (but mislead) submitter, the battler, the (annoying)
badger, the Taiwanese and finally the patcher who has the skills to join
development.</p>
<p><strong>New SpamAssassin Package.</strong> Martin F. Krafft <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00213.html">noted</a>
that SpamAssassin 3.x has been uploaded but has a different program interface
(API) than its predecessor. He proposed to remove all packages from sarge
that depend on SpamAssassin but don't work with the new version. Its
maintainer wants to <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00287.html">keep</a>
this version out of sarge though.</p>
<p><strong>Setting up Databases for Packages.</strong> Philipp Hahn <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00340.html">asked</a>
about the best practice when a package requires an SQL database and needs to
create its own catalog and/or tables. Peter Eisentraut <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00345.html">opted</a>
for creating tables when the program starts first. Andrew Pollock <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00390.html">mentioned</a>
<a href="http://packages.debian.org/wwwconfig-common">wwwconfig-common</a>
which works well but lacks documentation. Oliver Elphick <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00426.html">raised</a>
more concerns.</p>
<p><strong>Archive for volatile Packages.</strong> Andreas Barth <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/10/msg00430.html">\
discussed</a> the idea of maintaining an <a
href="http://volatile.debian.net/">archive</a> for volatile packages such as
virus scanners and intrusion detection systems. Those packages require
periodical updates that the main Debian archive cannot provide. However,
packaging new upstream versions should be avoided as long as this is
possible.</p>
<p><strong>Producing CDs and DVDs for Sarge.</strong> Steve McIntyre <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/2004/09/msg00084.html">discussed</a>
CD and DVD image generation for the upcoming release. Creating the images
will take a while even when using <a
href="http://www.einval.com/~steve/software/JTE/">JTE</a>. He raised the
question for which architectures a DVD set should be create and whether source
DVDs should be built as well. Creating a double-layer DVD will also require
pruning of packages, since the Debian archive contains more than can fit on
such a DVD.</p>
<p><strong>Debian Desktop Goals.</strong> Stefano Fabri started a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2004/09/msg00010.html">\
discussion</a> on common desktop goals for Debian, UserLinux and Ubuntu, such
as a graphical installer, but listed many admin gadgets. Adrian von Bidder <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2004/09/msg00013.html">\
added</a> KDE-GNOME integration, font support/management and multimedia
support. Cesar Martinez Izquierdo would like to see more <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2004/09/msg00016.html">\
internationalisation</a> and localisation.</p>
<p><strong>LSB Status of Sarge.</strong> Roger So <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb/2004/09/msg00000.html">noticed</a>
that the thread implementation in glibc (NPTL) in sarge is too old to pass the
LSB 2.0 tests. Jeff Licquia <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb/2004/09/msg00003.html">explained</a>
that updating to NPTL 0.61 is evidently difficult without upgrading to the
most recent glibc. Jeff <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb/2004/09/msg00013.html">offered</a> to
backport NPTL 0.61 to the Debian glibc.</p>
<p><strong>Security Updates.</strong> You know the drill. Please make sure
that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-558">mod_dav</a> --
Potential denial of service.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-559">net-act</a> --
Insecure temporary file creation.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-560">lesstif</a> --
Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-561">xfree86</a> --
Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-562">mysql</a> --
Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-563">cyrus-sasl</a> --
Arbitrary code execution.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-600">samba</a> --
Arbitrary file access.
</ul>
<p><strong>New or Noteworthy Packages.</strong> The following package was
added to the unstable Debian archive <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main">recently</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/grace6">grace6</a>
-- XY plotting tool.
</ul>
<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 9 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 188 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software
community. Please see the <a href="$(HOME)/devel/wnpp/">WNPP pages</a> 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.</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/eclipse-platform">eclipse</a>
-- Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/276096">Bug#276096</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/eskuel">eskuel</a>
-- MySQL databases administration interface in PHP-scripts.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/274887">Bug#274887</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/exult">exult</a>
-- Engine for Ultima VII (BG, FOV, SI, SS).
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275780">Bug#275780</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/fcheck">fcheck</a>
-- IDS filesystem baseline integrity checker.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275035">Bug#275035</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/nwall">nwall</a>
-- Version of wall that uses GNU readline.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275777">Bug#275777</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/oonsoo">oonsoo</a>
-- Solitaire game for X.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275774">Bug#275774</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/plucker">plucker</a>
-- Pluck stuff from the web and read on your PalmOS device.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275176">Bug#275176</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/www6to4">www6to4</a>
-- Lightweight WWW proxy that communicates over IPv4 and IPv6.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/274888">Bug#274888</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xdiskusage">xdiskusage</a>
-- Displays a graphic of your disk usage with du.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/275776">Bug#275776</a>)
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Want to continue reading DWN?</strong> 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 <a
href="$(HOME)/News/weekly/contributing">contributing page</a> to find out how
to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at <a
href="mailto:dwn@debian.org">dwn@debian.org</a>.</p>
#use wml::debian::weeklynews::footer editor="Andre Lehovich, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"
|
