path: root/english/News/weekly/2004/50/index.wml

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2004-12-21" SUMMARY="Release, Hurd, Katie, AMD64, CDD, Installation, FOSDEM, Packaging, Bugs, License"
# $id: index.wml,v 1.2 2004/07/06 20:09:11 joey Exp $

<p>Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community.  The Oxford University's computer centre will <a
href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39173013,00.htm">\
complete</a> its move to PostgreSQL running on Debian as the back-end database
over the next year.  The next <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/12/msg00134.html">stable
update</a> is being <a href="http://people.debian.org/~joey/3.0r4/">\
prepared</a> and expected before New Year's eve.  For those of you who
celebrate Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas.</p>

<p><strong>Sarge Release Progress Update.</strong> Andreas Barth sent in an <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/12/msg00006.html">\
update</a> on the release progress for Debian 3.1.  He reported that GNOME 2.8
has been added to sarge and that a kernel update is inadvertently binary
incompatible with its predecessor.  The KDE maintainers have presented a plan
for getting KDE 3.3 into testing that meets the release team's
requirements.</p>

<p><strong>Debian GNU/Hurd supports large Partitions.</strong>
The latest <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-changes/2004/12/msg00874.html">upload</a>
of the <tt><a
href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/base/hurd">hurd</a></tt>
package features a <a
href="http://debian.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/~ogi/hurd/ext3fs/">patch</a> by
Ognyan Kulev which has support for ext2 partitions larger than 2&nbsp;GB on
32&nbsp;bit systems.  A Kerneltrap <a
href="http://kerneltrap.org/node/4429">story</a> has more details on the
history and implementation of the <a
href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2004-01/msg00095.html">patch</a>.
Over the last years, this limit
had become an increasingly annoying issue of the GNU/Hurd system, so
this change represents an important milestone for Debian's GNU/Hurd <a
href="$(HOME)/ports/hurd/">port</a> with respect
to user expectations.</p>

<p><strong>Packaging the Katie Suite.</strong> Andreas Barth <a
href="http://blogs.turmzimmer.net/2004/12/19#katie-volatile">reported</a> that
he has installed <a href="http://ganneff.de/blog/2004/12/19#dak2">DAK</a> (the
Debian Archive Kit) on volatile.debian.net.  The installation of packages
prepared by J&ouml;rg Jaspert went quite painless.  It has integrated proper
NEW handling and some staging area for the review before inclusion.</p>

<p><strong>Debian on AMD64.</strong>
Ladislav Bodnar <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/113527/">reviewed</a>
the unofficial port of Debian to the AMD64 architecture, noting
that almost all the Free Software he uses is already in the
archive, with the notable exception of OpenOffice.org.  He
discussed use of an i386 chroot to run legacy 32&nbsp;bit software and
described the installer as "rather dull (in a positive sense of
the word)".
</p>

<p><strong>Standard CDD Tool?</strong> Sergio Talens-Oliag finished a <a
href="http://wiki.debian.org/CDDTool">proposal</a> for a tool to be
used by the custom Debian distribution (CDD) developers.  It tries to
standardise the way developers define their CDD and provide tools to
distribute, install, update and manage the customised system.  Comments should
be sent to the <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-custom/">\
debian-custom</a> list.</p>

<p><strong>Unattended Debian Installations.</strong>  Carla Schroder posted
the <a href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/5675/1/">second
part</a> of her tutorial on installing Debian using Fully Automatic
Installation (FAI).  The <a
href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/5667/1/">first
part</a> covered the basic configuration for a Debian FAI server, whilst the
second part explained configuration of the client installations - network
server settings, what software is going to be installed and the client boot
methods.  She concluded that although initial configuration of FAI can get
complicated, it is perfect for mixed networks that contain different kinds of
PCs and once it's set up client installations are lightning-fast.</p>

<p><strong>Debian Project at FOSDEM?</strong> Wouter Verhelst <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2004/12/msg00001.html">called</a>
for help for the Debian presence at next year's <a
href="http://www.fosdem.org/2005/">FOSDEM</a> (Free and Open Source Developers
European Meeting).  The developers room is well on its way with five confirmed
talks already, but for the booth, more people are required.</p>

<p><strong>Status of the Debian AMD64 Port.</strong> Due to an older <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01105.html">mail</a>
accidentally processed again, Martin Michlmayr <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01137.html">stated</a>
that all technical concerns were addressed and that the port would go in after
the mirror issues will be sorted out, which will happen some point after the
release of sarge.</p>

<p><strong>Packaging OSSP Packages for Debian.</strong> Raphael Bossek <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01567.html">proposed</a>
a common naming scheme for software packages derived from <a
href="http://www.ossp.org/">OSSP</a> software.  Since Debian already contains
packages and files with the same name conflicts are preassigned.  Basically he
proposed using a common prefix which is what Piotr Roszatycki has already <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01742.html">\
implemented</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Reporting Bugs in Debian or Upstream?</strong> Ian Wienand <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01656.html">wondered</a>
where he should file a bug in a GNOME package since the GNOME project
maintains a bug tracking system as well.  Paul Hampson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01659.html">replied</a>
and proposed to file the bug upstream and then open a Debian bug report with
that reference.  Thomas Bushnell, however, <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01991.html">pointed
out</a> that the regular way would be to file a bug in Debian and let the
package maintainer forward the bug to the software authors.</p>

<p><strong>German Free Software License.</strong> Martin Michlmayr <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00123.html">reported</a>
that he was approached in September by a research institute in Germany about a
new <a href="http://www.d-fsl.org/">software license</a>.  The authors are
interested in making sure that the license conforms with both the <a
href="http://opensource.org/">Open Source Definition</a> as well as the <a
href="$(HOME)/social_contract#guidelines">Debian Free Software Guidelines</a>
and seek comments now that the license is published.</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>DSA 610: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-610">cscope</a> --
    Insecure temporary file creation.
<li>DSA 611: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-611">htget</a> --
    Arbitrary code execution.
<li>DSA 612: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-612">a2ps</a> --
    Arbitrary code execution.
<li>DSA 613: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-613">ethereal</a> --
    Denial of service.
<li>DSA 614: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-614">xzgv</a> --
    Arbitrary code execution.
</ul>

<p><strong>New or Noteworthy Packages.</strong> The following packages were
added to the unstable Debian archive <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main">recently</a> or contain
important updates.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/aewan">aewan</a>
    -- Ascii-art Editor Without A Name.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ara-byte">ara-byte</a>
    -- CLI utility for searching the Debian package database.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/fortunes-bg">fortunes-bg</a>
    -- Bulgarian data files for fortune.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/gimp-ufraw">gimp-ufraw</a>
    -- GIMP importer for raw images.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/gpsd">gpsd</a>
    -- GPS (Global Positioning System) service daemon.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/henplus">henplus</a>
    -- JDBC SQL command line frontend with TAB-completion.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/kmldonkey">kmldonkey</a>
    -- KDE GUI for MLDonkey.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/mail-notification">mail-notification</a>
    -- Mail notification in system tray.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/mod-chroot-common">mod-chroot-common</a>
    -- Run Apache in a secure chroot environment.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/moniwiki">moniwiki</a>
    -- MoniWiki is yet another WikiEngine written in PHP.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/ngspice">ngspice</a>
    -- Mixed-level/mixed-signal circuit simulator.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/uniconfd">uniconfd</a>
    -- Server that manages UniConf elements.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/wsola">wsola</a>
    -- Allows one to speed/slow audio without altering its pitch.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/zope-kupu">zope-kupu</a>
    -- Cross-browser document-centric WYSIWYG editor for Zope.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/zope-linguaplone">zope-linguaplone</a>
    -- Multilingual and translation solution for Plone.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/zsync">zsync</a>
    -- Client-side implementation of the rsync algorithm.
</ul>

<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 1 package was orphaned this week and
requires a new maintainer.  This makes a total of 226 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/libs/libguppi16">guppi</a>
     -- GNOME graph and plot component.
     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/286012">Bug#286012</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="Michael Banck, Andre Lehovich, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"