path: root/english/News/weekly/2005/52/index.wml

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2005-12-27" SUMMARY="Backports, Interview, Kernel, Release, Mozilla, Munich"
# $Id$

<p>Welcome to this 52nd and thus last issue of this year of DWN, the weekly
newsletter for the
Debian community.  Merry Christmas to those readers who celebrate the
Christian event and a Happy New Year to all of you who feel like celebrating
New Years Eve.  In an <a
href="http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=431711&amp;rl=1">essay</a>
David Chisnall took a look at the cost of Free Software in connection to the
freedom people gain by using Free Software.</p>

<p><strong>Package Backports for Sarge.</strong> Norbert Tretkowski <a
href="http://www.inittab.de/blog/2005/12/16#20051216_sarge">announced</a>
that <a href="http://www.backports.org/">backports.org</a> eventually supports
the current stable Debian <a href="$(HOME)/releases/stable/">release</a>
code-named sarge.  Debian developers can upload their backported packages into the
archive.  Norbert also provided some <a
href="http://www.backports.org/instructions.html">notes</a> on using
backports.org for end users and <a
href="http://lists.backports.org/lurker/message/20051207.140929.3a97ba5c.en.html">\
developers</a>.</p>

<p><strong>The Debian KDE Team in an Interview.</strong> The <a
href="http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/docs/people.html">Debian KDE team</a> has been
<a href="http://people.kde.nl/debian.html">interviewed</a> by "The people
behind KDE", a site that aims to present the people involved in the KDE
community. The interview features technical aspects as well as a some
personal questions.</p>

<p><strong>Status of Debian unstable.</strong> Kamaraju Kusumanchi <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/12/msg00621.html">started</a>
a Wiki <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/StatusOfUnstable">page</a>
to summarise up current major unstable upgrade issues and to give some
workarounds to users.  Ari Pollack <a
href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/go_team_ari/11093.html">announced</a>
another Wiki <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/TopicDebianDevel">page</a>
tracking the topic of the #debian-devel channel on irc.debian.org which
provides a useful idea of what is broken and what is fixed in <a
href="$(HOME)/releases/sid/">sid</a>.
However, he recommends the use of apt-listbugs/apt-listchanges and
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce">debian-devel-announce</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Common Power Management Framework.</strong> Kevin Locke <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/12/msg00044.html">announced</a>
the creation of a project to create a common power-management <a
href="http://powermgmt.alioth.debian.org/">framework</a> for Debian.
Developers will be able to respond to power-related events, regardless of
architecture or daemon by installing a single script for the common
event handler.  This script will be properly handled even as new power-systems
and daemons are created with no necessary changes from the developer.</p>

<p><strong>Kernel Package Hooks Transition.</strong> Manoj Srivastava <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/12/msg00012.html">\
warned</a> about new versions of <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/kernel-package">kernel-package</a> which may
produce binary kernel packages whose <code>postinst</code> script fails, even
though the kernel will work fine.  This is a result of the conversion to <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/debconf">debconf</a> and scripts that expect
an interactive installation script or produce output.</p>

<p><strong>Next Release Architectures.</strong> Steve Langasek, member of the
Debian <a href="http://release.debian.org/">release team</a>, <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/12/msg00013.html">\
announced</a> the end of the architecture requalification <a
href="http://release.debian.org/etch_arch_qualify.html">phase</a>.  As an
outcome, the next stable Debian release called <a
href="$(HOME)/releases/etch/">etch</a> probably won't support the <a
href="$(HOME)/ports/arm/">arm</a>, <a href="$(HOME)/ports/m68k/">m68k</a>, <a
href="$(HOME)/ports/s390/">s390</a> and <a
href="$(HOME)/ports/sparc/">sparc</a> architectures.  However, it will support
the <a href="$(HOME)/ports/amd64/">amd64</a> architecture for the first time.</p>

<p><strong>Mozilla and Friends based on XULRunner?</strong> Mike Hommey <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/12/msg00082.html">reported</a>
about his plans to package <a
href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php/XUL:Xul_Runner">xulrunner</a>, which
ought to become the central engine for all future Mozilla technology, meaning
that all Mozilla products (firefox, thunderbird, etc.) will be built on top of
it.  The mid-term plan is to migrate the applications that use Mozilla as a
platform (such as epiphany, galeon, kazehakase, etc.) to xulrunner.</p>

<p><strong>Debian in Munich.</strong> The city of Munich <a
href="http://www.muenchen.de/vip8/prod2/mde/_de/rubriken/Rathaus/40_dir/presse/2005/ru/246.pdf">\
published</a> an update about their <a
href="http://www.muenchen.de/limux">migration</a> to a Debian-based GNU/Linux
solution.  The current steps are to migrate their document management to an
OpenOffice-based solution so that both the current windows clients and the new
GNU/Linux clients can use it. They also shipped the first test versions of the
Debian-based client to users in order to get feedback.  The client
administration is based on <a
href="http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/">FAI</a> (fully automatic
installation) and GOsa (Gonicus System Administrator).</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 924: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2005/dsa-924">nbd</a> --
    Potential arbitrary code execution.
<li>DSA 925: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2005/dsa-925">phpbb2</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li>DSA 926: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2005/dsa-926">ketm</a> --
    Privilege escalation.
<li>DSA 927: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2005/dsa-927">tkdiff</a> --
    Insecure temporary file creation.
<li>DSA 928: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2005/dsa-928">dhis-tools-dns</a> --
    Insecure temporary file creation.
</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/utils/bmp-alarm">bmp-alarm</a>
    -- General plugin using beep-media-player as an alarm clock.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gearhead">gearhead</a>
    -- Rogue-like mecha role playing game.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/lighttpd">lighttpd</a>
    -- Fast webserver with minimal memory footprint.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/nanourl">nanourl</a>
    -- Lightweight analog of TinyURL.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/smtpguard">smtpguard</a>
    -- SMTP flow control.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/widelands-dbg">widelands-dbg</a>
    -- Fantasy real-time strategy game (debug cruft).</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/xdms">xdms</a>
    -- Uncompressor for Amiga DMS archives.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/xen-tools">xen-tools</a>
    -- Tools to manage debian XEN virtual servers.</li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/yakuake">yakuake</a>
    -- Yet Another Kuake, KDE terminal emulator.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 4 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer.  This makes a total of 174 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/perl/libmldbm-sync-perl">libmldbm-sync-perl</a>
     -- Perl module for safe concurrent access to MLDBM databases.
     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/344324">Bug#344324</a>)
     </li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libpoppler0c2">poppler</a>
     -- PDF rendering library.
     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/344738">Bug#344738</a>)
     </li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/shells/psh">psh</a>
     -- Interactive shell with the power of perl.
     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/344748">Bug#344748</a>)
     </li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/tinycdb">tinycdb</a>
     -- Package for creating and reading constant databases.
     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/344572">Bug#344572</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="Sebastian Feltel, Meike Reichle, Mohammed Adnène Trojette, Andreas Barth, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"