path: root/english/News/weekly/2011/02/index.wml

#use wml::debian::projectnews::header PUBDATE="2011-01-31" SUMMARY="Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> to be released this weekend, join the DebConf team, bits from the Security Team"
#use wml::debian::acronyms

<define-tag MID whitespace=delete>https://lists.debian.org/$0</define-tag>

# Copyright (c) 2011 Alexander Reichle-Schmehl
# Copyright (c) 2011 David Prévot
# Copyright (c) 2011 Jeremiah C. Foster
# Copyright (c) 2011 Francesca Ciceri
# Copyright (c) 2011 David Paleino
# All rights reserved.
# 
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
# met:
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#     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
# IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
# TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
# PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
# OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
# SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
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# OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


<p>Welcome to this year's second issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:</p>
<toc-display/>



<toc-add-entry name="squeeze">Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> to be released this weekend</toc-add-entry>

<p>Release Manager Neil McGovern announced the <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110118193635.GC4061@halon.org.uk">\
target release date of Debian 6.0
<q>Squeeze</q></a> on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of February. Debian 6.0
<q>Squeeze</q> will finally arrive as a stable release!
Final work towards this has begun including preparations for <a
href="https://wiki.debian.org/ReleasePartySqueeze">release parties</a> all
over the world!</p>

<p>For those from the community who are waiting impatiently for the release, <a
href="https://news.debian,net/2011/01/22/join-us-in-the-countdown-to-squeeze/">news.debian.net</a>
provides a <a href="https://news.debian,net/wp-content/uploads/2011/squeeze_countdown.png">countdown
banner</a>. As the release process takes time, members of the
Debian Project will provide live comments and interesting facts via <a
href="http://identi.ca/debian">Debian's official identi.ca account</a>.</p>

<p>One interesting number has already been 
posted: in the two years of development of Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/bugs-closed-for-squeeze">\
the Debian Project has closed 149,862 bugs</a>. Thank you everyone for this
fantastic work!</p>

 <toc-add-entry name="dc">Join the DebConf team</toc-add-entry> <p><a
href="http://www.debconf.org/">DebConf</a> is a yearly conference for
the Debian community. Like everything else in Debian, DebConf is run
completely by volunteers. Organising a conference is a lot of work, as
you might imagine, so it is no surprise that the DebConf team is eager
to have people help out. As Richard Darst writes:
<q><a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/01/msg00004.html">\
DebConf is a huge process</a>, and there are many things we could use
help on.  People come and go, and are usually overworked after a year
or two &mdash; so we would love new people to get involved.  If you
have new ideas, we'd love to hear about them and we can discuss if
they'd work and how to make them happen. And by the way, if you are
looking for a good way to get involved with Debian and don't know
where to start, this might be among the best options!</q></p>



<toc-add-entry name="security">Bits from the Security Team</toc-add-entry>

<p> Thijs Kinkhorst sent some <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/201101232332.11736.thijs@debian.org">bits
from the Debian Security Team</a> reporting about the group's meeting
at the <a href="http://www.linuxhotel.de/">Linux Hotel</a> in Essen,
Germany. Among the things they discussed were various improvements to
the team work-flow, particularly regarding the release process of
Debian Security Advisories - redesigned from the ground up; a longer
security support for Debian stable - still a proposal - and backports
security support. The report also mentions various other interesting
topics such as <q>Beta testing</q> of security updates, a README.test
file to include into packages to explain how its functionality can be
tested, and the problem of some specific packages which are difficult
to handle because they include a lot of source packages.  The mail
ends with a call for volunteers. More details can be read on the full
<a
href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianSecurity/Meetings/2011-01-14">minutes
of the meeting</a>.  </p>

<p>In related news, Simon Paillard from the Debian mirrors team reported <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110126221211.GA8460@toshi">news for
sponsors of Debian mirrors</a>.  One interesting element was his
request for help to provide more official mirrors of the security
archive.  He's especially interested in new official mirrors in South
America, Asia, and Africa.</p>


 <toc-add-entry name="firmware">Debunking myths about Debian's firmware (non-)removal</toc-add-entry> 

<p>Noticing that Debian's recent announcement about
<a href="$(HOME)/News/2010/20101215">releasing Debian
6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> with a completely free Linux kernel</a> seems to
have been widely misunderstood, Debian Developer Alexander
Reichle-Schmehl <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/myths-and-facts-about-firmware">debunked
some myths about the (non-)removal of firmware</a>. For example, the
claim that <q>Debian removed all firmware files from its
kernels</q>. The short answer to that claim is no.
<q>Debian will be uninstallable (sic) for many users</q> (short
answer: there are <a
href="https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/">netinstall</a>
images and <a
href="https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/">tarballs</a>
for other installation media available); <q>Ah, those Debian freedom
zealots again...</q> (short answer: it's not only Debian).</p>

<p>He also explained some of the reasons for the fuss about non-free
firmware files, and recommended that people who find it difficult to find
the non-free images should just remember two words: <q>wiki</q> and <q>firmware</q>,
as everything needed can be found on the <a
href="https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware">firmware page of Debian's
wiki</a>.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="lenny">Updated Debian GNU/Linux: 5.0.8 released</toc-add-entry>

<p>
A new <a href="$(HOME)/News/2011/20110122">update for Debian
GNU/Linux 5.0 <q>Lenny</q></a> has been released. This update mainly adds
corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few
adjustments to serious problems.
</p>



<toc-add-entry name="di">Debian Installer 6.0 RC2 released</toc-add-entry>

<p>
The second release candidate of the installer for Debian <q>Squeeze</q> was <a
href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-installer/News/2011/20110122">released
on 22 January</a>. This release includes some fixes, such as correct keyboard
configuration for the graphical installer for several languages.
<br />
The <a href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-installer/errata">errata</a>
collects some details and a full list of known issues. You are encouraged to
test the installer and report bugs. Install media and further information are
available on the <a
href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-installer/">Debian Installer
page</a>.
</p>

<p>In related news, Matthew Palmer announced test images of the <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110121035943.GK3846@hezmatt.org">debian-installer
supporting IPv6</a> (suitable for IPv6-only networks) and <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110124104234.GH20367@hezmatt.org">test
images supporting Wi-Fi Protected Access</a> (WPA).  He calls for testers
for both images.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="cross">Cross-distro Application Installer</toc-add-entry>

<p>
Enrico Zini has published on his blog a <a
href="http://www.enricozini.org/2011/debian/appinstaller2011/">report</a>
of his participation at the <a
href="http://distributions.freedesktop.org/wiki/Meetings/AppInstaller2011">Cross-distro
Meeting on Application Installer</a>.
The meeting, organised by <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110127021338.GA18879@upsilon.cc">Vincent
Untz</a>, was focused on metadata (both from
packages and users) and how to share them between distributions or, at
least, how to define some standards for this metadata. Enrico has presented <a
href="https://debtags.alioth.debian.org/">debtags</a> and <a
href="http://www.enricozini.org/sw/apt-xapian-index/">apt-xapian-index</a>,
two of the most powerful tools for handling package metadata in Debian. As
a result of the meeting, there is now a plan to match package names
across Linux distributions.
</p>

<p>It's also nice to see how Debian's services and projects like <a
href="http://screenshots.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a> (providing
screenshots of applications to users and package management frontends), 
the <a href="https://ddtp2.debian.net">Debian Description Translation Project</a>
(DDTP for short; translating Debian package descriptions into other
languages), or <a href="https://debtags.alioth.debian.org/">debtags</a>
(tagging Debian packages for easier search) were welcomed and
admired by other representatives.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="ruby">On the maintainability of Ruby</toc-add-entry>

<p>The maintainability of Ruby became <a
href="$(HOME)/News/project/2010/12/#7">again</a> topic of discussion, after
two of its long-time package maintainers decided to <a
href="http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=617">give up on Ruby</a> <a
href="http://paul.luon.net/journal/debian/AlsoGivingUpOnRubyPackaging.html">and
related packaging</a>. Lucas Nussbaum explained some of the problems he sees, which
make it difficult for distributions to package Ruby and its libraries.
Often problems seem to arise due to the different needs of developers and
administrators/distributors. The topic was also discussed in an article
on <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/423732/">Linux Weekly News</a>.  How
the situation will continue is not yet clear, but even so some progress has
been reported.  Both maintainers have also said that they will be open
to handing over package maintenance of their Ruby related packages to new
volunteers.</p>




<toc-add-entry name="gis">Bits from Debian GIS</toc-add-entry>
<p>The mailing list for general discussion of Geographic Information
System (GIS) issues in Debian was moved from Alioth to <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-gis/">lists.debian.org</a>.
As usual <tt>lists.debian.org</tt> is also open for non-subscribers, has
a more generic name, and can hopefully attract more GIS users and
developers in Debian to discuss relevant issues.</p>
<p>The Debian GIS Blend has defined a new task <q>SAR and Earth
Observation</q>
on their <a href="https://blends.alioth.debian.org/gis/tasks">tasks page</a>
which contains a list of not yet official packages which are potential
targets for inclusion into Debian.  Feel free to discuss this task or
other ideas you might have about the GIS relevant packages on the
mailing list mentioned above.</p>
<p>Please note that Debian GIS also maintains OpenStreetMap-related
packages, together with the Debian OpenStreetMap Team
(<a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-osm/">pkg-osm on
Alioth</a>).
Feel free to join!</p>



<toc-add-entry name="conferences">Debian Project at several conferences and trade fairs</toc-add-entry>

<p>The Debian project <a
href="$(HOME)/News/2011/20110126">announced</a> that it will
be present on several upcoming <a href="$(HOME)/events/">events and trade fairs</a>, including
<a href="$(HOME)/events/2011/0202-cloudexpoeurope">Cloud Expo
Europe 2011</a> in London, UK,
<a href="$(HOME)/events/2011/0205-fosdem">FOSDEM</a> in
Brussels, Belgium, <a href="$(HOME)/events/2011/0225-scale9x">SCaLE</a> in Los Angeles, USA,
<a href="$(HOME)/events/2011/0301-cebit">CeBIT</a> in Hanover, Germany, and the <a
href="$(HOME)/events/2011/0319-linuxtage-chemnitz">Chemnitzer Linux-Tage</a> in Chemnitz,
Germany.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="twid">Further <q>This week in Debian</q> interviews</toc-add-entry>

<p>Since the last issue of the Debian Project News, one new issue of the
<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/ThisWeekInDebian"><q>This week in
Debian</q> podcast</a> has been published: an interview with
<a href="http://frostbitemedia.libsyn.com/this-week-in-debian-episode-16">Jonas
Smedegaard</a>, discussing the Freedom Box.
</p>

<p>There has also been one further <q>People behind Debian</q> interview:
with <a
href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/01/21/people-behind-debian-michael-vogt-synaptic-apt-developer/">Michael
Vogt</a>, synaptic and APT developer.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="other">Other news</toc-add-entry>

<p>Aur&eacute;lien Jarno announced the new <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20110112184950.GA5244@hall.aurel32.net">debian-ports
archive signing key</a>, which will be used to sign the archive on
unofficial ports.</p>

<p>The <a href="https://www.debian-administration.org/">Debian
Administration</a> blog published a how-to about <a
href="https://www.debian-administration.org/article/Installing_an_encrypted_openvpn_on_Lenny">installing
an encrypted openvpn on <q>Lenny</q></a> and one about <a
href="https://www.debian-administration.org/article/Creating_dynamic_volumes_with_loop_devices">creating
dynamic volumes with loop devices</a>.</p>

<p>Mike Hommey blogged about <a
href="http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1529">changes to the Debian Mozilla team
APT archive</a>, where test versions of several Mozilla products (like
Firefox 3.6 and 4.0) are made available.</p>

<p>Rapha&euml;l Hertzog noted that unlike <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/422710/">other</a>
<a href="http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandrivauser.de%2F">distributions</a>,
<a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/01/24/debian-is-eating-its-own-dog-food-more-than-ever/">Debian
is doing very well <q>eating its own dog food</q></a>, meaning that its
infrastructure is running on its own distribution.  He congratulated the
<a href="https://dsa.debian.org/">Debian Systems Administration team</a> for
keeping more than <a href="https://db.debian.org/machines.cgi">140
servers</a> running Debian.</p>

<p>Cyril Brulebois published <a
href="http://blog.ikibiki.org/2011/01/21/DXN-2/">Debian XSF News</a>
summarising many recent events around X.org packaging in Debian.</p>

<p>Yves-Alexis Perez requested a <a
href="https://bugs.debian.org/610872">crypto declaration file number
from the French authorities</a>. The number is 1101027 and he's made
<a href="https://people.debian.org/~corsac/anssi/">scans of the
documents</a> available too.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="newcontributors">New Debian Contributors</toc-add-entry>

<p> 3 applicants have been <a
href="https://nm.debian.org/nmlist.php#newmaint">accepted</a> as
Debian Developers, 1 applicant has been <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/E1PhYE1-0001aE-Tc@franck.debian.org">accepted</a>
as Debian Maintainer, and 3 people have <a
href="https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/new-maintainers.cgi">started
maintaining packages</a> since the previous issue of the Debian
Project News. Please welcome Kamal Mostafa, Scott Howard, Kai
Wasserb&auml;ch, Vincent Legout, Christer Edwards, Rico Tzschichholz,
and Krzysztof Klimonda into our project!</p>



<toc-add-entry name="rcstats">Release-Critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release</toc-add-entry>

	<p>According to the <a href="https://udd.debian.org/bugs.cgi">Bugs Search
        interface of the Ultimate Debian Database</a>, the upcoming release,
	Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q>, is currently affected by
8 release-critical bugs. Ignoring bugs which are easily solved
	or on the way to being solved, roughly speaking, only about
5 release-critical bugs remain to be solved for the
	release to happen!</p>

	<p>There are also <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/rc-stats/#2011-04">more detailed
	statistics</a> as well as some <a
	href="https://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/RC-Stats">hints on how to
	interpret</a> these numbers.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="dsa">Important Debian Security Advisories</toc-add-entry>

	<p>Debian's Security Team recently released
	advisories for these packages (among others):
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2144">wireshark</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2145">libsmi</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2146">mydms</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2147">pimd</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2148">tor</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2149">dbus</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2150">request-tracker3.6</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2151">openoffice.org</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2152">hplip</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2153">linux-2.6</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2154">exim4</a> and
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2155">freetype</a>.
	Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.</p>

        <p>Debian's Backports Team releases advisories for these packages:
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/20110115153937.GA10631@edna.deb.at">egroupware (removal)</a>,
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/20110115162646.GA15463@edna.deb.at">kvm (removal)</a>,
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/201101240810.01018.waja@cyconet.org">request-tracker3.8</a> and
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/20110127201221.GC12906@rene-engelhard.de">openoffice.org</a>.
# Note:  That mail was actually broken (at least for me), so it's possible,
# that it will be resend and the link will change
        Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.</p>


<p>Please note that these are a selection of the more important security
advisories of the last weeks. If you need to be kept up to date about
security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please
subscribe to the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/">security mailing
list</a> (and the separate <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/">backports
list</a> and <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce">volatile list</a>) for announcements.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="nnwp">New and noteworthy packages</toc-add-entry>

<p>The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive
recently (<a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg">among
others</a>):</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/accountsservice">accountsservice &mdash; query and manipulate user account information</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/amqp-tools">amqp-tools &mdash; command-line utilities for interacting with AMQP servers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/clipit">clipit &mdash; lightweight GTK+ clipboard manager</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/d-itg">d-itg &mdash; distributed Internet traffic generator</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/focuswriter">focuswriter &mdash; fullscreen, distraction-free writing program</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ministat">ministat &mdash; simple tool for statistical comparison of data sets</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/nagios-plugin-check-multi">nagios-plugin-check-multi &mdash; run Nagios checks as a group</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rdfind">rdfind &mdash; find duplicate files utility</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xdeb">xdeb &mdash; cross-build tool for Debian packages</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Please note that due to the <a
href="$(HOME)/News/2010/20100806">freeze of the upcoming
Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q></a> acceptance of new packages has almost ceased.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="continuedpn">Want to continue reading DPN?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Please help us create this newsletter.  We still need more volunteer writers
to watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the
<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute">contributing
page</a> to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail
at <a href="mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org">debian-publicity@lists.debian.org</a>.</p>


#use wml::debian::projectnews::footer editor="David Paleino, Francesca Ciceri, Jeremiah C. Foster, David Pr&eacute;vot, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl"
# Translators may also add a translator="foo, bar, baz" to the previous line