Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/33/
Debian Weekly News – August 19th, 2003
Welcome to this year’s 33rd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter
for the Debian community. Aryan Ameri wrote a user [1]review of
[2]Libranet 2.8, which is based on Debian. Richard Stallman [3]said
he now prefers the [4]GNU/LinEx distribution over Debian because of
non-free software on our FTP servers. There’s been a lot of
discussion on the [5]debian-legal list about the definition of the
word “software”, with much heat generated.
1. http://www.linuxiran.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=232
2. http://www.libranet.com/
3.
http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=260
4. http://www.linex.org/
5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0308/
Birthday Present: Rescue CD. As a special birthday present for
the [6]10th anniversary of the Debian project Jörg Jaspert has
created a business card sized [7]rescue CD. Although only 50 MB in
size, it contains most tools required to rescue a GNU/Linux
systems, plus some tools which are useful to rescue other systems.
The CD can be ordered at [8]LinuxLand.
6. http://www.debian.org/News/2003/20030811
7. http://people.debian.org/~joerg/rettcd/
8.
http://www.linuxland.de/katalog/01_linuxdistri_bs/debian/debiangeburtstag/framify
Origins of the DFSG. Bruce Perens [9]explained that when he
designed the [10]Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), his
intention was that the entire contents of that CD would be under
the rights stated in the DFSG, be they software, documentation, or
data. His view is that invariant sections in documentation, such as
those allowed by the [11]GNU Free Documentation License, are OK for
attribution, the copyright statement and license only, and not for
other aspects of the document.
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0308/msg00264.html
10. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
11. http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/fdl.html
Public Release of xml-core. Ardo van Rangelrooij [12]announced
the first public, highly experimental version of the [13]xml-core
package. It contains the update-xmlcatalog tool to manage XML
catalog files. For more details see the draft of the [14]Debian XML
Policy. Note that the next version of the policy will require a
local catalog for often-used stylesheet files, which is already
implemented in update-xmlcatalog. Issues or bugs should be reported
to the [15]debian-sgml mailing list.
12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc-0308/msg00014.html
13. http://people.debian.org/~ardo/UPLOADS/
14.
http://people.debian.org/~mrj/oasis/XML-Catalogs/Implementation-Guide.html
15. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/
Open Source good Choice for Companies. In a short [16]story by
Jan Stafford, editor of SearchEnterpriseLinux.com Debian Developer
Tony Mancill says “Because most open source software is based upon
open standards and written to fill functionality gaps left by
proprietary offerings, conversion from Proprietary A to open-source
can be easier than the conversion to another proprietary product.”
Tony Mancill talks about two examples of how open source technology
helped two firms he has worked with.
16.
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/newsItem/0,289139,sid39_gci919102,00.html
Continuing the G++ 3.x Transition. Matthew Wilcox [17]noted that
work on this [18]transition plan has slowed down. He reveals that
there are more than 120 [19]maintainers who maintain packages that
still depend on libstdc++2.10. There are still 145 source packages
compiled with g++ 2.95 in the archive. If Debian wants to hit this
release goal, it’s time to get working on these packages.
17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0308/msg00003.html
18. http://people.debian.org/~willy/gcc-transition/
19.
http://people.debian.org/~willy/gcc-transition/maint-packages-2.95
Installing Debian on an Indy. Jan Ivar Pladsen wrote a
[20]document which describes how to install Debian GNU/Linux on
Indy. In detail he describes how to fetch and configure the MAC
address to boot the machine via the network. He continues with a
detailed calculation for partitioning the harddisk. Most of this
information should already be part of the Debian [21]installation
manual but apparently isn’t.
20. http://www.pvv.org/~pladsen/Indy/HOWTO.html
21. http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/mips/install.en.html
Debian’s Founding Moment. With Debian’s 10th Birthday, Ben
Finney [22]wondered if there was an inaugural email or some other
document that marked the start of the Debian project. This
[23]email from Ian Murdock was pointed out. Matt Zimmerman
[24]thought the goals of an “installation procedure that doesn’t
need to be babysat” and a “system setup procedure that will attempt
to setup and configure everything from fstab to Xconfig” may still
need work. But Peter Makholm [25]noted that at least the “Be warned
that it will be rather large :)” message was accurate.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0308/msg00017.html
23.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=CBusDD.MIK%40unix.portal.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0308/msg00021.html
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0308/msg00024.html
Mounting the Root Filesystem read-only. Thomas Hood [26]noted
that one of the remaining obstacles to running cleanly with the
root filesystem mounted read-only has been the mount program, which
can only write the mtab file in /etc/. If this file is a symbolic
link then mount will not write to it. People [27]have [28]wished
that mount would follow a symlink so that it could point somewhere
like /run/mtab. Thomas has developed a [29]patch for this, so
[30]did Goswin von Brederlow.
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0308/msg00822.html
27. http://bugs.debian.org/94076
28. http://bugs.debian.org/154438
29. http://panopticon.csustan.edu/thood/readonly-root.html
30. ftp://mrvn.homeip.net/util-linux/
When a Build requires Kernel Headers. Jörg Wendland
[31]experienced problems with including kernel header files in a
regular package. Ben Collins [32]explained that userspace
applications should not require kernel headers for building.
Herbert Xu [33]added that the solution in this case is to include a
copy of the said header file in the package itself.
31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0308/msg00961.html
32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0308/msg00963.html
33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0308/msg01066.html
Support for encrypted Swap and Data Partitions. Vincent Bernat
[34]wondered if Debian would like to support encrypted swap and
encrypted data partitions. He has [35]modified mountall.sh to allow
encrypted partitions. Encrypted partitions need user interaction to
be mounted, since the password is not generated on the fly (like
for the swap), so it is only usable on laptops and maybe on some
home systems.
34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0308/msg02488.html
35. http://bugs.debian.org/203538
Protest against Software Patents. Felix Klee [36]informed us
that on September 1st the European parliament will vote on a
directive that legalises software patents in Europe. If this
directive comes through we will be stuck with software patents in
the foreseeable future. Chances of changing the patent law back are
close to zero. The [37]FFII is organizing a [38]conference in
Brussels on August 27 as a last minute protest to raise the
attention of yet undecided members of the parliament and asks
webmasters to close their websites on August 27th.
36. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0308/msg00041.html
37. http://www.ffii.org/
38. http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2003/europarl/08/
Introducing Mepis Linux. [39]Mepis Linux is derived from the
Debian GNU/Linux code base. LinuxOnline is hosting a series of
articles on this LiveCD. The first is an [40]overview of the CD,
which reveals that there are not that much cheat codes like
Knoppix. It is followed by a [41]full review. Finally, Mepis
creator Warren Woodford is [42]interviewed, and said that Mepis
wouldn’t be possible without the high quality committed work of the
Debian community.
39. http://www.mepis.org/
40.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7115
41.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7143
42.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7171
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you
update your systems if you have any of these packages
installed.
- [43]netris — Buffer overflow.
- [44]autorespond — Buffer overflow.
43. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-372
44. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-373
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to
the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important
updates.
- [45]ample — Simple MP3 server easy to use.
- [46]apoo — Assembly course aid.
- [47]c2n — Tape transfer utility for CBM/Oric-1 machines.
- [48]checkpolicy — SELinux policy compiler.
- [49]csound — Powerful and versatile sound synthesis
software. - [50]giftoxic — GTK2 based GUI for the giFT filesharing
system. - [51]gngb — GameBoy Emulator.
- [52]gnotime — Tracking and invoicing time spent on
projects. - [53]irqbalance — Balances irq’s for SMP systems.
- [54]late — Simple game of capturing balls.
- [55]lcab — Create Cabinet (.cab) files.
- [56]mpichpython — MPI-enhanced Python interpreter.
- [57]nast — Packet sniffer and LAN analyzer.
- [58]pgpdump — PGP packet visualizer.
- [59]pound — Reverse proxy, load balancer and https front-end
for web-servers. - [60]spip — User Friendly but powerful Content Managment System
build in php. - [61]thuban — Interactive geographic data viewer.
- [62]tictactoe — Tic-tac-toe game written in Ruby.
- [63]ulogd-pcap — PCAP extension to ulogd.
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/ample.html
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/apoo.html
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/c2n.html
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/checkpolicy.html
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/csound.html
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/giftoxic.html
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gngb.html
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnotime.html
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/irqbalance.html
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/late.html
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/lcab.html
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/mpichpython.html
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/nast.html
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/pgpdump.html
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pound.html
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/spip.html
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/thuban.html
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/tictactoe.html
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ulogd-pcap.html
Orphaned Packages. 15 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 195 orphaned
packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed
to the Free Software community. Please see the [64]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.
64. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
- [65]amiwm — Amiga look-alike window manager.
([66]Bug#206021) - [67]bibview — X11 Bibliography database tool.
([68]Bug#206137) - [69]boust — Tcl/Tk text-reader that formats the file in
boustrophedon. ([70]Bug#206023) - [71]bulkmail — Speed up delivery of e-mail to large numbers of
recipients. ([72]Bug#206102) - [73]crm114 — Controllable Regex Mutilator and Spam Filter.
([74]Bug#206105) - [75]freedict — Freedict. ([76]Bug#206113)
- [77]pftp — Fast file transfer program. ([78]Bug#206119)
- [79]phototk — GUI interface for digital cameras.
([80]Bug#206121) - [81]pyching — Python program to cast and interpret I Ching
hexagrams. ([82]Bug#206024) - [83]rsxs — Really Slick X Screensavers. ([84]Bug#205725)
- [85]sn — Small NNTP server for leaf sites.
([86]Bug#206025) - [87]squishdot — Web-based News/Discussion System.
([88]Bug#206101) - [89]w3mir — All purpose HTTP copying and mirroring tool.
([90]Bug#206103) - [91]zircon — Powerful X Internet Relay Chat client.
([92]Bug#206116) - [93]zope-tinytable — Present tabular data in Zope.
([94]Bug#206114)
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/amiwm.html
66. http://bugs.debian.org/206021
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/bibview.html
68. http://bugs.debian.org/206137
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/boust.html
70. http://bugs.debian.org/206023
71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/bulkmail.html
72. http://bugs.debian.org/206102
73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/crm114.html
74. http://bugs.debian.org/206105
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/dict-freedict.html
76. http://bugs.debian.org/206113
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pftp.html
78. http://bugs.debian.org/206119
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/phototk.html
80. http://bugs.debian.org/206121
81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/pyching.html
82. http://bugs.debian.org/206024
83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/rsxs.html
84. http://bugs.debian.org/205725
85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/news/sn.html
86. http://bugs.debian.org/206025
87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/squishdot.html
88. http://bugs.debian.org/206101
89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/w3mir.html
90. http://bugs.debian.org/206103
91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/zircon.html
92. http://bugs.debian.org/206116
93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/zope-tinytable.html
94. http://bugs.debian.org/206114
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this
newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers who investigate
the Debian community and report about events in the community.
Please see the [95]contributing page to find out how to help. We’re
looking forward to receiving your mail at [96][email protected].
95. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
96. mailto:[email protected]