Debian Weekly News – November 11, 2003

Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/45/

Debian Weekly News – November 11th, 2003

Welcome to this year’s 45th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter
for the Debian community. According to the latest data from
[1]Netcraft the number of websites running on the Apache web server
has shown a significant gain over the last month and is now at
67.41 percent. James Maguire wanted to [2]know if Java is dead and
concluded that nothing could be further from the truth. Also,
another [3]update for the stable Debian release (codename woody) is
being [4]prepared.

1.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/11/03/november_2003_web_server_survey.html

2. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22629.html

3. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/45/index.en.tmp.html

4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00004.html

Exec-Shield for Debian? Russell Coker [5]looked at
[6]exec-shield which adds a certain amount of precaution similar to
what [7]PaX does, which is the most desirable feature in
[8]GRSecurity. Exec-shield also has support for 2.6 and looks like
it will be a standard feature in Red Hat. Russell proposed to add
exec-shield to the standard Debian kernel source. If adding
exec-shield to the Debian kernel is not considered a good idea then
he’ll create a kernel-patch package for exec-shield.

5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00047.html

6. http://people.redhat.com/mingo/exec-shield/

7. http://pageexec.virtualave.net/docs/pax.txt

8. http://www.grsecurity.net/

Clarification of DFSG Clause 1. Roland Stigge [9]proposed to
alter the [10]Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) in order to
add a little bit of clarification to clause one. This is a
reminiscence of the [11]discussion about the legal status of
LaTeX2HTML. Henning Makholm [12]added that this complies with the
consensus on debian-legal.

9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00013.html

10. http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0310/msg00383.html

12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00014.html

Debian Jr. joins OSEF. Ben Armstrong [13]announced that
[14]Debian Jr. joined the [15]Open Source Education Foundation
(OSEF). Ben is also a new board member of their newly expanded
board. This will strengthen both Debian Jr. and OSEF. Both groups
aim to improve the quality of Debian Jr. packages and they share
the common goal to introduce children to Free Software.

13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00000.html

14. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr/

15. http://www.osef.org/

Discussion about the Social Contract. Branden Robinson
[16]summarized part of the thread about his proposed amendment of
the Social Contract. He stated that he would be willing to consider
breaking up the proposal, and is seeking guidance from the Project
Secretary. Anthony Towns stated that if he were to propose a
rewrite of the [17]Social Contract it would include [18]points like
building a free and superior operating system, supporting the
community, being open and supporting all the software that Debian
can.

16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00139.html

17. http://www.debian.org/social_contract

18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00148.html

SPI Board Vote begins. Wichert Akkerman [19]announced that the
voting period has begun to elect three new directors to the
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI) board of directors. The
candidates are [20]David Graham (“cdlu”), [21]Ian Jackson,
[22]Jimmy Kaplowitz (“Hydroxide”), and [23]Martin Schulze (“Joey”).
All contributing members can cast their vote [24]online until
November 21st. People who become contributing members during this
period are also eligible for voting. Newsflash: There will be a
debate with all candidates on Monday, November 17th, at 17:00 UTC
on Channel #SPI on irc.oftc.net/.

19. http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2003/000060.html

20. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/DavidGraham.xhtml

21. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/IanJackson.xhtml

22.
http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/JimmyKaplowitz.xhtml

23. http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/MartinSchulze.xhtml

24. https://members.spi-inc.org/vote/

Package Version Numbering. Mark Johnson [25]wondered how he is
supposed to update the [26]docbook-simple package from version
1.0cr2 to version 1.0. Neil Roeth [27]suggested to use 1.0.0 as
version string. Andreas Metzler [28]explained that removing the old
package from the archive and uploading a new one would not solve
the problem, because anybody who has already installed the old
version would not be upgraded automatically if the new upload had a
lower version-number in dpkg’s understanding.

25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00438.html

26. http://packages.debian.org/docbook-simple

27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00454.html

28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00447.html

New proposed Apache License. The [29]Apache Software Foundation
is [30]considering the adoption of a new set of [31]licenses for
their open source projects. They have invited the public to review
and comment on the proposed 2.0 [32]license and related material.
Brian Carlson has [33]doubts that part of the new license are even
legal, at least in the U.S.

29. http://www.apache.org/
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00052.html

31. http://www.apache.org/licenses/proposed/

32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00053.html

33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00054.html

Debian Installer Beta 1. Joey Hess [34]announced the first beta
release of [35]debian-installer, the new installation system for
sarge. This first beta is available for the i386 and powerpc
architectures only. More architectures were said to follow in later
betas. Please see the [36]todo if you want to help out.

34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00003.html

35. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

36.
http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/TODO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

Debian-Installer Floppies with BRLTTY. Mario Lang [37]announced
a new [38]floppy set based on the new Debian-Installer for Sarge
with support for BRLTTY included. He has also installed a fresh
system with them, so they appear to work. You need to pass a kernel
option to lilo when the first floppy boots, to tell brltty what
display you have, and where it is connected.

37. http://lists.debian.org/debian-accessibility-0310/msg00023.html

38. http://people.debian.org/~mlang/install/

New Skolelinux CD Image. Petter Reinholdtsen [39]announced the
new Skolelinux CD [40]image, prerelease 41. He included the
changelog which notes several security and language updates besides
updates in the Debian installer such as improved support for PCMCIA
and USB as well as hardware detection.

39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-0311/msg00000.html

40. ftp://developer.skolelinux.no/skolelinux-cd/

Debian XML/SGML Policy Draft. Mark Johnson [41]announced a
[42]policy draft for XML and SGML resources. At this point, only
chapters 2 and 3 (covering directory layouts, etc.) are anywhere
near being finished. Feedback should be sent to the [43]debian-sgml
list.

41. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00005.html

42. http://people.debian.org/~mrj/xml-sgml-policy/debian-policy/

43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/

Collaborative XML/SGML Packaging Project. Mark Johnson
[44]invited all XML/SGML package maintainers to join a
collaborative packaging and maintenance effort hosted on
[45]Alioth. Motivation is provided by the implementation of the
OASIS XML Catalog specification and the proliferation of newly
available XML resources. Another motivation is to eliminate the
hassles of non-maintainer uploads.

44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00010.html

45. http://debian-xml-sgml.alioth.debian.org/

Debian MiniConf3 in Adelaide. The Debian [46]MiniConf will once
again be held in conjunction with [47]Linux Conference Australia in
Adelaide. [48]Registration for the conference also includes
registration for the Debian MiniConf, and the organisers are
currently [49]calling for papers.

46. http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/

47. http://lca2004.linux.org.au/
48. http://lca2004.linux.org.au/register/

49. http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/cfp/

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 2.3. Martin Michlmayr [50]noted
that [51]FHS 2.3 will be released soon, but there is currently some
controversy over [52]/srv and [53]/media. He thought it would be
good if Debian had an opinion about this and encouraged people to
look at and comment on the proposals.

50. http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb-0311/msg00009.html

51.
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3402935&forum_id=3128

52.
http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16

53.
http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27

Debian wins several Readers’ Choice Awards. The Debian project
[54]announced that this year was quite successful and it has won
several readers’ choice awards from major GNU/Linux magazines.
Debian has won in the category of “Favourite Distribution” of the
[55]Linux Journal 2003 Readers’ Choice Awards, in the category
“Best Enterprise Distribution” of [56]Linux Enterprise Reader’s
Choice 2003 and in the category “Best Distribution” of the
[57]Linux New Media Award 2003.

54. http://www.debian.org/News/2003/20031110

55. http://pr.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=785

56.
http://www.linuxenterprise.de/itr/service/show.php3?id=104&nodeid=35

57.
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2003/12/award/award.html

Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you
update your systems if you have any of these packages
installed.

• [58]PostgreSQL — Buffer overflow.
• [59]conquest — Local conquest exploit.
• [60]EPIC4 — Denial of service.
• [61]omega-rpg — Local games exploit.

58. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-397

59. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-398

60. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-399

61. http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-400

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to
the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important
updates.

• [62]aap — Make-like “expert system” for building
  software.
• [63]anteater — MTA log analyser written 100% in C++.
• [64]aqmoney — Command line utility for HBCI homebanking.
• [65]arc — Archive utility based on the MSDOS ARC program.
• [66]arptables — ARP table administration.
• [67]chasen-dictutils — Japanese Morphological Analysis System
  – utilities for dictionary.
• [68]cutter — Disconnect routed IP connections.
• [69]digikam — Digital Camera Application for KDE 3.x.
• [70]discus — Pretty version of df(1) command.
• [71]dvdauthor — Create DVD-Video file system.
• [72]dvdrtools — DVD writing program.
• [73]eagle — Printed circuit board design tool.
• [74]eciadsl — User-space driver for the Globespan-based USB
  ADSL modems.
• [75]festalon — NSF player for OSS (/dev/dsp).
• [76]fisg — Fast IRC Statistics Generator.
• [77]gngeogui — GUI frontend for gngeo.
• [78]gnome-office — The GNOME Office suite.
• [79]gnusound — Powerful sound editor.
• [80]ifmetric — Set routing metrics for a network
  interface.
• [81]lg-issue96 — Issue 96 of the Linux Gazette.
• [82]opendb — Web Open Lending Database.
• [83]osdsh — Overlays your screen with various system
  information.
• [84]powernowd — Control CPU speed and voltage using 2.6 kernel
  interface.
• [85]prelude-lml — Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Log
  Monitoring Lackey ].
• [86]prelude-manager — Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [
  Report Manager ].
• [87]prelude-nids — Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Network
  sensor ].
• [88]pxe — Free PXE daemon.
• [89]qalculate — Powerful and easy to use desktop
  calculator.
• [90]smbget — Downloader for the SMB/CIFS protocol.
• [91]sng — Specialized markup language for representing PNG
  contents.
• [92]tcltls — TLS OpenSSL extension to Tcl.
• [93]toursst — RSS channel news items where you want them.
• [94]vpnc — Cisco-compatible VPN client.
• [95]vqadmin — Web based control panel for vpopmail.
• [96]waproamd — WLAN roaming daemon.

62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/aap.html

63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/anteater.html

64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/aqmoney.html

65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/arc.html

66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/arptables.html

67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/chasen-dictutils.html

68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/cutter.html

69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/digikam.html

70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/discus.html

71. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdauthor.html

72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdrtools.html

73. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/eagle.html

74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/eciadsl.html

75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/festalon.html

76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/fisg.html

77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gngeogui.html

78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-office.html

79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gnusound.html

80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ifmetric.html

81. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/lg-issue96.html

82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/opendb.html

83. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/osdsh.html

84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/powernowd.html

85. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-lml.html

86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-manager.html

87. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/prelude-nids.html

88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pxe.html

89. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/qalculate.html

90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/smbget.html

91. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/sng.html

92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/tcltls.html

93. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/toursst.html

94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/vpnc.html

95. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/vqadmin.html

96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/waproamd.html

Orphaned Packages. 3 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 187 orphaned
packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed
to the Free Software community. Please see the [97]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.

97. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/

• [98]ipmasq — Securely initializes IP Masquerade
  forwarding/firewalling. ([99]Bug#219173)
• [100]php4-apc — Caches PHP scripts to get them loaded much
  faster. ([101]Bug#219571)
• [102]snd — Sound file editor. ([103]Bug#219837)

98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ipmasq.html

99. http://bugs.debian.org/219173

100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/php4-apc.html

101. http://bugs.debian.org/219571

102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/snd.html

103. http://bugs.debian.org/219837

Want to continue reading DWN? 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
[104]contributing page to find out how to help. We’re looking
forward to receiving your mail at [105]dwn@debian.org.

104. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing

105. mailto:dwn@debian.org