Debian Weekly News - March 21st, 2006
Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Robert Millan built CD installer images for installing kfreebsd-amd64 as a standalone system. The OpenVZ project announced pre-built templates for virtual Debian servers that allow fast provisioning.
Status of the AMD64 Port. Anthony Towns reported about the inclusion of amd64 in Debian. The packages from build-essential are first rebuilt and uploaded and will be followed by the rest of the archive. Maintainer uploads of amd64 packages are currently blocked, and will remain that way until the archive's rebuilt.
Debian-Installer Etch Beta 2. Frans Pop announced the second etch beta release of the debian-installer and thanked all contributors who helped with this release, especially those from Ubuntu. The graphical installer is not part of this release although significant progress has been made in its development. Installation CDs and other media are available.
Expulsion Process for Developers. Christoph Berg asked other developers to think at least twice when sending a request to remove a developer in accordance with the Procedure for the expulsion of Debian Developers. In his opinion only the person who shall be removed should decide to make the process public, not the requester, as described in the process.
Project Leader Interview. Rebecca Sobol interviewed Branden Robinson about his tenure as Debian Project Leader. Branden discussed the "Project Scud" leadership team, some of the things which have happened in Debian over the past year, and why he isn't running for re-election.
Debian Project Leader Debate. Manoj Srivastava made this year's Debian project leader debate logs available. Candidates had to answer Don Armstrong's questions about their motivations for running for DPL and their opinions on some social issues in Debian. The debate was then up for open discussion. Thaddeus H. Black also published a list of all questions that were proposed for this debate.
JBoss Application Server for Debian. Torsten Schlabach asked about the packaging status for JBoss4. Guido Guenther pointed to the appropriate subversion repository, explained the next necessary steps and asked for help with packaging the JBoss Application Server.
Debian Project Leader Election. Manoj Srivastava called for votes for this year's project leader election. Developers can cast their ballot until April 8th, 2006. Seven candidates nominated themselves this year. Eligible voters should first read the full text of the platforms and rebuttals.
Preferred Documentation Types. Hendrik Sattler wondered which documentation types (HTML, PS, PDF, text) should be included in a Debian package. Wouter Verhelst asked to stick to HTML since HTML files can be easily searched and there are many viewers available for HTML, which also make it easy to print.
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
- DSA 1002: webcalendar -- Several vulnerabilities.
- DSA 1003: xpvm -- Insecure temporary file.
- DSA 1004: vlc -- Arbitrary code execution.
- DSA 1005: xine-lib -- Arbitrary code execution.
- DSA 1006: wzdftpd -- Arbitrary shell command execution.
- DSA 1007: drupal -- Several vulnerabilities.
- DSA 1008: kdegraphics -- Arbitrary code execution.
- DSA 1009: crossfire -- Arbitrary code execution.
- DSA 1010: ilohamail -- Cross-site scripting.
- DSA 1011: kernel-patch-vserver, util-vserver -- Local root exploit.
- DSA 1012: unzip -- Arbitrary code execution.
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates.
- apt-index-watcher -- Updater for apt-front indexes.
- array-util -- Configuration viewer for HP (Compaq) SmartArray controllers.
- arrayprobe -- Command line HP (Compaq) SmartArray status checker.
- bcpp -- C(++) beautifier.
- beef -- Flexible BrainFuck interpreter.
- bitfling -- Secure remote access to BitFling.
- bitpim -- Utility to communicate with many CDMA phones.
- cableswig -- Generate wrappers for Python and Tcl from C++ code.
- chicken-bin -- Simple Scheme-to-C compiler - compiler.
- contacts -- Lightweight address-book.
- cvsconnect -- CVS connection minimiser.
- cvssuck -- Inefficient CVS repository grabber using cvs command.
- dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook sources.
- exmap -- Determine how much physical memory and swap is used by individual processes.
- gccxml -- XML output extension to GCC.
- gcom -- Option GlobeTrotter and Vodafone datacard control tool.
- griffith -- Film collection manager.
- harvestman -- Flexible web crawler application.
- lat -- LDAP Administration Tool.
- moreutils -- Additional Unix utilities.
- morse -- Morse-code training program for aspiring radio hams.
- nbsmtp -- No-brainer SMTP (tool for relaying mails).
- nemerle -- Nemerle Compiler.
- netgen -- Automatic 3d tetrahedral mesh generator.
- nmzmail -- Indexes and searches email in maildir folders.
- open-cobol -- COBOL compiler.
- open.app -- GNUstep open tool.
- opendict -- Computer dictionary for several dictionary formats.
- pykdeextensions -- Python packages to support KDE applications.
- pyntor -- Flexible and componentised presentation program.
- rpmstrap -- Bootstrap a basic RPM-based system.
- scanbuttond -- Scanner button daemon.
- syncekonnector -- Connector-plugin for raki (SynCE-KDE).
- synfig -- Vector-based 2D animation package.
- tenshi -- Log monitoring and reporting tool.
- treeline -- Versatile tree-like structured custom data manager.
- unfs3 -- User-space NFSv3 Server.
- vdradmin-am -- Web-based administration tool for vdr.
- wengophone -- SIP-based software telephone with video and chat features.
- wlassistant -- User friendly KDE frontend for wireless network connection.
- zeroc-ice -- Metapackage to install all Ice related packages.
- zeroc-ice-services -- Metapackage to install all ZeroC Ice services.
Orphaned Packages. 42 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 263 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the 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.
- ace-of-penguins -- Solitaire-games with penguin-look. (Bug#357754)
- c2html -- Highlight C sources for WWW presentation. (Bug#357504)
- cttex -- Thai word separator for Thai teTeX/LaTeX and HTML. (Bug#357875)
- deliver -- Local mail delivery agent. (Bug#357079)
- fontforge -- Font Editor for PS, TrueType and OpenType fonts. (Bug#357867)
- gnuplot -- Command-line driven interactive plotting program. (Bug#357753)
- gsumi -- Pressure sensitive "ink" drawing. (Bug#357870)
- java2html -- Highlight Java and C++ sources for WWW presentation. (Bug#357502)
- jsboard -- Web-based news/discussion system. (Bug#357204)
- jsboard-theme-aicom-ko -- Aicom theme for JSBoard - Korean version. (Bug#357205)
- jsboard-theme-debian-ko -- Debian theme for JSBoard - Korean version. (Bug#357206)
- jsboard-theme-diary-en -- Diary theme for JSBoard - English version. (Bug#357208)
- jsboard-theme-diary-ko -- Diary theme for JSBoard - Korean version. (Bug#357209)
- jsboard-theme-trash-en -- Trash theme for JSBoard - English version. (Bug#357210)
- jsboard-theme-trash-ko -- Trash theme for JSBoard - Korean version. (Bug#357211)
- jsboard-theme-wizz-ko -- Wizz theme for JSBoard - Korean version. (Bug#357212)
- kimberlite -- High Availability Clustering Package. (Bug#358043)
- libbit-vector-minimal-perl -- Object oriented wrapper around vec(). (Bug#357353)
- libdb-file-lock-perl -- Provides a wrapper for the DB_File module, adding locking. (Bug#357344)
- libemail-foldertype-perl -- Determine the type of a mail folder. (Bug#357346)
- libfile-find-rule-perl -- Alternative interface to File::Find. (Bug#357351)
- libjpeg-mmx-dev -- Development files for the IJG JPEG library with MMX optimisation. (Bug#357876)
- libmail-listdetector-perl -- Library for detecting mailing list messages. (Bug#357347)
- libnet-ftpserver-perl -- Secure, extensible and configurable Perl FTP server. (Bug#357085)
- libnumber-compare-perl -- Perform numeric comparisons in perl. (Bug#357348)
- libtext-glob-perl -- Match globbing patterns against text. (Bug#357350)
- libtie-array-sorted-perl -- Array which is kept sorted. (Bug#357349)
- moniwiki -- MoniWiki is yet another WikiEngine written in PHP. (Bug#357214)
- swath -- Thai word segmentation program. (Bug#357877)
- thailatex -- Thai Latex package. (Bug#357871)
- type1inst -- Install Adobe Type 1 fonts into X11 and Ghostscript. (Bug#357873)
- wmmand -- Dockable Mandelbrot fractal browser. (Bug#357501)
- wmtune -- Windowmaker-dockable radio tuner. (Bug#357500)
- xbattle -- Concurrent multi-player battle strategy game. (Bug#357751)
- xfonts-thai -- Collection of Thai fonts for X. (Bug#357878)
- xfonts-thai-etl -- Thai etl fonts for X. (Bug#357879)
- xfonts-thai-manop -- Dr. Manop Wongsaisuwan's bitmap fonts for X. (Bug#357880)
- xfonts-thai-nectec -- Thai fixed fonts for X from Nectec. (Bug#357881)
- xfonts-thai-ttf -- Thai TrueType fonts from Nectec. (Bug#357869)
- xfonts-thai-vor -- Voradesh Yenbut bitmap fonts for X. (Bug#357882)
- xiterm+thai -- X-terminal program with Thai languague support. (Bug#357872)
- xpcd -- Photo CD tool collection (marked "obsolete" upstream). (Bug#357014)
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This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Mohammed Adnène Trojette, Andre Lehovich, Jochen Rassler and Martin 'Joey' Schulze.