Debian Weekly News - August 24th, 2004
Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. A lot of work has been done to help release sarge soon. Several recommendations and removals were requested on the debian-release list. Claus Fischer even requested to document important issues in the release notes. Jeroen van Wolffelaar asked maintainers to answer some questions if they maintain one or more packages with different versions in sarge and sid in order to help the release management.
KDE Package Descriptions. Enrico Zini noticed that the description of many packages containing KDE components start with the same four line text describing KDE. He believes that it would make more sense to first describe the package and then describe KDE. This affects 75 packages.
Reusing a Package Name? Jesus Gonzalez-Barahona wondered
if he could reuse cil
as package name for the C Intermediate Language since
Debian already ships Chess
in Lisp in its stable release. Peter Van Eynde revealed
that the package was renamed. Thomas Viehmann explained
that most systems upgraded from woody to sarge and only then to etch won't
have a cil
package anymore due to its renaming.
Web Application Maintenance. Kai Hendry tried to
unify maintenance of web application in Debian. He asserted that their
installation is often painful since they need to modify a database and the
webserver. The mysql-server supports a debian-sys-maint
super user which can
setup users and databases. A proper mechanism for Apache is not yet
implemented, though.
Viewing the Buildd Queue. Andrew Pollock wondered if there was an easy way to view the buildd progress other than buildd.debian.org and www.buildd.org. Michael Koch contributed this page by Ian Lynagh. Goswin von Brederlow mentioned the per-architecture index pages that link to more detailed lists of packages.
No free Debian Logo? Roger Leigh recently noticed that the grub package has splash image support but no splash images. Robert Millan later wondered if the "Open Use" logo is DFSG-free. David Schleef confirmed that the Debian Open Use Logo License is generally considered to be non-DFSG free.
On closing Bug Reports. Norbert Tretkowski asserted that regardless of the severity of a bug report, closing it with
a comment like "who cares?" is not okay. And there is obviously at least one
person who cares about this particular problem: the submitter of that
bug report. He added that if the maintainer doesn't want to fix a bug, it
should be tagged wontfix
.
HP taps Debian for Carrier Grade Linux. LinuxDevices.com wrote that HP will supply Motorola with a Carrier Grade Linux version of Debian, as part of a long-term deal. The article mentions that Motorola required features not available in currently shipping GNU/Linux distributions. HP thus decided to roll its own Carrier Grade Linux based on the Debian operating system.
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
- mysql -- Insecure temporary file creation.
- icecast-server -- Cross site scripting.
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates.
- cogre -- Connected Graph Editor.
- doodle -- Quickly search the documents on a computer.
- dvdtape -- Create DVD master filesystems on DLT media.
- ede -- File manager / Makefile generator for Emacsen.
- egroupware -- Web-based groupware suite.
- fnfxd -- ACPI and hotkey daemon for Toshiba laptops.
- gaphor -- UML modeling tool.
- gfs-tools -- Global File System.
- grub-splashimages -- Collection of great GRUB splashimages.
- ircmarkers -- Place markers on maps at given coordinates.
- knoda -- Graphical database frontend for KDE.
- ksociograma -- Technical educational software to make sociograms.
- luma -- GUI utility for accessing and managing LDAP database.
- naim -- Console client for AOL Instant Messenger and IRC.
- pennmush -- The PennMUSH mush server.
- php-fpdf -- PHP class to generate PDF files.
- pngcheck -- PNG file format checker.
- rlplot -- Generate publication quality graphs.
- rosegarden2 -- Integrated MIDI sequencer and musical notation editor.
- stk -- Sound Synthesis Toolkit example applications.
- tpp -- Text presentation program.
- trac -- Enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects.
- websvn -- PHP based interface of subversion repositories.
- wmcdplay -- CD player based on ascd designed for WindowMaker.
- xsupplicant -- 802.1x supplicant (client).
- xvnc4viewer -- Virtual network computing client software for X.
Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian package is featured from the testing distribution. If you know about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send it to Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following packages last week.
- madman -- Advanced music manager application.
- orpie -- RPN calculator for the terminal.
- libjpeg-progs -- Programs for manipulating JPEG files.
- rdiff-backup -- Backup program to use deltas for history.
Orphaned Packages. 19 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 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.
- astyle -- Source code indenter for C++/C/Java source code. (Bug#266457)
- autogen -- Automated option processing library for autogen - development. (Bug#266458)
- beecrypt -- Open source C library of cryptographic algorithms. (Bug#266469)
- clig -- Command Line Interpreter Generator. (Bug#266485)
- gengetopt -- Skeleton main.c generator. (Bug#266484)
- genparse -- Command line parser generator. (Bug#266468)
- gtktalog -- Disk catalog. (Bug#266305)
- ifhp -- Printer filter for HP LaserJet printers. (Bug#266467)
- libcrypt-cracklib-perl -- Perl interface to Alec Muffett's Cracklib. (Bug#266465)
- libdigest-md4-perl -- MD4 Message Digest for Perl. (Bug#266464)
- libio-multiplex-perl -- Object-oriented interface to select() for perl. (Bug#266463)
- libterm-readpassword-perl -- Ask the user for a password. (Bug#266461)
- libtool1.4 -- Generic library support script. (Bug#266387)
- penggy -- Allows you to connect to AOL via modem or TCP/IP. (Bug#266325)
- sins -- Snake game playable with only one key. (Bug#266326)
- snmptrapfmt -- Configurable snmp trap handler daemon for snmpd. (Bug#266820)
- wmtz -- wmaker dock app that displays the time in different zones. (Bug#266462)
- wyg -- (Where's Your Grammar?) command line parser generator. (Bug#266460)
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This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Martin 'Joey' Schulze.