Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 22 August 2005
Lars Weiler <[email protected]> Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:06:44 +0200
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.gentoo.weekly-news |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- Gentoo Weekly Newsletter http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 22 August 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 1. Gentoo news =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Linux World Expo San Francisco report ------------------------------------- The 2005 San Fransisco LWE (Linux World Expo) turned out to be a big success, and Gentoo was there to take a place in it all. In the scope of things, all went pretty well for the small Gentoo booth. There were a couple of problems with network connections and booth location (There wer= e 2 stories of expo space this time, and Gentoo was on the top). Figure 1.1: Photo courtesy of Michaelian Ennis http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050822_lwe.jpg Note: Chris Gianelloni and Jason Weever talk with users at the booth. On display are an x86 box as well as a Pegasos PPC Open Desktop Workstation. A large number of Gentoo infrastructure staff was present, including a fe= w regular developers, and others that were here just to see the expo. The people at the booth at one time or the other included Corey Shields[1], Kurt Lieber[2], Lance Albertson[3], Andrea Barisani[4], Chris Gianelloni[5], Jason Weever[6], Stephanie J. Lockwood-Childs[7], Saleem Abdulrasool[8], and Chris White[9]. Indiana University and Oregon State University Open Source Labs helped with a lot of the setup for Gentoo, an= d thanks go out to them. 1. [email protected] 2. [email protected] 3. [email protected] 4. [email protected] 5. [email protected] 6. [email protected] 7. [email protected] 8. [email protected] 9. [email protected] Many questions and comments arose at the Gentoo booth. Most visitors just wanted to know what Gentoo was, others had used it before, and wanted to stop by and say hi. A lot of business-related users came up to, and asked questions about distributed installations and how Gentoo was adapted to enterprise use. A couple of other projects had some good things coming too: Trolltech[10] is working hard on QA, and was asking Linux distributions (including Gentoo), about the quality of Qt in their distributions. X.Org[11] modularization was another hot topic, as well as the move over to autotools as means for an easier development state. The Linux Test Project was there, making honorable mention of Mike Frysinger's[12] work in patch development and helping out the project, Philippe Ombredanne, author of EasyEclipse, stopped by for a chat with Chris White and Saleem Abdulrasool about splitting up the eclipse ebuilds. Last but not least, the GenUX project[13] made an appearance, too, to tal= k about their own project. 10. http://www.trolltech.no 11. http://www.x.org 12. [email protected] 13. http://www.genux.org The lower floor of the Expo was mostly businesses and paying exhibitors with new projects to share, Intel showing some of their 64-bit technology= , HP doing some talks on open source as a way for businesses to operate, with Sun being mainly a display of projects such as Looking Glass, some Sparc based systems, as well as talks on OpenSolaris. All in all the Expo was a huge success, and we hope next year's will be too. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 2. User projects =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Gentoo-driven -- car console ---------------------------- There's hardly anyone left these days who would be exposed to just one solitary computer in their everyday environment. Most people have computers in their homes on top the ones they use at the workplace, and perhaps a laptop thrown in for good measure and the dull moments during lengthy commutes. But how many people have one installed in the console o= f their cars? And how many of those have it run Gentoo Linux? Here's one example that rippled the slashdot surface for a few days, a CarPC mounted in a Mazda sports vehicle[14]. Based on a Via Epia small form factor mainboard, including cool features like a GPS receiver, Bluetooth and a high speed wireless network make this Gentoo-powered car a geek's dream vehicle. And to make it even more amazing a mobile phone connection (Verizon EVDO) is used for streaming video from a MythTV box at home so that the proud owner of the car can watch any movie while on the road ... 14. http://www.timekiller.org/carpc/ Figure 2.1: Gentoo in the car: built-in screen, wireless keyboard and mou= se http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050822_carpc.jpg MythTV project -------------- Last week, a Gentoo user by the name of Jay Ferrandini "set out to build = a super-optimized, high performance MythTV box completely from scratch for = a maximum of 500 USD" and managed to get as far as assembling all the parts by last weekend. His story[15] is still in mid-development, but interesting nonetheless. He even gives a short overview of the whole install process, from hardware setup to tweaking /etc/make.conf. He even included a part from the "amazing" Gentoo Handbook[16], showing again that installing Gentoo is not as hard as some people claim and that if yo= u are willing to invest some time, Gentoo can do (almost) anything. 15. http://www.ubershirt.com/mythbox.html 16. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 3. Heard in the community =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Web forums ---------- Reading up on the Linux kernel Looking for some linux reading or just want to understand how a kernel really works? Well, this thread should be useful: * Linux indepth kernel manual[17] 17. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-370559.html gentoo-dev ---------- Generating ChangeLog files automatically from `cvs commit` Mike Frysinger[18] started a discussion with the idea of generating Changelogs automatically from the cvs commit messages. This would facilitate the management of changelogs and also force a common format on all of them. 18. [email protected] * generating ChangeLog files automatically from `cvs commit`[19] 19. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30461 "Maintainer wanted" Some time ago the "maintainer-wanted" alias was created to help track all user-submitted ebuilds in Bugzilla. Ciaran McCreesh[20] asks for a new bugzilla keyword that shows that an ebuild has been checked for correctness by a developer. This would help potential maintainers to see if an ebuild satisfies basic QA requirements or if it might need lots of work to get it fixed, thus making it easier or harder for new packages to be "adopted" by a developer. 20. [email protected] * Bugzilla handling for maintainer-wanted things[21] 21. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30538 ebuild design issue: splitting ebuilds? A discussion on whether ebuilds should be monolithic or separated into server vs client or headers vs full package splits evolved on the developer mailing list. It wasn't the first of its kind, and indeed died down after exploring the usual problems and shortcomings of such a proposal, but had its moments: * ebuild design issue: splitting ebuilds? [22] 22. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30509 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 4. Gentoo in the press =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Open Enterprise Trends (21 August 2005) --------------------------------------- An article titled "Oracle Eyes Open Source Add-ons for Linux"[23] by Vanc= e McCarthy reports that Oracle is hoping for Gentoo to join the list of distributions to include Oracle's Cluster File System 2 that was placed under an open source license earlier this month. Quoting Wim Coekaerts, Oracle's director of Linux engineering, the aim is to get OCFS2 in the official 2.6 kernel tree, too. 23. http://openenterprisetrends.com/news.php?action=3Dview_record&idnum=3D= 455 iX (9/2005, in German) ---------------------- There's life beyond Google: in its September issue the iX, German's leading IT publisher Heise's "magazine for professional information technology", sheds some light on two open-source search engines[24]. Both the stable - yet somewhat stagnated - ASPseek project, and a more recent Java alternative called Nutch receive good marks in the test, for which author Michael Nebel installed the latter on a Gentoo system, based on a Pentium III CPU with 800MHz, 360MB of RAM and a 120GB harddisk, watching Nutch's index grow over three months before writing his report. 24. http://www.heise.de/ix/artikel/2005/09/100 eWEEK (9 August 2005) --------------------- Gentoo developer Greg Kroah-Hartman's presentation about persistent devic= e naming held at OSCON in Toronto two weeks ago was given ample attention i= n a conference report[25] on eWEEK. Titled "Torvalds: How to Keep Linux Kernel on Course", the article provides an overview of the processes involved in developing the Linux kernel, the decision against a 2.7 development tree and other topics. 25. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1845813,00.asp =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 5. Tips and tricks =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Logging the boot messages ------------------------- Wish to log the console output during the boot process? Starting with the new baselayout-1.12 it's now possible: Just edit /etc/conf.d/rc to show +------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ | Code Listing 5.1: = | | Extract from /etc/conf.d/rc = | +------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ | = | |RC_BOOTLOG=3D"yes" (instead of RC_BOOTLOG=3D"no") = | | = | +------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ and emerge Showconsole[26]. After that all the messages scrolling past th= e screen as you boot will be stored in /var/log/boot.msg 26. http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?showconsole-1.07 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D 6. Moves, adds, and changes =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D Moves ----- The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: * Gabor Veszi Adds ---- The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team: * =C5=81ukasz Damentko (rane) - Polish lead documentation translator Changes ------- The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux project: * None this week =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 7. Gentoo Security =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Gaim: Remote execution of arbitrary code ---------------------------------------- Gaim is vulnerable to a buffer overflow which could lead to the execution of arbitrary code or to a Denial of Service. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[27] 27. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-06.xml AWStats: Arbitrary code execution using malicious Referrer information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AWStats fails to validate certain log input, which could lead to the execution of arbitrary Perl code during the generation of the statistics. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[28] 28. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-07.xml Xpdf, Kpdf, GPdf: Denial of Service vulnerability ------------------------------------------------- Xpdf, Kpdf and GPdf may crash as a result of a Denial of Service vulnerability. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[29] 29. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-08.xml bluez-utils: Bluetooth device name validation vulnerability ----------------------------------------------------------- Improper validation of Bluetooth device names can lead to arbitrary command execution. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[30] 30. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-09.xml Kismet: Multiple vulnerabilities -------------------------------- Kismet is vulnerable to multiple issues potentially resulting in the execution of arbitrary code. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[31] 31. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-10.xml Adobe Reader: Buffer Overflow ----------------------------- Adobe Reader is vulnerable to a buffer overflow which could potentially lead to execution of arbitrary code. For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[32] 32. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200508-11.xml =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 8. Bugzilla =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Summary ------- * Statistics * Closed bug ranking * New bug rankings Statistics ---------- The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[33]) to record and track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the development team. Between 14 August 2005 and 21 August 2005, activity on the site has resulted in: 33. http://bugs.gentoo.org * 747 new bugs during this period * 481 bugs closed or resolved during this period * 55 previously closed bugs were reopened this period Of the 7981 currently open bugs: 99 are labeled 'blocker', 194 are labele= d 'critical', and 533 are labeled 'major'. Closed bug rankings ------------------- The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period are: * AMD64 Porting Team[34], with 52 closed bugs[35] * Gentoo Release Team[36], with 28 closed bugs[37] * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[38], with 26 closed bugs[39] * Gentoo Security[40], with 22 closed bugs[41] * SpanKY[42], with 17 closed bugs[43] * Xavier Neys[44], with 14 closed bugs[45] * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[46], with 13 closed bugs[47] * Gentoo Games[48], with 13 closed bugs[49] 34. [email protected] 35. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 36. [email protected] 37. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 38. [email protected] 39. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 40. [email protected] 41. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 42. [email protected] 43. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 44. [email protected] 45. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 46. [email protected] 47. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] 48. [email protected] 49. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DRESOLVED&bug_status=3D= CLOSED&chfield=3Dbug_status&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-14&chfieldto=3D2005-08-= 21&resolution=3DFIXED&[email protected] New bug rankings ---------------- The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during this period are: * Default Assignee for New Packages[50], with 35 new bugs[51] * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[52], with 15 new bugs[53] * Gentoo Sound Team[54], with 14 new bugs[55] * Mozilla Gentoo Team[56], with 8 new bugs[57] * X11 External Driver Maintainers[58], with 6 new bugs[59] * Text-Markup Team[60], with 6 new bugs[61] * Python Gentoo Team[62], with 6 new bugs[63] * Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages[64], with 6 new bugs[65] 50. [email protected] 51. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 52. [email protected] 53. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 54. [email protected] 55. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 56. [email protected] 57. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 58. [email protected] 59. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 60. [email protected] 61. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 62. [email protected] 63. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] 64. [email protected] 65. http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=3DNEW&bug_status=3DASS= IGNED&bug_status=3DREOPENED&chfield=3Dassigned_to&chfieldfrom=3D2005-08-1= 4&chfieldto=3D2005-08-21&[email protected] =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 9. 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Other languages =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages= : * Danish[67] * Dutch[68] * English[69] * German[70] * French[71] * Japanese[72] * Italian[73] * Polish[74] * Portuguese (Brazil)[75] * Portuguese (Portugal)[76] * Russian[77] * Spanish[78] * Turkish[79] 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml 75. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt_br/gwn/gwn.xml 76. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml 77. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml 78. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml 79. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml Ulrich Plate <[email protected]> - Editor Patrick Lauer <[email protected]> - Author George Prowse <[email protected]> - Author Lars Weiler <[email protected]> - Author Chris White <[email protected]> - Author --=20 [email protected] mailing list