Gentoo Weekly Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 16

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of April 19th, 2004.
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==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Transition to NFP organization
------------------------------
  
Daniel Robbins[1], chief architect of Gentoo Linux is now heading an 
effort to make a transition to a NFP (not-for-profit) organization. The 
gentoo-nfp mailing list has been set up and discussion is already 
underway; the list has been archived[2], and is open to subscription: 
those interested should send a mail to [email protected]. 
Daniel is targeting the end of April for finalizing the NFP effort, and 
has submitted a detailed proposal[3] to the mailing list, which has been 
discussed and clarified there. 

 1. [email protected]
 2. http://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.nfp/
 3. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.nfp/25
 
In the proposal, Gentoo Foundation, Inc. will hold the intellectual 
property of the project. It'll have a board of trustees, and will be an 
open membership trade association. The initial board of trustees will 
serve for a year, after which a new one will be elected. The Gentoo Store 
will pay for the establishment of this not-for-profit, as well as for the 
Gentoo Foundation's legal fees in applying for 501(c)(6) federal 
association status, which is expected to take around $5000. In addition, 
Daniel will retain royalty-free rights to use of the "Gentoo" trademark 
and the "G" logo, allowing him to continue him to run the Gentoo Store if 
he wants, in order to support his family and attempt to pay some of the 
$20,000 in debt he accumulated during his tenure as Chief Architect. 
    
==================
2. Gentoo Security
==================
  
CVS Server and Client Vulnerabilities
-------------------------------------
  
There are two vulnerabilities in CVS; one in the server and one in the 
client. These vulnerabilities allow the reading and writing of arbitrary 
files on both client and server. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[4] 

 4. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200404-13.xml
    
Multiple format string vulnerabilities in cadaver
-------------------------------------------------
  
There are multiple format string vulnerabilities in the neon library used 
in cadaver, possibly leading to execution of arbitrary code when connected 
to a malicious server. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[5] 

 5. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200404-14.xml
    
XChat 2.0.x SOCKS5 Vulnerability
--------------------------------
  
XChat is vulnerable to a stack overflow that may allow a remote attacker 
to run arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[6] 

 6. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200404-15.xml
    
Multiple new security vulnerabilities in monit
----------------------------------------------
  
Two new vulnerabilities have been found in the HTTP interface of monit, 
possibly leading to denial of service or execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[7] 

 7. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200404-16.xml
    
=================================
3. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
  
Lance Albertson
---------------
  
Figure 3.1: Lance Albertson (aka ramereth)
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20040419_ramereth.jpg
 
This week we are featuring Lance Albertson [8] (aka ramereth), who is 
doing general system administration and monitoring for Gentoo. This 
involves managing monitoring tools for the Infrastructure Project[9], such 
as Nagios[10] server and implementation, Catci graphs, and whateverelse 
they come up with. He also helps with general system administration using 
cfengine and other tools. Furthermore, he helps infrastructure team in 
setting up new servers, when such need arises. He is making his first 
steps in ebuild maintenance by helping out with WOLK Kernel[11] and 
various ebuilds, which belong to netmon herd. Apart from all this Lance is 
taking part in Gentoo server project, throwing ideas and suggesting 
strategies.

 8. [email protected]
 9. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/infrastructure/index.xml
 10. http://www.nagios.org
 11. http://wolk.sourceforge.net/
 
Lance considers himself to be new to Linux, as his first serious 
experience with this OS started in January 2001. His first distro was 
Mandrake, on which he applied a so called "let's install everything 
strategy". However, he admits that he got bored with it and switched to 
Debian, which was a suggestion of his boss. Lance came across Gentoo 
sometimes in 2002, seeing his friend building it on a dual Pentium Pro 
box. In the beginning he found the idea to be "nuts" but 6 months later 
decided to give it a try (it was version 1.2 at a time), and as he says 
"fell in love instantly".
 
ramereth started his way to becoming a dev on #gentoo-server channel on 
freenode, where he was spending some time. That was when  Kurt Lieber[12] 
asked him if he wanted to help Gentoo with Nagios implementation.

 12. [email protected]
 
He is most proud of the project he did once for the school. That was an 
irc- like server/client with xml-based message format. The commands where 
based on IRC standard, so one could join the channel become an op, 
kick/ban people etc. Moreover he was using flashes for the client which 
made it even more interesting. Even though he had a few known bugs, he 
still got a straight 'A' on it.
 
There are about 15 computers in his house, including x86/SPARC/PPC/Alpha, 
and all those he ever used run Gentoo. Lance prefers Gnome[13] desktop and 
first things he runs are evolution[14], gaim[15] and xterms. cfengine[16], 
irssi[17], screen[18], nagios[19] and cacti[20] are among his favorite 
tools.

 13. http://www.gnome. org
 14. http://www. ximian.com/
 15. http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
 16. http://www.iu.hio.no/cfengine/
 17. http://irssi.org/
 18. http://www.gnu.org/ software/screen/
 19. http://www.nagios.org
 20. http://www.raxnet.net/products/cacti/
 
Lance was attending a school school at Kansas State University, from which 
he graduated in May 2003 with a degree in Agricultural Technology 
Management with minors in Agronomy and Computer Science. Now he is working 
for RHS Inc., doing technical documentation and IT security. Apart from 
that he is also doing full- time farming with his family. Driving semi 
truck, combine and various tracktors is also on list of his skills.
 
When he doesn't work and doesn't do anything for Gentoo, Lance enjoys 
playing trumpet in jazz ensembles. He has been in the top big band jazz 
ensemble at k- state for several years plus was in the latin jazz combo. 
Also he likes playing racquetball, poker and hanging out with his friends. 
Now he lives in his own house in a small community Hiawatha, which is in 
northeast of Kansas. Though he considers his life to "laid back" it's 
quite easy to get away from it, cause Hiawatha is just two hours from 
Kansas City. And he does actually go there quite often! His favorite quote 
is "Where ever you go, there you are".
 
When I asked Lance to give me a sentence about Gentoo, he said: "Gentoo is 
the solution to total control."
    
=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================
  
Web Forums
----------
  
Gentooified coLinux 
 
In an bid to add yet another way to run Gentoo under impossible 
circumstances, Danish Gentoo user janlaur[21] has volunteered a Howto on 
running Gentoo Linux as a native Windows thread, using coLinux (and 
involving a complete Gentoo installation contained in a 2 GB image file to 
be downloaded at some point). Anyone patient enough to try this, check the 
thread in the Documentation, Tips & Tricks section: 

 21. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22752
 
 * HOWTO coLinux with gentoo[22] 
 22. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=163154
 
New Finnish Forum 
 
The Great Scandinavian Unification that the Forums saw about a year ago 
was intended to create a lively atmosphere among the nordic faction of 
Gentooism, mostly under the impression that Swedish was sort of a lingua 
franca for most of the region and looked like a good common denominator at 
first. But now the Finnish users, linguistically very different from, err, 
most of the planet's other humanoids, have achieved critical mass and 
decided they deserve a forum in their own language. Pleased to announce 
jaska[23] and Mikessu[24] as the new forum's inaugural moderators, 
tervetuloa 'n all that: 

 23. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22041
 24. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=32106
 
 * Finnish Gento Forum[25] 
 25. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?f=47
    
gentoo-user
-----------
  
Linux Partiton Resizing Utilities  
 
There are plenty of commercial partition-resizing utilities on the market. 
But what about Linux ones? Here's a  thread[26] that talks about 
commercial and free utilities for all your resizing needs. 

 26. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/75114
 
Ebuild overflow?  
 
Some capable Gentoo users have noticed that user-contributed ebuilds have  
not[27] been making their way into Portage on a timely basis. It comes 
down to developer overload, so if you've got some free time... become a 
Gentoo Package maintainer! 

 27. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/75545
    
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
   
Italy/Switzerland: Joint GECHI and Ticino LUG Meeting 
 
On Friday and Saturday, 16 and 17 April, the notorious GECHI[28] group of 
Italian Gentoo users will join forces with the Ticino Linx User Group to 
organize a friendly event at one of three SUPSI (Scuola Universitaria 
Professionale della Svizzera Italiana) sites in Switzerland, this one 
located in a town called Manno, not far from the Italian border. Dates and 
times are to be taken with a grain of salt (check the TiLUG site[29] for 
details), but the Forum coordination thread[30] appears to have everything 
under control. And in any case, springtime in Ticino is supposed to be 
lovely....

 28. http://www.gechi.org/
 29. http://tilug.org/cms/index.php?ind=14
 30. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=157613
    
===========
6. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed Bug Ranking 
 * New Bug Rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[31]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 10 April 2004 and 16 April 2004, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 31. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 597 new bugs during this period 
 * 370 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 20 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 5615 currently open bugs: 122 are labeled 'blocker', 187 are 
labeled 'critical', and 455 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * AMD64 Porting Team[32], with 45 closed bugs[33]  
 * Gentoo Linux bug wranglers[34], with 27 closed bugs[35]  
 * x86 Kernel Team[36], with 19 closed bugs[37]  
 * Sven Vermeulen[38], with 18 closed bugs[39]  
 * Jeremy Huddleston[40], with 18 closed bugs[41]  
 * Gentoo Games[42], with 17 closed bugs[43]  
 * Portage team[44], with 16 closed bugs[45]  
 * Mirror Admins[46], with 15 closed bugs[47]  
 32. [email protected]
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 34. [email protected]
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 36. [email protected]
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 38. [email protected]
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 40. [email protected]
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 42. [email protected]
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 44. [email protected]
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 46. [email protected]
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04-16&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]

New Bug Rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Gentoo LiveCD Team[48], with 20 new bugs[49]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[50], with 18 new bugs[51]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[52], with 14 new bugs[53]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[54], with 12 new bugs[55]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[56], with 11 new bugs[57]  
 * Gentoo X-windows packagers[58], with 10 new bugs[59]  
 * Portage team[60], with 9 new bugs[61]  
 48. [email protected]
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 50. [email protected]
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 52. [email protected]
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 54. [email protected]
 55. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 56. [email protected]
 57. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 58. [email protected]
 59. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
 60. [email protected]
 61. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-04-10&chfieldto=2004-04
-16&[email protected]
    
==================
7. Tips and Tricks
==================
   
Tips and Tricks is on hiatus this week.
    
===========================
8. Moves, Adds, and Changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 * Seemant Kulleen (seemant) - Developer relations, Gentoo/X86, QA 
 * Brian Jackson (iggy) - BugDay coordinator, Courier, Gentoo/Cluster, 
Kernel 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
 
 * Daniel Drake (dsd_) - user relations 
 * Ferris McCormick (fmccor) - sparc 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * none this week 
    
====================
9. Contribute to GWN
====================
   
Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an 
email[62].

 62. [email protected]
    
================
10. GWN Feedback
================
   
Please send us your feedback[63] and help make the GWN better.

 63. [email protected]
    
================================
11. GWN Subscription Information
================================
   
To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
[email protected].
 
To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
[email protected] from the email address you are 
subscribed under.
    
===================
12. Other Languages
===================
   
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Danish[64] 
 * Dutch[65] 
 * English[66] 
 * German[67] 
 * French[68] 
 * Japanese[69] 
 * Italian[70] 
 * Polish[71] 
 * Portuguese (Brazil)[72] 
 * Portuguese (Portugal)[73] 
 * Russian[74] 
 * Spanish[75] 
 * Turkish[76] 
 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/be/gwn/gwn.xml
 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/br/gwn/gwn.xml
 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
 75. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 76. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml

   
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Editor
AJ Armstrong <[email protected]> - Contributor
Brian Downey <[email protected]> - Contributor
Luke Giuliani <[email protected]> - Contributor
Grant Goodyear <[email protected]> - Contributor
Aron Griffis <[email protected]> - Contributor
Stuart Herbert <[email protected]> - Contributor
Kurt Lieber <[email protected]> - Contributor
Rafael Cordones Marcos <[email protected]> - Contributor
David Narayan <[email protected]> - Contributor
David Nielsen <[email protected]> - Contributor
Ulrich Plate <[email protected]> - Contributor
Simon Holm Thagersen <[email protected]> - Danish Translation
Jesper Brodersen <[email protected]> - Danish Translation
Arne Mejlholm <[email protected]> - Danish Translation
Hendrik Eeckhaut <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Jorn Eilander <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Bernard Kerckenaere <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Peter ter Borg <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Jochen Maes <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Roderick Goessen <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Gerard van den Berg <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Matthieu Montaudouin <[email protected]> - French Translation
Xavier Neys <[email protected]> - French Translation
Martin Prieto <[email protected]> - French Translation
Antoine Raillon <[email protected]> - French Translation
Sebastien Cevey <[email protected]> - French Translation
Jean-Christophe Choisy <[email protected]> - French Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <[email protected]> - German Translation
Steffen Lassahn <[email protected]> - German Translation
Matthias F. Brandstetter <[email protected]> - German Translation
Lukas Domagala <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Scherbaum <[email protected]> - German Translation
Daniel Gerholdt <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marc Herren <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Matzat <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Stefano Lucidi <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Katuyuki Konno <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Hiroyuki Takeda <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Masato Hatakeyama <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Masayoshi Nakamura <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Tomoyuki Sakurai <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Lukasz Strzygowski <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Karol Goralski <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Atila "Jedi" Bohlke Vasconcelos <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Eduardo Belloti <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Jo??o Rafael Moraes Nicola <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Marcelo Gon??alves de Azambuja <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Otavio Rodolfo Piske <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Pablo N. Hess -- NatuNobilis <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Pedro de Medeiros <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Jos?? Costa <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Luis Medina <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Ricardo Loureiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Aleksandr Martyncev <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Sergey Galkin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Sergey Kuleshov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Alex Spirin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Denis Zaletov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Lanark <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Fernando J. Pereda <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Lluis Peinado Cifuentes <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Zephryn Xirdal T <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Guillermo Juarez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Jes??s Garc??a Crespo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Sergio G??mez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Aycan Irican <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Bugra Cakir <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Cagil Seker <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Emre Kazdagli <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Evrim Ulu <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Gursel Kaynak <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation

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