Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 7
Kurt Lieber <[email protected]> Mon, 17 Feb 2003 08:20:32 -0500
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.gentoo.weekly-news |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
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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 February 17th, 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
Summary
-------
* Catch Gentoo Zetagrid fever
* New rsync mirrors
* Gnome 2.2 now in Portage
Catch Gentoo Zetagrid Fever
---------------------------
We've reported[1] on the Zetagrid[2] project before. Recently, however,
the GLUE team broke the top 100 producers list[3] and, as of press time,
currently ranks 86th[4] on the list. Now, thanks to an ebuild in Portage,
along with a sample configuration file[5] from Michael's zetagrid site[6],
it's even easier for Gentoo users to donate their spare CPU cycles to the
GLUE team and help increase the chances of winning part of the $1,000,000
prize.
1. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030106-newsletter.xml#doc_chap4
2. http://zetagrid.net
3. http://www.zetagrid.net/servlet/service/statistic
4. http://www.zetagrid.net/servlet/service/producers?user=Michael+Imhof
5. http://cvs.gentoo.org/~tantive/zeta.cfg
6. http://cvs.gentoo.org/~tantive/
New rsync mirrors.
------------------
After our recent report[7] on the Gentoo mirror slowdowns, several Gentoo
users stepped forward with offers to set up new Gentoo Linux mirrors, both
for the Portage tree, as well as the source packages. The result has been
a significant increase in the number of download mirrors[8] available to
the Gentoo community.
7.
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030203-newsletter.xml#doc_chap1_sect3
8. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
Guidelines are available for users who wish to set up public mirrors to
help the Gentoo Linux project, including instructions for setting up
rsync[9] mirrors, which just mirror the Portage tree as well as
instructions for setting up source[10] mirrors, which mirror the actual
source tarballs of the various packages contained within Portage.
9. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/rsync.xml
10. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/source_mirrors.xml
GNOME 2.2 now in Portage
------------------------
GNOME 2.2 ebuilds were released to the Gentoo community early last week
and Gentoo GNOME users everywhere rejoiced at the new features like
multihead support[11], unified theming[12] and the official inclusion of
the Metacity window manager[13]. A complete list of features and changes
can be found in the GNOME 2.2 release notes[14].
11. http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/notes/rnmultihead.html
12. http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/notes/rnthemes.html
13. http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/notes/rnwm.html
14. http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/notes/
==================
2. Gentoo Security
==================
Summary
-------
* GLSA
* New Security Bug Reports
GLSA
----
There were no new security alerts issued in the past week.
New Security Bug Reports
------------------------
The following new security-related bug reports were submitted to the
bugzilla database this week:
* net-mail/w3m[15]
* syslinux 2.02[16]
15. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15684
16. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15652
=================================
3. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
Dan Armak
There's been much rejoicing among KDE users lately because of the release
of KDE 3.1, and this week we feature one of the developers responsible for
bringing it to Gentoo: Dan Armak[17], KDE team leader. Dan began using
Gentoo back when you had to scroll halfway down a list of more than a
hundred minor and specialized distros to even see it mentioned anywhere,
and seeing that it was the kind of power-user distro he was looking for,
he started using it and writing ebuilds for some important apps he needed,
like LyX. It was around this time that Dan came up with the idea for CVS
ebuilds and eclasses in general and, before he knew it, got invited to
become a developer. Dan wrote the KDE eclasses(Dan shudders at the thought
of the old KDE ebuilds, which contained most of the code that the KDE
eclasses do today) and the cvs.eclass, and now maintains both. Thanks to
these eclasses Dan doesn't have to do too much work with miscellaneous KDE
packages (unless there's a bug in the source that they need to fix) so
kde-base (along with koffice and kdevelop) takes up most of Dan and the
other KDE maintainers' time.
17. [email protected]
Besides KDE, some of Dan's favorite pieces of software include mc, Lyx (a
front-end to LaTeX), bash, and epsxe. His Toshiba laptop is out for
repairs at the moment, but he's borrowing a nice Athlon with lots of RAM
from a friend, as well as a panoply of ancient boxen for parts and
doorstops. Dan lives in Matan, a smallish town in Israel, and is a student
- at Ami Asaf high school during the day and at the Open University in the
afternoon. Next year, he'll be going into the army, but hopes to find a
nice job in the tech/computers unit of the IDF, where he'll be free to
preach Gentoo. His hobbies include Squaresoft RPGs, reading, writing,
observing Interesting People, and OSS evangelism toward his friends.
=========================
4. Heard In The Community
=========================
Web Forums
----------
New powerbooks and Gentoo PPC
Apple Computers has whetted the appetite of its fans with the new 12 and
17 inch Powerbooks last month, and now they're finally shipping all over
the place. Gentoo PPC users aren't any less excited, they have begun
gathering their troops to install Linux as soon as their new gadgets
arrive in the mail. After some initial skepticism about kernel support for
the new hardware it seems like a quick solution may be available after
all:
* 12" Powerbook[18]
* new 17 inch powerbooks wow[19]
18. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=34909
19. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=29173
Bob the Ebuilder
There have been several attempts by Gentoo parents to gather information
about Linux software for younger children in the past. A few notoriously
addictive games and educational applications for Linux have always been
available as ebuilds, but many other alternatives to the huge Windows
market for kiddie progs are still out there waiting to be Gentooified. And
last week, a collective "Bob the Ebuilder" initiative has come forth that
promises to catch up quickly with some of the things missing in Portage.
The official thread to post requests, announce ebuilds checked into
bugs.gentoo.org, and feedback from beta testers in the age bracket 3-10 is
here:
* Gentoo for children (request for ebuilders)[20]
20. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=13413
Gentoo Musicians
Linux user profiles are as varied as in any other random group of people.
Just because we happen to use the same operating system doesn't mean
necessarily that we have anything else in common. As it turns out, some
people do, though: a planetary convention of musicians using Gentoo Linux
has built up in the Forums, thrown together by coincidence, united in
their effort to come up with something special. One of the possible
results of this thread (besides mentions of the most obscure software
names ever) may well be a Gentoone on the LiveCD, something to hum along
during installation:
* Gentoo Musicians[21]
21. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=21805
Thirty Minutes...
...is all it takes to write an ebuild for a missing window manager in
Gentoo. What started as an innocent question about Wing's Desktop Manager
and why it wasn't available as an ebuild, has become a fine example of how
someone with the right skill set and half an hour of spare time on their
hands can remedy that on the spot. Have a look at this thread:
* why is there no wdm ebuild?[22]
22. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=35189
gentoo-user
-----------
'gcc: command not found'
A lot of talk about gcc not being available to the system was happening on
gentoo-user this week. One thread entitled 'distcc'[23] began with the
author's solution to the 'gcc: command not found' problem. The root of the
issue is caused by attempting to invoke gcc in a shell where /etc/profile
isn't being sourced. Three unique solutions were offered within this
thread alone! Nick Jones contributed the simplest one, being 'su -'. A
monumental strength and joy of Gentoo is the encouragement of
customization, thus choose whichever soltuion best fits your needs.
23. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104482994004245&w=2
All kinds of tars make up the pit
Brett Holcomb, a gentoo-user veteran, questioned[24] whether Gentoo's
"tar" command was a modified version of the one on the GNU site. Tar is
the standard *nix utility for compressing all kinds of data into a single
file called an archive. Interesting enough, the responses made clear that
the tar command does vary from distro to distro. The switches, especially
dealing with bzip2 and gzip, will often vary depending on the distro's
compile of the tar sources. This shouldn't present itself as a problem as
it is easily worked around through the use of pipes and standalone
utilities.
24. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104470482011940&w=2
gentoo-dev
----------
ProPolice enabled gcc/gentoo.
Matt Rickard has implemented[25] a ProPolice[26] patched GCC ebuild. He
says[27]: "This patch will build stack-smashing protection into your code
at compile time. This is an excellent security measure -- one that has
just recently been implemented in OpenBSD-current. It can be enabled
explicitly through the CFLAG -fstack-protector or turned on by default
with a separate patch." Dylan Carlson pointed out that there is a bug[28]
filed regarding this topic.
25. http://frogger974.homelinux.org/gentoo_propolice.html
26. http://www.trl.ibm.com/projects/security/ssp/
27. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6984
28. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13610
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
Gentoo Vienna Meeting
Meetings of the Austrian branch of Gentooism have started happening in
July last year, but sort of went out of fashion. Last week, the official
Viennese Gentoo users[29] coordination thread has started an attempt to
revive the tradition and is making plans for the next gathering. It'll be
soon, but a date hasn't been fixed yet, so you can still make your
preferences heard.
29. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=9161
Pinguino Papua
tirantloblanc[30] has traced the official Spanish name for the Gentoo
penguin, and discovered that flocks of this fastest swimmer among birds
are living in the southernmost parts of Chile. The Pinguino Papua's
largest colonies, however, live on the Falk^H^H^H^HMalvinas islands off
the coast of Argentina. Which presumably makes them UK citizens, but as an
open source bird rather unlikely to become a sufficient reason for
anything more serious than a flame war...
30. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=35510
================
6. Portage Watch
================
The following stable packages were added to portage this week
-------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the pending release of 1.4_final, the Portage tree is currently
frozen. As such, no new stable packages were introduced to Portage this
week
Updates to notable packages
---------------------------
* gnome-base/gnome - gnome-2.2-r1.ebuild;
* sys-kernel/* - ac-sources-2.4.21_pre4-r3.ebuild;
ac-sources-2.4.21_pre4-r4.ebuild; ck-sources-2.4.20-r3.ebuild;
development-sources-2.5.60-r1.ebuild; development-sources-2.5.60.ebuild;
hppa-sources-2.4.20_p23.ebuild; hppa-sources-2.4.20_p24.ebuild;
hppa-sources-2.4.20_p26.ebuild; mjc-sources-2.5.59-r1.ebuild;
ppc-sources-2.4.20-r3.ebuild; rsbac-sources-2.4.20.ebuild;
wolk-sources-4.0_pre10.ebuild;
* dev-php/php - php-4.3.0-r3.ebuild; php-4.3.0-r4.ebuild;
* app-admin/gentoolkit - gentoolkit-0.1.18-r1.ebuild;
gentoolkit-0.1.18.ebuild;
===========
7. 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. In the last 7 days, activity on the site has resulted
in:
* 270 new bugs this week
* 191 bugs closed this week
* 1680 total bugs currently marked 'new'
* 574 total bugs curently assigned to developers
* 51 bugs that were previously closed have been reopened.
There are currently 2305 bugs open in bugzilla. Of these: 45 are labelled
'blocker', 82 are labelled 'critical', and 160 are labelled 'major'.
31. http://bugs.gentoo.org
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs this week are:
* Seemant Kulleen[32], with 33 closed bugs[33]
* The KDE Team[34], with 18 closed bugs[35]
* Nick Hadaway[36], with 15 closed bugs[37]
* Seth Chandler[38], with 12 closed bugs[39]
* M. Holzer[40], with 11 closed bugs[41]
32. [email protected]
33.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&resolution=FIXED&assi
gned_to=seemant%40gentoo.org
34. [email protected]
35.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&resolution=FIXED&assi
gned_to=kde%40gentoo.org
36. [email protected]
37.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&resolution=FIXED&assi
gned_to=raker%40gentoo.org
38. [email protected]
39.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&resolution=FIXED&assi
gned_to=sethbc%40gentoo.org
40. [email protected]
41.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&resolution=FIXED&assi
gned_to=mholzer%40gentoo.org
New Bug Rankings
----------------
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs this
week are:
* Martin Schlemmer[42], with 17 new bugs[43]
* The Gnome Team[44], with 16 new bugs[45]
* Nicholas Jones[46], with 14 new bugs[47]
* Ryan Phillips[48], with 14 new bugs[49]
* Seemant Kulleen[50], with 14 new bugs[51]
42. [email protected]
43.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&=&a
ssigned_to=azarah%40gentoo.org
44. [email protected]
45.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&=&a
ssigned_to=gnome%40gentoo.org
46. [email protected]
47.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&=&a
ssigned_to=carpaski%40gentoo.org
48. [email protected]
49.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&=&a
ssigned_to=rphillips%40gentoo.org
50. [email protected]
51.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-02-08&chfieldto=Now&=&a
ssigned_to=seemant%40gentoo.org
==================
8. Tips and Tricks
==================
Bash Commands and Tricks
Just about all Gentoo user make use of the command line - this week
focuses on some little-known navigation commands that may make your life
easier.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 8.1: |
| Bash Key Combinations |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
|Alt+B Go back one word |
|Alt+F Go forth one word |
|Ctrl+K Delete everything from the cursor to the end of the line |
|Ctrl+U Delete everything from the cursor to the beginning of the line |
|Ctrl+Y Paste deleted characters at the current position |
|Ctrl+H Delete one character |
|Ctrl+L Clean screen |
|Ctrl+P Go to the previous history entry |
|Ctrl+N Go to the next history entry |
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also you can use !word to re-execute the last command beginning with
"word".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 8.1: |
| Using !word |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
|$ gcc -o test test.c |
|$ !gcc |
|gcc -o test test.c |
|$ |
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever get tired of typing long directory names? Try using the directory
stack with the commands pushd, popd, and dirs. THe directory stack allows
you to keep a list of directories and navigate between them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 8.1: |
| The directory stack |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
|pushd adds a directory |
|~:$ pushd /usr/portage |
|dirs lists all directories on the stack |
|~:$ dirs |
|/usr/portage ~ |
|And popd removes the top entry and cd's to that directory |
|~:$ popd |
|/usr/portage:$ |
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The idea for this weeks tip came from Pavel Tcholakov and was submitted to
the GWN feedback list.
==========================
9. Moves, Adds and Changes
==========================
Moves
-----
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team:
* none this week
Adds
----
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo team:
* Guy Martin (GMSoft) -- Gentoo/HPPA
* Graham Forest (vladimir) -- Gentoo/PPC
* Bartosch Pixa (DarkSpecter) -- Gentoo/PPC
Changes
-------
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project.
* none this week
=====================
10. Contribute to GWN
=====================
Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an
email[52].
52. [email protected]
================
11. GWN Feedback
================
Please send us your feedback[53] and help make GWN better.
53. [email protected]
===================
12. Other Languages
===================
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
* Dutch
* English
* German
* French
* Japanese
* Italian
* Portuguese (Brazil)
* Portuguese (Portugal)
* Spanish
Kurt Lieber <[email protected]> - Editor
AJ Armstrong <[email protected]> - Contributor
Brice Burgess <[email protected]> - Contributor
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Contributor
Rafael Cordones Marcos <[email protected]> - Contributor
David Narayan <[email protected]> - Contributor
Ulrich Plate <[email protected]> - Contributor
Peter Sharp <[email protected]> - Contributor
Mathy Vanvoorden <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Tom Van Laerhoven <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Roel Adriaans <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Peter Dijkstra <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Nicolas Ledez <[email protected]> - French Translation
Guillaume Plessis <[email protected]> - French Translation
Eric St-Georges <[email protected]> - French Translation
John Berry <[email protected]> - French Translation
Martin Prieto <[email protected]> - French Translation
Michael Kohl <[email protected]> - German Translation
Steffen Lassahn <[email protected]> - German Translation
Matthias F. Brandstetter <[email protected]> - German Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Daniel Ketel <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yoshiaki Hagihara <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Andy Hunne <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil)
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal)
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal)
Translation
Ricardo Jorge Louro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal)
Translation
Lanark <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Rafael Cordones Marcos <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Sergio Gómez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Pablo Pita Leira <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Tirant <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Jaime Freire <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Lucas Sallovitz <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
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