[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 11 April 2005

[Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org>]

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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 11 April 2005.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Web site face lift
------------------
  
Xavier Neys[1]has applied some cosmetic touches to the official Gentoo 
website. While the redesign of the site is still being worked on, the list 
of changes[2] reveals bug fixes for specific browser problems, the 
introduction of justified text -- a much needed spring cleaning that irons 
out some inconsistencies in the color scheme, prevents code samples from 
running off the right edge of your screen, and includes other less visible 
adjustments. 

 1. neysx@gentoo.org
 2. http://www.gentoo.org/news/20050408-cosmetics.xml
 
Just in case the updates have created problems for you rather than solved 
the ones you may have had, please use Gentoo's bugzilla to file a bug 
report.
    
Forum staff changes
-------------------
  
Great reshuffle of moderators and admins over at the Forums these days: 
Administrator ian! (Christian Hartmann) left the Gentoo project two weeks 
ago, and also retired from his Forums duties. Thanks again for all the 
work he did! To compensate for ian! leaving, moderators amne (Wernfried 
Haas), kallamej (Anders Hellgren) and pilla (Mauricio Lima Pilla) have 
become administrators, so no one needs to worry about spammers not getting 
banned or problems with inactive accounts not getting fixed in a timely 
manner. tomk (Tom Knight) also joined the administrator team, mainly to 
resume ian's work on improving the forums. Administrating one of the 
largest user communities takes a lot of time, so it's good to hear that 
two new global moderators, Maedhros (Jonathan Coome) and curtis119 
(Michael Curtis Napier) have joined the moderator ranks: Maedhros is known 
for being helpful in a lot of the support forums, curtis119 mostly for his 
presence among the OTW community. no4b (Adrian "Abaddon" Czerniak) and 
fallow (Michal Kaczmarski) retired from their jobs as moderators in the 
Polish forum, being replaced by arsen (Andrzej Olender) and _troll_ 
(Przemysław Maciąg), and last but not least slick (Uwe Hoelzel) joined the 
German forum moderator team. Welcome on board, Gentoomen!
   
========================
2. Developer of the week
========================
  
"Gentoo has the power to rule the world, but we're just not in the right 
place yet." -- Jochen Maes (sejo)
---------------------------------
  
Figure 2.1: Jochen Maes aka SeJo
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050411_sejo.jpg
 
This week's special is SeJo, known in real life as Jochen Maes, one of our 
Belgian developers (living in Leuven at the moment). He fills many roles 
in Gentoo: Developer relations, Gentoo/Java recruiter, Java/PPC lead, GLSA 
padawan, PPC security liaison (together with hansmi[3]). His Gentoo-work 
is, obviously, recruiting, drafting GLSA, working on Java ebuilds, stable 
marking security bugs and general bugsquatting. Asked what he considers to 
be the biggest OpenSource Project that lives, he points to himself -- 
albeit that statement leaves his audience wondering under what conditions 
the source code is made available. 

 3. hansmi@gentoo.org
 
The aquisition of the IBM-JRE/JDK license and adding it to the portage 
tree as well as his work on porting Java 1.5 to PPC are the things he is 
most proud of in Gentoo. His "normal" work is being done as a general 
Linux specialist at the French IT-group Bull[4], where he does everything 
even remotely Linux- and VMware-related. His impressive skills are 
self-taught, but he attends an evening school to get a bachelor in 
computer science, which should be done by next year. After that he intends 
to study Japanese... 

 4. http://www.bull.com/
 
"Mozilla, Eclipse, pornview, vi, screen and definitely irssi!" are his 
favourite applications, running mostly on his Powerbook G4 15" with 1.5GB 
(!) of memory. Other hardware is a Pegasos PPC, two Sun Ultra10, a Sun 
Ultra5 and a Compaq Proliant 3000R, hosted in fellow Belgian Gentoo 
developer pvdabeels[5] basement. Although he seems to be unaware of life 
outside the computer, he describes the beginning of a normal day as "when 
I first get up I take a smoke and make some decaf. Then I kiss my 
girlfriend good morning and all those things, and after that it's off to 
work." His motivation shows in his favourite quote, borrowed from 
Shakespeare's play Henry VI: "Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends" 
(Part1, act III, scene III). 

 5. pvdabeel@gentoo.org
    
=========================
3. Heard in the community
=========================
  
Web forums
----------
  
Banned from OTW
 

 
 * Bans from OTW[6] 
 6. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-317818.html

    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Virtuals revisited (Round 3)
 
Jason Stubbs[7] continues what he started a long time ago: "Back in my 
quest to rid the tree of the evil virtuals and their plot to destroy my 
mind. I think I've covered all bases with this one." For a longer 
explanation of the issue please read the whole mail and the discussion it 
generated. 

 7. jstubbs@gentoo.org
 
 * Virtuals revisited [8] 
 8. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26840

 
Kernel/Header upgrades & confusion
 
John Mylchreest[9] writes: "To all of you who have had issues with the 
kernel upgrade, or have confusions over the whole process, etc; Can I 
please point you towards 
http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/johnm/2005/04/05/kernel_sources" 

 9. johnm@gentoo.org
 
 * Kernel/Header upgrades & confusion [10] 
 *  johnm's explanatory blog entry[11] 
 10. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26808
 11. http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/johnm/2005/04/05/kernel_sources

 
make.profile symlink problems
 
Some user who hadn't updated their Gentoo systems in a while may run into 
troubles because the 1.4 profiles have been deprecated. This combined with 
old versions of portage being unable to use cascading profiles makes 
upgrading a lot more ... interesting. 
 
 * make.profile symlink problems [12] 
 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26892

   
=======================
4. Gentoo International
=======================
  
UK: Preparations for UK LWE
---------------------------
  
Rob Holland[13] has assumed the role of coordinator for the group of 
UK-based Gentoo developers and supporters who are busy preparing for the 
London edition of the Linux World Expo to be held in October. While 
there's still plenty of time for preparations, the first information about 
the event and a call for contributors[14] has already been posted: on a 
freshly-baked Gentoo UK web server that doesn't hold much information yet, 
but is scheduled to evolve into the UK's community web site for Gentoo 
Linux. 

 13. tigger@gentoo.org
 14. http://gentoo.linux.co.uk/events/linuxworld05/
    
Germany: Too late to save a drowning Gentoo
-------------------------------------------
  
It may look like a belated April fool's joke, but it's real -- and almost 
usable... Markus Leonhardt, a long-term Gentoo user and Forum regular has 
stripped his desktop PC of its case and lowered it into a basin full of 
vegetable oil. His website[15] is entirely in German, but the pictures are 
rather self-explaining. 

 15. http://www.markusleonhardt.de/oelbilder.html
 
Figure 4.1: Gentoo host 
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050411_oil.jpg
 
Note: Photo courtesy of Markus Leonhardt
    
======================
5. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
NewsForge (4 April 2005)
------------------------
  
Jem Matzan had an article[16] about the state of OS development for 64-bit 
architectures in NewsForge last week, giving a short introduction to the 
benefits of the AMD64 and EM64T instruction set architectures. Generally 
upbeat about the ease of development for the platform, he finds Linux and 
FreeBSD maturing particularly well. "While at first it was difficult to 
find many programs that would compile for 64-bit, today you can have a 
complete desktop system that is entirely 64-bit without making too many 
sacrifices," says the author, pointing to Gentoo Linux as one of the 
sources for operational environments on 64-bit computers. 

 16. 
http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/03/30/1242206&tid=152&tid=2&tid=150&tid=74
    
SYS-CON (11 March 2005)
-----------------------
  
"When I was younger, I ran out to buy the latest Led Zeppelin album - now 
I run out to get the latest build of Gentoo or Hula," reminisces Kevin 
Bedell[17], the author of a piece[18] on open-source developers who he 
thinks have become the same type of role models like the rock stars of his 
youth. Quoting people who write software for commercial companies, but 
secretely dream of becoming open source heroes, the article may have been 
written with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, the comments look mostly like 
people are taking the idea quite seriously. 

 17. kevin@linuxworld.com
 18. http://www.linuxworld.com/story/49072.htm
    
===========================
6. Moves, adds, and changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 
 * Michael Tindal  
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team: 
 
 * None this week 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * Sven Vermeulen (swift) - Stepped down from the PR lead role  
    
==================
7. Gentoo security
==================
  
Gaim: Multiple Denial of Service issues
---------------------------------------
  
Multiple vulnerabilities have been found in Gaim which could allow a 
remote attacker to crash the application. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[19] 

 19. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-03.xml
    
phpWebSite: Arbitrary PHP execution and path disclosure
-------------------------------------------------------
  
Remote attackers can upload and execute arbitrary PHP scripts, another 
flaw reveals the full path of scripts. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[20] 

 20. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-04.xml
    
xli, xloadimage: Multiple vulnerabilities
-----------------------------------------
  
xli and xloadimage are vulnerable to multiple issues, potentially leading 
to the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[21] 

 21. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-05.xml
    
BidWatcher: Format string vulnerability
---------------------------------------
  
BidWatcher is vulnerable to a format string vulnerability, potentially 
allowing arbitrary code execution. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[22] 

 22. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-06.xml
    
phpMyAdmin: Multiple vulnerabilities
------------------------------------
  
phpMyAdmin contains multiple vulnerabilities that could lead to command 
execution, XSS issues and bypass of security restrictions. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[23] 

 23. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-07.xml
    
===========
8. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed bug ranking 
 * New bug rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[24]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 03 April 2005 and 10 April 2005, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 24. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 798 new bugs during this period 
 * 471 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 23 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 8518 currently open bugs: 88 are labeled 'blocker', 247 are labeled 
'critical', and 634 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * AMD64 Porting Team[25], with 51 closed bugs[26]  
 * Xavier Neys[27], with 21 closed bugs[28]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[29], with 21 closed bugs[30]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[31], with 16 closed bugs[32]  
 * Sven Vermeulen[33], with 13 closed bugs[34]  
 * Java team[35], with 12 closed bugs[36]  
 * Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[37], with 11 closed bugs[38]  
 * Netmon Herd[39], with 11 closed bugs[40]  
 25. amd64@gentoo.org
 26. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 27. neysx@gentoo.org
 28. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@gentoo.org
 29. kde@gentoo.org
 30. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
 31. base-system@gentoo.org
 32. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
 33. swift@gentoo.org
 34. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=swift@gentoo.org
 35. java@gentoo.org
 36. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=java@gentoo.org
 37. toolchain@gentoo.org
 38. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=toolchain@gentoo.org
 39. netmon@gentoo.org
 40. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=netmon@gentoo.org

    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Gentoo Sound Team[41], with 24 new bugs[42]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[43], with 14 new bugs[44]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[45], with 13 new bugs[46]  
 * media-video herd[47], with 11 new bugs[48]  
 * Desktop Misc. Team[49], with 11 new bugs[50]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[51], with 10 new 
bugs[52]  
 * Text-Markup Team[53], with 9 new bugs[54]  
 * Mozilla Gentoo Team[55], with 9 new bugs[56]  
 41. sound@gentoo.org
 42. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
 43. kde@gentoo.org
 44. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
 45. gnome@gentoo.org
 46. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=gnome@gentoo.org
 47. media-video@gentoo.org
 48. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=media-video@gentoo.org
 49. desktop-misc@gentoo.org
 50. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=desktop-misc@gentoo.org
 51. kernel@gentoo.org
 52. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=kernel@gentoo.org
 53. text-markup@gentoo.org
 54. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=text-markup@gentoo.org
 55. mozilla@gentoo.org
 56. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-04-03&chfieldto=2005-04-10&assigned_to=mozilla@gentoo.org

    
====================
9. Contribute to GWN
====================
   
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email[57]. 

 57. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================
10. GWN feedback
================
   
Please send us your feedback[58] and help make the GWN better.

 58. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================================
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================================
   
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===================
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===================
   
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 59. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
 60. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml
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Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Editor
Wernfried Haas <w.haas@xover.htu.tuwien.ac.at> - Author
Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org> - Author

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