[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 6 June 2005

[Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org>]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 6 June 2005.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Python 2.4 to be unmasked
-------------------------
  
Bryan Østergaard (see below for his portrait) announces that python-2.4 
will be unmasked on Wednesday, 8 June. It's been masked for a long time to 
allow for proper testing and bugfixing. The Python herd members are now 
confident that there are no major bugs left. Details of what's new in 
Python-2.4 can be found at the official Python website[1]. 

 1. http://www.python.org/doc/2.4/whatsnew/whatsnew24.html
 
Please note that only ~arch users will be affected by the unmasking, and 
please remember to run the python-updater after updating Python to remerge 
all modules as neccessary. 
    
Busybox glitch contained
------------------------
  
As some of you may have noticed, the "rescue shell" was changed from sash 
to busybox a few days ago. This was motivated by the extra features and 
the extensibility of busybox, but on some systems it has lead to compile 
failures. Since busybox is now part of "system", it was emerged on every 
update, so all users were potentially affected. 
 
After some debugging the problem was identified as a bug in the stable 
toolchain related to the nptl and nptlonly USE flags which had been 
overlooked during the original testing. It is triggered by busybox being 
built as a static binary - if it isn't, it can't be used for recovery. 
This has been fixed now as far as we can tell. Sorry for the 
inconvenience! 
    
==============
2. Future zone
==============
  
Gentoo for Zaurus
-----------------
  
Figure 2.1: `emerge -B cpio` on a Sharp Zaurus
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050606_zaurus.png
 
The Gentoo for Zaurus[2] project is a port of Gentoo Linux and Portage in 
particular to the Zaurus family of PDAs from Japanese manufacturer Sharp. 
It is based on Anton Maslovsky's "cacko ROM", a replacement image for 
Sharp's own Linux implementation shipping with the various Zauri. Cacko 
ROM[3] tries to stay as close as possible to Sharp's original ROMs for 
maximum compatibility with the applications distributed by the 
manufacturer. Gentoo for Zaurus also makes use of the Emerde project[4], 
offering a Portage port for Slackware and other distributions. 

 2. gentooforzaurus.opensistemas.com
 3. http://my-zaurus.narod.ru/
 4. http://emerde.freaknet.org/
 
Gentoo for Zaurus can be mounted over NFS so no changes to a current 
configuration are needed. It includes a native gcc environment for ARM, 
the zgcc-3.3.1 cross compiler for the main PC, and X11 for testing 
applications. Most importantly, Opensistemas has developed a tool called 
tbz2ipk that converts Gentoo binaries from .tbz2 files to the Itsy Package 
management system format (.ipk) widely used on the Zaurus and other 
handhelds running Linux. Packages that have been compiled on Gentoo can 
thus be used on both Qtopia-based implementations such as Cacko or even 
the original Sharp ROMS, or more losely related alternative distributions 
like OpenZaurus. 
 
The project was started in December 2003. Gentoo was chosen due to its 
"compile all" nature (whcih helped a lot in porting), and because it 
seemed like the right thing to do. Since compiling needs lots of space an 
NFS mount of external disks is usually needed, but the new Zaurus SL-C3000 
(with a 4GB disk) could theoretically do everything locally. However, 
because the Zaurus is comparatively slow (featuring ARM Xscale processors 
currently maxing out at 400Mhz) a distcc setup is preconfigured. 
 
Opensistemas is providing hardware and people to support Gentoo/ARM as 
well as they can. They anticipate a release of Gentoo for Zaurus sometime 
around July if nothing goes terribly wrong. Among the new features will be 
a 2.6 kernel and a new glibc. Some additional documentation can be found 
at the OpenEmbedded website[5] (the successor to the Openzaurus 
distribution). If all goes as planned most core packages should be working 
well near the end of the year, and maybe ARM will be a fully supported 
architecture in Gentoo again. 

 5. http://www.openembedded.org
 
Note:  The Spanish consultancy Opensistemas recently announced a move to 
open the source of all their developments, not just Gentoo for Zaurus. CRM 
software SIC and proprietary modules for content management systems like 
OpenCMS and Typo3 will be placed under the GNU Public License, reports 
Diario TI (in Spanish).
    
========================
3. Developer of the week
========================
  
"What I love most about Gentoo: the flexibility of Portage and the great 
community" -- Bryan Østergaard
-------------------------------
  
Figure 3.1: Bryan Østergaard aka kloeri
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050606_kloeri.jpg
 
This week's featured dev is Bryan Østergaard, better known as kloeri[6]. 
Bryan is the organizer of Gentoo's monthly bugfix rally, the Bugday[7], 
and the maintainer of its website. Bugdays are organized each first 
Saturday of a month, when users and developers gather in an IRC channel 
that has been set aside for this purpose (#gentoo-bugday on 
irc.freenode.net), and spend the day tackling whatever problems have 
accumulated over the month. 

 6. kloeri@gentoo.org
 7. http://bugday.gentoo.org
 
Bryan is also co-leader of the Gentoo/Alpha project, a member of the 
Python herd and the IA64 team that takes care of the Itanium architecture 
in Gentoo -- and he just got appointed to the role of Gentoo's Apache team 
leader. He manages to keep a healthy balance between maintaining ebuilds 
on his own, and enjoying lots of opportunities to meet new people on IRC 
during bugdays. 
 
After finishing Advanced Computer Studies in 1999 kloeri[8] has been 
self-employed, working mostly as a network and server administrator, but 
he also does security and development work when needed. Like most other 
featured devs before him, kloeri has not worked much on other OSS projects 
yet, but he enjoys improving Gentoo (and especially Gentoo/Alpha). At the 
moment he lives in Denmark's capital Copenhagen. 

 8. kloeri@gentoo.org
 
As expected he uses an Alphaserver 800, but also two x86 laptops. These 
predominantly run things like screen, irssi, vim, bash and Portage. When 
he does use X (which is not so often) enlightenment is his preferred WM, 
but "there's not that much that text mode can't do", says Bryan. In the 
rare instances when he's not connected to his computers he enjoys cycling 
and watching movies with friends. Hardly surprising, as his motto is 
borrowed from Douglas Adams: "You live and learn. At any rate, you live." 
    
=========================
4. Heard in the community
=========================
  
Web forums
----------
  
Fresh stages for Cobalt Qube2/Raq2
 
Gentoo developper Stuart Longland[9] is looking for "brave users" to give 
his shiny new packages for MIPS machines a try. If you own a Cobalt Qube2 
or Raq2, here's where to put them to the test: 

 9. redhatter@gentoo.org
 
 * Gentoo Linux/MIPS for Cobalt -- Testers Needed [10]  
 10. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-343667.html

    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Calls for testers
 
Some packages are undergoing changes that might break things. To keep user 
frustration low the developers need some feedback on how the new packages 
behave - what better place to ask than on the developer mailinglist? 
 
 *  dhcpcd-1.3.22_p4-r10 testing request [11] 
 * webapp-config v1.11 - call for testers [12] 
 *  baselayout-1.11.12-r2 request for testers [13] 
 11. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28465
 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28411
 13. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28317

 
Package removals
 
Within a short timeframe a few warnings of removals of unmaintained and 
obsoleted packages happened: 
 
 * [RIP] Last rites for cinelerra. [14] 
 * Last rites: nss-mysql [15] 
 * Last rites: mail-filter/amavis [16] 
 *  media-sound/emu10k1 facing removal [17] 
 14. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28395
 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28438
 16. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28463
 17. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28470

 
More Spam! Now 30% less useful!
 
Following the search for Debian developers and other headhunter spam of 
the last weeks, this week gives us a wonderful example how spammers use 
more and more ressources to reach less people. Since Gentoo already has a 
forum one can only wonder what motivates people to ask people on a Gentoo 
list to join some obscure "Web Services Discussion Forum" ... 
 
 * teh sp@m [18] 
 18. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/28477

   
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
  
Japan: GentooJP Friday party fallout
------------------------------------
  
One retired and three active Gentoo developers, namely Masatomo 
Nakano[19], Matsuu Takuto[20], Jason Stubbs[21] and former dev Chris 
White[22] joined more than twenty other Gentooists for (American) food and 
drinks in Tokyo's Ginza district last Friday. The party was a subset of an 
annual Japanese "Open Source Party" where more than a hundred open-source 
developers and users gathered -- with one out of four attending the larger 
event already being a Gentooist. 

 19. nakano@gentoo.org
 20. matsuu@gentoo.org
 21. jstubbs@gentoo.org
 22. chriswhite@gentoo.org
 
At the private Gentoo party, the fan talk couldn't come to a timely end, 
so the party was ported to a second venue ("nijikai") in a Japanese pub. 
With the highly international crowd around the table, conversation was 
equally fluent in Japanese and English, centering around individual Gentoo 
stories, Japanese culture and various other topics. 
 
Next time you happen to be in Japan, please let the GentooJP people know 
in advance! The Japanese Gentooists are always looking for good excuses to 
stage a party... Subscribe to the (Japanese) gentoojp-misc@ml.gentoo.gr.jp 
mailing list, more information to be found at the GentooJP website[23]. 

 23. http://www.gentoo.gr.jp/jpmain/about-gentoojp.xml#doc_chap4
 
Figure 5.1: GentooJP drinking party in Tokyo
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050606_nomikai.jpg
 
Note: Left to right: nakano (on visit from the UK), matsuu, mudrii 
(spearheading the Romanian gentoo.ro, but a local Tokyoite), Tomoyuki 
Sakurai (GentooJP and GWN lead translator for Japanese), Chris White 
visiting from California, and jstubbs, Australian living in Japan.
    
Spain: "Massive Gentoo Install" in Lloret de Mar
------------------------------------------------
  
70 kilometres up the coast from Barcelona one of Spain's largest LAN 
parties is going to open its gates for the first time on 23 to 26 June 
2005. 3LP[24] is the cyberhome to this event taking place in the town of 
Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava. About 400 visitors are expected to get 
hooked up on roughly 4000 metres of CAT 5 cable, to play games, of course, 
but also to participate in a net-installation fest of several Linux 
distributions, including a "massive" Gentoo stage3 install, according to 
the organizers. Applications for one of the remaining seats in the gym 
used for this event can be made via the 3LP website.

 24. http://www.3lp.org
    
======================
6. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
Newsforge (25 May 2005)
-----------------------
  
Jem Matzan summarizes advice for users to help them down the stony road of 
tech support at a hardware or software vendor's helpdesk, or "no-help 
desk"[25], as he prefers to call it. Matzan offers tips on how to prevent 
help desks from weasling out of a "supported platform" issue, and he 
explicitly condones lying to the support person if it serves your cause: 
"If you're asked to restart for Windows changes to take effect, wait a 
reasonable amount of time before telling them that the system has rebooted 
successfully." He recommends camouflaging your real environment also in 
those rare cases when a company indeed supports Linux, as this is usually 
only valid for officially supported distributions: "The same technique 
applies: you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (or whatever is 
supported), not 64-bit Gentoo Linux or OpenBSD 3.7. Do not attempt to 
reason with support personnel."

 25.  http://business.newsforge.com/business/05/05/18/2033240.shtml?tid=3
    
===========================
7. Moves, adds, and changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 
 * None this week 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team: 
 
 * Colin Kingsley (tercel) - mirrorselect, miscellaneous ebuilds 
 * Stuart Longland (redhatter) - MIPS 
 * Kevin Quinn (kevquinn) - Hardened Gentoo 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * Bryan Østergaard (kloeri) - Apache lead 
 * Aaron Walker (ka0ttic) - joined the recruiters 
    
==================
8. Gentoo security
==================
  
Binutils, elfutils: Buffer overflow
-----------------------------------
  
Various utilities from the GNU Binutils and elfutils packages are 
vulnerable to a heap based buffer overflow, potentially resulting in the 
execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[26] 

 26. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200506-01.xml
    
===========
9. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed bug ranking 
 * New bug rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[27]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 29 May 2005 and 05 June 2005, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 27. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 729 new bugs during this period 
 * 402 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 33 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 8477 currently open bugs: 88 are labeled 'blocker', 216 are labeled 
'critical', and 610 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[28], with 17 closed bugs[29]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[30], with 16 closed bugs[31]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[32], with 16 closed bugs[33]  
 * Gentoo Web Application Packages Maintainers[34], with 15 closed 
bugs[35]  
 * Sven Vermeulen[36], with 14 closed bugs[37]  
 * Printing Team[38], with 13 closed bugs[39]  
 * Gentoo net-p2p team[40], with 13 closed bugs[41]  
 * Xavier Neys[42], with 12 closed bugs[43]  
 28. base-system@gentoo.org
 29. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
 30. kde@gentoo.org
 31. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
 32. gnome@gentoo.org
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@gentoo.org
 34. web-apps@gentoo.org
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=web-apps@gentoo.org
 36. swift@gentoo.org
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=swift@gentoo.org
 38. printing@gentoo.org
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=printing@gentoo.org
 40. net-p2p@gentoo.org
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=net-p2p@gentoo.org
 42. neysx@gentoo.org
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@gentoo.org

    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Gentoo Sound Team[44], with 17 new bugs[45]  
 * Gentoo Games[46], with 13 new bugs[47]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[48], with 13 new bugs[49]  
 * media-video herd[50], with 12 new bugs[51]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[52], with 8 new bugs[53]  
 * Java team[54], with 8 new bugs[55]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[56], with 8 new bugs[57]  
 * X11 External Driver Maintainers[58], with 7 new bugs[59]  
 44. sound@gentoo.org
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
 46. games@gentoo.org
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=games@gentoo.org
 48. amd64@gentoo.org
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 50. media-video@gentoo.org
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=media-video@gentoo.org
 52. kde@gentoo.org
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
 54. java@gentoo.org
 55. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=java@gentoo.org
 56. base-system@gentoo.org
 57. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
 58. x11-drivers@gentoo.org
 59. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-05-29&chfieldto=2005-06-05&assigned_to=x11-drivers@gentoo.org

    
================
10. GWN feedback
================
   
Please send us your feedback[60] and help make the GWN better. 

 60. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================================
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================================
   
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===================
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===================
   
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Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Editor
Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org> - Author
Fernando Monero <fmonero@opensistemas.com> - Author
Tomoyuki Sakurai <cherry@trombik.mine.nu> - Author

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