[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 15 August 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 15 August 2005.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Gentoo Linux 2005.1 released
----------------------------
  
The Gentoo Release Engineering team is proud to announce the release of 
Gentoo Linux 2005.1. This release is the second release of 2005 and is the 
culmination of five months of work. Some major software changes from 
2005.0 are GNOME 2.10, KDE 3.4.1, XFce 4.2.2, X.Org 6.8.2, and a 2.6.12 
kernel. 
 
This release also gives provides two additional x86 LiveCD images, in 
combination with the minimal and universal InstallCDs seen in previous 
releases: a new x86 LiveCD from the Hardened project, and the new x86 
Installer LiveCD which features the first public release of the Gentoo 
Linux Installer, with both a GTK+ and dialog-based front-end. 
 
The SPARC team has switched to using hwsetup for doing device 
auto-detection, which should give them more device compatibility and the 
IA64 team has released a minimal LiveCD as mentioned in a previous GWN. 
PPC and PPC64 now operate under a joint parent profile in the same fashion 
as SPARC and MIPS do for their 32/64-bit equivalents and G5 support has 
been moved completely from PPC32 to PPC64. 
 
The genkernel utility has also been heavily worked on and now has many new 
features such as initramfs, gensplash and dmraid support along with many 
other enhancements and bug fixes. 
 
Figure 1.1: CD labels can be downloaded for each of the architectures
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_iso.png
 
The release is available for download from our mirrors[1] and from the 
BitTorrent tracker[2] kindly provided by Friends of Gentoo e.V.[3]. 
Companion CD labels, color-coded to represent the different architecture, 
can be downloaded from a common location[4]. 

 1. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
 2. http://tracker.netdomination.org/
 3. http://www.gentoo-ev.org/
 4. http://dev.gentoo.org/~plasmaroo/gentoo-cdcovers/2005.1/
    
First Gentoo developer conference webcast
-----------------------------------------
  
Having just about packed up the Gentoo booth at last week's Linux World 
Expo in San Francisco, the mostly US-based developers who had represented 
Gentoo at the show stayed on for another day, to participate in the first 
fully-fledged US Gentoo developer conference, held at the premises of 
Global Netoptex, Inc. (GNi)[5]. Owing its success to the tireless work of 
organizer Corey Shields[6], the event brought together Gentoo Foundation 
trustees, developers and guests. Special thanks to Indiana University for 
their streaming services that made it possible for dozens of fellow 
developers at large to participate in the conference! For those who 
followed the presentations via the webcast, a special IRC channel 
#gentoo-devconference was set aside on irc.freenode.net to allow for 
interaction: developers abroad were able to ask questions and voice their 
opinions almost in real-time during the entire all-day event. 

 5. http://www.netoptex.com/
 6. cshields@gentoo.org
 
Presentations held are listed at the event's website[7], the slides are 
going to be made available soon. The webcast has also been recorded and 
will be put up for download, too. Watch this space. 

 7. http://devconference.gentoo.org
    
==============
2. Future zone
==============
  
Modular X
---------
  
You may be wondering, why in the world will one nice, easy xorg-x11 
package turn into almost 300 separate ones? And you'd certainly be 
justified in this. It's not something Gentoo is doing independently of 
upstream X.Org[8]; they're splitting up all the packages into separate 
releases, and we're just following along. 

 8. http://www.x.org/
 
The reasoning behind the split and changing build system is at least 
threefold: 
 
 * X is too difficult to get into for new devs, so thus the move to 
autotools, a system more people are comfortable with if not happy with.  
 * Along with that move, splitting out the source is possible with 
autotools, and this also makes it more developer-friendly.  
 * Things have been unnecessarily tied together in the past, and this has 
made getting bugfixes out often impossible. If they were able to get out 
fixes, it required rebuilding all of XOrg. For example, a bug in the ati 
driver would either need to wait 6 months until the next release, or you'd 
have to rebuild your fonts to get it, for absolutely no reason.  
 
For Gentoo users, the change should be seamless. All you'll have to do is 
`emerge xorg-x11` and you'll get all the required packages, although some 
rarely used programs such as xedit or xmh may not be a part of it. 
 
So far, most of the packages are in the tree, but not the meta-ebuilds 
necessary for the seamless transition. Over the next month, expect to see 
the modular X experience transform from arduous to exciting. 
 
The release of X11R7.0 isn't expected until sometime in September, but the 
"zeroth" release candidate already came out a couple of weeks ago. If you 
want to become an early adopter of modular X, be prepared to do a bit of 
work and file upstream bugs. Here's a guide[9] on using what Gentoo has in 
the tree for modular X. Over time, it will become much easier to migrate 
than it is now. If you have any questions, please contact Donnie 
Berkholz[10]. 

 9. 
http://dev.gentoo.org/~spyderous/xorg-x11/migrating_to_modular_x_howto.txt
 10. spyderous@gentoo.org
    
=========================
3. Heard in the community
=========================
  
gentoo-dev
----------
  
imlate on x86
 
Olivier Crête[11] used the "imlate" script which is used to find packages 
that have never versions to see how up-to-date x86 is compared to other 
architectures. He writes: "The results are surprising, 214 packages are 
more recent on non-x86 architectures. But its pretty hard to know if its 
because they have arch specific patches or because the maintainer's arch 
is not x86..." 

 11. tester@gentoo.org
 
 * imlate on x86 [12] 
 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30369

 
do we need a "man" USEflag?
 
Since almost everything in Gentoo can be customized, why don't we have a 
"man" useflag that prevents that man-pages get installed? Of course there 
is FEATURES="noman", but it doesn't solve all (potential) problems. 
 
 * do we need a "man" useflag? [13] 
 13. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30264

 
gcc-config 2.0 development
 
Jeremy Huddleston[14] offers some insight into the development of 
gcc-config 2.0, a rewrite of gcc-config that should adress some of the 
shortcomings of the gcc-config 1.3 branch 

 14. eradicator@gentoo.org
 
 * gcc-config 2.0 [15] 
 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30235

  
=======================
4. Gentoo International
=======================
  
UK: AFFS conference in London
-----------------------------
  
Gentoo in the UK was recently asked to have a voice at the  Association 
For Free Software's[16] annual general meeting. Gentoo developers Daniel 
Drake[17], Tim Yamin[18], Stuart Herbert[19] and Rob Holland[20] went 
along accompanied by George Prowse[21] from the Gentoo Forums. Tim Yamin 
gave a 45 minute introduction to Gentoo and its benefits. 

 16. http://www.affs.org.uk/affsac.html
 17. dsd@gentoo.org
 18. plasmaroo@gentoo.org
 19. stuart@gentoo.org
 20. tigger@gentoo.org
 21. cokehabit@gmail.com
 
Figure 4.1: Left to right: Rob Holland, Stuart Herbert, Daniel Drake and 
Tim Yamin
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_affs.jpg
 
Organised by the association, the meeting was also used to showcase 
potholes and problems with the up-and-coming software patents problems in 
the European Parliament; at the same time allowing Linux distributions to 
talk with FOSS advocates. The conference made it possible for the Gentoo 
developers in the UK to meet with not only some of their userbase but also 
some of their equivalent developers at Debian. The day was considered a 
success after Tim's speech made the Gentoo stall very busy with interested 
people and we learned that a few of our users had migrated from Debian. 
    
Germany: Report from the first GentooSummerCamp
-----------------------------------------------
  
Thanks to the organisation of German Forums moderator Uwe Hölzel 
(slick[22]), from Friday until Sunday, 12 to 14 August 2005, several 
Gentoo users and developers packed their tents and made a trip into 
Germany's hinterland region called "Westerwald". On a meadow at the 
camping site and inn ”Gasthof Hahnhof“ the first attendees set up their 
tents on Friday afternoon. Some more arrived during the evening as they 
had to ride up to 800 km, like Stefan Walkner (Hephaistos[23]) from 
Salzburg who came all the way from Austria, or Hilefoks[24] who lives on 
Germany's North Sea coast.

 22. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=18822
 23. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=51589
 24. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13233
 
Figure 4.1: The campground ”Gasthof Hahnhof“ and the campfire
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_camp-tents+fire.jpg
 
After a long evening and short night, the Saturday became a very beautiful 
day. The sun was shining the whole day and quite everybody got a nice 
sunburn. At the afternoon somebody pushed his bicycle to the campground… 
It turned out that Thorsten Zantis (psyqil[25]) did the 100km-trip with 
his bike and during the very last kilometre a tire burst! Anyways, we had 
enough drinks available, like every kind of beer from a good Austrian 
’Helles‘, via some Pils, Alt and Kölsch up to a dry beer from the coast. 
And nobody had to stay hungry, as we had enough meat for the barbecue and 
salads for everyone.

 25. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21281
 
A campfire in the evening held us warm during the whole night, and even 
when it started to rain on early Sunday morning, some of us still sat at 
the campfire. After a short breakfast in the rain we removed our wet tents.
 
Figure 4.2: (left to right) oma, HaPhi, tomyum, Pylon, dertobi123, 
Hilefoks, Danny, Hephaistos, psyqil, slick, inte
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_camp-group.jpg
 
It's noteworthy that we did not need any computers, and still had enough 
topics to talk about, even besides Gentoo! It was a pleasure to meet a 
couple of people you know only from the forums or IRC. And there are 
fledgling plans for another camp next year on the North Sea coast already.
    
======================
5. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
Ars Technica (8 August 2005)
----------------------------
  
A review of a 64-bit laptop computer powered by Gentoo Linux was published 
in Ars Technica[26] last Monday. The "LinuxCertified" model[27] sports an 
AMD64 processor and comes preloaded with Gentoo, Fedora or SuSE Linux. 

 26. http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/lc2464.ars
 27. http://linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lc2464.html
    
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (1 August 2005)
---------------------------------------------------------
  
"How Toyota and Linux Keep Collaboration Simple"[28] is the title of an 
article originally printed in the Harvard Business Review, recounting the 
events when Gentoo developer Andrea Barisani[29] - or more specifically 
his Trieste University's Gentoo Linux server - was under attack a couple 
of years ago. Authors Philip Evans and Bob Wolf take the ensuing bug fix 
activities that rapidly span the globe as an example for the ways of the 
Linux world, and put them into perspective of the Toyota production 
system, finding lots of similarities: "Widespread, granular communication. 
In both the Linux and Toyota communities, information about problems and 
solutions is shared widely, frequently, and in small increments."

 28. http://workingknowledge.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4928&t=technology
 29. lcars@gentoo.org
    
===========================
6. 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: 
 
 * Luis Medinas (MetalGOD) - Printing herd and AMD64 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * Jose Alberto Suarez Lopez (BaSS) - stepped down from his post as 
Spanish lead translator 
    
==================
7. Gentoo Security
==================
   
No security announcements this week
-----------------------------------
  
No GLSAs have been issued since publication of the last GWN. Check back 
next week.
    
===========
8. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed bug ranking 
 * New bug rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[30]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 07 August 2005 and 14 August 2005, activity on 
the site has resulted in: 

 30. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 832 new bugs during this period 
 * 462 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 34 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 8117 currently open bugs: 108 are labeled 'blocker', 196 are 
labeled 'critical', and 538 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * AMD64 Porting Team[31], with 94 closed bugs[32]  
 * Vim Maintainers[33], with 16 closed bugs[34]  
 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[35], with 14 closed bugs[36]  
 * Perl Devs @ Gentoo[37], with 12 closed bugs[38]  
 * Xavier Neys[39], with 12 closed bugs[40]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[41], with 12 closed bugs[42]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[43], with 9 closed bugs[44]  
 * Greg Kroah-Hartman[45], with 9 closed bugs[46]  
 31. amd64@gentoo.org
 32. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 33. vim@gentoo.org
 34. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=vim@gentoo.org
 35. sci@gentoo.org
 36. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sci@gentoo.org
 37. perl@gentoo.org
 38. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=perl@gentoo.org
 39. neysx@gentoo.org
 40. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@gentoo.org
 41. base-system@gentoo.org
 42. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
 43. sound@gentoo.org
 44. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
 45. gregkh@gentoo.org
 46. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gregkh@gentoo.org

    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Default Assignee for New Packages[47], with 98 new bugs[48]  
 * Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages[49], with 35 new bugs[50]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[51], with 12 new bugs[52]  
 * Python Gentoo Team[53], with 11 new bugs[54]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[55], with 10 new bugs[56]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[57], with 8 new bugs[58]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[59], with 8 new 
bugs[60]  
 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[61], with 7 new bugs[62]  
 47. maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
 48. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
 49. maintainer-needed@gentoo.org
 50. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=maintainer-needed@gentoo.org
 51. amd64@gentoo.org
 52. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 53. python@gentoo.org
 54. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=python@gentoo.org
 55. gnome@gentoo.org
 56. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=gnome@gentoo.org
 57. sound@gentoo.org
 58. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
 59. kernel@gentoo.org
 60. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=kernel@gentoo.org
 61. sci@gentoo.org
 62. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=sci@gentoo.org

    
===============
9. GWN feedback
===============
   
Please send us your feedback[63] and help make the GWN better. 

 63. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================================
10. GWN subscription information
================================
   
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===================
11. 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]  
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 * Spanish[75]  
 * Turkish[76]  
 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml
 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
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 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt_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

   
Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Editor
Donnie Berkholz <spyderous@gentoo.org> - Author
Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org> - Author
Lars Weiler <pylon@gentoo.org> - Author
Tim Yamin <plasmaroo@gentoo.org> - Author

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