[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 21 November 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 21 November 2005.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
==============
1. Gentoo news
==============
  
European Gentoo Developer Conference
------------------------------------
  
Around 20 participants spent an icy November day at Schloss Kransberg[1], 
the venue for the second European Gentoo developer conference. Hosted in 
splendid isolation outside Frankfurt by GWN editor Ulrich Plate[2], the 
all-day event was attended by developers from Denmark, France, Switzerland 
Germany and the Netherlands. 
 1. http://www.schloss-kransberg.de
 2. plate@gentoo.org
 
Figure 1.1: Devs pYrania and tantive with Forum regular Inte in front of 
the castle
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20051121_castle.jpg
 
The program included presentations by Damien Krotkine[3] who explained his 
libconf approach to make configuration file management a more rational 
affair, and Fabian Groffen who gave a rundown of past and future 
endeavours of the reanimated Gentoo on Mac OS X project. Markus Nigbur[4] 
introduced his efforts at rewriting the old Gentoo statistics client, 
gentoo-stats, which is humming away nicely in a test environment, but has 
to wait for the latest PHP and MySQL in the stable tree before it becomes 
eligible for official hosting. 
 3. dams@gentoo.org
 4. pyrania@gentoo.org
 
Figure 1.2: Short break between presentations
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20051121_devcon.jpg
 
A big part of the discussion before lunch was centered around efforts to 
set up a master mirror in Europe to help alleviate the load on Gentoo's 
infrastructure at OSU. Patrick Lauer[5] gave a status report on 
negotiations with potential sponsors, the scope and timeline for setting 
up a master distfiles and/or rsync mirror was discussed, and the 
participants agreed on aiming to get everything up and running before the 
2006.0 release. 
 5. patrick@gentoo.org
 
Tobias Scherbaum[6] presented an overview of the redesign efforts at the 
German Gentoo website which include development of a content management 
system to benefit other national web presences, too, Ulrich Plate reported 
about a number of Gentoo book projects currently in planning or making, 
and the afternoon session closed with a lightning talk by the castle's 
owner and guest speaker Klaus Landefeld[7] who introduced the local CraNet 
infrastructure project that connects households in the Kransberg village 
via Linux-based WLAN routers to the castle's WLL internet uplink. The 
open-floor discussion just before dinner touched on other topics, with 
demands for wider tinderbox availability ranking highest. 
 6. dertobi123@gentoo.org
 7. klaus@landefeld.net
 
The Kransberg meeting is due to be repeated, on an alternating schedule 
with developer meetings at Brussels' FOSDEM in February. Next year it will 
be detached from the German edition of the Linux World Expo, and moved 
ahead on the calendar towards the end of summer, to avoid the sound of 
clattering teeth interrupting presentations. And since several developers 
had expressed interest in attending and presenting papers at the 
conference, but couldn't find the financial means in their budgets, 
finding sponsors to cover travel expenses will be an important part of the 
preparations for the next time. 
    
2005.1 media refresh: 2005.1-r1 released
----------------------------------------
  
A media refresh over the 2005.1 release has been announced on Sunday. 
Since it mainly contains bug fixes, not all architectures warranted this 
intermediate release, but namely AMD64, PPC64, SPARC, and x86 took the 
opportunity to refresh their stages and installation CD images before next 
year's 2006.0 release. Install media for other architectures than the ones 
mentioned, and all 2005.1 package CDs remain unchanged and are available 
as-is. 
    
Gentoo Weekly News via RSS feed
-------------------------------
  
Thanks to Xavier Neys[8], the GWN is now available as an RSS feed. Xavier 
added the rss.xml files and edited the English[9] and French[10] overview 
pages to mention the feed at the beginning. The list of languages at the 
end of the overview file also lists the available feeds. 
 8. neysx@gentoo.org
 9. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 10. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
    
phpgroupware no longer in the tree
----------------------------------
  
Due to outstanding security bugs, the upstream homepage no longer being 
available, and no releases in over a year, phpgroupware will be removed 
from the Portage tree. Anyone still using it is asked to switch to 
egroupware or any other suitable replacement. 
    
=========================
2. Heard in the community
=========================
  
gentoo-dev
----------
  
use.defaults and pointless commits
 
Some users may have wondered why some USE flags seemingly automatically 
changed (and reverted a bit later). This was caused by a commit to 
use.defaults, a file that is used by portage to set USE flags on package 
installation (emerge gnutls and the gnutls USE flag will be set globally). 
During the following discussion it became apparent that this is a mostly 
unneeded feature that may be removed in the future. 
 
 *  [11] 
 11. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/32923
 
Gentoo Council Meeting, GLEP 41
 
The Gentoo Council had its third monthly meeting on November 15. The 
summary was posted to the mailing list shortly after. GLEP 41 (Making arch 
testers official Gentoo staff), which was not accepted during the last 
meeting as it needed some minor changes, was accepted by the council. Due 
to a communication error it seemed as if there were last minute changes 
(which were only communicated a bit late). This lead to a long discussion 
about procedures, the content of the GLEP and became one of the largest 
threads of the last months. 
 
 * Gentoo Council Meeting Summary [12] 
 * Email subdomain [13] 
 * Request for changes to GLEP 41 [14] 
 * implementation details for GLEP 41 [15] 
 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/32886
 13. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/32931
 14. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/33025
 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/33030
    
=======================
3. Gentoo international
=======================
  
Italy: Only five days to go until Gentoo Day!
---------------------------------------------
  
The schedule[16] for the 3rd Italian Gentoo Day has been published, 
including highlights like the first public presentation on Gentoo FreeBSD 
by a Gentoo developer, Diego Pettenò[17]. His introductory speech will be 
followed by an assisted installation session, while other activists of the 
GeCHI[18] center their talks around applications like Openoffice and GIMP. 
Three parallel tracks will make the Gentoo Day a luxurious event for 
everyone who'd like to learn more about Gentoo. Details about the event 
can be found at the official Gentoo Forum thread[19] and the GeCHI's own 
forum[20] (all links in Italian)." 
 16. 
http://213.92.116.64/ical/day.php?cal=all_calendars_combined971&getdate=200
51126
 17. flameeyes@gentoo.org
 18. http://ww.gechi.it
 19. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2853724.html
 20. http://www.gechi.it/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1632
    
======================
4. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
Distrowatch (14 November 2005)
------------------------------
  
Kororaa[21] is an installer project spun off Gentoo Linux, or as Ladislav 
Bodnar puts it[22], "an independently developed, user-friendly 
installation method for Gentoo Linux and a full-featured Gentoo-based 
distribution." The announcement on Distrowatch comes as the the second 
beta version of Kororaa was released, to be followed by a Gnome version 
called Gororaa soon. 
 21. http://kororaa.org
 22. http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=03042
    
Linux.com (31 October 2005)
---------------------------
  
Irfan Habib[23] makes mention of Portage as one specimen of "a new breed 
of distributed package management systems" that aim to overcome the 
defects of traditional package managers. His article at Linux.com[24] 
compares Portage to Conary[25], a binary distribution tree used by 
rPath[26], evaluating inherent differences and similarities in both 
methods' network-based repository approach. 
 23. irfan.habib@gmail.com
 24. http://enterprise.linux.com/enterprise/05/10/31/1949218.shtml
 25. http://wiki.conary.com/
 26. http://www.rpath.com/
    
=========================
5. Gentoo developer moves
=========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo project: 
 
 * None this week 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project: 
 
 * Joshua Nichols (nichoj) - Java 
 * Damian Florczyk (thunder) - Gentoo/NetBSD lead 
 * Alexey Chumakov (achumakov) - Russian lead translator 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:
 
 * Lisa M. Seelye (lisa) - added ccache and memcached to prior 
responsibilities 
    
==================
6. Gentoo Security
==================
   
Scorched 3D: Multiple vulnerabilities
-------------------------------------
  
Multiple vulnerabilities in Scorched 3D allow a remote attacker to deny 
service or execute arbitrary code on game servers. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[27] 
 27. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200511-12.xml
    
Sylpheed, Sylpheed-Claws: Buffer overflow in LDIF importer
----------------------------------------------------------
  
Sylpheed and Sylpheed-Claws contain a buffer overflow vulnerability which 
may lead to the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[28] 
 28. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200511-13.xml
    
GTK+ 2, GdkPixbuf: Multiple XPM decoding vulnerabilities
--------------------------------------------------------
  
The GdkPixbuf library, that is also included in GTK+ 2, contains 
vulnerabilities that could lead to a Denial of Service or the execution of 
arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[29] 
 29. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200511-14.xml
    
Smb4k: Local unauthorized file access
-------------------------------------
  
A vulnerability has been identified that allows unauthorized access to the 
contents of /etc/sudoers and /etc/super.tab files. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[30] 
 30. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200511-15.xml
     
===========
7. Bugzilla
===========
  
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 13 November 2005 and 20 November 2005, activity 
on the site has resulted in: 
 31. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 680 new bugs during this period 
 * 364 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 28 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 9040 currently open bugs: 106 are labeled 'blocker', 199 are 
labeled 'critical', and 556 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Alexey Chumakov[32], with 22 closed bugs[33]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[34], with 19 closed bugs[35]  
 * Gentoo Games[36], with 19 closed bugs[37]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[38], with 18 closed bugs[39]  
 * Gentoo Security[40], with 13 closed bugs[41]  
 * PPC Porters[42], with 13 closed bugs[43]  
 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[44], with 11 closed bugs[45]  
 * Gentoo X-windows packagers[46], with 10 closed bugs[47]  
 32. achumakov@gentoo.org
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=achumakov@gentoo.org
 34. kde@gentoo.org
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
 36. games@gentoo.org
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@gentoo.org
 38. amd64@gentoo.org
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 40. security@gentoo.org
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=security@gentoo.org
 42. ppc@gentoo.org
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=ppc@gentoo.org
 44. sci@gentoo.org
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sci@gentoo.org
 46. x11@gentoo.org
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=x11@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[48], with 44 new bugs[49]  
 * X11 External Driver Maintainers[50], with 10 new bugs[51]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[52], with 9 new bugs[53]  
 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[54], with 9 new bugs[55]  
 * Gentoo X-windows packagers[56], with 8 new bugs[57]  
 * Xavier Neys[58], with 7 new bugs[59]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[60], with 7 new 
bugs[61]  
 * Lim Swee Tat[62], with 6 new bugs[63]  
 48. maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
 50. x11-drivers@gentoo.org
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=x11-drivers@gentoo.org
 52. sound@gentoo.org
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
 54. sci@gentoo.org
 55. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=sci@gentoo.org
 56. x11@gentoo.org
 57. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=x11@gentoo.org
 58. neysx@gentoo.org
 59. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=neysx@gentoo.org
 60. kernel@gentoo.org
 61. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=kernel@gentoo.org
 62. st_lim@gentoo.org
 63. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-11-13&chfieldto=2005-11-20&assigned_to=st_lim@gentoo.org
    
===============
8. GWN feedback
===============
   
Please send us your feedback[64] and help make the GWN better. 
 64. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
===============================
9. GWN subscription information
===============================
   
To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
gentoo-gwn+subscribe@gentoo.org. 
 
To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
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===================
10. Other languages
===================
   
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Danish[65]  
 * Dutch[66]  
 * English[67]  
 * German[68]  
 * French[69]  
 * Korean[70]  
 * Japanese[71]  
 * Italian[72]  
 * Polish[73]  
 * Portuguese (Brazil)[74]  
 * Portuguese (Portugal)[75]  
 * Russian[76]  
 * Spanish[77]  
 * Turkish[78]  
 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml
 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ko/gwn/gwn.xml
 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt_br/gwn/gwn.xml
 75. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
 76. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
 77. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 78. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml
   
Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Editor
Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org> - Author

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