From:	 Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>
To:	 Debian News Channel <debian-news@lists.debian.org>
Subject: Debian Weekly News - April 10th, 2002
Date:	 Wed, 10 Apr 2002 22:34:38 +0200

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/15/
Debian Weekly News - April 10th, 2002
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Welcome to this year's fifteenth issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter
for the Debian community. This was an impressive week, not only a
preliminary schedule for this year's Debian Conference was released
and developers are making plans for attending, but also Anthony Towns
released a promising woody status report. The current Project Leader
Election is in [1]full swing until next Tuesday. The next issue of DWN
will probably be able to name the next Project Leader.

 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0204/msg00081.html

Local init.d Files. Karsten Self [2]proposed that the use of system
local init.d scripts be added to the Debian policy document. Scripts
that are named local-foo should be considered local and sacrosanct by
the system, where -foo could have any arbitrary value, including null
(for the single instance of a local script). The [3]short version for
this request would be that no Debian package should ever use an
initscript ID prefixed by local.

 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0203/msg02335.html
 3. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0203/msg02336.html

Final Boot-Floppies 3.0.22 for Woody. David Kimdon [4]announced that
he finalized new boot-floppies and uploaded packages for the i386
architecture. Adam Di Carlo later [5]alarmed porters to hurry up or
some architectures will have to stay with an older version. Despite
showstopper bugs, this will be the version of boot-floppies Woody will
be released with. All architectures that will be released with Woody
are finally in sync with this version.

 4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0204/msg00004.html
 5. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0204/msg00120.html

Cyrus IMAPd 2.1.3 in Unstable. Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
[6]informed us about new Cyrus packages that have been uploaded into
the unstable distribution. Henrique feels that they are not mature
enough for the next stable release of Debian. Hence, he is trying to
keep them out of the testing distribution in order to keep them out of
the next stable distribution.

 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-0204/msg00746.html

Annoying BTS Ack Mails. Daniel Jacobowitz recently [7]complained
about storms of "Information received" acknowledgement mails sent by
Bug Tracking System (BTS). For instance, this could cause [8]annoying
circumstances for users and third-party bug tracking systems. This was
prompted by the GCC GNATS system, which has dozens of reports created
by these ACKs. The BTS maintainers are currently working on a
solution.

 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00158.html
 8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00172.html

Problems with ioctls Affecting XFree86. Jack Howarth [9]pointed out
that the current version of XFree86 doesn't build on all
architectures. This is due to a [10]problem or misunderstanding
between kernel headers, glibc headers and XFree86 source, as Branden
Robinson [11]explained it, and it seems non-trivial to [12]work around
it.

 9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00193.html
 10. http://bugs.debian.org/141116
 11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00198.html
 12. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00202.html

Schedule for Debian Conference 2. Joe Drew [13]released a
[14]preliminary schedule for the upcoming [15]Debian Conference 2,
which will be held from July 5th - 7th at York University in Toronto,
Canada. A [16]registration page is up as well, ironically, it is
powered by a non-free Microsoft-IIS/4.0 like Joey [17]pointed out.

 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0204/msg00001.html
 14. http://www.debian.org/events/2002/0705-debconf-schedule
 15. http://www.debian.org/events/2002/0705-debconf
 16. http://lindows.com/debconf2
 17. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00359.html

Woody Release on May 1st. Anthony Towns is becoming [18]increasingly
confident in woody's release readiness and has therefore scheduled it
for May 1st. However, as always, it'll be released when it is ready:
if we find out that the software is not ready by April 30th, it won't
be released. Together with this announcement, he mentioned another set
of 53 packages, which have been removed from the testing distribution
due to bugs and other issues.

 18. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0204/msg00004.html

Woody Release Notes. With the release of Woody closer than ever, there
is an urgent need for updated [19]release notes. Rob Bradford still
has to address several issues in the current version and is
[20]seeking your assistance. Please get in touch with him at
[21]rob@debianplanet.org if you can help with the release notes.

 19. http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/
 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0204/msg00005.html
 21. mailto:rob@debianplanet.org

GNU FDL a non-free License? Several [22]people are [23]discussing
whether the [24]GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) is a free
license or not. If the GFDL is indeed considered a non-free license,
this would [25]render almost all KDE and many other well known
packages non-free since they use the GNU FDL for the documentation.
Additionally, here's an old [26]thread from debian-legal, which may
shed some light on the issue.

 22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00430.html
 23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00377.html
 24. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
 25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00422.html
 26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0111/msg00006.html

New Developers Reference Uploaded. Adam Di Carlo uploaded an updated
[27]developers-reference 2.11. It contains important updates for
crypto-in-main and closes a number of bugs. He also [28]stated
publically that anyone who wishes to join in on the maintenance of the
developers-reference can and should put themselves forward. Simply get
in touch with him.

 27. http://packages.debian.org/developers-reference
 28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-0203/msg00076.html

Debian rules! The Sucks-Rules-O-Meter technique tries to make
tongue-in-cheek testimonies about the popularity of software. The
frequency of combined terms in the WWW like "foo sucks" and "foo
rules" is analyzed and plotted from the results of a search engine.
Statistics of [29]operating systems show as expected a strongly
positive deflection for free systems like GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. The
investigation about the popularity of [30]GNU/Linux distributions even
points out the highest sympathy value for Debian with a large distance
to others.

 29. http://srom.zgp.org/
 30. http://zork.net/~nick/srom/

Removing Orphaned Packages. Martin Michlmayr [31]noticed that there
are a couple of orphaned packages in testing that were never part of a
stable release. Since these packages are currently not maintained, the
question arises whether Woody should be released without them. Some of
them are required since other packages depend on them. However, quite
a few could easily be removed from testing. His mail, of course,
included such a list.

 31. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa-0204/msg00019.html

Python Module for Debconf. Josselin Mouette was tired of shell
programming and [32]created a Python module for debconf. Interested
people can get it from [33]here. However, as long as Python is not
essential, people will have to to install Python first, in order to be
able to install other packages. The module may be included in the
regular debconf package after Woody has been released.

 32. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0204/msg00442.html
 33. http://www.ens-lyon.fr/~jmouette/debian/

Updated FAI Package Available. Thomas Lange just recently [34]released
a new version of FAI (which stands for Fully Automatic Installation).
FAI 2.3 is tested with Debian 3.0 alias Woody. Many improvements are
included in this version, however, the documentation is not yet up to
date. If you are using this package and have some spare cycles to
donate, Thomas would probably be happy about assistance.

 34. http://lists.debian.org/debian-beowulf-0204/msg00012.html

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were recently added
to the Debian archive.

 * [35]6tunnel -- TCP proxy for non-IPv6 applications.
 * [36]airsnort -- WLAN sniffer.
 * [37]bochs-x -- Bochs binary with X interface.
 * [38]ccache -- Compiler results cacher, for fast recompiles.
 * [39]dietlibc -- Lightweight C library for embedded applications.
 * [40]dvdplusrw -- DVD+RW tools.
 * [41]fai -- Fully Automatic Installation.
 * [42]ickle -- An ICQ2000 client for GTK+.
 * [43]mlglade -- a glade to OCaml compiler.
 * [44]pixelize -- Create an image consisting of many small images.
 * [45]scons -- A replacement for Make.
 * [46]teapop -- Powerful and flexible RFC-compliant POP3 server.
 * [47]tuxpuck -- "Shufflepuck Cafe" Clone.
 * [48]xmms-infopipe -- General plugin for XMMS, reports real-time
   information to a pipe.

 35. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/net/6tunnel.html
 36. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/net/airsnort.html
 37. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/misc/bochs-x.html
 38. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/ccache.html
 39. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/dietlibc.html
 40. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/utils/dvdplusrw.html
 41. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/admin/fai.html
 42. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/net/ickle.html
 43. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/mlglade.html
 44. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/graphics/pixelize.html
 45. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/scons.html
 46. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/mail/teapop.html
 47. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/games/tuxpuck.html
 48. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/sound/xmms-infopipe.html

Orphaned Packages. 6 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 120 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [49]WNPP pages for the full list,
and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA: if you
plan to take over a package.

 49. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/

 * [50]elm-me+ -- elm mail reader. ([51]Bug#141971)
 * [52]gnome-chess -- GNOME Chess. ([53]Bug#141103)
 * [54]ibm-jdk1.1-installer -- An Installer for the IBM Java
   Developer Kit. ([55]Bug#141521)
 * [56]nase-a60 -- An Algol-60 interpreter. ([57]Bug#141181)
 * [58]quickppp -- PPP Config tool. ([59]Bug#141226)
 * [60]xchain -- A strategy game for 2-4 players. ([61]Bug#141807)

 50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/elm-me+.html
 51. http://bugs.debian.org/141971
 52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gnome-chess.html
 53. http://bugs.debian.org/141103
 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ibm-jdk1.1-installer.html
 55. http://bugs.debian.org/141521
 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/nase-a60.html
 57. http://bugs.debian.org/141181
 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/quickppp.html
 59. http://bugs.debian.org/141226
 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/xchain.html
 61. http://bugs.debian.org/141807

Got News? Please inform us about everything that is happening in the
Debian community. We are always looking for any interesting stories to
add, especially new items by volunteer writers, and topics we tend to
miss. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at
[62]dwn@debian.org.

 62. mailto:dwn@debian.org


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