Gentoo Archives: gentoo-gwn

From: Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o>
To: gentoo-gwn@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 20 March 2006
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 22:15:37
Message-Id: 20060320224409.9c6f9bd4.plate@gentoo.org
1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
3 http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
4 This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 20 March 2006.
5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
6
7 ==============
8 1. Gentoo news
9 ==============
10
11 Gentoo x86 arch testers wanted
12 ------------------------------
13
14 The x86 team has adopted the Arch Tester program and is looking for some
15 ambitious members of the community to join the team and help out. If you
16 would like to give back to Gentoo, but don't know how, then this may be a
17 good way for you to start. You would be helping by testing applications to
18 be marked stable and assisting in general x86-specific bugs. Please take a
19 look at the x86 AT documentation[1], and if you have questions about
20 anything, please either email Homer Parker[2] or Mark Loeser[3].
21
22 1. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/x86/arch-testers-faq.xml
23 2. hparker@g.o
24 3. halcy0n@g.o
25
26 New Athlon X2 for Gentoo developers
27 -----------------------------------
28
29 As part of Roger Williams University[4] and the School of Business'[5]
30 continuing expansion into undergraduate and graduate research, access to a
31 dual-core Athlon X2 is now being provided to faculty, staff and students
32 of RWU -- and to Gentoo developers! The new host -- baptized "pearl" --
33 will facilitate Gentoo's official support for dual-core AMD64 systems in
34 the future. Thanks to RWU for their generous support!
35
36 4. http://www.rwu.edu
37 5. http://gsb.rwu.edu
38
39 Figure 1.1: Athlon X2 4600+, 4GB RAM, 500GB storage, Gentoo Linux 2006.0
40 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/200600320_x2.jpg
41
42 Countdown for Modular X
43 -----------------------
44
45 As reported in the GWN of 30 January[6], the X team is preparing to unmask
46 289 modular X packages. They will enter ~arch (testing) this week for most
47 architectures, be sure to read the migration guide[7] before upgrading to
48 modular X!
49
50 6. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20060130-newsletter.xml#doc_chap1
51 7. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/modular-x-howto.xml
52
53 =========================
54 2. Heard in the community
55 =========================
56
57 Web forums
58 ----------
59
60 Gentoo girls wear, anyone?
61
62 A female Forums user, star.dancer[8], shows her disappointment in the
63 total absence of Gentoo merchandise for women. Maybe it's the time to add
64 women apparel and other schwag on the official Gentoo Store?
65
66 8. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=69454
67
68 * Gentoo Shop: T-Shirts for girls[9]
69 * Link to Gentoo store[10]
70 9. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-443905.html
71 10. http://www.cafepress.com/officialgentoo/
72
73
74 glibc 2.4 some more
75
76 Last week's GWN mentioned the ascension of glibc-2.4 into the Portage
77 tree. As the number of users that emerge it grows, problems are increasing
78 as well. Some users confess to have fallen into a real mess with
79 glibc-2.4, the libc.so.6 library and the nptl and nptlonly USE flags,
80 while others using prelink on their respective systems had to prelink
81 their whole system again:
82
83 * glibc, libc.so.6, nptl, nptlonly = problems[11]
84 * Upgrading to glibc requires nptlonly use flag[12]
85 11. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-443051.html
86 12. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-442700.html
87
88
89 Overlay for overlays?
90
91 Some users have been discussing alternatives for applications to find
92 their way into Portage. One idea is to publish the most popular overlays
93 on a website. What do you think?
94
95 * maybe a better way to get programmes into portage[13]
96 13. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-443469.html
97
98
99 =======================
100 3. Gentoo international
101 =======================
102
103 Japan: OSC 2006 spring event report
104 -----------------------------------
105
106 Figure 3.1: CD cover for 2006.0 release at OSC
107 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/200600320_cover.png
108
109 Note: Cover art for the CD hand-outs at the OSC booth can be downloaded
110 from Tomoyuki Sakurai's webspace.
111
112 The media didn't last long: GentooJP had 150 CDs prepared as give-aways at
113 the Tokyo Open-Source Conference last weekend, but they were "sold out" by
114 the end of the first day. The Gentoo x86 and PPC boxes on display at the
115 booth showed the first official release of the Gentoo installer, and KDE.
116 Gentoo developers to visit or man the booth included Matsuu Takuto[14],
117 Shigehiro Idani[15], Jason Stubbs[16] and Mamoru Komachi[17], the latter
118 just back from Europe where he went to the FOSDEM meeting in Brussels.
119
120 14. matsuu@g.o
121 15. idani@g.o
122 16. jstubbs@g.o
123 17. usata@g.o
124
125 Figure 3.2: The Gentoo booth at OSC
126 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/200600320_osc.jpg
127
128 Note: Featuring developers matsuu (right) and idani (center), friends and
129 visitors. This and more pictures are available at Kalin's website.
130
131 Twelve attendants participated in the "Gentoo ebuild Howto" session, an
132 unexpectedly high turnout of people actually interested in writing and
133 submitting ebuilds themselves. There's hope for some of them to eventually
134 help with Gentoo development, especially in i18n and CJK.
135
136 The day ended as usual, with a nomikai (drinking bout) at an izakaya
137 (pub). The next meeting to be held in the Tokyo area is scheduled for
138 sometime in April, when Dutch Gentoo developer Andres Loeh[18] will be in
139 town for a conference. If you are available around that time, join
140 #gentoo-ja on irc.freenode.net or subscribe to the GentooJP mailing list
141 gentoojp-misc@××××××××××××.jp for more information.
142
143 18. kosmikus@g.o
144
145 ======================
146 4. Gentoo in the press
147 ======================
148
149 Distrowatch (13 March 2006)
150 ---------------------------
151
152 Distrowatch has mentioned Kororaa[19] -- a Gentoo-based binary
153 distribution featuring a simplified installation process -- before, in
154 November 2005[20]. The GWN in turn featured the Kororaa project's latest
155 release of an Xgl LiveCD[21] just last week. Now the amazing 3D effects of
156 the Xgl display server as you manipulate windows on your desktop have
157 caught Ladislav Bodnar's attention too, who interviewed Chris Smart[22] in
158 his last edition. A similar interview and an article appeared in NewsForge
159 a day later[23].
160
161 19. http://kororaa.org/
162 20. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20051121-newsletter.xml#doc_chap4
163 21. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20060313-newsletter.xml#doc_chap2
164 22. http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060313#interview
165 23. http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/14/1557211
166
167 ==================
168 5. Tips and tricks
169 ==================
170
171 Efficient file change notifications
172 -----------------------------------
173
174 Many applications rely on tracking filesystem changes internally, and
175 until recently, the most popular library providing functionality like this
176 was app-admin/fam. Packages which use FAM for file-monitoring include
177 GNOME, KDE, PHP, various file managers, various mail clients and servers,
178 and many more. FAM works by repeatedly polling directory contents and
179 looking to see if things have changed. This is inefficient, but it did the
180 job for a while.
181
182 More recently, ultra-efficient kernel-side support for monitoring file
183 changes was merged into Linux 2.6. This functionality, called inotify, is
184 on by default, and is probably already available on your system (assuming
185 you are relatively up-to-date). app-admin/gamin is a direct replacement
186 for FAM, even implementing an identical API. The biggest bonus about gamin
187 is that where available, gamin monitors the filesystem using inotify,
188 destroying the ugly overhead which FAM had.
189
190 Gamin will be the default for new Gentoo installs, but there is no
191 automatic migration for existing users at this time. It is recommended
192 that you make the switch manually:
193
194 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
195 | Code Listing 5.1: |
196 | Switching to gamin |
197 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
198 | |
199 |# emerge -C app-admin/fam |
200 |# emerge --oneshot app-admin/gamin |
201 |It is not necessary to re-merge any software that is built on |
202 |FAM, as gamin is literally a drop-in replacement. |
203 | |
204 | |
205 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
206
207 Note: Gamin also supports plain old filesystem polling, and seems to do a
208 better job than FAM did. Even if you do not have an inotify-enabled
209 system, it is still recommended that you change.
210
211 Given that the overhead for monitoring filesystem events is now so low, it
212 is also suggested that you enable file-monitoring support for applications
213 which optionally support it. To do so, enable the "fam" USE flag:
214
215 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
216 | Code Listing 5.2: |
217 | Add 'fam' USE flag and rebuild world |
218 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
219 | |
220 |# nano -w /etc/make.conf |
221 |Add "fam" to your USE variable and save the file |
222 |# emerge --newuse world |
223 | |
224 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
225
226 =========================
227 6. Gentoo developer moves
228 =========================
229
230 Moves
231 -----
232
233 The following developers recently left the Gentoo project:
234
235 * None this week
236
237 Adds
238 ----
239
240 The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project:
241
242 * Karol Pasternak (reb) - Gentoo OpenBSD
243
244 Changes
245 -------
246
247 The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:
248
249 * None this week
250
251 ==================
252 7. Gentoo Security
253 ==================
254
255 Freeciv: Denial of Service
256 --------------------------
257
258 A memory allocation bug in Freeciv allows a remote attacker to perform a
259 Denial of Service attack.
260
261 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[24]
262
263 24. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-11.xml
264
265 zoo: Buffer overflow
266 --------------------
267
268 A buffer overflow in zoo may be exploited to execute arbitrary when
269 creating archives of specially crafted directories and files.
270
271 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[25]
272
273 25. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-12.xml
274
275 PEAR-Auth: Potential authentication bypass
276 ------------------------------------------
277
278 PEAR-Auth did not correctly verify data passed to the DB and LDAP
279 containers, thus allowing to inject false credentials to bypass the
280 authentication.
281
282 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[26]
283
284 26. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-13.xml
285
286 Heimdal: rshd privilege escalation
287 ----------------------------------
288
289 An error in the rshd daemon of Heimdal could allow authenticated users to
290 elevate privileges.
291
292 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[27]
293
294 27. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-14.xml
295
296 Crypt::CBC: Insecure initialization vector
297 ------------------------------------------
298
299 Crypt::CBC uses an insecure initialization vector, potentially resulting
300 in a weaker encryption.
301
302 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[28]
303
304 28. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-15.xml
305
306 Metamail: Buffer overflow
307 -------------------------
308
309 A buffer overflow in Metamail could possibly be exploited to execute
310 arbitrary code.
311
312 For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[29]
313
314 29. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-16.xml
315
316 ===========
317 8. Bugzilla
318 ===========
319
320 Statistics
321 ----------
322
323 The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[30]) to record and
324 track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the
325 development team. Between 12 March 2006 and 19 March 2006, activity on the
326 site has resulted in:
327
328 30. http://bugs.gentoo.org
329
330 * 865 new bugs during this period
331 * 417 bugs closed or resolved during this period
332 * 20 previously closed bugs were reopened this period
333
334 Of the 9800 currently open bugs: 67 are labeled 'blocker', 151 are labeled
335 'critical', and 540 are labeled 'major'.
336
337 Closed bug rankings
338 -------------------
339
340 The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period
341 are:
342
343 * Gentoo Games[31], with 36 closed bugs[32]
344 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[33], with 23 closed bugs[34]
345 * AMD64 Project[35], with 19 closed bugs[36]
346 * Gentoo Release Team[37], with 17 closed bugs[38]
347 * Xavier Neys[39], with 17 closed bugs[40]
348 * Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[41], with 15 closed bugs[42]
349 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[43], with 14 closed bugs[44]
350 * ppc64 architecture team[45], with 13 closed bugs[46]
351 31. games@g.o
352 32.
353 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@g.o
354 33. gnome@g.o
355 34.
356 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
357 35. amd64@g.o
358 36.
359 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
360 37. release@g.o
361 38.
362 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=release@g.o
363 39. neysx@g.o
364 40.
365 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@g.o
366 41. toolchain@g.o
367 42.
368 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=toolchain@g.o
369 43. sci@g.o
370 44.
371 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sci@g.o
372 45. ppc64@g.o
373 46.
374 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=ppc64@g.o
375
376
377 New bug rankings
378 ----------------
379
380 The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during
381 this period are:
382
383 * Default Assignee for New Packages[47], with 44 new bugs[48]
384 * AMD64 Project[49], with 14 new bugs[50]
385 * Gentoo Games[51], with 12 new bugs[52]
386 * Perl Devs @ Gentoo[53], with 8 new bugs[54]
387 * Netmon Herd[55], with 8 new bugs[56]
388 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[57], with 8 new bugs[58]
389 * Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[59], with 6 new bugs[60]
390 * Gentoo Web Application Packages Maintainers[61], with 5 new bugs[62]
391 47. maintainer-wanted@g.o
392 48.
393 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@g.o
394 49. amd64@g.o
395 50.
396 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
397 51. games@g.o
398 52.
399 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=games@g.o
400 53. perl@g.o
401 54.
402 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=perl@g.o
403 55. netmon@g.o
404 56.
405 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=netmon@g.o
406 57. gnome@g.o
407 58.
408 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
409 59. toolchain@g.o
410 60.
411 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=toolchain@g.o
412 61. web-apps@g.o
413 62.
414 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-12&chfieldto=2006-03-19&assigned_to=web-apps@g.o
415
416
417 ===============
418 9. GWN feedback
419 ===============
420
421 Please send us your feedback[63] and help make the GWN better.
422
423 63. gwn-feedback@g.o
424
425 ================================
426 10. GWN subscription information
427 ================================
428
429 To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to
430 gentoo-gwn+subscribe@g.o.
431
432 To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to
433 gentoo-gwn+unsubscribe@g.o from the email address you are
434 subscribed under.
435
436 ===================
437 11. Other languages
438 ===================
439
440 The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
441
442 * Danish[64]
443 * Dutch[65]
444 * English[66]
445 * German[67]
446 * French[68]
447 * Korean[69]
448 * Japanese[70]
449 * Italian[71]
450 * Polish[72]
451 * Portuguese (Brazil)[73]
452 * Portuguese (Portugal)[74]
453 * Russian[75]
454 * Spanish[76]
455 * Turkish[77]
456 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
457 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml
458 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
459 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
460 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
461 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ko/gwn/gwn.xml
462 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
463 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
464 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
465 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt_br/gwn/gwn.xml
466 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
467 75. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
468 76. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
469 77. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml
470
471
472 Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Editor
473 Ioannis Aslanidis <deathwing00@g.o> - Author
474 Daniel Drake <dsd@g.o> - Author
475 Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@g.o> - Author
476 Gerald J. Normandin Jr. <gerrynjr@g.o> - Author
477 Tomoyuki Sakurai <cherry@××××××××××××.nu> - Author
478
479 --
480 gentoo-gwn@g.o mailing list