[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 1 May 2006

[Ulrich Plate]

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 1 May 2006.
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==============
1. Gentoo news
==============
  
Gentoo participation in Google "Summer of Code"
-----------------------------------------------
  
The "Summer of Code"[1] program sponsored by Google has accepted Gentoo as 
a mentoring organization. From today until early September, around 90 
open-source projects will be working with students to implement 
project-specific features. Participants are offered a financial reward for 
their work. All interested students should refer to Google's Student 
FAQ[2] to check whether they are eligible to participate in the Summer of 
Code with Gentoo. 

 1. http://code.google.com/soc
 2. http://code.google.com/soc/studentfaq.html
 
If you wish to contribute feel free to contact us, either through email[3] 
or IRC (#gentoo-soc on Freenode). Some project ideas can be found on our 
website[4], but we are also open for student proposals -- if in doubt just 
ask us! 

 3. gentoo-soc@g.o
 4. 
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/user-relations/summerofcode/index.xml
    
How to obtain meaningful backtraces
-----------------------------------
  
Diego Pettenò[5] has released a new Howto[6] that explains in great detail 
how to generate useful debugging info with backtraces. The Howto describes 
the needed steps with changing compiler flags and stripping with the new 
splitdebug feature. A short intro to gdb, the GNU Debugger, and coredumps 
as a post-mortem debugging tool give the interested reader all tools to 
start their own work to either debug themselves or report meaningful 
backtraces to developers. 

 5. flameeyes@g.o
 6. http://http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/backtraces.xml
    
User feedback helps brushing up ebuilds
---------------------------------------
  
Two months ago[7], the qmail herd[8] asked for comments on the current 
state of their ebuilds and usage. While they have not yet taken advantage 
of all of the suggestions that came from the discussions, the qmail herd 
has already made some progress. They started by creating a new, cleaner 
ebuild for netqmail[9], a version of qmail[10]. netqmail has additional 
bug fixes and patches to help with compilation on modern systems. The 
ebuild removes extraneous patches. The remaining patches can be controlled 
by the user via USE flags. This change addresses the main criticism of the 
old ebuild. The qmail herd looks forward to any of your comments, ideas, 
or suggestions on their new netqmail ebuild. 

 7. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20060220-newsletter.xml
 8. qmail-bugs@g.o
 9. http://www.qmail.org/netqmail/
 10. http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html
    
=========================
2. Heard in the community
=========================
  
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Gentoo: State of the Union
 
As it happens every now and then another thread discussing perceived and 
real problems in Gentoo got started. In this thread topics like 
recruitment, policies, why cvs is bad and some others are discussed. 
 
 * Gentoo: State of the union [11] 
 11. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/37638

 
SHA256 digest issues
 
A bug in pycrypto caused a lot of digest and Manifest files to be created 
with bogus SHA256 hashes. The source of the problem has been fixed, users 
of portage 2.1 may still run into occasional digest failures. Upgrading to 
pycrypto 2.0.1-r5 is highly recommended. 
 
 * SHA256 digest issues [12] 
 * Packages with bad SHA256 hash[13] 
 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/37612
 13. http://bugs.gentoo.org/131396

    
======================
3. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
Computer Partner (26 April 2006, in German)
-------------------------------------------
  
"Netcleanse" is the name of an anti-spam and anti-virus product by a 
German company. The announcement[14] of its new version 2.0 scheduled to 
start shipping on 2 May claims it's based on "a hardened version of 
Gentoo". Maybe somebody would like to check the 30-day-trial and find out 
what's under the hood? 

 14. http://www.computerpartner.de/news/203647/
    
=========================
4. Gentoo developer moves
=========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo project: 
 
 * None this week 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project: 
 
 * None this week 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:
 
 * None this week 
    
==================
5. Gentoo Security
==================
   
xine-ui: Format string vulnerabilities
--------------------------------------
  
Format string vulnerabilities in xine-ui may lead to the execution of 
arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[15] 

 15. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200604-15.xml
    
xine-lib: Buffer overflow vulnerability
---------------------------------------
  
xine-lib contains a buffer overflow vulnerability which may lead to the 
execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[16] 

 16. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200604-16.xml
    
Ethereal: Multiple vulnerabilities in protocol dissectors
---------------------------------------------------------
  
Ethereal is vulnerable to numerous vulnerabilities, potentially resulting 
in the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[17] 

 17. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200604-17.xml
    
Mozilla Suite: Multiple vulnerabilities
---------------------------------------
  
Several vulnerabilities in Mozilla Suite allow attacks ranging from script 
execution with elevated privileges to information leaks. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[18] 

 18. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200604-18.xml
     
===========
6. Bugzilla
===========
  
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[19]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 23 April 2006 and 30 April 2006, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 19. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 819 new bugs during this period 
 * 338 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 38 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 9907 currently open bugs: 61 are labeled 'blocker', 142 are labeled 
'critical', and 524 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Gentoo KDE team[20], with 16 closed bugs[21]  
 * Portage team[22], with 16 closed bugs[23]  
 * mips team[24], with 14 closed bugs[25]  
 * Gentoo Security[26], with 12 closed bugs[27]  
 * Gentoo Games[28], with 12 closed bugs[29]  
 * Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[30], with 9 closed bugs[31]  
 * Printing Team[32], with 9 closed bugs[33]  
 * Mozilla Gentoo Team[34], with 9 closed bugs[35]  
 20. kde@g.o
 21. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@g.o
 22. dev-portage@g.o
 23. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=dev-portage@g.o
 24. mips@g.o
 25. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=mips@g.o
 26. security@g.o
 27. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=security@g.o
 28. games@g.o
 29. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@g.o
 30. toolchain@g.o
 31. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=toolchain@g.o
 32. printing@g.o
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=printing@g.o
 34. mozilla@g.o
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=mozilla@g.o

    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Default Assignee for New Packages[36], with 31 new bugs[37]  
 * Gentoo Games[38], with 11 new bugs[39]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[40], with 10 new bugs[41]  
 * media-video herd[42], with 9 new bugs[43]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[44], with 8 new bugs[45]  
 * AMD64 Project[46], with 8 new bugs[47]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[48], with 7 new 
bugs[49]  
 * Gentoo X-windows packagers[50], with 6 new bugs[51]  
 36. maintainer-wanted@g.o
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@g.o
 38. games@g.o
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=games@g.o
 40. sound@g.o
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=sound@g.o
 42. media-video@g.o
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=media-video@g.o
 44. gnome@g.o
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
 46. amd64@g.o
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
 48. kernel@g.o
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=kernel@g.o
 50. x11@g.o
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-04-23&chfieldto=2006-04-30&assigned_to=x11@g.o

    
===============
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===============
   
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 52. gwn-feedback@g.o
    
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==================
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==================
   
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Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Editor
Michael Hanselmann <hansmi@g.o> - Author
Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o> - Author
Marc Loeser <halcy0n@g.o> - Author

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