[gentoo-gmn] Gentoo Monthly Newsletter: 17 March 2008

[Anant Narayanan]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gentoo Monthly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gmn/
This is the third issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, for February 2008 –
March 2008.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

===============
1. Introduction
===============

This month in the GMN
---------------------

Hello and welcome to the third issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter. We
would like to thank our readers for their enthusiastic response, and hope
that you will continue to write in. Although it may not be possible to
respond to each and every one of you, we can assure you that every mail we
receive is read and plays a role in shaping future editions of the GMN.
Remember, the GMN is what its readers want it to be – please see the section
on how you can get involved – at the end of the newsletter for more
information.

Last month we ran graphical statistics on an experimental basis. While most
of you think they're a good idea in general, there seemed to be general
dislike for 3D pie-charts. We've replaced two pie-charts with bar-graphs, and
made the remaining pie-chart two dimensional. We've also split the package
addition and removal lists by week, in hopes of improving readability.

You can discuss any aspect of this issue of the GMN in the corresponding
forum thread[1]. We look forward to hearing from you.

   1. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4968869.html

Enjoy!

==============
2. Gentoo News
==============

Gentoo Trustee Election Result
------------------------------

The Gentoo Trustee elections[2] concluded on 28th February 2008. The
Condorcet method revealed the ranked list of all elected Gentoo Foundation
Trustees:

   2. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/elections/foundation-200802.xml

  * Roy Bamford[3]
  * Ferris McCormick[4]
  * Joshua Jackson[5]
  * Tom Gall[6]
  * William Thomson[7]

   3. neddyseagoon@g.o
   4. fmccor@g.o
   5. tsunam@g.o
   6. tgall@g.o
   7. wltjr@g.o

Out of 295 eligible voters, 107 ballots were submitted, bringing the voter
turnout to 36%. The term for the elected trustees began on 1st March 2008. If
you wish to contact the trustees or discuss a trustee-related issue, use the
gentoo-nfpmailing list[8].

   8. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/lists.xml

New operations lead for SPARC
-----------------------------

The SPARC arch team is pleased to announce the appointment of Raúl Porcel[9]
as the new operations manager for SPARC. Ferris McCormick[4] notes that this
was no real change, since this was what he was doing most of the time anyway.
If someone wishes to donate SPARC hardware, please get in touch with Raúl.

   4. fmccor@g.o
   9. armin76@g.o

New Gentoo Book
---------------

After the publishing of 'Gentoo – Die Metadistribution[10]' by Tobias
Scherbaum last year, another Gentoo developer has written a book. Gunnar
Wrobel's 'Gentoo Linux – Installation - Konfiguration - Administration[11]'
hit the stores at the end of February. Both books are written in German.

  10. http://www.mitp.de/vmi/mitp/detail/pWert/1769/titel/Gentoo%20Linux
  11. https://www.opensourcepress.de/index.php?26&tt_products=144

Council Meeting Summary
-----------------------

The Gentoo Council[12] held its monthly meeting on 13 March, 2008. The items
put up for discussion were:

  12. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/council/

  * Summer of Code (Should Gentoo developers be allowed to participate?):
    Council members will become additional SoC admins, and will serve as
    tiebreaker votes if they aren't actively participating in project
    selection. The SoC admins will decide whether non-contributors should be
    favored over contributors.
  * Package maintainers (Creation of a new post): The general agreement
    was that the current recruitment process serves its purpose very well.
    proxy-maintainers will be promoted more aggressively in order to attract
    new contributors.
  * AMD64 arch team's big bug list: Mike Doty[13] noted that it is hard
    to keep people interested in keywording. Anyone interested has had
    permission to keyword and stabilize non-system packages since 2007.1.
  * Open floor: It was decided that having a list of attendees for every
    meeting would be useful. Donnie Berkholz[14] will start creating the
    agenda along with the list in advance of the meeting. Diego Pettenò[15]
    will start working with the PR team on posting agenda and other items on
    a common Google calendar.

  13. kingtaco@g.o
  14. dberkholz@g.o
  15. flameeyes@g.o

Some items were rolled over from the previous meeting:

  * EAPI=0: Ciaran McCreesh has been contributing and has committed quite
    a few things. Mark Loeser[16] hopes to work on it in the next couple of
    weeks. EAPI=0 is probably a week of solid work away from having a draft
    for review.
  * GLEP 46 (Allow upstream tags in metadata.xml): No updates, as no
    authors were present.
  * Document of being an active developer: No updates.
  * Slacker arches: Mike Frysinger[17] said he was going to work on
    Richard Freeman[18]'s suggestion this weekend, and repost it for
    discussion on the development mailing list.

  16. halcy0n@g.o
  17. vapier@g.o
  18. rich0@g.o

Coming Up
---------

  * Bugday[19]: Looking for a way to help out Gentoo without investing a
    lot of time? Join us on April 05 for our monthly bugday, and help us
    squash some bugs[20].
  * Council Meeting[12]: The Gentoo Council meets every month to discuss
    important technical issues that affect Gentoo as a whole. This month's
    meeting is scheduled to be held on April 10, and everyone is welcome to
    participate - #gentoo-council on irc.freenode.net at 2000UTC.

  12. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/council/
  19. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/bugday/index.xml
  20. http://bugday.gentoo.org/

=======================
3. Gentoo International
=======================

Australia: linux.conf.au
------------------------

Towards the end of January, a first happened for Gentoo in Australia. Roughly
thirty users, developers and other Gentoo enthusiasts gathered into a lecture
theatre at the University of Melbourne during 'linux.conf.au[21]' for a
series of talks making up the first 'Gentoo Down Under Mini-Conf[22]'

  21. http://mel8ourne.org/
  22. http://mel8ourne.org/programme/tuesday#gentoo

The morning began with Sura Mendis's introduction to the Mini-Conf and - for
those who had entered the wrong room - an introduction to exactly what Gentoo
is. Unfortunately the talk focusing on the Gentoo Hardened project was
cancelled, but that didn't seem to faze Ivan Miljenovic who stepped up to the
mark and discussed many of the tools that can assist in everyday Gentoo
administration. After morning tea, Patrick Ohearn gave his introduction to
Paludis, followed by Mark Kowarsky[23] with pkgcore. Interestingly, no-one in
the auditorium had used either of these, with only a handful having heard of
them before. The Mini-Conf ended with Andrew Cowie delivering a talk first
given at Gentoo UK 2007 entitled "Looking back up the river". It suffices to
say it was very well done, and the discussions of the topic proceeded right
through lunch.

  23. mark_alec@g.o

Figure 3.1: Left to right: Mark Kowarsky (mark_alec), Andrew Cowie (AfC),
Ivan Miljenovic (ivanm), Shyam Mani (fox2mike), Sura Mendis, Aaron Carroll
(Flathead), Patrick Ohearn (patoh)
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/gentoo-down-under08.jpg

The picture is licensed under Creative Commons (attributed to Shyam
Mani[24]). More such pictures of the event can be found here[25].

  24. fox2mike@g.o
  25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fox2mike/tags/miniconf/

Germany: Chemnitzer Linuxtage
-----------------------------

This year Gentoo was present at the Chemnitzer Linuxtage[26] in Germany for
the fifth time in a row, and it was indeed a massive success. As usual, there
was a booth showing Gentoo on common architectures like x86 and amd64, but
visitors could also see Gentoo running on an Efika PPC system, a Geode based
media center built into a wooden box, and on a PPC featuring KDE 4.0.1 and in
a prefixed Mac OS X.

  26. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2008/info/

Tobias Scherbaum[27] held a talk[28] about building custom Live-CDs with
catalyst and genkernel, but that wasn't all. The whole of saturday afternoon
was dedicated to a developer meeting in the seminar room, which the team from
the Chemnitzer Linuxtage provided (as well as a nice buffet). Short talks
were given about interesting topics such as a review of supported
architectures, Gentoo on OS X[29], Gentoo Vservers[30], the arch testing tool
gatt[31], Overlays[32], Status of Kolab2[33] and general discussion about
many more topics. Approximately 15 developers and users took the chance to
have a both an interesting and amusing time.

  27. dertobi123@g.o
  28. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2008/vortraege/detail.html?idx=134
  29. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/index.xml
  30. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/vps/vserver-howto.xml
  31. http://www.faulhammer.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=198&Itemid=31
  32. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/
  33. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/kolab/

Figure 3.1: Left to right: Mario, Jens Bläsche (Mr. Big), Jonas, Lars Weiler
(Pylon), Wernfried Haas (amne), Michael Hammer (mueli), Robert Buchholz
(rbu), Tobias Scherbaum (dertobi123), Leonie, Lars Hartmann (psychoschlumpf),
Sebastian Dyroff, Tobias Kral (Inte), Benedikt Böhm (Hollow)
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/gentoo-chemnitzer08.jpg

Not in the picture but also attending the event were Markus Ullmann[34],
Michael Haubenwallner[35] and Hanno Boeck[36].

  34. jokey@g.o
  35. haubi@g.o
  36. hanno@g.o

=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================

Planet Gentoo
-------------

Time-sync external devices: Hanno Boeck[36] describes how one can\ time-sync
external devices[37], for example cameras or mobile phones. This way you get
proper time and date metadata in your media files.

  36. hanno@g.o
  37. http://www.hboeck.de/archives/586-Time-syncing-external-devices-like-cameras,-mobiles.html

Help from users: The Emacs team is looking for help which is easily doable by
any user. Christian Faulhammer[38] asks for test plans[39] for packages from
the app-emacs[40] category.

  38. opfer@g.o
  39. http://www.faulhammer.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=239
  40. http://packages.gentoo.org/category/app-emacs

Working on PAM: Diego Pettenò[15] has started a re-organization of PAM in
Gentoo and describes how one can drop the use of setuid binaries with the
help of PAM and libcap[41]. Also available are several
progress[42]reports[43].

  15. flameeyes@g.o
  41. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/18/capabilties-and-pam
  42. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/19/all-your-pambase-are-belong-to-us
  43. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/19/the-mess-i-found-with-pam

A pleading for ZFS on Linux: We need ZFS on Linux badly, says Joe
Peterson[44] and also tells us why[45].

  44. lavajoe@g.o
  45. http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/lavajoe/2008/02/18/linux_needs_zfs_and_badly

Developer poll: Donnie Berkholz[14] did a little internal survey and got 50
developer responses, which he summarizes[46].

  14. dberkholz@g.o
  46. http://spyderous.livejournal.com/95715.html

How to write a proper announcement: To give the front page announcements some
overall scheme, Joshua Nichols[47] gives us an overview on how to write
announcements[48].

  47. nichoj@g.o
  48. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TechnicalPicklesGentoo/~3/238043661/guide-to-gentoo-announcements

The electronic eye: If you want to let a camera take photos and display it on
the screen, Grant Goodyear[49] tells you how[50].

  49. g2boojum@g.o
  50. http://www.grantgoodyear.org/g2blog/photos/20080221.html

Native Linux mapping: For Open Street Map[51], you either can use a Java or a
Flash based editor. Both have drawbacks, so Hanno Boeck[36] added
Merkaartor[52] to Portage.

  36. hanno@g.o
  51. http://www.openstreetmap.org/
  52. http://www.hboeck.de/archives/594-merkaartor,-another-editor-for-OpenStreetMap.html

TeX overview: Current stable TeX implementation teTeX is a small base package
with dozens of separate styles and classes in the dev-tex[53] category. The
successor TeX Live (currently in testing) is broken up into smaller packages,
but deriving the concrete contents is harder. Alexis Ballier[54] introduces
texmfind[55], which is an index tool for all style and class files that helps
you find the package you need to emerge.

  53. http://packages.gentoo.org/category/dev-tex
  54. aballier@g.o
  55. http://aballier.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/introducing-texmfind/

Web 3.0?: Some people claim that the semantic web will be the next big thing.
Rob Cakebread[56] reports about his project on how those new ideas can be
linked[57] and used for Gentoo.

  56. pythonhead@g.o
  57. http://rob.cakebread.info/blog/?p=3

Gentoo Forums
-------------

Package sets added to 'world' by default:Marius Mauch[58], one of the Portage
developers, has opened a poll on the behavior of package sets in this
thread[59]. He wants to know whether users would like package sets, a new
feature of portage, to be added to the 'world' file by default. You can learn
more about this feature and discuss on the forum thread.

  58. genone@g.o
  59. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-664181.html

Gentoo Brainstorming: One of our forums user, erik258[60], proposes that we
create a Gentoo Brainstorming site. What do you think of his idea? Would you
like to join him in his quest? Express your opinions at the forum thread[61].

  60. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=105298
  61. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-673136.html

==================
5. Tips and Tricks
==================

Encrypted USB Swap
------------------

Large, high speed USB flash drives are now more affordable than ever. At
sizes of 2GB and 4GB, these drives are an interesting alternative to swapping
on disk. When machines are thrashing to and from swap, a relatively huge
amount of time is spent seeking. Swapping on flash makes the seek time
relatively negligible.

Market Speak for Speed: Affordable drives boast sustained speeds of 20 MBps
for writing and 30 MBps for reading. When purchasing flash drives, speeds are
measured by factors such as 133X and 200X. The X factor is the same as for CD
ROM drives: 150 KBps.

Measuring the Speed: You can use the dd command to measure the speed of your
drive for reading:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.1                                                           |
| Using dd to measure speed                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1000 iflag=direct                |
|                                                                            |
| # Or: (THIS COMMAND WILL OVERWRITE DATA ON YOUR DEVICE)                    |
|                                                                            |
| $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1000 oflag=direct                |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Flash devices have an internal block size of 4K so it is important to specify
a block size of at least this amount to accurately measure the device's
optimal speed.

Encypted USB Swap: Encrypting your swap prevents unencrypted sensitive data,
such as passwords, from being stored on the flash drive. To enable
encryption, your kernel must have the BLOCK_DEV_LOOP, BLOCK_DEV_CRYPTO_LOOP
and CRYPTO_AES or CRYPTO_AES_X86_64 options enabled.

Partitioning: While not strictly necessary, partitioning your drives makes
the data easier to identify with the fdisk command. Partition your drive with
fdisk and specify a partition type of 82. Find the unique name of your flash
drive swap partition with:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.2                                                                                                  |
| Identifying your drive                                                                                            |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*-part1                                                                               |
|                                                                                                                   |
| # Example output:                                                                                                 |
|                                                                                                                   |
| lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Feb 6 23:40 /dev/disk/by-id/usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_AA7B020900000644-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Modifying fstab: Add your partition to /etc/fstab to have the swap
automatically enabled on boot:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.3                                                                                                          |
| Adding an entry to fstab                                                                                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| /dev/disk/by-id/usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_AA7B020900000644-0:0-part1   none    swap    sw,loop=/dev/loop7,encryption=AES128  0 0 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can specify any loop device that you know will not be used at boot.

Going Live: To turn on your swap immediately:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.4                                                           |
| Activating your swap partition                                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ swapon -a                                                                |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Use either of these commands to see the status of your swaps:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.5                                                           |
| Verifying your swap partition                                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ swapon -s                                                                |
|                                                                            |
| # Or:                                                                      |
|                                                                            |
| $ cat /proc/swaps                                                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

A word of Caution! Flash drives have a limited life span. For personal use, a
flash drive can easily last years. For heavy duty use, using a hard drive may
be a more appropriate alternative than occasionally replacing the flash
drive. A typical flash drive will allow 10,000 or 100,000 writes per block.
Decent flash drives use wear leveling techniques so that all the blocks wear
out evenly. Considering the worst case, a 4GB drive which is written to
constantly at 20MB/sec, a drive in such a situation would only last 23.7 to
237 days.

tmpwatch never sleeps
---------------------

A cluttered /tmp is annoying, there are two possibilities to automatically
prevent that. The first possibility is to use a feature of baselayout-2,
simply set WIPE_TMP to "yes" in /etc/conf.d/bootmisc. The second possibility
is to use tmpwatch:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.1                                                           |
| Installing tmpwatch                                                        |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ emerge tmpwatch                                                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

It will install a cron entry: /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch. Uncomment one or all
of the examples in the file. You can also write your own, such as:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.2                                                           |
| Custom tmpwatch cron entry                                                 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                            |
| # Delete everything except what is owned by one user                       |
|                                                                            |
| if [[ -d /tmp ]]; then                                                     |
|   ${TMPWATCH} --exclude-user andrey --atime 168 /tmp                       |
| fi                                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For more options, run:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.3                                                           |
| tmpwatch options                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ tmpwatch --help                                                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

=========================
6. Gentoo developer moves
=========================

Summary
-------

Gentoo is made up of 254 active developers, of which 43 are currently away.
Gentoo has recruited a total of 633 developers since its inception.

Moves
-----

The following developers recently left the Gentoo project:

Note: The number is higher than usual because several inactive developers
were retired as per Gentoo policy. This operation is performed on a regular
basis by the Undertakers[62] project.

  62. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/undertakers/index.xml

  * Chris Bainbridge (chrb)
  * Damian Florczyk (thunder)
  * Marcin Kryczek (mkay)
  * Jason Shoemaker (kutsuya)
  * Peter Johanson (latexer)
  * Robert Clark (hyakuhei)
  * Christel Dahlskjaer (christel)
  * Kevin F. Quinn (kevquinn)
  * Marien Zwart (marienz)
  * Charlie Shepherd (masterdriverz)
  * Andrea Barisani (lcars)
  * Harlan Lieberman-Berg (hlieberman)
  * Andres Loeh (kosmikus)
  * Josh Glover (jmglov)
  * Christian Andreetta (satya)
  * Karol Wojtaszek (sekretarz)
  * Alin Dobre (alin)
  * Przemyslaw Maciag (troll)
  * Michael Hanselmann (hansmi)
  * Peter Bienstman (pbienst)
  * Eldad Zack (eldad)
  * Stefan Cornelius (dercorny)
  * Kyle England (kengland)
  * Masatomo Nakano (nakano)
  * Eric Edgar (rocket)
  * Karol Pasternak (reb)

Adds
----

The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project:

  * Bo Ørsted Andresen (zlin) - kde
  * Ricardo Mendoza (ricmm) - mips
  * Tobias Klausmann (klausman) - alpha

Changes
-------

The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:

  * Ingmar Vanhassel (ingmar) joined the Qt herd
  * Wulf Krueger (philantrop) joined the kerberos herd
  * Luis Francisco Araujo (araujo) joined the Scheme herd

==========
7. Portage
==========

Summary
-------

This section summarizes the current state of the portage tree.

General Statistics
Architectures      15
Categories         151
Packages           12425
ebuilds            24338

Keyword Distribution
Architecture         StableTestingTotal% Packages
alpha                3531517404832.58%
amd64                670738981060585.35%
arm                  158767165413.31%
hppa                 2537555309224.89%
ia64                 3126625375130.19%
m68k                 489104994.02%
mips                 1234537177114.25%
ppc                  61792782896172.12%
ppc64                3317702401932.35%
s390                 11944312379.96%
sh                   140739144611.64%
sparc                47081308601648.42%
sparc-fbsd           03053052.45%
x86                  919330601225398.62%
x86-fbsd             02441244119.65%

Figure 7.1: Package distribution by keyword
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/keywords.png

The following section lists packages that have either been moved or added to
the tree. The package removals come from many locations, including the
Treecleaners[63] and various developers.

  63. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/treecleaners/

Removals:
---------

Package:                Removal date: Contact:
net-misc/howl           18 Feb 2008   Saleem Abdulrasool[64]
app-admin/grubconf      18 Feb 2008   Saleem Abdulrasool[64]
sys-auth/pam_keyring    21 Feb 2008   Olivier Crête[65]
app-emacs/cdrw          22 Feb 2008   Ulrich Müller[66]
dev-python/twisted-web2 23 Feb 2008   Tiziano Müller[67]
sys-fs/mtd              23 Feb 2008   Mike Frysinger[17]
profiles/default-darwin 24 Feb 2008   Fabian Groffen[68]

  17. vapier@g.o
  64. compnerd@g.o
  65. tester@g.o
  66. ulm@g.o
  67. dev-zero@g.o
  68. grobian@g.o

Package:                Removal date: Contact:
sys-apps/mii-diag       25 Feb 2008   Raúl Porcel[9]
sys-devel/distcc-config 25 Feb 2008   Raúl Porcel[9]
media-sound/jmax        25 Feb 2008   Steve Dibb[69]
app-crypt/cli-crypt     25 Feb 2008   Raúl Porcel[9]
dev-tex/koma-script     02 Mar 2008   Alexis Ballier[54]

   9. armin76@g.o
  54. aballier@g.o
  69. beandog@g.o

Package:                     Removal date: Contact:
media-fonts/fonts-indic      03 Mar 2008   Ryan Hill[70]
media-plugins/mythappearance 03 Mar 2008   Doug Klima[71]
games-action/abuse_sdl       06 Mar 2008   Chris Gianelloni[72]
app-misc/pv                  06 Mar 2008   Christoph Mende[73]
www-apps/bugs-bug-genie      07 Mar 2008   Benedikt Boehm[74]
www-apps/disc-cover          07 Mar 2008   Benedikt Boehm[74]
dev-tex/dk-bib               07 Mar 2008   Alexis Ballier[54]
net-im/ccmsn                 08 Mar 2008   Olivier Crête[65]

  54. aballier@g.o
  65. tester@g.o
  70. dirtyepic@g.o
  71. cardoe@g.o
  72. wolf31o2@g.o
  73. angelos@g.o
  74. hollow@g.o

Package:                Removal date: Contact:
x11-misc/ASFiles        10 Mar 2008   Bernard Cafarelli[75]
app-portage/gatt-svn    11 Mar 2008   Christian Faulhammer[38]
x11-plugins/gkrellm-bfm 11 Mar 2008   Jim Ramsay[76]
sys-apps/list           11 Mar 2008   Stefan Schweizer[77]
sys-apps/mindi-kernel   13 Mar 2008   Wolfram Schlich[78]

  38. opfer@g.o
  75. voyageur@g.o
  76. lack@g.o
  77. genstef@g.o
  78. wschlich@g.o

Additions:
----------

Package:                                            Addition date: Contact:
mail-filter/milter-regex[79]                        18 Feb 2008    Alin Năstac[80]
app-emulation/vov[81]                               18 Feb 2008    Michele Noberasco[82]
kde-base/dragonplayer[83]                           18 Feb 2008    Bo Ørsted Andresen[84]
app-arch/q7z[85]                                    18 Feb 2008    Ben de Groot[86]
app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-glibc-errno-compat[87] 18 Feb 2008    Mike Frysinger[17]
sys-auth/pambase[88]                                19 Feb 2008    Diego Pettenò[15]
sci-geosciences/qlandkarte[89]                      19 Feb 2008    Hanno Boeck[36]
www-apps/horde-groupware[90]                        20 Feb 2008    Mike Frysinger[17]
games-board/pychess[91]                             21 Feb 2008    Michael Sterrett[92]
media-plugins/gst-plugins-dvb[93]                   21 Feb 2008    Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
media-libs/gmyth[95]                                21 Feb 2008    Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
media-plugins/gst-plugins-mythtv[96]                21 Feb 2008    Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
x11-drivers/xf86-input-evtouch[97]                  21 Feb 2008    Doug Klima[71]
app-admin/eselect-xvmc[98]                          22 Feb 2008    Doug Klima[71]
sys-fs/redirfs[99]                                  23 Feb 2008    Alon Bar-Lev[100]
dev-perl/PHP-Serialization[101]                     23 Feb 2008    Benedikt Boehm[74]
app-emacs/color-moccur[102]                         24 Feb 2008    Ulrich Müller[66]
app-emacs/moccur-edit[103]                          24 Feb 2008    Ulrich Müller[66]
app-emacs/mcomplete[104]                            24 Feb 2008    Ulrich Müller[66]
dev-perl/Linux-Inotify2[105]                        24 Feb 2008    Joerg Bornkessel[106]

  15. flameeyes@g.o
  17. vapier@g.o
  36. hanno@g.o
  66. ulm@g.o
  71. cardoe@g.o
  74. hollow@g.o
  79. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/mail-filter/milter-regex
  80. mrness@g.o
  81. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emulation/vov
  82. s4t4n@g.o
  83. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/kde-base/dragonplayer
  84. zlin@g.o
  85. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-arch/q7z
  86. yngwin@g.o
  87. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-glibc-errno-compat
  88. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-auth/pambase
  89. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-geosciences/qlandkarte
  90. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/www-apps/horde-groupware
  91. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-board/pychess
  92. mr_bones_@g.o
  93. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gst-plugins-dvb
  94. zaheerm@g.o
  95. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-libs/gmyth
  96. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gst-plugins-mythtv
  97. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evtouch
  98. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-admin/eselect-xvmc
  99. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-fs/redirfs
 100. alonbl@g.o
 101. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/PHP-Serialization
 102. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/color-moccur
 103. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/moccur-edit
 104. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/mcomplete
 105. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/Linux-Inotify2
 106. hd_brummy@g.o

Package:                               Addition date: Contact:
dev-java/java-service-wrapper[107]     25 Feb 2008    Alistair Bush[108]
media-plugins/gimp-greycstoration[109] 25 Feb 2008    Denis Dupeyron[110]
dev-libs/libisoburn[111]               25 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
media-gfx/greycstoration[112]          25 Feb 2008    Denis Dupeyron[110]
net-irc/quassel[113]                   26 Feb 2008    Diego Pettenò[15]
dev-embedded/urjtag[114]               26 Feb 2008    Mike Frysinger[17]
media-libs/rubberband[115]             26 Feb 2008    Alexis Ballier[54]
app-dicts/sword-akjv[116]              27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-frelsg[117]            27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerelb1871[118]        27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerlut1545[119]        27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gersch[120]            27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-itarive[121]           27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-kjv[122]               27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-sparv[123]             27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-strongsgreek[124]      27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-webstersdict[125]      27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
games-fps/etqw-demo[126]               27 Feb 2008    Chris Gianelloni[72]
app-dicts/sword-ylt[127]               27 Feb 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
sci-visualization/fityk[128]           28 Feb 2008    Sebastien Fabbro[129]
dev-libs/libbeagle[130]                28 Feb 2008    Cédric Krier[131]
sci-geosciences/merkaartor[132]        29 Feb 2008    Hanno Boeck[36]
dev-python/buzhug[133]                 01 Mar 2008    Tiziano Müller[67]
net-misc/wso2-wsf-c[134]               01 Mar 2008    Caleb Tennis[135]
dev-tex/texmfind[136]                  01 Mar 2008    Alexis Ballier[54]
net-p2p/lince[137]                     01 Mar 2008    Santiago M. Mola[138]
dev-lang/lisaac[139]                   01 Mar 2008    Wulf Krueger[140]
dev-libs/pakchois[141]                 02 Mar 2008    Benedikt Boehm[74]
sys-auth/pam_blue[142]                 02 Mar 2008    Ali Polatel[143]

  15. flameeyes@g.o
  17. vapier@g.o
  36. hanno@g.o
  54. aballier@g.o
  67. dev-zero@g.o
  69. beandog@g.o
  72. wolf31o2@g.o
  74. hollow@g.o
 107. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-java/java-service-wrapper
 108. ali_bush@g.o
 109. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gimp-greycstoration
 110. calchan@g.o
 111. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/libisoburn
 112. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-gfx/greycstoration
 113. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-irc/quassel
 114. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-embedded/urjtag
 115. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-libs/rubberband
 116. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-akjv
 117. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-frelsg
 118. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerelb1871
 119. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerlut1545
 120. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gersch
 121. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-itarive
 122. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-kjv
 123. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-sparv
 124. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-strongsgreek
 125. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-webstersdict
 126. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-fps/etqw-demo
 127. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ylt
 128. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-visualization/fityk
 129. bicatali@g.o
 130. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/libbeagle
 131. cedk@g.o
 132. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-geosciences/merkaartor
 133. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/buzhug
 134. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/wso2-wsf-c
 135. caleb@g.o
 136. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-tex/texmfind
 137. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-p2p/lince
 138. coldwind@g.o
 139. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-lang/lisaac
 140. philantrop@g.o
 141. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/pakchois
 142. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-auth/pam_blue
 143. hawking@g.o

Package:                                Addition date: Contact:
media-fonts/lohit-fonts[144]            03 Mar 2008    Ryan Hill[70]
gnome-extra/gnome-do[145]               03 Mar 2008    Hans de Graaff[146]
gnome-extra/gnome-do-plugins[147]       03 Mar 2008    Hans de Graaff[146]
sys-apps/einit-modules-xml[148]         03 Mar 2008    Christian Faulhammer[38]
app-text/rnv[149]                       03 Mar 2008    Christian Faulhammer[38]
sys-apps/einit-modules-scheme[150]      03 Mar 2008    Christian Faulhammer[38]
net-analyzer/nagios-check_logfiles[151] 05 Mar 2008    Caleb Tennis[135]
games-action/abuse[152]                 06 Mar 2008    Chris Gianelloni[72]
sys-apps/pv[153]                        06 Mar 2008    Christoph Mende[73]
dev-perl/CSS-Squish[154]                07 Mar 2008    Benedikt Boehm[74]
dev-libs/iniparser[155]                 08 Mar 2008    Tiziano Müller[67]
dev-cpp/gflags[156]                     09 Mar 2008    Alec Warner[157]
dev-python/mako[158]                    09 Mar 2008    Alec Warner[157]
dev-python/colubrid[159]                09 Mar 2008    Alec Warner[157]

  38. opfer@g.o
  67. dev-zero@g.o
  70. dirtyepic@g.o
  72. wolf31o2@g.o
  73. angelos@g.o
  74. hollow@g.o
 135. caleb@g.o
 144. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-fonts/lohit-fonts
 145. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/gnome-extra/gnome-do
 146. graaff@g.o
 147. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/gnome-extra/gnome-do-plugins
 148. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/einit-modules-xml
 149. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-text/rnv
 150. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/einit-modules-scheme
 151. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-analyzer/nagios-check_logfiles
 152. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-action/abuse
 153. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/pv
 154. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/CSS-Squish
 155. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/iniparser
 156. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-cpp/gflags
 157. antarus@g.o
 158. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/mako
 159. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/colubrid

Package:                               Addition date: Contact:
kde-base/kinfocenter[160]              10 Mar 2008    Wulf Krueger[140]
app-portage/gatt[161]                  11 Mar 2008    Christian Faulhammer[38]
sci-physics/bullet[162]                11 Mar 2008    Sebastien Fabbro[129]
sys-apps/mindi-busybox[163]            13 Mar 2008    Wolfram Schlich[78]
app-dicts/sword-ab[164]                14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-weymouth[165]          14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-web[166]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-ukjv[167]              14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-tyndale[168]           14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-twenty[169]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-strongshebrew[170]     14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rwebster[171]          14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rnkjv[172]             14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rkjnt[173]             14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-murdock[174]           14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-montgomery[175]        14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-mkjv[176]              14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-litv[177]              14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-jubilee2000[178]       14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-isv[179]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-hnv[180]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-geneva1599[181]        14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-drc[182]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-darby[183]             14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bwe[184]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bbe[185]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-asv[186]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-acv[187]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
media-sound/codecgraph[188]            14 Mar 2008    Tony Vroon[189]
app-dicts/sword-afr1953[190]           14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-arasvd[191]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bulcarigradnt[192]     14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bulveren[193]          14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-chamorro[194]          14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czebkr[195]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czecep[196]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czekms[197]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czenkb[198]            14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-dan[199]               14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-esperanto[200]         14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerelb1905[201]        14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-umgreek[202]           14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-wycliffe[203]          14 Mar 2008    Steve Dibb[69]
net-misc/nxcl[204]                     14 Mar 2008    Bernard Cafarelli[75]
net-misc/qtnx[205]                     14 Mar 2008    Bernard Cafarelli[75]
x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome[206] 15 Mar 2008    Donnie Berkholz[14]
net-voip/telepathy-haze[207]           15 Mar 2008    Santiago M. Mola[138]
dev-python/werkzeug[208]               15 Mar 2008    Christian Hoffmann[209]

  14. dberkholz@g.o
  38. opfer@g.o
  69. beandog@g.o
  75. voyageur@g.o
  78. wschlich@g.o
 129. bicatali@g.o
 138. coldwind@g.o
 140. philantrop@g.o
 160. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/kde-base/kinfocenter
 161. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-portage/gatt
 162. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-physics/bullet
 163. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/mindi-busybox
 164. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ab
 165. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-weymouth
 166. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-web
 167. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ukjv
 168. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-tyndale
 169. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-twenty
 170. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-strongshebrew
 171. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rwebster
 172. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rnkjv
 173. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rkjnt
 174. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-murdock
 175. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-montgomery
 176. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-mkjv
 177. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-litv
 178. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-jubilee2000
 179. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-isv
 180. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-hnv
 181. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-geneva1599
 182. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-drc
 183. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-darby
 184. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bwe
 185. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bbe
 186. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-asv
 187. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-acv
 188. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-sound/codecgraph
 189. chainsaw@g.o
 190. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-afr1953
 191. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-arasvd
 192. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bulcarigradnt
 193. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bulveren
 194. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-chamorro
 195. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czebkr
 196. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czecep
 197. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czekms
 198. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czenkb
 199. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-dan
 200. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-esperanto
 201. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerelb1905
 202. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-umgreek
 203. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-wycliffe
 204. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/nxcl
 205. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/qtnx
 206. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome
 207. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-voip/telepathy-haze
 208. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/werkzeug
 209. hoffie@g.o

===========
8. Bugzilla
===========

Statistics
----------

The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[210]) to record and track
bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the development
team. The following chart summarizes activity on Bugzilla between 17 February
2008 and 16 March 2008.

 210. http://bugs.gentoo.org

Figure 8.1: Bug activity split-up
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/activity.png

Of the 10273 currently open bugs: 16 are labeled blocker, 88 are labeled
critical, and 353 are labeled major.

Closed bug ranking
------------------

The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period are
as follows.

Rank Developer/Team                         Bug Count
0    Others                                 917
1    Python Gentoo Team                     55
2    Gentoo Security                        48
3    Gentoo's Team for Core System packages 47
4    Java team                              45
5    Gentoo KDE team                        39
6    AMD64 Project                          38
7    Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team        35
8    Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages 33
9    Gentoo Games                           33

Figure 8.1: Bug closed rankings
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/closed.png

Assigned bug ranking
--------------------

The developers and teams who have been assigned the most bugs during this
period are as follows.

Rank Developer/Team                         Bug Count
0    Others                                 671
1    Default Assignee for New Packages      71
2    Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team        43
3    Java team                              37
4    Gentoo KDE team                        33
5    Gentoo Security                        28
6    Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages 25
7    Gentoo Games                           23
8    AMD64 Project                          23
9    Gentoo non-Linux Team                  20

Figure 8.1: Bugs assigned rankings
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/opened.png

===================
9. Getting Involved
===================

The GMN relies on volunteers and members of the community for content every
month. If you are interested in writing for the GMN, do write in to
gmn-writers@g.o with your articles in plaintext or GuideXML format.

Note: The deadline for articles to be published in the next issue is April
18, 2008.

We solicit feedback from all our readers on the newsletter. If you have any
ideas for articles, sections, or have anything to say about the GMN, don't
hesitate to email us at gmn-feedback@g.o.

You can also give us your feedback and comment on this particular issue of
the GMN on the forum thread[1].

   1. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4968869.html

================================
10. GMN subscription information
================================

To subscribe to the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, send a blank e-mail to
gentoo-gmn+subscribe@g.o.

To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, send a blank e-mail to
gentoo-gmn+unsubscribe@g.o from the e-mail address you are subscribed
under.

===================
11. Other languages
===================

The Gentoo Monthly Newsletter is available in the following languages:

  * English[211]
  * German[212]
  * Italian[213]
  * Polish[214]
  * Spanish[215]
  * Simplified Chinese[216]

 211. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gmn/index.xml
 212. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gmn/index.xml
 213. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gmn/index.xml
 214. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gmn/index.xml
 215. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gmn/index.xml
 216. http://www.gentoo.org/news/zh_cn/gmn/index.xml

Anant Narayanan <anant@g.o> - Editor
Wernfried Haas <amne@g.o> - Author
Mark Kowarsky <mark_alec@g.o> - Author
Ioannis Aslanidis <deathwing00@g.o> - Author
Tony Vroon <chainsaw@g.o> - Author
Christian Faulhammer <opfer@g.o> - Author
Ferris McCormick <fmccor@g.o> - Author
Andrey Falko <andrey@××××××.net> - Author
Arthur Britto <ahbritto@×××.com> - Author