[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 31

[Yuji Carlos Kosugi]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of August 4th, 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Gentoo Linux at Linux World Expo on August 5-7 
 * First Gentoo BugDay held on August 2 
 * WineX ebuilds removed from Portage 
    
Gentoo Linux at Linux World Expo on August 5-7
----------------------------------------------
  
Gentoo Linux will be at Linux World Expo[1] in San Francisco at the 
Moscone Convention Center on August 5-7, where we'll be releasing Gentoo 
Linux 1.4. Find us at booth #1 in the .org pavillion where we'll be giving 
away free Gentoo Linux 1.4 LiveCDs and free computer hardware, including a 
new Pentium 4 system and an Epson Stylus Photo 900 printer. We have many 
other surprises planed both on site and online, so please join us at the 
show! 

 1. http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny03/V40/index.cvn
    
First Gentoo BugDay held on August 2
------------------------------------
  
The first Gentoo BugDay was a success: 130 participants gathered in 
#gentoo-bugs on irc.freenode.net, and a total of 124 bugs were closed - 
about double the usual number (51 bugs were closed last Saturday). Users 
and developers worked together in the channel, testing, discussing, and 
fixing bugs. It was a great chance for users and developers to get to know 
each other, and we may even have scouted a few candidates for future 
developers. The current plan is to hold BugDays on the first Saturday of 
each month; thanks to Brian Jackson[2] for organizing this event. 

 2. iggy@g.o
    
WineX ebuilds removed from Portage
----------------------------------
  
By request from Transgaming Technologies, two WineX ebuilds (winex and 
winex-cvs) which build WineX from Transgaming's public CVS tree available 
under the Aladdin Free Public License have been removed from Portage and 
will no longer be maintained. According to Transgaming, the public CVS 
tree's purpose is not to provide a free version of WineX, but to enable 
people to assist with their development efforts, and if it's trivial for 
people to get WineX from CVS without contributing, it seriously 
discourages them from providing public CVS at all. See this excerpt from 
their LICENSE[3]: 

 3. 
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/winex/wine/LICENS
E?rev=1.9
 
"Note that while this license does permit certain kinds of non-commercial 
distribution of pre-compiled binary packages of WineX, doing so on a large 
scale is discouraged, as it affects TransGaming's ability to continue to 
improve and develop the code. TransGaming reserves the right to change the 
license under which TransGaming-owned copyright code is made available, 
and will not hesitate to do so if non-commercial distribution of 
pre-compiled binary packages adversely affects the financing of continued 
development."  
 
The winex-transgaming ebuild remains available for subscribers to 
Transgaming who want to install binary WineX packages. Also, Wine, the 
free project on which WineX is based, is still in the Portage tree. 
    
==================
2. Gentoo Security
==================
  
Summary
-------
  
There were no Security announcements this week
    
New Security Bug Reports
------------------------
  
There were no new security bugs opened this week. 
    
===============
3. User stories
===============
  
User stories is on hiatus this week. Remember to send us[4] your bizarre, 
hilarious, or incredible Gentoo stories so they can be featured here! 

 4. gwn-feedback@g.o
   
=================================
4. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
  
Seemant Kulleen
 
Figure 4.1: Seemant Kulleen
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20030804_seemant.jpg
 
This week, we're pleased to feature Seemant Kulleen[5] (seemant), a 
long-time developer and familiar name from the forums and mailing lists. 
Gentoo is actually Seemant's first involvement with a major Open Source 
project, where he served until recently as Project Co-Ordinator. He is on 
Gentoo's XFree team and often contributes bugfixes to unmaintained 
packages (before embarking on a mission to find a maintainer).

 5. seemant@g.o
 
A few weeks ago, Seemant was named to a position as the Manager of 
Developer Relations under Gentoo's new management structure[6]. Developer 
Relations' primary responsibility will be the care and feeding of Gentoo's 
burgeoning developer community. This includes identifying and recruiting 
new developers, providing resources for the developers, organizing teams, 
and resolving conflicts. He is currently working with Jon Portnoy[7] on 
creating a Developer's Handbook that will formalize some of the technical 
details of the development process and assist with training new 
developers. He is also working on the Developer Relations Ombudsman 
subproject suggested by Grant Goodyear[8] as an effort to provide a stable 
and neutral avenue for conflict resolution. More information about the 
Developer Relations project can be found at its project page[9]. Seemant 
also assists with Quality Assurance and Public Relations for the 
management team.

 6. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/management-structure.xml
 7. avenj@g.o
 8. g2boojum@g.o
 9. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/
 
Seemant is a Master's candidate at the Rochester Institute of Technology, 
currently working on his thesis. He lives in Santa Monica, CA where he 
spends much of his time working on Gentoo. He runs a black nForce2 box 
with an Athlon-XP 2100 and a Sun Ultra 1 currently serving as a firewall. 
He generally has sylpheed-claws and xchat1 running with XFce4 as the 
Window Manager. He is also fond of rsync, screen and gkrellm. He usually 
has a coke to hand. He describes Gentoo as "a dream" and is particularly 
proud of the Gentoo developer community, which he describes as "nothing 
short of magicians". He made a point of thanking the Gentoo Developers and 
user base for making it possible to work on such an "awesome distro".
   
=========================
5. Heard in the Community
=========================
  
Web Forums
----------
  
Decking Out Your Desktop
 
Want to know what people are doing with their customized desktops? The 
original Gentoo Desktops thread, begun over a year ago, has been locked, 
but in its place we now have Gentoo Desktops Part 2, which has already 
received 450 replies. If you're particularly proud of your desktop and 
want to post a screenshot or want to look at others' setups for 
inspiration, then look no further. 
 
 * Gentoo Desktops Part 2: Whats Yours Look Like ?[10] 
 * Gentoo Desktops --- Whats Yours Look Like ?[11] 
 10. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=48130
 11. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=2460

 
Artwiz fonts coming soon to Gnome2 and KDE3
 
Forum user aLEczapKA[12] had been hard at work trying to get the Artwiz 
fonts working under GTK2 and Qt3, when he realized that Alexander Kahl[13] 
had posted[14] an improved ebuild on Bugzilla mere days ago. In either 
case, though, it seems Gentoo will be one of the first distributions to 
have Xft/Freetype-compatible Artwiz fonts. 

 12. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22651
 13. chaosmorph@×××××××××××××××××.org
 14. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25381
 
 * (SOLVED) artwiz fonts and gnome2, kde3[15] 
 15. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=69836
    
gentoo-user
-----------
  
Clarifying the meaning of x86 and ~x86 
 
Determined to fully understand the difference between ~x86 and x86 
keywords, Gentoo User Jonathan Kelly shot an email out to fellow Gentoo 
Users. They were quick to point out that ~x86 isn't really considered to 
be "unstable" but rather a "testing" area. Once a package's build process 
as well as it's overall execution is tested and considered stable, it is 
released to the masses for consumption under the x86 keyword. Additionally 
users pointed out that ppc, ~ppc, as well as other architectural keywords 
exist to suit the same purpose of testing and stable packages. Read it 
here[16] 

 16. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/41628
    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
A new Itanium box!
 
Kurt Lieber  posted[17] the fantastic news that the Gentoo Linux project 
now has access to an Itanium box! This is especially great for any 
developers who wish to test with this in mind.

 17. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/10647/
 
Downloading binaries.
 
Whilst this idea might seem a bit out of place in the Gentoo Linux 
community, Fredrik Danerklint  brought up[18] a question about the emerge 
flag "--usepkg" - used for downloading binaries as opposed to source - to 
be implemented in our much loved make.conf. 

 18. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/10678/
    
=======================
6. Gentoo International
=======================
  
Gentoo Linux at Chaos Communication Camp 2003
---------------------------------------------
  
Gentoo Linux will be at the Chaos Communication Camp 2003[19]. This second 
International Open Air Hacker Gathering will take place on a field nearby 
Berlin from 7th to 10th August, organized by the German hacker-group Chaos 
Computer Club. There will be a lot of lectures in English, the world's 
largest civil open-air network, and, of course, fun. A Gentoo tent will be 
set up where you'll be able to meet developers, ask them questions about 
Gentoo, grab the recent LiveCDs, and exchange your experiences with 
Gentoo. 

 19. http://www.ccc.de/camp/
    
================
7. Portage Watch
================
  
Portage Watch is in hiatus this week and will be back next week with two 
week's worth of updates. 
   
===========
8. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed Bug Ranking 
 * New Bug Rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[20]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 25 July 2003 and 31 July 2003, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 20. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 377 new bugs during this period 
 * 201 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 6 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 3467 currently open bugs: 72 are labeled 'blocker', 155 are labeled 
'critical', and 281 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Nick Hadaway[21], with 13 closed bugs[22]  
 * Martin Holzer[23], with 11 closed bugs[24]  
 * Gentoo Games[25], with 11 closed bugs[26]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[27], with 10 closed bugs[28]  
 21. raker@g.o
 22. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07-31&resolution=FIX
ED&assigned_to=raker@g.o
 23. mholzer@g.o
 24. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07-31&resolution=FIX
ED&assigned_to=mholzer@g.o
 25. games@g.o
 26. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07-31&resolution=FIX
ED&assigned_to=games@g.o
 27. gnome@g.o
 28. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07-31&resolution=FIX
ED&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
    
New Bug Rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Gentoo Sound Team[29], with 13 new bugs[30]  
 * x86 Kernel Team[31], with 10 new bugs[32]  
 * Nicholas Jones[33], with 9 new bugs[34]  
 * Martin Schlemmer[35], with 9 new bugs[36]  
 * Svyatogor[37], with 8 new bugs[38]  
 29. sound@g.o
 30. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07
-31&assigned_to=sound@g.o
 31. x86-kernel@g.o
 32. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07
-31&assigned_to=x86-kernel@g.o
 33. carpaski@g.o
 34. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07
-31&assigned_to=carpaski@g.o
 35. azarah@g.o
 36. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07
-31&assigned_to=azarah@g.o
 37. svyatogor@g.o
 38. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-07-25&chfieldto=2003-07
-31&assigned_to=svyatogor@g.o
    
==================
9. Tips and Tricks
==================
  
A Quick and Easy Password Generator
 
This week's tip shows you how to quickly generate a list of passwords 
using /dev/urandom, and uuencode. 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 9.1:                                                       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|% dd if=/dev/urandom count=1 2> /dev/null | uuencode -m - | head -n 2 |\ |
|tail -n 1 | cut -c-8                                                     |
|v1/oVN+S                                                                 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The options for the cut command indicate the length of the password 
generated (in this case, 8 characters). This could easily be expanded to 
generate a whole list of passwords using the for command. 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 9.2:                                                       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|% for ((n=0;n<10;n++)); do dd if=/dev/urandom count=1 2> /dev/null |\    |
|uuencode -m -| head -n 2 | tail -n 1 | cut -c-8; done                    |
|rSQpeNNr                                                                 |
|PesAIgAb                                                                 |
|GUEgoUwT                                                                 |
|U3p+kfqa                                                                 |
|WSgSwgq6                                                                 |
|+9aGihvl                                                                 |
|dYfcaV3b                                                                 |
|guFtI7eZ                                                                 |
|+kzKuW0f                                                                 |
|jJpW/8yO                                                                 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
To create a longer or shorter list, just change the limit in for (in this 
case 10). 
 
If you want to generate WEP keys for wireless networking, you can use a 
similar procedure, replacing uuencode with md5sum: 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 9.3:                                                       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|% dd if=/dev/urandom count=1 2> /dev/null | md5sum | head -n 2 | tail -n\|
|1 | cut -c-26                                                            |
|aaab69457c239ef1d52617d1fa                                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
========================================
10. Featured Quote/Signature of the Week
========================================
  
This week's featured signature should appeal to Gentoo users who are also 
fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy; take a look at 
philocipher[39]'s sig: 

 39. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9520
 
"Nine megs for the secretaries fair 
Seven megs for the hackers scarce 
Five megs for the grads in smoky lairs 
Three megs for system source 

One disk to rule them all 
One disk to bind them 
One disk to hold the files 
And in the darkness grind 'em"
   
===========================
11. Moves, Adds and Changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 * none this week 
 
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
 
 * Jasmine Chua (jasmine) -- nagios-based monitoring 
 * Romans Malinovskis (romans) mailing list archives 
 * Don Seiler (rizzo) -- handling new ebuild submissions 
 * Max Kalika (max) -- mythtv 
 * Brian Jackson (iggy) -- courier 
 * Stephen Diener (sediener) -- app-sci 
 * Gerald J Normandin Jr. (gerrynjr) -- documentation 
 * Jason A. Mobarak (aether) -- java-config, portage 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project.
 
 * none this week 
    
=====================
12. Contribute to GWN
=====================
  
Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an 
email[40].

 40. gwn-feedback@g.o
   
================
13. GWN Feedback
================
  
Please send us your feedback[41] and help make GWN better.

 41. gwn-feedback@g.o
   
================================
14. GWN Subscription Information
================================
  
To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
gentoo-gwn-subscribe@g.o.
 
To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
gentoo-gwn-unsubscribe@g.o from the email address you are 
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===================
15. Other Languages
===================
  
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Dutch[42] 
 * English[43] 
 * German[44] 
 * French[45] 
 * Japanese[46] 
 * Italian[47] 
 * Polish[48] 
 * Portuguese (Brazil)[49] 
 * Portuguese (Portugal)[50] 
 * Russian[51] 
 * Spanish[52] 
 * Turkish[53] 
 42. http://www.gentoo.org/news/be/gwn/gwn.xml
 43. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 44. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
 45. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
 46. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
 47. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
 48. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
 49. http://www.gentoo.org/news/br/gwn/gwn.xml
 50. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
 51. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
 52. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 53. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml

  
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <carlos@g.o> - Editor
AJ Armstrong <aja@×××××××××××××.com> - Contributor
Cal Evans <cal@××××××××.com> - Contributor
Chris Gavin <gubbs@××××.org> - Contributor
Luke Giuliani <cold_flame@×××××.com> - Contributor
Shawn Jonnet <shawn.jonnet@×××××××.net> - Contributor
Michael Kohl <citizen428@g.o> - Contributor
Kurt Lieber <klieber@g.o> - Contributor
Rafael Cordones Marcos <rcm@×××××××.net> - Contributor
David Narayan <david@×××××××.net> - Contributor
Gerald J Normandin Jr. <gentoo@××××××××××××××××××.com> - Contributor
Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Contributor
Mathy Vanvoorden <matje@×××××××.be> - Dutch Translation
Hendrik Eeckhaut <Hendrik.Eeckhaut@×××××.be> - Dutch Translation
Jorn Eilander <sephiroth@××××××××.nl> - Dutch Translation
Bernard Kerckenaere <bernieke@××××××××.com> - Dutch Translation
Peter ter Borg <peter@××××××.nl> - Dutch Translation
Jochen Maes <linux@××××.be> - Dutch Translation
Roderick Goessen <rgoessen@××××.nl> - Dutch Translation
Gerard van den Berg <gerard@××××××.net> - Dutch Translation
Matthieu Montaudouin <mat@××××××××.com> - French Translation
Martin Prieto <riverdale@×××××××××.org> - French Translation
Antoine Raillon <cabec2@××××××.net> - French Translation
Sebastien Cevey <seb@×××××.net> - French Translation
Jean-Christophe Choisy <mabouya@××××××××××××.org> - French Translation
Steffen Lassahn <madeagle@g.o> - German Translation
Matthias F. Brandstetter <haim@g.o> - German Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <lordvan@g.o> - German Translation
Klaus-J. Wolf <yanestra@g.o> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <mush@××××××.net> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <paper@×××××××.it> - Italian Translation
Christian Apolloni <bsolar@×××××××.ch> - Italian Translation
Stefano Lucidi <stefano.lucidi@×××××××××××××.org> - Italian Translation
Yoshiaki Hagihara <hagi@×××.com> - Japanese Translation
Katsuyuki Konno <katuyuki@××××××××.jp> - Japanese Translation
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <carlos@g.o> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <yasunori@××××××××××××××××.uk> - Japanese Translation
Takashi Ota <088@××××××××××.jp> - Japanese Translation
Radoslaw Janeczko <sototh@×××.pl> - Polish Translation
Lukasz Strzygowski <lucass.home@××.pl> - Polish Translation
Michal Drobek <veng@××.pl> - Polish Translation
Adam Lyjak <apo@××××××××××××××××××××.pl> - Polish Translation
Krzysztof Klimonda <cthulhu@×××××××××.net> - Polish Translation
Atila "Jedi" Bohlke Vasconcelos <bohlke@×××××××××.br> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Eduardo Belloti <dudu@××××××××.net> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Jo達o Rafael Moraes Nicola <joaoraf@×××××××××.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Marcelo Gon巽alves de Azambuja <mgazambuja@×××××××××.br> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Otavio Rodolfo Piske <angusy@××××××××.org> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Pablo N. Hess -- NatuNobilis <natunobilis@××××××××.org> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Pedro de Medeiros <pzilla@××××××××.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <venturasbarbeiro@××××××.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <blueroom@××××××××××××.net> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <humpback@××××××××××.net> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Jos辿 Costa <jose_costa@×××××××.pt> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Luis Medina <metalgodin@×××××××××.org> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Ricardo Loureiro <rjlouro@×××××××.org> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Sergey Kuleshov <svyatogor@g.o> - Russian Translator
Dmitry Suzdalev <dimsuz@××××.ru> - Russian Translator
Anton Vorovatov <mazurous@××××.ru> - Russian Translator
Lanark <lanark@××××××××××.ar> - Spanish Translation
Fernando J. Pereda <ferdy@××××××.org> - Spanish Translation
Lluis Peinado Cifuentes <lpeinado@×××.edu> - Spanish Translation
Zephryn Xirdal T <ZEPHRYNXIRDAL@××××××××××.net> - Spanish Translation
Guillermo Juarez <katossi@××××××××××××××××.es> - Spanish Translation
Jes炭s Garc鱈a Crespo <correo@××××××.com> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <carlos@×××××××××××××.com> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <julio@×××××××××××××.com> - Spanish Translation
Sergio G坦mez <s3r@××××××××××××.ar> - Spanish Translation
Aycan Irican <aycan@××××××××.tr> - Turkish Translation
Bugra Cakir <bugra@×××××××××.com> - Turkish Translation
Cagil Seker <cagils@××××××××××.tr> - Turkish Translation
Emre Kazdagli <emre@××××××××.tr> - Turkish Translation
Evrim Ulu <evrim@××××××××.tr> - Turkish Translation
Gursel Kaynak <gurcell@××××××××.tr> - Turkish Translation