Gentoo Archives: gentoo-gwn

From: Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o>
To: gentoo-gwn@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 15 August 2005
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:31:07
Message-Id: 20050815030438.0278ad3d.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 15 August 2005.
5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
6
7 ==============
8 1. Gentoo News
9 ==============
10
11 Gentoo Linux 2005.1 released
12 ----------------------------
13
14 The Gentoo Release Engineering team is proud to announce the release of
15 Gentoo Linux 2005.1. This release is the second release of 2005 and is the
16 culmination of five months of work. Some major software changes from
17 2005.0 are GNOME 2.10, KDE 3.4.1, XFce 4.2.2, X.Org 6.8.2, and a 2.6.12
18 kernel.
19
20 This release also gives provides two additional x86 LiveCD images, in
21 combination with the minimal and universal InstallCDs seen in previous
22 releases: a new x86 LiveCD from the Hardened project, and the new x86
23 Installer LiveCD which features the first public release of the Gentoo
24 Linux Installer, with both a GTK+ and dialog-based front-end.
25
26 The SPARC team has switched to using hwsetup for doing device
27 auto-detection, which should give them more device compatibility and the
28 IA64 team has released a minimal LiveCD as mentioned in a previous GWN.
29 PPC and PPC64 now operate under a joint parent profile in the same fashion
30 as SPARC and MIPS do for their 32/64-bit equivalents and G5 support has
31 been moved completely from PPC32 to PPC64.
32
33 The genkernel utility has also been heavily worked on and now has many new
34 features such as initramfs, gensplash and dmraid support along with many
35 other enhancements and bug fixes.
36
37 Figure 1.1: CD labels can be downloaded for each of the architectures
38 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_iso.png
39
40 The release is available for download from our mirrors[1] and from the
41 BitTorrent tracker[2] kindly provided by Friends of Gentoo e.V.[3].
42 Companion CD labels, color-coded to represent the different architecture,
43 can be downloaded from a common location[4].
44
45 1. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
46 2. http://tracker.netdomination.org/
47 3. http://www.gentoo-ev.org/
48 4. http://dev.gentoo.org/~plasmaroo/gentoo-cdcovers/2005.1/
49
50 First Gentoo developer conference webcast
51 -----------------------------------------
52
53 Having just about packed up the Gentoo booth at last week's Linux World
54 Expo in San Francisco, the mostly US-based developers who had represented
55 Gentoo at the show stayed on for another day, to participate in the first
56 fully-fledged US Gentoo developer conference, held at the premises of
57 Global Netoptex, Inc. (GNi)[5]. Owing its success to the tireless work of
58 organizer Corey Shields[6], the event brought together Gentoo Foundation
59 trustees, developers and guests. Special thanks to Indiana University for
60 their streaming services that made it possible for dozens of fellow
61 developers at large to participate in the conference! For those who
62 followed the presentations via the webcast, a special IRC channel
63 #gentoo-devconference was set aside on irc.freenode.net to allow for
64 interaction: developers abroad were able to ask questions and voice their
65 opinions almost in real-time during the entire all-day event.
66
67 5. http://www.netoptex.com/
68 6. cshields@g.o
69
70 Presentations held are listed at the event's website[7], the slides are
71 going to be made available soon. The webcast has also been recorded and
72 will be put up for download, too. Watch this space.
73
74 7. http://devconference.gentoo.org
75
76 ==============
77 2. Future zone
78 ==============
79
80 Modular X
81 ---------
82
83 You may be wondering, why in the world will one nice, easy xorg-x11
84 package turn into almost 300 separate ones? And you'd certainly be
85 justified in this. It's not something Gentoo is doing independently of
86 upstream X.Org[8]; they're splitting up all the packages into separate
87 releases, and we're just following along.
88
89 8. http://www.x.org/
90
91 The reasoning behind the split and changing build system is at least
92 threefold:
93
94 * X is too difficult to get into for new devs, so thus the move to
95 autotools, a system more people are comfortable with if not happy with.
96 * Along with that move, splitting out the source is possible with
97 autotools, and this also makes it more developer-friendly.
98 * Things have been unnecessarily tied together in the past, and this has
99 made getting bugfixes out often impossible. If they were able to get out
100 fixes, it required rebuilding all of XOrg. For example, a bug in the ati
101 driver would either need to wait 6 months until the next release, or you'd
102 have to rebuild your fonts to get it, for absolutely no reason.
103
104 For Gentoo users, the change should be seamless. All you'll have to do is
105 `emerge xorg-x11` and you'll get all the required packages, although some
106 rarely used programs such as xedit or xmh may not be a part of it.
107
108 So far, most of the packages are in the tree, but not the meta-ebuilds
109 necessary for the seamless transition. Over the next month, expect to see
110 the modular X experience transform from arduous to exciting.
111
112 The release of X11R7.0 isn't expected until sometime in September, but the
113 "zeroth" release candidate already came out a couple of weeks ago. If you
114 want to become an early adopter of modular X, be prepared to do a bit of
115 work and file upstream bugs. Here's a guide[9] on using what Gentoo has in
116 the tree for modular X. Over time, it will become much easier to migrate
117 than it is now. If you have any questions, please contact Donnie
118 Berkholz[10].
119
120 9.
121 http://dev.gentoo.org/~spyderous/xorg-x11/migrating_to_modular_x_howto.txt
122 10. spyderous@g.o
123
124 =========================
125 3. Heard in the community
126 =========================
127
128 gentoo-dev
129 ----------
130
131 imlate on x86
132
133 Olivier CrĂȘte[11] used the "imlate" script which is used to find packages
134 that have never versions to see how up-to-date x86 is compared to other
135 architectures. He writes: "The results are surprising, 214 packages are
136 more recent on non-x86 architectures. But its pretty hard to know if its
137 because they have arch specific patches or because the maintainer's arch
138 is not x86..."
139
140 11. tester@g.o
141
142 * imlate on x86 [12]
143 12. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30369
144
145
146 do we need a "man" USEflag?
147
148 Since almost everything in Gentoo can be customized, why don't we have a
149 "man" useflag that prevents that man-pages get installed? Of course there
150 is FEATURES="noman", but it doesn't solve all (potential) problems.
151
152 * do we need a "man" useflag? [13]
153 13. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30264
154
155
156 gcc-config 2.0 development
157
158 Jeremy Huddleston[14] offers some insight into the development of
159 gcc-config 2.0, a rewrite of gcc-config that should adress some of the
160 shortcomings of the gcc-config 1.3 branch
161
162 14. eradicator@g.o
163
164 * gcc-config 2.0 [15]
165 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/30235
166
167
168 =======================
169 4. Gentoo International
170 =======================
171
172 UK: AFFS conference in London
173 -----------------------------
174
175 Gentoo in the UK was recently asked to have a voice at the Association
176 For Free Software's[16] annual general meeting. Gentoo developers Daniel
177 Drake[17], Tim Yamin[18], Stuart Herbert[19] and Rob Holland[20] went
178 along accompanied by George Prowse[21] from the Gentoo Forums. Tim Yamin
179 gave a 45 minute introduction to Gentoo and its benefits.
180
181 16. http://www.affs.org.uk/affsac.html
182 17. dsd@g.o
183 18. plasmaroo@g.o
184 19. stuart@g.o
185 20. tigger@g.o
186 21. cokehabit@×××××.com
187
188 Figure 4.1: Left to right: Rob Holland, Stuart Herbert, Daniel Drake and
189 Tim Yamin
190 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_affs.jpg
191
192 Organised by the association, the meeting was also used to showcase
193 potholes and problems with the up-and-coming software patents problems in
194 the European Parliament; at the same time allowing Linux distributions to
195 talk with FOSS advocates. The conference made it possible for the Gentoo
196 developers in the UK to meet with not only some of their userbase but also
197 some of their equivalent developers at Debian. The day was considered a
198 success after Tim's speech made the Gentoo stall very busy with interested
199 people and we learned that a few of our users had migrated from Debian.
200
201 Germany: Report from the first GentooSummerCamp
202 -----------------------------------------------
203
204 Thanks to the organisation of German Forums moderator Uwe Hölzel
205 (slick[22]), from Friday until Sunday, 12 to 14 August 2005, several
206 Gentoo users and developers packed their tents and made a trip into
207 Germany's hinterland region called "Westerwald". On a meadow at the
208 camping site and inn ”Gasthof Hahnhof“ the first attendees set up their
209 tents on Friday afternoon. Some more arrived during the evening as they
210 had to ride up to 800 km, like Stefan Walkner (Hephaistos[23]) from
211 Salzburg who came all the way from Austria, or Hilefoks[24] who lives on
212 Germany's North Sea coast.
213
214 22. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=18822
215 23. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=51589
216 24. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13233
217
218 Figure 4.1: The campground ”Gasthof Hahnhof“ and the campfire
219 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_camp-tents+fire.jpg
220
221 After a long evening and short night, the Saturday became a very beautiful
222 day. The sun was shining the whole day and quite everybody got a nice
223 sunburn. At the afternoon somebody pushed his bicycle to the campground

224 It turned out that Thorsten Zantis (psyqil[25]) did the 100km-trip with
225 his bike and during the very last kilometre a tire burst! Anyways, we had
226 enough drinks available, like every kind of beer from a good Austrian
227 ’Helles‘, via some Pils, Alt and Kölsch up to a dry beer from the coast.
228 And nobody had to stay hungry, as we had enough meat for the barbecue and
229 salads for everyone.
230
231 25. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21281
232
233 A campfire in the evening held us warm during the whole night, and even
234 when it started to rain on early Sunday morning, some of us still sat at
235 the campfire. After a short breakfast in the rain we removed our wet tents.
236
237 Figure 4.2: (left to right) oma, HaPhi, tomyum, Pylon, dertobi123,
238 Hilefoks, Danny, Hephaistos, psyqil, slick, inte
239 http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050815_camp-group.jpg
240
241 It's noteworthy that we did not need any computers, and still had enough
242 topics to talk about, even besides Gentoo! It was a pleasure to meet a
243 couple of people you know only from the forums or IRC. And there are
244 fledgling plans for another camp next year on the North Sea coast already.
245
246 ======================
247 5. Gentoo in the press
248 ======================
249
250 Ars Technica (8 August 2005)
251 ----------------------------
252
253 A review of a 64-bit laptop computer powered by Gentoo Linux was published
254 in Ars Technica[26] last Monday. The "LinuxCertified" model[27] sports an
255 AMD64 processor and comes preloaded with Gentoo, Fedora or SuSE Linux.
256
257 26. http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/lc2464.ars
258 27. http://linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lc2464.html
259
260 Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (1 August 2005)
261 ---------------------------------------------------------
262
263 "How Toyota and Linux Keep Collaboration Simple"[28] is the title of an
264 article originally printed in the Harvard Business Review, recounting the
265 events when Gentoo developer Andrea Barisani[29] - or more specifically
266 his Trieste University's Gentoo Linux server - was under attack a couple
267 of years ago. Authors Philip Evans and Bob Wolf take the ensuing bug fix
268 activities that rapidly span the globe as an example for the ways of the
269 Linux world, and put them into perspective of the Toyota production
270 system, finding lots of similarities: "Widespread, granular communication.
271 In both the Linux and Toyota communities, information about problems and
272 solutions is shared widely, frequently, and in small increments."
273
274 28. http://workingknowledge.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4928&t=technology
275 29. lcars@g.o
276
277 ===========================
278 6. Moves, adds, and changes
279 ===========================
280
281 Moves
282 -----
283
284 The following developers recently left the Gentoo team:
285
286 * None this week
287
288 Adds
289 ----
290
291 The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
292
293 * Luis Medinas (MetalGOD) - Printing herd and AMD64
294
295 Changes
296 -------
297
298 The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux
299 project:
300
301 * Jose Alberto Suarez Lopez (BaSS) - stepped down from his post as
302 Spanish lead translator
303
304 ==================
305 7. Gentoo Security
306 ==================
307
308 No security announcements this week
309 -----------------------------------
310
311 No GLSAs have been issued since publication of the last GWN. Check back
312 next week.
313
314 ===========
315 8. Bugzilla
316 ===========
317
318 Summary
319 -------
320
321 * Statistics
322 * Closed bug ranking
323 * New bug rankings
324
325 Statistics
326 ----------
327
328 The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[30]) to record and
329 track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the
330 development team. Between 07 August 2005 and 14 August 2005, activity on
331 the site has resulted in:
332
333 30. http://bugs.gentoo.org
334
335 * 832 new bugs during this period
336 * 462 bugs closed or resolved during this period
337 * 34 previously closed bugs were reopened this period
338
339 Of the 8117 currently open bugs: 108 are labeled 'blocker', 196 are
340 labeled 'critical', and 538 are labeled 'major'.
341
342 Closed bug rankings
343 -------------------
344
345 The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period
346 are:
347
348 * AMD64 Porting Team[31], with 94 closed bugs[32]
349 * Vim Maintainers[33], with 16 closed bugs[34]
350 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[35], with 14 closed bugs[36]
351 * Perl Devs @ Gentoo[37], with 12 closed bugs[38]
352 * Xavier Neys[39], with 12 closed bugs[40]
353 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[41], with 12 closed bugs[42]
354 * Gentoo Sound Team[43], with 9 closed bugs[44]
355 * Greg Kroah-Hartman[45], with 9 closed bugs[46]
356 31. amd64@g.o
357 32.
358 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
359 33. vim@g.o
360 34.
361 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=vim@g.o
362 35. sci@g.o
363 36.
364 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sci@g.o
365 37. perl@g.o
366 38.
367 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=perl@g.o
368 39. neysx@g.o
369 40.
370 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@g.o
371 41. base-system@g.o
372 42.
373 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@g.o
374 43. sound@g.o
375 44.
376 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=sound@g.o
377 45. gregkh@g.o
378 46.
379 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gregkh@g.o
380
381
382 New bug rankings
383 ----------------
384
385 The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during
386 this period are:
387
388 * Default Assignee for New Packages[47], with 98 new bugs[48]
389 * Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages[49], with 35 new bugs[50]
390 * AMD64 Porting Team[51], with 12 new bugs[52]
391 * Python Gentoo Team[53], with 11 new bugs[54]
392 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[55], with 10 new bugs[56]
393 * Gentoo Sound Team[57], with 8 new bugs[58]
394 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[59], with 8 new
395 bugs[60]
396 * Gentoo Science Related Packages[61], with 7 new bugs[62]
397 47. maintainer-wanted@g.o
398 48.
399 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@g.o
400 49. maintainer-needed@g.o
401 50.
402 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=maintainer-needed@g.o
403 51. amd64@g.o
404 52.
405 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
406 53. python@g.o
407 54.
408 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=python@g.o
409 55. gnome@g.o
410 56.
411 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
412 57. sound@g.o
413 58.
414 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=sound@g.o
415 59. kernel@g.o
416 60.
417 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=kernel@g.o
418 61. sci@g.o
419 62.
420 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-08-07&chfieldto=2005-08-14&assigned_to=sci@g.o
421
422
423 ===============
424 9. GWN feedback
425 ===============
426
427 Please send us your feedback[63] and help make the GWN better.
428
429 63. gwn-feedback@g.o
430
431 ================================
432 10. GWN subscription information
433 ================================
434
435 To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to
436 gentoo-gwn+subscribe@g.o.
437
438 To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to
439 gentoo-gwn+unsubscribe@g.o from the email address you are
440 subscribed under.
441
442 ===================
443 11. Other languages
444 ===================
445
446 The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
447
448 * Danish[64]
449 * Dutch[65]
450 * English[66]
451 * German[67]
452 * French[68]
453 * Japanese[69]
454 * Italian[70]
455 * Polish[71]
456 * Portuguese (Brazil)[72]
457 * Portuguese (Portugal)[73]
458 * Russian[74]
459 * Spanish[75]
460 * Turkish[76]
461 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
462 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/nl/gwn/gwn.xml
463 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
464 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
465 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
466 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
467 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
468 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
469 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt_br/gwn/gwn.xml
470 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
471 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
472 75. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
473 76. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml
474
475
476 Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Editor
477 Donnie Berkholz <spyderous@g.o> - Author
478 Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o> - Author
479 Lars Weiler <pylon@g.o> - Author
480 Tim Yamin <plasmaroo@g.o> - Author
481
482 --
483 gentoo-gwn@g.o mailing list