[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 21 March 2005

[Ulrich Plate]

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 21 March 2005.
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==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Additions to the documentation collection
-----------------------------------------
  
Sven Vermeulen[1], Forum moderator Ioannis Aslanidis[2] and reviewer 
Hartwig Brandl have collated a guide on how to interpret the error codes 
of the GRUB bootloader, based on an impressive 16-page-thread[3] in the 
Gentoo Forums. Other recent additions to the Gentoo documentation include: 
 1. swift@g.o
 2. deathwing00@g.o
 3. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-122656.html
 
 * The Gentoo mailfiltering gateway guide[4] by Sune Kloppenborg 
Jeppesen[5] covers spam-fighting technologies and anti-virus protection. 
 * Of particular interest since the release of KDE 3.4 last week will be 
the KDE Split Ebuilds HOWTO[6] by Gentoo's KDE maintainer Dan Armak[7] 
 * An entirely new UTF-8 Guide[8] has been writte by Thomas Martin[9], 
with lots of information on the background of Unicode and UTF-8, and 
practical tips to make it work in Gentoo Linux. 
 4. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/mailfilter-guide.xml
 5. jaervosz@g.o
 6. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kde-split-ebuilds.xml
 7. danarmak@g.o
 8. http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/utf-8.xml
 9. slarti@g.o
 
Many other parts of the documentation have been revised and enhanced over 
the past few weeks, check for changes in the Documentation Project's 
status updates[10] of additions and changes to the growing resource.
 10. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gdp/index.xml#doc_chap5
    
=========================
2. Heard in the community
=========================
  
Web forums
----------
  
Acrobat Reader 7 for Linux released?
 
Among the usual whoopies and yeehas that greet the arrival of software 
everybody has been eagerly waiting for, the new release of acroread has 
its difficulties. The thread provides a workaround for using the plugin in 
Firefox, but doesn't have an answer to the lack of Asian fonts. Yet... 
Turned out this seems to have been a preliminary release only after all. 
 
 * acroread 7?[11] 
 11. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-290897.html
    
gentoo-bsd
----------
  
Reasons for Gentoo/FreeBSD
 
Curious about what Portage can offer compared to FreeBSD's native ports 
system, Gentoo Linux user and GWN translator Matthias F. Brandstetter 
asked on the gentoo-bsd mailing list: "What's the purpose of 
Gentoo/FreeBSD, or what should it be?" Gentoo developer Grant Goodyear[12] 
pointed out that he prefers the simple bash syntax of ebuilds over 
FreeBSD's (ab)use of make. Other answers pointed to USE flags and 
Portage's handling of config files: 
 12. g2boojum@g.o
 
 * Why to use Gentoo/FreeBSD?[13] 
 13. http://dev.gentoo.org/~citizen428/hypermail/gentoo-bsd/0503/0032.html
 
Note:  Until popular mailing list archives like Gmane pick up the 
gentoo-bsd mailing list, Michael Kohl keeps a regularly updated archive in 
a temporary home at his developer webspace. 
    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Summary of PPC meeting
 
Lars Weiler[14] summarizes the last PPC team meeting, where many things 
were discussed: 
 14. pylon@g.o
 
 * project management elections 
 * future goals  
 * AltiVec in portage  
 * QEMU ABI wrapper  
 * Kernel issues  
 * LiveCD  
 * ppc64 and ppc merger  
 
 * Summary of PPC meeting[15] 
 15. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26471
 
Xen in portage?
 
Mike Frysinger[16] asks if any developers are interested in getting the 
Xen virtualization system into the Portage tree. 
 16. vapier@g.o
 
 * Xen in portage?[17] 
 17. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26438
 
giflib and ungiflib hell
 
Chris White[18] starts a discussion on the libgif / libungif packages 
since they provide similar features, but libungif is deprecated. This 
resolved to the removal of libungif from portage. 
 18. chriswhite@g.o
 
 * giflib and libungif hell[19] 
 19. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/26367
    
=======================
3. Gentoo International
=======================
  
Japan: Open Source Conference 2005
----------------------------------
  
Looking for an impromptu vacation spot to spend the Easter weekend? Tokyo 
is particularly nice at this time of the year, and it has the annual Open 
Source Conference[20] on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 March 2005. 
Presentation tracks will be focussing on fonts and Japanese input methods 
this year, Ruby and XOOPS, a database seminar and an Openoffice.org corner 
are among the other highlights of this event which also includes an 
exhibition space for Japanese open-source projects, to be held at the 
Japan Electronics College[21] in Okubo, a north-western district of Tokyo. 
GentooJP will be present on Friday morning from 10:00 to 12:50 with a 
"Gentoo Linux Installfest", a live demonstration of the 2005.0 release 
being installed on virgin hardware, which obviously beats cherry-blossom 
viewing in public appeal -- partly because on that latitude they're not 
quite in full bloom by then, you'd have to fly down south to Kyushu for 
that... Seating at the Installfest is limited to 40 people, please 
register for the Gentoo installation event[22] if you plan on attending 
(all links in Japanese only). 
 20. http://www.ospn.jp/osc2005/
 21. http://www.jec.ac.jp
 22. http://www.ospn.jp/osc2005/modules/eguide/event.php?eid=35
 
Figure 3.1: GentooJP
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20050321_gentoojp.png
    
======================
4. Gentoo in the press
======================
  
Netcraft (14 March 2005)
------------------------
  
Netcraft Ltd.[23], a well-known Internet services company that, among 
other things, provides research data and analysis on many aspects of the 
Internet, recently analyzed the growth of Linux distributions in their web 
server survey. According to the results[24], Gentoo Linux "continues to 
roughly double each year, albeit from a low base". In the past six months 
the number of websites that run on Gentoo Linux has increased by 45.1 
percent, to a total of 63,160. 
 23. http://www.netcraft.com
 24. 
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/03/14/fedora_makes_rapid_progress.html
    
Newsforge (18 March 2005)
-------------------------
  
Tom Chance's account[25] of a Gentoo Linux installation has been published 
on the Newsforge website. He describes the way Gentoo works, not just in 
technical terms, but also what's most appealing to him as a Gentoo user: 
"I appreciate the simple, solid package and configuration management 
systems that keep out of my way; I appreciate the helpful documentation; I 
find the user forums indispensable; and I appreciate the community 
approach enshrined in Gentoo's social contract." 
 25. http://os.newsforge.com/os/05/03/04/2035214.shtml?tid=2
    
===========================
5. 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: 
 
 * None this week  
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * Chris White (ChrisWhite) and Rajiv Manglani (rajiv) have left the 
Security Project 
 * Mike Frysinger (vapier) has joined the Security Project 
 * Tavis Ormandy (taviso) and Rob Holland (tigger) have been appointed 
auditors of the Security Project 
    
==================
6. Gentoo security
==================
  
Ringtone Tools: Buffer overflow vulnerability
---------------------------------------------
  
The Ringtone Tools utilities contain a buffer overflow vulnerability, 
potentially leading to the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[26] 
 26. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-18.xml
    
MySQL: Multiple vulnerabilities
-------------------------------
  
MySQL contains several vulnerabilities potentially leading to the 
overwriting of local files or to the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[27] 
 27. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-19.xml
    
curl: NTLM response buffer overflow
-----------------------------------
  
curl is vulnerable to a buffer overflow which could lead to the execution 
of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[28] 
 28. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-20.xml
    
Grip: CDDB response overflow
----------------------------
  
Grip contains a buffer overflow that can be triggered by a large CDDB 
response, potentially allowing the execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[29] 
 29. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-21.xml
    
KDE: Local Denial of Service
----------------------------
  
KDE is vulnerable to a local Denial of Service attack. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[30] 
 30. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-22.xml
    
rxvt-unicode: Buffer overflow
-----------------------------
  
rxvt-unicode is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that could lead to the 
execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[31] 
 31. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-23.xml
    
LTris: Buffer overflow
----------------------
  
LTris is vulnerable to a buffer overflow which could lead to the execution 
of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[32] 
 32. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-24.xml
    
OpenSLP: Multiple buffer overflows
----------------------------------
  
Multiple buffer overflows have been found in OpenSLP, which could lead to 
the remote execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[33] 
 33. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-25.xml
    
Sylpheed, Sylpheed-claws: Message reply overflow
------------------------------------------------
  
Sylpheed and Sylpheed-claws contain a vulnerability that can be triggered 
when replying to specially crafted messages. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[34] 
 34. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200503-26.xml
    
===========
7. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed bug ranking 
 * New bug rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[35]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 13 March 2005 and 20 March 2005, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 
 35. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 930 new bugs during this period 
 * 527 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 28 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 8324 currently open bugs: 93 are labeled 'blocker', 233 are labeled 
'critical', and 604 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Gentoo KDE team[36], with 29 closed bugs[37]  
 * media-video herd[38], with 21 closed bugs[39]  
 * Gentoo Games[40], with 20 closed bugs[41]  
 * Gentoo Security[42], with 19 closed bugs[43]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[44], with 19 closed bugs[45]  
 * Perl Devs @ Gentoo[46], with 18 closed bugs[47]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[48], with 18 closed bugs[49]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[50], with 18 closed bugs[51]  
 36. kde@g.o
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@g.o
 38. media-video@g.o
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=media-video@g.o
 40. games@g.o
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@g.o
 42. security@g.o
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=security@g.o
 44. base-system@g.o
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@g.o
 46. perl@g.o
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=perl@g.o
 48. gnome@g.o
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
 50. amd64@g.o
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * AMD64 Porting Team[52], with 39 new bugs[53]  
 * App-Backup Herd[54], with 35 new bugs[55]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[56], with 21 new bugs[57]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[58], with 14 new bugs[59]  
 * Gentoo X-windows packagers[60], with 13 new bugs[61]  
 * Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[62], with 13 new bugs[63]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[64], with 11 new 
bugs[65]  
 * Mozilla Gentoo Team[66], with 10 new bugs[67]  
 52. amd64@g.o
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
 54. app-backup@g.o
 55. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=app-backup@g.o
 56. sound@g.o
 57. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=sound@g.o
 58. gnome@g.o
 59. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=gnome@g.o
 60. x11@g.o
 61. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=x11@g.o
 62. toolchain@g.o
 63. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=toolchain@g.o
 64. kernel@g.o
 65. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=kernel@g.o
 66. mozilla@g.o
 67. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2005-03-13&chfieldto=2005-03-20&assigned_to=mozilla@g.o
    
====================
8. Contribute to GWN
====================
   
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email[68]. 
 68. gwn-feedback@g.o
    
===============
9. GWN feedback
===============
   
Please send us your feedback[69] and help make the GWN better.
 69. gwn-feedback@g.o
    
================================
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================================
   
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===================
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===================
   
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Danish[70]  
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 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
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 81. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 82. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml
   
Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Editor
Sebastian Bergmann <sebastian@g.o> - Author
Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o> - Author

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