[gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 7 August 2006

[Chris Gianelloni]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 7 August 2006.
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==============
1. Gentoo news
==============
  
Adopt a Developer project
-------------------------
  
The Gentoo User Relations[1] project has begun a new sub-project,
intended 
to assist developers in improving Gentoo. Traditionally, it was not
clear 
how one could go about donating a piece of hardware, a technical book,
a 
shell account, or anything else to a specific Gentoo developer. Also, 
there was no central place for developers to post their requests. The
new 
Adopt a Developer[2] project hopes to change that. The project aims to 
connect developers who need resources with people and companies from
the 
community who want to donate resources. The concept, along with a list
of 
developer requests and community member offers, is on the project page. 
Since this is a completely new endeavor and still likely has bugs, the 
project is still in beta. For now, the project only deals with small 
items, typically costing less than 100 USD. 

 1. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/userrel
 2. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/userrel/adopt-a-dev
    
Gentoo/PowerPC CELL effort
--------------------------
  
Gentoo is the first community Linux distribution to actively work on 
supporting the new CELL processor IBM has launched with Sony and
Toshiba. 
This processor is used in the PlayStation 3, and in a number of other 
products. The CELL processor has a general purpose PowerPC core which
runs 
at 3.2 GHz. It also has eight special purpose cores, which are
basically 
cache-less processors that are great for processing streams and
parallel 
work. The CELL is also called a 'broadband engine' and has a peak 
bandwidth of 204.8 GB/sec for intra-chip transfers (between cores,
memory 
and I/O controllers). More information about the CELL can be found at
IBM 
DeveloperWorks[3]. 

 3. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/power/library/pa-cellperf
 
Luca Barbato[4] has made available a Gentoo ebuild for a CELL
simulator. 
This IBM CELL SDK simulates a dual CELL machine (18 cores) on a PowerPC 
machine. He has also made a CELL optimized Gentoo (crossdev) toolchain
and 
Gentoo system image for the CELL. You can find more information in
Luca's 
overlay[5]. 

 4. lu_zero@g.o
 5. http://overlays.gentoo.org/dev/lu_zero
 
Gentoo would be the first community distribution to support this new 
PowerPC processor. Gentoo/PowerPC is a bleeding edge PowerPC Linux 
distribution with a bright future. Continued efforts such as these will 
ensure that Gentoo is ready for tomorrow's processors, as well as
improve 
its reputation as a world-class distribution. 
    
PDA team recruiting
-------------------
  
Gentoo's team for managing the app-pda packages is looking for
assistance 
in maintaining their packages. Anyone can help out, and the team is
hoping 
to bring on some new developers to cover these packages. If you are 
interested in helping out, contact Chris White[6]. 

 6. chriswhite@g.o
    
KDE/Ruby recruiting
-------------------
  
Both the Gentoo KDE[7] project and the Gentoo Ruby maintainers are
looking 
for more help in testing and maintaining their packages. Contact Caleb 
Tennis[8] if you are interested in becoming a Gentoo developer and
working 
on either of these teams. 

 7. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/kde
 8. caleb@g.o
    
=========================
2. Heard in the community
=========================
   
forums
------
  
What needs to be improved in Gentoo?
 
Several forums users have made some suggestions on how Gentoo could be 
improved. The discussion continues, and some interesting ideas are
being 
given. Hopefully, some enhancement bug reports will come from this
thread, 
but some parts of the thread show that Gentoo needs to work harder on 
getting information about our features out, as many users are
suggesting 
features which have existed for some time. 
 
 * What needs to be improved in Gentoo?[9] 
 9. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-486273.html

     
planet.gentoo.org
-----------------
  
Everyday life of an architecture tester
 
Thomas Cort[10] mentions an article by x86 Arch Tester Christian 
Faulhammer, covering the daily work of Arch Testers in his blog.
Christian 
explains in his  article[11] what tasks Arch Testers usually are doing, 
what kind of knowledge you will need to help out, and how you can start 
getting involved with Gentoo. 

 10. tcort@g.o
 11. http://tinyurl.com/rxrhm
 
 * Everyday life of an architecture tester[12] 
 12. http://mediumbagel.org/nucleus/index.php?itemid=45

 
More cowbell: Planet Larry
 
As we have seen in the past few weeks, "Larry the Cow" is not dead. And 
now Larry is even more undead. Steve Dibb[13] started
larrythecow.org[14], 
aka "Planet Larry," which aggregates blogs of Gentoo users - including 
former Developers like Jochen Maes and Mark Loeser - and also Gentoo's 
former Chief Architect Daniel Robbins. 

 13. beandog@g.o
 14. http://www.larrythecow.org
 
 * More cowbell: Planet Larry[15] 
 15. http://wonkabar.org/?p=145

    
=========================
3. Gentoo developer moves
=========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo project: 
 
 * Nick Dimiduk (ndimiduk) 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project: 
 
 * Anrdrew Ross (aross) Xen 
 * Elfyn McBratney (beu) Perl/TreeCleaners 
 * Mart Raudsepp (leio) wx* packages 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo
project: 
 
 * none this week 
    
==================
4. Gentoo security
==================
   
Apache: Off-by-one flaw in mod_rewrite
--------------------------------------
  
A flaw in mod_rewrite could result in a Denial of Service or the
execution 
of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[16] 

 16. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-01.xml
    
Mozilla SeaMonkey: Multiple vulnerabilities
-------------------------------------------
  
The Mozilla Foundation has reported numerous security vulnerabilities 
related to Mozilla SeaMonkey. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[17] 

 17. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-02.xml
    
Mozilla Firefox: Multiple vulnerabilities
-----------------------------------------
  
The Mozilla Foundation has reported numerous security vulnerabilities 
related to Mozilla Firefox. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[18] 

 18. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-03.xml
    
Mozilla Thunderbird: Multiple vulnerabilities
---------------------------------------------
  
The Mozilla Foundation has reported numerous security vulnerabilities 
related to Mozilla Thunderbird. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[19] 

 19. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-04.xml
    
LibVNCServer: Authentication bypass
-----------------------------------
  
VNC servers created with LibVNCServer accept insecure protocol types,
even 
when the server does not offer it, resulting in unauthorized access to
the 
server. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[20] 

 20. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-05.xml
    
Courier MTA: Denial of Service vulnerability
--------------------------------------------
  
Courier MTA has fixed a DoS issue related to usernames containing a "=" 
character. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[21] 

 21. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-06.xml
    
libTIFF: Multiple vulnerabilities
---------------------------------
  
libTIFF contains several vulnerabilities that could result in arbitrary 
code execution. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[22] 

 22. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-07.xml
    
GnuPG: Integer overflow vulnerability
-------------------------------------
  
GnuPG is vulnerable to an integer overflow that could lead to the 
execution of arbitrary code. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[23] 

 23. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-08.xml
    
MySQL: Denial of Service
------------------------
  
An authenticated user can crash MySQL through invalid parameters to the 
date_format function. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[24] 

 24. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-09.xml
    
pike: SQL injection vulnerability
---------------------------------
  
A flaw in the input handling could lead to the execution of arbitrary
SQL 
statements in the underlying PostgreSQL database. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[25] 

 25. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-10.xml
    
Webmin, Usermin: File Disclosure
--------------------------------
  
Webmin and Usermin are vulnerable to an arbitrary file disclosure
through 
a specially crafted URL. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[26] 

 26. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200608-11.xml
    
===========
5. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed bug ranking 
 * New bug rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[27]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 30 July 2006 and 06 August 2006, activity on
the 
site has resulted in: 

 27. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 798 new bugs during this period 
 * 382 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 41 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 10791 currently open bugs: 51 are labeled 'blocker', 134 are 
labeled 'critical', and 530 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed bug rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this
period 
are: 
 
 * Chris White[28], with 31 closed bugs[29]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[30], with 21 closed bugs[31]  
 * Gentoo Security[32], with 15 closed bugs[33]  
 * Xavier Neys[34], with 12 closed bugs[35]  
 * Portage team[36], with 11 closed bugs[37]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[38], with 10 closed bugs[39]  
 * Java team[40], with 10 closed bugs[41]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[42], with 10 closed bugs[43]  
 28. chriswhite@g.o
 29. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=chriswhite@g.o
 30. base-system@g.o
 31. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@g.o
 32. security@g.o
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=security@g.o
 34. neysx@g.o
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=neysx@g.o
 36. dev-portage@g.o
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=dev-portage@g.o
 38. kde@g.o
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@g.o
 40. java@g.o
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=java@g.o
 42. gnome@g.o
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@g.o

    
New bug rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs
during 
this period are: 
 
 * Default Assignee for New Packages[44], with 27 new bugs[45]  
 * AMD64 Project[46], with 25 new bugs[47]  
 * Gentoo Science Mathematics related packages[48], with 19 new
bugs[49]  
 * Gentoo TreeCleaner Project[50], with 17 new bugs[51]  
 * Gentoo KDE team[52], with 12 new bugs[53]  
 * Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages[54], with 11 new bugs[55]  
 * Java team[56], with 10 new bugs[57]  
 * Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers[58], with 8 new 
bugs[59]  
 44. maintainer-wanted@g.o
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@g.o
 46. amd64@g.o
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=amd64@g.o
 48. sci-mathematics@g.o
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=sci-mathematics@g.o
 50. treecleaner@g.o
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=treecleaner@g.o
 52. kde@g.o
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=kde@g.o
 54. maintainer-needed@g.o
 55. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=maintainer-needed@g.o
 56. java@g.o
 57. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=java@g.o
 58. kernel@g.o
 59. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-07-30&chfieldto=2006-08-06&assigned_to=kernel@g.o

    
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Ulrich Plate <plate@g.o> - Editor
Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@g.o> - Author
Tobias Scherbaum <dertobi123@g.o> - Author
Thomas Cort <tcort@g.o> - Author
Pieter Van den Abeele <pvdabeel@g.o> - Author



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