Memorandum of Intent to Release a Distribution of Understanding
Things this email is about:
- Fedora 11 Preview release
- Where to get it
- How to test it
- Where to report problems
Things this email is not about:
- If there are too many sliders on a volume control
- If there are not enough sliders on a volume control
- Grumpiness
Agenda Items:
- Release Fedora 11 Preview Announcement
- Tell everyone how to obtain the Preview Release
- Tell everyone how to file bug reports
Hidden Agenda:
- Joy
- Peace
- Occasional fun-loving snarkiness
Body:
This is the Fedora 11 Preview release, we're just a short time from
releasing the full shebang. Therefore we need the most testing we can
possibly get on this one. On the torrent sites you'll find live images for
testing:
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org and http://spins.fedoraproject.org
Everyone has been focused on fixing and closing their remaining bugs since
the Fedora 11 Beta Release. Please use Bugzilla
( http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report ) to report any
problems you find (after making sure that somebody else hasn't already
reported the issues). The Preview release notes which can be found at
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f11preview/ will help you
with any other details.
Thanks and happy testing!
-sv
The Board is holding its monthly public meeting on Tuesday, 5 May
2009, at 1800 UTC on IRC Freenode. The Board has settled on a
schedule that puts these public IRC meetings on the first Tuesday of
each month. Therefore, the next following public meeting will be on 5
May 2009. For these meetings, the public is invited to do the
following:
* Join #fedora-board-meeting to see the Board's conversation.
* Join #fedora-board-questions to discuss topics and post
questions. This channel is read/write for everyone.
The moderator will voice people from the queue, one at a time, in the
#fedora-board-meeting channel. We'll limit time per voice as needed
to give everyone in the queue a chance to be heard.
The Board may reserve some time at the top of the hour to cover any
agenda items as appropriate. We look forward to seeing you at the
meeting!
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of new ISO Re-Spins of Fedora 10.
These Re-Spin ISOs are based on the officially released Fedora 10 installation media and include all updates released as of April 14th, 2009 (saving about 650MB in updates on a default install).
The ISO images are available for i386, x86_64, PPC architectures via Jigdo and or Torrent starting Tuesday April 21st, 2009.
Go to http://spins.fedoraunity.org/spins to get the bits!
Removed Groups in x86_64 and PPC
With this spin, we have had to remove a few package groups (and default packages for other groups) to ensure the distribution fits onto a single DVD.
This is the case for x86_64 and ppc. See http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fedora-spins/2009-April/000561.html for an exact list.
PPC Re-spins
PPC isos are being released marked **UNTESTED**, Please Test and give us feedback,
Thanks to
We would like to give a special thanks to the following for testing this Re-Spin:
- zcat Jason Farrell
- vwbusguy- Scott Williams
- Southern_Gentleman Ben Williams
- kanarip Jeroen van Meeuwen
- fenrus2 Dennis Johnson
- Harley-D Dana Hoffman Jr
- sgodsell Sean Godsell
- cyberpear James Cassell
Testing Results
A full test matrix can be found at http://spins.fedoraunity.org/Members/Southern_Gentleman/Fedora-10-20090414-…
Fedora Unity has taken up the Re-Spin task to provide the community with the chance to install Fedora with recent updates already included.
This is a community project, for and by the community. You can contribute to the community by joining our test process.
Go to http://spins.fedoraunity.org/spins to get the bits!
Assistance Needed
If you are interested in helping with the testing or mirroring efforts, please contact the Fedora Unity team.
Contact information is available at http://fedoraunity.org/ or the #fedora-unity channel on the Freenode IRC Network (irc.freenode.net)
To report bugs in the Re-Spins please use http://bugs.fedoraunity.org/
--
Ben Williams
Windows-Linux Specialist
460 McBryde Hall
Blacksburg VA 24061-0123
540 231-2739
Fedora Weekly News Issue 172
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 172 for the week ending April 19th,
2009.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue172
This week Announcements rubs its hands with glee over the "Fedora 11"
freeze. Similarly Artwork enthuses about "Fedora 11 Landing" with great
Leonidas themes including a surprise for wide-screen setups.
Developments gushes about "Presto and DeltaRPM Status" and SecurityWeek
asks the interesting question "Who in the Linux World Would be
Responsible for a Worm?". SecurityAdvisories faithfully lists updates
that might just help avoid that worm. With a red face we draw your
attention with an Erratum to last week's missing QualityAssurance beat.
This week's QualityAssurance beat "Test Days" advertizes the upcoming
minimal installation testing and reports in "Weekly meetings" that
PulseAudio issues with snd-intel-hda and snd-intel8x0 are resolved.
Translation reports on the availability of a bulky "Fedora 11
Installation Guide Ready for Translation". The FedoraWeeklyWebcomic
joins us again and Ambassadors shares a neat list of LinuxFestNorthWest
talks by Fedora folk.
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[1]. We welcome reader feedback:
fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
Contents
1.1 Erratum: Missing QualityAssurance Beat in FWN#171
1.2 Announcements
1.2.1 Fedora 11
1.2.2 FUDCon Berlin 2009
1.2.3 Upcoming Events
1.3 QualityAssurance
1.3.1 Test Days
1.3.2 Weekly meetings
1.4 Developments
1.4.1 Frozen for Fedora 11. Some Packages Still Not Built
dist-f11
1.4.2 Xorg Hacking Solves DontZap
1.4.3 Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Professionals Satisfied
with DVD
1.4.4 Presto and DeltaRPM Status
1.4.5 Browser Plugins May Strip SELinux Protections
1.4.6 Getting Rid of /usr for Fedora 12 ?
1.5 Translation
1.5.1 Fedora 11 Installation Guide Ready for Translation
1.5.2 New Members in FLP
1.6 Artwork
1.6.1 Fedora 11 Landing
1.7 Fedora Weekly Webcomic
1.8 Security Week
1.8.1 Malicious Activity Grows in 2008
1.8.2 Who in the Linux World Would be Responsible for a Worm ?
1.9 Security Advisories
1.9.1 Fedora 10 Security Advisories
1.9.2 Fedora 9 Security Advisories
1.10 Ambassadors
1.10.1 LinuxFest Northwest Starts Saturday
1.10.2 Got Ambassador News?
== Erratum: Missing QualityAssurance Beat in FWN#171 ==
Last week (FWN#171) your painstaking QualityAssurance correspondent,
Adam Williamson, wrote a very readable account of the activity around
the UEFI BIOS replacement, Graphics-card Metrics and a lot more. Somehow
we omitted to include this in the plaintext issue. With apologies to
Adam and to our readers we suggest you take a look at our archived web
version[1].
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue171#QualityAssurance
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
=== Fedora 11 ===
We're getting very close to the Fedora 11 release, and excitement is
building.
Jesse Keating[1] announced[2] that we are now frozen for Fedora 11.
"We've reached the final freeze, as well as mass branched. From this
point on, builds from F-11/ will go to dist-f11-updates-candidate and
builds from devel/ will go to dist-f12. dist-f11 itself is locked."
John Poelstra[3] gave a final reminder[4] to feature owners whose
features are not at 100%. "Feature freeze has past and the following
feature pages still need updates. Some have not been updated for several
months. All need to be at 100% completion and their content set to
reflect that."
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JesseKeating
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-April/msg00006.ht…
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JohnPoelstra
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-April/msg00007.ht…
=== FUDCon Berlin 2009 ===
Max Spevack[1] reminded[2] the community about FUDCon Berlin 2009[3],
including registration[4], lodging[5], and the speaking schedule[6].
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MaxSpevack
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-April/msg00006.html
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_attendees
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_lodging
6.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_Berlin_and_LinuxTag_2009_talks
=== Upcoming Events ===
April 17-19: Summer Geek Camp 2[1] in Antipolo City, Phillipines.
April 18: BarCamp Rochester[2] in Rochester, New York, USA.
April 19-22: Red Hat EMEA Partner Summit[3] in Malta.
April 24-25: FLISOL, all over the LATAM region.
April 25: Trenton Computer Festival[4] in Trenton, New Jersey, USA.
April 25-26: Linux Fest Northwest[5] in Bellingham, Wasthington, USA.
April 27: FOSS Lightning Talks[6] in Stockholm, Sweden.
May 2: Introduction to FOSS, Fedora workshop in Pradesh, India.
May 4-8: VI Foro Mundial de Conocimiento Libre[7] in Mérida, Venezuela.
1. http://fedora.bluepoint.com.ph/index.php?entry=20090204000843
2. http://barcamprochester.org/
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_EMEA_Partner_Summit_2009
4. http://tcf-nj.org/
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LinuxFest_Northwest_%28LFNW%29_2009
6. http://natverk.dfs.se/node/13922
7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/FMCL/VI-FMCL
== QualityAssurance ==
In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1].
Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA
=== Test Days ===
This week saw two Test Days. The first[1] was a follow-up on the Fedora
11 rewrite of Anaconda's storage device code[2]. The second[3] was on
the Presto plugin for yum, which enables the use of deltarpms for
updates. The Anaconda test day verified that many issues from the
earlier test day had been resolved and turned up several new bugs, many
of which have been fixed already. The Presto test day was surprisingly
uneventful: there was good participation but few bugs were discovered,
the system worked well and reliably for almost every test.
Next week's Test Day[4] will be on the minimal platform feature[5],
support for very small minimal installations. This is another test day
which will require installation, so if you are interested in taking
part, please make sure to have a spare system or partition on which you
can install a Rawhide system. Of course, this week it only needs to be
small!
1.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:AnacondaStorageRewrite_2009-04-14
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/AnacondaStorageRewrite
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:Presto_2009-04-16
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-04-21
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MinimalPlatform
=== Weekly meetings ===
The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-04-15. The full log is
available[2]. The group briefly discussed James Laska's plan to improve
the customization possibilities for Test Day live CDs. James promised to
send a mail to the list regarding his ideas here.
Adam Williamson reported that he had successfully had a post on the
Rawhide nss / x86-64 issue added to the rawhidewatch blog[3], run by
Warren Togami.
Adam Williamson reported on his progress in evaluating whether important
bugs reported in the X driver Test Days are fully repesented on the
Fedora 11 release blocker bugs list. The nouveau maintainer, Ben Skeggs,
has already reviewed all nouveau bugs. Review of intel and radeon bugs
in in process together with the regular triagers for these components,
Matej Cepl and Francois Cami.
Will Woods provided an update on his progress in checking on
PulseAudio's readiness for a Fedora 11 release. He noted that some
significant problems remained in two ALSA drivers - snd-intel-hda and
snd-intel8x0 - which cause problems in PulseAudio. These drivers are
used by a very large amount of current sound hardware. However, patches
to fix several problematic cases have been added to the Rawhide kernel
recently, and the remaining problems can be worked around if fixes are
not integrated prior to release time, so it should be possible to
release Fedora 11 with a fairly reliable PulseAudio. The group discussed
whether it would make sense to schedule a Test Day for Intel audio
chipsets, but concluded it was too close to release time and the Test
Day schedule was already too busy to make it practical.
The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[4] was held on 2009-04-14. The full
log is available[5]. The meeting opened with a call for the Bugzappers
group to be proactive in adding serious bugs to the Fedora 11 Blocker
and Target bug lists. Several group members expressed the concern that
they would not be able accurately to identify which bugs should be added
to the list, so Adam Williamson and James Laska promised to discuss the
issue at the next QA meeting and see if there was a way to provide
firmer policies and guidance in future.
The group agreed to delegate the creation and organization of a Wiki
area covering SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to John Poelstra.
The discussion about how long to wait before closing NEEDINFO bugs was
resolved by a proposal from John Poelstra: whether to close after 30 or
60 days will be left to the discretion of individual triagers, while if
there is in future any co-ordinated team working to resolve stale
NEEDINFO issues not handled by the initial triager, they will use the 60
day method.
The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-04-22 at 1600 UTC in
#fedora-meeting, and the next Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-04-21 at
1500 UTC in #fedora-meeting.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings
2. http://www.happyassassin.net/extras/fedora-qa-20090415.log
3. http://rawhidewatch.wordpress.com/
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings
5.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2009-Apr-14
== Developments ==
In this section the people, personalities and debates on the
@fedora-devel mailing list are summarized.
Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley
=== Frozen for Fedora 11. Some Packages Still Not Built dist-f11 ===
Jesse Keating announced[1] that henceforth all F-11/ builds would go to
dist-f11-updates-candidate and builds from devel/ would go to dist-f12.
He asked for concerned parties to check that builds were being properly
tagged.
In response to Mike Chambers' question Jesse confirmed[2] that the
nightly rawhide composes would consist of Fedora 11 content until the
GOLD packages were on their way out to the mirrors at which point the
nightly rawhide composes would contain Fedora 12 content.
On a related note Bill Nottingham asked[3] maintainers of a list of
packages not yet rebuilt in dist-f11 (with the attendant compiler and
strong RPM hashes) to fix them if possible. Jesse Keating provided[4] a
slightly more aggressive list as an addendum.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00892.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00954.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01160.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01189.html
=== Xorg Hacking Solves DontZap ===
Peter Hutterer made some valuable contributions to resolving the furore
over the disabling of the zapping of the Xorg server via the
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination[1].
Tom Callaway drew attention[2] to a blog entry of Peter's which
mentioned upstream patches by Julien Cristau (of Debian) to
xkeyboard-config and Peter's own patch[3] to Xserver which together make
it possible to disallow zapping by default and also to turn zapping on
with a
'setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp'
. The net result is that it is possible to get zapping to work but the
XKB[4] configuration needs to be set up properly and the DontZap option
left disabled (as per the new default).
In discussion with Kevin Kofler Peter clarified[5] the situation in
which the new settings would take effect. Kevin responded[6] that it
appeared that for KDE users zapping with Ctrl-Alt-BkSp would remain as
before.
Later Peter answered[7] some questions from Suren Karapetyan about the
ability to kill broken X grabs with details about how zapping works.
The above summary of an elegant technical solution ignores the long, and
at times vitriolic, complaints about this change. A common trope
occurring in some recent threads seems to be that changes are made by
Red Hat employees who are implementing changes without community
consultation and all work to a common game plan. Seth Vidal
challenged[8] the latter assumption:"In a survey of 10 RH employees you
will find between 10 and 40 different opinions. sometimes more if you
don't ask some of them to confine their comments to a limited amount of
time." In any event it's worth noting that the resolution (which filters
the "Terminate_Server" action in a manner consistent[9] with the
handling of other actions in xkb rulesets) was contributed upstream by a
Red Hat employee. As a point of information Kevin Fenzi also made it
clear that the change had not been instigated by FESCo.
The new options presented by Peter were in addition to those already
suggested[10] in the beta Release Notes.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue171#Zap_DontZap
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00700.html
3.
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-devel/2009-April/000626.html
4. http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/html/index.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00861.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00863.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00838.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01059.html
9.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01173.html
10.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_11_Beta_release_notes#X_server
=== Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Professionals Satisfied with DVD ===
Jesse Keating requested[1] help in selecting which packages should be
dropped from the DVD image. He suggested some java development packages
and games.
Feedback suggested that retaining the games was[2] preferred and
dropping the development libraries made sense as the latest versions
would be needed[3] and could be obtained from the repositories anyway.
Jesse later posted[4] this was sufficient to achieve the desired image
size.
A side-issue discussed[5] was the unwieldiness of jigdo as a download
method. Callum Lerwick suggested[6] that jigdo would benefit from a
userspace ISO implementation.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00943.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00947.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00981.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01037.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01019.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01246.html
=== Presto and DeltaRPM Status ===
The ability to download binary diffs of RPM packages has been offered[1]
for some time now on Fedora through the Presto[2] project and
presto-enabled repositories. Interest is high enough in Presto's
bandwidth-saving abilities that no fewer than three separate threads
were started to ensure that it would function properly for Fedora 11.
Warren Togami asked[3] if Presto would be enabled by default for Fedora
11. Last month (2009-03-21) Jonathan Dieter reported[4] that the use of
SHA-256 in rpm had broken deltarpm but that a patched version was
available in rawhide. See FWN#166[5] for earlier coverage of the
challenges and changes resulting from the introduction of stronger
hashes[6]. Jonathan also reported that the changes necessary in
infrastructure to build deltarpms had been done. These changes were made
fairly rapidly thanks to work done[7] Michael Schroeder, the upstream
deltarpm developer. One issue that concerned[8] Axel Thimm was the
security with which checksums of deltarpms were being made. Till Maas
and Jonathan Dieter provided[9] reassurance that all deltarpms are
generated from original rpms which needed to pass all verifications
which yum and rpm enforce.
Martin Sourada was excited[10] not just about Presto but also about the
slick new PackageKit in Fedora 11. Martin was concerned about the issue
of PackageKit and Presto apparently not working well together. A
bugzilla entry revealed[11] that PackageKit developer [[User:|Richard
Hughes]] quickly created a patch which Martin reported as working.
On 2009-04-16 Bill Nottingham added to the "Rawhide Report" that "[...]
rawhide is composed with deltarpms against the prior rawhide. Due to a
bug, this is only currently working on i386; it should be fixed for
other arches tomorrow. Please test and report any issues."
A Fedora Test Day centering around Presto was also announced[12] by
[[User:|James Laska]]. The usual excellent wikipage[13] suggests that
Presto can deliver significant bandwidth savings.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue97#Presto-digitation
2. http://fedorahosted.org/presto/
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00701.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01910.html
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue166
6. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/StrongerHashes
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg00528.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01236.html
9.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01240.html
10.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01262.html
11. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=496445
12.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00939.html
13. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:Presto_2009-04-16
=== Browser Plugins May Strip SELinux Protections ===
Daniel Walsh asked[1] why mozplugger[2] was being installed by default.
He cautioned that mozplugger broke nsplugin and thus SELinux
functionality.
An answer posted[3] by Bill Nottingham pointed out the java plugin as
the dependent.
Dan worried that while "[a] confined nsplugin is a nice feature for
confining plugins downloaded from the network. But if you run openoffice
and evince from within nsplugin they get confined, causing the apps to
not work properly." In response to Simo Sorce Dan explained that any
attempt to write transition rules to enable said applications to work
properly would create an easy avenue of attack. Simo wondered[4] if it
would be possible to either write a security wrapper to restrict the
command line, or to get application developers to honor SELinux labels
in some way.
Warren Togami shared[5] that removing mozplugger was "[...] something I
always do. It seems to cause more problems than it solves [...]" and
James Morris expanded[6] upon this with instructions "[...] on both
removing mozplugger and restoring the security protections of SELinux.
Simply removing the package isn't enough[.]" James questioned "[...] how
a package which breaks a security feature not only made it into the
repo, but how it became enabled by default[?]"
A similar issue was raised[7] by Bruno Wolff III about the re-enabling
of disabled Firefox plugins. Comments by Martin Stransky suggest this is
a feature of mozilla-plugin-config.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01107.html
2. Mozplugger describes itself as "[a] general purpose Mozilla
plugin module that allows the user to embed and launch their favorite
application to handle the various different types of media found on
the Internet." http://mozplugger.mozdev.org/
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01111.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01115.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01117.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01226.html
7. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=491543
=== Getting Rid of /usr for Fedora 12 ? ===
Lennart Poettering cheerfully invited[1] any inclined parties to a
flamefest over the elimination of the /usr directory. Lennart suggested
that recent history indicated that more files were being moved from /usr
to / and that confusion between the two was a source of error from some
packages.
Enthusiasm for both the flamewar and the proposal was low.
A forceful and well-argued objection was made[2][3] by Konstantin
Ryabitsev on the basis that he liked to keep /boot and /usr on their own
partitions and use a LUKS-encrypted LVM for everything else. Konstantin
emphasized this was especially well-suited to portable machines which
need to conserve power and are more likely to need encryption.
Ralf Corsepius invoked[4] the FHS[5] on /usr and the need to contain[6]
non-essential packages unavailable at certain boot stages therein. Chris
Adams added[7] that symlinking /usr to / had been shown to break rpm.
Lennart explained[8] how /etc could be made read-only and adduced[9]
OpenSUSE, Debian and Gentoo as further evidence that a read-only root
could be attained. Callum Lerwick pined[10] for the days of floppy
disks.
Toshio Kuratomi completely declined to play and asked: "I'm hereby
giving notice that I don't have time to read obvious flamefests anymore.
Once this thread concludes, please summarize whatever the pros and cons
are and send it to the packaging committee to discuss and vote on."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01063.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01064.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01076.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01077.html
5. http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01105.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01101.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01198.html
9.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01208.html
10.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01300.html
== Translation ==
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
=== Fedora 11 Installation Guide Ready for Translation ===
Ruediger Landmann announced the availability[1] of the Fedora 11
Installation Guide for translation. Due to import of relevant content
from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide into this Guide,
the content has substantially increased. The final translation due date
is 14th of May 2009 with an extension of 1 week for additional
corrections. The .po files would be refreshed on April 28th 2009, to
correct errors identified until that date.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00116.html
=== New Members in FLP ===
Ali Fakoor[1] has joined the Persian translation team last week.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00108.html
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
=== Fedora 11 Landing ===
As a culmination of last week effort, the new and improved Fedora 11
artwork[1] was packaged and landed in Rawhide, as Martin Sourada
announced[2] on his blog.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F11/RC
2.
http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-leonidas-backgrounds.html
=== Fedora Weekly Webcomic ===
This week's installment of Nicu Buculei's comic[1]
1.
http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/04/fedora-weekly-webcomic-level-up.html
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in
Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Malicious Activity Grows in 2008 ===
2008 Saw a surge in malicious code activity [1]This is a disturbing
trend, and for the underground, this is easy money. The threat will
continue to grow until either the money dries up (unlikely) or the
difficulty of exploiting this is greater than the potential gain. Right
now it looks like the trend will continue for several years.
1. http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=7311
=== Who in the Linux World Would be Responsible for a Worm ? ===
Last week OSNews asked a rather interesting, but easily answered
question: OSNews Asks: Who'd Be Responsible for a Linux Conficker?
[1]The world of Open Source security is mostly a process that happens
behind the scenes, but is quite effective. There is a wiki called
OSS-Security [2] that provides a number of links to various groups. In
the event of something like a worm, the vast majority of the effort
would end up happening on the Vendor Security (vendor-sec[3]) mailing
list. This is a group of trusted Open Source distributors that
communicate in private in an effort to keep the end users of Open Source
software secure. To date this group has been working out quite well, and
the members are very used to solving security flaws in a cooperative
manner. In the event of a widespread Linux worm, there would be many
tired people, and quite a lot of vendor-sec emails.
1.
http://www.osnews.com/story/21312/OSNews_Asks_Who_d_Be_Responsible_for_a_Li…
2. http://oss-security.openwall.org/wiki/
3. http://oss-security.openwall.org/wiki/mailing-lists/vendor-sec
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from
fedora-package-announce.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: David Nalley
=== Fedora 10 Security Advisories ===
* ntop-3.3.8-3.fc10 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00388.…
* pam-1.0.4-4.fc10 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00398.…
* phpMyAdmin-3.1.3.2-1.fc10 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00452.…
* udev-127-5.fc10 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00463.…
* argyllcms-1.0.3-5.fc10 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00498.…
=== Fedora 9 Security Advisories ===
* pam-1.0.4-4.fc9 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00420.…
* phpMyAdmin-3.1.3.2-1.fc9 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00442.…
* udev-124-4.fc9 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00462.…
* argyllcms-1.0.3-5.fc9 -
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00473.…
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
=== LinuxFest Northwest Starts Saturday ===
Fedora Project will be attending and presenting at LinuxFest Northwest
this weekend in Bellingham, Wash., U.S.A. With five presentations and a
booth, Fedora is proud to be a sponsor of LinuxFest Northwest this year.
Below is a list of presentations at LFNW by Fedora folks, all of which
will be in room Haskell 203 on the Bellingham Technical College campus.
* Participate or Die by Karsten Wade at 1 p.m. Sunday
* What's under the hat? A sneak peek at Fedora 11! by Jesse Keating
at 11 a.m. Sunday
* Modular Infrastructure design with Messaging by Jesse Keating at 2
p.m. Sunday
* Fedora Remix by Clint Savage at 11 a.m. Sunday.
* Fedora 101 by Larry Cafiero at 10 a.m. Saturday, preceding the
Fedora Activity Day, which will be from approximately 10:30 (or when
Larry decides to quit yammering away) to 4:30 p.m.
The complete presentation schedule for LinuxFest Northwest can be found
here.
=== Got Ambassador News? ===
Any Ambassador news tips from around the Fedora community can be
submitted to me by e-mailing lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org and I'd
be glad to put it in this weekly report.
--
Oisin Feeley
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OisinFeeley
We're about 2 months away from FUDCon Berlin and LinuxTag, and it's time
to give the community a few reminders and details.
LinuxTag --> June 24 - 27
FUDCon Berlin --> June 26 - 28
Both events are being held in the same location, and FUDCon is OPEN TO
EVERYONE, regardless of whether or not you are a Fedora user or
contributor.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
== ATTENDING FUDCON ==
Please pre-register for the event. This is the only way to guarantee
free entry (because a LinuxTag ticket is required, and we will have
enough for all pre-registered) as well as a FUDCon tshirt.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_attendees
Please register for the hotel, if you need it.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_lodging
Travel from Tegel airport to the hotel is trivial, as is travel from the
hotel to Messe Berlin, where FUDCon and LinuxTag is being held.
== THE FUDCON SCHEDULE ==
Tuesday, June 23 - Thursday, June 25
Fedora will be at LinuxTag, which is at the same location as FUDCon.
For more information, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LinuxTag2009
Most FUDCon attendees will want to arrive on Thursday at the latest,
since FUDCon starts on Friday morning.
Friday 26 June
* Normal day of LinuxTag.
* Day 1 of FUDCon Berlin 2009, starting precisely at 10:00 AM.
* Fedora Social Event at En Passant in Sevignyplatz
Saturday 27 June
* Final day of LinuxTag.
* Day 2 of FUDCon Berlin 2009, starting precisely at 10:00 AM.
Sunday 28 June
* Day 3 of FUDCon Berlin 2009, starting precisely at 10:00 AM.
The detailed schedule for each day of FUDCon is here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_Berlin_and_LinuxTag_2009_talks
We also need people to continue to sign up for BarCamp and hackfest
sessions, here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009#BarCamp_and_Hackfests
Thanks,
Max
Fedora Weekly News Issue 171
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 171 for the week ending April 12th,
2009.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue171
Our latest issue includes important Announcements about Fedora 11 and
freeze statuses. Ambassadors celebrates the way "Italians Fete Document
Freedom Day" and "LinuxFest Northwest Ramps Up". Developments relays
some fraught conversations about "Emacs, Glibc, Malloc and i586" and
cautions that "Mono Breakage on PPC May Cause Reversion". Translations
keys us in to the "Fedora 11 Release Notes Discussion". Artwork provides
insight into "Finishing the Artwork for Fedora 11". Virtualization
reports on the "Virtualization Technology Preview Repo."
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[1]. We welcome reader feedback:
fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
1.1 Announcements
1.1.1 Fedora 11
1.1.2 FUDCon Berlin 2009
1.1.3 Upcoming Events
1.2 Ambassadors
1.2.1 Italians Fete Document Freedom Day
1.2.2 LinuxFest Northwest Ramps Up
1.2.3 Got Ambassador News?
1.3 Developments
1.3.1 Emacs, Glibc, Malloc and i586
1.3.2 Wireless Regulatory Domain Automatically Determined
1.3.3 Moonlight Still Banned in Fedora
1.3.4 Mono Breakage on PPC May Cause Reversion
1.3.5 YUM Downgrade Feature Now in Rawhide
1.3.6 Multiple Package Ownership of Directories
1.3.7 Zap DontZap
1.4 Translation
1.4.1 Fedora 11 Release Notes Discussion
1.4.2 New Members/Co-ordinators in FLP
1.5 Artwork
1.5.1 Finishing the Artwork for Fedora 11
1.5.2 Interview with the Art Team
1.6 Virtualization
1.6.1 Fedora Virtualization List
1.6.1.1 Guest Configuration with augeas and libguestfs
1.6.1.2 Virtual Machine Backup virt-backup
1.6.1.3 Virtualization Technology Preview Repo
1.6.1.4 Fedora Virtualization Status Report
1.6.2 Libvirt List
1.6.2.1 libvirt-TCK Technology Compatibility Kit
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
=== Fedora 11 ===
Jesse Keating[1] made two announcements regarding Fedora 11.
First[2], the F11-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso was re-issued on bittorrent
as well as to the mirors. The image was "accidentally composed with
32bit packages instead of 64bit packages". Furthermore, the Source ISOs
were re-issued on torrent only, where "an older set were first issued
there. The CHECKSUM on the mirrors was wrong as well for these isos and
has been updated."
Next[3], Fedora 11 Snapshot 1 was released to the torrent site, and it
provides "the first and final snapshot before our final devel freeze".
Jesse reminded everyone that "lots of work has gone into the storage
code of Anaconda since the Beta release, please do re-test with these
images if you had difficulty installing the Beta".
The final development freeze[4] for Fedora 11 is on Tuesday April 14th.
John Poelstra[5] reminded the community "that all features and their
associated feature pages must be at 100% completion by this date", and
he listed the features that do not meet this criteria, which includes
several of the more prominent features that are scheduled for the
release. If you are trying to get a feature in to Fedora 11, please make
sure you have completed all necessary steps.
1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JesseKeating
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-April/msg00003.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-April/msg00004.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-April/msg00001.ht…
5. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JohnPoelstra
=== FUDCon Berlin 2009 ===
Max Spevack[1] reminded[2] the community about FUDCon Berlin 2009[3],
including registration[4], lodging[5], and the speaking schedule[6].
1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MaxSpevack
2. http://spevack.livejournal.com/78732.html
3. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
4. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_attendees
5. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_lodging
6.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_Berlin_and_LinuxTag_2009_talks
=== Upcoming Events ===
April 15: NYLUG[1] in New York, New York, USA.
April 17-19: Summer Geek Camp 2[2] in Antipolo City, Phillipines.
April 18: BarCamp Rochester[3] in Rochester, New York, USA.
April 19-22: Red Hat EMEA Partner Summit[4] in Malta.
April 24-25: FLISOL, all over the LATAM region.
April 25: Trenton Computer Festival[5] in Trenton, New Jersey, USA.
April 25-26: Linux Fest Northwest[6] in Bellingham, Wasthington, USA.
1. http://nylug.org/
2. http://fedora.bluepoint.com.ph/index.php?entry=20090204000843
3. http://barcamprochester.org/
4. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_EMEA_Partner_Summit_2009
5. http://tcf-nj.org/
6.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LinuxFest_Northwest_%28LFNW%29_2009
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
=== Italians Fete Document Freedom Day ===
"Document Freedom Day," an event promoted by the Free Software
Foundation, was held March 25 and aimed is to spread free documents
formats and the Free Software culture. Luca Foppiano reports about his
attendance at the event, which was held in Opera (near Milano, where in
2008 was organized "Liberamente") in his blog[1].
Luca spoke at the event about the core values of the Fedora project,
whose aim is to spread the meaning of the 4 foundations in general, and
Fedoras policies around codecs and firmwares in particular - thus
covering a wider subject matter, not only documents.
=== LinuxFest Northwest Ramps Up ===
A Fedora Activity Day and three Fedora speakers highlight the lineup for
the 10th annual LinuxFest Northwest[2] in Bellingham, Wash., USA, on
April 25-26. Held on the campus of Bellingham Technical College, the
two-day event is free and open to the public.
Clint Savage will be hosting a session on Fedora Remix, Karsten Wade
will talk on the topic "Participate or Die," Jesse Keating will give
those at LFNW a sneak peek at Fedora 11 and what to expect later next
month, and Larry Cafiero will give a Fedora 101 talk prior to the Fedora
Activity Day, which takes place all day Saturday.
Prior to LFNW, Karsten Wade and Larry Cafiero are scheduled to address
classes at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., on behalf of
Fedora on Thursday, April 23. The pair will also meet with the Linux
Users Group on campus that evening.
Bellingham is just south of the Canadian border in northwestern
Washington, and if you find yourself in the neighborhood, feel free to
drop by.
1. http://blog.foppiano.org/2009/03/30/document-freedom-day/
2. http://www.lfnw.org
Got Ambassador News?
Any Ambassador news tips from around the Fedora community can be
submitted to me by e-mailing lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org and I'd
be glad to put it in this weekly report.
== Developments ==
In this section the people, personalities and debates on the
@fedora-devel mailing list are summarized.
Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley
=== Emacs, Glibc, Malloc and i586 ===
As the pressure to stick to the Fedora 11 release schedule built up some
glitches arising in part from the decision to support i586 instead of
i686 (see FWN#162[1]) led to tense words.
Reports trickled in of problems with emacs in rawhide. Per Bothner
reported[2] both that emacs-23.0.91 threw an "Invalid regex: Unmatched (
or \\(" and that emacs-23-0.92 was responding excruciatingly slowly.
Ulrich Drepper speculated[3] to that the regexp problem was due to some
changes to malloc in glibc. A bugzilla report by Andy Wingo expanded[4]
on the problem and drew comments suggesting that rpm and mysql were also
failing to due glibc changes. Jakub Jelinek thought they were different
problems with the emacs errors being due to malloc_{get|set}_state.
TomLane asked[5] what was going on with glibc reverting to an earlier
version in rawhide. Jesse Keating responded[6] that glibc for the i586
architecture was broken for all versions after beta. After Panu
Matilainen commented that glibc.i586 was so broken that rpm could not
even read its own configurations Ulrich Drepper said[7]: "If you want to
complain then to the idiots who made the decision to go with .i586
instead of .i686 for x86 binaries. This is exactly the kind of problem
I've been warning about all along. Using the i586 target stresses code
paths (in this case in gcc) which are hardly ever used since nobody
cares for this target in general." Panu disavowed any intent to
complain.
1.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue162#Fedora_11_Will_Support_i586_Inst…
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-April/msg00221.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-April/msg00225.html
4. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=494631
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00572.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00573.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00600.html
=== Wireless Regulatory Domain Automatically Determined ===
John W. Linville posted[1] an update to an old(ish) thread. He reported
that Fedora 11 now has udev rules in place to set wireless regulatory
domains based on the configured timezone.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00566.html
=== Moonlight Still Banned in Fedora ===
The 2009-04-08 "Rawhide Report"[1] caused some excitement when it
seemed[2] that moonlight[3][4][5][6][7] might have been enabled. It
turned out[8] that this was simply due to a confusion between a mono API
named "moonlight" and the actual moonlight itself.
All that had actually happened[9] was that Fedora Legal okayed the use
of the mono compiler switch "moonlight" in order to facilitate
RPMFusion's request.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00426.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00427.html
3. Moonlight is an implementation of Microsoft's "Silverlight" which
is a virtual machine and framework for creating Rich Internet
Applications, roughly competing in the same space as Adobe's Flex and
Mozilla's Prism. It is considered to risky to include in Fedora due
to legal worries raised by the Microsoft-Novell covenant.
4. http://mono-project.com/Moonlight
5. http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/
6. http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/prism/
7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems#Moonlight
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00500.html
9. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=492048
=== Mono Breakage on PPC May Cause Reversion ===
Another mono issue discussed[1] with reference to the 2009-04-08 Rawhide
Report suggests that due to breakage on the ppc architecture it may be
necessary to untag the latest mono package.
Objections that the disabling of PPC architecture support on the mono
package was happening too close to the Fedora 11 final freeze
prompted[2] David Nielsen to make the rejoinder that no help had been
given to the Mono SIG despite their reporting a problem. Jesse Keating
announced[3] that in the absence of a fix before the final freeze mono
would simply be downgraded: "[t]his kind of version change shouldn't
really be made after beta anyway."
David Nielsen argued[4] that the changes had been made well before the
beta. Bill Nottingham thrust[5] the responsibility back on him. Alex
Lancaster made[6] a similar point more diplomatically.
Mary Ellen Foster requested, as a mono-dependent maintainer, that
concrete actions be recommended. Jesse Keating and Toshio Kuratomi
asked[7] that all such did _not_ set "ExcludeArch: ppc" and rebuild as
this would cause massive churn on a large number of packages. Instead a
process to track down the failures and fix them with a fallback plan to
revert to a mono release-candidate was proposed by Toshio.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00457.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00471.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00483.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00501.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00515.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00524.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00568.html
=== YUM Downgrade Feature Now in Rawhide ===
James Antill posted[1] that it is now possible to downgrade a package
using
yum downgrade <packagename>
He suggested: "[...]this will be most useful for rawhide users when
installing test packages from koji static repos. etc. ... because then
an older version will still be available in rawhide. Whereas if you
upgrade to what is in rawhide there is nothing older available to
downgrade to."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00469.html
=== Multiple Package Ownership of Directories ===
A query posed[1] by Rahul Sundaram concerned whether it was appropriate
for multiple packages to claim ownership of a directory.
Michael Schwendt and Christoph Wickert were[2] clear that the packages
Rahul mentioned should not own the directory because they were part of a
dependency chain which led up to their ancestor package
hicolor-icon-theme. Contrary advice led[3] to some sarcasm from
Christoph Wickert about Red Hat employees not being familiar with Fedora
packaging guidelines and it worried[4] Peter Lemenkov, who believed that
Red Hat employees all had "provenpackager" status (see FWN#170[5]).
Jason L. Tibbitts III corrected[6] this latter assertion.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00425.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00544.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00546.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00591.html
5.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#Provenpackager_Policies
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00595.html
=== Zap DontZap ===
Paul Wouters reported[1] that he had needed to ssh into his machine to
fix an X session problem and would like to revert "[...] to the old
behavior of having ctrl-alt-backspace kill the current X session." See
FWN#169[2] for earlier discussion.
Anders Rayner-Karlsson explained that dual-head setup in Fedora 10 was
as simple as:
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --auto --above LVDS
to which Michael Cronenworth responded[3] that this would need to be
done in a start-up script as there was also now no xorg.conf by default.
Jesse Keating suggested using the system-config-display tool instead as
this would obviate the need for an xorg.conf. Adam Jackson cautioned[4]
that nVidia's proprietary drivers might not export RANDR-1.2 yet and
thus the latter might not work. Further discussions about whether
xorg.conf was needed for side-by-side wide virtual desktops suggested[5]
that Intel chipsets while currently enforcing a 2048 pixel limit may
be[6] capable of supporting up to 4096 pixels on Intel 915 or Intel 945
in the near future.
Dissent and discussion about Fedora's decision to follow the upstream
rumbled on. Kevin Kofler suggested[7] that "mailing list consensus" was
not a good process by which to make such decisions as that taken by
Xorg. Dave Airlie seemed[8] as though he had had enough of personal
attacks on him, but was also able to joke about it.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00363.html
2.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue169#Emacs_Cabal_Disables_Xorg_Ctrl-A…
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00371.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00377.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00430.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00450.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00617.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg00635.html
== Translation ==
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
=== Fedora 11 Release Notes Discussion ===
After the announcement last week[1] about the availability of the Fedora
11 Preview Release Notes for translation, a number of translators have
put forward their concerns about the difficulty in translating these
notes due to vast coverage of content and complicated technical text[2].
As a solution to this, it has been suggested that the Release Notes be
restricted to information that is important to general users and useful
to migration from on release to another. The additional information
about package improvements etc. may be made part of the SIG pages on the
wiki.[3]
One of the writers Ruediger Landmann, has put forward the link to the
draft version of Fedora 11 Installation Guide for similar feedback.[4]
At present, some of the teams have chosen to either translate the core
information, divide the translation work amongst multiple translators or
to drop translation for this release.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00028.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00089.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00090.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00091.html
=== New Members/Co-ordinators in FLP ===
David Leary[1] has joined the French translation team last week.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00071.html
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
=== Finishing the Artwork for Fedora 11 ===
John Poelstra asked [1] on @fedora-art about the lesson learned and the
need for a special feedback period embedded in future release cycles
"Maybe we should build a feedback period into the Fedora 12 schedule?"
and the status of the remaining work for Fedora 11 "It is also important
to note that we are targeting the completion of final artwork and
packaging a little less than two weeks from now on 2009-04-16 so that it
can all be in the Preview Release and have two weeks to shake out
anything that needs final fixing before GA", with Paul W. Frields
reinforcing[2] the question "How can we improve the schedule of dates
for Artwork deliverables, so that they're more realistic or
constructive?"
In reply, Nicu Buculei pleaded[3] for early, on-going feedback "I don't
think we need a feedback period, we need to get some graphics (concepts)
as soon as possible to get feedback from the early stages. Is not useful
if one week before the freeze we learn that everything is not good
enough, we have to scrap it and restart."
Appreciating the reminder[4] "Thank you for this reminder and for
helping keep us on track", Máirín Duffy outlined a list of the
remaining tasks: Wallpaper Design, Plymouth Splash, GNOME splash, KDE
splash, full screen splash for syslinux, grub splash. gnome screensaver
lock dialog, anaconda square splash, firstboot vertical header, kdm,
wallpaper extras and she set a deadline[5] on the wallpaper polishing
"I'm going to block off Thursday as the day to dive in and polish stuff
off".
Nicu Buculei and Martin Sourada took one of the points, the wallpaper
extras, further[6][7] and concluded "freeze is irrelevant here. It's
highly probable it won't be on any of the official spins, so having the
package released at the same day as GA is IMHO fine"
Charles Brej advanced a Plymouth animation proposal[8] "here is a
possible progress bar in the style of the theme", followed by another
minimalist proposal[9] from Mike Langlie, acclaimed by some[10][11] but
also criticised by its use of proprietary tools under proprietary
operating systems (Photoshop on OS X)[12]. A third mock-up[13] from
Cătălin Feştilă is dismissed by Nicu Buculei for the
use of English-only text " Fedora is an operating system for the entire
world, we can't go with an English-only text. Due to localization
concerns, is wise to avoid any texts rendered as graphics."
Also in preparation for the upcoming Preview Release and the General
Release, Paolo Leoni posted[14] a release countdown banner, which
evolved quickly with the feedback received into a complete, polished
tarball[15], ready to run on the website.
Susmit Shannigrahi advanced a DVD label concept[16], criticised by Luya
Tshimbalanga for the use of an obsolete theme[17] "Note that artwork
used for Fedora 11 Beta is not final" an Nicu Buculei for excessive use
of colors[18] "to keep the printing cost down ideally the label will use
only a few colors". Apparently, according to Susmit, in his country the
price is not affected by the number of colors used[19] "Well, here in
India, they don't charge by color. They charge at a flat rate of
11INR(22 cents) each for bulk production."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00044.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00068.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00075.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00080.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00081.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00087.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00096.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00092.html
9.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00093.html
10.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00094.html
11.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00101.html
12.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00110.html
13.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00113.html
14.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00047.html
15.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00095.html
16.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00052.html
17.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00054.html
18.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00055.html
19.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00060.html
=== Interview with the Art Team ===
In the previous edition of the Fedora Weekly News we reported about an
interview with the Fedora Art Team being conducted for the Linux
Graphics Users forum[1], now Nicu Buculei reported[2] on@fedora-art
about the interview going live[3].
1. http://linuxgraphicsusers.com/
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00111.html
3. http://linuxgraphicsusers.com/index.php?topic=705.msg5198
== Virtualization ==
In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list,
@fedora-xen-list, and @libvirt-list of Fedora virtualization
technologies.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
=== Fedora Virtualization List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.
==== Guest Configuration with augeas and libguestfs ====
After blogging[1] just last week that "Nothing much is coded at the
moment", the prolific Richard Jones announced[2] he has added support to
image:Echo-package-16px.pngaugeas for his latest project, libguestfs[3].
libguestfs "lets you examine and modify virtual machine disk images, so
you can perform sysadmin tasks on virtual machines without needing to
bring them up or log into them."
"Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files
in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration
changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into
native config files."[4] Now libguestfs "supports Augeas, so you can use
Augeas to edit configuration files within the virtual machine."
Richard will be working on creating a Fedora RPM of libguestfs this
week.
1.
http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/libguestfs-access-and-modify-virtual-m…
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00045.html
3. http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/libguestfs/
4. http://augeas.net/
==== Virtual Machine Backup virt-backup ====
The discussion of libguestfs led Jan ONDREJ to reveal[1] a tool in
development, virt-backup[2].
This script can be used to
* Make online backups, when virtual server is running.
* Transfer partitions over the network while the virtual server is
off.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00068.html
2. http://www.salstar.sk/pub/temp/virt-backup
==== Virtualization Technology Preview Repo ====
Daniel Berrange followed up the recent release scheduling conversation
(FWN#169 [1]) with a "braindump"[2].
"The obvious problem with what we do for
image:Echo-package-16px.pnglibvirt at the moment, is that we are
introducing major new features into the stable release stream". Adding
"I think it would be desirable to get the stable Fedora releases onto a
pretty strong bugfix only policy..."
Daniel suggested "a 'virt-preview' YUM repository for the most recent
stable stream (ie F10, but not F9)" as a way to achieve this "bugfix
only policy", and allow users access development versions of libvirt
"without having to include & debug the rest of rawhide". Daniel
summaried the "braindump".
"So in summary":
* All new upstream releases built in rawhide
* New upstream releases also built in stable preview branch if
possible
* Only bugfixes built in stable updates/updates-testing branch
* In exceptional circumstances, rebase for preview branch can be
built to updates/updates-testing after alot of positive testing
"This would":
* Ensure users of stable Fedora release have high confidence in
quality of the updates/updates-testing stream
* Allow users to trivially test new upstream rebases while staying
on the stable distro stream
* Improve testing coverage of major new rawhide features without
using the stable release stream users as guinea pigs
Mark McLoughlin thought[3] "this would be hugely useful to people
interested in the latest virt bits, but without a testing machine for
running rawhide." And even proposed a name for the proposed repository,
"How about 'virt-hide' ? :)". Mark also reverenced these FESCo approved
guidelines[4] relevant to package maintainers who wish to update a
package on an already-released branch.
1.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue169#More_Formal_libvirt_Release_Sche…
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00008.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00010.html
4.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/Package_update_guidelines
==== Fedora Virtualization Status Report ====
Mark McLoughlin reminds[1] us "It's only a matter of days until the F11
tree freezes and the list of bugs isn't getting any shorter!"
Read on for more coverage of virtualization developments in the past
week.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00055.html
=== Libvirt List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
==== libvirt-TCK Technology Compatibility Kit ====
In yet another "braindump" this week, Daniel Berrange penned[1] "a very
long email" purporting to be a "short guide" to the new
image:Echo-package-16px.pnglibvirt "Technology Compatibility Kit".
libvirt provides a hypervisor or emulator neutral platform for
manipulating virtual machine resources. This model leverages
"drivers"[2] for each emulator or backend system. The driver acts as a
translator, converting libvirt API calls to the native API. For example,
there are drivers for Xen, QEMU KVM, LXC, OpenVZ, User Mode Linux, and
storage subsystems.
"The libvirt TCK provides a framework for performing testing of the
integration between libvirt drivers, the underlying virt hypervisor
technology, related operating system services and system configuration.
The idea (and name) is motivated by the Java TCK"
"In particular the libvirt TCK is intended to address the following
scenarios
* Validate that a new libvirt driver is in compliance with the
(possibly undocumented!) driver API semantics
* Validate that an update to an existing driver does not change the
API semantics in a non-compliant manner
* Validate that a new hypervisor release is still providing
compatability with the corresponding libvirt driver usage
* Validate that an OS distro deployment consisting of a hypervisor
and libvirt release is configured correctly
Thus the libvirt TCK will allow developers, administrators and users to
determine the level of compatability of their platform, and evaluate
whether it will meet their needs, and get awareness of any regressions
that may have occurred since a previous test run."
The TCK will utilize Perl's testing frameworks and the libvirt Perl
binding image:Echo-package-16px.pngperl-Sys-Virt (FWN#169[3]).
Daniel created "4 simple proof of concept scripts" which have already
"highlighted some horrible problems" in remote, QEMU, and Xen drivers.
There are even some results "in pretty HTML format":
*
http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-rhel-5.html
*
http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-f10-broken…
*
http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-f10-fixed.…
Daniel goes on to describe how to try out the test suite, talk about
what's still left todo, describe how TCK is expected to be used, and
provide an introduction to writing tests.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00176.html
2. http://libvirt.org/drivers.html
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue169#New_Release_perl-Sys-Virt_0.2.0
--
Oisin Feeley
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OisinFeeley
This is the first and final snapshot before our final devel freeze
(April 14th) and subsequent preview release. On the torrent sites
you'll find live images for testing. http://torrent.fedoraproject.org
and http://spins.fedoraproject.org
Lots of work has gone into the storage code of Anaconda since the Beta
release, please do re-test with these images if you had difficulty
installing the Beta.
Please use bugzilla (
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report ) to report any
problems you find (after making sure that somebody else hasn't already
reported the issues). The Beta release notes
( https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_11_Beta_release_notes ) still
mostly apply.
Thanks and happy testing!
--
Jesse Keating
Fedora -- Freedom² is a feature!
identi.ca: http://identi.ca/jkeating
Due to some staging issues, I've had to re-issue a few of the isos for
Fedora 11 Beta.
The F11-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso has been re-issued both in torrent and
on the mirrors. This was accidentally composed with 32bit packages
instead of 64bit packages.
The Source isos have been re-issued on torrent only. An older set were
first issued there. The CHECKSUM on the mirrors was wrong as well for
these isos and has been updated.
No other changes are being made at this time.
--
Jesse Keating
Fedora -- Freedom² is a feature!
identi.ca: http://identi.ca/jkeating