news December 2008

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13 participants
21 discussions

Ad policy
by Paul W. Frields 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

Hello FWN editors, When I hooked you up with the folks from Red Hat's training sales group, it was with the best of intentions. Naturally, the people who are interested in Fedora are probably also interested in Linux training, and that probably means Red Hat certification too. Having them advertise an offer that directly benefited part of our global community and rewarded them for their work in free software seemed like a no-brainer to me. I brought that idea here to the FWN editors, openly and publicly in the Fedora way, and left the decision with you. However, I realize now that some community members might see running that ad as a strange entanglement between Red Hat and Fedora. While I may not agree with that viewpoint, I can understand it. The FWN goes out on our mailing lists, and if we allowed unrestricted ads elsewhere on the mailing lists, assuming anyone wanted to run such ads, it would undoubtedly upset a lot of people. However, if FWN had a clear ad policy, that might help alleviate such concerns in the future. I think the FWN editorial staff should talk with their contributors here, and decide on some sort of advertisement policy for the FWN. I'm not here to dictate that policy to you, because you're the ones who make FWN happen every week. It's a very important service to the community, and one I and many other community members make use of regularly. We're very grateful for your efforts, and I think you're the best judges of how to handle this matter. If you have any questions, I remain on this list, as always, and I'm happy to help. Thanks, and I apologize for the bother. -- 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

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No Virt beat
by Dale Bewley 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

Im away from home due to family illness. Im unlikely to be able to contribute to the next 2 fwn. Certainly not this one. I should be back home and online after new years. sorry

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(no subject)
by panneerselvamit34＠gmail.com 31 Dec '08

31 Dec '08

iam panneer linux book

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Fedora Weekly News #157
by Pascal Calarco 22 Dec '08

22 Dec '08

-- Fedora Weekly News Issue 157 -- Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 157 for the week ending December 21st, 2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue157 In our last issue of 2008, Announcements reminds you of FWN's holiday schedule and presents the gift of the Omega distro, Planet is chock full of tasty tidbits from the Fedora blogosphere, Developments invites you to warm your hands over a "Nautilus Spatial-mode Flamewar", Documentation invites you to a "Holiday Hackfest", Translations reports on the re-organization of "Sponsors for cvsl10n", Artwork unwraps some shiny "Creation Highlights", SecurityAdvisories lists some ways to avoid a lump of coal from Santa, and the usual sleigh-load of Virtualization goodies includes instructions on "Building oVirt from Rawhide." We would like to thank our readers for their interest and attention and all our contributors for producing the goods week after week. May you all have a happy and relaxing holiday and we look forward to seeing you again in January 2009. 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 FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join -- 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/ Contributing Writer: Max Spevack -- FWN Holiday Break -- Fedora Weekly News will be on vacation for the next two weeks. Our next issue will be published on January 12th. Happy holidays! -- FUDCon Boston 2009 -- FUDCon Boston 2009 is January 9-11. It is not too late to register[1]. [1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon/FUDConF11 -- Fedora Remixes -- Rahul Sundaram announced[2] the General Availability of Omega 10, "a Linux based operating system and a community Fedora Remix for desktop and laptop users." Sundaram added, "It is a installable Live CD for regular PC (i686 architecture) systems. It has all the features of Fedora 10 and a number of additional multimedia players and codecs. You can play any multimedia including MP3 music or commercial DVD's out of the box." For additional information, and to download Omega or view the kickstart used to create it, please read the full announcement. [2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-December/msg00014.… -- Planet Fedora -- In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora - an aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide. http://planet.fedoraproject.org Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin -- General -- Máirín Duffy said[1] it best: "ZOMG Stickers!!!!11" Rex Dieter announced[2] a new fedora-kde mailing list Harald Hoyer analyzed[3] the Fedora 10 boot process on an EeePC 901 with a solid-state disk, including some easy optimizations Casey Dahlin wrote a series[4,5,6,7] on a new internal state machine driving the Upstart service manager Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay discussed[8] some of the commonly overlooked difficulties of the commonly overlooked process of internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) Warren Togami had[9] some problems netbooting old PowerPC Macs as Thin Clients (and is open to suggestions) Tim Waugh posted[10] a tutorial on preventing a Python/GTK+ application from appearing to freeze while performing CUPS operations Abhishek Rane summarized[11] his thoughts on "Best of FOSS and Linux in 2008" Dimitris Glezos described[12] Transifex and their new startup company built around it Christoph Wickert embedded[13] a video interview with Mario Behling talking about LXDE Jef Spaleta offered[14] a number of retrospective questions at the end of his tenure on the Fedora Board Sébastien Bilbeau posted[15] the "25 Best Linux Desktop Customization Screenshots" Yaakov Nemoy mused[16] about the relationship between the Open Source development process and anarchy [1] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/65838.html [2] http://rdieter.livejournal.com/11262.html [3] http://www.harald-hoyer.de/personal/blog/fedora-10-boot-analysis [4] http://screwyouenterpriseedition.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-upstart-state-mac… [5] http://screwyouenterpriseedition.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-upstart-state-mac… [6] http://screwyouenterpriseedition.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-upstart-state-mac… [7] http://screwyouenterpriseedition.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-upstart-state-mac… [8] http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog/2008/12/16/and-here-we-go-again-2/ [9] http://wtogami.livejournal.com/29574.html [10] http://cyberelk.net/tim/2008/12/17/cups-gtk-python-and-threading/ [11] http://www.abhishekrane.com/2008/12/17/best-of-foss-and-linux-in-2008/ [12] http://dimitris.glezos.com/weblog/2008/12/17/chasing-a-dream [13] http://www.christoph-wickert.de/blog/2008/12/18/lxde-presentation-at-red-ha… [14] http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/29998.html [15] http://www.tux-planet.fr/25-best-linux-desktop-customization-screenshots/ [16] http://loupgaroublond.blogspot.com/2008/12/open-source-and-anarchism.html -- Events -- Fedora Release Party in Milan[17] Fedora Day at Menoufiya Universty, Egypt[18] [17] http://people.byte-code.com/fcrippa/2008/12/19/fedora-release-party-milan-i… [18] http://www.fossology.net/Fedora_Day_at_Menoufiya_Universty_Egypt_release_10 -- Developments -- In this section the people, personalities and debates on the @fedora-devel mailing list are summarized. Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley -- Nautilus Spatial-mode Flamewar -- The tired, old topic of whether nautilus should use "spatial-mode" as a default was re-opened[1] by MarkG85 in the form of a request for list subscribers to "vote" on the mailing list for a reversion to "browser-mode". In spatial-mode nautilus opens a new window for each directory unless one middle-clicks or holds the shift key down. It was pointed out by several contributors that voting "+/- 1" was not a recognized way to achieve change within the Fedora Project. Chris Adams asked[2] if he and his friends "[...] should [...] all spam fedora-devel with `+1' and `metoo' to change the default background color? What if it is 20 friends, or 100, or 500?" A similar point was made[3] by Jef Spaleta. Dimi Paun expressed[4] frustration with what he charcaterized as "lame community involvenment" and several personal attacks were made on both the maintainer and other contributors who had deprecated the attempt to take a mailing list vote. After tempers had flared Jeff commented[5]: "Noone has figured out how to write a markup language for human intention...and as a result any passionate discussion degrades severely as we are wired to read intention but without body language and vocal ques...we absolutely do it wrong when relying solely on written language. Even more so with English! If we mandated everyone encode thought into Lisp we'd be having more constructive discussions (and less of them). The productivity of the list would be through the roof." In response to a challenge to detail some advantages of spatial-mode Tomas Torcz was among those who offered[6] that the persistent screen placement of directory windows was a major advantage. He also suggested a way to avoid leaving multiple windows open: "When I open new window and don't want parent directory open, I just open with middle button. Some people prefer Shift+click in this situation. I never has to use `Close all parent folder' (ctrlshift-w), but I aware it exist." Joonas Sarajärvi confirmed[7] the persistence as an advantage: "[...] the state of each folder is persistent. Every window opens in the same view that it had when I reopen them. I can have appropriate zoom levels and views for every directory I commonly use." Very much later in the thread, after he had been referred to several times, the package maintainer Alexander Larsson replied[8] that he was unconvinced both by the tone and content of the argument that there was a case to be made for changing the default. It is possible to choose which behavior one wants by at least two methods. One can either use the GUI Nautilus -> Preferences -> Behavior -> Always open in browser windows or else change the GConf setting using gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_browser true As part of the argument involved a desire to be able to replicate these settings automatically and possibly distribute them to others Matthias Clasen suggested[9] that anyone wishing to make permanent change to the default settings could create a sabayon profile. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02089.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02286.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02305.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02416.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02392.ht… [6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02387.ht… [7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02213.ht… [8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02189.ht… [9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02389.ht… -- Font Package Naming Guidelines -- Nicholas Mailhot ensured[1] that everyone was made aware of the new font package naming rules for Fedora 11. These will help break up large font packages in order to allow users to obtain fonts from desired families without imposing a large download burden. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02597.ht… -- How to become a Co-Maintainer -- Ray Van Dolson asked[1] for some information on identifying the current (co)maintainers of the proftpd package, the procedure to become a co-maintainer and the abilities to push bugfixes which this would confer upon him if the primary maintainer were absent. A full answer was provided[2] by Patrice Dumas with links to PackageDB and the policies on the wiki regarding non-responsive maintainers. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02253.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02255.ht… -- Proposed Package Re-Naming Guidelines -- Feedback was requested[1] by Kevin Fenzi on a draft guideline concerning the re-naming of packages either as a result of upstream action or locally to adhere to the NamingGuidelines. Patrice Dumas and Dennis Gilmore remembered[2] that a re-review followed by EOL of the old package was the current practice. Jason Tibbitts[3] and Jesse Keating[4] referenced IRC discussions of the practice and its advantages in checking the Obsoletes and Provides in discussion with Jochen Schmitt. Jochen was concerned[5] that the process be kept lightweight as opposed to a full review. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02052.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02054.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02058.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02056.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02060.ht… -- Exiv2 Bump in Rawhide -- Rex Dieter announced[1] that a bump to exiv2-0.18[2] would occur soon including a soname bump. Jon Ciesla offered to help and Rex produced[3] a quick list of dependent applications. When Matej Cepl struggled with some odd results Michael Chudobiak answered[4] that the API had changed a good deal. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02061.ht… [2] Exiv is a command-line utility for examining EXIF and IPTC metadata of images. [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02068.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02244.ht… -- wxGTK2 to wxGTK Re-name -- Michael Schwendt discovered[1] that a rename had been performed[2] some time ago so that there was no wxGTK2-devel package available. Dan Horák explained[3] that only audacity was affected. There was[4] some discussion about whether versioned Provides should be kept indefinitely. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01897.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01972.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01975.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02046.ht… -- RFC: Description Text in Packages -- Follow-up action (see FWN#153[1]) was requested[2] by Richard Hughes for packagers to fix "isane descriptions" in their package summary text. Enlightenment was singled out as an example of an undesirable multi-page description. Richard also asked for comments on how bullet-points should be represented and the use of UTF-8. A heated discussion followed[3] in which Nicolas Mailhot deprecated the possible development of a "broken application-side transcoding system". He advocated the use of UTF-8 over ASCII for several reasons including supporting the default Asian locales. Paragraph boundaries and lists were also mentioned[4] as a special area of concern. This is a long and painful thread to read which expresses a conflict between constraints imposed by PackageKit and how things are currently done. Packagers should probably skim it to determine what final decisions are going to be made. Richard Hughes seemed[5] to decide to implement what seemed to him to be sane changes to gnome-packagekit in which "If you're [g]oing to use [UTF-8 representations of skull-and-crossbones and radiation-hazard symbols] in a spec file, then the text box is going to look rubbish and be all on one line. If you use a description longer than a few hundred words, gnome-packagekit will truncate it." [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue153#RFC:_Fix_Summary_Text_for_Lots_o… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01550.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01555.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01577.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01927.ht… -- Documentation -- In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject Contributing Writer: Jason Taylor -- Holiday Hackfest -- This year there is going to be a Virtual Hackfest[0] with the goal of getting Fedora Documentation Project Guides up to date and ready for publication. Karsten presented a ToDo list[1] this week. The dates for the Hackfest are December 27, 2008 through January 4, 2009. [0] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs_Project_Holiday_Virtual_Hackfest [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-December/msg00139.html -- Translation -- This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n) Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee -- Sponsors for cvsl10n -- The discussion about reorganizing the cvsl10n sponsorship process was restarted by KarstenWade[1], highlighting the long queue of new entrants waiting for sponsorhip. Currently, the policies governing the sponsorship process for the cvsl10n group do not ensure notification to the language team's co-ordinator of a new entrant, unless informed by the latter. As a result of a precaution taken by the current sponsor against arbitrary approval, the waiting queue has been growing. Suggested changes include, providing all the co-ordinators with sponsorship rights. KarstenWade also suggested the renaming of the admin group to "l10n" instead of "cvsl10n". [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00079.ht… -- Kudos for the Serbian Translation Team and FLP -- OisinFeeley and PaulFrields informed[2] about the prompt work done by the Serbian contributors of the Fedora Localization Project, as part of Serbian Government's initiatives to localize open source software. An article in LWN[3] (available publicly after Dec 25th 2008) says that 99% work of the Fedora Translation was completed on time. [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00074.ht… [3] http://lwn.net/Articles/310740/ -- Transifex Outage -- An unplanned outage of the Transifex instance, on http://translate.fedoraproject.org occurred last week, alongwith koji, wiki and smolt outage[4]. [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00072.ht… -- Artwork -- In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei -- Perspective and the Echo Icons -- Martin Sourada called for a decision[1] on @fedora-art "we need to make final decisions about the new perspective to Echo and update the guidelines appropriately" with his proposal being "We will start new Echo Perspective icon theme which will * be developed in parallel to the current Echo * until it reaches good enough coverage, it will fallback to current Echo and gnome-icon-theme * use same Perspective Projection as in tango/mango for 32x32 icons and bigger, and in cases where it helps icon distinction in smaller sizes as well, Flat Perspective will be used for the rest * allow small amount of glows/glazes/shines in 256x256 version to achieve better realistic look * use ~ 1 px thick solid borders at all sizes" [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00109.html -- The FUCCon Boston 2009 T-shirt -- In a message addressed to both @fedora-art and @fedora-marketing Máirín Duffy asked for a vote[1] for the design of the official T-Shirt for the upcoming FUDCon in Boston "I made the design two-color so hopefully it'll be cheaper to print [...] There's two main designs that are just different in the treatment of the back portion of the shirt" and the majority of the respondents opted for one of them[2], which at the time of this writing should be already going to print. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00092.html [2] https://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/1/17/Artwork_T(2d)Shirt_fudcon-boston-2… -- Creation Highlights -- This week a few members of the community shared with @fedora-art some of their latest works: * María Leandro continued her work[1] on a promo video[2] (warning: streaming Flash content); * Susmit Shannigrahi started[3] a leaflet[4] to be handed at Fedora booths; * Mola Pahnadayan created[5] a cool looking 3D composition Blender, pretty much in his style famous form the Fedora Core 6 DNA wallpaper. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00125.html [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od8Utt6anLw [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00099.html [4] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Image:Leaflet.png [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00116.html [6] http://mola-mp.deviantart.com/art/Fedora-10-106577570 -- Security Advisories -- In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce. https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce Contributing Writer: David Nalley -- Fedora 10 Security Advisories -- * dbus-1.2.6-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * squirrelmail-1.4.17-2.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * clamav-0.94.2-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-7.b12.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-2.24.2-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-4.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-6.7-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Fedora 9 Security Advisories -- * squirrelmail-1.4.17-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-0.20.b09.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * dbus-1.2.6-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-0.5.2-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-2.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-6.7-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Fedora 8 Security Advisories -- Fedora 8 is nearing EOL Per FESCo support for Fedora 8 will be discontinued on January 7th 2009 https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg02014.ht… * squirrelmail-1.4.17-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-0.4-2.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-2.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-5.13-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Virtualization -- In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list, @libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list of Fedora virtualization technologies. Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley -- Libvirt List -- This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list. -- sVirt 0.20 Patch Request for Comments -- James Morris announced[1] "the release of v0.20[2] of sVirt, a project to add security labeling support to Linux-based virtualization. I'm hoping to be able to propose an initial version for upstream merge within the next few minor releases, tasks for which are being scoped out in the new TODO list[3]." "If the current release passes review, the next major task will be to add dynamic MCS labeling of domains and disk images for simple isolation." Daniel P. Berrange said "this patch all looks pretty good to me from a the point of view of libvirt integration & XML config representation." [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00260.html [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue149#sVirt_Initial_Prototype_Release [3] http://selinuxproject.org/page/SVirt/TODO -- Latest libvirt on RHEL and CentOS 5.2 -- Marco Sinhoreli needed[1] image:Echo-package-16px.pnglibvirt 0.5.x for testing oVirt on RHEL 5.2. Marco wondered what was necessary to update from the 0.3.x version available for RHEL. Soon after, Daniel P. Berrange "uploaded[2] a set of patches[3] which make libvirt 0.5.1 work with RHEL-5's version of Xen. Basically we have to tweak a few version assumptions to take account of fact that RHEL-5 Xen has a number of feature backports like the new paravirt framebuffer and NUMA support." "Of course running a newer libvirt on RHEL-5 is totally unsupported but hopefully these will be usful to those who absolutely need this newer libvirt and don't mind about lack of support." [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00218.html [2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00298.html [3] http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-rhel5-xen/ -- oVirt Devel List -- This section contains the discussion happening on the ovirt-devel list. -- Building oVirt from Rawhide -- Perry Myers posted[1] instructions for building[2] and installing[3] oVirt from rawhide. --- end FWN 157 ---

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FWN#157
by Oisin Feeley 22 Dec '08

22 Dec '08

Pascal, Huzaifa I seem to have forgotten to sign my Fedora CLA and as a result can't log in to the wiki to make changes. Could one of you guys take care of this week's FWN. I attach my edited Developments beat and also inline below. Things are a bit hectic here with snow removal. I'm going to try and get a fax of the CLA off to Red Hat (I could swear I've already done this, but whatever) but probably I won't be able to log in for a bit. Apologies and Happy Holidays! === Nautilus Spatial-mode Flamewar === The tired, old topic of whether <code>nautilus</code> should use "spatial-mode" as a default was re-opened[1] by MarkG85 in the form of a request for list subscribers to "vote" on the mailing list for a reversion to "browser-mode". In spatial-mode <code>nautilus</code> opens a new window for each directory unless one middle-clicks or holds the shift key down. It was pointed out by several contributors that voting "+/- 1" was not a recognized way to achieve change within the Fedora Project. [[ChrisAdams|Chris Adams]] asked[2] if he and his friends "[...] should [...] all spam fedora-devel with `+1' and `metoo' to change the default background color? What if it is 20 friends, or 100, or 500?" A similar point was made[3] by [[JeffSpaleta|Jef Spaleta]]. [[DimiPaun|Dimi Paun]] expressed[4] frustration with what he charcaterized as "lame community involvenment" and several personal attacks were made on both the maintainer and other contributors who had deprecated the attempt to take a mailing list vote. After tempers had flared Jeff commented[5]: "Noone has figured out how to write a markup language for human intention...and as a result any passionate discussion degrades severely as we are wired to read intention but without body language and vocal ques...we absolutely do it wrong when relying solely on written language. Even more so with English! If we mandated everyone encode thought into Lisp we'd be having more constructive discussions (and less of them). The productivity of the list would be through the roof." In response to a challenge to detail some advantages of spatial-mode [[TomasTorcz|Tomas Torcz]] was among those who offered[6] that the persistent screen placement of directory windows was a major advantage. He also suggested a way to avoid leaving multiple windows open: "When I open new window and don't want parent directory open, I just open with middle button. Some people prefer Shift+click in this situation. I never has to use `Close all parent folder' (ctrlshift-w), but I aware it exist." [[JoonasSarajärvi|Joonas Sarajärvi]] confirmed[7] the persistence as an advantage: "[...] the state of each folder is persistent. Every window opens in the same view that it had when I reopen them. I can have appropriate zoom levels and views for every directory I commonly use." Very much later in the thread, after he had been referred to several times, the package maintainer [[AlexanderLarsson|Alexander Larsson]] replied[8] that he was unconvinced both by the tone and content of the argument that there was a case to be made for changing the default. It is possible to choose which behavior one wants by at least two methods. One can either use the <code>GUI</code> <pre>Nautilus -> Preferences -> Behavior -> Always open in browser windows</pre> or else change the <code>GConf</code> setting using <code>gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_browser true</code> As part of the argument involved a desire to be able to replicate these settings automatically and possibly distribute them to others [[MatthiasClasen|Matthias Clasen]] suggested[9] that anyone wishing to make permanent change to the default settings could create a <code>sabayon</code> profile. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02089.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02286.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02305.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02416.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02392.ht… [6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02387.ht… [7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02213.ht… [8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02189.ht… [9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02389.ht… === Font Package Naming Guidelines === [[NicolasMailhot|Nicholas Mailhot]] ensured[1] that everyone was made aware of the new font package naming rules for <code>Fedora 11</code>. These will help break up large font packages in order to allow users to obtain fonts from desired families without imposing a large download burden. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02597.ht… === How to become a Co-Maintainer === [[RayVanDolson|Ray Van Dolson]] asked[1] for some information on identifying the current (co)maintainers of the <code>proftpd</code> package, the procedure to become a co-maintainer and the abilities to push bugfixes which this would confer upon him if the primary maintainer were absent. A full answer was provided[2] by [[PatriceDumas|Patrice Dumas]] with links to <code>PackageDB</code> and the policies on the wiki regarding non-responsive maintainers. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02253.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02255.ht… === Proposed Package Re-Naming Guidelines === Feedback was requested[1] by [[KevinFenzi|Kevin Fenzi]] on a draft guideline concerning the re-naming of packages either as a result of upstream action or locally to adhere to the [[NamingGuidelines]]. [[PatriceDumas|Patrice Dumas]] and [[DennisGilmore|Dennis Gilmore]] remembered[2] that a re-review followed by EOL of the old package was the current practice. [[JasonTibbitts|Jason Tibbitts]][3] and [[JesseKeating|Jesse Keating]][4] referenced <code>IRC</code> discussions of the practice and its advantages in checking the <code>Obsoletes</code> and <code>Provides</code> in discussion with [[JochenSchmitt|Jochen Schmitt.]] Jochen was concerned[5] that the process be kept lightweight as opposed to a full review. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02052.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02054.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02058.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02056.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02060.ht… === Exiv2 Bump in Rawhide === [[RexDieter|Rex Dieter]] announced[1] that a bump to <code>exiv2-0.18</code>[2] would occur soon including a soname bump. [[JonCiesla|Jon Ciesla]] offered to help and Rex produced[3] a quick list of dependent applications. When [[MatejCepl|Matej Cepl]] struggled with some odd results [[MichaelJChudobiak|Michael Chudobiak]] answered[4] that the API had changed a good deal. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02061.ht… [2] Exiv is a command-line utility for examining EXIF and IPTC metadata of images. [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02068.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02244.ht… === wxGTK2 to wxGTK Re-name == [[MichaelSchwendt|Michael Schwendt]] discovered[1] that a rename had been performed[2] some time ago so that there was no <code>wxGTK2-devel</code> package available. [[DanHorák|Dan Horák]] explained[3] that only <code>audacity</code> was affected. There was[4] some discussion about whether versioned <code>Provides</code> should be kept indefinitely. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01897.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01972.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01975.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg02046.ht… === RFC: Description Text in Packages === Follow-up action (see FWN#153[1]) was requested[2] by [[RichardHughes|Richard Hughes]] for packagers to fix "isane descriptions" in their package summary text. <code>Enlightenment</code> was singled out as an example of an undesirable multi-page description. Richard also asked for comments on how bullet-points should be represented and the use of <code>UTF-8</code>. A heated discussion followed[3] in which [[NicolasMailhot|Nicolas Mailhot]] deprecated the possible development of a "broken application-side transcoding system". He advocated the use of <code>UTF-8</code> over <code>ASCII</code> for several reasons including supporting the default Asian locales. Paragraph boundaries and lists were also mentioned[4] as a special area of concern. This is a long and painful thread to read which expresses a conflict between constraints imposed by PackageKit and how things are currently done. Packagers should probably skim it to determine what final decisions are going to be made. [[RichardHughes|Richard Hughes]] seemed[5] to decide to implement what seemed to him to be sane changes to gnome-packagekit in which "If you're [g]oing to use [UTF-8 representations of skull-and-crossbones and radiation-hazard symbols] in a spec file, then the text box is going to look rubbish and be all on one line. If you use a description longer than a few hundred words, gnome-packagekit will truncate it." [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue153#RFC:_Fix_Summary_Text_for_Lots_o… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01550.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01555.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01577.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01927.ht… -- Oisin Feeley http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OisinFeeley

2 4

announcements beat
by Max Spevack 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

Only one announcement, so I added that in. If something interesting happens on Friday or Saturday, I'll add that too. I also put the holiday notice at the top of the announcements beat. --Max

1 0

is fwn taking a holiday vacation
by Max Spevack 18 Dec '08

18 Dec '08

Is FWN going to take vacation on the 29th and 5th? I for one will not be able to write my beats those weeks. This week's beat will be my last until after the new year. --Max

7 10

Fedora Weekly News # 156
by Pascal Calarco 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

-- Fedora Weekly News Issue 156 -- Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 156 for the week ending December 14th, 2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue156 This week's issue features an exciting discount for Fedora community members in Australia and New Zealand on Red Hat certification training and exams. Coverage of Fedora Planet includes event reports from a FOSS event in India and a Parisian Fedora install fest, along with a nifty XO Exchange Registry. Another flamewar eruption is covered on the Developments beat, along with updates on the D-Bus in Fedora and discussion on making 'updates-testing' more useful. Fedora websites are now available in Russian and Bulgarian, as reported in this issue's Translations beat. The Artwork beat reports on the Fedora Art Team's re-envisioning discussion as well as using the Fedora branding in the OLPC Sugar interface. The security advisory beat updates us on Fedora 9 and 10 updates, along with reminders of Fedora 8 end of life, January 7, 2009. In virtualization news, details of the latest libvert in RHEL and CentOS 5.2. All this and more in this week's FWN! FWN is considering changing the format in response to some reader suggestions. The Developments section this week attempts to be considerably shorter and places URLs below each section instead of interspersing them after each paragraph. We welcome reader feedback on the subject: fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com. If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[1]. FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala [0] http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join -- 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/ Contributing Writer: Max Spevack -- Red Hat Certification offer -- STOP THE PRESSES.....50% Discount on Red Hat Certification Exams When the going gets tough - the tough get certified! Maximise your chance of career success in 2009 with Red Hat training and certification Special End of Year Offer for Fedora community members in Australia and New Zealand. 50% discount of all Red Hat Exams taken in Australia and New Zealand by February 28th, 2009 Get your certification today! Act now... simply visit http://www.apac.redhat.com/training/dates.php3 for a complete list of Red Hat exams available until 28th February, 2009 and write "Fedora Community Special" in the Promo code box. Make sure you use your Fedora email id when registering to qualify for the 50% discount. If you have a mate who would benefit from a Red Hat certification, make sure you pass on the good news! -- Terms and Conditions -- This offer begins December 15, 2008 and ends on February 28, 2009. Offer void if participant cancels, no shows, or requests a refund. Offer is subject to availability. Exams, reschedules and any retakes must be completed by February 28, 2009. Participants must register for the promotion at http://www.apac.redhat.com/training/register.php3 and enter “Fedora Community Special” in the Special Offers section, using their Fedora email id to register. Offer may not be used for exams in which you are already enrolled, cancellations and re-bookings. This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions or special pricing. Participant is responsible for assessing his/her suitability for enrolling in the appropriate exam. Government employees and contractors may not be eligible to receive this offer and the participant acknowledges that his/her employer is aware of and consents to the receipt of the offer, and that the receipt of the offer does not violate the organisation’s policies and regulations. Void where prohibited by law. Offer is available to residents of Australia and New Zealand only. Red Hat reserves the right to withdraw or extend this offer at anytime. -- Updates -- Paul Frields wrote[1] about the update problem affecting D-Bus. "Recently, an update of D-Bus software package in Fedora 10 caused the substantial breakage of some applications, including PackageKit." The announcement includes instructions that explain how a user can update the system manually using yum on the command-line, and return to business-as-usual. If you are unable to perform a normal system update using PackageKit and need help, please read the full announcement. [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-December/msg00012.… -- Planet Fedora -- In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora - an aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide. http://planet.fedoraproject.org Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin -- General -- Dave Jones answers[1] some frequently asked questions and common misconceptions regarding Virtual Memory in Linux Tom Tromey concluded[2,3,4] his excellent series on scripting and extending GDB with Python, including some PyGTK widgetry inside GDB. Michael DeHaan contemplates the complexity of software projects and how to encourage new people to get involved and contribute. "Projects that have a lot of complex interrelationships and need a lot of experience with the codebase (that is acquired over a long period of time) are less apt to attract casual contributions"[5] Jesse Keating announced[6] a new Fedora Hosted project, Offtrac: "Offtrac is my attempt at creating a python library for interacting with trac via xmlrpc." The project can already perform a number of tasks including querying, retrieving and creating tickets and milestones. Kulbir Saini presented[7] some ideas for hacking a Linux install to make it boot faster. Luis Villa offered[8] a followup regarding some comments that he had made criticizing OpenOffice.org's user interface and praising Office 2007. Máirín Duffy put together[9] an impressive Lightscribe label template for Fedora. Greg DeKoenigsberg introduced[10] the XO Exchange Registry that "connects people who have XOs and don't need them with people who need XOs and don't have them." Tom Callaway ranted[11] (don't worry, those are his own words) about FOSS licensing. He notes that there are no clear standards for what defines a "Free" distribution, as there are often cases where truly difficult questions arise, but adds "This is why for Fedora, the goal of being 100% Free isn't something that we're losing sleep over. Sure, we'd like to be 100% Free, and we're working towards that every day, but actually being 100% Free is HARD, especially if you want more than 700 MB of packages." John Poelstra discussed[12] the "Benefits of Detailed Schedules" after last week's approval of the Fedora 11 schedule. Till Maas announced[13] "some webpages that cache bugzilla queries of package review requests". So if anyone out there would like to jump in and help review some packages, please do so! (there were 719 packages in the NEW state when Till's post went up and already 725 by the time this sentence was written). Luke Macken decided to share[14] a small python program that determines "the amount of time Fedora updates spend in testing within bodhi". Click in to see the results. Matthew Garrett apparently spent a bit of time traveling, and during that time analyzed[15] a number of showers, as a metaphor for UI design in software. Luke Macken committed a Python API for interacting with the Fedora Wiki and shows off[16] some of its statistical gathering abilities. [1] http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/132396.html [2] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=548 [3] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=550 [4] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=552 [5] http://www.michaeldehaan.net/?p=798 [6] http://jkeating.livejournal.com/66433.html [7] http://fedora.co.in/content/how-boot-your-fedora-faster [8] http://tieguy.org/blog/2008/12/10/why-im-not-a-big-fan-of-ooo-part-53240/ [9] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/65518.html [10] http://gregdek.livejournal.com/42524.html [11] http://spot.livejournal.com/303000.html [12] http://poelcat.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/benefits-of-detailed-schedules/ [13] http://blogs.23.nu/till/2008/12/cached-package-review-buglists/ [14] http://lewk.org/blog/time-in-testing.html [15] http://mjg59.livejournal.com/104279.html [16] http://lewk.org/blog/wiki.html -- Events -- Folks are still posting[17,18,19] photos and writeups of their experience at FOSS.IN. It really sounds like an amazing time was had by all. [17] http://rishikeshsharma.blogspot.com/2008/12/manipur-fedora-10-release-party… [18] http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings/2008/12/08/fossin-2008/ [19] http://kushaldas.in/2008/12/10/what-else-we-did-at-fossin/ Thomas Canniot wrote[20] about a successful Fedora Install Fest in Paris [20] http://blog.mrtomlinux.org/index.php?post/Fedora-10-Install-Fest-Report -- Developments -- In this section the people, personalities and debates on the @fedora-devel mailing list are summarized. Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley -- Fedora 11: OSS and PulseAudio Conflict Resolved by CUSE ? -- A thread[1] from November led Warren Togami to suggest[2] a plan to use CUSE[3] as part of a strategy to deprecate the near obsolete Open Sound System (OSS) which wreaks havoc with PulseAudio enabled boxes. The plan included a fallback to OSS for users who really wanted it. Bastien Nocera was[4] skeptical that CUSE would be ready in time for Fedora 11 and suggested instead that a list of applications using OSS be created so that they could be fixed. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg01005.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg02195.ht… [3] Character Devices in User space: http://lwn.net/Articles/308445/ [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00872.ht… -- Rawhide Report 2008-12-08 -- When the latest Rawhide Report logged[1] one maintainers use of cvs-import.sh Dominik Mierzejewski criticised[2] the use of the script for updating. Richard Jones asked[3]: "[I]s this stuff really documented anywhere? I have tended to learn it by osmosis, deduction and reading the horribly complicated rules in Makefile.common." Jason Tibbitts argued[4] that using cvs-import.sh nullified the potential advantages of using an SCM as it sequestered the sources elsewhere. Jesse Keating disagreed[5] due to ease of use issues. A direct answer was provided[6] by Patrice Dumas with links to the relevant portions of the wiki. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00671.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00677.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00691.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00694.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00695.ht… [6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00701.ht… -- The D-Bus Problem -- Ian Amess asked[1] for the current status of a problem caused by a substantial update of the D-Bus package. The update had resulted in the incapacitation of many packages. The most important of these was PackageKit, the default graphical application for managing software. Colin Walters decided[2] that reverting the update was necessary and that changes to D-Bus policy would be postponed. PackageKit, and its GNOME and KDE clients were updated[3] by Richard Hughes in an attempt to accommodate the changes. Richard testified that "[o]ver the last two days we've all been working really hard on fixing up all the projects after the DBus update. I know personally I'm closing a duplicate bugzilla every 30 minutes." He noted that the delay between creating an update and pushing it to a mirror was a limiting factor in being able to implement these fixes. A post to @fedora-announce by Paul Frields explained[4] the series of steps which allowed users to re-enable normal system updates using PackageKit. As of 2008-12-15 this notice also appears at the top of all the Fedora Project wiki pages. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01391.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01412.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00746.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-December/msg00012… -- Fedora Com System ? -- An exploration of possible ways to alert users to critical information was initiated[1] by Arthur Pemberton. Most ideas seemed to center around some sort of RSS feed enabled by default on the desktop. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01347.ht… -- YUM: Enable --skip-broken by Default ? -- Aliasing yum update to yum --skip-broken update was suggested[1] by Steven Moix as a way to prevent a lot of recurring support problems by eliminating dependency problems. It was attempted[2] to strike a balance between reporting these broken dependencies so that they can be fixed and guarding the list of packages on a user's system as private information. A divergent sub-thread delved[3] into the appropriate use of Conflicts: in rpm packages. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01161.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01171.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01349.ht… -- Making `updates-testing' More Useful -- The means to enable PackageKit to prompt willing users to install testing updates was explored in a thread opened[1] by Matthias Clasen: "Basically, PackageKit should know that these are testing updates, and should ask me 'There are ... package updates available that need testing. Do you want to test these now ?' For extra points, we could even show a 'report back' link somewhere that allows to send comments to bodhi." Richard Hughes prototyped a solution but worried[2] that it would be necessary to make changes to the users' repository configurations without their explicit consent. A sub-thread discussed[3] the problem of out-of-sync mirrors and the use of the --skip-broken option with yum (see also this same FWN#156"YUM: Enable --skip-broken by Default?".) [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00925.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01063.ht… [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01314.ht… -- Fedora Suckage ? -- The tinder for this week's massive flamewar was laid[1] by Robert Scheck in the form of a dryly ironic, multiple-topic rant. Robert attacked the use of "memory wasting" python daemons, lags in pushing updates compared to the EPEL repositories, lack of information on the recent intrusion, poor German translation, the minimal requirements for LiveCD usage, RPM-4.6 bugs, Red Hat employees blocking Merge Reviews, PackageKit bugs, and the EU support organisation for Fedora[2]! Although there were several worthy attempts to make use of the above material for a true conflagration in general the opportunity was wasted and instead several rational, civil discussions of possible underlying causes and explanations took place. There were some worthy attempts to respond to all parts of this portmanteau complaint, but for the most part the discussion fractured naturally into several threads. One such thread was concerned with the pushing of a D-Bus update which broke many applications including PackageKit. Kevin Kofler argued[3] that "[...] we need to be more careful with certain types of security updates, and better let them get some QA even if it means the fix gets delayed." Michael Schwendt asserted[4] the lack of active Quality Assurance as one of the contributing factors. KevinKofler explained[5] that the package had been rushed out "Because it was deemed a security update, complete with a CVE ID[.]" See this FWN#156 "The D-Bus Problem" for more details. Max Spevack took up[6] the complaints about Fedora EMEA and more of that discussion continued[7] on the more appropriate @fedora-ambassadors list. No further information on the security intrusion was forthcoming from Paul Frields but he relayed[8] that the matter was not being forgotten or hushed up and that he planned to meet with others to discuss communication procedures for any possible future intrusions. Richard Hughes asked[9] for specific bugs to be filed instead of general rants: "[...] I think you need to write much shorter, to the point emails. Ranting doesn't have much affect on anything, whilst filing bugs and getting involved upstream does." He also corrected Robert that many of the daemons which he complained about were written in C, not in Python. Colin Walters issued[10] a mea culpa: "Just to be clear, the direct push into stable is my fault; not Red Hat's or other DBus developers or anyone else's. I had originally listed it for updates-testing, but then changed the update to security and in a moment of total stupidity also changed the listing for stable." The idea of "repeatable updates" was raised[11] again by Les Mikesell and critiqued for want of a practical implementation by James Antill. Jesse Keating made[12] a suggestion: "Treat rawhide as your 'new code' land, leave the release trees as your 'testing and working' code. That is don't be so goddamn eager to push new packages and new upstream releases to every freaking branch in existence." Behdad Esfahbod tackled[13] the issue of Red Hat employees allegedly stalling on merge reviews. Behdad criticized the jumbling together of so many issues and repudiated any suggestion that as the maintainer of un-reviewed packages he "[...] must incorporate the merge reviews and close them, no thank you, I don't mind not maintaining anything in Fedora, and I certainly didn't block anyone from making progress in the merge reviews. When you say `The Red Hat people have to follow the Fedora packaging guidelines and rules same as the Fedora folks', does it mean that Fedora should feel free to decide what *I* work on, when it doesn't decide what `other Fedora folks' work on? That doesn't feel right." The criticism of LiveCD localization was handled[14] by Jeroen van Meeuwen and he accepted that it would be useful if there were some manner in which the Spin SIG could create spins and torrent seeds outside of Fedora release engineering. It seemed that the need to make absolutely certain that such torrents and spins are kept available for support purposes may make this difficult. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00722.ht… [2] EMEA is a non-profit organization with the mission to provide a focal-point and economic base for the European Fedora community. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/EMEA [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00733.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00753.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00855.ht… [6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00772.ht… [7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008- December/msg00092.html [8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00773.ht… [9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00798.ht… [10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00812.ht… [11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00832.ht… [12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00913.ht… [13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00834.ht… [14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00899.ht… -- Help Needed: Sift "rawhide" for .pc Files -- Jesse Keating requested[1] "[...] somebody to examine all the packages in rawhide that provide .pc [pkg-config] files and ensure proper placement of them based on the review guideline. This will likely require interaction with the packages maintainer(s) so the first step should probably be to produce a list of packages that ship .pc in a non -devel package and send the list (sorted by maintainer) to here so that we can discuss and pick off items." Michael Schwendt helped[2] to start the process by providing some lists of non-devel packages which included .pc files or had requires which pulled in packages which provided .pc files. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00612.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00648.ht… -- Offtrac -- An itch scratched[1] by Jesse Keating was to be able to interact with Trac via the commandline to create milestones for the Fedora 11 release cycle. He implemented his own python library, named Offtrac, to interact with trac using XML-RPC and asked for help in firming up the API and extending his client. Later Jesse explained[2] that the purpose was to "[...] make some aspects of using trac easier for folks, not just project owners but people who file tickets in track, like say for package tagging requests, or blocks, or... " [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00738.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg00808.ht… -- Updates QA and Karma -- The updates system came in for some more questioning (see this FWN#156 "Making `updates-testing' More Useful") when Orion Poplawski showed[1] that an rpcbind update for Fedora 9 may have been pushed to stable despite comments made by him indicating that it failed due to a dependency. Orion asked two questions: "[1] Should update submitters be allowed to give positive karma to their updates? Seems like that they are too biased. [2] Is there any requirement that an update have positive karma before being pushed to stable?" It appeared that ultimately monitoring of such pushes are down to package maintainers and depend upon the good judgment of those doing the updates. Michael Schwendt provided[2] an overview of the situation. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01298.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-December/msg01427.ht… -- Translation -- This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n) Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee -- Modules Updated in translate.fedoraproject.org 5 modules have been updated[1] in translate.fedoraproject.org due to a move in the backend repositories. These are system-config-(services|date|samba|users|nfs). NilsPhilippsen had earlier conveyed[2] the proposed shift. These modules can now be updated via translate.fedoraprojet.org. DiegoZacarao also adds[1] that the docs modules for these 5 modules would also be added soon for translation submission. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00062.ht… [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-November/msg00065.ht… -- New languages for Fedora Websites -- The Fedora website pages can now be seen in two more languages - Russian[3] and Bulgarian[4]. Additionally, RickyZhou also mentions[5][6] that the language code needs to be added to the LINGUAS file and a ticket with Fedora Infrastructure can be filed to ensure the translations included in Fedora websites. [3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00054.ht… [4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00057.ht… [5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00056.ht… [6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00059.ht… -- Fedora 10- Release Notes Updation Process -- Any changes to the Fedora 10 Release Notes are to be submitted via translate.fedoraproject.org into the "f1-" branch[7]. KarstenWade also mentions that an intimation to the fedora-docs mailing list would be helpful to ensure that the modifications are accounted for, for the next build. [7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00036.ht… -- Suggestions for Fedora Translation Process Improvements -- RobertScheck initiated a general discussion[8] about suggestions to various aspects of the Fedora process including translations. Thomas Spura suggested an an online translation tool[9] that would help more translators to participate in the translation process. Lauri Nurmi reiterates[10] the risks to quality of translations due to a splurge in the quantity of unmonitored translations. [8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00038.ht… [9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00041.ht… [10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00042.ht… -- New Members in FLP -- Christof Kälin[11], Mario Italo[12] and Liu Peng[13] joined the German, Brazilian Portugeuse and Simplified Chinese teams respectively. [11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00045.ht… [12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00063.ht… [13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00069.ht… -- Artwork -- In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei -- Reimagining the Fedora Art Team -- Following a talk on the chat channel, Máirín Duffy proposed[1] on @fedora-art a reimagining of the Art Team, as a better way to define the activities encompassed by its members "The Fedora Art Team's name and focus is more on artwork than UI design. Folks in Fedora who need help with UI design or potential contributors who want to help out with UI design might not necessarily link those kinds of tasks to an art team so they might be a bit lost. What if we renamed the art team to be the 'Fedora Design & Creative Team,' and the art team as it is now would be a subgroup of this new design team? Under a 'design' banner, it might be easier for developers seeking out UI design advice to know where to go, and for community UI designers to find a home / a place to get involved." The proposal was welcomed warmly, with only a minor technical concern[2] from Ian Weller "Only thing I'm worried about is renaming all the references to the Art team that we control, but, eh, whatever." [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00059.html [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00063.html -- OLPC Branding -- An earlier project of the Art Team, reported back at the time in Fedora Weekly News, to create a secondary mark for Fedora derivatives came to fruition: OLPC has started to use it for Sugar and Paul Frields asked[1] for a guidelines compliance check on @fedora-art and Máirín Duffy approved[2] it. This is the first known use of the secondary trademark. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00070.html [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00072.html -- A Fedora Promo Video (Beta) -- María Leandro posted[1] on @fedora-art a video experiment she's working on "I'm working on some videos that can be used on events or some clips. This is the first beta (well... 2nd) and is an easy animation on blender with the 'infinite' and the 'four f's' messages. The idea came up because in LatinAmerica there's an event, FLISoL (installfest) and it was a good idea to have 'something' on the big screen when the Fedora-Team is giving some information, media and stickers" and followed quickly[2] with an improved version. WARNING: the video[3] is available in the "evil" Flash format. [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00074.html [2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00082.html [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci2DhmjqWt0 -- Security Advisories -- In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce. https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce Contributing Writer: David Nalley -- Fedora 10 Security Advisories -- * dbus-1.2.6-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * squirrelmail-1.4.17-2.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * clamav-0.94.2-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-7.b12.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-2.24.2-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-4.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-6.7-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc10 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Fedora 9 Security Advisories -- * squirrelmail-1.4.17-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-0.20.b09.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * dbus-1.2.6-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-0.5.2-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-2.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-6.7-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc9 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Fedora 8 Security Advisories -- Fedora 8 is nearing EOL Per FESCo support for Fedora 8 will be discontinued on January 7th 2009 https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg02014.ht… * squirrelmail-1.4.17-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * syslog-ng-2.0.10-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * awstats-6.8-3.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * vinagre-0.4-2.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * cups-1.3.9-2.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * drupal-5.13-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * roundcubemail-0.2-4.beta.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… * gallery2-2.3-1.fc8 - https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-December/msg00… -- Libvirt List -- This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list. -- sVirt 0.20 Patch Request for Comments -- James Morris announced[1] "the release of v0.20[2] of sVirt, a project to add security labeling support to Linux-based virtualization. I'm hoping to be able to propose an initial version for upstream merge within the next few minor releases, tasks for which are being scoped out in the new TODO list[3]." "If the current release passes review, the next major task will be to add dynamic MCS labeling of domains and disk images for simple isolation." Daniel P. Berrange said "this patch all looks pretty good to me from a the point of view of libvirt integration & XML config representation." [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00260.html [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue149#sVirt_Initial_Prototype_Release [3] http://selinuxproject.org/page/SVirt/TODO -- Latest libvirt on RHEL and CentOS 5.2 -- Marco Sinhoreli needed[1] image:Echo-package-16px.pnglibvirt 0.5.x for testing oVirt on RHEL 5.2. Marco wondered what was necessary to update from the 0.3.x version available for RHEL. Soon after, Daniel P. Berrange "uploaded[2] a set of patches[3] which make libvirt 0.5.1 work with RHEL-5's version of Xen. Basically we have to tweak a few version assumptions to take account of fact that RHEL-5 Xen has a number of feature backports like the new paravirt framebuffer and NUMA support." "Of course running a newer libvirt on RHEL-5 is totally unsupported but hopefully these will be usful to those who absolutely need this newer libvirt and don't mind about lack of support." [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00218.html [2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00298.html [3] http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-rhel5-xen/ -- oVirt Devel List -- This section contains the discussion happening on the ovirt-devel list. -- Building oVirt from Rawhide -- Perry Myers posted[1] instructions for building[2] and installing[3] oVirt from rawhide. [1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/ovirt-devel/2008-December/msg00127.html [2] http://ovirt.org/rawhide-build-instructions.html [3] http://ovirt.org/rawhide-install-instructions.html --- end Fedora Weekly News #156 --- Pascal Calarco https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pcalarco

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FWN #156
by Pascal Calarco 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

I've edited the other beats that have come in and copied these into a page for FWN 156. We'll wait around for most of the morning for any other beats to come in and then write up the intro and ship it out. Thanks everyone! - pascal

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FWN "advertisement"
by Paul W. Frields 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Hi news crew, The folks at Red Hat's training offices in APAC would like to know if they may put an announcement in the next issue of the FWN. The announcement offers a substantial discount on training and exams for Red Hat Global Learning courses in Australia and New Zealand, for any Fedora Project members. -- 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

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