Fedora Weekly News Issue 119
Thomas Chung
tchung at fedoraproject.org
Mon Feb 11 10:40:48 UTC 2008
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 119 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 119 for the week of February 4th,
2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue119
In Announcements, we have "Announcing Fedora 9 Alpha", "Fedora 9 Alpha
Jigdo" and "Fedora 8 20080204 Re-Spin"
In Planet Fedora, we have "A word of thanks", "Happy 10th Birthday,
Open Source!", "Field report from GNUnify 2008", "SCALE 6x: I'm Here -
Saturday in Review", "SCALE 6x: cally four nya" and "Fedora
General-Purpose Posters Part 2"
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. Announcing Fedora 9 Alpha
2. Fedora 9 Alpha Jigdo
3. Fedora 8 20080204 Re-Spin
2. Planet Fedora
1. A word of thanks
2. Happy 10th Birthday, Open Source!
3. Field report from GNUnify 2008
4. SCALE 6x: I'm Here - Saturday in Review
5. SCALE 6x: cally four nya
6. Fedora General-Purpose Posters Part 2
3. Marketing
1. Store SIG Update - a.k.a. State of the SIG
2. Generic Fedora Poster Designs for Events
3. Fedora Project releases alpha version of Fedora 9
4. Fedora 9 Alpha Preview
5. Fedora 9 Alpha - digg it
4. Ambassadors
1. LinuxTag 2008 Preparations
2. Fedora EMEA Board Elections
5. Developments
1. Baracuda To Replace VNC ?
2. Sins Of Commission: Google Earth
3. Autodownloader vs. CodecBuddy
4. The Point Of Mock
5. Glade 2 And Glade 3 Co-existence
6. Dropping FUSE Group? Security Concerns
6. Advisory Board
1. Where's All The Fedora Spins?
2. Fedora Education Spin, SIG
7. Documentation
1. Meeting to Discuss Publican
2. Encryption and Privacy Guide Input
3. Single-sourced Summary
4. Works in Progress
8. Infrastructure
1. Moin 1.6
2. Torent tracker/primary seed software
3. Moin 2.0 (or as I call it, mediawiki)
9. Artwork
1. F9 Theme: Round 2 extension
2. Promotional graphics: banners and posters
10. Security Week
1. New Firefox
2. How Does SELinux Work?
11. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
12. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-02-06
2. Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-04
3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-05
4. Fedora Localization/Translation Meeting 2008-02-05
5. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-02-04
6. Fedora Quality Assurance Meeting 2008-02-06
7. Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-06
8. Fedora SIG EPEL Report Week 06/2008
9. Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 06/2008
13. Ask Fedora
1. Bluetooth And Fedora: Followup
2. Prayer Time: Followup
[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from Fedora Project.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Announcing Fedora 9 Alpha ===
JesseKeating announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"The Alpha release provides the first opportunity for the wider
community to become involved with the testing of Rawhide: representing
a sanitised snapshot of Fedora's development branch, which sees rapid
changes and will become the next major release, it should boot on the
majority of systems, providing both an opportunity to get a look at
what new features will be included in the next release and also an
opportunity to provide feedback and bug reports to help ensure that the
next release is as good as possible."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg00001.html
=== Fedora 9 Alpha Jigdo ===
JeroenVanMeeuwen announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"Fedora Unity announces the Fedora 9 Alpha release is now also
available via Jigdo. Jigdo saves you a lot of bandwidth and time if
you already have the data (maybe a local mirror or previously released
media), and has been proposed as a feature for Fedora 9."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg00002.html
=== Fedora 8 20080204 Re-Spin ===
BenWilliams announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of new ISO
Re-Spins (DVD and CD Sets) of Fedora 8. These Re-Spin ISOs are based
on the officially released Fedora 8 installation media and include all
updates released as of February 4,2008. The ISO images are available
for i386 and x86_64 architectures via jigdo starting Thursday,
February 7, 2008. We have included CD Image sets for those in the
Fedora community that do not have DVD drives or burners available."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg00003.html
[[Anchor(PlanetFedora)]]
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
Contributing Writers: ThomasChung
=== A word of thanks ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1],
"I would like to give some public thanks to JeffreyTadlock for the
work that he has done with the Store SIG. I started the Store SIG a
few months ago when I had some extra time, and as an attempt to bring
some sanity to the problems of distributing swag globally, both for
individuals and events."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/44818.html
=== Happy 10th Birthday, Open Source! ===
JohnBabich points out in his blog[1],
"Bruce Perens published the Open Source Definition on 9 February,
1998. He commemorates the event in ''State of Open Source Message: A
New Decade For Open Source''. This is a great article and should be
read in its entirety by anyone who appreciates Free and Open Source
Software (FOSS)."
[1] http://jmbuser.livejournal.com/9080.html
=== Field report from GNUnify 2008 ===
SankarshanMukhopadhyay points out in his blog[1],
"As promised earlier, here's a quick round-up of the event.
I spent the entire two days on 8th and 9th (of February, 2008) at
GNUnify 2008. I did not have any specific talks to attend and went
more to find out for myself about all the good stuff that I have heard
till date about this event. Sayamindu had come down (he had a talk on
OLPC) and so on Day 1 of the event we started a bit late and gate
crashed into Brian Behlendorf's talk related to 10 things about Open
Source. A fairly straight forward talk introducing Open Source to the
hall full of students it also had the old dogs indulging in some back
seat fun."
[1] http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog/2008/02/10/field-report-from-gnunify-2008/
=== SCALE 6x: I'm Here - Saturday in Review ===
ClintSavage reports in his blog[1],
"Just left Jono Bacon's presentation on ''The future of the Linux
Desktop''. He's quite an awesome presenter. Afterward, I went down to
the exhibit floor and got to say hi to TomCallaway and actually met
ThomasChung from the Fedora Project. Both of these guys have such
exuberance and joy, I love being part of the fedora project."
[1] http://fedora-tutorials.com/2008/02/10/scale-6x-im-here-saturday-in-review/
=== SCALE 6x: cally four nya ===
TomCallaway reports in his blog[1],
"Here I am, in Los Angeles, at SCALE 6x. I've never been to SCALE
before, but I'm really impressed. Its this mix of extinct old school
Linux conferences like ALS and LinuxExpo, trade shows like Comdex, and
smart tech conferences like OSCON. Amazingly, they're pulling it off
really well. There are just a lot of smart people and a lot of curious
people, and a really vibrant feeling to it that can't help but get you
excited about it. I'm not sure if the fact that it is in LA Is helping
the effect, or merely making it more unique. In the last two days,
I've met more people than I could possibly remember, and observed some
of the ''behind-the-scene'' workings of the open source community that
I've always been aware of, but never invited to participate in."
[1] http://spot.livejournal.com/288127.html
=== Fedora General-Purpose Posters Part 2 ===
MairinDuffy points out in her blog[1],
"Thanks to everybody who helped me out with the poster design here in
my blog and in fedora-marketing-list. I think this cut is pretty good
so if you are willing to translate the poster into another language or
if you would simply like to have it printed up, it's ready now."
[1] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/52993.html
[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Store SIG Update - a.k.a. State of the SIG ===
JeffreyTadlock reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"It is time for a Fedora Store SIG update! To bring people up to
speed, the Fedora Store SIG was founded by Max Spevack as a means to
solve two major issues - provide an easy way for Fedora users and
contributors to obtain Fedora merchandise and help direct Fedora
Ambassadors to vendors that are near them who can help fill bulk
orders for events they attend. More details can be found on the
Fedora SIG page."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg00217.html
=== Generic Fedora Poster Designs for Events ===
MairinDuffy reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"I've updated the posters using the color suggestions from JohnAdams
and the text [:PaulWFrields: PaulFrields] gave me in my blog (with one
minor mod) and some layout suggestions from RobinNorwood in IRC (the
original design had the infinity sign flattened, it's readjusted to
resemble its position in the logo and some of the sizing of the logo
elements is changed.)"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg00202.html
=== Fedora Project releases alpha version of Fedora 9 ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"The GNOME programs in the alpha version of Fedora 9 are derived from
the 2.21 development branch from which GNOME 2.22 should be emerging
in mid March. The browser will be a preview version of Firefox 3, the
core rendering elements of which are in a separate XULRunner package.
Preview versions of other applications such as OpenOffice 2.4 or
X-Server 1.5 are also used. The development team have also improved
the installation program so that existing ext2, ext3 and NTFS
partitions can now be reduced in size. In addition, it is now possible
to create encrypted Linux partitions directly during installation."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg00214.html
=== Fedora 9 Alpha Preview ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Among the features being worked on are encrypted file-system support,
updating the KDE spin to KDE 4.0, PackageKit integration, and
switching to upstart initialization. In this article, we are taking a
brief look at Fedora 9 Alpha and the features planned for Fedora 9."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg00068.html
=== Fedora 9 Alpha - digg it ===
JonathanRoberts reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Now that the Alpha is out and the release notes[2] are no longer a
draft, how about we try and get it a bit of attention... If you find
the information in the article useful, then why not drop by digg[3]
and give it a vote :)"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg00054.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/Alpha/ReleaseNotes
[3] http://digg.com/linux_unix/Fedora_9_Sulphur_Alpha_Released
[[Anchor(Ambassadors)]]
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: JeffreyTadlock
=== LinuxTag 2008 Preparations ===
MaxSpevack posted to the Ambassadors list [1] asking for Ambassadors
attending LinuxTag 2008, May 28th to the 31st, to add your name to the
LinuxTag Rooms sign-up [2]. This is only for Ambassadors attending
LinuxTag and the entire bill may not be compensated.
Also posted to the Ambassadors list [3] was a call for participation
and preliminary look at what is lined up for LinuxTag by Gerold
Kassube. Highlights at LinuxTag are to inlude a troubleshooting
contest, a mini-FUDcon, Fedora on a Mac, X-Box, OLPC, Eee-PC, a Fedora
9 showroom, meet the developer and more.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00019.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/LinuxTag/LinuxTag2008/Rooms
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00021.html
=== Fedora EMEA Board Elections ===
FrancescoUgolini posted [1] an announcement of the first Fedora EMEA
board elections. Nominations are being accepted February 9th through
February 21st, with the election being held at FOSDEM 2008 on February
23rd. Additional information and the nomination page are available on
the wiki [2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00040.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/EMEA/BoardElections
[[Anchor(Developments)]]
== Developments ==
In this section, we cover the problems/solutions, people/personalities, and
ups/downs of the endless discussions on Fedora Developments.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
Contributing Writer: OisinFeeley
=== Baracuda To Replace VNC ? ===
A query as to the status of the replacement of ''vnc'' by ''baracuda''
(note the single "r") in Fedora 9 was posted[1] by MikeC. Mike was
concerned that there was no mention of either in the feature list and
especially wanted to preserve the ability to load a vnc module in
Xorg.conf so that the screen could be viewed remotely even without a
user logging in via the display manager.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00254.html
Several replies focused on the client end of the equation and ignored
the server part. DanielBerrange pointed out[2] that for GNOME the
''vinagre'' package is superior to the old RealVNC ''vncviewer'' as it
can handle ''gnome-keyring'', ''avahi'' discovery and bookmarking of
connections. KevinKofler and BenjaminKreuter responded[3] that on the
KDE desktop the same functionality is provided by ''Krfb''. Benjamin
hoped that ''vncviewer'' was going to be maintained in the
repositories as there were scripts which depended on it. AdamTkac
responded to DanielBerrange that the focus of ''baracuda'' was to
produce a standalone Xvnc server with a libvnc.so module built against
Xorg 1.5 and that the client was subsidiary.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00259.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00266.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00337.html
Mike pointed out[5] that a user needed to be logged in before ''krfb''
could be run and that his use case involved remote logins.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00274.html
AdamTkac, responding[6] directly to the original mail, gave an update
on ''baracuda'', explaining that it was a fork forced by the need to
have an Xorg-1.5 based vncserver and that the original upstream
(RealVNC) were not maintaining the source. This is probably because
they also sell an "enterprise" edition. The current Xvnc has thus
accumulated a significant number of patches which Adam ,as Fedora
maintainer, judged unacceptable. Seemingly other projects had made
the same determination and once Adam announced[7] the Fedora fork the
TightVNC project expressed[8] interest in merging his work and it
seems this is going ahead. Mike greeted this good news with thanks to
Adam for his work.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00334.html
[7] http://www.realvnc.com/pipermail/vnc-list/2008-February/058598.html
[8] http://www.realvnc.com/pipermail/vnc-list/2008-February/058619.html
=== Sins Of Commission: Google Earth ===
A plea for the packaging of Google Earth[1] was made by
DouglasMcClendon. He explained that he was short of time but thought
it ought to be easy for someone to whip up a ''kickstart'' ''%post''
scriptlet to install Google Earth. A quick response from
ChristopherBrown declined to attempt to package non-Free software:
"When [G]oogle actually release something open source other than
obscure OCR software that sucks anyway I'll be more than happy to work
a bit harder on stuff like that." Christopher's comment became the
focal point of the thread which echoed long-standing unease with
Google Earth's non-Free binaries, its reliance upon further non-Free
video-card drivers and its restrictive licensing terms on its data[2].
Douglas clarified[3] that what he was interested in was copying
Debian's approach which is to use a properly licensed script which
grabs the non-Free code, turns it into an rpm and then installs it.
[1] http://earth.google.com/
[2] http://lwn.net/Articles/211153/
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00367.html
Christopher made it clear[4] that he was aware that what Douglas was
requesting might not be so different from the ''autodownload''
scriptlets on the Fedora Games DVD which pull non-Free game data and
asked how far down the slippery slope it was proposed to travel. He
described[5] the method as a circumvention of Fedora policy.
AndrewFarris agreed[6] that the package should not be in the Fedora
repositories but did wish that someone would package it in some other
repository. He also disagreed that Google Earth and the
''autodownload'' scripts were the same as in the former case the
actual program code is unavailable whereas in the latter the code is
available and all that is missing is some data. Douglas largely
agreed, suggested[7] the Livna repository as a good place and wished
that someone would port NASA's ''worldwind''[8].
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00368.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00371.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00374.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00378.html
[8] http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/java/index.html
ToshioKuratomi summed up[9] the situation concisely and noted that
HansdeGoede 's script was "controversial". TomCallaway's opinion
was[10] that the distinction between data and code was a fine, but
important one and OlivierGalibert thinned it even further when he
asked[11] "How much of this data is code for a virtual machine?".
Further exploration led ChristopherAillon to state that the games
supplied are supposed to have enough data to be somewhat useful
without the restricted data and KevinKofler to state[12] that in
practice this was not the case. Kevin listed several possible problems
in this regard and suggested that anyone objecting should take it up
with FESCo.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00373.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00393.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00394.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00423.html
The situation, as described, was thought by JesseKeating to be
unacceptable and Toshio responded[13] that if FESCo were going to
revisit the issue then it would be wise and fair to ensure that Hans
were available during the discussion as he was shouldering the burden
of any work and needed to understand the requirements. Responding to a
request from TomCallaway for specifics, KevinKofler ran a quick
{{{repoquery --whatrequires autodownloader}}} and listed[14] five
games which have licenses which restrict the distribution of their
data and are useless without it. AlanCox did not think the situation
was so clear cut and posited[15] that a better test was to ask
"whether it is possible to produce new free data sets for [such
tools]." He later expanded[16] upon this with examples and with the
correction that the important condition was "practicality" rather than
"possibility."
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00471.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00481.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00519.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00623.html
=== Autodownloader vs. CodecBuddy ===
A thread to specifically discuss the ethical and practical problems
posed by the use of ''autodownloader'' (see this FWN#119 "Sins Of
Commission: Google Earth") was opened[1] by HansdeGoede. Hans
explained that his own guideline for the use of autodownloader was
that it was "only for content [...] for Free engines." He thought that
while CodecBuddy (also known as Codeina[2]) was included in the
distribution it was hypocritical to worry about autodownloader. He
emphasized that Codeina downloads closed-source code and also offers
the user the option to purchase said code, effectively advertising
closed-source.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00476.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/Codeina
A longish sub-thread started[3] by JakubRusinek worked over the
exhausted topic of whether or not Codeina/CodecBuddy can do anything
further to facilitate the installation of possibly patent-encumbered
codecs. There was nothing particularly new to see here, with the
situation remaining as it has since the last opinion from Red Hat
"legal" which implies that the current web page can obliquely explain
the problem but needs to beware of contributory infringement.
RahulSundaram supplied[4] a link to the relevant post. Unless the
interpretation of software as both machine and copyrightable work (see
AlanCox's post[5]) in the U.S.A. were to be miraculously overthrown
then such discussion appears moot, as do comparisons to the non-US
based Canonical.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00480.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00540.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00523.html
A bizarrely formatted post made by TrondDanielsen suggested[6] that
the pursuit of the Online Desktop[7] was another example of the
hypocrisy and grey areas to which Hans had alluded. MatejCepl
reacted[8] harshly, rebutting Trond's assertion that there was a
partnership with Google, or that the purpose was to integrate Flickr
and Google with the rest of the desktop. Trond's civil,
self-deprecating response explained[9] that "The purpose of the
argument was that Fedora already depend on proprietary services and
software which makes the argument against the autodownloader invalid"
but HorstvonBrand undermined[10] the validity of the argument and
explained that while a daily beating with the cluestick may be
beneficial to recipients it is tiring for the administrator.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00492.html
[7] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureOnlineDesktop
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00545.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00558.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00570.html
There were several voices raised in favor of removing
Codeina/CodecBuddy. Among them were Dexter[11] and KevinKofler[12].
Kevin added that web browsers should be prevented from offering to
install the proprietary flash plugins as there was a Yum repository
facilitating cleaner installs. JefSpaleta grew tired[13] of the
strained comparisons between different pieces of software. ChrisAdams
thought that picking on Adobe's Flash (especially when they provide
such a repository) would prevent him from being able to use Fedora in
his job. He pointed out that ''swfdec'' and other free software Flash
players cannot support MP3 audio until possibly 2017. BrianPepple
pointed[14] out that the gstreamer plugin was available, just not
included in Fedora due to legal reasons and so the thread came full
circle to the issue of licensing. Rahul provided links and
wondered[15] if this conversation had to occur every few weeks.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00479.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00544.html
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00588.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00648.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00673.html
=== The Point Of Mock ===
An interesting short thread was started[1] by KellyMiller
(lightsolphoenix). Kelly sought advice on how to write the spec file
for a KDE3 package destined for both Fedora 8 and rawhide now that the
package names have changed. IgnacioVazquezAbrams suggested[2] using a
''%{dist}'' tag and JarodWilson added[3] that BuildRequires did not
need to be versioned to catch devel packages less than version 3.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00286.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00287.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00290.html
As a subsidiary issue Kelly mentioned[4] that there seemed to be
problems with the ability of ''mock'' to build x86_64 packages. Jarod
and Jesse both wondered whether he was on an x86 machine and it seemed
that he was. Kelly mused[5] "I was under the impression that the
whole point of using Mock was to handle that situation". Jesse
responded[6] "No, the whole point of mock is to create clean chroots
each time you want to build. The x86_64 platforms ability to run i386
code is a side effect." KevinKofler observed[7] that running ''qemu''
allowed (at the expense of a massive speed penalty) the building of
x86_64 code on an i386 platform.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00297.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00329.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00331.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00347.html
=== Glade 2 And Glade 3 Co-existence ===
DebarshiRay (rishi) drew attention[1] to the dependency of the latest
''anjuta'' on ''glade3''[2] and requested that the replacement of
''glade2'' by ''glade3'' be considered. Debarshi thought this would
affect the Developer Live spin and the regular GNOME DVD spin.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00308.html
[2] Glade is a RAD tool to develop GTK GUIs: http://glade.gnome.org/
MatthiasClasen asked[3] whether ''glade3'' could handle all the files
produced by ''glade2''. TimWaugh confirmed[4] that although this
seemed to work he had seen problems with the converse, where files
touched or produced by ''glade3'' were not rendered correctly by
''glade2''.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00309.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00326.html
The suggestion by Debarshi that it might be prudent to split Anjuta up
or drop it entirely was thought[5] by Matthias not to be necessary as
the two glade versions might be able to co-exist. JeremyKatz was happy
that there was plenty of space on the DVD for both versions[6].
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00311.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00320.html
=== Dropping FUSE Group? Security Concerns ===
As the upcoming GNOME VFS will use FUSE as a backend PeterLemenkov
proposed[1] to drop the Fuse group as otherwise all users would need
to be added to this group. He asked for objections to be made known.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00237.html
Initial concern was expressed by WarrenTogami on the foot of the
affect this might have on KDE users. He also wondered how upgrades
would be affected. ThorstenLeemhuis asked[3] whether a security audit
had been conducted as he had suggested some time ago. KarelZak
reported[4] that MiklosSzeredi's work on a non-root-privileged mount
(which could be used by FUSE) was making its way into the --mm kernel
tree. He also made some interesting observations on the Fedora
Project package process. MattDomsch suggested[5] a Koji equivalent of
''rpmlint'' to search for suid problems.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00239.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00240.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00278.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00442.html
AlexanderLarsson argued[6] that Thorsten's security worries were only
tangentially related to FUSE itself and had more to do with
inappropriate use of setuid. He added that SELinux policy for
''fusermount'' would be a possibly useful enhancement. Alex also
provided[7] the information that it was actually ''GVFS'', a
replacement to ''GNOME VFS'' which was under discussion and explained
its workings.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00306.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00296.html
KevinKofler called[8] the FUSE group "plugdev reloaded" and outlined
the problem of having to add users manually.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00382.html
Further questioning by Warren as to the implications of the change for
users of non-GNOME desktops drew[9] a reply from Alexander to the
effect that it was an orthogonal issue and Kevin provided some backing
on this point with the comparison of KIO functionality.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00387.html
An excellent summary was made[10] by Alexander in which he pointed out
that FUSE provides desired features that GNOME and other software are
currently using and that Fedora's security fears will lead to either
"punching users in the face" by shipping a setup which they need to
correct manually or else just not shipping the software. SteveGrubb
replied[11] that the Common Criteria[12] evaluations were for specific
mounting mechanisms and that this new, parallel method might
necessitate Steve doing a lot of extra, unplanned work. A meaty,
information-filled series of posts followed. Alexander described[13],
in another excellent post, the benefits of FUSE, Steve pointed[14] to
a potential problem with SELinux auditing and wondered whether FUSE
was duplicating some pre-existing functionality in sharing files over
SSH, but without the benefit of auditing mechanisms. Alexander's last
mail[15] (as of publication date) was a detailed apparent rebuttal of
Steve's concerns which emphasized the role of FUSE in exposing
non-root users to filesystems which were otherwise awkward to access.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00386.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00402.html
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Criteria
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00447.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00452.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00457.html
[[Anchor(AdvisoryBoard)]]
== Advisory Board ==
In this section, we cover discussion in Fedora Advisory Board.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
Contributing Writer: MichaelLarabel
=== Where's All The Fedora Spins? ===
MikeMcGrath has asked on the fedora-advisory-board list where are all
of the Fedora re-spins?[1] To date there is just Fedora Games, Fedora
Developer, and Fedora Electronic Lab editions. JeffSpaleta had
responded saying that a number of localized editions are being worked
on, and an Xfce spin is being worked on but was facing technical
struggles that has been fixed recently. Jeff also highlighted that a
education spin has been proposed recently[2]. RahulSundaram had also
commented that Fedora Lite, Security Spin, and Fedora Art Studio are
also on the road-map.[3]
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-February/msg00043.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-February/msg00044.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-February/msg00049.html
=== Fedora Education Spin, SIG ===
AxelThimm had asked about establishing a SIG (Special Interest Group)
for those interested in bringing Fedora to schools[1]. Announced just
four days later, however, was a Fedora Education spin as well as
intending to form a Fedora Education SIG[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-February/msg00026.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-February/msg00060.html
[[Anchor(Documentation)]]
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JohnBabich
=== Meeting to Discuss Publican ===
PaulFrields asked [1]:
"Can Fedora Documentation folks be available next Wednesday evening
[13 February] after hours (EST) for an ad hoc meeting about the new RH
Docs team's "publican" documentation tools?
You'll especially want to attend if:
* You're on the [Fedora Docs] steering committee
* You do (or intend to) work on the Release Notes or other formal
documentation"
A time is being set for the meeting, keeping in mind that the Red Hat
Docs team is in Brisbane, Australia in the UTC+10 time zone.
Interested people should respond via the Fedora Docs mailing list by
Tuesday, 12 February, at the latest.
Note that "publican" does not refer to a tax collector or a pub owner.
Rather, Publican is a completely unencumbered FOSS tool chain for
producing documentation for open-source, as well as commercial,
software projects. Publican is composed of common files and scripts
for building documentation using the Doc``Book XML format.
[1]http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00051.html
=== Encryption and Privacy Guide Input ===
After he finished making updates to the Encryption and Privacy Guide
(EPG)[1] and requested input, EricChristensen responded [2] to
KarstenWade's remarks asking for more Fedora-specific content.
"Here is what I propose...
In order to provide a comprehensive guide that covers privacy and
encryption that is available to Fedora I think we should cover in
depth the Fedora-specific information while providing a summary and
alternate paths for getting information for items that are more
Linux-specific."
There is already non-Fedora-specific information in our Docs (like a
guide for using GPG ...[3]...) that could be rolled into the EPG as a
summary. This would allow a guide that would be encompassing while not
rewriting the book on everything security."
KarstenWade replied [4]:
"I don't see a problem with this idea. You understand what the catch
is and avoid it with the summary approach...One way we could help the
users is to identify the background they may want to skip and make it
easy for them to learn how to skip it."
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/CryptoGuide
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00035.html
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/UsingGpg
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00060.html
=== Single-sourced Summary ===
JonathanRoberts announced [1]: "We're going to try something new for
the various release notes / summaries / overviews and see how we go.
The plan...looks like this:
Create a wiki page...
Flesh out that page with sections for:
a) Press Release style summary
b) Detailed Overview covering all features on / Releases / # /
Feature List either alphabetically or by coolness...
c) Technical Summary - brief but aimed at tech journalists
d) Detailed Technical Summary - detailed and aimed at geeks, similar
to release notes content now.
...
The idea is that by developing all this in one location we won't
duplicate any work - we can see what is done and what's not done."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00050.html
=== Works in Progress ===
* Desktop User Guide (DUG)
* Administration Guide (AG)
The goal is to include both of the above guides in the official Fedora
9 release. They appear to be on track for inclusion in the March beta.
These, as well as other draft versions of documents, can be found in
the draft docs section of the wiki [1]. After joining the Docs Project
[2], feel free to work on any of these documents or create your own
Fedora-related doc.
[1] http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Join
[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: HuzaifaSidhpurwala
This section covers discussions on the fedora-infrastructure-list
between 4th Feb 2008 to 10th Feb 2008.
=== Moin 1.6 ===
MikeMcGrath reports [1]
Moin 1.6 was successfully installed and migrated for testing. This is
purely a test instance
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/msg00025.html
=== Torent tracker/primary seed software ===
SethVidal reports [2]
We are setting up a new torrent tracker and are debating which tracker
software to use. The primary softwares which are being considered are
bittorrent, ctorrent and rtorrent.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/msg00027.html
=== Moin 2.0 (or as I call it, mediawiki) ===
MikeMcGrath reports [3]
Mike upgraded Moin 1.5.8 to mediawiki at
https://publictest1.fedoraproject.org/wiki/index.php/FedoraMain. There
is still some work to be done specially on the theme. However,
MediaWiki requires MySQL database so it's a bit complex than Moin.
Later in the thread there is some discussion about comparing both the
wikis.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/msg00039.html
[[Anchor(Artwork)]]
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: NicuBuculei
=== F9 Theme: Round 2 extension ===
After a short debate on the mailing list [1]. the Art Team decided,
for various reasons, to extend the Round 2 for the Fedora 9 with one
week, so the new deadline is February 12. Some artists already took
advantage to this extension and updated their work [2], expect some
cool graphics for the next week,
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00016.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F9Themes#Submissions
=== Promotional graphics: banners and posters ===
Part of the Art Team work is dedicated to produce good looking
marketing graphics. For the Alpha release the team has designed a
couple of website banners and it was a good opportunity to create a
banner archive [1] holding all the website banners created so far for
easy accessibility. In related art/marketing news, MairinDuffy
published a pack of general purpose posters [2], which were acclaimed
by the community.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/PromoBanners
[2] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/52591.html
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== New Firefox ===
This week Mozilla released a new version[1] of Firefox.
As usual it fixes some rather dangerous flaws.
[1] http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html#firefox2.0.0.12
=== How Does SELinux Work? ===
I ran across this article[1] this week. it's not too shabby
explaining how SELinux works. It's a decent read for anyone
interested in this sort of thing.
[1] http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/s-selinux/?n-s-381
[[Anchor(SecurityAdvisories)]]
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 8 Security Advisories ===
* perl-Tk-804.028-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00115.html
* kernel-2.6.23.14-115.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00145.html
* tk-8.4.17-2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00193.html
* gnumeric-1.6.3-14.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00227.html
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* openldap-2.3.34-6.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00105.html
* gnumeric-1.6.3-14.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00114.html
* tk-8.4.13-7.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00132.html
* perl-Tk-804.028-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00205.html
[[Anchor(EventsMeetings)]]
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various Projects and SIGs.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-02-06 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2008-02-06
=== Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-04 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CommunityArchitecture/Meetings/2008-02-04
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-05 ===
* http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00044.html
=== Fedora Localization/Translation Meeting 2008-02-05 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-February/msg00009.html
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-02-04 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ReleaseEngineering/Meetings/2008-feb-04
=== Fedora Quality Assurance Meeting 2008-02-06 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20080206
=== Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-06 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2008-Feb-06
=== Fedora SIG EPEL Report Week 06/2008 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/Reports/Week06
=== Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 06/2008 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE/Meetings/2008-02-05
[[Anchor(AskFedora)]]
== Ask Fedora ==
In this section, we answer general questions from Fedora community.
Send your questions to askfedora AT fedoraproject.org and Fedora News
Team will bring you answers from the Fedora Developers and
Contributors to selected number of questions every week as part of our
weekly news report. Please indicate if you do not wish your name
and/or email address to be published.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AskFedora
Contributing Writer: RahulSundaram
=== Bluetooth And Fedora: Followup ===
In response to the question[1], BastienNocera, one of the bluetooth
maintainers in Fedora added a followup:
"Refer http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/toshiba.html and the
more recent module at http://0bits.com/toshbt/
Explains why the device isn't enabled by default, the latter link is
something that should work in recent versions of Fedora (the former
will
only work if ACPI is disabled in the kernel)."
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue117#head-61b401e99bb6abb77fd77434241223fda329a0b7
=== Prayer Time: Followup ===
In response to the question[1] on prayer time software in Fedora,
MohdIzharFirdaus, a Fedora developer has submitted[2] a few related
packages for review in Fedora and they should be available in Fedora
repository shortly. Thanks to him for being so responsive to the needs
of users.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue117#head-61b401e99bb6abb77fd77434241223fda329a0b7/
[2] http://blog.kagesenshi.org/2008/02/itl-minbar-in-fedora.html
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
More information about the fedora-announce-list
mailing list