Fedora Weekly News Issue 120
Thomas Chung
tchung at fedoraproject.org
Mon Feb 18 10:26:31 UTC 2008
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 120 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 120 for the week of February 11th,
2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue120
In Announcements, we have "Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin"
In Planet Fedora, we have "KDE 4 Interview", "Announcing Fedora
Ambassadors Wall", "Insert favorite Elvis joke here", "Publican - the
'new' Documentation Publisher", and "SCALE 6X Trip Report"
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin
2. Planet Fedora
1. KDE 4 Interview
2. Announcing Fedora Ambassadors Wall
3. Insert favorite Elvis joke here
4. Publican - the "new" Documentation Publisher
5. SCALE 6X Trip Report
3. Ambassadors
1. Ambassador Wall
2. Ambassador Statistics
3. Max's Event Report Announcement
4. EMEA Meeting Summary
4. Developments
1. Source File Audit
2. Multiuser Noise And Fury
3. Separate /usr An Anachronism?
4. Git Is Not Git, Git Is A Metapackage
5. Kernel-2.6.25 Rawhide Booting Problem
6. Firefox 3 (Minefield) Zoomed Screen Size
7. LOCALE Vs. LANGUAGE
5. Artwork
1. Fedora 9 Artwork: Round 2 has ended, Round 3 has started
2. Echo development status
3. A new Inkscape release is coming
6. Daily Package
1. License Change
2. Maxima - Computer Algebra System
3. PDFCube - Presentation Viewer
4. Customizing the Grub Splash Screen
5. hplip-gui - HP Device Manager
6. ksudoku - Sudoku Game
7. Security Week
1. Kernel Local Root
8. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
9. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-02-12
2. Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-11
3. Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-02-13
4. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-14
5. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-02-14
6. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-02-14
7. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2008-02-12
8. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-02-11
9. Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-13
10. Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 2008-02-12
[[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 8 Xfce Spin ===
RahulSundaram announces[1] in fedora-announce-list,
"I am pleased to announce the immediate release of a brand new and
sparkling, Fedora 8 Xfce Spin. Fedora Xfce Spin is a bootable Fedora
Live CD image available for x86 and x86_64 architecture. It can be
optionally installed to hard disk or converted into boot USB images
and is ideal for Xfce fans and for users running Fedora on relatively
low resource systems."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg00005.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
=== KDE 4 Interview ===
JonRoberts points out in his blog[1],
"I've just published an interview with Rex, Kevin and Sebastien about
KDE 4 and Fedora 9 :) You know the plan here, go, take a look at the
interview and if you enjoy it give it a digg - if you do you'll be
forever in my good graces!"
[1] http://blog.questionsplease.org/2008/02/17/kde-4-interview/
=== Announcing Fedora Ambassadors Wall ===
FrancescoUgolini pionts out in his blog[1],
"Now it's time to create a place where each person can describe with
few words what he/she thinks about Ambassadors Project and Fedora
Project in general, starting from his/her vision of Ambassadors to
his/her opinion about Fedora."
[1] http://ugolini.livejournal.com/1114.html
=== Insert favorite Elvis joke here ===
KarstenWade points out in his blog[1],
"What is happening is simply that we're doing a final push to get all
modules migrated from elvis to a VCS hosted by the Fedora Project,
coming to conclusion this Monday 18 February. Once all modules are
within Fedora, we can more easily connect them to Transifex."
[1] http://iquaid.org/2008/02/16/insert-favorite-elvis-joke-here/
=== Publican - the "new" Documentation Publisher ===
JohnBabich points out in his blog[1],
"Publican -- which has been used by Red Hat's Documentation Group for
almost two years -- takes DocBook XML input and outputs HTML, plain
Unicode text and PDF. This output can be branded with the following
brands: Fedora, Red Hat, and JBoss. A default, generic brand is also
included. Further brands can be added, either by request, or by direct
customisation."
[1] http://jmbuser.livejournal.com/9322.html
=== SCALE 6X Trip Report ===
TomCallaway points out in his blog[1],
"SCALE 6X was one of the most fun, most interesting community shows that
I have attended in quite some time. Friday was a day of specialized
tracks, one for Open Source in Education, one for Open Source in
Healthcare, and one for Women in Open Source."
"On Saturday, the expo floor opened, and I got to meet ThomasChung, who
helped me man the Fedora booth. Thomas was great, he provided posters,
stickers, DVDs and T-Shirts, plus he was willing to talk to all
visitors, and encourage them to try Fedora 8."
'''Editor's Note''' - SCALE 6X Photo Report[2] is also available.
[1] http://spot.livejournal.com/288447.html
[2] http://tchung.fedorapeople.org/scale6x/
[[Anchor(Ambassadors)]]
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: JeffreyTadlock
=== Ambassador Wall ===
FrancescoUgolini announced[1] the creation of an Ambassador Wall [2]
in the wiki. The Ambassador Wall offers a place for people to
describe in a few words what he or she thinks about the Ambassadors
and Fedora Project in general. Future marketing materials may be made
based on some of the comments left on the Ambassador Wall. There are
already some comments there, so stop by and take a look and tak a few
minutes to add your own.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00116.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Wall
=== Ambassador Statistics ===
There has been recent interest in gathering more statistics in regards
to various Ambassador activities as a means to measure the impact of
Fedora Ambassadors around the world. Initial statistics of the growth
of the Fedora Ambassadors group has been started by FabianAffolter
with a blog post [1] and the creation of a statistics page [2] in the
wiki. JeffreyTadlock has also posted a one sheet overview [3]
covering the past six months. FrancescoCrippa has recently started
work on generating more of these statistics via automated scripts [4].
[1] http://fabaff.blogspot.com/2008/02/increase-of-fedora-ambassador-program.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Statistics
[3] http://jeffreyt.fedorapeople.org/ambassador-metrics/ambassador_verification_metrics.pdf
[4] http://people.byte-code.com/fcrippa/2008/02/16/fedora-ambassadors-statistics/
=== Max's Event Report Announcement ===
MaxSpevack posted[1] a request to the Ambassador's List that any
ambassador who has received funds from Fedora for attending or
organizing an event is required to produce an event report. Max,
GregDeKoenigsberg and JackAboutboul have been working hard to secure a
higher budget for community events and ambassadors. As Max stated in
the post "... with increased funding comes increased pressure to prove
that the money was well spent."
An event report should consist of the following things:
"- one blog post per day with a description of what you did, the
atmosphere of the event in general, and pictures if they are available.
- a summary post to fedora-ambassadors-list at the end that provides
links to all the blog posts.
- the "leader" of that particular event should encourage all the other
Fedora folks who were there to post about it as well, and aggregate
their posts into the summary email to Fedora Ambassadors list.
- were any new contributors signed up during the event?
- the blog should be part of the Fedora Planet.
- this should be completed within 1 week from the end of the trip."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00074.html
=== EMEA Meeting Summary ===
The EMEA Ambassadors held their monthly meeting on February 13th. If
you were unable to attend the meeting, FabianAffolter has posted a
detailed meeting summary to the Ambassador's mailing list.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg00118.html
[[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
=== Source File Audit ===
The results of another run of KevinFenzi's ''sourcecheck'' script were
posted[1]. The tool checks to make sure that source referenced in rpms
is downloadable and has matching MD5SUMs and timestamps. Kevin noted
that there were a varying number of approximately 700 packages failing
one of those three conditions and wondered if he should keep posting
the results to the list and/or spam the maintainers.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01273.html
Reaction was uniformly positive with several of the listed maintainers
providing brief explanations of problems usually originating in the
upstream of the package making changes to location. A suggestion by
JonathanUnderwood that automatic opening of a bugzilla would be useful
was not welcomed by ColinWalters. Colin explained[2] that issues out
of the control of the maintainer (such as transient network outages)
would invalidate such bug reports. He suggested instead that
integrating such scripts into the Fedora infrastructure and exporting
their reports via RSS would be more useful.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01345.html
Kevin was largely in agreement[3] and ToshioKuratomi was excited[4] by
the prospect of adding these features into the pre-planning of the
notification server which had been discussed several months ago.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01356.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01376.html
Most respondents were clear that the reports were useful and should be
sent to the list. Several problems appeared to be due to the need to
log in to get the source.
=== Multiuser Noise And Fury ===
As reported in FWN#118 "PulseAudio Crashing Applications"[1] concerns
have been expressed about the sparkling new sound management system:
PulseAudio. The creator, LennartPoettering, revisited[2] the issue to
clear up some misconceptions and in the process stimulated a wider
discussion over the setting and enforcement of policy on a multiuser
system. Lennart's initial point was that it was expected that sound
playback would be temporarily interrupted when there was a new login
to a virtual terminal. This is because[3] ConsoleKit and HAL will
change the ACL of the audio device in order to follow the active
session. Lennart thought that the sound should resume once the initial
session was resumed.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue118#head-009f873a04d5ff649747268eb972d8d9325df359
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01054.html
[3] Discussion of the device ownership problem in the
FastUserSwitching scenario:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop/FastUserSwitching
However, AndrewFarris reported[4] that what had actually happened was
that Rhythmbox had frozen. Lennart suggested[5] that the problem lay
with Gstreamer which is, as yet, unable to make use of the information
provided by PulseAudio. He also thought that Rhythmbox's frozen UI
was not an issue as it should be frozen while inactive. Andrew
corrected Lennart's interpretation with the information that the UI
had been frozen both "during AND after the session was inactive,
making it permanently frozen (dead, defunct, useless)." This
clarification led[6] Lennart to suggest that a process other than
PulseAudio had blocked the audio device and he asked Andrew to check
this (it can be verified with {{{pactl list sinks | grep SUSPENDED}}}
or else by using {{{pacmd}}} to obtain an interactive PulseAudio shell
and passing it "list-sinks" as an argument. See {{{man pactl; man
pacmd}}} for more information.) Another possibility suggested by
Lennart was a known-issue with HAL failing to restore ACLs and he
suggested {{{getfacl /dev/snd/*}}} to check this. Andrew later
reported[7] that neither of these appeared to be the problem and
documented his investigations with a bugzilla entry.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01133.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01134.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01136.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01161.html
Using PulseAudio's ability to re-route "sound to /dev/null (and mic
from /dev/null)" was suggested[8] by SimoSorce as a simple fix to stop
applications crashing. Lennart argued[9] that any applications
crashing were broken and should be fixed to merely freeze. This struck
him as preferable to making non-trivial changes to PulseAudio. He
added that his version of "expected behavior" is that the music should
stop, and then resume on session switch in a manner similar to the
suspension of processes achieved with a simple ''Ctrl-Z''. It seems
that PulseAudio forwards the information that suspending should
happen, but the GStreamer plugin is unable to make use of the
information. William "Jon" McCann (a Rhythmbox developer) agreed[10]
that this was an issue and pointed to a related discussion on Gnome's
bugzilla.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01137.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01143.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01144.html
Earlier KevinKofler had suggested that muting, as opposed to blocking,
might solve the problem but Lennart rejected[11] this on the basis
that it would be impossible to continue streaming as the sound card's
clock would be inaccessible. When Kevin further suggested that
acceptable alternatives might include using an OS-based timer Lennart
argued[12] that it would be "a PITA to do the switching back and
forth" and AndrewFarris added[13] that it was pointless to stream to a
muted device and that the resolution should be to pause the
applications streaming to the device.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01084.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01121.html
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01138.html
Another angle to the problem under discussion was explored when
LesMikesell suggested[14] that the current approach was the wrong way
to obtain an audio server not tied to a particular login session. Les
wondered if it was necessary to now use Xnest, FreeNX, VNC, ssh or
other non-VT methods to login to avoid grabbing hardware. JefSpaleta
answered[15] that this should be viewed through the lens of ConsoleKit
policy: "There's no technical reason that a music server daemon
package for example couldn't drop in new policy that changed the
behavior here. We just have to understand how to write that policy
file and then agree that's the sort of thing we want server packages
to do on install." A fairly long thread resulted in which Les robustly
defended the viewpoint that it was both impossible to imagine[16] all
the behaviors which might be needed in the future and that this
specific behavior was incorrect. ChuckAnderson[17] and AlanCox[18]
explained that the current default behavior enforced security in that
it prevented, for example, audio snooping by users running in other
sessions.
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01109.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01115.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01145.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01146.html
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01171.html
The discussion saw Les argue[19] that traditional UNIX behavior was
being broken, that emergency VOIP calls could be disastrously
interrupted and that controls based on ownership still allowed
snooping by root. Lennart was unimpressed "Yes, and you know what?
Unix sucks" and jokingly suggested that frevoke() might be making its
way to Linux soon. AlanCox questioned[19a] the accuracy of Les'
descriptions of UNIX behavior and how VT switching was handled by X
and the kernel. Les stuck to his point that "its wrong to give
permissions according to where you are instead of who you are, and its
wrong to add default policy changes before documenting the way to
manage them locally in unsurprising ways"
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01184.html
[19a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01377.html
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01210.html
There were some other responses, many of which sought a way to manage
local policy, or the documentation for how to do so. "Drago01"
responded[21] "Is it that hard to cl[i]ck some buttons in the
policykit gui?" JefSpaleta's suggestion that it all came down to
admins refusing to learn how to write local policy for HAL/ConsoleKit
was met by JasonTibbitts' pointing[22] out that it was difficult to
find out how to do this. ChristopherAillon helpfully suggested[23]
reading the freedesktop.org documentation and/or {{{yum install
PolicyKit-docs}}}. "Drago01" referenced[24] a post by DavidZeuthen
(possibly this[25] one) and waved towards
{{{polkit-gnome-authorization}}} as a way of helping people out.
[21] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01433.html
[22] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01383.html
[23] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01386.html
[24] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01387.html
[25] http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2007-November/msg00052.html
Some similar ground had been covered previously in FWN#113 "How Should
PulseAudio Work"[26] and WillWoods' post (the third citation in that
section) is very useful in explaining how PulseAudio integrates with
the rest of the desktop.
=== Separate /usr An Anachronism? ===
StepanKasal noticed[1] that ''dbus-daemon'' was in ''/bin'' and that
this was due to being a pre-requisite to bluetooth which in turn must
be started before networking. Consequently an increasing number of
daemons seemed to need to be started in single-user mode (runlevel 1).
Stepan noted that the ability to mount ''/usr'' over a network was
important to support, but wondered if it would be possible to split
networking into a part which could support the necessary functions for
"/usr over network" and another part which was only for things like
connecting a phone via bluetooth.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01068.html
BillNottingham was keen[2] to stop supporting "/usr over network" with
a local "/". MatthiasClasen also asked[3] that Stepan "explain how the
separate /usr is not just an anachronism [...] holding us back."
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01069.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01078.html
That challenge was taken up[4] by AlanCox, who explained that it was
defined in the LSB and cautioned against dumping long-established
abilities: ''Please don't confuse "I don't use it" with "obsolete" or
you'll end up with a distro that's like some of the desktop apps and
only usable by exact clones of their authors.'' Apparently mildly
stung by this BillNottingham differentiated[5] "separate /usr" from
"local / with network /usr" and gnomically argued "One is fairly
useful, one is becoming more and more pointless over time."
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01086.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01088.html
Further battling over this saw Alan make the case[6], in the face of
BillNottingham's skepticism, that a /usr partition shared over the
network by NFS or GFS2 allowed the rest of the system to be fitted
onto a small local flash drive in a faster, easier manner[7] than a
network boot. JeremyKatz responded[8] that initramfs for / on iSCSI or
NFS already contained many of the pieces allowing a boot off flash
without the "annoyances that dealing with a /usr-not-on-/ entails."
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01102.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01131.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01106.html
=== Git Is Not Git, Git Is A Metapackage ===
A surprised YaakovNemoy asked[1] why a simple {{{yum install git}}}
had resulted in 29 dependencies, including emacs, cvs and subversion
and totaling 32M. Yaakov wondered should he file a bug. Answers were
quickly forthcoming from many to the effect that what Yaakov really
wanted was ''git-core'', not ''git'' which is actually a metapackage
and that he should not file a bug.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01330.html
Yaakov was thankful for the fast answers[2] from DanielBerrange,
BillNottingham and others and decided not to file a bug.
OlivierGalibert amplified[3] upon the answers a bit with the
suggestion "For normal use, you want git-core and probably gitk."
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01338.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01339.html
Others were less thankful. NicolasMailhot welcomed[4] us "to
metapackage hell" and AdamJackson's suggestion[5] that "metapackages
must be explicitly named as such" garnered a lot of support.
HansdeGoede argued[6] that this "actually is a bug, almost no other
package has this." Hans' explanation of how his ''yum'' commands
should be interpreted received[7] a reply from JamesBowes that
upstream git had been requested to rename ''git-core'' to ''git'' and
that "As for yum doing what you say and not what you mean, that is a
bug. Please bring it up with Seth personally." JoshBoyer and
JefSpaleta took pains to make sure that this was understood to be
sarcasm. ToddZullinger explained[8] the correct way to make sure that
such bugs are dealt with by Seth personally.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01349.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01360.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01362.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01374.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01396.html
Pleading forgiveness in advance JoshBoyer decided[9] to pick on
HansdeGoede, suggesting that he should bugzilla the problem instead of
posting a "mailing list rant". Hans agreed[10] with him.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01412.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01432.html
A discussion over the best naming scheme for metapackages (also known
as dummy or virtual packages) led to the suggestion[11] by VilleSkyttä
that the metapackage be replaced instead with a git comps group. This
seemed to find favor with participants in the discussion including
Yaakov on the grounds that comps were a consistent scheme.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01434.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01479.html
=== Kernel-2.6.25 Rawhide Booting Problem ===
A report[1] from MikeChambers asked whether other rawhide users had
experienced problems since upgrading to
''kernel-2.6.25-0.40.rc1.git2.fc9.i686'' on 14 February 2008.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01218.html
Although some were able to report no problems JarodWilson relayed[2]
that there had been sporadic reports of boot failures, possibly to do
with LVM VGs not being found. BillNottingham disputed[3] that it was
anything "to do with LVM tools specifically" and instead was "to do
with the kernel used to build your initrd. Newer kernels (2.6.25-git)
rearrange sysfs - things that were directories are now symlinks, etc.
This hurts mkinitrd pretty badly - it can't find the root devices
right, to include the right drivers [...] any initrd built on 2.6.25-x
will fail." He attached a patch to fix the problem. Discussion with
Jarod suggests that the problem may extend back to some 2.6.24 kernels
and Bill clarified[4] that it would probably occur if the initrd was
"[b]uilt on a kernel where /sys/block/* are all symlinks."
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01221.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01263.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01328.html
BrunoWolfIII did some testing and reported[5] that falling back from a
2.6.25 kernel to 2.6.24 seemed to fix his problems.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01413.html
=== Firefox 3 (Minefield) Zoomed Screen Size ===
DarrellPfeifer was concerned[1] that Firefox seemed "to have an
incorrect impression of the screen size" and was displaying massive
navigation buttons and displayed content.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01342.html
FelixMiata was able[2] to reassure him that it was a feature not a
bug, whereby the latest ''gecko'' display engine will carry out pixel
scaling automatically for systems with greater than 144 DPI. As
Darrell struggled with reconfiguring Xorg using information from
''xdpyinfo'' Felix outlined the problems with dealing with DPI
resulting from the overhaul of video drivers. He suggested that an
old videocard was the easy way out, but suspected that as Darrell was
running Rawhide that he was up for helping iron out the bugs!
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01419.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01425.html
An excellent post by NicolasMailhot expanded[4] on the problem and
suggested that either Firefox was being passed the wrong information
or else Firefox itself was broken. Subsequent to Darrell filing a
bugzilla it looked[5] as though the former might be the case.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01438.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01464.html
=== LOCALE Vs. LANGUAGE ===
Some disparities in the stock settings of applications for paper sizes
were noticed[1] by JohannGudmundsson. RoddClarkson also wondered[2]
how important ISO standards were to Fedora and the thread later
developed[3] into a discussion of what ''anaconda'' should be assuming
about a user's locale based on the language they choose during
installation. Rodd was unhappy that the installer's simple logic made
some default choices which seemed broken to him: "Because I chose the
English (USA) language, anaconda has assumed that everything I do is
US. I'm even stunned to note that while I select Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
as my time zone, local reports LC_TIME as en_US.UTF-8."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01259.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01012.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01242.html
ChristianRose agreed[4] that some fixing of ''anaconda'' might be
needed based on his experience of administering Swedish machines for
work environments which use en_US for official communication but
"Swedish sized" paper for printing. Christian thought that the
assumption "that just because you want LC_MESSAGES=en_US, everything
else should be en_US too" was wrong.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01252.html
The idea that this was a per-user customization was expressed[5] by
JefSpaleta. Jef argued that the installer did a good job of choosing
a default and that was all that could be reasonably expected: "We set
a sane default in the installer based on the locale, and then the
installer gets the hell out of the way." MatejCepl provided[6] the
simplest way for users to discover the settings they are currently
using: {{{locale}}}. There's a lot more to the thread including many
individual answers to the specific requirements of people identifying
as various nationalities living in far-flung geographic locations who
need system-messages in one language, time and date formatting in the
convention of yet another and everything else in a third convention.
An honorable mention goes to SimoSorce who requested[7] an as-yet
unsupported locale "CAN I HAS ENGLISH(IT) ? KTHXBYE ;-)"
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01258.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01177.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01261.html
[[Anchor(Artwork)]]
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: NicuBuculei
=== Fedora 9 Artwork: Round 2 has ended, Round 3 has started ===
NicuBuculei announces[1] the end of Round 2 for choosing the default
desktop artwork in Fedora 9. Two designs meet the requirements and
qualified for Round 3: Waves[2], proposed by MartinSourada and
modified intro Sulfuric Waves by MairinDuffy and Shoowa[3], proposed
by LuyaTshimbalanga. Please send us feedback, either using the
project's mailing list, Nicu's blog[4] or FedoraForum.org[5]
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00094.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F9Themes/Waves
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F9Themes/Shoowa
[4] http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2008/02/fedora-8-artwork-round-2.html
[5] http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=177882
=== Echo development status ===
MartinSourada reports[1] about the status of the development for the
Echo icon theme. The Echo icon theme[2] is developed by a group of
Fedora Art contributors in an attempt to replace the old Bluecurve. It
has a modern look and follow the Tango naming guidelines.
Martin talks about the new website including git web access and a nice
status page, a final version of the guidelines, current activities,
palns for future and more.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00142.html
[2] https://fedorahosted.org/echo-icon-theme/wiki/IconThemeStatus
=== A new Inkscape release is coming ===
RahulSundaram forwards[1] there a call for testing for a development
version of Inkscape, which in nearing a stable release. Inkscape is
one of the major tools used by the team in their day to day work and
the new release brings a lot on new and useful features, so they can
be considered experts in the matter. When released, Inkscape 0.46 will
be built also for Fedora 8 so is important to have it seriously tested
in advance.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00130.html
[[Anchor(DailyPackage)]]
== Daily Package ==
In this section, we recap the packages that have been highlighted as a
Fedora Daily Package.
http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/
Contributing Writer: ChrisTyler
=== License Change ===
The Fedora Daily Package articles are now dual-licensed[1] under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 Canada license[2] and the
Open Publication License[3]. The OPL was added for compatibility with
the Fedora Documentation Project[4].
[1] http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/105-Fedora-Daily-Package-License-Change.html
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ca/
[3] http://opencontent.org/openpub/
[4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
=== Maxima - Computer Algebra System ===
''Productive Mondays'' highlight a timesaving tool. This Monday[1] we
covered Maxima[2]:
"In the late 1960's, a computer algebra system named Macsyma was
developed at MIT. ... Fedora includes the maxima package, an
open-source descendant of the original Macsyma code (forked in 1982
and placed under the GPL in 1998)."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/162-Productive-Monday-Maxima.html
[2] http://maxima.sourceforge.net/
=== PDFCube - Presentation Viewer ===
''Artsy Tuesdays'' highlight a graphics, video, or sound application.
This Tuesday[1] PDFCube[2] was featured:
"PDFCube is a tiny (35k) player for PDF presentations. It provides
double-buffered page switching (PgUp/PgDown or space), zoom to the
corners or center of a page (h,j,k,l,z), and a Compiz-style animated
cube transition (c)."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/163-Artsy-Tuesday-PDFCube-Presentation-Viewer.html
[2] http://code.100allora.it/pdfcube
=== Customizing the Grub Splash Screen ===
The ''Wednesday Why'' article[1] was on customizing the Fedora boot
splash screen:
"A Fedora system usually begins its boot process with a startup screen
(or menu) displayed by the bootloader Grub. The background for this
screen is provided by the wonderfully talented Fedora artTeam[2]. ...
Customizing your boot screen with a favorite photo, your company logo,
or even a cartoon is quite straightforward."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/164-Wednesday-Why-Customizing-the-Grub-Splash-Screen.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
=== hplip-gui - HP Device Manager ===
''GUI Thursdays'' highlight software that provides, enhances, or
effectively uses a GUI interface. This Thursday[1], hplip-gui[2] was
discussed:
"HP printers and multifunction units are well supported in Fedora,
thanks in large measure to HP's decision to open-source its driver
software and utilities (hplip) in cooperation with related projects
such as sane, ghostscript, and cups. The hplip-gui package provides a
simple, convenient GUI front-end to these tools..."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/166-GUI-Thursday-hplip-gui-HP-Device-Manager.html
[2] http://hplip.sourceforge.net/
=== ksudoku - Sudoku Game ===
''Friday Fun'' highlights fun, interesting, and amusing programs. This
Friday[1], we took a look ksudoku[2]:
"Ksudoku is a Sudoku game included in Fedora. It can generate Sudoku
puzzles and many variants, including Roxdoku (3D) and Samurai (5
overlapping grid) versions."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/167-Friday-Fun-ksudoku-Sudoku-Game.html
[2] http://ksudoku.sourceforge.net/
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Kernel Local Root ===
The most exciting thing to happen last week was probably all the
attention CVE-2008-0600[1] got. This flaw could allow a local user to
gain root privileges, and things such as SELinux wouldn't stop it.
The significant part isn't the local root in itself, but rather that
there were working exploits available in the wild. There are always
kernel privilege escalation flaws, but there are not always easy
working exploits.
This was of course fixed quite promptly in both Red Hat Enterprise
Linux[2] and Fedora[3].
[1] http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0600
[2] http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2008-0129.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00255.html
[[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 ===
* kernel-2.6.23.15-137.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00255.html
* kernel-xen-2.6-2.6.21-2957.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00270.html
* seamonkey-1.1.8-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00309.html
* moin-1.5.8-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00330.html
* duplicity-0.4.9-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00356.html
* glib2-2.14.6-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00371.html
* devhelp-0.16.1-5.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00373.html
* blam-1.8.3-13.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00374.html
* chmsee-1.0.0-1.28.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00375.html
* epiphany-extensions-2.20.1-5.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00376.html
* gnome-web-photo-0.3-8.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00377.html
* gnome-python2-extras-2.19.1-12.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00378.html
* epiphany-2.20.2-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00379.html
* firefox-2.0.0.12-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00380.html
* gtkmozembedmm-1.4.2.cvs20060817-18.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00381.html
* kazehakase-0.5.2-1.fc8.2 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00382.html
* galeon-2.0.4-1.fc8.2 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00383.html
* Miro-1.1-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00384.html
* yelp-2.20.0-7.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00385.html
* liferea-1.4.11-2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00386.html
* openvrml-0.17.5-2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00387.html
* ruby-gnome2-0.16.0-20.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00388.html
* xine-lib-1.1.10.1-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00395.html
* wordpress-2.3.3-0.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00416.html
* openldap-2.3.39-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00430.html
* mailman-2.1.9-8.2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00452.html
* tomcat5-5.5.26-1jpp.2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00460.html
* clamav-0.92.1-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00481.html
* scponly-4.6-10.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00546.html
* httpd-2.2.8-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00562.html
* cacti-0.8.7b-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00570.html
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* kernel-2.6.23.15-80.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00254.html
* chmsee-1.0.0-1.28.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00272.html
* epiphany-extensions-2.18.3-7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00273.html
* firefox-2.0.0.12-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00274.html
* devhelp-0.13-13.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00275.html
* gtkmozembedmm-1.4.2.cvs20060817-15.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00276.html
* gnome-python2-extras-2.14.3-8.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00277.html
* galeon-2.0.3-15.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00278.html
* ruby-gnome2-0.16.0-21.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00279.html
* epiphany-2.18.3-6.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00280.html
* liferea-1.4.9-2.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00281.html
* kazehakase-0.5.2-1.fc7.2 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00282.html
* yelp-2.18.1-9.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00283.html
* Miro-1.1-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00284.html
* openvrml-0.16.7-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00285.html
* tomcat5-5.5.26-1jpp.2.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00315.html
* wordpress-2.3.3-0.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00349.html
* moin-1.5.8-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00424.html
* xine-lib-1.1.10.1-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00442.html
* duplicity-0.4.9-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00445.html
* clamav-0.92.1-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00462.html
* openldap-2.3.34-7.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00471.html
* kernel-xen-2.6-2.6.21-7.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00485.html
* graphviz-2.12-10.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00502.html
* mailman-2.1.9-5.3 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00517.html
* seamonkey-1.1.8-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00518.html
* httpd-2.2.8-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00541.html
* cacti-0.8.7b-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00593.html
* scponly-4.6-10.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg00595.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 2008-02-12 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2008-02-12
=== Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-11 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CommunityArchitecture/Meetings/2008-02-11
=== Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-02-13 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Meetings/2008-02-13
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-14 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/Minutes/IRCLog20080214
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-02-14 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/SteeringCommittee/Meeting-20080214
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-02-14 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/Meetings/2008-02-14
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2008-02-12 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Minutes20080212
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-02-11 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ReleaseEngineering/Meetings/2008-feb-11
=== Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-13 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2008-Feb-13
=== Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 2008-02-12 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE/Meetings/2008-02-12
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
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