Fedora Weekly News Issue 86
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 86 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 86[1] for the week of April 29th
through May 5th, 2007. The latest issue can always be found here[2]
and RSS Feed can be found here[3].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue86
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/LatestIssue
[3] http://feeds.feedburner.com/fwn
1. Fedora Weekly News Issue 86
1. Announcements
1. Fedora Core 5 End of Life
2. CD Bootloader Change - Test Help Needed
3. Status of the merge
4. Rawhide 20070502 Live Images
5. Fedora 7 Test 4 ISOs for IA64 Available
6. Announcing New Fedora-php-devel-list
2. Planet Fedora
1. Come together.... Right now!
2. Merge day and some stats
3. Job Openings for OLPC
4. GIMP rain animation tutorial
5. Spin your own Fedora Security Live USB key
6. Two steps forward, no steps back
3. Marketing
1. Fedora merges Core and Extra repositories
2. Fedora: Champions of Community
4. Developments
1. David Woodhouse Likes Monkeys
2. OCaml Packaging Guidelines, Something A Bit More Meaty
3. Merge Surges Ahead
4. Aggressive Incorporation Of Latest KDE4 Planned
5. Zope Packaging For Fedora 7
6. Inclusion Of Experimental Non-Enabled Nouveau Driver
7. Where Did the CD ISOs Go?
8. KDE's Place In The Open Platform Known As "Fedora" Acknowleged
9. When Two Broadcom Drivers Go To War
10. Falling Blocks, Wink Wink
5. Documentation
1. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting
2. Translations for Release Notes Must Be Complete by 10 May
3. Fedora Guides
4. New Docs Tasks Page
5. Documentation Style
6. DTDs Available Publicly
7. Fedora-dsco-list Set For Retirement
6. Translation
1. Deadline Extension
7. Infrastructure
1. More on Email Addresses
8. Security Week
1. Do We Really Need a Security Industry?
9. Security Advisories
1. Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories
2. Fedora Core 5 Security Advisories
10. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting 2007-05-01
2. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-05-03
3. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-04-26
4. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-05-01
5. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-04-30
6. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting 2007-05-06
7. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting 2007-04-29
8. Event Report: Feel IT - Bamberg, Germany
9. Event Report: FLISOL 2007 - Argentina
10. Event Report: FLISOL 2007 - Caracas, Venezuela
11. Event Photos: FLISOL 2007 - Santiago, Chile
11. Feedback
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from various projects.
=== Fedora Core 5 End of Life ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"Several months ago, the Fedora Board (in consultation with Red Hat
Engineering) decided to increase the length of time that Fedora
releases are supported, in terms of updates.
This decision was retroactively applied to Fedora Core 5, allowing it
to remain a fully maintained release for several months longer than it
would have under our old policy.
Fedora Core 5 will reach its End of Life[2] for updates on Friday June
29th, 2007. "
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-May/msg00000.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LifeCycle
=== CD Bootloader Change - Test Help Needed ===
WillWoods announces in fedora-test-list[1],
"So, Fedora 7's CD/DVD boot menu needs a small tweak to work in qemu. We
want to make sure this change is safe and stable, so we need your help.
Please download the (8MB) test image from here[2]. Burn it to CD and
boot it in as many (i386/x86_64) machines as you can.
We want to know if the graphical menu looks right, and if the timer
counts down from 60. Report results here[3].
If the boot menu looks normal on all the machines we try it on, we'll
make this change for F7 final."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2007-May/msg00221.html
[2] http://people.redhat.com/~katzj/syslinux-test-16bpp-boot.iso
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JeremyKatz/IsolinuxTest
=== Status of the merge ===
JesseKeating announces in fedora-maintainers[1],
"Merge is going well now. A bunch of hiccups early on as we moved our test
scripts into acting with real bits and databases and such, but now that
that's over...
For those interested, here are some reference items:
* The main koji web interface [2]
* overall topic and status [3]
* specific to the CVS merge [4]
Thank you for all your patience as we try to make this dream come true!"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-May/msg00050.html
[2] http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/CoreExtrasMerge
[4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/CoreExtrasCVSMerge
=== Rawhide 20070502 Live Images ===
JeremyKatz announces in fedora-test-list[1],
"It's that time again... time for another set of rawhide live images.
This is based off of yesterday's rawhide and thus is pre-merge fun. I'm
planning to do another set of images once we get a merged rawhide tree,
so probably the beginning of next week.
You can get the torrent file from (the fedora torrent site)[2].
Available images are i386, x86_64, i386 KDE and also an x86_64 KDE
image. Note that the x86_64 images require DVD media, the i386 images
will fit on 700 meg CD media. Please file any issues against
product Fedora Core, version devel and against the relevant component or
LiveCD if you're unsure."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2007-May/msg00192.html
[2] http://torrent.fedoraproject.org.
=== Fedora 7 Test 4 ISOs for IA64 Available ===
PraritBhargava announces in fedora-devel-list[1],
"A set of CD ISOs and a DVD ISO based on the Fedora 7 test4 ISOS of the
ia64 Fedora development branch (also known as rawhide) are available
from (Fedora IA64)[2].
Please remember that F7 ia64 is _unsupported_ by Fedora. You can file bugs,
but be sure to file them against the devel branch of Fedora Core. Also,
add "fedora-ia64" to the "blocks" field of the BZ."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-April/msg01391.html
[2] http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fedora
=== Announcing New Fedora-php-devel-list ===
ChristopherStone announces in fedora-devel-list[1],
"We now have a mailing list for PHP related discussion for Fedora.
This list is for people in the PHP SIG group, or anyone who is
interested in packaging or (co-)maintaining PHP packages in Fedora.
We can also use this list for discussing Fedora PHP guidelines changes
and additions. For more information, and to subscribe, see
(fedora-php-devel-list)[2]."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00082.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-php-devel-list
== Planet Fedora ==
In this secton, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an aggregation
of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
=== Come together.... Right now! ===
MikeMcGrath points out in his blog[1],
"So whats the big deal? Why have people been writing about it all with
a strong sense of pride?
Simple. This is a big step for Fedora. In the past Fedora "Core" was
written as a sort of base operating system that could be added on to.
Well, Extras was added to it. But in a separate repository. And so
extras existed, quietly gaining speed, size and contributors. Core was
entirely managed by Red Hat. Extras was entirely community, anyone
could add packages to it, including Red Hat people. Now, there is no
more Extras, no more Core. It's one community operation.
So what has changed? Well the immediate changes aren't that big to the
end user. Some core packages can now be linked against extras
packages, that's nice. The real changes are in the community itself.
By completing this merge and setting up the underlying infrastructure
we have greatly increased the potential of our future. As our
contribution base continues to grow so will the Fedora universe, and
that's why the merger is so important."
[1] http://mmcgrath.livejournal.com/3480.html
=== Merge day and some stats ===
RahulSundaram points out in his blog[1],
"It is finally happening. Fedora Core and Fedora Extras are getting
merged[2] today.
This is possibly the biggest single change we have done ever since
Fedora Project was formed. It empowers[3] the volunteer community[4]
at large to have more direct access to packages in Fedora including
those in what was known as Fedora Core.
This is the first time (that I am aware of) a distribution that is
sponsored by a major commercial Linux vendor has allowed everyone a
equal footing in the repository resulting in a pretty big change for
developers involved that would benefit end users in a more suble ways.
More on that follows."
[1] http://rahulsundaram.livejournal.com/11669.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-May/msg00050.html
[3] http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=284
[4] http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/fedora_champions_of_community
=== Job Openings for OLPC ===
ChristopherBlizzard points out in his blog[1],
"Red Hat has a few job openings to work on the One Laptop per Child project[2]:
Software Engineer II[3]: This terrible job title is code for awesome
engineer. We're looking to build an update system for OLPC that isn't
the usual yum/rpm/deb/apt system and we need awesome strong CS-focused
people to make it happen. There are two openings for this job, not
one.
Program Manager[4]: What is a program manager, you ask? This is a
person who manages the process around the software development and
release process. They make sure that bugs are being followed up on,
improves communication both inside the team and handles messaging to
other team members and helps hold people's feet to the fire about what
they should be working on. This is not an engineering position, but an
engineering background helps. Other parts of this role include making
sure that a QA and test groups are working together with the
engineering folks to make sure that everything is ready to go."
[1] http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=283
[2] http://www.laptop.org/vision/index.shtml
[3] https://redhat.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/highlightjob.cgi?jobid=2369
[4] https://redhat.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/highlightjob.cgi?jobid=2357
=== GIMP rain animation tutorial ===
NicuBuculei points out in his blog[1],
"After a number of Inkscape tutorials, it was the time for me to make
a GIMP one, this one about creating a fake a rain animation effect,
like this:
It is quite big, with many large images, so I put it on a static
page[2] from my tutorials website, if you are interested, read it in
its original location."
[1] http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2007/05/gimp-rain-animation-tutorial.html
[2] http://howto.nicubunu.ro/gimp_rain_animation/
=== Spin your own Fedora Security Live USB key ===
LukeMacken points out in his blog[1],
"Here is how to easily create a security-distribution based on what
will eventually be Fedora 7. This requires that you be running
FC7Test* or rawhide, as the livecd-tools are not currently available
for FC6.
Interested in helping make the Security LiveCD better? See the
SecurityLiveCD[2] wiki for more information."
[1] http://lewk.org/blog/2007/05/02/fedora-security-liveusb-distro.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LukeMacken/SecurityLiveCD
=== Two steps forward, no steps back ===
PaulFrields points out in his blog[1],
"Today's 3122 kernel and iwlwifi-0.0.16[2] have taken care of kernel
oopsing[3], and my Intel 3945 wireless happily associates with my AP
in open, WEP, and WPA modes both with SSID broadcast on or off. Thanks
to the upstream people who made this happen, with some rabble rousing
from dragoran, and John Linville for sticking with this problem too."
[1] http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=773
[2] http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi
[3] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/236451
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
=== Fedora merges Core and Extra repositories ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"At noon EDT today Red Hat developers began merging the Fedora Core
and Extras repositories. The new merged Fedora repository is one of
the major changes for the upcoming Fedora 7 release, and marks the
first time a major distribution supported by a company has allowed
members of the community to modify packages inside a distribution[2]."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-May/msg00005.html
[2] http://distrocenter.linux.com/distrocenter/07/05/03/1711201.shtml?tid=111
=== Fedora: Champions of Community ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Fedora 7 Test 4 was launched last week and I'm excited! Right now I'm
downloading the ISO to try it out and, although I'm aware that there are
plenty of new features for me to explore in the distribution itself,
many of the elements that have me most excited are changes relating to
their infrastructure: they are setting out to empower the community more
than any other distribution has[2]."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-May/msg00003.html
[2] http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/fedora_champions_of_community
== 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
=== David Woodhouse Likes Monkeys ===
A thread about the problems of packaging the ocsinventory-client led
DavidWoodhouse to express a need for Fedora maintainers as opposed to
mere package-monkeys [1]. ThorstenLeemhuis agreed with David's
technical fix, but decried the use of the term "package monkey" [2],
as it appeared to be a derogatory term for people that volunteered to
do essential maintenance tasks. Thorsten noted that if he were forced
to classify himself, he would be a package-monkey. JonathanUnderwood
was in strong agreement [3], while David hastened to point out his
partiality to monkeys, his own self-identification as a
package-monkey, and the aptness of the term [4]. MatthiasClasen
pointed out that the problem was whether other people found it
offensive regardless and the effect it might have on contributors [5].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00194.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00202.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00203.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00204.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00215.html
Meanwhile, back at work, RemiCollet (who was doing all the volunteer
work to make ocsinventory-client available to Fedora users) apologized
for not filing the requisite bug that would allow him to use the ppc
Exclude-Arch, and acknowleged that using "dmidecode" (which is an x86
only way of reading the SMBIOS/DMI to obtain information on hardware
components) wasn't the best way [6]. Remi provided some background,
namely that the company that he works for is writing a Perl version of
the inventory agent that needs to work on Linux, Windows, Aix, Solaris
and that Remi has already split out useful subpackages during this
process.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00228.html
GianlucaSforna was happy to be called a package-monkey, but settled
for being a packager until he was downgraded [7] to junior-packager by
SimoSorce.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00217.html
=== OCaml Packaging Guidelines, Something A Bit More Meaty ===
After reading some review requests, HansdeGoede suggested [1] some
guidelines for packages using the Caml language [2]. GerardMilmeister
suggested the formation of a SIG, and alerted RichardJones (of Red
Hat's Emerging Technologies group), as someone who had previously been
interested in this. Richard contrasted the current relatively meagre
Fedora coverage to Debian's and was enthusiastic at the idea of
getting more OCaml packages into our repositories [3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00129.html
[2] http://caml.inria.fr/index.en.html
ToshioKuratomi offered to help out steering the guideline approval
process [4] and sought clarification [5] of whether the guidelines
should require the packages build to bytecode and/or nativecode and
Hans gave a more detailed description [6] of the two possible ways
that OCaml code could be compiled. RichardJones posted a separate
possible wrinkle to be considered [7].
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00179.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00191.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00192.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00212.html
RichardJones then opened up a discussion of the proposed guidelines,
which centered around whether or not the .mli files (which are
analogous to header files in C) should be removed from the -devel
packages [8]. NigelJones (whose review packages stimulated Hans to
write the new guidelines), noted that he'd replaced the .mlis with
generated html, which didn't seem convenient to Richard or TomasMraz
[9]. Nigel tried to come up with a compromise, but this seemed to
depend [10] on too much manual intervention to Hans.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00200.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00209.html
Gerard opened a bugzilla [11] where further discussion, particularly
of the lack of a problem of a stable ABI, the need to introduce
versioning in library pathnames, and the possibility of compatibility
packages, could be discussed.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00213.html
=== Merge Surges Ahead ===
In response to MikeChambers, JesseKeating reported that the merge of
Core and Extras was proceeding smoothly, with some scrambling to build
ppc64 packages that didn't exist previously in Extras [1]. Jesse had
previously been posting updates to the list [2], which prompted some
well-deserved thanks.
ChrisWeyl had a practical question about whether it was necessary for
developers to do a fresh checkout from the new CVS, and RolandMcGrath
suggested [3] that existing "Extras" checkouts were fine, but could be
upgraded with:
echo :ext:user cvs fedora redhat com:/cvs/pkgs > root
find extras -maxdepth 4 -wholename '*/CVS/Root' -exec cp -f root {} \;
He also noted that "Core" checkouts were a bit more difficult, requiring:
find dist -maxdepth 4 -wholename '*/devel/CVS/Root' -exec cp root {} \;
Roland also noted that a plan for developer migration should have been
worked out in advance of the actual merge.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00256.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00257.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00184.html
=== Aggressive Incorporation Of Latest KDE4 Planned ===
A direct enquiry from JosPoortvliet (of KDE) asked what Fedora was
intending to do about the upcoming KDE4 (alpha1) [1], noting that a
lot of other distros were going to have packages but that nothing had
been heard from Fedora. KevinKofler was able to reply readily [2]
that he had already produced parallel installable 3.80.3 packages that
are targeted at developers. Kevin thought that it would be easy
enough to upgrade to 4.0.0 as soon as it was out, but that he would
prefer to make some changes in the packaging to target Fedora 8.
Kevin's current packages allow developers to work in a KDE3
environment while developing for KDE4 and he felt that with the F7
feature freeze there was no way that KDE4 was going into F7.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00144.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00147.html
Jos was then given an URL pointing to Kevin's packages, which could be
included in the KDE release notes for interested parties [3].
RexDieter wanted to submit the current packages for review just after
the release of F7, but Kevin reiterated that the package structure was
not ideal, and thought that Fedora should push ahead to incorporate
even a release candidate in F8 [4] based on the rawhide packages and
noted that the codebase was moving rapidly and that Fedora had never
been afraid of that in the past.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00149.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00153.html
LaurentRineau expresssed a contrarian viewpoint, suggesting that a
release candidate wasn't good enough and that it was necessary to have
a stable KDE [5]. Kevin pointed out that a release candidate tested
for months in rawhide was likely to be more stable than an untested
release [6] and also that F8 would end up with a one-month lag
compared to other distros if the wait-and-see approach were taken.
ChristopherAillon was fine with release candidates but not with
"alphas, betas or random cvs snapshots" [7], while RahulSundaram
dragged the comparison back from possibly arbitrary naming [8] and
into a consideration of how much actual testing the software had
received. JesseKeating gave qualified agreement [9], pointing out
that what mattered was what the upstream developers planned to do with
any particular branch of code, and that Fedora could and had shipped
pre-releases that were guaranteed to fit in with Fedora's
feature-freezes.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00156.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00153.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00158.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00161.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00162.html
=== Zope Packaging For Fedora 7 ===
According to a post from DavidMackay [1] there was a slight problem
with the packaging of Zope for F7. While David was happy to see Zope
available, it depends on an older version of Python (2.4) while F7
ships only with Python (2.5). MichaelSchwendt stated that there was
no Zope and no Plone available for F7 and that what David was using
were Fedora Core 6 packages that were lingering in the development
repository [2]. JeremyKatz pointed David in the direction of the
upstream developers, because Python-2.5 has been available for nine
months at this stage. He also pointed out that shipping an older
version of Python would cause bulking of the distribution.
ThorstenLeemhuis made a counter-argument [3], pointing out that
compatability packages are shipped in other similar cases [4].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00226.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00229.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00230.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00232.html
RahulSundaram was in agreement with Thorsten, but RexDieter pointed
out that FESCo had already made the decision not to provide a
python-compat package [5]. JonathanSteffan noted [5a] that he had been
willing to take on the maintenance of a compatibility package, but
that the Zope maintainer, and FESCo as a whole had requested that this
not happen. KevinKofler didn't think that FESCo should be vetoing
packages except for licensing issues, which led SethVidal to reiterate
Jeremy's earlier argument that this shifted the maintenance burden
from upstream onto Fedora [6]. Thorsten adduced Xen as an example of
exactly this and wondered why Xen was special, to which Jeremy replied
that Xen's handling had been "a mistake" [7]. PaulFrields pointed to
the existence of Release Notes that suggest using virtualization and
careful planning for Zope-dependent users [8]. Incidentally (in
response to Thorsten's direct query), Paul noted that the Release
Notes wiki had been opened for us all to edit and add any specialized
information we have.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00234.html
[5a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00262.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00236.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00243.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00253.html
In the course of the discussion JeremyKatz suggested that the
guidelines be modified to include the provision that prior to the
introduction of any compatibility package, the assent of the primary
packager must be sought. MichaelSchwendt was in agreement [9] and
added that upstream and any recognized competent testers must also be
consulted.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00251.html
TillMaas noted that python-2.5 had been released before python-2.4.4
and python-2.3.6 [10] and that thus python-2.5 was actually older.
TonyNelson clarified that the lower numbered pythons were supposed to
be final bug-fix releases [11]. Again JesseKeating focused on the
forward momentum of Fedora asking rhetorically why, given Till's
argument, would anyone support 2.6 series kernels while there were 2.4
releases still happening. MichaelStahnke and DenisLeroy still thought
that Fedora would be conveying a message that it was for developers
only if the compat packages weren't shipped, leading ThorstenLeemhuis
to suggest that although a clean-break had to be made at some time,
this might be a case for an exception coupled with a statement of
future intent [12].
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00264.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00278.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00283.html
JesseKeating made the practical suggestion of using a chroot to
install the compat packages, and JeremyKatz's recommendation of
virtualization or helping the Zope developers to get Python-2.5
working for them led to a final positive note when DebarshiRay (rishi)
pointed to a Google SoC project to get Zope3 working on Python2.5
[13].
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00252.html
=== Inclusion Of Experimental Non-Enabled Nouveau Driver ===
A bug report [1] from MilesLane stated that when he selected and
enabled the "nouveau" driver (a free reverse-engineered driver for
nvidia cards [1a]) on the current F7test4 LiveCD, he experienced
significant problems when Compiz was also enabled.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00093.html
[1a] http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FrontPage
RahulSundaram responded that nouveau was nowhere near ready to work
with Compiz. (This was later confirmed by AdamJackson (ajax) who
asked Miles to file a bug [2a], and also said that 3D acceleration in
general was not enabled yet in the nouveau driver.) ChristopherStone
was prompted by Rahul's response to object to nouveau's inclusion [2],
as it was experimental and would generate confusion from general
users. Rahul argued that the situation was exactly parallel with
the inclusion of a new Intel Xorg driver in FC6, leading Chris to
label it as useless except for developers and inferior to the "nv"
driver [3]. Later AdamJackson proposed [4] that if there was a
Compiz-related crash then it was just a bug that needed fixing and
while pointing out that there are known hangs and problems due to nv
("there are no good X drivers"), cast doubt on the idea that nouveau
was so inferior.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00109.html
[2a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00107.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00117.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00123.html
NicolasMailhot had positive experiences with nouveau [5] which led
Miles to wonder if it was the same driver that was causing problems.
This prompted JesseKeating to re-iterate the point that the driver was
not enabled by default, and JefSpaleta a short while later concurred
that [6] auto-selection was correctly selecting the "nv" driver and
that anyone enabling a non-default was explicitly making a decision to
experiment. A possible problem raised by Jef [7] was that there would
be multiple updates of the package due to rapid development of the
driver and that these updates would be forced on all users.
NicolasMailhot added the good news [8] that immediately after the
release of F7 the "nouveau" driver would be split out from "nv",
getting rid of this problem.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00118.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00134.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00134.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00137.html
=== Where Did the CD ISOs Go? ===
A lest member, "n0dalus", observed [1] that there were only DVD and
LiveCD images available for F7t4 and asked if there would be CD images
available for Fedora 7. "n0dalus" was concerned that the equipment
upon which he needed to test (and later install) the release was
mainly older machines with no DVD players, used in a rural, volunteer
project. RahulSundaram confirmed his worst fears but wondered why the
LiveCD (which is installable) wouldn't do. "Dragoran" asked whether
there would be CD images available for the actual release and Rahul
confirmed that there would not [2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00022.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00028.html
"n0dalus" and JonCiesla wondered how they could generate the CD's
they'd need [3] and Rahul suggested Pungi and Livecd-tools [4] but Jon
thought that Pungi might not be able to generate F7 ISOs when run on
F6 [5]. There was no direct answer to this.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00025.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00033.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00035.html
Later, with assistance from PaulHowarth, dragoran and JeremyKatz, Jon
explored the possibility [6] of upgrading his redhat-release package
and then running "yum upgrade".
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00040.html
=== KDE's Place In The Open Platform Known As "Fedora" Acknowleged ===
Following on from last week's discussion [1] on the announcement of
the final test of F7, KevinKofler was a bit upset [2] at what he took
to be a denigration of KDE's "integration" with Fedora by one of the
central figures, release manager JesseKeating. Kevin noted that the
KDE community external to Fedora were already very dubious about
Fedora's approach to their desktop environment and that while he and
others were doing their best to correct this, it was unwise to make
comments such as Jesse's.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue85#head-43f2b723855d1315f4842c9b9d...
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00006.html
In an attempt to clarify, Jesse argued that all of the
"system-config-" tools on Fedora were GTK based and that new
functionality (e.g. Fast User Switching [3]) were too. Kevin
acknowledged this but pointed out that KDE wasn't exactly lagging
behind in these areas [4] even though there were no prominent Red Hat
hackers developing for KDE, and that Mandriva had managed to cope with
a similar situation. JoseMatos also cautioned against downplaying the
usability of KDE in Fedora and the dangers of bad PR [5], and also
drew attention to an apparent conflation of the desktop with the
widget toolkit.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00008.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00056.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00062.html
"Dragoran" wondered why there was no x86_64 KDE LiveCD (only an x386)
one, and JeremyKatz responded that it was due solely to time
constraints [6].
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00029.html
FlorianLaRoche provided an interesting way of examining the new Fedora
landscape, pointing out that the ability to provide specific "spins"
and/or to select alternate software from the merged Fedora
repositories should really do away with the old KDE/GNOME wars [7].
Florian confirmed that support for KDE from Red Hat was assured, not
least because there are RH partners requesting it, but also because
the current direction and intent of Fedora is to be an open platform
that integrates as many options as possible. RahulSundaram enlarged
upon this and pointed out LukeMacken's USBSecurityLiveCD spin as an
example [8].
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00099.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00100.html
Meanwhile more entries were made to the "Name That Distro" contest,
which looks set to run indefinitely [9] (note: entrants must also
supply their own rules, prize may be announced at a later date).
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00058.html
=== When Two Broadcom Drivers Go To War ===
Responding to a query from "Alan", WillWoods posted a succinct
description [1] of the steps necessary to enable the non-Free Broadcom
firmware to work with NetworkManager so that BCM4306 chipsets were
usable.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00070.html
MilesLane still wondered if this would work for his particular chipset
(which was an early revision) [2], because some encouraging feedback
from JarodWilson included the information that only revision 4 and
upwards would work with this method. Later posts from "Kelly
(lightsolphoenix)" and "Alan" confirmed that although they'd had the
firmware working in FC6 it seemed to now be broken. JohnLinville
jumped in to remind them to blacklist the newer bcm43xx-mac80211
driver and "Alan" confirmed [3] that this now worked.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00076.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00111.html
John further explained [4] that there were two drivers present
claiming the same PCI-id. BillNottingham and John were in favor of
trying to fix this situation in time for F7 if there was consensus, as
the fix seemed easy and had obvious benefits. Miles then confirmed
that he could use the described methods to get his card working from
the LiveCD for F7t4 [5] and appended a dmesg output.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00083.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00092.html
=== Falling Blocks, Wink Wink ===
Wart sought clarification on a bug report that had noticed the
"tetris-bsd" package was included. Wart noted that this was an
oversight and the name at least would be removed [1], but asked if the
bug reporter was correct that the game itself and not just the name
might cause legal problems.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00009.html
TomCallaway (spot) thought that as long as the name is removed, there
would be no problem, but AlanCox was less sure [2] and pointed out the
litigious tendencies of the Tetris company.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00048.html
JonathanUnderwood had researched the issue a bit and found that the
Emacs developers had discussed the situation [3] and TomTromey
observed that RMS seemed to believe there was no problem. Jonathan
reported that he'd raised additional issues on @emacs-development
since then and that RMS was taking advice from FSF legal counsel.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00095.html
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting ===
The meeting logs for 29 April[1] and 06 May[2], as well as the summaries
for 29 April[3] and 06 May[4], were posted to fedora-docs-list.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00200.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00045.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00202.html
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00048.html
=== Translations for Release Notes Must Be Complete by 10 May ===
Some languages are complete[1], but there are several that have not
completed the final translation of the release notes. A reminder was
sent to fedora-trans-list[2]. An announcement list that is used to
alert and send announcements to all per-language mailing lists was
discussed, all during the FDSCo IRC meeting[3].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Translation/Statistics
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-May/msg00024.html
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/Minu...
=== Fedora Guides ===
As discussed in the FDSCo IRC meeting[1], it is time to focus and
finish the four guides to be released with Fedora 7: Fedora
Installation Guide, Fedora User Guide, Fedora Administration Guide,
and the Fedora Software Management Guide. The Steering Committee
further discussed bringing in new content and modularly built guides
as projects to focus on between Fedora releases.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/Minu...
=== New Docs Tasks Page ===
As of 06 May, all Documentation Project tasks are going to be tracked
on one master page[1]. This page highlights tasks[2] that new
contributor can begin work on when they join the project, and should
include a mentor for the contributor to work with.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Tasks
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/Minu...
=== Documentation Style ===
Several suggestions for improvement[1] to the Fedora Documentation led
to a discussion about why the project uses its current style,
including limiting the use of screen shots and the "professional"
tone[2]. This same discussion also led to the conclusion that more
information could be provided, specifically relating to technical
terms, for little work by linking to relevant Wikipedia articles.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00205.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00218.html
This discussion later developed to consider possible voices that the
project might adopt in the future, moving away from the traditional
corporate technical voice.[3]
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00017.html
=== DTDs Available Publicly ===
PaulFrields announced that some of the DTDs used by the Documentation
Project are soon available at a publicly accessible URI.[1] This helps
solve problems involving validation errors while editing documents
from CVS. The DTDs set for release are rpm-info.dtd and entities.dtd
at the following URLs:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/dtds/rpm-info.dtd
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/dtds/entities.dtd
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00206.html
=== Fedora-dsco-list Set For Retirement ===
Following a series of updates to the projects Join page[1], it was
proposed that the fedora-dsco-list should be retired and the
references to it removed[2]. This proposal won agreement from several
Steering committee members[3]. After this idea being incomplete for a
long time, the list was finally closed[4] with the archives left for
posterity[5].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00026.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00025.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00037.html
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00046.html
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-dsco-list/
== Translation ==
This section, we cover the news surrounding the Fedora Translation
(L10n) Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
=== Deadline Extension ===
PaulFrields endeared himself to the translation team with his post[1]
about the extension of the freeze date to 10-May-2007 (2359 UTC).
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-April/msg00129.html
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
=== More on Email Addresses ===
A little while ago the Infrastructure team modified[1] the
fedoraproject.org email addressing scheme, removing the
firstname.lastname convention (except for special cases). MikeMcGrath
revisited[2] the issue this week as the Ambassador group likes the
professional look of the firstname.lastname convention. After
discussion it was decided that ThomasChung of the Ambassador group
would manage the Ambassador email addresses, thereby allowing for a
better case-by-case assignment of firstname.lastname addresses.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-April/msg...
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-April/msg...
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
=== Do We Really Need a Security Industry? ===
Last week Bruce Schneier published a commentary about the security industry:
Do We Really Need a Security Industry?[1]
This story generated a fair amount of discussion. The commentary is
best summed up by this quote
"Aftermarket security is actually a very inefficient way to spend our
security dollars ..."
The conclusion Bruce comes to is to outsource your security needs to a
different company, the service being no different than outsourcing
your telephone needs. While it makes sense that not every company
will need to employ security experts, there is no reason that the
operating system shouldn't be doing more. A technology such as
SELinux can play a huge role preventing malware and intruders from
gaining unwanted access.
The current aftermarket security industry relies on the idea that the
operating system is insecure, and cannot be fixed. It is unlikely
that a technology such as SELinux will ever result in a completely
secure solution out of the box, but with the right know how it can
help prevent many insecurities. As long as people write the code that
runs our computers, there will be security bugs. We will never fix
every possible bug, but we can try to mitigate the potential damage.
Right now if a piece of malware infects a computer, it can do nearly
anything it wants. In the near future SELinux should be able to
prevent malware from doing anything useful.
[1] http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/05...
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
=== Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories ===
* FEDORA-2007-486: rpm-4.4.2-33.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-486
* FEDORA-2007-482: [SECURITY] kernel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-482
* FEDORA-2007-443: autofs-5.0.1-0.rc3.29 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-443
* FEDORA-2007-480: httpd-2.2.4-2.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-480
* FEDORA-2007-462: dbus-1.0.1-12.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-462
* FEDORA-2007-461: pygobject2-2.12.3-2.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-461
* FEDORA-2007-477: bind-9.3.4-4.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-477
* FEDORA-2007-464: policycoreutils-1.34.1-8.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-464
* FEDORA-2007-463: selinux-policy-2.4.6-62.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-463
* FEDORA-2007-457: gnome-media-2.16.1-4.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-457
=== Fedora Core 5 Security Advisories ===
* FEDORA-2007-483: [SECURITY] kernel-2.6.20-1.2316.fc5 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC5/FEDORA-2007-483
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various projects.
=== Fedora Board Meeting 2007-05-01 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2007-May/msg00027.html
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-05-03 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-May/msg00077.html
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-04-26 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-May/msg00037.html
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-05-01 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-May/msg00025.html
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-04-30 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-May/msg00188.html
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting 2007-05-06 ===
* http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-May/msg00048.html
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting 2007-04-29 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-April/msg00202.html
=== Event Report: Feel IT - Bamberg, Germany ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2007-May/msg00035...
=== Event Report: FLISOL 2007 - Argentina ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2007-May/msg00033...
=== Event Report: FLISOL 2007 - Caracas, Venezuela ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2007-May/msg00004...
=== Event Photos: FLISOL 2007 - Santiago, Chile ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2007-May/msg00000...
== Feedback ==
This document is maintained by the Fedora News Team[1]. Please feel
free to contact us to give your feedback. If you'd like to contribute
to a future issue of the Fedora Weekly News, please see the Join[2]
page to find out how to help.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
16 years, 11 months
- 1
- 0
Fedora Core 5 end of life is 2007-06-29
by Max Spevack
All,
Several months ago, the Fedora Board (in consultation with Red Hat
Engineering) decided to increase the length of time that Fedora releases
are supported, in terms of updates.
This decision was retroactively applied to Fedora Core 5, allowing it to
remain a fully maintained release for several months longer than it would
have under our old policy.
Fedora 7 will be released on Thursday May 24th, 2007.
Fedora Core 5 will reach its End of Life for updates on Friday June 29th,
2007.
In total, Fedora Core 5 will have had a lifespan of 15 months. For the
sake of comparison, under the old policy, FC5 would have only had a
lifespan of 11 months.
===
Zod insists that Fedora Core 6 receive updates until about one month after
the release of Fedora 8.
Fedora 7 will receive updates until about one month after the release of
Fedora 9.
And so on. "Fedora X will receive updates until about one month after the
release of Fedora X+2."
--
Max Spevack
+ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MaxSpevack
+ gpg key -- http://spevack.org/max.asc
+ fingerprint -- CD52 5E72 369B B00D 9E9A 773E 2FDB CB46 5A17 CF21
16 years, 11 months
- 1
- 0