4:50 a.m.
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 121 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 121 for the week of February 18th,
2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue121
In Announcements, we have "Fedora 10's FUDCon", "LWN
subscription?",
"Fedora Amateur Radio SIG" and "Fedora Education SIG"
In Planet Fedora, we have "What a FOSDEM Day!", "FOSDEM08 -
Saturday",
"The FOSDEM Buzz", "LWN, Fedora and you", "Fedora 10's
FUDCon" and
"Fedora by Night"
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. Fedora 10's FUDCon
2. LWN subscription?
3. Fedora Amateur Radio SIG
4. Fedora Education SIG
2. Planet Fedora
1. What a FOSDEM Day!
2. FOSDEM08 - Saturday
3. The FOSDEM Buzz
4. LWN, Fedora and you
5. Fedora 10's FUDCon
6. Fedora by Night
3. Marketing
1. Dig the KDE4 Interview
2. Fedora Studios Spin?
3. Free Me Too
4. Fedora and the art of creating an inclusive community
5. Fedora Store SIG Update
6. Windows -> Fedora -> Windows
7. Best way to announce things?
8. Logo War: Red Hat Takes On DataPortability
9. Ubuntu Marketing
10. Fedora and alternative desktops
11. AMD Releases 3D Programming Documentation
4. Ambassadors
1. Fedora By Night Event Report
2. FOSDEM Reports
5. Developments
1. Evolution Of Mail Client Preferences
2. Incompatible Unison Update
3. Three Simple Steps To Speed Up Booting / Shutdown
4. When To Introduce Asterisk 1.6
5. SELinux Smolt Statistics
6. How To Get Mock To Include Testing Packages In Buildroot
7. Auto-rebuild Release Bump Errors
8. GCC 4.3 Mass Rebuild
6. Documentation
1. Generating PDFs with Publican
2. F9 Toolchain
7. Infrastructure
1. Koji Bandaid
2. news.fp.o
3. Mailman List Policy for Fedora Hosted
8. Artwork
1. Theming the distro: the new GDM
2. EeeDora Artwork
9. Security Week
1. CUPS flaw
2. Disk Encryption Isn't So Safe
10. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
11. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-02-19
2. Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-18
3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-20
4. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-02-21
5. Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-20
6. Fedora SIG EPEL Report Week 07/2008
7. Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 2008-02-19
[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from Fedora Project.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 10's FUDCon ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"The next North American FUDCon will be in Boston, MA. It will be held
from June 19-21, in parallel with this year's Red Hat Summit."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg000...
=== LWN subscription? ===
JeffSpaleta announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"To support the 10th anniversary of LWN.net, the Fedora Project has
purchased 65 subscriptions to be given to Fedora contributors."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg000...
=== Fedora Amateur Radio SIG ===
BobJensen announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"I would like to announce a new Special Interest Group in the Fedora
Community, The Fedora Amateur Radio SIG or Fedora-Hams for short."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg000...
=== Fedora Education SIG ===
SebastianDziallas announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"I would like to encourage everybody, who is interested in education
to join us on fedora-education-list and to add his or her name to the
list in the wiki."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-February/msg000...
[[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
=== What a FOSDEM Day! ===
JoergSimon reports in his blog[1],
"the first FOSDEM Day is over and compared to last year, our booth is
much better located - so the people overrun our booth - no way to
count with how many people we talked - sometimes it was chaotic, could
not move."
[1] http://kitall.blogspot.com/2008/02/first-fosdem-day-is-over-and-compared....
=== FOSDEM08 - Saturday ===
FrancescoUgolini reports in his blog[1],
"a lot of people visit us not only at the booth but at the conferences
that Fedora contributors held (with great results, see Jens speech
about SELinux), moreover people asked for DVDs (the live CDs ended
soon) and they wanted to try the two OLPCs that we had at the booth."
[1] http://ugolini.livejournal.com/1950.html
=== The FOSDEM Buzz ===
JeroenVanMeeuwen reports in his blog[1],
"Yesterday was an interesting day at FOSDEM. I've been working on
pyJigdo mostly -in order to get the proposed feature for Fedora 9
done, and while I was doing so I attended talks...I've taken some
pictures you can view at my Fedora Unity space. Announcements in all
the proper places coming up soon."
[1] http://blogs.fedoraunity.org/kanarip/2008/02/24/the-fosdem-buzz
=== LWN, Fedora and you ===
JefSpaleta reports in his blog[1],
"The Fedora Board has decided that the fairest way to distribute this
windfall of subscriptions is by holding an open lottery for all Fedora
contributors who have an active account in the Fedora Account System"
[1] http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/19142.html
=== Fedora 10's FUDCon ===
MaxSpevack reports in his blog[1],
"Look! We're actually planning ahead for the next North American
FUDCon, to be held in Boston MA, in conjunction with this year's Red
Hat Summit."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/46053.html
=== Fedora by Night ===
FrancescoCrippa reports in his blog[1],
"Yesterday night was a Fedora Night! "Fedora by Night" attracted a lot
of Linux enthusiasts from Lodi and near zones. Thanks to LOLUG for
help, availability and visibility."
[1] http://people.byte-code.com/fcrippa/2008/02/21/fedora-by-night-the-day-af...
[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: JohnBabich
=== Dig the KDE4 Interview ===
JonathanRoberts announced [1] that the KDE4 interview [2] can now be "Dug".
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[2} http://digg.com/linux_unix/Fedora_IS_a_KDE_distro
=== Fedora Studios Spin? ===
FrancescoUgolini proposed [1] that we "create a Fedora Spin with open
source movie / sound / image programmes". This would be an alternative
to prohibitively expensive commercial products.
MichaelBeckwith agreed [2], saying we "could probably include stuff
like video and sound editing in the art spin if it's not already
planned."
Juan M. Rodriguez Moreno reminded us [3] that "Peter Jackson (of Lord
of the Rings fame) used ...Fedora Core 2." Things could only have
gotten better.
GregDeKoenigsberg put forward [4] that "we should start by engaging
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano [and] Planet CCRMA."
NicuBuculei expressed [5] his skepticism: "However, the tools are not
ready yet: Kino can't open Ogg Theora, PiTiVi can't do anything
useful, Cinelerra makes full use of proprietary codecs and so on. Do
not forget the potential legal troubles around such a spin: it would
have to handle out of the box all the tasks using free codecs, which
may not be what the users expect (you would not be legally able to
master a DVD with it)."
RussellHarrison added [6] there "would need to be the same sort of
educational message Codina has in prominent locations all over the
DVD. Aside from the technical issues you pointed out which are much
more difficult to deal with."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
=== Free Me Too ===
RahulSundaram pointed out [1] that "we have been discussing taking
Free Me to the next step. Free Me is a collection of open licensed
content bundled with a Live CD. Jonathan Roberts, I appreciate your
suggestions. Let's get started [2]. In particular, any hints on
finding some of the content under open codec formats or conversion
procedures would be appreciated. Additional content suggestions
...that... should be freely distributable and preferably have no use
restrictions."
JonathanRoberts enthused [3] "Wow, totally awesome that you're picking
this up now!! Conversion procedures I can definitely help with, though
you might need people to tweak it a little bit...ffmpeg2theora I think
is the best tool for the conversion of the video...Oh and another
point: part of my goals with free me was to make it workable without
even having to boot the live disc..." He followed up [4] with "you're
more than welcome to use any of the free me artwork".
Rahul asked [5] "How did you get the Google Videos converted? How
about all the other content not in theora or any open format?"
RussellHarrison volunteered [6] to help, but had some reservations:
"Is there any legal exposure if we use tools with potential patent
problems to convert content even if they aren't distributed on the
DVD? h.264 comes to mind as an example...Should all of the content on
the DVD be licensed under free licenses such as Creative Commons, or
is it acceptable for the [copyright] holder to release the content for
distribution with the DVD."
Rahul cautioned [7] "if you are in a region that enforce software
patents, you should consider the implications carefully... If you have
content in patent encumbered codecs, feel free to point them to me and
I will take care of the conversion. He added that he wants "openly
licensed content and not something specific to the DVD image I put
out. The ability to redistribute content as a criteria is not
negotiable. I am ok with some of the content having non-commercial
restrictions though I would prefer not."
Nicu promoted [8] the openclipart package [9], which Rahul added to
his wiki page [2].
Rahul stated [10] that "the goal of the live DVD is to promote Free
culture and Free software but not Fedora specifically."
RussellHarrison heartily agreed [11].
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RahulSundaram/FreeMeToo
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[7] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[8] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[9] http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=5839
[10] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg002...
[11] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
=== Fedora and the art of creating an inclusive community ===
Caroline Kazmierski announced [1] that PaulFrields was interviewed by
Matt Asay on his CNET blog, "The Open Road" [2].
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9875189-16.html?tag=head
=== Fedora Store SIG Update ===
JeffreyTadlock updated [1] on "what has been happening with the Fedora
Store SIG. This past week I placed an order from cafepress.com, I
ordered a T-shirt and a coffee mug...The mug looked okay. The T-shirt
was of good quality material wise, but the printing left a lot to be
desired...I have posted pictures, comparing the cafepress.com shirt to
the screen printed shirt here [2]...Another item I could use help on
is with a mockup of the store web page [3]...If you have any pros and
cons to mention, a new distributor to consider - please add them to
the wiki by next Wednesday, February 27th."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://jeffreyt.fedorapeople.org/storeSIG/
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Store/GeneralRequirements
=== Windows -> Fedora -> Windows ===
MarcWiriadisastra submitted [1] a link [2] to a strange article on a
school going from Windows to Fedora and back again. He provided this
bizarre quote: "The move ended up saving a lot of money in licensing
costs. Initially, the school used Red Hat Linux; later Fedora, Red
Hat's community distribution, was used. The money saved was used to
upgrade hardware at the school and also to provide for more PCs."
NicuBuculei opined [3]: "The reason is simple: "The reason for the
switch back to Microsoft operating systems? A lack of support from
some of the teachers, says Perkins."...But what I think was the final
nail in the coffin was: "but when all staff got laptops at the end of
2007, it spelt the end of Linux desktops at the school. The laptops
came with Windows and Office installed - this was not negotiable". He
continued [4] that "when users have a problem with Windows they blame
Microsoft and then give up, as "everybody uses it" and "this is the
way things work". But when the users have a problem with Linux they
blame the person who deployed Linux, "it was easier with Windows",
"this Linux thing is not like Windows and it sucks", "give me back my
trusted Windows"."
Luis Felipe Marzagao contributed [5] that "the main problem seems to
be the lack of the possibility to simply download programs from the
internet and install them", regardless of the danger.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16721/1090/1/0/
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
=== Best way to announce things? ===
JonathanRoberts [1] queried: "I'd like some ideas from people. Fedora
does *loads* of cool stuff that isn't just development work, but
community enabling work...I think we need another mechanism for
letting people know about cool infrastructure and community enabling
stuff that goes on. Things [like] the new collaboration server;
fedorapeople.org; the open build tools; transifex; publican etc...I
want to make sure we're doing the best we can and getting the most
attention we can for all the *awesome* extra-development stuff that
goes on!"
MarcWiriadisastra recalled [2] "that there was discussion of a wiki
page that pointed to a whole heap of e-marketing links or something.
I'm not sure if that page has ever been created."
RahulSundaram recommended [3] "we should use [news.fedoraproject.org]
extensively and integrate it into the front page via a RSS feed. Other
major announcements can go to fedora-announce list. Things like
publican for example. We should probably drop mails to journalists
directly which we have not been doing yet."
Jonathan was more concerned about the other formats besides press
releases [4], which led Rahul to agree [5], remarking that "We should
be casual, highlight not only the work done but also the people doing
the work and let Red Hat do the official press releases."
KarstenWade contributed [6] that "You are asking about format, which
means...Style of writing [and] Tooling (file format).
For the style of writing, I agree with Rahul's suggestion of a casual
tone...For tooling, we have a very cool and very simple to use method
for writing 'press releases' that can be translated. Getting global
coverage is going to require translation...Some announcements might
need to be rewritten from scratch in other languages because of
idioms, etc.
Anyone feel like learning to use this press release tool, then writing
up how-to on the wiki?
The point would be to follow a rough process like this:
1. Collaborate on a list of what to highlight (ongoing)
2. Collaborate via the wiki to write up draft => ready to release
3. Copy and paste into a press-release shell
4. Finish conversion into press-release and keep these in a version
control system
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
=== Logo War: Red Hat Takes On DataPortability ===
Note: Most, if not all, of the following contributors are not lawyers.
RahulSundaram reported [1] the following [2]: "Data`Portability
Work`Group is a project founded in November 2007 to develop best
practices towards letting users move, share, and control their
identity, photos, videos and all other forms of personal data stored
in social networks and other web services. After months of positive
news, the group has had its first hiccup, a cease and desist letter
from Red`Hat over their use of the Fedora [logo]"
NicuBuculei saw [3] the similarities. JohnBabich contributed {4] a
mini-investigation, in which he concluded "this is a well-intentioned
group of men and women who just happened to pick a logo similar to the
Fedora logo. No malice or intentional confusion is intended, and some
in the group would be more than happy to adopt another logo.", to
which
Duvelle Jones agreed [5].
However, JeffSpaleta believes [6]: "Here's the basic problem..... US
trademark law demands ACTIVE policing of a trademark, for the mark to
remain protected. This is direct contrast with how copyright and
patent law works. If you don't actively police your trademark, then
it can lose its protected status...A cease and desist letter is the
legal mechanism that the US legal system will recognize in situations
where the infringing status is in dispute. If Red Hat doesn't use
mechanisms recognized by the US legal system (the system which
ultimately determines whether a trademark is still protected), then
the trademark on the Fedora logo is jeopardized...The ultimate goal
here is the continued protection of the Fedora logo as a registered
trademark. There is no malice in the C&D letter. The other logo is
similar."
GregDeKoenigsberg informed us [7] that he was "discussing this issue
with legal now, looking for a sensible compromise. I'll report back."
KarstenWade surmised [8]: "Maybe it's not possible or sensible to send
a 'nice letter'?...When you put the Fedora and Data Portability logos
side-by-side the differences are more apparent. But honestly, when I
first saw the Data Portability website, I thought, 'Wow, looks like
the Fedora logo.'
So, Red Hat is working *for* us in defending the mark. Dilution of
that mark means dilution of our work. It's directly related to why we
are so careful about keeping non-free and encumbered software out of
the distro, as well as the many other actions that make Fedora what it
is."
Tony Guntharp, who is a member of the Data`Portability Group,
appreciating Karsten's remarks, replied [9]: "The DP group (of which I
am a member) is an loosely formed community with a purpose very
similiar in vein to Open Source / Free Software...A C&D letter should
have been sent out as a last resort instead of being the first salvo.
By this being the first shot across the bow it only allows for
escalation to the court system. If the DP group had been approached
sooner by someone from within Red Hat then I think the issue would
have still been resolved in the same manner w/o Red Hat looking like
the bad guy."
Greg agreed [10], saying "You are obviously correct. Sometimes the
left hand acts without knowing what the right hand is doing. We're
working on an answer to the problem right now, preferably before it
hits Slashdot."
Finally, Tony informed us [11], "Well Chris Saad (the quasi-leader) of
DP is in SF until April 28th (he's in from Australia) if anyone from
Red Hat cares to meet up with him. And I'm intimately familiar with
the left hand/right hand issues."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/21/logo-war-red-hat-takes-on-dataportab...
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[7] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[8] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[9] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[10] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[11] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
=== Ubuntu Marketing ===
Note: This thread and related threads totaled 66 messages.
The original message by ValentTurkovic [1] highlighted Ubuntu Cola,
the UK's first Cola with Fairtrade Label [2].
It quickly moved onto the subject of Ubuntu's popularity (the linux
distribution, not the cola), closed multimedia drivers, how to inform
users of non-free drivers, etc.
There were important and serious discussions about what "freedom"
really is about, integrity, and what end users expect, and other
related topics too numerous to list here.
ClintSavage provided [3] the best one-liner: "Let me use a phrase from
my childhood and say 'if Ubuntu jumped off a cliff, would you?'",
which was considered to be the winner in the t-shirt slogan contest by
Karsten [4].
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://www.ubuntu-trading.com/
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg004...
=== Fedora and alternative desktops ===
RahulSundaram noted [1] that the Distro`Watch Weekly [2] covered KDE4
and Xfce in Fedora, while the official KDE site [3] listed the "KDE 4
And Fedora Interview".
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg003...
[2] http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080218#news
[3] http://dot.kde.org/1203420709/
=== AMD Releases 3D Programming Documentation ===
RahulSundaram reports [1]: "Another win for Free software. The age old
myth about vendors unable to release 3D information for any number of
reasons just went out of the door... again.
"AMD has just published the first bits of open-source 3D programming
documentation for ATI GPUs. This 3D programming documentation covers
the R500 series and even goes back with information on the R300/400
series as well. The R600 3D programming guide will also be out soon"
[2]"
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-February/msg004...
[2] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_tcore_release&...
[[Anchor(Ambassadors)]]
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: JeffreyTadlock
=== Fedora By Night Event Report ===
FrancescoCrippa reported to the Ambassadors' mailing list on the
Fedora at Night event held on February 19th in Lodi, Italy.
Highlights of the event include a presentation on the community behind
Fedora, a brief overview on how Fedora is built and managed and
followed up with a question and answer period. Don't miss Francesco's
more detailed blog post and the pictures from the event he posted.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-February/msg...
[2] http://people.byte-code.com/fcrippa/2008/02/21/fedora-by-night-the-day-af...
[3] http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcrippa/sets/72157603949413659/
=== FOSDEM Reports ===
The reports [1-6] from FOSDEM 2008 in Brussels, Belgium are beginning
to roll in. Fedora is well represented at this conference with an
estimated twenty+ ambassadors in attendance to talk about Fedora!
MaxSpevack will be updating the FOSDEM Fedora Event page [7] with
links to new reports and pictures, so be sure to check that page for
updates that did not make it by the Fedora News deadline.
[1] http://kitall.blogspot.com/2008/02/first-fosdem-day-is-over-and-compared....
[2] http://ugolini.livejournal.com/1700.html
[3] http://kitall.blogspot.com/2008/02/fosdem-arrival-arrived-1700-at-brussel...
[4] http://blogs.fedoraunity.org/kanarip/2008/02/23/fosdem-2008-first-day
[5] http://fabaff.blogspot.com/2008/02/fosdem-2008-00.html
[6] http://blogs.fedoraunity.org/kanarip/2008/02/22/fosdem-2008-coming-up-soon
[7] http://fedoraunity.org/Members/kanarip/pictures/2008-fosdem
[[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
=== Evolution Of Mail Client Preferences ===
A long thread over the selection of ''evolution'' as the default MUA
in Fedora was started[1] by JensPetersen. After carefully donning a
figurative asbestos suit Jens noted that ''evolution'' was different
enough from the other GNOME applications that it was expensive to
maintain and that the release of the Mozilla Foundation's calendaring
application ''lightning'' and the stability of their MUA
''thunderbird'' suggested they could be chosen instead. MatthewBarnes
asked for elaboration of the assertion that "Evolution [is] basically
a different platform [to GNOME]". Jens replied[2], first with a
courteous thanks to Matthew for his maintenance work on ''evolution''
and then specified that he was referring to its "custom gtk widgets
and gtkhtml".
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01750....
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01765....
Matthew, who had dug in for "another round of Evolution bashing",
acknowledged[3] these points and listed the specific steps he was
undertaking to "chip away at [...] the old cruft [and] technology that
fell out of favor years ago." The list includes a migration from
''GtkHTML'' (the rendering library) to ''WebKit/GTK+'', a
move from
custom gtk widgets to modern GTK+ widgets, replacement of parts of the
''GNOME Applications Library'' and rewriting the message composer to
not use ''bonobo''. All this work is still in progress and may take
some time.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01792....
JohanGudmundsson and MatejCepl thought[4] that a parallel install of
Evolution and Thunderbird along with a mail-migration script for
Thunderbird should be installed and then the flame-fest should be
concentrated on ''Tomboy'' and ''mono''.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01871....
The issue of actual user preference was floated[5] by NicuBuculei when
he referenced Mugshot statistics which show a preference for
Thunderbird.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01769....
MatejCepl did not believe that Jens original mail was not intended as
a flame and posted[6] a list of reasons to distrust ''thunderbird'',
including poor IMAP support, poor vfolder support, bad reply-to
defaults, a lack of regexes, the use of the working folder for message
storage, and finally a proven track record of crashing. Matej's
reluctant conclusion was that all email clients sucked but that he
would like to find a GUI MUA that sucked as little as ''mutt'' did in
the non-GUI space. Further discussion with KevinKofler seemed[7] to
suggest that ''KMail'' was a possible contender. It was even
revealed[8] to be gaining HTML support, despite "HTML mail [being] a
plague infecting the Internet." This latter opinion was disputed[9] by
"Gene" who pointed out a business use-case where a HTML table can be
filled out more easily than ASCII. AlanCox retorted[10] that "you have
no idea what the recipient receives if you do that. HTML isn't a
strict formatting specification." He went on to provide a
demonstration of how large GIFs, which in themselves take up little
space, may be turned into enormous RAM-munching bitmaps causing the
recipient's client to die.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01778....
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01782....
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01899....
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01923....
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01926....
The banner of "All MUAs suck, it's just a question of which sucks less
for a given user/task" was raised again by JohnDennis. The most useful
attribute of ''Thunderbird'' for him was its lack of crashing.
TomasMraz suggested[11] that Evolution's crashing had stopped after
upgrading to Fedora 8, at least for his usage patterns. BennyAmorsen
thought[12] ''Evolution'' crashes were due to the Exchange Connector
as did TimothySelivanow.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01813....
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01836....
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01815....
PeteZaitcev laid[14] the blame on HavocPennington for diligently
implementing the Open Source Architecture vision[14a] with Evolution
plus Epiphany and explained that its "main merit [...] is the
integration with calendaring and LDAP". He cautioned that Thunderbird
was subject to competing factions which might turn it into a bloated
monster and added that for his own personal use ''sylpheed'' was good
at not chewing patches. BryanClark wrote[15] an excellent overview of
the situation which suggests that Evolution's integration and Exchange
capabilities have entrenched it for now.
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01872....
[14a] http://www.redhat.com/f/pdf/gov/WHP0005US_FEA.pdf
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01877....
As with all good flamebait there was a lot of anecdotal evidence in
the thread with some claiming[16] that Thunderbird was better than
Evolution for IMAP folders and yet others flatly contradicting[17]
this experience. It appears that there is a good deal of ground to be
made up to produce a fast, non-archive destroying, IMAP-aware mail
client.
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01752....
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01756....
=== Incompatible Unison Update ===
The bleeding-edge nature of Fedora came to the fore again when
StephenWarren asked[1] whether the decision to update ''unison'' in
Fedora 8 to a package which was not backwards compatible with older
versions was the right thing to do. JonathanUnderwood gave[2] his
opinion that it was correct given the "bleeding edge" nature of Fedora
and suggested that Stephen ask for a compatibility package or, better
still, made one. Stephen was not pleased[3] and argued that while he
expected breakage between major versions of the distro he did not
expect it within a stable version. He also thought that he might find
another distro if such decisions were actually the norm.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01809....
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01810....
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01820....
JefSpaleta thought[4] that Jonathan had handled the situation the
wrong way. In part this was based on the assumption that Jonathan had
closed the bug quickly with "NOTABUG", as suggested in the comments to
the entry. ChristopherAillon also agreed with Stephen that the wrong
decision had been made and reminded[5] the list that keeping users of
the distribution relatively happy unless there were very good
over-riding considerations was important.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01828....
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01822....
Jef requested[6] more information from Stephen as to the nature of the
incompatibility asking him to bear in mind the need to limit the
existence of compatibility packages. Responses from Stephen detailing
the exact systems that he was using led to a list which Jonathan
dismissed[7] as mostly irrelevant due to them being EOL'ed.
HansdeGoede thought that breaking a network protocol during a stable
release was a problem and also expressed[8] concern over Jonathan's
tone. Jonathan apologized[9] for any unintended tone and argued that
the bugs fixed by the update were showstoppers for cross-compatibility
and thus necessary.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01824....
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01834....
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01839....
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01881....
A lot of the commentary suggested that such changes were unacceptable.
AndrewFarris noted[10] that such changes were not uncommon with
upstream ''unison'' and ChristopherAillon suggested considering
''rsync'' as an alternative. Andrew explained[11] that
''unison'' did
not simply replicate changes from an authoritative master to a slave,
but kept both sides in sync with each other.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01864....
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01866....
As things stand there appears to be a compatibility package created by
Stephen awaiting[12] review, with quite a deal of discussion already
attached.
[12] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=433915
=== Three Simple Steps To Speed Up Booting / Shutdown ===
The slow booting of Fedora led ArjanvanderVen to undertake some
practical steps to speed things up. He confessed[1] to being "a tad
annoyed by why the initscript processing is (in my impatient
perception) slow" as each actual initscript is actually relatively
quick.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01495....
The practical improvements broke down into six major types of change
affecting ''/etc/rc.d/rc'', ''/etc/init.d/functions'' and
''/etc/profile.d/lang.sh''. They include rewriting builtin
Bourne-shell inclusive-or tests for files ,e.g. {{{[ -f FOO -o -f BAR
]}}}, to two separate statements testing for each file. The point of
this is to reduce the un-needed disk-seeking and I/O of searching for
BAR in the cases where FOO exists. BehdadEsfahbod suggested[2] that
the BASH short-circuit test, later provided[2a] by AdamGoode as {{{ [[
-f FOO || -f BAR ]] }}}, should be used instead. Behdad had undertaken
a similar exercise to Arjan's and agreed that another of the
optimizations, namely to not change VGA fonts via initscripts, was
important. He extended it to "I'd go as far as saying that
unicode_start should only be called from /etc/profile, not other bash
invocations." BillNottingham agreed strongly[3], saying "Heck, it
should only be called from a udev rule on console initialization."
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01501....
[2a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01522....
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01610....
Behdad had concentrated on ''rc.sysinit'' and was disturbed by a
script ''/sbin/start_udev'' which it called as it provided its own
internal, slower implementation of ''xargs'' instead of calling a real
xargs when available. Arjan felt[4] that ''udev'' was "so
incredibly
slow that it's just outrageous" and referenced a comparison to a much
quicker boot with a non-Fedora distribution preloaded on his laptop.
HaraldHoyer suggested[5] that it would be useful to "add udevinfo or
udevdebug to the kernel command line" to check for some of what he
found to be the usual causes of a long startup: slow kernel module
loading; firmware loading failing; persistent storage labeling bugs.
OlaThoresen noted[6] that if LDAP is used for authentication and the
network is not up before udev starts then udev waits for a long
timeout. LubomirKundrak remembered[7] that there had been a thread
about a year ago in which someone recommended that modprobe
dependencies should be cached as udev spent most of its time waiting
for this information. In fact this work had been done by HaraldHoyer
himself as reported in FWN#103 "Udev Performance"[8].
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01520....
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01586....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01624....
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01615....
[8]
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue103#head-4ff62435e0646dccef282c64e...
=== When To Introduce Asterisk 1.6 ===
JeffreyOllie asked[1] what the general feeling was about waiting until
Fedora 10 to introduce the latest version of the VOIP server
''asterisk''. Right now packages of version 1.4 of
''asterisk'' are
available for Fedora 7 and Fedora 8 but the 1.6 version was reported
by Jeff to be in "late beta".
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01659....
JefSpaleta wondered[2] why he could not package it after the Fedora 9
ISOs had been released, then drop it into the "updates-testing"
repository with appropriate fanfare to alert interested testers, and
finally push it into "updates-released" after making any necessary
changes. Jeff explained[3] that he wished to "avoid upgrading to a new
Asterisk major version in a stable Fedora release" with the reason
that Asterisk users tended to be "averse to upgrading" with some still
running on 2.4 kernels and Digium still supporting Asterisk-1.2. There
seemed to be some support for this position, but BennyAmorsen added[4]
the information that the support provided by Digium was for the
non-GPL'ed "Business Edition" and extended only to security fixes.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01662....
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01668....
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01703....
The other side of the argument was put[5] by RichiPlana who stated his
preference, as an employee of an enterprise which ships production
systems based on the latest Fedora and Asterisk versions, for a
package of the beta to be available for testing "even if it doesn't go
stable before F10 is released". Richi later argued[6] that as Asterisk
itself was moving to a shorter release cycle more synchronized with
Fedora's and that this "beta3" seemed from their list traffic to be
implementing very conservative changes. The new management features
were something which Richi was especially interested in testing.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01705....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01663....
The stability of the beta was raised[7] by KevinKofler as an important
factor in the decision. He argued that if the official release was
scheduled prior to the release of Fedora 9 then "you should definitely
upgrade to the beta now and get the release info F9 final." If,
however, it were to be released afterwards then a decision needed to
be made based upon the evaluation of the stability of the beta. Kevin
noted that the "beta" label itself meant wildly different things for
different projects.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01682....
On a related issue JohannGudmundsson asked[8] whether the latest
''ISC-DHCP'' (ver. 4) and ''freeradius'' could be
packaged. He also
wondered if there were some way to see whether Fedora was shipping the
most recent software from a variety of projects. JohnDennis
answered[9] that he just needed to find time to get the latest
''freeradius 2'' done and that there was nothing blocking it.
FlorianlaRoche posted[10] a link to a handy distrowatch table which
may be slightly inaccurate but attempts to provide a tabular view of
package versions. KevinKofler reminded[11] Johann that DHCP-4 was
already in rawhide.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01670....
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01671....
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01672....
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01683....
=== SELinux Smolt Statistics ===
Seeking clarification on the figures reported by Smolt for SELinux
JamesMorris asked[1] whether the report that approximately half of
those surveyed (circa 331,000 registered hosts) had SELinux enabled
was accurate. James pointed out that as reports on SELinux had only
been collected from Fedora 8 onward the true percentage might be
closer to 74%.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01621....
YaakovNemoy agreed[2] that more detailed reports were necessary, but
was off to FOSDEM and had to put it on a "TODO" list for urgent
attention. JamesMorris was[3] keener to get a quick correction up on
the web page and some clarification as to how the statistics were
calculated.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01622....
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01634....
A slightly fraught part of the thread was started[4] by ValentTurkovic
when he replied to James' original query with a partial quote which
emphasized the original statistic "If this arguments are true for
Fedora 8 than it looks like that more people dislike selinux than like
it, right?" and ignored the probable confusion which James had pointed
out. James responded[5] "Why did you delete the rest of the email,
which queried these numbers and suggested that the real figure for
enablement was much higher?" He added that off-list he had obtained
the raw figures for Fedora 8 systems (the only ones which actually are
set up to report whether SELinux is enabled or not) and "the
"Enabled=True" value is currently 94%." James qualified this with the
caution that there were several factors confounding any simple
interpretation. JohnDennis answered[6] that Valent had an "anti
SELinux agenda" as referenced by previous threads and Valent
countered[7] that this was a misunderstanding and that he was helping
by contributing bugs for selinux-policy.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01690....
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01704....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01962....
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01962....
One of the possible confounding factors was raised by BennyAmorsen,
who asked "Does Enabled=True imply enforcing". JamesMorris answered[8]
that it did not and this was one of the extra pieces of information
which needed to be collected. He also expressed a wish that
information on other security features such as ''iptables'' be
collected.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01739....
=== How To Get Mock To Include Testing Packages In Buildroot ===
NealBecker asked[1] how it was possible to build against a package
which was in ''testing''. He was specifically concerned with the
situation that his ''python-igraph'' package had a BuildRequires on
''igraph-devel'' and he wished to build against the latest
''igraph-devel-0.5'' which had just been pushed into testing.
IgnacioVazquezAbrams told him to "request a buildroot inclusion from
releng" and upon further questioning confirmed[2] that this meant
"send an email to releng."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01633....
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01647....
A webpage listing the commands used by Koji administrators was
linked[3] by AlexLancaster and he suggested adding the "email rel-eng"
instructions for ordinary users there. JesseKeating seemed[4] to want
to keep that particular page as a reference for the Koji
administrators but requested "somebody please suggest a place where
[instructions on making this request by email] will be found and used
[on the wiki]."
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01675....
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01676....
"This is not a particularly intuitive mechanism at the moment. How can
we automate this better" asked[5] DenisLeroy. Jesse replied[6] with a
request for patches.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01637....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01638....
=== Auto-rebuild Release Bump Errors ===
A report[1] by OrionPoplawski of an incorrect bump of the version of
his pre-release ''gdl'' package, as a result of the GCC-4.3
autorebuild (see this same FWN#121 "GCC 4.3 Mass Rebuild"), exposed a
problem in its naming. The ''gdl 0.9-0.pre6.fc9'' package bad been
bumped to ''0.9-1.pre6.fc9'' and Orion noted that it should have been
''0.9-0.pre6.fc9.1''. MichaelSchwendt corrected[2] the original
numbering to ''0.9-0.1.pre6%{?dist}''.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01657....
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01660....
After JesseKeating agreed with Michael and pointed out that packages
which fail to follow the guidelines will be missed by the bumper
attention was drawn[3] to the jpp-based java packages by MattWringe.
Matt noted that they seemed to have all failed to update properly, yet
were following the JPackage naming guidelines. Michael asked[4]
whether the original BillNottingham / ElliotLee (sopwith) script in
cvs/fedora, used by the old FedoraExtras, was used as "if a different
and secret script is used, that's not helpful." Jesse responded[5]
that it was one from ''cvs/fedora/rebuild-scripts'' and asked for
details of failed jpp packages because the ones which he had examined
seemed fine. KevinKofler reported that they were bumped to
''m+1jpp.something'' instead of ''mjpp.n+1'' to which
Michael
replied[6] that this was now a supported scheme in cvs. In discussion
with Kevin further details of the bumper were explained by Michael.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01957....
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01968....
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01969....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01985....
=== GCC 4.3 Mass Rebuild ===
The announcement that a mass rebuild using ''GCC-4.3'' was made[1] on
18 February 2008 by JesseKeating. JoshBoyer sounded[2] happy that
blacklist requests (by the owners of packages which were known in
advance to fail to rebuild) would no longer be accepted.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01597....
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01601....
JoshBoyer in response to DenisLeroy stated[3] that the algorithm was
to "rebuild all except blacklisted AND already rebuilt with gcc 4.3".
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01582....
PERL packages were thought[4] by PaulHowarth to be a problem as he had
been waiting for an update to ''PERL 5.10'' in the buildroots before
he built his packages. Josh answered[5] that such packages would be
rebuilt twice: once now and then another time when the PERL update
landed. TomCallaway issued[6] a mea culpa for the lack of a PERL
update.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01584....
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01590....
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg01614....
[[Anchor(Documentation)]]
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JohnBabich
=== Generating PDFs with Publican ===
JaredSmith has been testing Publican with a few Fedora Project
documents. He stated [1] that he kept "getting errors from FOP when I
try to build PDFs." He later added [2] "I think I've made some pretty
good progress on tracking down this problem. To make a long short,
publican is assuming that we're using FOP 0.20, while what's in
rawhide is 0.94. This meant xsltproc was adding fox:destination
elements to the .fo file, instead of the new fo:bookmarks instead."
To work around this problem, he modified xsltproc parameters in the
Makefile. ...That got the .fo file generated so that FOP 0.94 would
handle it correctly, but then FOP died complaining that it couldn't
find Batik in the classpath...Ah, lo and behold, I was able to render
a PDF!"
He added that this "raised a few questions:
1) Do we want the toolchain to be able to detect the version of FOP
and adjust itself accordingly?
2) Do we want to expose other parameters to xsltproc? In my very
rudimentary home-grown toolchain, I create a custom XSLT stylesheet
that exposes a bunch of settings (paper.type, double.sided,
draft.mode, shade.verbatim, etc.) which imports the standard XSL
stylesheet. Would this be more manageable in the long run that
passing a bunch of stringparam arguments to xsltproc?
3) Makefile.templates currently tells FOP to use the fop configuration
file in $(COMMON_CONFIG)/fop/fop-0.20.5.xconf, but that doesn't come
as part of the publican package. Should we remove the reference (and
assume people have a valid FOP config file in /etc/fop.conf), or
expose this via a variable in the Makefile? (This isn't a big deal --
I just thought I'd mention it in passing while I was thinking about
it.)
4) Can somebody take a look at why fop isn't seeing batik in the
classpath? My Java skills are obviously too weak to fix this
problem."
JeffFearn, one of main developers of Publican, replied [3] that there
were differences introduced by using different versions of FOP and
that customization of brands at this stage is difficult. However,
there are ways to customize PDF output by making a new xsl files. It
is possible to add extra build targets, but it's a little tricky since
it involves modifyng Makefiles. Jeff later announced [4] "I came up
with a way that can support an arbitrary number of config files".
Jared responded [5] "I currently have FOP 0.94 working just fine with
Publican in Rawhide, with the exception of support for SVG graphics."
KarstenWade reminded [6] the team "IIRC, Batik originally had some
dependencies for graphics processing that couldn't be cleanly
included under IcedTea. It may not yet be able to process SVG?"
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00102.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00103.html
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00104.html
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00119.html
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00121.html
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00123.html
=== F9 Toolchain ===
KarstenWade writes [1]
While all this toolchain talk is in the air ...
We've got several major activities going on that are relying upon our
current-and-working toolchain:
* Release notes need to build properly by 16 March...
* Updates to existing guides (IG, SMG) by mid-March...
* New guides going into Beta in March (DUG, AG)
Beyond being confident the guides can build cleanly, which Jared has
demonstrated in the one case, we need to know that they can match
whatever MUST list we put
together. Some SHOULD items are OK, too.
For starters:
* Must be possible to go from Wiki to usable XML with similar
process/hassle as current pathway
* Must be able to pull book from CVS and build in Fedora 8 and Fedora
9 tests (Alpha, Beta, RC, Sulphur)
- follows the tradition of not requiring docs tools to work for Fedora N-1
* Should be able to build in Fedora 7
* Must produce PO files that are line-for-line identical to the one
produced in the last version
- this is to minimize re-translation or having to re-check already
translated strings on content that is already translated (IG,
Relnotes)
* Must process PO and POT so as to not put a burden on translation and
Transifex (line-for-line identical or close enough)
* Must be usable by Release Engineering in composing the build
* Must be hostable by Fedora Infrastructure for Docs, L10n, or
Rel``Eng build systems
* Must have a reliable upstream, should be relied upon for at least 12 months
* Must have a packager who affirms to maintain the package, should be
affirmed for at least 12 months
* Should build RPMs that match the RPM capability of /cvs/docs
- need to list these out
Anything else?
MarcWiriadisastra mentioned [2] that he "would love to be able to
transfer to xml as in know how to transfer to xml so I can actually
work on the DuG. It's at the stage were it is edit ready so the reason
why there hasn't been any discussion is because I have no idea of how
to proceed from now." Karsten said [3] he was waiting for the "CVS
module and bugzilla component." Marc asked where the style guide was
located, to which Karsten cheerfully replied.
JaredSmith responded [4] that "Just to be clear... I'm *not* pushing
for a change to a new toolchain before F9. I think it would be
awfully rash of us to do so at this point in the game. I also don't
want anybody to mistake my enthusiasm for publican as somehow knocking
the current tool chain. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know
the current tool chain very well. Additionally, I don't think we've
tested publican enough (as far as the translations go, especially) to
know whether or not it's a good fit for what we do. What I *am*
enthusiastic about is how quickly publican allows people to hit the
ground running, especially those who are new to DocBook and their tool
chains. If I had to prognosticate at this point, I'd say that in two
years' time, we'll have taken the best pieces of publican and the
current tool chain and welded them together."
Jared also asked [5] for feedback on his conversion of the Software
Management Guide using Publican.
Karsten concluded [6] that "clearly, the interest in publican and it's
(apparent) ease to get started with an XML book is a feature we've
been missing in the Fedora Docs toolchain. Honestly, though, we have
been pursuing the higher gain. Across open source projects, the wiki
is where the developers and other contributors do their community
documentation. When we focused exclusively on XML, we had very
interested or enabled contributors.
Some years back I spoke with the Mozilla Dev documentation folks, who
had then changed from DocBook XML to a fully wiki-based
system...Switching to the wiki, they saw 10x increase from developers,
even the ones who knew DocBook well enough. In addition, many new
contributors came in to help, which increased the editorial and
content group.
It's unclear to me how much these features of publican matter to
Fedora Docs. For example, the people who have dropped by #fedora-docs
looking for publican help seem to be working on their own content.
While maintaining tools that allow the creation of free content is a
part of the Docs charter, it's definitely a lower priority than
enabling Fedora contributors to create content for Fedora. Right now
that means helping to maintain the wiki:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/WikiGardening
Finally, he agreed with Jared that an open community development for
Publican from this point forward is definitely to be desired.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00122.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00124.html
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00128.html
[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00125.html
[5] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00126.html
[6] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00131.html
[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: HuzaifaSidhpurwala
=== Koji Bandaid ===
MikeMcGrath writes[1],
The Koji builders don't check back in automatically when they lose a
connection to the host. Mike put a script to fix it. The script could
be run as a cron job or as nagios event. The problem is that we don't
have currently, nagios take an action when an event occurs.
[1]
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/...
=== news.fp.o ===
JonathanRoberts writes[3],
There is an open ticket [2] for news.fedoraproject.org site but
unfortunately it's not been
updated in the past 4 months. There was some discussion about what
news software to use and if wordpress will do the trick.
[2] https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/fedora-infrastructure/ticket/178
[3]
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/...
=== Mailman List Policy for Fedora Hosted ===
JeffreyOllie writes[4],
Since we have most of the technical bits in place for Mailman for
Fedora Hosted. Now we just need to figure out a few policy items like
who can request a list etc.
[4]
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/...
[[Anchor(Artwork)]]
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: NicuBuculei
=== Theming the distro: the new GDM ===
Theming the distro requires multiple graphics, not only a background
wallpaper, and with the fast changed in Fedora there are some areas
not fully documented. Such one is the new GDM (GNOME Display Manager),
and after some incertitude on the fedora-art list[1], NicuBuculei
takes the problem to the fedora-desktop-list[2], where he receive a
comprehensive answer about the status from WilliamJonMcCann: while the
feature was reverted in GNOME 2.22 due to time constraints, there is
enough time until the Fedora 9 release, and this feature[3] is still
on track for inclusion, another fine example of Fedora leading the
innovation.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00175.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-desktop-list/2008-February/msg0004...
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NewGdm
=== EeeDora Artwork ===
Among the many Fedora derivatives, EeeDora[1] is a customization of
the distribution for the very popular Eee PC. On the fedora-art
list[2] ValentTurkovic urges the team to take into consideration
that's laptop unusual screen size when creating the graphics for the
upcoming Fedora 9, to have a good experience for the users of such
hardware platforms.
[1] http://eeedora.rmbsanalytics.com/
( Editor's Note: the site was down at the time of editing. See
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/eeedora:installing )
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-February/msg00171.html
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== CUPS flaw ===
A rather scary looking bug was noticed in CUPS last week:
CUPS "process_browse_data()" Double Free Vulnerability[1]
This is always one of the things that makes security and Open Source
quite the challenge, yet also something positive. This bug was
reported to the CUPS project in January, but nobody noticed until last
week that it was even there. In a closed source project, a bug such as
this would probably go unnoticed, and never be called a security
issue. The "many eyes" aspect of Open Source is what got this noticed,
and thanks to Secunia, the various interested vendors shipping a
vulnerable version of CUPS were able to apply the fix to keep their
users secure.
[1] http://secunia.com/advisories/28994/
=== Disk Encryption Isn't So Safe ===
New Research Result: Cold Boot Attacks on Disk Encryption[1]
This research paper is quite brilliant, while also being amazingly
simply when you really think about it. It's never been a secret that
RAM can hold its contents for an extended period of time. It's assumed
that it should be possible to inspect RAM under an electron microscope
and reveal the previous contents long after a machine has been powered
off. The scary thing about this paper is that simply quickly
rebooting a machine should make it quite possible to extract previous
RAM contents.
While I don't think it's worth building a bomb shelter in your
backyard over this, any paranoid tech traveler should be aware of this
paper.
[1] http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1257
[[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 ===
* pcre-7.3-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg...
* moin-1.5.8-4.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg...
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* moin-1.5.8-4.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-February/msg...
[[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 2008-02-19 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2008-02-19
=== Fedora Community Architecture Meeting 2008-02-18 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CommunityArchitecture/Meetings/2008-02-18
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-02-20 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-February/msg00120.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-02-21 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-February/...
=== Fedora Bug Zappers Meeting 2008-02-20 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Agenda-2008-Feb-20
=== Fedora SIG EPEL Report Week 07/2008 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/Reports/Week07
=== Fedora SIG KDE Report Week 2008-02-19 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE/Meetings/2008-02-19
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung