10:30 a.m.
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 181[1] for the week ending June 21,
2009.
Here are a few highlights from this week's issue. Announcements starts
us off with a reminder that Fedora 9 end-of-life is July 10, and an
update from the Fonts SIG, including many Fedora 11 items, along with
coverage of the Fedora Activity Day recently held. From the Fedora
Planet, details on a new Fedora Community Portal that opened to much
excitement. The QA beat turns its sights to Fedora 12, with details on
schedule, installer and rawhide testing plans. In Fedora Ambassador,
news on the SouthEast Linux Fest last week in Clemson, SC. Translation
news brings us word of many new members to the localization project, and
translation updates for Fedora web for Dutch and Hebrew. The Artwork &
Design beat completes the issue with coverage of discussion on Fedora 12
theming.
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[2]. We welcome reader feedback: fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Adam Williamson
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue181
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
-- Announcements --
In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project[1] [2] [3].
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/
2. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events
--- Fedora 9 (Sulphur) ---
The end-of-life for Fedora 9 has been set for Friday, July 10.[1]
After this date, no builds will be allowed in Koji, and no further
updates will be pushed.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-June/msg00009.html
--- Fonts Special Interest Group ---
Nicolas Mailhot[1] posted a fantastic status report[2] about all of the
recent happenings in the Fonts SIG[3].
Some of the Fedora 11-related highlights include automatic font
installation[4] courtesy of PackageKit, as well as updates to the fonts
packaging guidelines, and re-packaging of many fonts as a result.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Nim
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-June/msg00010.html
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Fonts_SIG
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/AutomaticFontInstallation
--- FUDCons and FADs ---
This section previews upcoming Fedora Users & Developers Conferences, as
well as upcoming Fedora Activity Days.
-- FUDCon Porto Alegre 2009
FUDCon Porto Alegre[1] will take place June 24-27 in Brazil. About 35
people have signed up so far.
If you would like more information, please visit the wiki page.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:LATAM_2009
--- FUDCon Berlin 2009 ---
FUDCon Berlin[1] will be held from June 26-28, and we're got almost 150
people pre-registered for the event.
If you would like more information, please visit the wiki page.
If you have not yet acquired your e-ticket, find instructions here.[2]
--- Fedora Activity Day Fedora Development Cycle 2009 ---
A Fedora Activity Day (FAD) was held June 8-10 at Red Hat's campus in
Raleigh, NC to refine the development cycle for the coming year. More
detail and discussion logs are available[3]
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-June/msg00012.html
3.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_Fedora_Development_Cyc...
--- Upcoming Events ---
Consider attending or volunteering at an event near you!
* North America (NA)[1]
* Central & South America (LATAM)[2]
* Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)[3]
* India, Asia, Australia (India/APJ)[4]
1.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009_-_August_2009.29
2.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009_-_August_2009.29_2
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009_-_August_2009.29_3
4.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009_-_August_2009.29_4
-- Planet Fedora --
In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora[1] - an
aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide.
Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin
1. http://planet.fedoraproject.org
--- Community Portal ---
The new Fedora Community Portal[1] has been opened! A number of Planet
bloggers have posted[2][3][4] about this with great excitement. No more
paintain[5]!
1. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/community/
2. http://blogs.gnome.org/dcbw/2009/06/11/fedora-11-is-out1111/
3. http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2545
4. http://mairin.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/no-more-paintain/
5. http://mairin.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/what-does-paintain-mean/
--- General ---
Chitlesh Goorah explained[1] how to use the newly-packaged MinGW
cross-compiler suite in Fedora 11, by cross-compiling gerbv for Windows.
Daniel Walsh answered[2] the question "What Happened to setroubleshoot?"
in Fedora 11 and provided a preview of some sealert changes planned for
Fedora 12. In another post, he added[3] some information about the
differences between running a daemon directly versus with an init
script, and how that can cause permissions problems with SELinux.
Greg DeKoenigsberg described[4] some of what he has been up to recently,
an "attempt to change the way that computer science education works."
James "Ben" Williams wondered[5] what will become of Fedora installation
CDs. Robert 'Bob' Jensen also chimed[6] too. For those of interested,
see the F12 Feature Proposal[7].
Peter Hutterer posted[8] Part 3 in the series on XI2 Recipies, this time
with code snippets for gathering information about X Input devices.
Jeremy Katz requested[9] that people help test isohybrid a new tool that
"lets you take an ISO image, post-process it and then be able to either
burn the ISO to a CD or write it to a USB stick with dd".
Karsten Wade suggested[10] that there should exist some sort of
"rpm2all" tool that could take an RPM file and automatically build
installable releases for any distribution.
Josh Boyer mentioned[11] the fact that for F13, PPC will no longer be a
primary architecture, and there are a number of tasks to be done in
order to make the transition as smooth as possible. Those interested
should join the PowerPC SIG.
Michael DeHaan offered[12] to personally help people get started with
hacking on Cobbler. "If you are interested in datacenter automation
around Cobbler, from July 6th to July 10th, I’m going to offering myself
up to teach folks how to hack on the Cobbler project."
1.
http://clunixchit.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-fedoras-windows-cross-compil...
2. http://danwalsh.livejournal.com/28828.html
3. http://danwalsh.livejournal.com/29041.html
4. http://gregdek.livejournal.com/51300.html
5.
http://jbwillia.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/time-to-address-the-needs-of-the...
6.
http://blogs.fedoraunity.org/bobjensen/2009/06/16/the-downfall-of-modern-....
7. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F12_No_Split_CDs_Proposal
8. http://who-t.blogspot.com/2009/06/xi2-recipes-part-3.html
9.
http://velohacker.com/fedora-notes/a-request-for-some-simple-testing/
10. http://iquaid.org/2009/06/18/i-want-an-rpm2all-tool/
11. http://jwboyer.livejournal.com/33999.html
12.
http://michaeldehaan.net/2009/06/20/learn-to-hack-on-cobbler-week-july-6t...
-- QualityAssurance --
In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1].
Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA
--- Test Days ---
There was no Test Day last week, as we finally released Fedora 11.
Currently, no Test Day is scheduled for next week - it is still very
early in the Fedora 12 cycle. If you would like to propose a test day
which could result in changes for post-release updates for Fedora 11, or
an early test day for Fedora 12, please contact the QA team via email or
IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac[1].
1. https://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/
--- Weekly meetings ---
The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-06-17. The full log is
available[2]. Adam Williamson reported that he had added a suggested
draft for the previously agreed change to the minimum hardware
requirements to an existing bug report[3].
James Laska reported on the Fedora 11 retrospective meeting which had
taken place the previous day, and which he, Adam Williamson, Jesse
Keating and Edward Kirk had attended to represent the QA and BugZappers
groups. All agreed that the meeting had been well-run and productive.
Jesse pointed out that the real test of its success would be if any of
the items discussed had led to actual changes within the next month or
two. James promised to update the QA team's Goals page[4] to incorporate
the lessons learned from the Fedora 11 release cycle.
The group discussed whether some kind of voice format for the meeting
would be better than IRC, but in the end there was wide agreement that
it would not be.
James Laska mentioned that the period for open feedback on proposals
stemming from the earlier Fedora Development Cycle Activity Day[5] was
nearing an end: feedback on these proposals will be accepted up to June
30th. The proposals can be found in an email from Jesse Keating[6].
Anyone interested is encouraged to read the proposals and provide feedback.
Will Woods reported on progress of the AutoQA project. He noted that one
of the FAD proposals, israwhidebroken.com[7], is essentially an AutoQA
project, and so he has established it as the first AutoQA milestone,
with a set of tickets[8]. He noted that Jesse Keating is working on
packaging autotest[9], which will be the harness used to create the
automated tests for this project. Jesse pointed out that autotest
required Google Web Toolkit, which is not yet packaged either, so
packaging autotest is a big project, but he was confident that he will
be successful.
The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[10] was held on 2009-06-16. The full
log is available[11]. Adam Williamson reported that Brennan Ashton is
working on having a components page as part of the triage metrics
system[12].
Edward Kirk reported on his attempts to find out how the critical
component list was generated so it can be accurately updated. He later
spoke with Jon Stanley and Jesse Keating and was advised to use the
critical path packages proposal[13] to help re-generate the list. He
will report further next week.
Adam Williamson reported on the progress of the kernel triage project.
He had sent an email to all interested parties, asking the kernel team
to provide information on the current workflow used for kernel bugs, but
had not yet received a reply, so this project is currently waiting on
that important information from the kernel team.
Adam Williamson also reported on a request received from the EPEL
team[14] for some help with a Bug Day they have planned for July
11th[15]. Kevin Fenzi, who is part of the EPEL project, provided some
explanations: a copy of RHEL is not required to help, Bugzappers could
help with only a CentOS box, or even just Fedora in some cases. Help
asked of the Bugzappers team is mostly in typical Bugzappers tasks of
triaging and pinging dormant bugs for further information. The EPEL
project follows the Fedora bug workflow. The group agreed that they
would be happy to help out with the Bug Day, and asked the EPEL project
to provide more information closer to the date.
The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-06-24 at 1600 UTC in
#fedora-meeting, and the next Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-06-23 at
1500 UTC in #fedora-meeting.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20090617
3. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=499585
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Goals
5.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_Fedora_Development_Cycl...
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00385.html
7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Israwhidebroken.com_Proposal
8. http://fedorahosted.org/autoqa/milestone/israwhidebroken.com
9. http://autotest.kernel.org/
10. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings
11.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2009-Jun-16
12. http://publictest14.fedoraproject.org/triageweb/
13. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Critical_Path_Packages_Proposal
14. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL
15. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL_Bug_Day_July_2009
--- Improved and more detailed QA / Release Engineering scheduling for
Fedora 12 ---
John Poelstra announced[1] that he had worked on a draft for an improved
and more detailed schedule for release engineering tasks for Fedora 12,
which also affects QA. He suggested that "we should move to more of a
standard software model (just as we did with the naming of the schedule,
etc.) where there is more separation between Releng and QA. IOW, Releng
provides the service of packing the bits and composing an installable
distro and QA provides the service of testing them and giving a thumbs
up/down on them", and asked "What tweaks should I make to better reflect
QA's needs?" The proposed schedule has blocker bug reviews happening the
Friday before key freezes, exact dates for release engineering composes,
and exact dates for compose testing. James Laska replied[2] with broad
support for each of the proposals.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00507.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00513.html
--- Installer test plan ---
Liam Li announced[1] a test plan for installation for Fedora 12[2], and
asked for feedback. James Laska replied[3], noting that he had made some
minor changes to the Wiki page, and providing some comments on the plan.
He pointed out that it may be a good idea to consider the yum install
cleanup feature[4] in the plan, and suggested only listing the test
priority order once.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00529.html
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/TestPlans/Fedora12Install
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00538.html
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Features/YuminstallCleanup
--- Rawhide acceptance test plan ---
Will Woods announced[1] the creation of a Rawhide acceptance test
plan[2], which is part of the israwhidebroken.com proposal discussed
during the weekly meeting (see above). This outlines the overall set of
features which should be tested to determine if Rawhide is currently in
a usable state or not. Jóhann Guðmundsson suggested[3] a test for
whether a basic wired network connection could be established. Adam
Williamson suggested[4] a test for whether basic input (keyboard and
mouse) are working. Tom London suggested[5] a test for encrypted root
filesystems, but Will explained[6] that this was beyond the scope of
basic functionality testing.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00547.html
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Rawhide_Acceptance_Test_Plan
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00552.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00549.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00565.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-June/msg00566.html
-- Ambassadors --
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
--- Fedora at SELF ---
Fedora was on hand in a big way at the SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) last
weekend in Clemson, S.C.
Over 500 people attended the inaugural event, which instantly put itself
on the national Linux fest map.
Fedora project leader Paul Frields gave one of the keynotes at the fest,
and the Fedora booth rolled out not only Fedora 11, but also some new
swag, including case badges and tattoos, which were a hit.
A Fedora Activity Day which covered a wide variety of topics was also
held on Sunday.
More on the event at http://jbwillia.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/self-2009/
and at http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2562
--- Fedora 11 released ---
Fedora 11 was released on Tuesday, June 9, and with it a variety of
activities around the release will be forthcoming. As such, with the
upcoming release of Fedora 11, this is a reminder that posting your
event on Fedora Weekly News can help get the word out. Contact FWN
Ambassador correspondent Larry Cafiero at
lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org with announcements of upcoming events
-- and don't forget to e-mail reports after the events as well.
-- Translation --
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
--- FLP Meeting Postponed ---
The FLP meeting called for the 18th of June[1] was postponed[2] due to a
lack of responses and consensus on the meeting time.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00110.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00131.html
--- F11 Translations for Fedora-Web updated for Dutch and Hebrew ---
Alerted[1] by Richard van der Luit about missing Dutch translations for
Fedora-Web, Ricky Zhou enabled Dutch and the newly added Hebrew
translations. He also reminded[2] that for new translations to be added
to Fedora-web modules, the translators have to send a message to the web
team to allow them to make necessary configuration changes.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00121.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00124.html
--- New members in FLP ---
Renaud Estampe[1] (French), Dušan Hokův[2] (Czech), Giovanni Cucca[3]
(Italian), Javier Fernandez[4] (Spanish), Nebojsa Kamber[5] (Serbian)
and Michael Wojdyr[6] (German, Polish) joined the Fedora Translation
Project last week.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00133.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00130.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00117.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00114.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00115.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-June/msg00111.html
-- Artwork --
In this section, we cover the Fedora Design Team[1].
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
--- Looking Forward to Fedora 12 ---
After Thomas Kole asked[1] about what is the Fedora 12 theme "I really
want to create a wallpaper for f12, but what is the theme?" and Nicu
Buculei pointed[2] it will be announced in approximatively one week "I
believe the result is expected to be announced next week at FUDCon",
Martin Sourada started the debate[3] about tht process for to be
used"what's the theming process for F12?" and provided a first sketch
"1. sketching the base concepts[...] 2. get initial approach wallpapers
into Alpha[...] 3. have most of the artwork covered by Beta[...] 4.
polish for RCs and Final".
Nicu further outlined[4] the tight schedule "According to the schedule,
we have Alpha freeze on 2009-08-04 and Alpha release on 2009-08-18",
Martin mentioned[5] some past problems to avoid "First of all we need to
make clear it's not competition, but we still need more than one
designs" and Máirín Duffy advanced[6] a possible different approach "I
wonder if we could take an approach instead of creating the base image
from scratch this time, to go out and search the best of openly-licensed
content and try to provide a thematic selection?", which was disliked[7]
by Nicu "is like us dropping the ball and acknowledging we are not able
to create ourselves something good enough", Martin[8] and Samuele
Storari[9] "I hope we will not stop create, and, I think we may work
again in the contest mode", but also Martin noticed[10] how the old
process has put a lot unreasonable stress on Máirín's shoulders "One of
the things I remember from the past releases are your all-nighters that
saved us from disasters, especially considering you are doing it in your
spare time..."
After a few more rounds of debate, Máirín Duffy proposed[11] a plan: "I
think I really like the requirement that the default be: original,
vector, abstract, theme-related. And that we pick, let's say as
originally proposed, 4 works from the creative commons / openly-licensed
community that are related to the theme as well and have the following
breakdown: 2 general appeal / any age group, 1 appeal to children, 1
appeal to women" which was positively received, with a possible addition
by Nicu Buculei[12] "- a larger "extras" package (but not very large)
yummable from the repository and *maybe* also on the install DVD; a huge
gallery with *everything* available online, where people can browse with
Firefox and use it's "set image as desktop background" option."
Once the process is defined, it will be widely publicised so the larger
community can take part into it "process announced in Fedora Weekly news
& Fedora Forum; process announced on Planet fpo; each phase of the
process announced in FWN & on Planet FPO & Fedora Forum; maybe some kind
of podcast, www.fpo banner, some kinds of publicity that way to get
people involved."
1.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000205.html
2.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000210.html
3.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000206.html
4.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000211.html
5.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000215.html
6.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000218.html
7.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000228.html
8.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000244.html
9.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009-June/000229.html
--- end FWN 181 ---