11:17 a.m.
Fedora Weekly News Issue 168
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 168 for the week ending March 22nd,
2009.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue168
With the Fedora 11 Beta release slipping by one week Announcements
reminds the community about "FUDCon Berlin 2009". In PlanetFedora the
recent Red Hat patent acquisitions are among several topics covered.
Ambassadors reports on the OLPC XO work at Rochester Institute of
Technology. QualityAssurance gets excited about "Test Days" for
DeviceKit, Xfce and an upcoming one for nouveau. Developments reflects a
lot of anxious upgrading and "How to Open ACLs and Find Non-responsive
Maintainers". Translation notes the "Upgraded Transifex" and translation
to Cornish. Infrastructure advises in "Change Requests" that the infra
team is in freeze and lists all the approved recent changes and
hotfixes. Controversy rages in "Artwork" over the choice of Greek temple
imagery. Yet again SecurityAdvisories lists packages that you want,
really, really want. Virtualization worries about "More Flexible x86
Emulator Choice". Needless to say there's lots more to read this week!
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[1]. We welcome reader feedback:
fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
Contents
1 Fedora Weekly News Issue 168
1.1 Announcements
1.1.1 Fedora 11
1.1.2 FUDCon Berlin 2009
1.1.3 Upcoming Events
1.2 Planet Fedora
1.2.1 General
1.3 Ambassadors
1.3.1 RIT Pitches in on OLPC Project
1.3.2 Got Ambassador News?
1.4 QualityAssurance
1.4.1 Test Days
1.4.2 Weekly meetings
1.4.3 Wiki changes
1.4.4 Bugzilla status, priority and severity procedures
1.5 Developments
1.5.1 Auto Upgrading YUM Not Worth It
1.5.2 How to Update from Fedora 10 to Rawhide
1.5.3 Fedora 11 Beta Slips by One Week
1.5.4 Finding the Source
1.5.5 Fedorahosted Releases
1.5.6 How to Open ACLs and Find Non-responsive Maintainers
1.6 Translation
1.6.1 Upgraded Transifex
1.6.2 New Coordinators/Members in FLP
1.7 Infrastructure
1.7.1 svn-to-git Mirror
1.7.2 Change Requests
1.8 Artwork
1.8.1 Post-inclusion Feedback for the Beta Artwork
1.8.2 A Possible New Direction for the Wallpaper
1.8.3 Completing all the Graphic Pieces
1.9 Security Advisories
1.9.1 Fedora 10 Security Advisories
1.9.2 Fedora 9 Security Advisories
1.10 Virtualization
1.10.1 Enterprise Management Tools List
1.10.1.1 Virt-p2v and RAID Controller Drivers
1.10.1.2 NetWare Support added to virtinst
1.10.2 Fedora Xen List
1.10.2.1 Which Xen Configuration Files
1.10.3 Libvirt List
1.10.3.1 Xen PCI Device Passthrough
1.10.3.2 Secure Guest Migration Draft Patch
1.10.3.3 More Flexible x86 Emulator Choice
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
=== Fedora 11 ===
Jesse Keating[1] announced[2] that the Beta of Fedora 11 will slip one
week, due to some issues with both PPC and anaconda. The new Beta
release date is March 31.
=== FUDCon Berlin 2009 ===
Max Spevack[3] reminded[4] the community about FUDCon Berlin 2009[5],
including registration[6], lodging[7], and speaking[8] opportunities.
1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JesseKeating
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-March/msg00015....
3. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MaxSpevack
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-March/msg00005.html
5. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
6. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_attendees
7. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_lodging
8.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_Berlin_and_LinuxTag_2009_talks
=== Upcoming Events ===
March 23-29: LUGM OpenWeek [1] in Manipal, India.
March 25: Document Freedom Day in Kolkata, India.
March 25: Document Freedom Day in Opera, Italy.
March 26: Infotech Niagara Beta Awards[2] in Buffalo, New York, USA.
March 26: Ithaca College EdTech Day[3] in Ithaca, New York, USA.
March 27-29: PyCon[4] in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
March 31-April 2: Linux Solutions[5] in Paris, France.
April 1-2: OpenExpo[6] in Bern, Switzerland.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/LUGMopenweek
2. http://www.infotechniagara.org/events/?id=193
3. http://www.ithaca.edu/edtechday/
4. http://us.pycon.org/2009/about/
5.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/SolutionsLinux/SolutionsLinux...
6.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/OpenExpo/OpenExpo2009_Berne
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide.
http://planet.fedoraproject.org
Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin
=== General ===
Rangeen Basu Roy Chowdhury explained[1] how to build a Live USB stick
from a Live CD image. Another option, suggested in the comments, is to
use the liveusb-creator[2].
Paul W. Frields described[3] some of the preparations that the Fedora
Marketing team has been making for Fedora 11, including in-depth
articles on some of the new features.
Richard Hughes showed off[4] an updated Gnome PackageKit update viewer.
Rob Tiller, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, IP at Red Hat
responded[5] to concerns within the community about Red Hat's patenting
efforts and the Red Hat Patent Policy[6]. Paul W. Frields wrote[7] about
the response, and a lively discussion in the comments ensued.
David Woodhouse posted[8] about some documentation he had written to
support Greylisting and the exim-greylist package shipped with Fedora.
Jef Spaleta wrote[9] his "most important Fedora blog post ever" which
revolves around the "NSF sponsored workshop on Sustainable
Cyberinfrastructure"[10]. The workshop is important "for people who
believe in either the function of basic science research as a catalyst
for technical and social progress or people who believe strongly in open
development methodologies as a catalyst for deeper and more impactful
collaborations. Even more so if you happen to be in the union of those
groups and a US citizen and care about how the NSF as a Federal agency
goes about funding research and education."
As an interesting aside, Dave Jones mentioned[11] that it takes two days
and twenty minutes to run badblocks on his new 1TB hard drives.
Richard W.M. Jones worked[12] on building a minimal Fedora installation
and managed to get an installed system down to 225MB. He later
responded[13] to a comment about why it makes sense to minimize Fedora
as opposed to building a custom minimal distribution. And then he
managed[14] to get the minimal distribution down to 15.9MB.
Amit Shah benchmarked[15] various filesystems (including ext4) to find
out how well they handled pre-allocation of disk space and the new Linux
fallocate support.
1. http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/03/live-usb-magic.html
2. https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/
3. http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=1437
4. http://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2009/03/17/the-next-update-viewer/
5.
http://www.press.redhat.com/2009/03/17/discouraging-software-patent-lawsu...
6. http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
7. http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=1536
8. http://www.advogato.org/person/dwmw2/diary.html?start=201
9. http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/37433.html
10. http://cisoftwaresustainability.iu-pti.org/
11. http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/2009/03/19/badblocks-1tb-drive/
12. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/why-minimal-is-225-mb/
13.
http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/why-not-use-a-minimal-distribution/
14.
http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/febootstrap-minimal-now-159-mb/
15.
http://www.amitshah.net/2009/03/comparison-of-file-systems-and-speeding.html
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
=== RIT Pitches in on OLPC Project ===
(This item corrects a report on this topic filed in FWN Number 166)
The Fedora OLPC project seems to have found a friend at Rochester
Institute of Technology[1]. Fedora Ambassador Karlie Robinson met RIT
professor Stephen Jacobs at an OLPC Grassroots meeting on January 22 and
learned of Jacobs' interest in doing a class around the XO.
Days later, David Nalley announced the Fedora Ambassador Developers
Project and Karlie brought Professor Jacobs up to speed on what Fedora
is doing around the XO,[2] where Fedora is providing XOs to those who
will do development work. The deal revolved around getting XOs for
Jacobs classroom in exchange for the RIT students working on Greg
DeKoenigsberg's 4th Grade Math project[1].
1. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Rochester,_NY
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-olpc-list/2009-February/msg00033.html
=== Got Ambassador News? ===
Any Ambassador news tips from around the Fedora community can be
submitted to me by e-mailing lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org and I'd
be glad to put it in this weekly report.
== 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 ===
This week we had two test days, far more exciting than the boring
regular one! The first[1] was on DeviceKit[2], which will replace HAL
for disk and power management in Fedora 11. Turnout was not the highest,
but those who came along were able to find several issues which are
being addressed with the help of some of the developers involved,
including David Zeuthen and Matthias Clasen. The second test day[3] was
on Xfce[4], which is being updated to a major new release (4.6) in
Fedora 11. A group of enthusiastic Xfce users showed up and were able to
do some productive testing and refining of the Xfce environment together
with the lead packager for Fedora, Kevin Fenzi.
Next week's test day[5] will be on Nouveau[6], the new default video
driver for NVIDIA cards for Fedora 11. This is a very important event,
as NVIDIA graphics cards are the most popular type, and the new driver
is a fairly big change, so we need testing on a wide range of hardware
to make sure it's ready. A live CD will be available for the day so
you'll be able to test without a Rawhide installation. It will be held
on Thursday (2009-03-26) in the #fedora-qa channel on Freenode IRC. If
you have an NVIDIA graphics card, please make sure to come along, or -
if you can't make it on the day - do the tests and fill out your results
on the page another day.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/2009-03-17
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DeviceKit
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/2009-03-19
4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Xfce
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/2009-03-26
6. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NouveauAsDefault
=== Weekly Meetings ===
The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-03-18. The full log is
available[2]. James Laska reported good progress in his work on the
Semantic test result reporting extension for mediawiki. Packaging is
complete and he is next planning to put up a test instance of mediawiki
with the plugin enabled.
Adam Williamson reported that the Intel graphics adapter test day had
been a success, and a follow-up event was in the works. He also reported
that a Radeon test day had not yet been planned and promised to follow
that up with the appropriate developers.
Jesse Keating was asked to report on the status of the beta release. He
said that current Rawhide and particularly Anaconda was still too
unstable and said he expected the beta release would slip if he could
not get a Rawhide tree with a good Anaconda soon. He requested further
testing of Rawhide installation from the QA group, and some help from
the main QA group and the Bugzappers group on organizing and checking
existing bug reports against Anaconda.
Adam Williamson reported that the Xfce test day was fully planned, and
Kevin Fenzi reported that he had successfully generated some live CD
images for the test day. Adam asked if someone could make sure these
images would be available for download.
The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[3] was held on 2009-03-17. The full
log is available[4]. John Poelstra asked for feedback on the draft
Standard Operating Procedure for new memberships which he had sent to
the mailing list. The group generally approved of the draft. It was also
agreed that the 'triagers' and 'fedorabugs' groups in FAS should be
merged or linked, so that anyone who joined the triagers group
automatically becomes a member of fedorabugs. Edward Kirk proposed not
putting the SOP online and into operation until the appropriate changes
have been made in FAS, and this was agreed. Christopher said he will
send a draft of the new 'How to Triage' page to the mailing list for
discussion in the coming week.
The group discussed Adam Williamson's draft front page for the Wiki
area. Discussion centred on the links in the Tools and Procedures
section. Adam explained that he expected further work on the Wiki to
clean up and merge the pages linked to in that section, so the number of
links would be smaller. Christopher Beland fixed the links in the draft
which were broken. Christopher proposed putting up the new page
immediately and then working to clean up the pages further down the
hierarchy, and this was agreed by the group.
The group discussed the revised Components and Triagers[5] wiki page and
agreed the new layout was good. John Poelstra did not like the static
statistics. Adam Williamson pointed out that it is planned to replace
them with dynamically updated data from Brennan Ashton's metrics tool
once it is complete.
John Poelstra brought up the potential meeting time and date change.
Adam Williamson promised to send a mail to the mailing list summarising
the results of the matrix survey to see if a definite conclusion could
be made about whether to move the meeting.
The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-03-25 at 1700 UTC (note
changed time, in UTC reference frame) in #fedora-meeting, and the next
Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-03-18 at 1500 UTC in #fedora-meeting.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings
2. http://www.happyassassin.net/extras/fedora-qa-20090318.log
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings
4.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2009-Mar-17
5. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Components_and_Triagers
=== Wiki Changes ===
Adam Williamson announced[1] that he had added a new column to the
Components and Triagers[2] wiki page to make it easy to find out who is
the maintainer of a given component (and other information on it).
Christopher Beland changed[3] the stock response text for EOL bugs in an
attempt to make it friendlier. Adam pointed out[4] that changes to the
stock responses should be mirrored in the GreaseMonkey script. Chris
also announced[5] a draft of a new How to Triage page for the group's
feedback. Adam and Milos Jakubicek both approved of Chris' work and
provided some suggestions to improve it.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00885.html
2. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Components_and_Triagers
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00926.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00937.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00931.html
Bugzilla status, priority and severity procedures
Christopher Beland began a discussion[1] about the use of various
statuses, resolutions and the priority and severity fields in Bugzilla.
Adam Williamson pointed out[2] that some of the more unconventional
statuses and resolutions come from the RHEL side, where there is a
specific and carefully defined workflow, and these statuses do not
always mean exactly what they might appear to. Further to this, Tom Lane
noted[3] that the Bugzilla page defining each status[4] contains
accurate information on the RHEL workflow. He then suggested[5] that a
similar page should be created to define a standard workflow for Fedora
bugs, and included in Bugzilla. Jesse Keating suggested[6] that instead,
the Fedora and RHEL workflows should be merged so that both would use
the same statuses and resolutions in the same ways.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00942.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00943.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00949.html
4. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/page.cgi?id=fields.html#status
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00960.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-March/msg00962.html
== Developments ==
In this section the people, personalities and debates on the
@fedora-devel mailing list are summarized.
Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley
=== Auto Upgrading YUM Not Worth It ===
A discussion over the possible ways to upgrade from Fedora 10 to Fedora
11 was started[1] by Gerry Reno when he asked why preupgrade[2] from
Fedora 10 only presented Rawhide as an option and not Fedora 11 Alpha.
A quick answer posted[3] by Gianluca Sforna mentioned the technical
difficulties of tracking the versions of packages included in the alpha
release. Paul W. Frields was[4] concerned that anyone trying such an
upgrade made sure to update rpm before upgrading. This latter point
spawned[5] a longish thread in which the possibility of making YUM take
care of checking to see whether a newer version of itself or rpm is
available.
Will Woods suggested[6] that running preupgrade instead of doing a `yum
upgrade' avoided all that confusion.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01145.html
2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PreUpgrade
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01147.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01168.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01185.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01254.html
How to Update from Fedora 10 to Rawhide
When "nodata" reported[1] that an attempt to update rpm resulted in
errors and preupgrade also failed he concluded[2] that the
instructions[3] on the wiki were flawed.
Seth Vidal and Jesse Keating were[4] sure that "nodata" was not using
the correct procedure which they stated as a two stage process with the
first step being a:
yum update rpm
with the Fedora 10 repository enabled and then to enable the Rawhide
repository and do a general:
yum update
Unfortunately this seemed[5] to not work for "nodata" and Michael A.
Young's suggestion[6] that a "[...] temporary issue with F10 having a
more recent version of audit-libs than rawhide [...]" seemed like a
promising lead. "Nodata" resolved[7] problem by using the rescue CD to
do a "rpm -e --nodeps" and then "rpm --rebuilddb".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01227.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01245.html
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_11_Beta_release_notes#RPM_issues
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01250.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01253.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01266.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01231.html
=== Fedora 11 Beta Slips by One Week ===
Jesse Keating announced[1] that Release Engineering, QA and maintainers
had agreed that the beta release of Fedora 11 would slip by seven days
due to several issues mostly related to the rewrite of anaconda storage.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01163.html
=== Finding the Source ===
A request was posted[1] for help in finding the Fedora kernel sources by
Joe Ovanesian. A quick pointer was given[2] by Tom Diehl:
# yum install yum-utils
# yumdownloader --source package_name
Eric Sandeen wondered[3] if it might be better to use the upstream
repositories and Joe explained[4] that his objective was to build a new
kernel from source and use KGDB[5] to gain familiarity with the source.
Todd Zullinger pointed[6] to a goldmine of information on the topic on
the wiki[7].
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01100.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01101.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01130.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01151.html
5. http://kgdb.linsyssoft.com/
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01154.html
7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Building_a_custom_kernel
=== Fedorahosted Releases ===
Jon Stanley posted[1] a quick note to say that he had made it easier to
specify the upstream source URL in specfiles due to a change in
fedorahosted.org
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01015.html
=== How to Open ACLs and Find Non-responsive Maintainers ===
A couple of related threads dealt with the need to deal with a package
which lay dormant apparently due to maintainer inactivity.
Manuel Wolfshant had inquired[1] earlier in the week about the allowing
the provenpackagers to fix the gdal package. Jon Stanley promised[2] to
re-add a ticket dealing with the issue to an upcoming FESCo meeting.
In a separate thread the latest Rawhide Report[3] led Kevin Kofler to
ask[4] for an opening of the ACLs on gdal[5] so that it could be fixed
for multiple dependent packages. When Jesse Keating asked[6] Alex
Lancaster if he started the non-responsive maintainer process the answer
appeared[7] to be that it was Jesse himself. In an aside MilosJakubicek
provided[8] links to the current process. Alex seemed[9] to demonstrate
clearly that the maintainer was inactive.
1.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg00962.html
2.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01035.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01234.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01268.html
5. GDAL is a library to handle Geographic Information Systems data
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01296.html
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01301.html
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01298.html
9.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-March/msg01303.html
== Translation ==
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
=== Transifex Upgraded ===
The backend for the statistics and submission page of FLP -
translate.fedoraproject.org, has been migrated[1] to the new version of
Transifex[2]. Submission of translations would continue via the new
Transifex instance. Additionally, generation of translations statistics
would also be done by this tool. All the modules from the damned-lies
instance, used to generate statistics earlier, are now part of the
transifex instance[3].
The new translate.fedoraproject.org page also allows translators to put
temporary locks on files that they are currently translating. Bugs about
the FLP transifex instance can be filed in the Red Hat bugzilla
(Fedora-L10n/Transifex component) and bugs about Transifex are to be
reported in the upstream Transifex trac[4].
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00147.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00127.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00135.html
4. http://transifex.org/newticket
=== New Coordinators/Members in FLP ===
Steven Whitehouse joined the FLP [1][2] to start the Cornish language
translation team. Kris Thomsen is the new Danish team coordinator[3].
1.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00123.html
2.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00125.html
3.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-March/msg00111.html
== Infrastructure ==
This section contains the discussion happening on the
fedora-infrastructure-list
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
=== svn-to-git Mirror ===
Jim Meyering said [1] that he would like to set up an svn-to-git mirror
for a project on fedorahosted. The mirror was set up[2] and will be
maintained by him at the Red Hat Emerging Technology Group webspace. It
is not open for ssh access to people outside of Red Hat, so it's rather
limited.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
2. http://git.et.redhat.com
=== Change Requests ===
Due to the impending release of Fedora 11 beta, the infrastructure team
is in a change freeze right now.
The following change requests were made during the week:
1. [1] Change a piece of code in fas2 which would reduce a particular
loop time from 5 mins to 8 seconds. This change was approved and the
hotfix was put on the server.
2. [2]Add redirect from /legal/trademarks/guidelines to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines. This change
was approved.
3. [3] Make transifex run under transifex user and not apache user. This
change was also approved and committed.
4. [4] Change request to update transifex on app1 to the 0.5 version.
The change was approved.
5. [5] Remove Fedora8 from the infofeed updates: Somehow fedora8 is
still being looked for for the infofeed rss feed on
planet.fedoraproject.org. This was approved and changes were made.
6. [6]Use single quotes for the mysql backup cronjob,this has been
causing us to get extra cron spam (and stalling mysql updates). Again
this change was approved and committed.
7. [7]Make sure inactive accounts can't auth to other webapps. Approved
and committed.
8. [8] Minor bodhi update. Changes include. Again approved and applied.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
7.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
8.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2009-March/msg0...
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
=== Post-inclusion Feedback for the Beta Artwork ===
After the new wallpaper design was included in Rawhide and presented to
the users, the feedback process started.Jef Spaleta forwarded[1] a
concern raised on the OLPC list[2] by Mikus Grinbergs, about the
religious implications of using a temple "Seems to me whoever chose the
background that was introduced last week did not consider that items
with overtones of dissentious subjects such as politics or religion
might elicit emotional reactions. I'm concerned that when my system
prominently shows a picture with a temple, that might be interpreted as
'Mikus worships paganism'."
Martin Sourada did not[3] support this reaction: "I don't see a valid
reasoning there. There is vast difference between you worshiping ancient
Greece gods (not that it would be something bad if you actually do) and
having a huge Zeus' temple wallpaper hanging on your wall, let alone the
wallpaper in your PC." Paul Frields explained[4] "the conveyance as far
as I know is simply to acknowledge the heritage of the 'Leonidas' name.
Any other inference is probably a stretch" and Brian Hurren also
supported[5] this line of reasoning: "I think that the modern meaning of
a Zeus temple is a lot broader now than it was before. Kind of like an
old abbey in England would have a different meaning now." The
conversation was spiced by a very sarcastic reaction[6] from Máirín
Duffy "I'm just too distraught to carry on. I feel like my entire world
is full of these things symbolizing other things, and I'm finding myself
strangely offended by everything."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00100.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-olpc-list/2009-March/msg00147.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00101.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00103.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00107.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00104.html
Matthias Clasen raised[1] another kind of criticism regarding the
composition: "IMO it is really overloaded with all too well-known
motifs, to the extent that it appears almost like a satire of a
constructed background image. I mean, it has clouds and mountains and
doves and a black forest and a green lawn _and_ a greek temple. Any 2
out of these 6 might combine to a nice background, but all six are just
too much for my taste", a kind of positive feedback appreciated[2] by
Máirín as the purpose of releasing the graphic concepts early "Thank you
for the feedback. Receiving this kind of feedback is exactly why we
aimed to get a wallpaper into the beta."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00109.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00111.html
=== A Possible New Direction for the Wallpaper ===
Considering the received feedback Máirín Duffy, raised the idea[1] of a
possible change of direction and going with a different theme, islands
"I saw the movie Mama Mia this weekend for the first time, and it's a
movie based on a pretty Greek island" or Mount Olympus "we could take
the temple out of the current wallpaper and focus a bit more wholly on
the mountains as the symbol of Greece rather than the temple", with
Martin Sourada supporting[2] a simplification of the 'temple' image
"Hm... I'd say get rid of the trees or make them just complimentary part
of the wallpaper, drop the focus away from mountains and instead have it
on the temple" and Nicu Buculei wished for[3] more time to gather
post-beta feedback "possibly this will make Paul nervous and it may put
some deadlines in danger, but before committing to a radical change, I
think it would be useful to see the post-beta feedback from a larger
mass the users: the first wave of reviews, blogs and forum talks (the
perception setters). We all here, supporters or critics, are pretty much
subjectively involved and I think a breath of fresh air from the outside
is valuable."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00112.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00117.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00137.html
=== Completing all the Graphic Pieces ===
Máirín Duffy posted[1] on @fedora-art a template proposal for various
banners which would be used in Fedora 11 "What do you think about this
as a base style to go with for the various banners/splashes for F11?"
and asked the team for opinions about the Greek cultural motifs "Is it
too over-the-top Greek? I was trying to go for a subtle and contemporary
interpretation of a classic Greek motif." Charles Brej was enthusiastic
and started working on a Plymouth theme[2] based on it "I do like.
Simple yet styled. I made a plymouth splash based on it" and Nicu
Buculei proposed[3] combining with the wallpaper image "I would like
them more vivid, maybe combined with the photo we are going to use as a
background?" a proposal took and improved[4] Máirín, in what Paul
Frields calls[5] "art volleys".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00145.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00151.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00159.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00160.html
5.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-March/msg00162.html
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from
fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: David Nalley
=== Fedora 10 Security Advisories ===
* mldonkey-3.0.0-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* evolution-data-server-2.24.5-4.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* opensc-0.11.7-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* bugzilla-3.2.2-2.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* ejabberd-2.0.4-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* drupal-cck-6.x.2.2-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* weechat-0.2.6.1-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* thunderbird-2.0.0.21-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* ghostscript-8.63-5.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
=== Fedora 9 Security Advisories ===
* mldonkey-3.0.0-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg005...
* wireshark-1.0.6-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* bugzilla-3.2.2-2.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* evolution-data-server-2.22.3-3.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* ejabberd-2.0.4-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* opensc-0.11.7-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg006...
* weechat-0.2.6.1-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* drupal-cck-6.x.2.2-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* ghostscript-8.63-2.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
* thunderbird-2.0.0.21-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-March/msg007...
== Virtualization ==
In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list,
@fedora-xen-list, @libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list of Fedora
virtualization technologies.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
=== Enterprise Management Tools List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list
==== Virt-p2v and RAID Controller Drivers ====
Based on Fedora 10, "virt-p2v is an experimental live CD for migrating
physical machines to virtual machine guests." [1]
Jonathan Pregler[2] and Nick Haunold asked about a lack of HP and Dell
RAID drivers in virt-p2v. No answer was found, but Jonathan Pregler is
now working[3] on creating a SUSE live CD with virt-p2v and the RAID
drivers embedded.
1. http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-p2v/
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-March/msg00075.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-March/msg00085.html
==== NetWare Support added to virtinst ====
John Levon patched[1] pngpython-virtinst to support NetWare PV installs.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-March/msg00065.html
=== Fedora Xen List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.
==== Which Xen Configuration Files ====
Urs Golla was confused[1] "about the configuration files for XEN user
domains in Fedora."
Daniel P. Berrange[2] explained that parts of Xen uses different
configuration formats.
* xend stores master config files in SXPR[3] format in
/var/lib/xend.
* xm stores python-like config files in /etc/xen
"XenD itself has no knowledge of these files," (in /etc/xen) "so it
can't manage them. They should not be used in Xen >= 3.0.4 If you have
existing files in /etc/xen, then you can load them into XenD by doing
'xm new configname', at which point both Xend and libvirt will be able
to manage them. For Xen < 3.0.4 libvirt has some limited support for
reading /etc/xen files directly"
Using pnglibvirt and the virsh command, the above configuration files
are essentially obviated. Instead an intermediate XML configuration[4]
can be modified and applied back to xend.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-March/msg00043.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-March/msg00054.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression
4. http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
=== Libvirt List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
==== Xen PCI Device Passthrough ====
A patch[1] from Daniel P. Berrange "provides initial support for PCI
device passthrough in Xen, at time of boot. It does not (yet) implement
device hotplug for PCI". "XenD only supports 'unmanaged' PCI devices -
ie mgmt app is responsible for detaching/reattaching PCI devices from/to
host device drivers. XenD itself won't automatically do this".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00270.html
==== Secure Guest Migration Draft Patch ====
Chris Lalancette followed[1] the RFC[2] of last week with a "rough first
draft of the secure migration code" and sought comments on the approach
before putting the final polish on it.
Daniel Veillard wasn't enitrely satisfied[3] with the "costs related to
the 64KB chunking imposed by the XML-RPC" and was "Trying to reopen a
bit the discussion we had before on opening a separate encrypted
connection". Daniel Veillard "would like to make sure we have room in
the initial phase to add such a negociation where an optimal solution"
on a dedicated TCP/IP connection "may be attempted, possibly falling
back to a normal XML-RPC solution".
Daniel P. Berrange pointed[4] out "This isn't XML-RPC. This is our own
binary protocol using XDR encoding, which has very little metadata
overhead - just a single 24 byte header per 64kb of data.", and poposed
a 'MIGRATION_INCOMING' message which could cause libvirted to "switch
the TCP channel to 'data stream' mode."
Chris Lalancette tested the migration code and found the draft secure
migration caused a "slowdown of between 1.5 and 3 times". "What I'm
going to do early next week is do some additional work to try to get
DanB's suggestion of the STREAM_DATA RPC working. Then I'll try
benchmarking (both for duration, and CPU usage)".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00276.html
2.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue166#Secure_Guest_Migration_Betwee...
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00338.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00341.html
==== More Flexible x86 Emulator Choice ====
Daniel P. Berrange explained[1] the current pnglibvirt restricts "what
emulator binary we allow for QEMU guests on x86 arches". "This patch
makes QEMU driver more flexible" ... "when setting up its capabilities
information." "This should finally remove the confusion where a user in
pngvirt-manager selects 'i686' and then wonders why we've disallowed
choice of 'kvm'. It also fixes 'virsh version' when only qemu-kvm is
installed."
The path to each emulator binary is hardcoded in libvirt. Daniel
Veillard found[2] this approach "worrying". The merge[3] of pngqemu and
pngkvm will make the reliance on a pathname to determine a binary's
capabilities even less tenable.
Daniel P. Berrange agreed [4]"this approach we're currently using has
pretty much reached the end of its practicality. In particular it is
impossible to solve the problem of figuring out whether a plain 'qemu'
binary supports kvm natively. To adress that, we'd actually need to run
the binary and probe its output. This would require pretty much
re-writing this entire capabilities setup logic from scratch. Similarly
coping with varying path locations is another problem we can't easily
solve with this current code."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00281.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00339.html
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_and_QEMU_merge
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-March/msg00345.html
--
Oisin Feeley
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OisinFeeley