@fedora-devel for the next few weeks
by Karsten Wade
Personally, I don't relish filling Oisin's shoes these next few weeks.
People have really come to rely upon the summary of life on f-devel-l,
myself included.
I tried to keep up this week, and it's a bit of content.
Can we each pick a thread or two or three?
Summarize those into FWN/Beats/Development?
Here are the threads I see this week:
"Inconsistent package tags"
"Changing default syslog package"
"Fedora Features Process" (also see "Plan for tomorrows...")
"New rpm version about to hit rawhide"
"
Re: Package Updating Doc Available
"portage vs. yum"
"[RFC] change packaging around shared libraries, ldconfig"
"XULRunner - will be or won't be?"
"Fedora 8's FUDCon"
"Doing away with 'groups' repo in mock"
"RFE: Use generic names in packages "
... and a few others. :)
I'd like to write up on "Fedora Features Process" and maybe "portage vs.
yum".
Anyone want to work on some of the others?
- Karsten
--
Karsten Wade, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
16 years, 10 months
- 1
- 0
Fedora Weekly News Issue 93
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 93 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 93[1] for the week of June 17th
through June 23rd, 2007. The latest issue can always be found here[2]
and RSS Feed can be found here[3].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue93
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/LatestIssue
[3] http://feeds.feedburner.com/fwn
1. Announcements
1. FESCo elections
2. Planet Fedora
1. Fedora Remixed (a YouTube Video)
2. Custom Kernels in Fedora
3. Fedora Board Elections
4. FUDCon F8 Update
3. Marketing
1. Max Spevack's Interview on LWN
2. The Limits of Freedom
4. Developments
1. Install-Created Users Added Automatically To Sudoers?
2. Splitting Python Out Of Core Libraries Into Subpackages
3. Encrypting The Root Filesystem
4. Official Presto Repositories For Rawhide
5. FESCo Elections
6. No More 586 Kernels
7. x86_64 Live Media Is NOT A LiveCD
8. PAM_KEYRING Gets GDM And KDM Into Bed
9. F8: Review Hiding Partitions With HAL
10. Bugzilla: "FedoraCore" And "FedoraExtras" Products Merged
to "Fedora"
5. Maintainers
1. Libraw1394 Notice For F7 Xen Users
2. Portaudio & SDL_gfx Updates
6. Documentation
1. New POTBASE definition
2. Candidate Documentation Schedule
3. Why Write Documentation
4. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting
5. Tool Help
6. Tasks!
7. Starting DocBook XML
7. Documentation
1. New POTBASE definition
2. Candidate Documentation Schedule
3. Why Write Documentation
4. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting
5. Tool Help
6. Tasks!
7. Starting DocBook XML
8. Infrastructure
1. IPTables
2. Fedora SCM
3. Ticket System
4. Making Infrastructure Requests
9. Artwork
1. Echo Icon Theme Development
2. Banners
10. Daily Package
1. ISO Master - CD/DVD Image Editor
2. QIV - Quick Image Viewer
3. The Skeleton
4. Cssed - CSS Editor
5. Fortune - Random Wit & Wisdom
11. Advisories and Updates
1. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
2. Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories
12. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD
2. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2007-06-19
3. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-06-21
4. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-06-21
5. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-06-19
6. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-06-18
7. Fedora Translation Project Meeting 2007-06-19
13. Feedback
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== FESCo elections ===
BrianPepple announces in fedora-devel-list,
"This is a reminder that we are still in the self-nominations phase for
the upcoming FESCo election[2]. If you are interested in being part of the
committee that oversees the engineering side of Fedora, you might want
to consider running for a seat."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02047.html
[2] http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/SteeringCommittee/Nominations
== 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
=== Fedora Remixed (a YouTube Video) ===
GregDeKoenigsberg points out in his blog[1],
"The kids in the hall have been busy. Presenting the story behind
Fedora Remixed[2]."
[1] http://gregdek.livejournal.com/13778.html
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bs8vZgTURw
=== Custom Kernels in Fedora ===
SamFolkWilliams points out in his blog[1],
"When Fedora moved to the 2.6 kernel years ago some instructions on
how to build the kernel from the source RPM were added to the release
notes. And there they stayed for years, largely untouched. For the
Fedora 7 release notes I moved those instructions to a new document,
and worked with the folks on fedora-kernel-list to refine the
instructions. This effort is here[2]."
[1] http://samfw.blogspot.com/2007/06/custom-kernels-in-fedora.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel
=== Fedora Board Elections ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1],
"Just a reminder that we're in the nomination[2] phase for the Fedora
Board elections. If you are interested in being a part of the
top-level decision making body for Fedora, and you have a strong
history of contributions to the Fedora Project, you may want to
consider running for a seat. We have 3 seats to fill in this election
cycle."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/20980.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Elections/Nominations
=== FUDCon F8 Update ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1],
"Here's what we *do* know: FUDCon[2] will be Friday August 3rd -
Sunday August 5th. It will be similar to the February FUDCon, in the
sense that Saturday and Sunday will be a hackfest, and Friday will be
a BarCamp."
"The only problem is location, and that is what we still need to
confirm. At first we wanted to do it in Raleigh, but I've heard from a
bunch of the Red Hat engineers that travel from Boston at the time
we're looking at is going to be very complicated, so from the
perspective of getting a critical mass of people at the event, we
might need to do it up in Boston again."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/20486.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon/FUDConF8
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung, KarstenWade
=== Max Spevack's Interview on LWN ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"In what is surely one of the best interviews of the year, Fedora's
Max Spevack talks to LWN about the just released Fedora 7, the
upcoming changes in the project's development infrastructure, and the
new features in Fedora 8: "We're looking at a far less ambitious
Fedora 8. With so much new stuff in Fedora 7, we'd like to give all of
our infrastructure changes a chance to settle in and get some polish,
and also give some of the contributors who have been going non-stop on
Fedora for the last few months a development cycle that is a bit less
stressful. But that doesn't mean we don't have some things planned.
The best thing for people who are interested in Fedora 8 to do is look
at our Wiki, where we will be tracking potential features over the
course of the release cycle." Don't miss it[2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-June/msg00158....
[2] http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20070618#news
=== The Limits of Freedom ===
This week saw an interesting discussion on the marketing list about
the potential and real limits on freedom in Fedora[1].
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-June/msg00142.html
== 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
=== Install-Created Users Added Automatically To Sudoers? ===
A long-standing feature suggestion[1] from MattMiller was to allow a
fine-grained method of delegating some root execution privileges to
administrative applications without prompting for the root password.
Matt had produced patches to ''userhelper'' (which uses PAM), which
tested whether the user was a member of an allowed group and then
prompted for the user-password. These patches were incorporated by
JindrichNovy in 2004. Their usefulness was shown when "Axel"
suggested[2] that a nice feature would be to add the user created by
firstboot during the install to the ''/etc/sudoers file''.
[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=86188
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01903.html
CaioMarcelo refined[3] the idea of creating a specific group for these
users in ''/etc/sudoers'', suggesting that the already existing
''%wheel'' administrative group could be used.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01917.html
IgnacioVazquezAbrams and CaioMarcelo recognized[3] that Matt's patches
laid the groundwork for disabling access to the root account and
prompting instead for a password required by ''sudo''. This could be
done by simply tweaking the ''/etc/security/console.apps/*'' files.
Matt thought[4] that this approach would indeed work, and had the
advantage of allowing a transparent transition to using PolicyKit in
the future.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01982.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02062.html
Although there seemed to be strong general agreement that some sort of
change like this would be good, and similar approaches were thought to
have been shown to be useful in other distros (specifically Mac OSX
and Ubuntu), there were some clear arguments against it.
RahulSundaram was concerned[5] about the suggestion that automatically
enabling a sudo account would be done depending on whether a
workstation or server install was chosen. Rahul argued that this was
presenting too many choices and would mean that the documentation
would need an extensive rewrite both to separate and clarify the use
of "sudo" as opposed to "su -c". ChrisBrown thought[6] that Rahul's
post was patronizing and ended up[7] volunteering to write all the
documentation needed. Matt showed[7a] how the ''/etc/sudoers'' file
could be set up so that members of the wheel group could be
authenticated using their user passwords, while non-members would be
prompted for the root password.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02088.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02106.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02126.html
[7a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02207.html
In the course of the discussion "n0dalus" made some forceful and
detailed objections to the general idea being espoused. His primary
objection, expressed[8] in discussion with MattMiller and with
ChrisBrown[9], was that there was no clear benefit in a single-user
workstation environment, and the change would result in the creation
of another avenue through which root access could be gained.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02048.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02110.html
In response DanYoung tacitly agreed with n0dalus' objection and
invoked the idea (also mentioned above) of locking the root account.
n0dalus asked that this be proposed specifically and itemized[10] what
seemed to be the current options. ChrisBrown was in strong
disagreement[11] with n0dalus that sudo was only useful in a
multi-administrator scenario and argued that an important benefit was
that newbies would understand the concept of root better and it would
allow temporary privilege escalation without having to remember to
exit the root shell. The response[12] was that preventing users
running everything as root was an orthogonal problem not solved by
sudo, but rather by disabling root logins. RuiMiguelSilvaSeabra
mused[13] that the ease-of-use and logging resulting from sudo was
benefit enough.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02123.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02125.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02133.html
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02212.html
Matt summarized[14] some of the changes which may need to be made,
including modifying system-config-securitylevel to manage
/etc/security/console.apps and doing some more stringent password
quality checking.
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02086.html
=== Splitting Python Out Of Core Libraries Into Subpackages ===
An inquiry[1] from YanokoKaneti as to whether there were objections to
splitting out some more python subpackages from core libraries was
met[2] with curiosity from JesseKeating. Yanoko had stated being able
to remove python from minimial installs as one of the motivations for
doing this work and Jesse wondered if ''yum'' was not going to be
included in the minimal install.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02263.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02267.html
A sample usage case was advanced[3] by JeffOllie in which updates
would be carried out using only a new Live Media image which would be
used to do a reinstall. Yanoko replied[4] directly to Jesse, pointing
out that an rpm-based distribution did not need yum, and Jesse
emphasized that he was simply curious.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02269.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02271.html
Another example of a yum-less install was provided[5] by MatthiasSaou
who had started off by unselecting the Base group.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02272.html
=== Encrypting The Root Filesystem ===
ThomasSwan followed up[1] with a new patch to ''mkinitrd'' to provide
an encrypted root filesystem. The last public discussion of this (see
FWN#85 "Root Filesystem Encryption Patch"[2]) revealed some specific
issues identified as problems by BillNottingham, namely not using
mkinitrd's existing configuration file and hard-coding device names in
a way that would break hotplugged/re-ordered devices. Thomas had
incorporated this feedback into his new patch and sought further
advice.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01987.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue85
The first response[3] came from KarstenHopp, who pointed out that
Thomas' bash-shell method of finding the root filesystem UUID might
not be needed because Karsten had submitted a patch upstream to
''e2fsprogs''. Further discussion between Thomas and Karsten
clarified[4] that Karsten's patch allowed LUKS-encrypted partitions to
be probed.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01997.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02011.html
BrunoWolff specifically responded[5] to Thomas' question as to when
the user should be prompted during installation. Bruno had the
opinion it should be the same time as when the user picks the file
system-type. At this point JeremyKatz raised[6] the awkward question
of how i18n and l10n could be taken into account, specifically how
keymaps and locales would be handled.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02008.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02018.html
Jeremy pointed out[7] the very concrete problems faced by non-English
speakers, and the impracticality of seeming workarounds such as
cycling through the available keymaps. Bruno was keen[8] to get on
with incorporating this exciting and useful new feature and while
agreeing that there might be problems for some users (especially with
suspend/resume), he also thought that it could be refined and fixed.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02030.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02032.html
TonyNelson wondered if the last keymap and locale could be used for
the suspend/resume case but PeterJones identified[9] some hurdles to
be cleared. Later in response to Thomas, Peter laid out[10] a set of
prerequisites to solve the problem, which include getting video-mode
setting into the kernel.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02078.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02143.html
While agreeing with Peter's list, KarstenHopp also agreed[11] with
BrunoWolff that it might be just as well to go ahead with Thomas's
solution and debug/fix it even if it meant that some users would not
have access to it. BillNottingham argued[12] that this wasn't good
engineering practice.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02166.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02190.html
=== Official Presto Repositories For Rawhide ===
The development of Presto continued apace with the request[1] from
JonathanDieter (one of the lead developers) to start creating
deltarpms for rawhide and presenting them in the repositories.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02001.html
Response were generally very positive. JesseKeating asked whether
there were scriptable tools to create presto repositories and what the
impact on mirrors would be. Jonathan supplied[2] a link to the two
tools for creating deltarpm repositories and the information that the
only effect mirrors should notice are an increase in storage size and
a decrease in bandwidth.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02007.html
JeremyKatz wondered[3] where in the whole process should deltarpms be
generated. In discussion with AxelThimm, Jeremy seemed to settle[4] on
the choice of generating deltarpms for each 'nevra'[4] in a manner
similar to the way koji handles package signatures (with outside
information being fed into koji about each deltarpm). These would be
generated for the ''updates'', ''updates-testing'', and ''rawhide''
repositories.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02035.html
[4] rpmtags: name,epoch,version,release,architecture
The inclusion of rawhide generated[5] some disquiet on the part of
ClarkWilliams as he suspected that the massive jumps in e.g.
toolchains as opposed to gradual, iterative changes in updates would
make adding a new mechanism even more unstable. Jeremy responded that
complete, full testing of presto through rawhide was the aim, not
saving rawhide users bandwidth, and Clark assented[6] that this seemed
like good practice.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02100.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02103.html
=== FESCo Elections ===
Following in the wake of the disagreements[1] over the extent of
community control in the new Fedora world of merged Core/Extras,
BrianPepple made sure[2] that everyone was kept fully informed about
the upcoming elections to the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee
(FESCo), including posting links to the voting policy[2a] and
candidates[2b].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue91#head-83e6bceef94ccd4c5981023141...
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02047.html
[2a] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/Policy/FESCoElections
[2b] http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/SteeringCommittee/Nominations
The criteria for candidate eligibility led JohnPoelstra to seek
clarification about membership of the cvsextras group. ToshioKuratomi
provided[3] it along with the information that FESCo was no longer
confined to packaging decisions, but also to making all technical
decisions about Fedora.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02117.html
FlorianLaRoche and JoshBoyer smoothed the path[4] for John to become a
member of cvsextras as a co-maintainer, and concerns about accepting a
non-package maintaining member were eased when BrianPepple pointed
out[5] that the recent implementations of ACLs allowed precisely this
sort of inclusion of new members while limiting the amount of damage
they might cause.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02145.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02161.html
A discussion between JoshBoyer, PatriceDumas, and RalfCorsepius on the
subject of whether it made sense to have people elected to a technical
as opposed to a political committee saw Ralf pose the rhetorical
question[6] of whether it would make sense to elect, for example, tax
officials. PatriceDumas noted [7] that some such officials were
elected in the USA and agreed with Ralf's analogy that the Fedora
Advisory Board (FAB) was the government and FESCo its administration
which did not take really important decisions. KarstenWade thought[7a]
that these meatspace analogies were imposing constraints that didn't
exist in the Fedora Project.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02227.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02228.html
[7a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02299.html
ToshioKuratomi and KarstenWade were interested in expanding the
franchise. This discussion led NigelJones to ask whether FESCo had
lost its way and BrianPepple to respond[8] that new responsibilities
(which Brian listed) were being assumed and they included packaging,
release-engineering, and quality-assurance. PeterJones pointed out
that there was little danger of someone without an established
reputation attracting votes[9]. Agreeing with Brian's list of
responsiblities ToshioKuratomi espoused[10] the principle that
"''[...] you should be able to vote if you are under FESCo's
authority. You should not be able to vote if you are not.''" Karsten
responded[10a] with the objection FESCo decisions affect the whole
community and that being split into voting pools instead of allowing
all FAS seemed to have no good basis[10b], he also reiterated his
doubts about the value of simply assuming that there was one form of
democracy.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02136.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02141.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02154.html
[10a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02298.html
[10b] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02344.html
=== No More 586 Kernels ===
DaveJones announced[1] that he had made the 686 kernel bootable on 586
machines with the purpose of not having to build the 586 specific
kernel. The snag in this plan was that rpm refused to install the
kernel on a 586 because it checked the arch. Dave sought opinions on
whether making the 686 kernel an i386 package was a good idea. All
sorts of disagreement resulted.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02167.html
SethVidal was sure that yum was going to choke[2] on this change, and
Dave supplied[3] the alternatives of either undoing the change, or
else leaving what he thought was a small number of 586 users to look
after themselves.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02170.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02173.html
Although there were several objectors including PeteZaitcev (citing a
VIA C3), DennisGilmore (who wanted a 586 kernel for a Soekris board),
and BenLewis, one of the strongest was AlanCox. Alan had multiple
grounds for objection. The first[4] was that there was no reasonable
basis to suppose that there were so few 586 users, and it turned out
that Dave's estimate was based on information gathered with smolt.
DavidMacKay gave[5] a concrete example of how smolt would not have
reported an install he had just completed on a firewall/router.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02218.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02265.html
Alan also stated that if he were left without a 586 kernel build then
he'd probably just change distros because that would avoid the
maintenance nightmare of maintaining two distros on his machines. A
brief, but sharp exchange[6] followed in which DaveJones characterized
Alan's objection as "''teddy throwing''" and in turn was accused of
name-calling.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02198.html
A suggestion[7] from MikeChambers that simply changing the
architecture name to e.g. "x86" might solve the problem was
admitted[8] as technically feasible by JeremyKatz (once a were added
to yum, rpm etc) but BillNottingham pointed out[9] that the change
would have to be propagated for ever.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02200.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02201.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02203.html
Going straight to the root of the problem[10], BillNottingham wanted
to patch RPM. (In an aside DaveJones noted the complexity of the RPM
code maintained by PaulNasrat and KevinKofler thanked[11]
PanuMatilainen for all the RPM work he and Paul had been doing.)
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02187.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02211.html
AlanCox explained[12] that RPM was indeed the source of the trouble,
as it had been hacked way back in the day to get around a GCC error.
The result was that RPM thinks that "''686 + cmov''" is 686 and "''686
- cmov''" is 586. Alan suggested "''fix gcc and you can fix rpm and
you get back to the world as intended''".
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02196.html
Further discussion between DaveJones and Alan seemed to result in an impasse[13]
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02199.html
=== x86_64 Live Media Is NOT A LiveCD ===
After unsuccesful attempts to create an x86_64 "LiveCD" image, "eah"
asked[1] why it was larger than the x86 image.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01973.html
JesseKeating made the correction[2] that it was NOT a LiveCD, but Live
Media, and was larger because of multilib. Jesse suggested putting
the Live Media image on a USB key or DVD. In response
MichaelWeiner[3] and TillMaas[4] thought that the name should be
changed to something less confusing.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01975.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01976.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02094.html
"eah" asked how k3b could be persuaded to burn the image to a DVD
instead of the CD-R which it preferred by default and was given[5]
helpful instructions by ManuelWolfshant.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01983.html
An interesting response from KevinKofler suggested[6] that it might be
possible to cram the 800MB onto a CD-R if "Mode 2"[7] were chosen
instead of the normal "Mode 1"
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01985.html
[7] http://www.mscience.com/faq62.html
=== PAM_KEYRING Gets GDM And KDM Into Bed ===
The release of an updated PAM_KEYRING by JonNettleton was reported[1]
by DenisLeroy to fix problems he had experienced in F7. PAM_KEYRING is
a module that makes ''gnome_keyring'' more accessible by other
programs and removes the inconvenience of having to unlock one's
keyring immediately after logging-in to the desktop.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01902.html
Denis was also seeking to start a wider discussion of how to avoid
having to manually edit ''/etc/pam.d/gdm'' in order to reap the full
benefits of PAM_KEYRING. One possibility was to use a %post scriptlet
and KevinKofler expanded[2] the scope of the problem by pointing out
that gnome_keyring was also used by programs running under KDM.
JonNettleton had already coded[3] an addition to ''authconfig'' to
modify /etc/pam.d/gdm but was intrigued[4] by KevinKofler's report of
such risque mixed-desktop carry-on and agreed that if authconfig were
modified to integrate these changes then the sensibilities of KDE
users would need to be considered.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01906.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01907.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01908.html
A fairly strong opinion against using %post scriptlets to edit the pam
config files was expressed[5] by JeremyKatz and SethVidal.
BillNottingham backed[6] the idea of modifying authconfig as suggested
by Jon and others.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02017.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02024.html
=== F8: Review Hiding Partitions With HAL ===
OttoRey wondered[1] why the default HAL policy for hiding fixed drives
was needed. Otto suggested that if the purpose was to provide
security then a better approach would be to use ACLs. RichardHughes
was in agreement and argued[2] that the policy should be used for RHEL
only, noting in passing that any system bootable from a LiveCD was
insecure and that DavidZeuthen's PolicyKit would hopefully solve all
this. (David had posted back in March, within a thread about HAL
policies[3], about the work he was doing on this.)
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01927.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01928.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-March/msg01019.html
Pining for the good old days, KevinKofler suggested[4] that
''/etc/fstab'' was the appropriate place to let the system know about
the mounting of fixed disk partitions. NicolasMailhot agreed[5] that
there was wonkiness with the current system (three places where a
mount can be set up), and JefSpaleta, while dreaming of Utopia,
thought[6] that in the present reality an editable ''/etc/fstab'' was
necessary.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01935.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01939.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01938.html
=== Bugzilla: "FedoraCore" And "FedoraExtras" Products Merged to "Fedora" ===
An announcement[1] of the result of a lot of hard work completing the
Core/Extras merge in bugzilla was posted by ToshioKuratomi.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02092.html
Toshio noted that one of the effects might be that some previous
package owners would now be listed as co-owners and he provided a way
to check with CVS. This led JoshBoyer to jokingly ask Toshio to stop
living in the cvs past, which led to a more serious discussion with
TillMaas about how the wiki is outdated[2]. Josh and Till both updated
some of the information.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02096.html
== Maintainers ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Maintainers, the group of people who
maintain the software packages in Fedora
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-maintainers
Contributing Writer: MichaelLarabel
=== Libraw1394 Notice For F7 Xen Users ===
JochenSchmitt alerted users[1] in the fedora-maintainers-list this
week about the libraw1394 update in Fedora 7. This package requires
the 2.6.21-1.3194.fc7 kernel or later, but in the case of Xen it's
currently at version 2.6.20-2925.9.fc7. Fortunately, however, the
libraw1394 package maintainer can push out an update that solves this
problem and JesseKeating is working with the respective maintainers.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-June/msg00563.html
=== Portaudio & SDL_gfx Updates ===
Version 19 of Portaudio[1] has entered Fedora 7. Portaudio, an
open-source cross-platform audio API, breaks ABI compatibility in this
new stable version, but the Fedora espeak package that depends upon
portaudio is being updated accordingly. MatthiasSaou has also updated
SDL_gfx to version 2.0.16[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-June/msg00599.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-June/msg00601.html
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== New POTBASE definition ===
PaulFrields writes to the docs-list to announce that he's updated
Makefile.common, with a capacity for a new "POTBASE" variable. This is
useful in the event that the POT file for a module needs to be named
differently to ${DOCBASE}, making it easier for the L10N team to do
their work[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00110.html
=== Candidate Documentation Schedule ===
A candidate schedule for the Docs Project was posted to the wiki[1],
and announced on the list[2] with an invitation for comments
included. Significant in this announcement was the fact that there is
about 6 weeks left to gather information for the first one sheet
release notes that accompanies the first testing release. No
information was included in this about deadlines for guides[3], which
was intentional to encourage debate about the release schedule for
guides[4], as a re-organisation of this is being considered.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Schedule/8
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00112.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00113.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00117.html
=== Why Write Documentation ===
JohnBabich posted a link to a set of results from an interesting
survey carried out by O'Reilly, asking people why they write FOSS
documentation[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00124.html
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting ===
A summary of the FDSCo meeting of the 12th June was posted to the
docs-list[1]. The log was also posted separately[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00125.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00136.html
=== Tool Help ===
KarstenWade posted a request for help to the docs-list with
re-enabling language auto-selection of the release notes, requiring
changes to the Makefile[1]. This feature is being re-enabled as a bug
in Firefox preventing this has been fixed.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00133.html
=== Tasks! ===
The DocsProject's tasks page[1] has been updated with a list of links
to different stub pages for each of the tasks that needs achieving[2].
It is hoped that guide writers will fill out these pages with 3-10
tasks, this way new contributors can easily identify what needs doing
and jump straight in. If you're interested in helping with the
DocsProject, this is a great place to start.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Tasks
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00141.html
As part of organising the tasks, it has also been suggested that the
DocsProject team works on one guide at a time, with a proposed order
sent to the list by KarstenWade[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00152.html
=== Starting DocBook XML ===
A lot of the DocsProject's documents are kept in CVS in the DocBook
XML format, which can be a hurdle to contributing. If you're
interested in starting on the documentation project but have been put
off by this, PaulFrields has sent a message to the docs-list that is
for you[1]. In it, he explains the best resources to get you started,
and invites anyone with any further questions, or suggestions on how
this document could be improved, to send a message to the list.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00162.html
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== New POTBASE definition ===
PaulFrields writes to the docs-list to announce that he's updated
Makefile.common, with a capacity for a new "POTBASE" variable. This is
useful in the event that the POT file for a module needs to be named
differently to ${DOCBASE}, making it easier for the L10N team to do
their work[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00110.html
=== Candidate Documentation Schedule ===
A candidate schedule for the Docs Project was posted to the wiki[1],
and announced on the list[2] with an invitation for comments
included. Significant in this announcement was the fact that there is
about 6 weeks left to gather information for the first one sheet
release notes that accompanies the first testing release. No
information was included in this about deadlines for guides[3], which
was intentional to encourage debate about the release schedule for
guides[4], as a re-organisation of this is being considered.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Schedule/8
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00112.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00113.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00117.html
=== Why Write Documentation ===
JohnBabich posted a link to a set of results from an interesting
survey carried out by O'Reilly, asking people why they write FOSS
documentation[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00124.html
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee Meeting ===
A summary of the FDSCo meeting of the 12th June was posted to the
docs-list[1]. The log was also posted separately[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00125.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00136.html
=== Tool Help ===
KarstenWade posted a request for help to the docs-list with
re-enabling language auto-selection of the release notes, requiring
changes to the Makefile[1]. This feature is being re-enabled as a bug
in Firefox preventing this has been fixed.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00133.html
=== Tasks! ===
The DocsProject's tasks page[1] has been updated with a list of links
to different stub pages for each of the tasks that needs achieving[2].
It is hoped that guide writers will fill out these pages with 3-10
tasks, this way new contributors can easily identify what needs doing
and jump straight in. If you're interested in helping with the
DocsProject, this is a great place to start.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Tasks
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00141.html
As part of organising the tasks, it has also been suggested that the
DocsProject team works on one guide at a time, with a proposed order
sent to the list by KarstenWade[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00152.html
=== Starting DocBook XML ===
A lot of the DocsProject's documents are kept in CVS in the DocBook
XML format, which can be a hurdle to contributing. If you're
interested in starting on the documentation project but have been put
off by this, PaulFrields has sent a message to the docs-list that is
for you[1]. In it, he explains the best resources to get you started,
and invites anyone with any further questions, or suggestions on how
this document could be improved, to send a message to the list.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00162.html
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: JasonMatthewTaylor
=== IPTables ===
The Infrastructure team, specifically LukeMacken, SethVidal and
xDamonx completed work on an IPtables[1] firewall solution for the
fedora project.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Fedora SCM ===
MikeMcGrath started discussion[1] this week about whether or not to
keep current configuration management or look into something
different.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Ticket System ===
SethVidal, after pondering it for a bit had some comments[1] about the
current ticket system
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Making Infrastructure Requests ===
A long discussion came from a request for resources (RFR) for Fedora
Magazine[1]. MikeMcGrath noted[2] that the long discussion was a good
experience for all; he is watching out for time drains on the
Infrastructure team, and wants to sure of incoming ideas/requests.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg00...
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg00...
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== Echo Icon Theme Development ===
Work has now restarted on Echo icons. The latest icon to be added is
the gnome-palm icon, and was well received[1]. Also this week with
Echo, a small fix was suggested to the quick-add icon to make it
symmetrical[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00175.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00174.html
=== Banners ===
A request was sent in to the list asking where you can find the source
files for the banners, as features on various wiki pages[1]. It was
pointed out that it is available on the Art Team's design page[2],
and, after a request was then made for a banner for the newly planned
Fedora Magazine, it was pointed out that there is also a request form
available on this site[3]. A few banner designs were provided,
however[3] [4].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00176.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/DesignService
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00181.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00184.html
== Daily Package ==
In this section, we recap the packages that have been highlighted as a
Fedora Daily Package.
http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com
Contributing Writer: ChrisTyler
=== ISO Master - CD/DVD Image Editor ===
''Productive Mondays'' highlight a timesaving tool. This Monday[1] we
covered ISO Master[2]:
"ISO Master is a graphical tool for editing ISO image files. It
presents a two-pane view of your local filesystem (top) and an ISO
image (bottom) and enables you to move files between the two. You can
also delete files from the ISO image, create new directories, and add
a boot record. Isomaster will constantly update the image size
estimate; when you're ready, hit File>Save As and a new image file
will be created."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/72-Productive-Mond...
[2] http://littlesvr.ca/isomaster
=== QIV - Quick Image Viewer ===
''Artsy Tuesdays'' highlight a graphics, video, or sound application.
This Tuesday[1] Qiv[2] was featured:
"Qiv is a quick image viewer. The name says it all: qiv displays
images quickly and simply. But it is also capable of running
slideshows, selectively deleting images, zooming, adjusting
brightness/contrast/gamma, setting the root window image, and more.
Qiv is perfect for displaying images from a shell script, creating a
slideshow quickly, or reviewing a large batch of images."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/73-Artsy-Tuesday-Q...
[2] http://www.klografx.net/qiv
=== The Skeleton ===
The ''Wednesday Why'' article[1] was on the Fedora skeleton[2]:
"Your Fedora system has a skeleton in its closet! Well, actually, it's
in the /etc directory. /etc/skel is a directory that contains files
which are copied to the home directory of each new user."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/74-Wednesday-Why-T...
=== Cssed - CSS Editor ===
''GUI Thursdays'' highlight a software that provides, enhances, or
effectively uses a GUI interface. This Thursday[1], Cssed[2] was
discussed:
"Editing cascading style sheet files (CSS) can be a huge chore. Cssed
is a text editor for CSS files. It includes on-line references, syntax
highlighting, and auto-completion."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/75-GUI-Thursday-Cs...
[2] http://cssed.sourceforge.net/
=== Fortune - Random Wit & Wisdom ===
''Friday Fun'' highlights fun, interesting, and amusing programs. This
Friday[1] covered fortune-mod[2]:
"For years, many Unix and Linux systems have greeted text-mode users
with a piece of random wisdom or wit each time they log in. This daily
smile is provided by the fortune program, which is in the fortune-mod
package."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/76-Friday-Fun-Fort...
[2] http://www.redellipse.net/code/fortune
== Advisories and Updates ==
In this section, we cover Secuirity Advisories and Package Updates
from fedora-package-announce.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* 2007-06-21 [SECURITY] fail2ban-0.8.0-9.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0621
* 2007-06-20 [SECURITY] denyhosts-2.6-5.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0589
* 2007-06-18 [SECURITY] iscsi-initiator-utils-6.2.0.865-0.0.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0543
* 2007-06-18 [SECURITY] thunderbird-2.0.0.4-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0544
=== Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories ===
* 2007-06-18 [SECURITY] freetype-2.2.1-17.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-561
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD ===
* No meeting
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2007-06-19 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00136.html
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-06-21 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02273.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-06-21 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-06-19 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-June/msg00663.html
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-06-18 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg02114.html
=== Fedora Translation Project Meeting 2007-06-19 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-June/msg00137.html
== Feedback ==
This document is maintained by the Fedora News Team[1]. Please feel
free to contact us to give your feedback. If you'd like to contribute
to a future issue of the Fedora Weekly News, please see the Join[2]
page to find out how to help.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
16 years, 10 months
- 1
- 0
Re: @fedora-devel newsbeat ready for editing
by Thomas Chung
On 6/23/07, Oisin Feeley <oisinfeeley(a)imapmail.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This week's @fedora-devel newsbeat is ready for editing here:
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Beats/Developments
>
> Don't forget I'm going to be unable to do the next three of
> these due to other commitments.
>
> Best,
> --
> Oisin Feeley
Thank you Oisin,
Regards,
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
16 years, 10 months
- 1
- 0
Fedora Weekly News Issue 92
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 92 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 92[1] for the week of June 10th
through June 16th, 2007. The latest issue can always be found here[2]
and RSS Feed can be found here[3].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue92
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/LatestIssue
[3] http://feeds.feedburner.com/fwn
1. Announcements
1. Reminder - Fedora Core 5 EOL on 2007-06-29
2. Fedora-Devel-Announce is Now Open
3. Fedora Board Elections
2. Planet Fedora
1. Working on Fedora L10n
2. End of "I didn't know about that change!?!" for Fedora
development (?)
3. Workaround for kernel panic on suspend/resume
3. Marketing
1. Magazine Fedora 7 (France)
2. Fedora 7 Xen First Look
3. Maximum PC reviews Fedora 7
4. Developments
1. Guidelineism Defeated By Glorious Benefit Of Action
2. Cross-building Bliss
3. Yelping Over Bloated Firefox And Flash
4. The Updates Firehose
5. Pay Per Spin Web Interface?
6. Secondary Arch Proposal Cont.
7. F8 Devel - User Storage Configurations
8. R500 Initial Driver Release
5. Documentation
1. docs.fedoraproject.org Stats
2. SELinux
3. Documentation Project Steering Committee Meeting
4. Summer Of Code
6. Translation
1. Meeting Times
2. Monitoring Commits
7. Infrastructure
1. Security Updates
2. Escalation Paths/Methods
8. Artwork
1. Fedora 8 Theme
9. Security Week
1. Fedora Security Response Team
10. Advisories and Updates
1. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
2. Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories
11. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-06-12
2. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-06-12
3. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-06-14
4. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting 2007-06-14
5. Fedora Indian Ambassadors Meeting Minutes 2007-06-13
6. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-06-12
7. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-06-11
12. Extras Extras
1. An interview with Fedora leader Max Spevack
2. Thomas Chung gives Fedora Talk at Caltech
13. Feedback
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Reminder - Fedora Core 5 EOL on 2007-06-29 ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"As many of you are aware, our policy on the lifecycles of Fedora
releases is: Fedora X will be maintained until about one month after
Fedora X+2. Fedora 7 was released on May 31st. Fedora Core 5 will
reach its End of Life on Friday June 29th. This was previously
mentioned on fedora-announce-list on May 3rd[2], but is worth
repeating."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-June/msg00006.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-May/msg00000.html
=== Fedora-Devel-Announce is Now Open ===
WarrenTogami announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"fedora-devel-announce list[2] is now open. The goal of this list is to
make it easy for Fedora contributors to follow changes in that may be
pertinent to developers within the Fedora Project. This is intended to
be a LOW TRAFFIC announce-only list of development topics, so we hope
subscribers wont feel the need to filter it away from their Inbox."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-June/msg00005.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-announce
=== Fedora Board Elections ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"We are due for our first round of Fedora Board elections. There have
been some threads recently on fedora-advisory-board that have been
working to clarify what the Board's role should be as it goes into its
next term. Those who have not seen that thread may want to look
at[2]."
"The Fedora Board continues to serve as the top-level decision making
body within Fedora. One of the challenges that the "new" Fedora Board
will face is doing a better job of making sure that the Fedora Board
appropriately manages the rest of the Fedora community, and also
Fedora's interaction with the larger Red Hat engineering, legal, etc.
groups."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-June/msg00004.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2007-June/msg00022....
== 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
=== Working on Fedora L10n ===
DimitrisGlezos points out in his blog[1],
"In the last few days I've been working on Fedora's L10n
infrastructure. Not all of it was exciting, but we really need to
increase the quality of our international desktops. Why? Well, for
start, Lord Smolt informs that 3 out of 10 registered systems are
non-English, and I estimate another 2/10 of the en_US have localized
desktop sessions (so that users won't be facing encoding problems on
the command-line)..."
"...And finally, we are building an exciting new front-end to L10n, to
replace the rusty i18n.redhat one. Besides translation statistics, it
presents i18n errors of the module and urges people to code using the
standard libraries, which increase interoperability. It also supports
Subversion, Mercurial, and GIT repos. You can give it a spin at the
testing system we've put up[2]."
[1] http://dimitris.glezos.com/weblog/2007/06/14/working-on-flp/
[2] http://publictest4.fedora.redhat.com/
=== End of "I didn't know about that change!?!" for Fedora development (?) ===
KarstenWade points out in his blog[1],
"Yes, my subject is quite certain that maybe possibly it could be the
end of some of the squabbling and misunderstandings amongst Fedora's
developers and packagers. Because I have so much trust in my fellow
humans, I can say with something almost like sureness that we'll see
this problem addressed ... in our lifetime ..."
"But anyway, Warren Togami announced a good step in the right
direction: Fedora-Devel-Announce is Now Open. Go subscribe. Especially
if you have ever missed a small or large change in Fedora development
that mattered to you. If this list[2] fails to announce something in
the future, just think of all the ground for grievance you'll have!"
[1] http://iquaid.livejournal.com/20071.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-announce
=== Workaround for kernel panic on suspend/resume ===
RolandWolters points out in his blog[1],
"One of the biggest disadvantages of Fedora 7 for me was that my
Suspend to RAM[2] suddenly stoppped working: the kernel crashed on
resume and left me with a kernel panic. I filled bug 241700 but was
only forwarded to the HAL Quirk Site which does feature suspend
problems in a very user friendly way. But although that page has a lot
of helpful tips it does not cover kernel crashes."
After that I re-added the removed kernel modules bit by bit and
checked resume each time. It turned out the broken module is fw_ohci,
the Firewire Open Host Controller Interface. If you also have a kernel
panic on resume you can check for yourself if this module is the
reason: remove it by modprobe -r -v --first-time fw_ohci ("r" is for
remove, "v" is for verbose and "first-time" make the process exit by
error if the module was not loaded in the first place). After that,
suspend the machine and try to resume."
[1] http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/howto-workaround-for-kernel-pani...
[2] http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/computer-suspend-it-is-working/
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Magazine Fedora 7 (France) ===
PierreYvesChibon reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"As a member of the French Fedora ambassador team, I am proud to
announce you the future release of an entirely magazine dedicated
Fedora 7. The announce of the release of the magazine is available
here[2]. The magazine will be published in France for 9,95€, it
contains 2 DVDs
(i386 & x86_64)."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-June/msg00121....
[2] http://www.linuxidentity.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11
=== Fedora 7 Xen First Look ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Overall, the tools for Xen management are coming along quite nicely,
actually developing a bit faster than I expected, and Fedora 7 is a
great place to try them out. They will certainly ease Xen management
(and other virtualization technologies on Linux, for that matter) in
the future and I look forward to taking advantage of them when they
make their way into RHEL 5.1.[2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-June/msg00118....
[2] http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/06/07/fedora-7-xen-fi...
=== Maximum PC reviews Fedora 7 ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"If you love Red Hat, it goes without saying that you're bound to go
nuts over Fedora 7. But this distro is also worth a look for just
about anyone who wants to try Linux for the first time. With a
noob-friendly installation routine and simple customization menus that
make daily use a breeze, we're glad Fedora 7 has thrown its hat into
the ring.[2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-June/msg00117....
[2] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fedora_7_rivals_ubuntus_ease_of_use
== 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
=== Guidelineism Defeated By Glorious Benefit Of Action ===
HansRosbach noticed[1] something that had been commented on before[2]:
the dependence of GRUB on fedora-logos, which in turn depends on gtk2,
which in turn depends on a whole pile of Xlib stuff. Hans wanted to
know why all this was required for a boot menu, when it wasn't
required in FC4 to FC6, and also thought that the dependencies were in
the wrong order anyway. RahulSundaram answered[3] that this had been
discussed before and explained that fedora-logos was a single package
of trademarked images and logos for legal reasons. This makes it
simpler for derivative distributions to remove all Fedora trademarked
material.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01823.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue91#head-ce92d2e708b4bfabf99accc5c3...
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01831.html
After examining the link supplied by Rahul, AxelThimm suggested[4]
that one of two things should happen: 1. the guideline that a package
must require application directories into which it may drop files
should be relaxed for fedora-logos or it should be made a co-owner of
those application directories; 2. a sub-package containing a
minimalist set of files for GRUB's splash screen should be created.
Axel proposed that he could ask the Packaging Committee to relax the
guideline and asked which of the options was best. He also thought
that "We can't allow blind guideline-ism to create such awkward
situations
where simply booting the system requires gtk!"
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01836.html
The second option was impractical according[5] to MatthiasClasen
because "legal" specifically wanted a single-package of trademarked
images, BillNottingham later clarified[6] that this specifically meant
logos and logotype, but not themes and icons. This was news to
KevinKofler who was able to show[7] that the Fedora logo was in
redhat-artwork and redhat-artwork-kde. Bill requested Kevin to file a
bug asking for logo.png to be moved into fedora-logos.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01843.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01858.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01847.html
Hot on the heels of this discussion thhe maintainer AdamJackson (ajax)
posted[8] promptly to say that he had implemented option 1 in rawhide
with fedora-logos no longer requiring anything and co-owning the
directories into which it drops files. He cautioned that this was
likely to break respins.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01904.html
=== Cross-building Bliss ===
Continuing the discussion of cross-compilation started last week[1],
BrendanConoboy expanded[2] upon what he saw as the main technical and
social issues which needed to be resolved. Brendan noted the ability
of gcc and binutils to use sys-roots and necessity to extend the build
system (e.g. Koji), and the need to modify individual packages to
support cross-compilation.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue91#head-db39d837890b30155e2f18a185...
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01192.html
Picking up on the central chicken-and-egg problem of how to get a
glibc for a new architecture, DavidWoodhouse argued[3] that the
current "solution" was a problem because it didn't separate gcc and
glibc. Brendan suggested limiting the discussion to the current
architectures which led to David identifying[5] that one
classification of the problem saw it break down into the distinct
subproblems of building (which was relatively soluble), and packaging
(which was more restricted and inflexible and needed multiple
rpmbuilds currently). Brendan outlined[6] three possible SRPMS: 1) a
single bloated master package for all possible targets; 2) a smaller
number of single SRPMS for multiple targets grouped for technical
reasons; and 3)HansdeGoede's solution of a single SRPM for a specific
single architecture/target.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01214.html
[4] http://people.redhat.com/drepper/dsohowto.pdf
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01607.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01675.html
RalfCorsepius definitely favored[7] avoiding option #1 and pointed out
that while #3 had a downside in that it bloated repositories it was
what he was currently doing succesfully. AndyGreen thought[8] that #1
was the Holy Grail as it led to a single point of control, reducing
the loss of information which would occur in multiple specfiles. An
exchange between Andy and HansdeGoede brought out[9] an important
distinction between Fedora-to-Fedora crosses versus
Fedora-to-CompletelyOtherOS crosses (Hans was dealing with 256B RAM
!).
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01676.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01677.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01687.html
This distinction was also made[10] by Hans after Ralf and David seemed
to be talking at cross-purposes, with David wanting to avoid pandering
to architectures which didn't work with the current toolchain and yet
hadn't worked to get the toolchain fixed upstream. David had earlier
referenced JakubJelinek's succesful approach to the kernel as a model
for how to deal with this human aspect of the problem. Hans pointed
out that what he and Ralf were doing was to produce specific
executables stored on removable media and targetted at an onboard OS.
Hans particular expertise is with the gp2x[11a]. David accepted the
distinction and Ralf explained[11] that he was interested in a
slightly broader problem which involved the RTEMS[12] embedded OS both
as a target in its own right and also in the problem of making a
Canadian-cross of RTEMs on Fedora targetted to other important OSes.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01683.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01689.html
[11a] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X
[12] http://www.rtems.com/
As the spotlight was focused on him Hans naturally took the
opportunity to ask[13] why there hadn't been more feedback on his
arm-gp2x review tickets. Ralf responded that glibc was not familiar
to him, but that he was concerned with the use of a bootstrap in the
specfile. This prompted[14] Brendan to admit that this was one of
DavidWoodhouse's central points and that it was indeed the only
current way. A detailed discussion between Ralf and Brendan seemed to
result in consensus[15] that some means of extending rpm to separate
out target/foreign-arch packages from the host/native rpmdb was
needed. Ralf proposed[16] a second, completely isolated rpmdb for the
target arch, which he surmised would be like the way mock and mach
used chroots. Brendan concurred[17] that "leveraging mock is going to
a key to cross building bliss."
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01678.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01709.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01811.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01742.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01911.html
AndyGreen exposed[18] the problem that BuildRequires: in a specfile
being used for cross-compilation will conflate requirements for both
the host and the target and proposed that rpmbuild be enhanced to deal
with this case. DavidSmith's experience[19] was that the problem was
actually worse and had needed some conditional architecture testing in
BuildPrerequires. Ralf drew further details of this solution from
David[20] and ClarkWilliams[21] with regard to the ability of rpm to
install rpms with foreign/non-host architecture to a specific rpmroot.
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01816.html
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01841.html
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01861.html
[21] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01883.html
In a later branch of the discussion AndyGreen raised[22] the forking
of RPM which has taken place as an opportunity to implement these
changes to how BuildRequires should be handled for cross-compilation.
[22] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01921.html
AndyGreen clarified[23] to OliverFalk that while cross-compiled
packages might need to be tested on native hardware, the actual
compilation should work. LennertBuytenhek wasn't so sure[24], citing
the possibility that the binaries, although functionally equivalent,
might not be identical.
[23] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01478.html
[24] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01637.html
=== Yelping Over Bloated Firefox And Flash ===
A confused[1] HansdeGoede wondered why he had received conflicting
comments on packages he maintains about whether the help-viewer "Yelp"
should be made a Requires: or not. Hans' personal opinion was that it
should be as otherwise the packages lacked basic functionality without
even throwing an error. ChristopherAillon thought[2] that Yelp should
be required once by base gnome and not in each of the hundreds of
individual gnome packages. VilleSkyttä pointed[3] to the bloated
chain of dependencies (including Firefox) that requiring yelp entailed
and said this was a general trend of GNOME. Christopher agreed and
pointed[4] to possible future dependencies on nspluginwrapper and
Xulrunner.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01337.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01338.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01347.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01417.html
BillNottingham suggested that surely this was a function call in a
common gnome library, leading ToshioKuratomi (who also had an affected
package) to spend some time tracing[5] the chain of calls and suggest
that libgnomeui should require HelpBrowser or DocbookXMLViewer which
would be virtual provides in yelp. RayStrode discovered that there
was a gnome_help mechanism to put up a dialog warning that help was
missing and wondered[6] if help could be thought of as an optional
feature. This was attractive to BernardoInnocenti (who thought the
removal of help would benefit OLPC in size reduction), but not favored
by Bill (who thought that the solution was to make the viewer less
bloated), or Toshio (who thought that program help was a different
category than man pages or README files).
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01471.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01522.html
Ray's news about gnome-help was welcomed by Toshio, who also noted[7]
that yelp was selected as the help view by means of Gconf key, which
seemed to bear out[8] a horrified BillNottingham's joke that rpm would
need to dynamically compose requires from the union of all users'
gconf keys.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01537.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01538.html
A brief digression[9] into the bizarre American penchant for mixing up
the natural date order landed explanations from AlanCox[10] on the
rationale behind this and from CaolanMcNamara[11] on how to change the
order in OOimpress.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01545.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01600.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01580.html
ColinWalters thought[12] the GConf key could just be ignored and
unwittingly touched-off a flamewar when he wondered whether anyone
would really miss help. ChristopherAillon advanced[13] the argument
that the real problem was not to do with yelp, but with the provision
of a firefox-32 package against his wishes. This apparently[14]
provides an icon which runs a 32-bit Firefox installed on a x86_64
system to view Flash plugin content. Christopher was annoyed that his
recommendations had been over ridden.
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01544.html
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01563.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01597.html
An attempt by MattMiller to draw a distinction between an opinion
mattering versus being completely authoritative revealed[15] the depth
of Christopher's frustration. He pointed to the difficult legal
requirements that made his life hell and threatened[16] to leave the
project leaving Fedora with Iceweasel and no maintainer.
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01598.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01605.html
WarrenTogami responded[17] with the argument that the problem was
nothing to do with firefox-32, and that an earlier conflict had been
arbitrated through engineering management in Warren's favor and that
Christopher's characterization was "FUD with a few outright lies
sprinkled within." Warren argued that the script was necessary until
nspluginwrapper was supported. BillNottingham thought that Warren was
actually making Christopher's life harder as asserted, leading
MattMiller to try to present[18] a balanced recognition that both
Warren and Christopher were highly respected and experienced.
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01644.html
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01665.html
At this point MatejCepl returned[19] to Hans' original query. Matej's
post took responsibility for not communicating some discussion on
#fedora-devel instead of RH-interal IRC, but more interestingly
suggested that what was needed was the addition of soft-dependencies
in packages, akin to Debians Suggests: and Recommends:. Following
enquiry from JesseKeating, Matej explained[20] that a Recommends flag
would indicate to yum that if a recommended package were removed then
an unspecified but useful functionality would be lost. AxelThimm
thought this was horribly reminiscent of some older Windows packaging
"quirks" and while DominikMierzejewski (rathann) agreed[21] he also
pointed out that the soon-to-arrive standalone Gecko would simplify
all this.
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01394.html
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01444.html
[21] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01656.html
=== The Updates Firehose ===
Noting the large number of updates JesseKeating asked[1] were they all
necessary. This led to a discussion of one differentiator of Fedora
from other distributions, and also to several rumblings of discontent
from packagers about the imposition of more interference.
BrunoWolff liked having them available but asked[2] if it was possible
to have an extra categorization available so that yum could e.g. be
told only to select security updates and bug-fixes but not new
packages. Jesse responded[3] that LukeMacken would be implementing
that and in future Pup would show a list of the notes which
maintainers had inserted into bodhi. TillMaas and Luke later
discussed[4] this, with Luke noting that although the yum-security
plugin is present, bodhi still needs to be altered. Separately
JasonTibbits and KevinKofler also discussed[4a] such functionality.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01277.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01278.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01304.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01435.html
[4a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01307.html
ChristopherBlizzard asked[5] if any users were actually complaining,
and pointed out that Fedora wasn't RHEL. BernardoInnocenti advanced[6]
the case of multiple machines needing updates, which sparked a good
subthread[7] around MattDomsch's suggestions about how to add a local
private mirror to mirromanager. GianlucaSforna posted[8] a link to the
GuruLabs automatic-local-mirror HOWTO, while BillNottingham preferred
a yum-plugin written by RobertSpanton to allow local repository
mirrors to be discovered by yum. DaxKelson pointed out that his
method had the advantage of needing no modifications to the client.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01281.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01284.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01311.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01565.html
The definition of "local mirror" was raised[9] by PekkaSavola and
following JakubJelinek's enquiries about the "3 mirrors per country"
rule, Matt laid out[10] the changes that need to be made to improve
the situation.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01466.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01517.html
Several maintainers, including JefSpaleta, voiced[11] a desire for
best-practices guidelines to help in determining when to push an
update. Jef also wondered how many of the updates were due to new
packages entering the tree versus bug-fixes to existing packages.
Stimulated by this JesseKeating, BillNottingham and WillWoods tossed
around[12] ways of gathering statistics on which installed packages
were actually used, including porting Debian's popcon or modifying
Mugshot. While ColinWalters and RahulSundaram considered adapting
Smolt.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01285.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01532.html
AxelThimm was generally happy with the updates and disagreed[13] with
ChristopherAillon that too many changes were being backported from
rawhide to F7, resulting in a lack of incentive to upgrade to F8.
TillMaas and RudolfKastl also disagreed with Christopher[14] on where
the line should be drawn on bugs that should be fixed with updates.
Rudolf pointed out that presto would probably make the updates
palatable for users and that Fedora's rapid progress was one of the
reasons he used it instead of other distros.
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01427.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01567.html
Echoing[15] the general happiness with the updates strategy,
KevinKofler thought that the updates were Fedora's strength and
differentiated it from other distros. MichaelSchwendt was
skeptical[16] because of the unhappiness of users with broken apps.
Rahul proposed[17] that a policy on updates be written, prompting a
negative reaction from HansdeGoede[18] who requested that objective
measurements be used to determine if a problem existed before any
policies were written. NeilThompson was much more blunt, and worried
[19] that his bowel movements would soon be regulated and that the
community was being destroyed by heavy-handed bureaucracy. Responding
to this MatthiasClasen deprecated[20] the language and suggested that
the granularity of updates mentioned previously would allow filtering
on the client side.
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01339.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01339.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01349.html
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01355.html
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01359.html
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01410.html
=== Pay Per Spin Web Interface? ===
A new forum to provide respins of Fedora called respins.org was
mentioned[1] by RahulSundaram. Rahul wondered if there was a
web-interface layered over pungi and livecd-tools to allow package
selection and ISO generation.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01316.html
NicolasMailhot wasn't too keen[2] about the bandwidth implications.
Rahul argued that infrastructure had not objected, but MikeMcGrath
responded[3] that Rahul hadn't given them enough information to
determine how much bandwidth would be used. It seemed there was a
mis-communication over which emails should have been ignored.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01356.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01413.html
SethVidal responded[4] to Nicolas that the costs of such a service
would be huge and a fee-based site had been discussed to allow
individuals to produce a customised spin. Seth donned asbestos
underpants and pointed out that the tool would be fully open source.
JonathanSteffan offered up[5] some of the Red Hat interns working on
the project to take some of the flames, but for some reason they
remained quiet! Jonathan also posted[6] details of the current and
future state of the Revisor tool. It wasn't clear from reading this
whether this is what the interns are working on. Revisor currently has
a Gtk front-end, but the development work could see that replaced with
anything including a web front-end.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01429.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01442.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01441.html
JeroenVanMeeuwen, also of the Revisor project, posted[7] more details
including the massive number of enhancement requests they're
receiving.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01375.html
=== Secondary Arch Proposal Cont. ===
Last weeks proposal on 2ary architectures[1] by TomCallaway continued
to draw comment. ChristopherBlizzard had several points to make[2],
and ThorstenLeemhuis objected[3] to the first, which was that a
maintainer would be responsible for making sure his/her package built
on all the primary architectures. Thorsten thought this would
dissuade people from being Fedora maintainers and preferred the model
pioneered by DavidWoodhouse for PPC in which there would be a team/SIG
which could be appealed to for help.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg00463.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01792.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01829.html
David thought[4] that Chris actually had the right idea and that
ideally maintainers should be competent enough to fix bugs and
thoroughly understand the code and preferred to sacrifice quantity to
quality. David also thought that the maintainer's sponsor should have
primary responsibility to help the maintainer, but also saw the value
of a team which could help out. In his experience most bugs were not
actually arch-specific, but were generic and just exposed on
particular architectures. KevinKofler and David swapped[5] examples
of such bugs.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01838.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01840.html
The question arose[6] as to whether PPC was a secondary architecture
now, and David answered[7] negatively, pointing to a decision to wait
until another architecure has proved the system will work. MattDomsch
backed this up[8] with a link to the Jun 12 FAB minutes, while
AxelThimm disputed[9] Matt's interpretation.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01873.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01892.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01884.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01896.html
=== F8 Devel - User Storage Configurations ===
A proposal to create a single directory to hold all the dot-files
created by applications to hold user settings was mooted[1] by
DavidTimms. It received mainly negative responses from KDE users[2].
MatejCepl also pointed David to the work done already by the
freedesktop project on basedir[3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01728.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01737.html
[3] http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.5.html
=== R500 Initial Driver Release ===
FlorianLaRoche and MikeChambers both wanted to know if the R500
drivers (for very recent ATI video cards) would be packaged for F7 or
F8. AdamJackson (ajax) responded[1] that he needed to test them on
their intended hardware first. Mike and AdamTkac were eager[2] to put
their X1300s to the test.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01770.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01775.html
Very quickly ajax posted[3] a notification of a testbuild, noting its
failure on his own T60p, requirement of libpciaccess and inclusion in
the next rawhide push. DavidZeuthen gave[4] quick, detailed feedback
about partial success on a MacBookPro with an X1600/M56P.
NathanielNoblet with an X1650[5], and MikeChambers with an X1300 had a
disappointing experience and ajax emphasized[6] that he was making
sure that bugs reported to him would pass upstream.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01802.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01807.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01804.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01868.html
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== docs.fedoraproject.org Stats ===
MikeMcGrath posted a link to the fedora-docs-list[1], pointing to the
statistics for the docs.fedoraproject.org site[2]. The statistics show
that, so far this month, there have been 149,219 unique visitors to
the site! It was noted, however, that the number one search term was
"disable selinux", leading to a discussion about the current state of
the SELinux FAQ.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00069.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/awstats/docs/awstats.docs.fedoraproject.org.html
=== SELinux ===
After reviewing the statistics for docs.fedoraproject.org, KarstenWade
pointed out that there was no maintained canonical FAQ, with the top
two results on Google for "disable selinux" pointing to the FC3
SELinux FAQ and the RHEL 4 SELinux FAQ[1]. As a possible solution to
this it was proposed that a permanent URL on the wiki, or on the
future Plone implementation, would help encourage regular updates. It
was decided, however, that the FAQ should point upstream to
selinuxproject.org for overall information, with Fedora specific
information maintained by the Documentation Project[2]. PauloSantos
stepped forward and offered to maintain this FAQ[3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00077.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00084.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00086.html
=== Documentation Project Steering Committee Meeting ===
The log for the 12th June meeting of the FDSCo was posted to the
fedora-docs-list[1]. A HTML version is also available[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00085.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/Minu...
=== Summer Of Code ===
VillePekkaVainio posted a question to the fedora-docs-list regarding
his Summer Of Code project, creating a system for publishing and
editing man/info pages with MoinMoin[1]. The question revolves around
the best format to store the information in, trying to strike a
balance between making editing available to new users and making the
edits accessible to upstream as easily integrated patches.
Amit Uttam wrote to the fedora-docs-list about his Summer Of Code
project, to create an elegant DocBook to PDF solution. Despite this
project not being selected as an official Summer Of Code project, he
still plans to develop the project[2], and as such, posted the
original project proposal.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00082.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00088.html
== Translation ==
This section, we cover the news surrounding the Fedora Translation
(L10n) Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: JasonMatthewTaylor
=== Meeting Times ===
The Translation team is looking at different meeting times[1] to
ideally get more attendance, which, in turn will help better organize
and direct the project.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-June/msg00055.html
=== Monitoring Commits ===
For those that are so inclined, it is now possible to monitor
Translation team commits[1].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-June/msg00114.html
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: JasonMatthewTaylor
=== Security Updates ===
DamianMyerscough noted some security concerns[1] to be addressed in
the near future.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Escalation Paths/Methods ===
Discussion[1] has been had about how and who to notify in the event of
various outages/events.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== Fedora 8 Theme ===
Following last weeks discussion about artwork for Fedora 8, this week
has seen a lot of activity over the creation of a new theme for Fedora
8, with several mock-ups being created. Focus has been spread across a
number of mock-ups, including MartinSourada's work[1],
MairinDuffy's[2] and Mark's[3]. A lot of the information discussed in
the threads has been collated into a wiki page[4], making it easily
accessible.
The discussion about artwork for Fedora 8 also branched out to the
Fedora Forums, with a summary of the thread posted to the list[5].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00089.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00114.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00092.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00121.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-June/msg00110.html
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Fedora Security Response Team ===
Last week was a rather slow news week as far as security news goes.
The biggest news that should affect Fedora would be the fact that the
Fedora Security Response Team has finally gotten off the ground. The
group is currently pouring over the current list of known CVE ids to
determine if we've missed any old flaws in Fedora 7. Once that's done
the team will take over the constant task of parsing all the new
vulnerabilities that affect Fedora 7.
Anyone is welcome to help in this effort. One of the team goals is to
keep things open and transparent. Anytime security work is being
done, it is hard to keep the process open for a number of reasons.
One of the bigger reasons is that if all the information isn't public,
it can be easy to sweep certain flaws under the rug and forget about
them. This is bad for any project, especially something like Fedora.
If you have any interest in this group, feel free to join the mailing
list[1], or stop by #fedora-security on Freenode. All are welcome,
there's plenty of work to do. It's still a small team, but the
current group seems to be doing a fine job. More informatoin on the
team can be found on the wiki[2].
[1] http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-security-list
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Security/ResponseTeam
== Advisories and Updates ==
In this section, we cover Secuirity Advisories and Package Updates
from fedora-package-announce.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* 2007-06-16 [SECURITY] evolution-data-server-1.10.2-3.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0464
* 2007-06-16 [SECURITY] phpPgAdmin-4.1.2-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0469
* 2007-06-13 [SECURITY] kernel-2.6.21-1.3228.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0409
* 2007-06-13 [SECURITY] libexif-0.6.15-2.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0414
* 2007-06-13 [SECURITY] openoffice.org-2.2.0-14.11 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0410
* 2007-06-12 [SECURITY] spamassassin-3.2.1-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0390
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] mecab-0.96-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0366
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] perl-mecab-0.96-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0368
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] python-mecab-0.96-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0367
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] ruby-mecab-0.96-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0379
=== Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories ===
* 2007-06-13 [SECURITY] iscsi-initiator-utils-6.2.0.865-0.0.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-590
* 2007-06-12 [SECURITY] openoffice.org-2.0.4-5.5.23 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-572
* 2007-06-12 [SECURITY] spamassassin-3.1.9-1.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-582
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] file-4.21-1.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-538
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] libexif-0.6.15-1.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-548
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] mod_perl-2.0.2-6.2.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-577
* 2007-06-11 [SECURITY] pam-0.99.6.2-3.22.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-546
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-06-12 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2007-June/msg00128....
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-06-12 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-June/msg00125.html
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-06-14 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01945.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting 2007-06-14 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-June/msg0...
=== Fedora Indian Ambassadors Meeting Minutes 2007-06-13 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2007-June/msg0008...
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-06-12 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-June/msg00506.html
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-06-11 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-June/msg01603.html
== Extras Extras ==
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== An interview with Fedora leader Max Spevack ===
MaxSpevack was interivewed by LWN[1]:
"Now that Fedora 7 has been released, Fedora project leader Max
Spevack has a little bit of breathing room. Like nature, LWN abhors a
vacuum, so we sent Max a list of questions and a request for answers.
We are now happy to present the answers. Without further ado..."
[1] http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/237700/f18ea8cb3b2c9745/
=== Thomas Chung gives Fedora Talk at Caltech ===
ThomasChung gave a Fedora Presentation for San Gabriel Valley Linux
Users Group at Caltech[1] on his birthday. The topic was "Fedora 7 -
What's New" and Live Demo on virt-manager with KVM and Revisor. Some
Fedora 7 DVDs and Fedora Stickers were also given to the group at the
end of the presentation.
[1] http://today.caltech.edu/calendar/item.tcl?calendar_id=75423
== Feedback ==
This document is maintained by the Fedora News Team[1]. Please feel
free to contact us to give your feedback. If you'd like to contribute
to a future issue of the Fedora Weekly News, please see the Join[2]
page to find out how to help.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
16 years, 10 months
- 1
- 0
starting edit of FWN
by Karsten Wade
... just got back from a Dad Day BBQ, tucking whee ones in, then diving
into some editing. Edits and notice coming soon.
- Karsten
--
Karsten Wade, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
16 years, 10 months
- 2
- 1
[Fwd: Auto-discard notification]
by Karsten Wade
Forwarding bounce to the list, for errata consideration.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Anthony Green <green(a)redhat.com>
To: fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
Subject: FWN 91 correction
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:29:40 -0700
The article "Fedora for ARM and cross compilation" starts with..
"AndyGreen points out in his blog[1],", but that should be "AnthonyGreen
points out in his blog[1],". Thanks! AG
<quaid> D'oh! I even edited that part and missed that one,
sorry. :)</quaid>
--
Karsten Wade, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
16 years, 10 months
- 3
- 3
#fedora-devel News Beat ready for editing
by Oisin Feeley
Hi all,
Bit late with this one, am bone tired, so I hope
there isn't too much for Karsten and Thomas to do
due to stupid errors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Beats/Developments#preview
Good night,
--
Oisin Feeley
oisinfeeley(a)imapmail.org
--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Access your email from home and the web
16 years, 10 months
- 2
- 1
Artwork & documentation beats ready
by Jonathan Roberts
Hi,
Just to let you know that these two beats are ready for editing :D
Also, to invite anyone to send any feedback my way. I realise I've
taken the approach of brief summaries, pointing to the most relevant
messages on the list to allow readers to find the information
themselves, where as others are giving far more detailed descriptions.
Just wanted to check people are happy with what I've done so far.
Jon
16 years, 10 months
- 2
- 1
errata for a name
by Karsten Wade
Forwarding another errata from Anthony.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Anthony Green <green(a)redhat.com>
To: fedora-news-list(a)redhat.com
Subject: Another FWN 91 correction
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:08:30 -0700
In... "ManasSaksena tipped a nod[19] to a possibly useful tool from
ChrisTaylor called tsrpm, which would allow the systematic derivation of
customized root filesystems for cross-compilation to specific devices."
ChrisTaylor should be ChrisFaylor. Thanks! AG
--
Karsten Wade, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
16 years, 10 months
- 2
- 1
FC5 EOL
by Paul W. Frields
I'm sure someone probably already has this on their beat, but just a
reminder to make sure the FC5 end of life date of June 29 is prominently
featured. Keep up the great work guys!
--
Paul W. Frields, RHCE http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
Fedora Project: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PaulWFrields
irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
16 years, 10 months
- 2
- 1