Fedora Weekly News Issue 117
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 117 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 117 for the week of January 21st,
2008. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue117
In Announcement, we have "And the F9 codename winner is...", "FUDCon
F9 Survey available" and "Fedora Unity releases updated Fedora 7
Re-Spins".
In Planet Fedora, we have "Summer coding project ideas for Fedora",
"Red Hat, rocking hard", "The name game" and "My big announcement".
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. And the F9 codename winner is...
2. FUDCon F9 Survey available
3. Fedora Unity releases updated Fedora 7 Re-Spins
2. Planet Fedora
1. Summer coding project ideas for Fedora
2. Red Hat, rocking hard
3. The name game
4. My big announcement
3. Marketing
1. FUDCon video: New face of Fedora
2. Linux Format Interviews Jack Aboutboul
3. Max Spevack talks to Linux.com
4. Spinning a Fedora Linux Live CD
4. Ambassadors
1. Ambassador Needed for Florida Linux Show
2. Ambassador Needed for Linux Fest Northwest
3. FAmSCo Summary
5. Developments
1. YUM Proxy Cache Safety, Storage Backend
2. Disable SELinux To Use Revisor
3. Long-term Support Release
4. F9 Alpha Spinning
5. SELinux And Chroot
6. Fedora 9 For Asus Eeepc
7. BIND: Less Restrictive Modes And Policy
8. What Is A Fedora Developer?
9. Erratum
6. Advisory Board
1. Requests To The Fedora Board
2. Fedora 7 Unity Re-Spin
7. Documentation
1. Works in Progress
2. Release Notes Summary
8. Infrastructure
1. Continuing issues with xen
2. Some Network issues affecting fedora servers
9. Security Week
1. Enterprise-grade Linux: Five network security FOSS apps
2. Growing virus production taxes security firms
10. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
11. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-01-22
2. Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-21
3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-01-22
4. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-24
5. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-24
6. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-01-21
7. Fedora Testing (BugZappers) Meeting 2008-01-02
8. Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 04/2008
9. Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 04/2008
12. Ask Fedora
1. Fedora on Older Hardware
2. OEM Installation
3. Compiling Kernel
4. Bluetooth and Multimedia Keys
5. Prayer Time for Fedora
[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from Fedora Project.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== And the F9 codename winner is... ===
JoshBoyer announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"Fedora 9 (Sulphur)
Try as they might, the Bathysphere lobbyists failed in their quest to
have the little round ships be the moniker for Fedora 9. Instead, by a
narrow margin, the community has chosen Sulphur to be the codename for
Fedora 9."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0001...
=== FUDCon F9 Survey available ===
PaulFrields announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"The Fedora marketing team has posted a survey regarding FUDCon F9, held
January 11-13, 2008 in Raleigh, NC. All community members are invited
to participate, whether you attended or not. We expect to use these
surveys in the future for additional FUDCon events, to make sure that
the events are delivering as much value as possible to attendees and
observers. The URL for the survey is:
http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/185839/207c/"
"ERRATUM: The survey ends at 10pm EST on 07 Feb 2008 (0300 UTC 08 Feb 2008).
Thank you for participating!"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0000...
=== Fedora Unity releases updated Fedora 7 Re-Spins ===
JeroenVanMeeuwen announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of new ISO
Re-Spins (DVD and CD Sets) of Fedora 7. These Re-Spin ISOs are based
on Fedora 7 and all updates released as of January 18th, 2008. The ISO
images are available for i386, x86_64 and PPC architectures via jigdo
starting Thursday, January 24th, 2008. We have included CD Image sets
for those in the Fedora community that do not have DVD drives or
burners available."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0000...
[[Anchor(PlanetFedora)]]
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
Contributing Writers: ThomasChung
=== Summer coding project ideas for Fedora ===
KarstenWade points out in his blog[1],
"Summer in the Northern Hemisphere has been very busy the last few
years since Google introduced its Summer of Code project. Folks are
beginning to include the Southern Hemisphere. The Summer of Content
from OLPC already plans to cover both Summers with two project rounds
per year. Summer is a traditional time for students to take a break
from studies, and the Summer project ideas build upon an existing
history of programming interns from universities and colleges earning
experience and compensation."
[1] http://iquaid.org/2008/01/27/summer-coding-project-ideas-for-fedora/
=== Red Hat, rocking hard ===
DavidNielsen points out in his blog[1],
"Forbes reports the 25 fastest growing Tech companies, our friends at
Red Hat comes in at 11th. Many congratulations to Red Hat on the fine
result."
[1] http://lovesunix.net/blog/?p=232
=== The name game ===
JoshBoyer points out in his blog[1],
"The timing was totally different this time around so that the Art
team could have more time to create artwork for the release. Also,
there's no real reason to keep it secret until the last minute. We
tried this for this release to see if it made a difference anywhere.
If it doesn't produce something that most people view as good we can
always change back."
[1] http://jwboyer.livejournal.com/20716.html
=== My big announcement ===
TomCallaway points out in his blog[1],
"I've known about this for some time, as have a lot of people, but it
hasn't been publicly announced anywhere yet. The paperwork went
through earlier this week, so it is official now: I'm now the Fedora
Engineering Manager inside Red Hat."
"Also, this means that February 2008 is going to be a busy month for
me. Right now, I'm planning to attend SCALE 6X[2] and FOSDEM '08[3],
with Capricon 28 (not a Linux event) shoved in the middle."
[1] http://spot.livejournal.com/287187.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/SCALE/SCALE6X
[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/FOSDEM/FOSDEM2008
[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== FUDCon video: New face of Fedora ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"One of the major announcements at the recent FUDCon was the
changeover in Fedora Project leadership. Max Spevack, the outgoing
project manager, sat down with incoming Fedora chief Paul Frields (a
familiar face to magazine readers, as he's a popular contributor).
Couldn't make the conference? Catch up now instead."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg002...
=== Linux Format Interviews Jack Aboutboul ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Fedora's dedication to opening everything is not just for hackers –
it has a wider importance in that our approach is an agent for social
change"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg002...
=== Max Spevack talks to Linux.com ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"We caught up with Max at FUDCon. He told us how much he has enjoyed
being the Fedora project leader for the past two years, and why this
is a good time to hand the reins to someone else. Max will still be
working for Red Hat, and even though he will no longer be head Fedora
honcho, he'll still be involved with the project. But that's enough
from us. Let Max tell it in his own words."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg002...
=== Spinning a Fedora Linux Live CD ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"The Fedora project has added a powerful tool to its Linux
distribution to build your own live CD. With a single livecd-creator
command and a kickstart file listing the software you want, you can
create a desktop, gaming, or Web server to run live on most PCs. This
article gives details of how to do that."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg001...
[[Anchor(Ambassadors)]]
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: JeffreyTadlock
=== Ambassador Needed for Florida Linux Show ===
A post the Fedora-Announce-List[1] was made asking for a Fedora Booth
presence at the Florida Linux Show on February 11th, 2008. If there
are any Ambassadors in the region, please check the Help Wanted:
Events page [2] and add your name to the event.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0001...
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted/Events
=== Ambassador Needed for Linux Fest Northwest ===
JesseKeating posted to the Ambassador's list [1] looking for
Ambassadors to help staff a Fedora booth at Linux Fest Northwest. The
event has been added to the Help Wanted: Events page [2]. If you can
help, please add your name to the event.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-January/msg0...
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted/Events
=== FAmSCo Summary ===
The Fedora Ambassador Steering Committee held its first meeting since
the initial meeting to elect a chairman of the committee. The
following highlights some of FAmSCo's discussion on mailing lists and
from that meeting.
* In efforts to help keep fellow Ambassadors informed as to what
FAmSCo is doing the committee will be communicating summaries of
activites through the Fedora News project.
* FAmSCo meetings have moved to the public #fedora-meeting channel.
FAmSCo will be meeting every two weeks on Monday's at 20:00 UTC, with
the next meeting being 2008-02-04. The Meetings page [1] will contain
summaries of past meetings.
* FAmSCo is discussing going back through the Ambassador Verification
list [2] and following up with any Ambassadors who have not signed the
CLA and offering to help with the process or removed the name from the
list if needed.
* FAmSCo is also discussing a better way to receive feedback from
Ambassadors regarding events, Ambassador operations and more. Early
discussions mention the possibility of a web form to simply using an
email alias.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/MembershipService/Verification
[[Anchor(Developments)]]
== Developments ==
In this section, we cover the problems/solutions, people/personalities, and
ups/downs of the endless discussions on Fedora Developments.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
Contributing Writer: OisinFeeley
=== YUM Proxy Cache Safety, Storage Backend ===
This week's Intensely Detailed Thread Prize has been awarded to the
exchange started[1] by WarrenTogami concerning the best manner in
which YUM and HTTP mirrors can handle proxy caches. Warren had
received some interesting feedback from a ''squid''[2] developer,
HenrikNordström and explained several ways in which caching proxies
could cause YUM metadata to fall out of sync with the actual upstream
RPM packages. The main conclusion seemed to be that it would be best
to make the filenames of the repodata contain distinguishing
information. Warren proposed several other ways relying on HTTP
response headers as potential alternate solutions, including the use
of ETags[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02361.html
[2] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#fileetag
Warren's specific suggestion that the repodata filenames be modified
to include timestamps was tempered by his worry that older clients
unable to handle the renaming would hamper migration, but
JesseKeating[3] and ChuckAnderson[4] did some testing and found that
YUM was able to handle the situation as far back as "FC5,
yum-2.6.1-0.fc5, ftp and http baseurls".
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02362.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02371.html
JamesAntill threw an exception[5] when NicolasMailhot commented "I
made the same analysis several months ago when I setup my own local
mod_proxy cache. I'm glad to see Warren is getting through better than
me at the time." James counterposed the relative success resulting
from the method of flaming the "stupid yum developers" on
@fedora-devel versus discussion on the IRC channels #yum, #yum-devel
and the subsequent opening of bug reports and development. Nicolas
responded that this was an example of shooting the messenger and that
the problem had been reported many times. James' response was to
cite[6] possible shortage of resources and to point out that SethVidal
is usually very responsive when approached through the method which
James had described.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02451.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02459.html
A very long and interesting sub-thread was opened[7] by LesMikesell
who was interested in the divergent question of how it would be
possible to change YUM so that non-cooperating users in the same
netblock would be served files from the same local cache.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02364.html
There seemed to be general agreement that the transition to versioned
filenames of repodata could work. AlanCox noted[8] that keeping two
versions of the most up-to-date repodata, one with the newer
filenaming scheme would cover the case of older, incompatible clients
and new clients. JamesAntill suggested[9] that SHA1 sums be used
instead of timestamps and that YUM would need to be modified to clean
up metadata in /var/cache/yum. He also suggested that Warren should
discuss the issue on #yum.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02390.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02397.html
=== Disable SELinux To Use Revisor ===
A problem with running SELinux while attempting to run the FedoraUnity
Project's ''revisor'' tool[1], for creating re-spins of Fedora, was
brought[2] to the attention of the list by ValentTurkovic. Valent
posted screenshots of AVC denials and suggested that the respective
programming teams should sort out the problem.
[1] http://revisor.fedoraunity.org/
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02094.html
JohnDennis suggested that the actual alert could be saved from
''setroubleshoot'' and could then be entered into bugzilla instead of
using a screenshot, but Valent responded[3] that the developers should
just try and compose a respin with ''revisor'' and that this was
typical of a pattern in Fedora: "looks like nobody actually does
testing of these new features." A quick clarification was issued[4] by
JefSpaleta to the effect that ''revisor'' was not used internally by
the Fedora Project. CaseyDahlin pointed out that the ability to respin
Fedora easily was being advertised and people expected it to work, to
which JesseKeating responded[5] that '"We" cannot help what some other
parts of the project choose to tout (:'
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02099.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02131.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02134.html
The core of the problem was outlined[6] by JefSpaleta when he
explained that SELinux interacting with any chroot-like apparatus was
a problem, and re-emphasized that Valent's apparent belief that Fedora
release-engineering would have seen the problems was incorrect as
''revisor'' was not used internally. Jef also argued that while
re-spin generation tools should issue alerts that SELinux should be
disabled, they should not automatically disable SELinux. JesseKeating
deepened[7] the explanation with the information that "installing a
new policy in the chroot will actually cause that policy to activate
on the running kernel and then you have policy that doesn't match
labels, watch the fun!" and suggested that SELinux should be disabled
entirely or at least put in permissive mode before trying to use
chroot-dependent tools such as ''revisor'', ''pungi'' or
''livecd-creator''[8].
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02135.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02117.html
[8] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo
Valent returned to the attack (see FWN#116 "AVC:Denied {trolling} For
PID=666 Comm={SELinuxRemove}"[9]) on SELinux leading JohnDennis to
remind[10] him that he was free to disable it whenever he liked but
that the goal of the Fedora Project was to "smooth out the bumps
rather than disabling the technology." A brief response from Valent
led DanWalsh to explain[11] the problem further and this resulted in
opening up the thread to interesting, problem-solving contributions.
Dan's take was that the chroot and the host both use the same kernel,
so the loading of new SELinux policies _within_ the chroot actually
affects the host kernel. Dan wondered whether the solution could be
virtual machines, or getting the chroot to run a separate kernel, or
tricking SELinux within a chroot into doing nothing. As part of the
brainstorming TillMaas suggested[12] that separate xattr namespaces
could be part of the solution. JamesMorris took up[13] the virtual
machine idea and wondered if ''lguest'' would be suitable due to being
scriptable and booting nearly instantaneously and DanielBerrange
added[14] the suggestion that LVM snapshots would provide disposable
disk-images which could be booted as guests.
[9] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue116#head-9c5db4e29943d9f156002b24d...
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02136.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02415.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02429.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02477.html
JesseKeating played the role of realist and asked[15] for them to "get
back to me when it works on x86_64, ppc, ppc64, ia64, s390, s390x,
sparc, sparc64, arm, alpha..." DouglasMcClendon mentioned his
''qfakeroot'' scripts again and an interesting exchange occurred[16]
which explored the speed of qemu, the flakiness of kqemu and the
non-availability of qemu for PPC and an acknowledgment[17] that
Douglas' ''qkfakeroot'' is "pretty cool" in its ability to eschew root
privileges even if it takes too long to be used as a standard compose
tool by Fedora release-engineering.
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02480.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02494.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02499.html
Two separate threads later resulted from this and are covered in this
same FWN#117 as "What Is A Fedora Developer?" and "SELinux And
Chroot".
=== Long-term Support Release ===
The issue of whether it was possible to have a "long term support"
release of Fedora was floated[1] by DavidMansfield. David's courteous
post recognized that this might be mistaken for flame-bait and
acknowledged that teampower might be a constraint. David explained[2]
that the absence of many tools such as ''gnumeric'' and ''git'' and
some of the "cool" tools from the livna and rpmforge repositories from
CentOS/RHEL was a problem for him.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02191.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02195.html
CaseyDahlin was the first of many to suggest[3] that David should take
a look at the EPEL repositories. HorstvonBrand added[4] that the
purpose of Fedora was to make obtaining freely distributable software
easy and that this ruled out some of the programs in livna and
rpmforge.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02196.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02279.html
AndrewFarris recalled[5] the now defunct FedoraLegacy project and a
sub-thread exploring the problems of trying to maintain a long-term
release evolved including a discussion of whether RHEL in conjunction
with the EPEL repository was in effect "Fedora LTS".
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02204.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02308.html
JefSpaleta welcomed[7] the idea of a "Fedora LTS" but cautioned that
the idea seems to originate in Canonical's specific business model and
that it is hard to see where this fits in to the Fedora space. His
post was very encouraging but challenged proponents to expand upon a
potential business plan.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02212.html
Discussion of whether FedoraLegacy actually failed, whether failure is
actually beneficial and what was learned took up the remainder of the
thread[8].
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02392.html
=== F9 Alpha Spinning ===
Some figures for the sizes of ISOs for Fedora 9 Alpha spin were
posted[1] by LukeMacken. Included was a diff between the F8-Live-i686
and F9-Alpha-Live-i686 Desktop spins.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02574.html
Suggestions were made[2] by HansdeGoede to reduce the size of the ISOs
a little including splitting up ''gnome-games'' and perhaps removing
''httpd'' from the LiveCD. LubomirKundrak suggested that ''httpd'' was
there because of WebDAV file sharing[3].
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02615.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02619.html
RahulSundaram wanted[4] to make sure that the latest content was going
into the Games LiveCD and offered to keep it updated in livecd-tools.
This led BillNottingham to query whether keeping the contributed spin
configs in ''livecd-tools'' itself and ColinWalters suggested[5]
keeping them in the same CVS directory as comps.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02629.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02641.html
SzabolcsSzakacsits took pains to emphasize[6] that the apparent growth
of ''ntfs-3g'' did not take into account that ntfs-3g changes had
enabled the removal of ''fuse'' and a consequent overall decrease of
109MB. KevinKofler did not approve of some of the changes as he
claimed that they essentially created a static copy of fuse into
ntfs-3g.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02677.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02689.html
=== SELinux And Chroot ===
As a result of the discussions over how to improve the interaction
between chroots and SELinux JamesMorris created a bugzilla[1] entry
and requested that concerned parties add requirements. He noted[2]
that a related issue under discussion was the distribution of policy
when the host and target have differing policies.
[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=430075
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02403.html
=== Fedora 9 For Asus Eeepc ===
The lucky OrionPoplawski had been playing around with a new toy in the
form of the ultra-portable Asus Eee PC and reported[1] that he had
encountered issues with the ethernet adapter (Attansic Tech L2
100Mbit), the wireless adapter (Atheros AR5007EG) and the Flash RAM
harddrive.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02645.html
ColinWalters suggested that as Orion wanted to minimize writes to the
flash drive (as there are a limited number) it would make sense to
make the filesystem read-only, in effect creating a "Live OS" on it
with the exception of /home which would be stored on an SD card.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02646.html
The use of ''jffs2'' was recommended[3] by JohnPalmieri on the basis
of its use in the OLPC. John added that modern flash used "randomized
writes" (presumably wear-leveling) and thus was less likely to see the
problems encountered with journal writing in ext3 filesystems or FAT
on the older hardware. He suggested also eliminating any /swap
partition and looking out for a new FS which was reputed to be better
for large flash drives. Some doubt was cast on this by
JonathanUnderwood as apparently the drives do not appear as flash to
the OS.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02649.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02653.html
JoshBoyer and RubenKerkhof suggested that the ''logfs'' and ''ubifs''
filesystems might be what John was thinking about. Josh thought that
the wear-leveling was done by a controller and not the actual flash
chip.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02660.html
=== BIND: Less Restrictive Modes And Policy ===
An announcement of a major revision of BIND file modes was made[1] by
AdamTkac. Adam proposed that only ''/etc/rndc.key'' and
''/var/log/named.log'' should be restricted to the root user and that
other binaries should be readable by non-root users. He also proposed
that the ''/var/named/*'' subtree would be writable by ''named''.
Adam sought objections.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/thread.htm...
SteveGrubb wondered[2] which other users would be expected to share a
DNS server and pointed out that it was "a high value target for
hackers".
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02019.html
EnricoScholz suggested[3] that only the ''slaves/'' and ''data/''
directories had to be writable, but that ''pz/'' and other parts of
the chrooted filesystem used by named had to be read-only.
AndrewFarris wondered why and ManuelWolfshant recalled[4] BIND's past
history of providing a remote root. He also stated a preference for
the general principle of granting the minimal rights necessary. After
Enrico confirmed this AdamTkac explained[5] that /var/named was
supposed to be writable by design.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02073.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02080.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02127.html
A later comment mentioned[6] that there was a problem with coredumps
and in discussion with ChuckAnderson Adam cited a bugzilla entry which
documents the problem.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02123.html
=== What Is A Fedora Developer? ===
Several hours after the extensive discussions[1] of the need to
disable SELinux while using chroot-dependent compose tools
ValentTurkovic initiated[2] another thread about using ''revisor'' in
which he asked for guidance as to whether he was encountering bugs or
making usage errors.
[1] FWN#117 "Disable SELinux To Use Revisor"
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02156.html
This thread had the potential to turn sour shortly after Valent was
advised[3][4] by several people that the FedoraUnity project were the
experts on ''revisor'' and Valent responded[5] by echoing the comment
made[6] (and answered!) previously in the earlier thread in which he
had been involved. Namely he claimed that "I thought since I'm using a
really loudly advertised fedora feature, and config files which all of
them are provided from fedora and not some 3rd party that this is the
correct list."
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02160.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02163.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02166.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02133.html
JesseKeating responded[7] calmly with the question "You are aware that
the vast majority of software in Fedora is developed and discussed at
their respective upstream locations, right?" JefSpaleta produced[8]
one of his typically insightful explicatory posts in which he drew a
distinction between upstream developers who contribute to Fedora and
"Fedora developers" who produce infrastructure which allows the Fedora
Project to be a conduit between users and upstream projects.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02167.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02165.html
=== Erratum ===
In FWN#114 "SELinux Rants"[1] we mentioned that the copying of
directories using ''tar'' should be done with the "--xattrs" option in
order to preserve the context labels. DavidHighley subsequently
contacted us to report that he had experienced problems using this
method. David later helpfully reported that ''tar-1.17-5.fc8'', which
is available as an update appears to fix[2] the apparently broken
storage of SELinux and extended attributes which David was reporting.
Thanks to David for the follow-up on this issue.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue114#head-9aa83fad0c280fb44728ecae1...
[2] https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F8/FEDORA-2007-4400
[[Anchor(AdvisoryBoard)]]
== Advisory Board ==
In this section, we cover discussion in Fedora Advisory Board.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
Contributing Writer: MichaelLarabel
=== Requests To The Fedora Board ===
RahulSundaram has made five requests on the fedora-advisory-board
list[1]. These requests come down to logistics with such appeals as
posting an agenda prior to each meeting, posting the meeting minutes
more promptly, and differing opinions on community board member
nominees. The message with responses can be read on the mailing
list[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-January/msg002...
=== Fedora 7 Unity Re-Spin ===
For those not yet ready to upgrade to Fedora 8, the Fedora Unity[1]
project has released updated spins of Fedora 7. These new ISOs contain
all of the Fedora 7 updates as of January 18. The announcement and
download links can be found on the fedora-advisory-board list[2].
[1] http://fedoraunity.org/
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-January/msg002...
[[Anchor(Documentation)]]
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JohnBabich
=== Works in Progress ===
Work continues on the Desktop User Guide (DUG) and the Administration
Guide (AG). The goal is to include both guides in the official Fedora
9 release.
=== Release Notes Summary ===
KarstenWade proposed a canonical release summary [1].
"We can use clever ...Include... statements that draw only specific
parts, so each 'mirror' of the canonical summary can show the most
appropriate fragment.
Anyone interested in doing this work? It involves:
* Working out a single canonical location from amongst the several
Releases / # / Release Summary, Docs / Beats / Over View,
Press release needs (more lightweight), etc.
* Define a format for that page so that it can be fragmented (if needed)
for different summaries
* Write up a process for jamming all that together
* Publicize/evangelize"
JonathanRoberts agreed [2] and cited the KDE Project as doing an
excellent job in this regard.
RahulSundaram [3] concluded: "As the person behind both of these
documents, let me note that release notes overview was meant to be
more technical while the release summary was born out of an earlier
effort to do press releases via the community. Also due to general
lack of contributions (even though Jonathan Roberts and others did
help for Fedora 8), the time taken to write a proper release summary
was almost an entire night last time and that too way later than the
release notes string freeze.
We need to decide whether the overview in release notes can be the
kind of content that release summary currently is. If that is
preferred, let me know and I will do that from Fedora 9 onwards. I
wouldn't mind more people helping out either."
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00185.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00187.html
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00207.html
[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: HuzaifaSidhpurwala
=== Continuing issues with xen ===
MikeMcGrath reports [1],
xen1 started exhibiting these issues when we moved from FC6 to RHEL5 GA.
It was assumed to be hardware issue because of how sporatic the issues
were and because we actually do have RHEL5 on other xen hosts.
The iscsi issue may or may not be a red herring but some of the reports
listed in the ticket suggests a kernel / poweredge bug that we may be
hitting. We had moved
all non-redundant guests off of xen1 onto the more stable xen2 box. After
upgrading xen2 to RHEL5 we started seeing the same problems with it.
There's a few things we can try, Mike will be doing so on xen1 with proxy4 as
our test host since its competely redundant and has, in the past, crashed
that box.
In the future though they should all be in similar specs (1U box, 8
core 16-32G memory)
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== Some Network issues affecting fedora servers ===
MikeMcGrath reports [1],
Seems a link between AT&T and level3 was down. Mike was monitoring the
situation but there's little we can do about it right now.
The link came back after some time.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Enterprise-grade Linux: Five network security FOSS apps ===
iTWire has a story detailing five open source security applications:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16246/1141/1/0/
As more security applications are gobbled up by large firms, open
source projects gain a unique advantage. Anytime an organization
needs to make money, they are willing to draw a gray line with respect
to their ethics. As most open source projects don't rely on corporate
funding, they can be more strict with respect to what they call
malware. It is quite likely that as the volume of malware increases,
this advantage will become more clear.
=== Growing virus production taxes security firms ===
The Register points out the current problem with growing malware trends:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/malware_surge/
The rate at which malware is growing is quite alarming. If this trend
continues it will become impossible for anti virus firms to keep ahead
of the wave. The current attitude toward malware is to take a very
reactive approach. Most groups don't focus on stopping the cause of
problems, but rather treating the symptoms. While there is certainly
a great deal of money to be made in treating symptoms, the well is
going to dry up eventually.
[[Anchor(SecurityAdvisories)]]
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 8 Security Advisories ===
* xorg-x11-server-1.3.0.0-39.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* libXfont-1.3.1-2.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* hsqldb-1.8.0.8-1jpp.5.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* mantis-1.1.1-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* clamav-0.92-6.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* bind-9.5.0-23.b1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* xorg-x11-server-1.3.0.0-40.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* kernel-2.6.23.14-107.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* pulseaudio-0.9.8-5.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* icu-3.8-5.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* clamav-0.92-6.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* mantis-1.1.1-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* xorg-x11-server-1.3.0.0-15.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* hsqldb-1.8.0.8-1jpp.5.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* boost-1.33.1-15.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* libXfont-1.2.9-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* bind-9.4.2-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* xorg-x11-server-1.3.0.0-16.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* pulseaudio-0.9.6-2.fc7.1 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* icu-3.6-20.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
[[Anchor(EventsMeetings)]]
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various Projects and SIGs.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-01-22 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-January/msg002...
=== Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-21 ===
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/2008...
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee (Log) 2008-01-22 ===
* http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00172.html
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-24 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02469.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-24 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-01-21 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02074.html
=== Fedora Testing (BugZappers) Meeting 2008-01-02 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2008-January/msg00429.html
=== Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 04/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/epel-devel-list/2008-January/msg00165.html
=== Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 04/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02219.html
[[Anchor(AskFedora)]]
== Ask Fedora ==
In this section, we answer general questions from Fedora community.
Send your questions to askfedora AT fedoraproject.org and Fedora News
Team will bring you answers from the Fedora Developers and
Contributors to selected number of questions every week as part of our
weekly news report. Please indicate if you do not wish your name
and/or email address to be published.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AskFedora
Contributing Writer: RahulSundaram
=== Fedora on Older Hardware ===
Robert Myers <mystinar(a)comcast.net>: In the development of Fedora 9,
is there any work being done to improve it's performance on older
hardware? If so, will the performance increases be noticeable on,
say, a 450mhz Pentium III with 256 megabytes of RAM?
---
The major features for Fedora 9 are listed at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/FeatureList. While there
isn't any special focus in Fedora 9 to make it work on older hardware,
we typically inherit a number of performance improvements from the
upstream projects that we integrate, including many key projects where
Fedora developers are major contributors. As an exmaple, OLPC (One
Laptop Per Child) project is based on Fedora, and since OLPC is a
resource constrained environment, our participation results in
improvements that make it easier and more efficient to run on older
hardware.
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OLPC
To add to that, there are a couple of Fedora spins developed currently
that target older hardware or low resource systems in which you might
be interested.
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ChristophWickert/FedoraLite
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RahulSundaram/XfceLive
=== OEM Installation ===
Shannon Mendenhall <mendenhall.shannon@comcast.net:I was wondering
when or if you are going to include a OEM install in
your next version (fedora 9). I was hoping so it would make it easier
for OEM builders to leave the client to set up there time zone, user
name, password, ect... thanks, I look forward to hearing your reply.
---
Actually, we've had this feature since the first version of Fedora. Refer to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FirstBoot
Also, Fedora provides a number of sophisticated and easy to use tools
to make further customizations. Take a look at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CustomSpins
=== Compiling Kernel ===
Sd <elesar(a)cable.netlux.org>: How I can compile your kernel? Where I
got kernel-source?
---
An easy question, thanks to the nice documentation at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel. Note that this is
already referenced from the release notes at
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f8/en_US/sn-Kernel.html
=== Bluetooth and Multimedia Keys ===
Zlatko (Email withheld on request)
First of all, I would like to thank You for Fedora 8. I'm using Fedora
since first edition, and now, I can say that Fedora is highly
improved, and can be used almost for everything. I'm using Fedora on
my laptop exclusively for business purposes, and also I'm using Fedora
on my desktop computer at my home for watching TV, watching DVD,
playing various games, Internet surfing, and so on, and everything is
working
OK. But, there is a slight problem in using fedora on my laptop. So,
on to the problem... :-)
My integrated bluetooth wont work, unless I do the following:
1. I start laptop with Windows Vista
2. I restart from Vista to Fedora
Each time I do this, bluetooth works fine. But, if I turn off
computer, and start it again directly to Fedora, bluetooth wont work,
and system
wont recognize any bluetooth device. I have described this problem on
Fedora forum, also, but nobody answered my question so far, even I
have posted that post month ago. Here is the link to that post:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=172988
And also, if I may ask, is there a plan to support so-called "Fn"
functions? For example, on my Toshiba Satellite P200-10C, when I press
"Fn + F8" I should be able to activate/deactivate wireless/bluetooth,
but instead, nothing happens. I surely hope that You will consider
these questions, and help small users such as I am... :-)
Thanks in advance...
---
Another user asks a similar question
Yuan Yijun <bbbush.yuan(a)gmail.com>: I use a Dell 640m which have some
external "multimedia button" to control music volume. And I used to
close the lid while playing some background music. When the lid is
closed, these buttons are not functional at all, so I cannot mute it
without open the lid && login (because of gnome-screensaver). How to
make them work? Thanks!
---
The bluetooth issue as well as multimedia keys not working on your
laptops out of the box appear to be bugs/enhancement requests that can
reported directly to http://bugzilla.redhat.com. We are continuously
enhancing Fedora to support components like Bluetooth and multimedia
keys to work better, and we appreciate your feedback. Use the
following references:
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests
* http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/
=== Prayer Time for Fedora ===
Riam budhi <riam_3000(a)hotmail.com>: I wanted to ask you, where is I
can download prayer time ( I am muslim)?
---
Unfortunately, this software isn't available in the Fedora repository
yet and I couldn't locate any good alternatives. This is now a
opportunity for you to be a contributor to Fedora and maintain the
software in the Fedora repository. Refer to
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/Join
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
15 years, 4 months
And the F9 codename winner is...
by Josh Boyer
Fedora 9 (Sulphur)
Try as they might, the Bathysphere lobbyists failed in their quest to
have the little round ships be the moniker for Fedora 9. Instead, by a
narrow margin, the community has chosen Sulphur to be the codename for
Fedora 9. Full election results below.
Fedora Art team, let the themes begin!
josh
vote_count | name
------------+----------------
62 | Sulphur
54 | Bathysphere
43 | Chupacabra
39 | Mayonnaise
32 | Dragicorn
29 | Woodwose
23 | Tourette
13 | Asperger
13 | Barmanou
10 | Chingachgook
6 | Kingsport Town
5 | Marfan
15 years, 4 months
Florida Linux Show in Jacksonville FL, Feb 11th 2008
by Art Wildman
Reminder: Speakers, Exhibitors & Support still needed... time is getting
short! They are looking for more Vendors, EDUs & Organizations that
would like to setup a Booth. If you know folks in the area that would be
interested in speaking or sponsoring an exhibit, please let us know
asap. Perhaps a presentation or two could be recycled from FUDcon? There
will be Gentoo & Ubuntu exhibits, it would be nice if someone could help
represent Fedora, my favorite Laptop distro. -Thanks, Art@JAX
Florida Linux Show at UNF, February 11 2008
http://www.floridalinuxshow.com
=======================================================
News Update - The Florida Linux Show 2008 Speaker Schedule posted. The
Florida Linux Show 2008 will be cutting off the Free Linux User Group
Admission on January 30th, 2008. Please Register Soon...
Contact: Rod Sharp, Director
Florida Linux Show 2008 - www.floridalinuxshow.com
Email: rod(a)floridalinuxshow.com
Florida Linux Show 2008 | GatorLUG
http://www.gatorlug.org/node/190
Florida Linux Show 2008 | JaxLUG
http://wiki.jaxlug.org/index.php/Current_events
15 years, 4 months
FUDCon F9 Survey available
by Paul W. Frields
The Fedora marketing team has posted a survey regarding FUDCon F9, held
January 11-13, 2008 in Raleigh, NC. All community members are invited
to participate, whether you attended or not. We expect to use these
surveys in the future for additional FUDCon events, to make sure that
the events are delivering as much value as possible to attendees and
observers. The URL for the survey is:
http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/185839/207c/
Please keep in mind the following as you take the survey:
* We plan to hold additional non-USA FUDCon events in 2008 at locations
around the globe.
* The video and other media shot during FUDCon is being chopped and
polished as you read this, and should start to be available soon.
* The next USA FUDCon (F10) is scheduled to be held concurrently with
the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts in June.
Those items notwithstanding, please visit the survey and give us your
feedback and thoughts:
http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/185839/207c/
Thanks to everyone who made the FUDCon event such a stunning success,
and thanks also to Red Hat's Marketing group for helping us put this
survey together.
--
Paul W. Frields, RHCE http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
Fedora Project: http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
15 years, 4 months
Fedora Unity releases updated Fedora 7 Re-Spins
by Jeroen van Meeuwen
The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of new ISO
Re-Spins (DVD and CD Sets) of Fedora 7. These Re-Spin ISOs are based on
Fedora 7 and all updates released as of January 18th, 2008. The ISO
images are available for i386, x86_64 and PPC architectures via jigdo
starting Thursday, January 24th, 2008. We have included CD Image sets
for those in the Fedora community that do not have DVD drives or burners
available.
Fedora Unity has taken up the Re-Spin task to provide the community with
the chance to install Fedora with recent updates already included. These
updates might otherwise comprise more than 1.99GiB of downloads for a
full installation. This is a community project, for and by the
community. You can contribute to the community by joining our test process.
A special thanks goes out to:
- Ben Williams (Southern_Gentlem),
- Jeffrey Tadlock (zcat),
- Dana Hoffman Jr. (Harley-D),
- Jason Farrell (iWolf)
Who have tested this Re-Spin in only 4 days (testing includes running 23
tests twice, per architecture -138 in total).
Please note that this Re-Spin obsoletes the previous F7 Re-Spin by
Fedora Unity, "20071030".
If you are interested in helping with the testing or mirroring efforts,
please contact the Fedora Unity team. Contact information is available
at http://fedoraunity.org/ or the #fedora-unity channel on the Freenode
IRC Network (irc.freenode.net).
Go to http://spins.fedoraunity.org/spins to get the bits!
To report bugs in the Re-Spins please use http://bugs.fedoraunity.org/
Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc.
--
Kind regards,
Jeroen van Meeuwen
-kanarip
Fedora Unity Founder
kanarip(a)fedoraunity.org
15 years, 4 months
Fedora Weekly News Issue 116
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 116 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 116 for the week of January 14th
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue116
In Announcement, we have "Cast your vote for the Fedora 9 Codename!"
In Planet Fedora, we have "Looking for a few good hackers!", "Fire in
the Attic, Proof of the Prize", and "PackageKit Interview"
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. Cast your vote for the Fedora 9 Codename!
2. Planet Fedora
1. Looking for a few good hackers!
2. Fire in the Attic, Proof of the Prize
3. PackageKit Interview
3. Marketing
1. Red Hat at the crossroads
2. Video: Alan Cox on community and the enterprise
3. Fedora 9 and KDE 4.0.0 in distrowatch article
4. Developments
1. OpenVPN And NetworkManager
2. What To Do About Bugs?
3. Displaying Application Icons In PackageKit
4. AVC:Denied {trolling} For PID=666 Comm={SELinuxRemove}
5. System-config-firewall Changes For Fedora 9
6. Fedora 9 CD ISOs
5. Documentation
1. Status of FOP Support in xmlto
2. Progress on the DUG and AG
6. Infrastructure
1. Something up with the bzr browsing in trac
2. Continuing issues with xen1
7. Security Week
1. X Update
2. More Vulnerability Reporting
3. Embedded library madness
8. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
9. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-01-13
2. Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-01-17
3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2008-MM-DD
4. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-MM-DD
5. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-17
6. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-01-14
7. Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 03/2008
8. Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 03/2008
9. Fedora SIG Store Meeting (Log) 2008-01-16
[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from Fedora Project.
In this issue, we've included all new announcements since last issue.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Cast your vote for the Fedora 9 Codename! ===
JoshBoyer announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"We have several options for the Fedora 9 codename, and you get to help
decide which we use!"
"Voting will end and be tallied at 2008-01-24 23:59:59 UTC"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0000...
[[Anchor(PlanetFedora)]]
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
Contributing Writers: ThomasChung
=== Looking for a few good hackers! ===
JesseKeating points out in his blog[1],
"Are you looking for that awesome summer job? Tired of spending your
summer listening to your grandma's stories over and over again?
Looking for a challenge, a resume builder, a real world experience, a
chance to try out those flame proof undies? Well do we have something
that might interest you!"
[1] http://jkeating.livejournal.com/52337.html
=== Fire in the Attic, Proof of the Prize ===
JackAboutboul points out in his blog[1],
"That's right! AOL might no longer be the laughing stock of everyone
who has owned a computer since the 80's. Seriously though, AOL has the
potential to be the world's largest identity providers. They have over
63 Million user accounts and have been working on implementing OpenID"
"Now in case that wasn't exciting enough for you, the bombshell came
this morning. AIM is going Jabber! I was absolutely delighted when I
read this. AOL is making positive steps to finally move on and up from
their decade long commitment to being as proprietary as possible and
pissing of numerous people to actually opening up, embracing the age
of open standards and trying to regain some mind share and build
community."
[1] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MadRhetoric/~3/218930583/fire-in-attic-pro...
=== PackageKit Interview ===
JonRoberts points out in his blog[1],
"Woah, it's the 18th of January 2008 - Fedora 9 Alpha is not even out
yet but the first developer interview of the new year is! Thanks to
Robin Norwood and Richard Hughes for giving me some of their time to
talk about PackageKit, the super-cool cross-distribution package
management solution that is already making things suck-less."
[1] http://blog.questionsplease.org/2008/01/18/packagekit-interview/
[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Red Hat at the crossroads ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Red Hat has managed to walk the line between corporate ambition and
community ethics, resisting the temptation to compromise in deals with
Microsoft and others, and has endeavored to remain honest and true to
its community roots, which it has maintained through its dependence on
the Fedora community."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg001...
=== Video: Alan Cox on community and the enterprise ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Interesting and concise descriptions of a lot of things. Alan Cox on his
involvement in the Linux kernel, working for Red Hat, the value of
enterprises, subscription model, staying true to Free software, birth of
Fedora and even more."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg001...
=== Fedora 9 and KDE 4.0.0 in distrowatch article ===
SebastianVahl reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"The Fedora distribution has traditionally been focusing on GNOME as its
preferred desktop environments, but with the increasing community
participation in the project, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that KDE
4.0.0 is now included in "rawhide" (Fedora's development branch). Not only
that, it also appears to be the default KDE (KDE 3.5.8 is present as well,
but these packages have been renamed to kdebase3, kdelibs3, etc.). Moreover,
the Fedora community has released an installable Fedora live CD containing a
base system from the latest rawhide + KDE 4.0.0 - a good way to evaluate the
progress Fedora has made since the release of version 8. The live CD is
available for download from here: rawhide-KDE4-i686-20080109.4.iso (694MB,
SHA1)."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg001...
[[Anchor(Developments)]]
== Developments ==
In this section, we cover the problems/solutions, people/personalities, and
ups/downs of the endless discussions on Fedora Developments.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
Contributing Writer: OisinFeeley
=== OpenVPN And NetworkManager ===
A need to control individual VPN connections led JosVos to post[1]
that Fedora's OpenVPN package currently stops and starts all VPN
interfaces simultaneously using a single init script. Jos pointed out
that the classic Red Hat way was to support interfaces with
ifup/ifdown scripts, that there had been some groundwork done in 2004
towards this end, and he wondered if there was general interest in
including such methods in Fedora. Although AndrewParker expressed
interest in extending NetworkManager's functionality to include both
this and the (un)mounting of network shares Jos was clear[2] that his
interests excluded NetworkManager and were modestly focused on
individual VPN connection control.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01165.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01174.html
RalfErtzinger posted[3] a link to an rpm package of scripts which he
had written[4] to do some of these things on Rawhide and CentOS5.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01194.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01225.html
Strong agreement that the ability to individually control VPN
interfaces should be part of the OpenVPN package was expressed[5] by
DavidWoodhouse. David added that this functionality should have been a
condition of the initial review of the package. StevenPritchard
explained[6] that at the time of the review it had appeared that
NetworkManager was "going to take over the world" and thus ifup/ifdown
had been neglected. It was observed[7] by DavidHollis that
NetworkManager-openvpn seemed to be stagnating and lacked support for
"tls-auth/tls-remote" among other options. DanWilliams responded[8]
that the proliferation of OpenVPN options meant that adding GUI
dialogs for all of them was impractical. He suggested that perhaps
allowing custom-option-entries which could later be over-ridden if the
same option were added to the GUI might solve the problem, but worried
that opening up too much would present a security risk: "About the
last thing we want to be doing is executing a root process with random
arguments entered by some trojan that stuffed values into GConf."
DavidHollis expanded[9] on the problems faced by OpenVPN
administrators due to the inability of NetworkManager-openvpn to
import a boilerplate configuration file.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01279.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01342.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01346.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01354.html
JosVos wrapped[9] things up with the promise to make a proposal based
on the information he had been given, but it should be noted that this
seems likely to be exclusive of NetworkManager functionality.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01349.html
=== What To Do About Bugs? ===
An interesting thread was opened[1] by JesseKeating when he posted a
link to a blog entry detailing frustrations with Ubuntu's bug handling
policy.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01870.html
Many good points were made both expressing the problems faced by
maintainers, an excellent example of which was KevinKofler's
description[2] of the KDE workload, and those who have been frustrated
by the manner in which their bugs have been handled.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01914.html
Of particular note was the discussion[3] of bugs closed as "UPSTREAM"
which saw some maintainers such as SethVidal state[4] that they would
only do this if they had a fix already checked into the upstream
codebase. MatejCepl made[5] a great post which linked to the actual
description of what the "upstream" tag is supposed to mean and promote
yet cautioned that bug reporters should be treated "as
our most valuable asset".
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01900.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01901.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01926.html
The whole thread gives a frank and useful insight into some of the
processes which swing into motion once Fedora users summon up the
willpower to grapple with Bugzilla.
=== Displaying Application Icons In PackageKit ===
The buzz of excitement around PackageKit (e.g. JonathanRoberts'
interview[1] of RichardHughes and RobinNorwood) stimulated a
proposal[2] from JakubRusinek (livio) to replace the generic package
icon with the specific icons for each application.
[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/265748/
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01840.html
BillNottingham pointed out[3] that this would bloat the repositories
and increase the download times for users. Jakub suggested[5] that the
hicolor-icon-theme could supply the missing icons and thus avoid users
having to download all icons for all packages but Bill thought[6] that
"updating the hicolor-icon-theme package every time we add a new app
to Fedora, or any time such an app changes its icon, is somewhere
beyond impractical."
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01843.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01847.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01847.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01849.html
A nice summary of the situation was made[7] by JefSpaleta which
suggested that if icon names could be included in the repodata then
when they were present on the system they could be displayed,
otherwise they would use a generic icon. Jef wondered if it was worth
all the trouble though.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01854.html
After Jakub explained that he thought his proposal would add usability
improvement, making PackageKit similar to Ubuntu's "gnome-app-install"
RobinNorwood agreed[8] with Jakub that there would be some value in
providing application specific icons, but pointed out that the current
use of the icons was to indicate whether the package is installed on
the system. He added that to implement Jakub's proposal was
non-trivial and required adding an icon field to the package metadata.
RichardHughes agreed and invited[9] Jakub to discuss things further on
the PackageKit mailing list. MartinSourada added[10] encouragement
that the scheme outlined by Jef could be implemented. Jakub seemed
somewhat discouraged and cautioned[11] that he was not a programmer,
but KevinKofler responded[12] that the feedback should not be taken
personally.
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01862.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01867.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01879.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01887.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01865.html
=== AVC:Denied {trolling} For PID=666 Comm={SELinuxRemove} ===
A call for the removal of SELinux from the Desktop LiveCD spin was
made[1] by ValentTurkovic. Valent argued that SELinux was useful for
servers but that it was a net disadvantage to "ordinary desktop
users". Initial answers took the question at face value, but later
contributions from Valent appeared to be of a slightly goading nature,
suggesting variously that Ubuntu LTS[1a] or SLED[1b] would be better
than Fedora, so perhaps the thread should be read with skepticism.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01573.html
[1a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01710.html
[1b] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01722.html
DanielBerrange listed[2] the confined system daemons on his laptop as
examples of how SELinux helped "desktops". StevenSmalley added[3] the
interesting information that "XACE/XSELinux has been merged to the
trunk of xorg", which will allow yet more desktop applications to be
confined. Valent commented that Daniel (and others) could always
choose to use SELinux, but asked for specific examples of the benefits
conferred. Daniel cited[4] the ''hplip'' arbitrary root execution in
response.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01583.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01580.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01583.html
Valent was still not buying the benefits of SELinux for "average home
users" and now counterposed "corporate desktop" users and "fedora [as]
a testing ground for redhat corporate desktop"[5]. Responses from
GilboaDavra, AndrewFarris and others emphasized that it was necessary
to develop protections against viruses now, but Valent doubted[6] the
existence of viruses targeted towards GNU/Linux and suggested that
SELinux should be developed and tested for five years before being
rolled out. Gilboa responded[7] pretty comprehensively to this listing
the network facing services exposed on many desktops and privilege
escalation possibilities as broad categories in which security must
improve.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01585.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01708.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01731.html
The discussion went fairly rapidly downhill with Valent citing[8] some
''grsecurity'' propaganda that SELinux is actually a potential
"backdoor waiting to happen". This was debunked[9] by BenjaminKreuter
and KarstenWade[10] who wondered ''In the "fantasy football" of NSA v.
grsecurity team, I wonder who wins?'' A further claim from Valent
that[10a] the interaction of Fluendo codecs and SELinux had been
untested was hotly contested[10b] by BastienNocera who cited the
evidence of the timestamp of the upstream bug filed with Fluendo and
asked Valent to "Please stop lying."
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01724.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01727.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01784.html
[10a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01593.html
[10b] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01620.html
RichiPlana noted[11] both the problems Valent had highlighted with
Fluendo gstreamer codecs (see FWN#107 "Fluendo Codecs Violate SELinux
Policies" [12]) and also the necessity for SELinux being used now. He
praised DanWalsh and others for sorting out bugs as they appear.
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01633.html
[12] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue107#head-29d30b0ee5257a4fb5fe0f9d1...
There were some interesting asides in the thread, such as JefSpaleta
and KeithSharp's speculation[13] that internet cafes and other
environments with transitory/untrustable users would make use of
virtualization to clone fresh VM instances to each new user. This was
in response to the suggestion that UbuntuLTS would be superior in such
a setting.
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01811.html
Yet more nuggets of information lurked beneath the surface. DanWalsh
suggested[14] that Valent could use {{{su -c 'setsebool -P
allow_execmod=1'}}} to disable "checking for badly coded shared
libraries". This led to an interesting exchange with OlivierGalibert
who was searching for documentation of the policy types, something
which DavidMalcolm also wondered. Dan posted[15] some snippets from
''/usr/share/selinux/policy.xml'' which he admitted were not yet in a
manpage. Olivier was also disturbed that programs with dynamic code
generators (as listed[16] by Dan) were all being denied by default and
needed[17] to be explicitly added to the list supplied by Dan.
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01736.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01824.html
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01868.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01872.html
Later exchanges seemed to cover the same ground in different ways with
various Fedora and Red Hat coders asking[18] for more specific
objections or suggestions and explaining[19] the nature of the
threat[20] which SELinux helps to mitigate and asking[21] that bug
reports be filed so that DanWalsh can fix them.
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01588.html
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01752.html
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01754.html
[21] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01600.html
Final words in the thread were left to DouglasMcClendon who managed to
bring in Bush, Waterboarding, Evolution and other stuff in apparently
some sort of argument about why SELinux should not be enabled on all
spins. This link[22] marks the point at which those who value their
time should stop reading.
[22] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01636.html
=== System-config-firewall Changes For Fedora 9 ===
An announcement[1] by ThomasWoerner of changes in
''system-config-firewall'' advised that the ''--port=<port>:<proto>''
option in ''lokkit'' will no longer automatically start a service
behind the opened port. Instead it will be necessary to use the new
''--service=<name>'' option. For new firewall configurations the
defaults will be that on a server ''ssh'' is enabled and on a desktop
''ipsec'', ''mdns'' and ''ipp'' are enabled.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01563.html
BastienNocera doubted[2] that IPSec and IPP had much place in a
desktop environment. AdamTkac agreed and added that ''mdns'' seemed
questionable. TimNiemueller made the case[3] for IPP: a desktop
machine sharing a printer and mDNS: DNS-SD is used by Avahi for
service discovery such as fileshares, VNC and printers. JonStanley
argued[4] that IPSec was necessary by default for VPN clients unless
system-config-firewall made altering the firewall simple.
CallumLerwick added[5] in response to AdamTkac that IPSec was a
distinct protocol on top of IP and thus a stateful firewall would not
suffice.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01621.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01732.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01741.html
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01745.html
=== Fedora 9 CD ISOs ===
MikeMcGrath forwarded[1] a query from a user that needed Fedora on CD
ISOs as his server lacked a DVD drive. SubhodipBiswas agreed[2] that
this was an issue leading to many Fedora users sticking to older
releases.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01434.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01435.html
JesseKeating was able to answer[3] positively that the alpha compose
would generate "split media", which seemed to mean CD ISOs, and also
DVD ISOs. ChrisLumens was glad[4] to see that his hard work was still
useful.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01436.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01439.html
RalfCorsepius wondered[5] whether there would be a split "Everything"
as the Fedora ISOs did not cover the upgrade case for machines which
had packages not present on the ISOs. Although Jesse responded
negatively to this Ralf was delighted with JohnReiser's information[6]
that the FedoraUnity project had indeed produced such a spin (and
within four days of the official release too!). Ralf asked[7] whether
FedoraUnity provided the equivalent of a Fedora ''boot.iso''
configured to do a network update from a server with "Everything +
updates" and both JohnCiesla[8] and JesseKeating suggested[9] using
the ''rescue.iso'' for this purpose.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01523.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01537.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01538.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01543.html
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01545.html
USB sticks were[10] on BennyAmorsen's mind as a useful medium and when
RahulSundaram suggested {{{yum install livecd-tools;
livecd-iso-to-disk <isofile> <devicename>}}} Benny clarified that he
did not want a LiveCD but "the real release". Rahul responded[11] that
LiveCDs were "real" and that regular instalable images were difficult
to convert to bootable USB images. In response to JohnReiser's request
Rahul clarified[12] that the <devicename> was mean to be a DOS-style
partition.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01462.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01479.html
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01472.html
Some experiments to attempt to write the installation image to a USB
disk were performed[13] by TillMaas, apparently with some success[14].
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01499.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01504.html
[[Anchor(Documentation)]]
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JohnBabich
=== Status of FOP Support in xmlto ===
KarstenWade noted that the rawhide version of xmlto now supports
FOP[1]. This is a long-awaited and important step towards a completely
unencumbered documentation tool chain.
[1 ]http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00142.html
=== Progress on the DUG and AG ===
A meeting was held on Saturday, 19 January at 1400 UTC to discuss
progress on the Fedora Desktop User Guide (DUG) and the Administration
Guide (AG). The goal is to finish both guides for inclusion in the
final release of Fedora 9.
The following is a summary of the meeting's main points:
- The GNOME section of the DUG is almost complete, except for some
minor editing.
- The KDE section of the DUG is fairly complete, but still needs
review to take into account any changes introduced by KDE4.
- The section covering Xfce should be completed for this version of
the DUG, since an official Xfce Live CD is planned for Fedora 9.
- The location of the AG for conversion to Doc``Book XML is
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/AGBeta. However, listed
pages are still edited in their original location at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/AdministrationGuide.
- A core group of 3-4 people have committed to early March completion
of the AG. As always, "more hands on deck are more than welcome"[2],
according to VladimirKosovac.
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2008-January/msg00152.html.
[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: HuzaifaSidhpurwala
=== Something up with the bzr browsing in trac ===
SethVidal reports [1],
There was a problem with https://fedorahosted.org/preupgrade/browser
and it kept giving a no code to browse error message. It later turned
out to be a configuration problem, which was fixed.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== Continuing issues with xen1 ===
MikeMcGrath reports [2],
As with last weeks issue with xen1, there has been similar issue with
xen2. xen2 is recently upgraded to RHEL5, but is now running FC6 as
far as the kernel and the xen libs are concerned. The xen machines are
not running F8 mainly because Fedora 8 is ill suited to this
particular task which, in reality, is just
an appliance/abstraction between our hosts and the hardware.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== X Update ===
New versions of X.org were released this week.
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2008-January/031918.html
The tricky thing with X.org is that it has to run as root, so it gives
a local attacker the potential to compromise the machine.
=== More Vulnerability Reporting ===
A report was made public last week that once again compares the number
of flaws fixed in various things. I think Mark Cox and Window Snyder
summed things up pretty well regarding those reports:
http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2008/01/17/read-past-the-headlines-firef...
http://www.awe.com/mark/blog/200801161200.html
At this point any intelligent reader should notice that these reports
need to be taken with a grain of salt, and the real story isn't what's
reported, but what one can learn from the data.
=== Embedded library madness ===
Right now there has been a bit of news from a company named Palamida.
They like to point out all the things that contain embedded copies of
various open source projects.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61202.html
Before 2002 this was a fairly common occurrence within a number of
open source projects, until there were a number of zlib flaws. This
made most project rethink keeping their own local copies of the source
and using the system copy instead. This ties in nicely with the above
mentioned vulnerability report. More vulnerabilities doesn't always
mean less secure.
[[Anchor(SecurityAdvisories)]]
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 8 Security Advisories ===
* moodle-1.8.4-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* python-paramiko-1.7.1-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* xine-lib-1.1.9.1-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* syslog-ng-2.0.7-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* e2fsprogs-1.40.2-12.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* moodle-1.8.4-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* python-paramiko-1.7.1-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* syslog-ng-2.0.7-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* e2fsprogs-1.40.2-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* cairo-1.4.14-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
[[Anchor(EventsMeetings)]]
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various Projects and SIGs.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-01-13 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2008-January/msg001...
=== Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-01-17 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-January/msg0...
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2008-January/msg0...
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-17 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-01-14 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01599.html
=== Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 03/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/epel-devel-list/2008-January/msg00114.html
=== Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 03/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01493.html
=== Fedora SIG Store Meeting (Log) 2008-01-16 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg001...
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
15 years, 4 months
Fedora Weekly News Issue 115
by Thomas Chung
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 115 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 115 for the week of January 7th
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue115
In Announcement, we have "Fedora's way forward" a special announcement
by MaxSpevack
In Planet Fedora, we have "Transition", "Fedora marketing
revitalization", "To all FUDCon attendees", "FUDCon 2008 - Day 2" and
"FUDCon 2008 - Day 1"
To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.
1. Announcements
1. Fedora's way forward
2. Planet Fedora
1. Transition
2. Fedora marketing revitalization
3. To all FUDCon attendees
4. FUDCon 2008 - Day 2
5. FUDCon 2008 - Day 1
3. Marketing
1. Fedora gets a new project leader
2. FUDCon Raleigh 2008 Video
4. Developments
1. The X-orcist: Driver Slasher!
2. Call To Choose An Initscript Replacement
3. Firewire, Choice And Fedora
4. Applications Using Type1 Fonts Should Upgrade To OTF
5. I'm Melting! Core Temp Of 125C Due To Kernel?
5. Infrastructure
1. Outages
2. A new FIG: sysadmin-tools
6. Security Week
1. Coverity and Open Source
2. Bruce Schneier Interview
7. Security Advisories
1. Fedora 8 Security Advisories
2. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
8. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-MM-DD
2. Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-MM-DD
3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2008-MM-DD
4. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-10
5. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-10
6. Fedora Localization Meeting 2008-MM-DD
7. Fedora Marketing Meeting 2008-MM-DD
8. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2008-MM-DD
9. Fedora Quality Assurance Meeting 2008-MM-DD
10. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-MM-DD
11. Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 02/2008
12. Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 02/2008
13. Fedora SIG Store Meeting (Log) 2008-01-09
14. Fedora SIG Astronomy Meeting Log 2008-MM-DD
[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from Fedora Project.
In this issue, we've included all new announcements since last issue.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora's way forward ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"Over 150 people will be attending FUDCon on Saturday, which will be a
more traditional day of presentations, sessions, etc. The opening talk
will be my yearly "State of Fedora" speech. I believe it will be
videotaped and up on the internet eventually, but I want to take a few
minutes to share some of the details with you."
"I am very pleased to announce that PaulFrields has accepted a job
with Red Hat, and he will be taking over as Fedora Project Leader in
February."
"Additionally, JackAboutboul has recently transferred into a full-time
job in Red Hat's marketing and brand communications group. We have
asked Jack to take an active leadership role in Fedora marketing,
community building, and Ambassadors."
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-January/msg0000...
[[Anchor(PlanetFedora)]]
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
Contributing Writers: ThomasChung
=== Transition ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1],
"While Paul will be taking over for me as the Fedora Project Leader in
February, I will still be involved in Fedora. I am going to be
spending a lot of time over the next month or two helping Paul
transition into the job, especially during the several-week period
that we are in right now when Paul is still finishing up his old job
and before he joins Red Hat."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/42900.html
=== Fedora marketing revitalization ===
KarstenWade points out in his blog[1],
"As a last hackfest item before my flight, we're talking with Red
Hat's press/comms superstar Leigh Day about Fedora marketing. She is
leading a mini-design thinking session with us around everything from
our communications mechanism to how we handle event planning and
execution."
[1] http://iquaid.org/2008/01/13/fedora-marketing-revitalization/
=== To all FUDCon attendees ===
JonRoberts points out in his blog[1],
"I know everyone is busy hacking away, and today is the last day, but
if anyone happens to have a spare moment to reply to a few generic
questions about what they've gotten upto that would be hugely
appreciated :) Want to try and do something useful with this info to
help promote Fedora and everyone's aweseome work...Will even try and
send out some more specific questions later - have fun! Oh, p.s. reply
to these on the marketing list, to my e-mail or on this blog if you
get a chance."
[1] http://blog.questionsplease.org/2008/01/13/to-all-fudcon-attendees/
=== FUDCon 2008 - Day 2 ===
ChrisTyler points out in his blog[1],
"FUDCon day 2 has wrapped up. It was great to meet a number of people
who to this point have been a hackergotchi or IRC nick."
[1] http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/100-FUDCon-2008-Day-2.html
=== FUDCon 2008 - Day 1 ===
JefSpaleta points out in his blog[1],
"Here's a smattering of pictures from day 1.
First a picture from this morning's meetup before breaking into groups
for the hackfest:"
[1] http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/17056.html
[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora gets a new project leader ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Isn't it interesting that someone could have such a big impact on Red
Hat as Paul has...without working for Red Hat? That's the power of
open source. Merit before bureaucracy."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg000...
=== FUDCon Raleigh 2008 Video ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"This is a special edition of Weekly Wire, made on location at the
Fedora User and Developers Conference (FUDCon) in Raleigh, N. Carolina.
This video gives you a look at how FUDCon operates and introduces you to
some of the participants."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg000...
[[Anchor(Developments)]]
== Developments ==
In this section, we cover the problems/solutions, people/personalities, and
ups/downs of the endless discussions on Fedora Developments.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
Contributing Writer: OisinFeeley
=== The X-orcist: Driver Slasher! ===
A call for objections to the removal of specific Xorg drivers was
posted[1] by AdamJackson as part of the clean-up work he was doing
while porting to the new server APIs. Adam listed the following as
slated for removal: ''avivo'' (ATI R500+ chips will use either
''radeon'' or ''radeonhd''); ''s3''; ''vga''; ''ark''; ''chips'' and
''tseng''. Adam asked that objections to any part of his plan should
now speak up.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00847.html
The ''chips'' driver for C&T 65xx mode[2] was declared[3] by AlanCox
to be essential to the small LCD displays which are common on
low-power boxes and for which VESA is unable to correctly set the
modes. Alan offered to test or debug as required. Adam promised[4]
"chips will be spared from the coming apocalypse."
[2] "Chips and Technology" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chips_and_Technologies
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00852.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00858.html
The next two objections seemed to be false alarms. WarrenTogami was
worried[5] about both the AMD Geode driver and the ''s3'' driver as
the former was used by the OLPC and the latter by Intel's "Affordable
PC". ThorstenLeemhuis corrected[6] this with the information that the
APC actually used the "SiSM661GX [which] is driven by
xorg-x11-drv-sis" and AdamJackson confirmed[7] this and also clarified
that the AMDGeode was not going to be dropped. HansdeGoede noted[8]
however that the ''vesa'' driver would not be able to handle pre-Virge
cards contrary to Adam's plan as their BIOSes had no VESA support.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00930.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00941.html
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00983.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00943.html
A plea to save the ''tseng'' driver came[9] from FelixMiata. He
outlined their usefulness for upgraders with only a PCI and no AGP
slots. In the end Adam agreed to do his best to port all the drivers
(as a low priority task) as there had been requests to retain them.
ChristopherAillon and AlanCox nevertheless vied[11] to name the
promised purge.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00935.html
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01058.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01051.html
=== Call To Choose An Initscript Replacement ===
Another discussion (see also FWN#111 "Fedora 8 Boot-up Speed"[1]) on
how to decrease init time occurred when EricTanguy asked[2] for
discussion of ''Mudur'', an init system for the Turkish GNU/Linux
distribution named ''Pardus''[3]. The project's webpage identifies
disk I/O as a limiting resource and the use of startup scripts
rewritten in Python to run in parallel and avoid unnecessary I/O as
the solution. The Pardus approach does not replace ''initd''.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue111#head-2fa65b1cb87233afa6584ff97...
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00460.html
[3] http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/projeler/comar/SpeedingUpLinuxWithPardus.html
CaseyDahlin responded[4] that he had been working on a parallel boot
system, ''rrn'', which provided ''dbus'' notifications of starting
services, retains 'initd' and is compatible with SysV initscripts. (A
FUDCon[5] session was planned for ''rrn''). Casey was skeptical about
the use of Python, preferring Haskell, but agreed that BASH ran many
other programs causing extra I/O.
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00484.html
[5] http://barcamp.org/FUDConRaleigh2008
JonathanUnderwood asked why ''upstart'' had not been chosen as a
replacement and Casey provided[6] the information that discussions on
the subject (he included a link to the wiki entry) had preferred
''prcsys'' but that its use of pthreads and lack of dbus functionality
had inidcated a rewrite would be useful. Jonathon thought[6a] that the
current roadmap for "upstart" obviated many of those objections.
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00490.html
[6a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00558.html
NicolasMailhot wished[7] that any replacement init system would also
take care of session initiation and LinusWalleij provided[8] a link to
the ''InitKit'' project at Freedesktop.org. Casey investigated this
and later reported[8a] that InitKit plans solely to create a standard
for even-based activation to provide a common target for dependent
software. No actual code is specifically planned to come from
InitKit.
[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00506.html
[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00518.html
[8a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00918.html
A name-change was suggested by LeszekMatok due to both the sound and a
potential namespace pollution. Casey explained[9] that it stood for
"Resolve/Run/Notify" but took the points on board.
[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00579.html
The suggestion that Haskell might be used was ridiculed by DimiPaun
who pointed out that any language chosen should be widely known by
sysadmins and that it would be better to use C if the init scripts
were to be rewritten. YaakovNemoy accepted the obscurity argument but
argued[10] Haskell's advantages over Python, pointing out that Haskell
needed no VM and instead is compiled to native machine code.
NilsPhilippsen thought[11] that requiring a compiler collection merely
to boot a machine needed much justification.
[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00545.html
[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00569.html
The use of any dependency bloating requirements such as PERL or Python
was considered[12] a non-starter by EnricoScholz. YaakovNemoy
responded[13] that Python was installed on most machines and that the
combination of Bash with awk, grep and other tools most definitely
was. Yaakov called for comparative measurements of the time taken and
number of kilobytes read during startup by the current system and one
that starts python. Enrico pointed[14] to over 50% of his machines not
using Python and MattMiller's disbelief that YUM (and hence python)
was installed on less than half was answered[15] by DanielBerrange
with the information that "stateless" installs or VM "appliances" do
not require YUM.
[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00505.html
[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00541.html
[14] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00551.html
[15] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00582.html
The use of an initscript which required anything outside of POSIX was
anathema to RalfCorsepius. NilsPhillipsen responded[16] that he could
see no way of removing the numerous forks and exec()s within the
current SysV framework. Casey and YaakovNemoy thought that Ralf's
argument that a bare-bones POSIX should be adhered to was a nearly
religious one. Ralf backed[18] up his argument with reference to
SuSE's initscript changes.
[16] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00572.html
[17] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00826.html
[18] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00829.html
The suggestion of HorstvonBrand was that service dependencies should
be considered and AndrewFarris largely agreed[19] but thought that
Horst's specific suggestion that a webserver should be prevented from
running if there were no network was wrong. An interesting subthread
developed in which the hanging of network services due to DNS lookups
failing when there is no network developed.
[19] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00860.html
The suggestion that daemons could be changed to become non-forking and
thus avoid having to use Python was made[20] by Enrico and this led to
an informative exchange. NilsPhilippsen riposted[21] that Enrico's
scheme only handled the subset of daemons which used pidfiles and that
Python was not irretrievably bloated. JamesAntill confirmed[22] that a
"core" python could be a fraction of the current size, but cautioned
that it would be a lot of work to sort out the dependencies. Enrico
responded[23] with an estimate of the size of a slimmed down bash and
arguments that suggested that pidfiles were an anachronism required by
initsystems with forking daemons. Nils seemed to rebut[24] most of
these points, arguing that PIDs of processes could change and that
python's size had been demonstrated to be of similar magnitude to
bash's. Enrico countered[25] this by noting, among other things, that
fork() and exec() performance were dependent on the particular program
being executed and that a distinction needed to be drawn between first
startup (which is not that important) and subsequent instances. This
exchange continued a little further without apparent resolution or
clarity.
[20] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00619.html
[21] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00624.html
[22] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00739.html
[23] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00633.html
[24] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00642.html
[25] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00650.html
A suggestion was made[26] by CaseyDahlin to consider the use of
''busybox'' to replace bash and its attendent required programs.
KevinKofler worried[27] that the number of forks would remain the same
and wondered whether a "shell which emulates POSIX process handling
in-process and uses direct builtin function calls for commands like
sed rather than forking a new process [...] could work," but worried
that maintainability would suffer due to the need for special-case
code to handle pipes and other necessary features. Both Casey[29] and
AlanCox[30] noted that the fork was less of an issue than the execve
due to disk IO. Alan suggested Plan9's ''rc'' or ''ash'', but
BillNottingham reported[31] that ''ash'' had been benchmarked and
shown to be unpromising.
[26] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00607.html
[27] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00611.html
[28] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00611.html
[29] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00612.html
[30] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00632.html
[31] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00677.html
A skeptical evaluation of ''initng'' was posted by LennartPoettering
who seemed inclined[32] towards favoring ''upstart'' but thought it
was a bit of a moving target "in short: initng is a joke, initkit not
ready yet, upstart a bit of a moving target that's going to be
replaced soon anyway. The other systems seem to be too simple (minit,
runit) or totally un-Linuxish (SMF, launchd)." Lennart preferred the
idea of following Debian's lead and implementing LSB headers "to allow
parallel startup" and Casey responded[33] that Fedora should "commit
to that outright, and not let ourselves sit on our asses for another 5
years while everything blows by."
[32] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00666.html
[33] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00675.html
Casey made the excellent point that Fedora is supposed to be a
showcase for innovation and that he had attempted to move forward with
''rrn'' (based on discussion with HaraldHoyer) and this was now
apparently not desired. He exhorted fellow contributors to pick firm
goal so that someone could do the work and expressed the willingness
to do it himself as long as there was an agreed target.
=== Firewire, Choice And Fedora ===
The prize for this week's mammoth thread is awarded to one started by
a complaint about regressions in firewire (IEEE 1394) support made[1]
by HansdeGoede. Hans wondered if the implementation of the ''juju''
stack in the kernel to the exclusion of the old stack was a good idea
and argued that both should have been provided with a switching
utility. As supplementary evidence of Fedora being too "bleeding edge"
he pointed to a PulseAudio bugzilla entry which on the face of it
documents much unhappiness. ThorstenLeemhuis agreed (except about
PulseAudio) and threw in[2] ''hplip'' for good measure. He added that
"Linux is about choice" and disparaged the decisions made by the
Fedora Project to not ship, for example, Xgl and the latest
Zope/Plone.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00845.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00848.html
Hans' original firewire concerns spawned a mostly technical thread
while his more general complaint and Thorsten's amplification of it
gave rise to a very wide ranging, voluminous argument. The firewire
issue was directly addressed[3] by WillWoods who posted that a fix had
already gone into Fedora 7 and Fedora 8, due in no small part to the
feedback received by making the Juju stack available in Fedora.
Information[4] from KrzysztofHalasa and JarodWilson suggested that
Hans' "Via vt 6306" controller should work in OHCI-1.1 mode and Hans
offered to help test a rawhide kernel built with some of the upstream
linux1394 tree when it was ready.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00851.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01029.html
The idea that "Linux is about choice" was roundly rebuffed[5] by
AdamJackson in a longish, impassioned post which argued that too much
choice increased the failure rates combinatorially: "If I could only
have one thing this year, it would be to eliminate that meme from the
collective consciousness. It is a disease. It strangles the mind and
ensures you can never change anything ever[...]"
There was lots of (dis)agreement on this point especially between
DavidZeuthen in agreement and PatriceDumas arguing in favor of more
diversity. It was mildly heated and led David to accuse[6] Patrice of
"screw[ing] up the SN ratio of this list even more". David wondered
why he (David) was even on the list anymore.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00988.html
=== Applications Using Type1 Fonts Should Upgrade To OTF ===
The suggestion that some means be introduced to handle fonts not
registered through ''fontconfig'' was made[1] by PatriceDumas. Patrice
had been investigating packages which use Type1 fonts via ''t1lib''
and wondered if the Debian package ''defoma''[2] would provide a
solution.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01046.html
[2] DEbian FOnt MAnager http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/defoma
KellyMiller was horrified[3] and cited his negative experiences with
''defoma'', including Xorg locking during startup, as a prime
motivator in switching to Fedora. In response to MatejCepl Patrice
clarified[4] that there was nothing wrong with ''fontconfig'' except
that some applications, specifically ''grace'', ''xglyph'' and
''xdvi'', did not use it. Patrice noted that it might be better to
port ''t1lib'' to use fontconfig instead of adding ''defoma''.
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01048.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01113.html
A long-term perspective was added[5] by NicolasMailhot when he
commented that Type1 fonts were becoming increasingly rare as the
preferred non-TTF format was now OTF[6]. Nicolas advised that
applications currently depending on Type1 fonts should upgrade their
backend.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01145.html
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenType
=== I'm Melting! Core Temp Of 125C Due To Kernel? ===
A very excitingly titled message was posted[1] by MatthewMiller.
Matthew had seen the core temperature of a 32-bit Athlon 3200+ soar to
125C when he built a package while running kernel
2.6.24-0.133.rc6.git8.fc9. The previous kernel showed a more modest
95C. The machine was powering off once the 125C temperature was
reached.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00443.html
AndrewHaley suggested[2] that the hardware was at fault rather than
the software which led RichiPlana to rebut[3] that with a list of
instances in which software had damaged hardware. AlanCox seemed to
agree[4] with Richi that it was possible that a kernel error could
lead to overheating and then the BIOS would shut the machine off once
a critical temperature had been reached. Alan requested that the fans
be checked and then old and new kernels run and if any anomalies
resulted that Len Brown then be informed.
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00444.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00452.html
[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00459.html
Inaccurate ACPI readings with other AMD processors were reported by
SteveGrubb[5] and TrondDanielsen[6] although Trond noted that
''lm_sensors'' appeared to give accurate readings.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00447.html
[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00589.html
[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: HuzaifaSidhpurwala
This section contains the major discussion, happening on the Fedora
infrastructure list between 6th January 2008 to 12th January 2008.
=== Outages ===
MikeMcGrath reports[1],
We've had some strange hardware outages over the last week or so.
Basically 3 box reboots, one time xen6, and once or twice xen1.
The more important guests have been moved off of xen1 on to xen2.
xen2 is now running a lot of guests - app1, app2, app3, koji1, releng1,
noc1, puppet1, 3 test servers.
The host were later moved back to xen1. The RH team has been engaged to
see if we experience anything strange there like brown outs etc.
If they dont have anything and the box continues to act up then Dell will be
called.
Later in the week it was realised that the isssue was iscsi related.
We dont have
any monitoring tools on the hardware.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== A new FIG: sysadmin-tools ===
MikeMcGrath reports[1],
Similar to the web group the sysadmin-tools group has access to a number
of our collaborative tools (in the future to include asterisk, gobby and
likely mailman).
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Coverity and Open Source ===
There were quite a few stories about Coverity this week. Most were
rather poorly written and were confusing at best. The real story is
best read from the Coverity site here:
http://scan.coverity.com/
In general Coverity is portrayed in a mostly positive light for
providing their service to various Open Source projects. In reality
it's not that simple. Using a closed source tool for the supposed
benefit of Open Source is misleading at best. If Coverity was serious
about improving the state of Open Source, they would release their
tool under an Open Source license for the community to consume and
improve upon. Right now they simply have a clever marketing program.
=== Bruce Schneier Interview ===
Computerworld has a nice interview with Bruce Schneier that even mentions Linux:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1891124482;pp;1
He is one of the few security public figures who can explain things in
a manner that most people can understand.
[[Anchor(SecurityAdvisories)]]
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 8 Security Advisories ===
* python-cherrypy-2.2.1-8.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* mantis-1.1.0-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* libxml2-2.6.31-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* postgresql-8.2.6-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* drupal-5.6-1.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* qimageblitz-0.0.4-0.3.svn706674.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* tog-pegasus-2.6.1-3.fc8 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* mantis-1.1.0-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* python-cherrypy-2.2.1-8.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* qimageblitz-0.0.4-0.3.svn706674.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* drupal-5.6-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* libxml2-2.6.31-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* tog-pegasus-2.6.0-3.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
* postgresql-8.2.6-1.fc7 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg0...
[[Anchor(EventsMeetings)]]
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various Projects and SIGs.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2008-01-10 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg01224.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2008-01-10 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2008-January/m...
=== Fedora Localization Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Marketing Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Quality Assurance Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
=== Fedora SIG EPEL Meeting Week 02/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/epel-devel-list/2008-January/msg00058.html
=== Fedora SIG KDE Meeting Week 02/2008 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00790.html
=== Fedora SIG Store Meeting (Log) 2008-01-09 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-January/msg000...
=== Fedora SIG Astronomy Meeting Log 2008-MM-DD ===
* No Report
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
15 years, 5 months
Fedora's way forward
by Max Spevack
To the Fedora community:
The first day of FUDCon is now complete. 78 members of our community
spent the entire day working on many aspects of Fedora. It was an
incredibly productive day, and we expect the rest of the weekend to be
more of the same.
Over 150 people will be attending FUDCon on Saturday, which will be a
more traditional day of presentations, sessions, etc. The opening talk
will be my yearly "State of Fedora" speech.
I believe it will be videotaped and up on the internet eventually, but I
want to take a few minutes to share some of the details with you.
====
Two years ago, Matthew Szulik (Red Hat's CEO) asked me to be the Fedora
Project Leader, and I was flattered and humbled by the opportunity. It
has been one of the coolest jobs that a person could have.
I started about one month before Fedora Core 5 was released. Only a few
people within the Fedora community knew me -- I had been at Red Hat for
a year and a half at that point in the Red Hat Network group, but I had
not done much with Fedora other than simply *use* the distro.
You, the community, were very fair with me, incredibly accepting, and
you gave me the opportunity to earn your respect and to influence the
direction of Fedora. You trusted me, you gave me a chance, and I
appreciate that more deeply than I can express. I hope I have not
disappointed you.
Now we're a few months past the Fedora 8 release, and the time has come
for me to hand off the Fedora Project Leader role, though I hope to
remain involved in Fedora and Red Hat's community efforts.
That's all I want to say about me. Now I want to talk about the larger
Fedora Project, and introduce a few new leaders.
====
Fedora has come a long way in the last few years. Red Hat has committed
more resources to Fedora, enabling us to grow the Fedora team when the
opportunity came up to hire some of the true stars of the Fedora
community. This in turn allows the core group of Fedora folks within
Red Hat to be more effective leaders within the community, because a
focus on community building is the most important thing that we do.
The people who are lucky enough to get paid to spend their workdays 100%
on Fedora each have a responsibility to be community builders first, and
individual contributors second. A community that does not grow and that
does not develop new leadership will stagnate. Red Hat's investments in
the Fedora community help to prevent this.
Continuing to grow our community, lower barriers to entry, and develop
new leaders will remain a top priority for Fedora.
We've also made tremendous changes to Fedora at a technical level in the
past two years -- merging Core and Extras into a single repository,
working with Red Hat and community engineers to produce a new build
system for Fedora, and new tools that allow users to create fully
customized versions of Fedora and deliver Fedora in new ways (Live USB,
for example).
Additionally, the work that we have done with the branding, marketing,
and press folks both inside Red Hat and in our community has led to a
resurgence in the Fedora brand. Fedora enjoys an identity as an
independent Linux distribution that focuses on innovation, freedom, and
community, all while still serving as the upstream for RHEL.
====
I am very pleased to announce that Paul Frields has accepted a job with
Red Hat, and he will be taking over as Fedora Project Leader in
February.
Many of you already know Paul. He has been part of the Fedora community
since 2003, not long after the Red Hat Linux Project officially merged
with the original Fedora.us. Paul has worked with Fedora's
documentation, packaging, marketing, news, and artwork teams. He also
served as one of the inaugural members of the Fedora Project Board.
====
Additionally, Jack Aboutboul has recently transferred into a full-time
job in Red Hat's marketing and brand communications group. We have
asked Jack to take an active leadership role in Fedora marketing,
community building, and Ambassadors.
Jack was one of the original Fedora Ambassadors in our community. He
has organized FUDCons, and he has been promoting Fedora with his endless
energy and enthusiasm for several years now. While Jack was in school,
he worked for Red Hat as an intern and part-time employee, and we are
very happy to bring Jack on full-time to continue building the Fedora
community.
====
I have rambled on now for far longer than I planned to. I shall simply
say that it has been an honor to be the Fedora Project Leader.
Thank you.
--Max
15 years, 5 months
FUDCon Raleigh 2008
by Max Spevack
FUDCon weekend has started here in Raleigh at the Red Hat headquarters.
We had about 60 hackers show up on Friday morning for the hackfest day,
and we've broken up into several groups for what should be a great day
of work on Fedora.
Saturday January 12th is the "main" FUDCon with presentations, etc. All
of Saturday's sessions will take place at the main Red Hat headquarters
in Raleigh.
I want to make sure everyone knows the schedule for Saturday, so here it
is.
8:30 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Fedora State of the Union
9:30 AM Begin pitching sessions
10:15 AM Session #1
11:15 AM Session #2
Noon Lunch
1:30 PM Session #3
2:30 PM Session #4
3:30 PM Session #5
4:30 PM Session #6
5:30 PM Wrap up, clean up
6:30 PM FUDPub at the Flying Saucer
328 W Morgan St, Raleigh NC 27601
15 years, 5 months