ArchLinux Newsletter for February 22

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Greetings, and welcome to the ArchLinux weekly newsletter for the week ending February 22, 2004.
Front Page News:
NEW KERNELS ABOUND
Hi all,
First off, a huge thank-you to everyone that has donated over the last couple of days. We now have enough of a start to pay setup fees and the first couple months on a new server. You guys rock.
Now, an update regarding the new kernels... We're planning on using 2.6.3 as the default kernel for Widget's release, so I've renamed the 2.4 kernel packages for more consistency. We now have four kernel packages:
    * kernel24
    * kernel24-scsi
    * kernel26
    * kernel26-scsi
As you know, the kernel26 packages write their bzImages as /boot/vmlinuz26 so that they can coexist with a 2.4 kernel. I've left the kernel 2.4 bzImage as /boot/vmlinuz for now, to avoid breaking too many users' boxes. But keep in mind that I may rename them to /boot/vmlinuz24 sometime in the future. Watch out!
Another effect of the package renames is that the setup script had to be updated. This means that you will have to re-download the root.img disk image to do an ftp-based install. The old one will look for the 'kernel' package, which no longer exists.
http://archlinux.org/news.php#48
FUN WITH BANDWIDTH COSTS
As most of you know, the recent review on OSNews has brought a large influx of users to us. While we're overjoyed to have so many new users, the bandwidth costs associated with all these new --sysupgrade'ers is going to cost me a lot of money that I don't really have.
To curb the trend, I've had to cap transfer speeds on ftp.archlinux.org. They now sit at 20 K/s with a max of 30 users at a time.
So, long story short, I have a couple of favors to ask:
   1. If you can volunteer to be a mirror, please contact me.
   2. Please download this perl script, which will use the "netselect" program to re-sort the server lists in pacman.conf, lowest ping times first. You can run it like so:
          # ./sortmirrors.pl </etc/pacman.conf >pacman.conf.new
      Make sure pacman.conf.new looks okay, then move it into place:
          # mv pacman.conf.new /etc/pacman.conf
   3. If you can spare a few bucks for a bandwidth-hungry distribution, please donate. We're looking to get another server, but the donations just aren't there yet.
Thanks a lot everyone. We'll keep on making it if you keep on running it.
    Editor's Note: The perl script now comes with the new version of pacman, and the download cap has been lifted. 
http://archlinux.org/news.php#47
This Week on the Forum:
Rasat made a request that we try to clean up the forums to make it easier to read. One idea was to put [RMx] for remove, [MVx] for move or [FXx] for fixed / resolved, in our topic titles. Read about it here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2773
Neocephas wrote a CUPS HOW-TO for Arch. It's still being worked on, so go help out over here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2757
This Week on the Mailing List:
After the announcement by Judd about the bandwidth troubles, people raised some ideas for saving bandwidth. One was randomizing mirrors automatically via pacman. Another was to take the Full 0.5 ISO off of the main ftp site, because it's out of date anyway. Neither of these have been implemented yet, but discussion is still ongoing. Read the threads at:
http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 00844.html
http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 00853.html
The idea was brought up again about multiple flavors of kernels. DanG also asked if multiple 2.4 or 2.6 kernel packages could "live together". The answer was no. A 2.4 and 2.6 kernel can co-exist though. Judd stated that there were no plans for different flavors of kernels (like "failsafe") and instead people should be building their own. Read the thread at: http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 00872.html
What's happening with the TUR mailing list:
We're currently looking to assimilate a couple more Trusted Users to run their own repository and help test packages from /incoming. The system now requires sponsorship. So if you have submitted a lot of packages to /incoming that have made their way into the repositories, the TUs will be willing to sponsor you. If you are interested, join and mail the TUR Mailing list: https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/tur-users
This Week in Dev Land (by Jason Chu):
Manolis Tzanidakis (zen_guerilla) left the development team.  He has decided to work on his own personal distro and won't have time for both.  We wish him well.
Tobias Kieslich (neri) and Damir Perisa (dp) have joined the dev team.  They've started adopting packages and are still learning how everything works.  They are a welcome addition to the dev team.
We now have a new package server.  All the regular traffic goes to the original server but ftp.archlinux.org is now on a different one.  This one has a higher limit on bandwidth but if you use a mirror please continue doing so.
We are debating if/how to add f77 and gcj compilers to gcc.  The best suggestion is to have seperate packages that depend on gcc but gcc is a scary package so it's still being researched.
The gcc question brought up another: should we implement multiple packages per PKGBUILD file?  It was agreed that a single package per PKGBUILD is much simpler and more like the arch way.  At the same time, we still have some issues to work through because of this simple method.
There are new disk images on ftp.archlinux.org.  They're more modular and have support for keymaps, xfs/jfs support, and raid/lvm.  The setup scripts don't support all of these new features but the advanced user will be able to use them.  There will also be an expert install script to support these features.
Xfree86 licensing is still being researched.  An interesting link was found: http://www.xfree86.org/legal/licenses.html
An 0.6-base-BETA1 was released.  It's available on the archlinux ftp server.  Feel free to test it.
An Archlinux goal/philosophy/social contract document was mentioned.  Judd said he was thinking about this already and we will probably start one soon.
A number of packages were found to be missing urls and md5sums.  Namcap will detect this and spit out an error.  If anyone finds PKGBUILDs with these missing, they can submit a bug report for that package.
Package Highlights:
Updated init scripts were released this week. They provide a more cleaned up boot process.
reiserfsprogs 3.6.13 was released this week. This fixes a bug that can prevent a ReiserFS partition from booting. Read about it here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2614
GCC, Coreutils, the kernel and some other core packages were updated this week. These types of upgrades can be risky sometimes, so be sure to submit any problems you have to the Bug Tracker.
Pacman 2.7.4 was released this week. Changes are:
        - fixed a bug in conflict handling, where installing a conflicting package would fail even if the new package "provided" it
        - if pacman sees a newer version of itself during an upgrade, it will ask to install itself first, then be re-run to upgrade the other packages.
        - You can now use the --info option with --sync to display an uninstalled package's dependency info.
        - Added a sane umask before db writes
        - buffer overflow fix (bug #442)
FAQ of The Week:
Well, it's the same as last week and the week before. Unfortunately, we're still receiving the same questions. If you are having an issue, please review the past Arch Newsletters because your questions are probably answered.
Bugs Opened this Week:
k3b-0.11.4-1 does not work: broken permissions
autologin feature of kdm and gdm does not work
IP Forwarding in iptables pkg
missing dependency for kdegraphics: fribidi, lcms
Mozilla 1.6 package has broken permissions
makewhatis creates /usr/local/man/whatis via crond
kpilot missing from KDEPIM
Bugs Closed this Week:
Program additions for 0.6 installer
kernel upgrades should remind users to run lilo.
Add nano to base
Choose other server in ftp install
Option to use non us keymaps in installer
Add jfs and xfs support
incorrect url in download list
groff-1.19 now available from German mirror
Please add the graphics mode to the links package!
New Vim 6.2 supports GTK2 but in arch it's still GTK1
InitScripts outdated Copyright
util-linux: missing
PARPORT_1284 support in Kernel
N_HDLC support in Kernel
Joystick support in kernel
Please update mozilla-thunderbird
Reiserfsprogs 3.6.12 can't mount partitions read only
Links (graphics mode)
pacman -Syu behaviour
PATCH: Fix buffer overflow in Pacman
pacman: set umask before writing db entries
libgnomeui needs depends on gnome-common
Nautilus crashes immediately
gqmpeg fails to build
gdesklets missing dependencies
transcode fails to build
mp32ogg fails to build
mjpegtools fails to build
mplayer-plugin fails to build
transcode pkg needs to be updated.
missing dep in transcode pkg. again
avifile dies with failure to build codecs
flashplugin be updated to reflect firebird's new name change
small firefox changes
gtk2 deps screwed up between package and db
gtk2 won't build
New and Updated Packages:
k3b 0.11.5-1
barcode 0.98-1
glabels 1.93.3-1
avidemux 2.0.20-2
lcab 1.0b10-1
hd2u 0.9.0-1
maxima 5.9.0-1
kobodeluxe 0.4pre8-1
pth 2.0.0-1
kile 1.6.1-1
atitvout 0.4-1
kdevelop 3.0.1-2
kdevelop-devel 3.1.0.snap040221-1
fbi 1.30-1
pipemeter 0.9.1-1
zile 1.7b3-1
gqview 1.4.0-1
ringtonetools 2.19-1
dbp 0.5.7-1
dcraw 1.170-1
scite 1.59-1
device-mapper 1.00.07-2
coreutils 5.2.0-1
lzop 1.01-3
gtick 0.3.0-2
ogle 0.9.2-3
rar 3.3.0-1
ascii 3.6-1
whois 4.6.9-1
rasmol 2.7.2.1-1
stellarium 0.5.2-1
xfsprogs 2.5.6-1
xmame-sdl 0.78.1-1
lesstif 0.93.94-1
kaffeine 0.4.1-1
alsa-driver 1.0.2-2
xpdf 3.00-1
initscripts 0.6-6
cssed pre0.1.4-1
gdsl 1.0-2
glut 3.7-2
rsync 2.6.0-2
vim 6.2-2
links 2.1pre14-2
gvim 6.2-2
kernel24 2.4.25-1
kernel24-scsi 2.4.25-1
uml_utilities 20040114-1
words 1.0-2
user-mode-linux 2.4.24-1
kernel26-scsi 2.6.3-1
kernel26 2.6.3-1
reiserfsprogs 3.6.13-1
pacman 2.7.4-1
bzflag 1.10.4.20040125-1
galeon 1.3.13-1
toppler 1.0.6-1
gcc 3.3.3-1
wine 20040213-1
mozilla-firefox 0.8-2
less 382-1
iptables 1.2.9-4
flashplugin 6.0r79-8
cdrdao 1.1.8-1
bash-completion 20040214-1
zope 2.7.0-1
liquidwar 5.6.2-1
pcmcia-cs 3.2.7-1
fortune-mod-buffy 1-1
pango 1.2.5-4
gtk2 2.2.4-3
Packages in Staging:
To gain access to this repository and the TURs, visit http://tur.berlios.de
filelight 0.6.4-1
j 0.20.2-s1
inkscape 0.37-s1
abcm2ps 3.7.3-1
potracegui 0.3-s1
amule 1.2.4-1
conglomerate 0.7.12-s1
bogofilter 0.17.0-s1
fftw3 3.0.1-1
gp 0.26-1
fox 1.0.50-s1
ion-devel 20030814-1
libcapsinetwork 0.2.5-s1
labplot 1.2.2-1
hwd 1.6-2
libchipcard 0.9.1-1
libksba 0.4.7-1
liblrdf 0.3.1-1
libofx 0.6.4-1
gtk-smooth-engine 0.5.6-s1
cups-pdf 1.4.1-s1
mage 6.30.030607-1
mpck 0.04-1
pixieplus 0.5.4-1
potrace 1.2-1
prekin 6.30.030607-1
tla 1.1-2
lwm 1.2.0-1
tse3 0.2.7-1
windowlab 1.21-s1
universalkopete 0.1-1
xv 3.10a-1
smclone 0.55-1
kbarcode 1.6.1-s1
bs 2.6-1
mp3burn 0.3.1-1
shaaft 0.5.0-1
monopd 0.9.0-s1
giftui 0.3.1-1
gurlchecker 0.6.4-s1
mono 0.30.1-1
ttf-cheapskate 0.1-2
libxml++ 1.0.0-1
chromium 0.9.12-1
passepartout 0.4-1
gnome-cups-manager 0.17-1
libgnomecups 0.1.6-1
gweled 0.4-s1
logjam 4.2.4-2
xpenguins_themes 1.0-1
libmath++ 0.0.3-1
texmacs 1.0.3.3-s1
gtkatlantic 0.3.2-1
ms-sys 1.1.1-1
rox-system 1.9.0-s1
smb4k 0.3.1-1
ksambaplugin 0.5b2-1
materm 0.1-1
seahorse 0.7.3-2
parse-yapp 1.05-1
libavc1394 0.4.1-1
xml-dom 1.43-1
xml-regexp 0.03-1
xml-xql 0.68-1
prizm 0.2-s1
liferea 0.4.6b-1
panorama-tools 2.6bml12-s1
sylpheed-gtk2 0.9.8a-s1
amarok 0.8.3-s1
mlview 0.6.2-1
gossip 0.7.1-s1
loudmouth 0.15.1-s1
gtodo 0.13.5-s1
gnome-alsamixer 0.9.6-s1
scribus-devel 1.1.5-s1
source-highlight 1.8-s1
xtermset 0.5.1-s1
cdw 0.2.2-s1
gnotime 2.1.7-s1
xfce4-fsguard-plugin 0.2.0-s1
xfce4-xmms-plugin 0.1.1-s1
gksu 1.0.3-s1
pychecker 0.8.13-s1
gtkglext 1.0.5-s1
gtkglextmm 1.0.1-s1
pygtkglext 1.0.1-s1
spe 0.4.2c-s1
gmencoder 0.1.0-s1
scribus-docs 1.0.1-s1
ArchStats Update:
To participate, visit http://archstats.coding-zone.com
Number of registered systems: 135
Date first system was registered:     20031017 [22:24:30]
Most recent update occurred: 20040222 [16:30:46]
Longest recorded uptime: 166 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 56 seconds.
Average uptime: 8 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes, 33 seconds.
Lowest kernel version: 2.4.21
Highest kernel version: 2.6.3-mm2
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 255
Most packages installed on a system: 563
That's it for this week, stay tuned for more exciting news.
            -- Jason Chu and Ben Mazer

Answer 1

Keep up the good work!