[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none

(!) ["/Discussion"]



Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:

TODO:

First Release Candidate for the new Debian Installer

Otavio Salvador [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/11/msg00002.html announced] the first release candidate for installer to be shipped with Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny".

Some of the improvement since the last beta release are: * Improved support for Live-CD installation media (much faster and more reliable than earlier releases); * Support for some NAS devices based on Marvell's ARM-compatible Orion chip (QNAP TS-109/TS-209 and TS-409, HP Media Vault mv2120, Buffalo Kurobox Pro) * Installer images for Netwinder have been added again; * Installer images for i386 Xen guests[2] * Support for hardware speech synthesis (speakup) has been added; * Upgrade of packages early in pkgsel, for example to get available security updates for base system packages; * Support for loading firmware from (removable) media during the installation; * i386/amd64: support for installing to and loading firmware from MMC/SD cards; * New translations: Welsh, Irish, Northern Sami, Serbian (Amharic and Marathi were added in beta releases).

Images are available for testing at [http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ the Debian Installer website] which also contains an [http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata errata]. After testing the installer please send a report about the installation as explained in the [http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s03.html#submit-bug Debian Installer manual].

Debian screenshot service started

Christoph Haas [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/11/msg00003.html announced] the new [http://screenshots.debian.net screenshots.debian.net] web site that serves as a public repository of screenshots taken from applications contained in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It was created to help getting an impression of what a certain software will look like on your desktop before you install it. Everybody can take screenshots and upload them. The site admin team will just review your changes before they become publicly visible. Support for screenshots has already been built into the [http://packages.debian.org/synaptic synaptic] package manager, while integration in specialized package browser like [http://packages.debian.org/goplay goplay] and the [http://packages.debian.org general web interface] are being discussed.

"Open Use Logo" relicensed

Francesco Poli noted, that the license for the [http://www.debian.org/logos/ "Open Use Logo"] (also known as "swirl") has been changed from a license considered to be non-free to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License MIT style license] granting more rights to everyone. This fixes a long standing [http://bugs.debian.org/212895 bug].

The new license grants everyone the right to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the logo while the logo with the trademarked text "Debian" may still only be used to refer to the Debian project.

Survey about the Debian Wiki

Dear Debianists,

[http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/labcmo/portraitdulibre/index.php?sid=65733&lang=en here] is a link toward a survey that was set up by Anne Goldenberg, a phd student in communication studying the Debian Wiki.

The survey is aimed at a better understanding of the uses and conceptions of the Debian Wiki within the Debian community. The results will be put online under a free licence and announced on this same communication channel.

A description of the survey is also available [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWikiSurvey here].

Call for Help: Debian 5.0 release notes

Martin Borgert [http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc/2008/11/msg00034.html asked for help] for the release notes of the upcoming release Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny". Some noteworthy problems have not yet been documented, so he asks for volunteers who understood some of these issues to write a text about them.

His mails contains a list of open issues as well as instructions how texts should be submitted.

New Developers

3 applicants have been [http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2008/11/msg00027.html accepted] as Debian Maintainers since the prior issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Giuseppe Iuculano, Thorsten Glaser and Franck Joncourt in our project!

Other news

Florian Weimer [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00310.html noted] that the names of source packages should not be reused, even if the name hasn't been used for a while. Some parts of Debian infrastructure (including the [http://packages.qa.debian.org package tracking system] and the [http://security-tracker.debian.net/tracker/ security tracker] don't handle that very well.

Vincent Bernat [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00343.html wondered] how to name system accounts used for installed services. Refering to a [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00343.html wiki page] he asked to standardise the naming scheme. Some packages use a prefix "debian-", while others like the way OpenBSD is handling that by prefixing system accounts with an underscore.

Holger Levsen [http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2008/11/msg00038.html announced] a web service showing how far DebianEdu, the Debian pure blend taking care of the needs of teachers and schools, is away from Debian itself.

Important Debian Security Advisories

Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages (among others): [http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1662 mysql] and [http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1663 net-snmp]. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.

Please note that these are a selection of the more important security advisories of the last two weeks. If you need to be kept up to date about security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please subscribe to the [http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/ security mailing list] for announcements.

New and noteworthy packages

The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently ([http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg among others]):

Debian Package of the Day featured the packages [http://debaday.debian.net/2008/11/16/remind-a-text-based-agenda-and-todolist-manager/ remind] (a text based agenda and todolist manager) and [http://debaday.debian.net/2008/11/09/apt-p2p-peer-to-peer-downloading-of-debian-packages/ apt-P2P] (peer-to-peer downloading for Debian packages).

Work-needing packages

Currently 489 packages are orphaned and 118 packages are up for adoption. Please take a look at the [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00104.html recent] [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00330.html reports] to see if there are packages you are interested in or view the complete list of [http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested packages which need your help].

Want to continue reading DPN?

Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers to watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the [http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute contributing page] to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at debian-publicity@lists.debian.org.

[http://www.techforce.com.br Andre Felipe Machado], Y and Z contributed to this issue of the Debian Project News.


CategoryProjectNews