Newsletter 4-18-04

contrasutra · 2004-04-18 18:06:27

Arch Linux Weekly Newsletter

*Jason Chu and Ben Mazer*

Opening

Welcome to the Arch Linux Newsletter. This attempts to give you an ``at
a glance'' look at the world of Arch Linux.

News

1. Aurelien has upgraded lm_sensors to the 2.8 series. In the
operation, the i2c package was dropped and the lm_sensors package
does not include kernel modules any longer, as they are included
in the 2.6 kernel.

Kernel 2.4 users are invited to apply the procedure described in
the following installation guide for I2C and LM Sensors:
http://www.ensicaen.ismra.fr/~delvare/devel/i2c/

http://archlinux.org/news.php#64

2. Hey all,

We've been making some pretty big package updates lately, packages
that in turn affect many other packages. So it seems to be a good
time to unveil our special testing repository. Testing is a
special repository, in that it holds packages that will eventually
graduate to one of the other three repos (Current, Extra, or
Unstable).

Testing packages are easy to spot because they always have a
special package release designation. Instead of a normal "-1" or
"-2" style, testing packages will appear as "-1t1", "-1t2", etc.

If you wish to help us test out new and potentially broken
packages, you can activate testing by putting it above your other
repositories in pacman.conf:

[testing]
Server = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/testing

Warning: these packages will be about as unstable as it gets. Only
use this repo if you want to help the developers test packages.
The more people to help test, the quicker we can get the new
packages into the main repos.

Thanks, everyone.

http://archlinux.org/news.php#63

3. Pacman 2.7.7 is ready. Among other things, it has a new
XferCommand configuration directive, which makes pacman use an
external program for all file downloads. This is useful for people
who have problems with pacman's built-in ftp/http support, or
require better proxy support through a utility like wget.

You can install packages straight from a server with -A and -U by
passing a full URL:

#pacman -U ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/current/pacman- … pkg.tar.gz

It also includes support for a license field in package meta-data
and a -dbonly option for -remove operations.

http://archlinux.org/news.php#62

This Week in Dev Land

1. As you all know, testing has now been added to our repo list. Our
maiden testing package is perl with threading. If anyone wants to
help test our perl update, feel free to add the testing repo to
pacman.conf and start reporting missed perl module recompiles.
2. Most likely you will be seeing ``# TU: '' comments in PKGBUILDs
that are coming from staging from now on. Eric suggested we
acknowledge the work that the Trusted Users put into managing
incoming.

ArchStats Updates

/To participate, visit http://archstats.coding-zone.com/

Number of registered systems: 371
Date first system was registered: 20031017
Most recent update occurred: 20040418
Longest recorded uptime: 175 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds.
Average uptime: 4 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes, 49 seconds.
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 262
Most packages installed on a system: 733

Discussions

Forum Highlights

1. Calavera has written an ArchBootstrap script. It would allow you
to create a base Arch install in a separate folder, from any
distribution. Try the script out here:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=4020

Mailing List Highlights

1. Sergey Manucharyan was having trouble using GTK apps. He was
receiving missing libXinerama errors. Judd responded with this
solution:

Either upgrade to Xfree86 4.4.0, or create a libXinerama.so:

cd /usr/X11R6/lib
ld --whole-archive -share -o libXinerama.so.1 libXinerama.a
ln -s libXinerama.so.1 libXinerama.so
ldconfig

Read the thread here:
http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 01341.html

TUR Mailing List

This week a new TU joined the ranks. We welcome Tobias Powalowski. There
have also been many packages added to STAGING this week. Along with
that, Xentac is working on a system to help clean up INCOMING. More info
will be released later.

Packages

Package Highlights

1. The Linux kernel version 2.4.26 was released and packaged this
week. Various parts of the 2.4 kernel are starting to go into
maintenance mode, so future releases will be mostly bug fixes. The
changelog can be read at: http://kernel.org.

2. XFCE 4.0.5 was released this week. It's strictly a bug fix
release. You can read the release notes at:
http://xfce.org

New Packages

perltk 804.027-1t1
perl-dbi 1.40-2t1
spamassassin 2.63-5t1
timedate 1.16-3t1
uri 1.30-2t1
io-socket-ssl 0.95-3t1
libwww-perl 5.76-2t1
net-dns 0.46-2t1
net-ssleay 1.25-3t1
digest-nilsimsa 0.06-3t1
html-parser 3.35-2t1
html-tagset 3.03-3t1
digest-hmac 1.01-3t1
pinball 0.3.1-1
castle-combat 0.7.4-1
x 11R6.7.0-1t2
dcgui-qt 0.2.20-2
dclib 0.2.20-2
gimp-panorama-tools 1.0-1
gimp-perl 2.0pre2-1
panorama-tools 2.6bml12-1
gimp-freetype 0.5-1
gimp-gap 2.0.0-1
gimp-help-2 0.2-1
artwiz-fonts 1.3-1
anjuta 1.2.2-1
screem 0.10.2-1
xvidcore 1.0.0-2
lm_sensors 2.8.6-1
gnokii 0.6.1-1
libxfce4util 4.0.5-1
libxfcegui4 4.0.5-1
libxfce4mcs 4.0.5-1
xfwm4 4.0.5-1
xfwm4-themes 4.0.5-1
xfdesktop 4.0.5-1
xffm 4.0.5-1
xffm-icons 4.0.5-1
xfprint 4.0.5-1
xfce-mcs-manager 4.0.5-1
xfce-mcs-plugins 4.0.5-1
xfce-utils 4.0.5-1
xfce4-themes 4.0.5-1
xfce4-toys 4.0.5-1
xfce4-trigger-launcher 4.0.5-1
xfce4-iconbox 4.0.5-1
xfce4-mixer 4.0.5-1
xfce4-panel 4.0.5-1
xfce4-systray 4.0.5-1
xfcalendar 0.1.8-1
subversion 1.0.1-5
swig 1.3.21-2
exim 4.32-1
perl 5.8.3-4t1
digest-sha1 2.07-2t1
perl 5.8.3-3
parted 1.6.10-1
lftp 3.0.2-1
gentoo 0.11.48-1
php 4.3.6-1
esd 0.2.33-2
alsa-driver 1.0.4-2
knockd 0.2-1
imagemagick 6.0.0-2
zebra 0.94-1
ogmtools 1.4-1
pacman 2.7.7-2
cvs 1.11.15-1
wlan-ng24 0.2.0-2
pan 0.14.2.91-2
spamassassin 2.63-4
kernel24 2.4.26-1
inkscape 0.38.1-2
dcraw 1.181-1
gimp 2.0.1-1
glut 3.7-3
fluxter 0.1.0-2
catdoc 0.93.3-2
gksu 1.0.4-1
yabasic 2.744-1
ms-sys 1.1.3-1
ttf-cheapskate 2.0-1
getmail 3.2.2-1
root-tail 1.1-1
mutella 0.4.3-2
urlview 0.9-3
tftp-hpa 0.34-2
connmon 0.13.0-2
cccp 0.9-2
adns 1.0-3
zvbi 0.2.7-1
shorten 3.5.2-1
cd-discid 0.9-1
licq 1.2.7-4
mozilla-firefox 0.8-3
proftpd 1.2.9-2
emacs 21.3-2
kernel26-scsi 2.6.5-1
jfsutils 1.1.5-1
gtk2 2.4.0-4
windowmaker-extra 0.1-2
rxvt_ja 2.6.4-3
docker 1.5-2
tree 1.4b3-2
srm 1.2.8-1
lha 1.17-2
a2ps-lprng 4.13-3
cowsay 3.03-5
i8kmon 1.25-1
i8kutils 1.25-1
neverball 1.2.1-1
gav 0.8.0-1
curl 7.11.1-1
id3 0.72-1

STAGING Listing

muine 0.5.2-s1
briquolo 0.4.2-1
tutris 1.0.1-s1
cdw 0.2.2-s1
chromium 0.9.12-1
workrave 1.4.1-s1
fftw3 3.0.1-1
cln 1.1.6-1
gxine 0.3.3-s1
gksu 1.0.3-s1
gmencoder 0.1.0-s1
aspell-fr 0.50.1-1
gnome-cups-manager 0.17-1
gnotime 2.1.7-s1
hexedit 1.2.9-s1
gp 0.26-1
gtk-smooth-engine 0.5.6-s1
windowlab 1.23-s1
gtkglext 1.0.5-s1
gtkglextmm 1.0.1-s1
sylpheed-gtk2 0.9.9-s1
hwd 1.6-2
ion-devel 20030814-1
gocr 0.39-s1
kbarcode 1.6.1-s1
ksambaplugin 0.5b2-1
labplot 1.2.2-1
libchipcard 0.9.1-1
libgnomecups 0.1.6-1
libksba 0.4.7-1
ether-wake 1.09-1
gxmame 0.34b-1
libofx 0.6.4-1
putty 0.54-s2
fluxter 0.1.0-1
catdoc 0.93.3-1
loudmouth 0.15.1-s1
lwm 1.2.0-1
mage 6.30.030607-1
materm 0.1-1
mlview 0.6.2-1
monopd 0.9.0-s1
mp3burn 0.3.1-1
pwgen 2.03-1
panorama-tools 2.6bml12-s1
parse-yapp 1.05-1
kshutdown 0.1.6-s1
pixieplus 0.5.4-1
potrace 1.2-1
potracegui 0.3-s1
prekin 6.30.030607-1
prizm 0.2-s1
pychecker 0.8.13-s1
pygtkglext 1.0.1-s1
scribus-devel 1.1.5-s1
scribus-docs 1.0.1-s1
seahorse 0.7.3-2
shaaft 0.5.0-1
smb4k 0.3.1-1
supertux 0.0.6-s1
giftui 0.4.0-s1
spe 0.4.2c-s1
gifsicle 1.40-1
texmacs 1.0.3.3-s1
tse3 0.2.7-1
ttf-cheapskate 0.1-2
universalkopete 0.1-1
klogic 1.6-s1
xfce4-fsguard-plugin 0.2.0-s1
xfce4-xmms-plugin 0.1.1-s1
xml-dom 1.43-1
xml-regexp 0.03-1
xml-xql 0.68-1
logjam 4.4.0-s2
xtermset 0.5.1-s1
xv 3.10a-1
xymms 0.9.1-s1
sip 3.10.1-s1
qscintilla 1.2-s1
tnftp 20030825-1
imms 1.1-s1
adns-python 1.0.0-1
straw 0.22.1-1
htmldoc 1.8.23-1
si3d 1.2-1
xfree86-freefonts-fonts 0.10-1
pil 1.1.4-s1
esmtp 0.5.0-1
gkrellm_amiconnected 0.6-1
gkrellmseti 0.7.0b-1
meld 0.9.1-1
msmtp 0.7.1-1
nautilus_thumbnailers 0.0.3-1
ne 1.20-1
njam 1.00-1
digikam 0.6-s1
emelfm2 0.0.7-s1
xfig 3.2.4-1
yabasic 2.743-1
tuxpuck 0.8.2-1
pyxml 0.8.3-s1
skencil 0.6.16-s1
bfilter 0.9.3-1
opera 723-2
wtf 0.0.4-s1
amule 1.2.6-s2
jack-audio-connection-kit 0.91.1-2
xfce4-menueditor 1.05-s1
gtk-sharp 0.18-s1
fbpager 0.1.4-s1
mpd 0.10.3-s1
bittorrent-theshadow 5.8.11-1
py-libmpdclient 0.10.0-s1
xgalaga++ 0.7-s1
cups-pdf 1.4.2a-s1
3ddesktop 0.2.5-s1
sim 0.9.3-1
ntfsprogs 1.9.1-1
kdetv 0.8.0-1
kmyfirewall 0.9.6.2-1
kradio 0.3.0-1
progsreiserfs 0.3.0.4-1
pstoedit 3.33-1
qtparted 0.4.3-1
synaptics 0.12.5-1
qalculate 0.5.1-s1
soundtracker 0.6.7-s1
tla 1.2-s1
pycrypto 1.9a6-s1

Problems

FAQ of the Week

Q: There's XFree86, Xorg, and FreeDesktop.org xserver, what's the
difference?
A: XFree86 is the standard, stable, X11 System. Recently they tried to
change the license to something many people weren't happy with. Because
of this, the X.org group (who decides the X11 standard) decided to come
out with a new version of their reference implementation. They took
XFree86 4.4.0RC2 and added a few patches. Xorg and XFree86 are just
about the same, but Xorg does not have any licensing/political issues.
Arch has packages for both, and will probably use Xorg as the default
system if the political issues continue.

Then there's freedesktop.org's Xserver (I refer to it as Kdrive to make
it easier). This is a completely new X11 Server that will have advanced
features like transparency and shadows. It is in heavy development, and
isn't completely stable yet. You can try it out via CVS though. Unlike
Xorg and XFree86, Kdrive won't work with the binary drivers released by
Nvidia and ATI.

Bugs

Bugs Closed This Week

736. i2c, lm-sensors .install script bug
766. Including runtime libraries in swig package
682. Subversion doesn't include the hook scripts
312. vnc naming
754. Pacman segfaults during dependency checks (pacman -T)
342. Pacman hangs at 99% when downloading large files
278. LICENSE variable for pacman
697. gensync usage doc needs updating
752. downloaderx doesn't launch
753. pan needs gnome-common as a dependency
750. cdrtools conflicts with dvdrtools
531. kernel updates brake pcmcia_cs
745. inkscape 0.38 dependency
711. SpamAssassin is confused with UTF-8
553. Glut makepkg errors
715. Gkrellm -w 2.1.28 doesn't run into the slit with gtk 2.4.0
479. usb-scanner module no longer needed in kernel 2.6
670. filesystem's upgrade modifies /etc/skel
663. Perl not compiled with useithreads support

Bugs Opened This Week

775. Install freezes on grub installation with XFS
774. gensync uses temp directory insecurely
773. courier-imapd binary missing
772. Xorg X server causes XKB error starting gnome
771. gnumeric - all options in preferences are labelled 'missing schema'
770. dosbox-0.61 doesn't download
769. libxfce4util fails to download
768. Remove 3 .py.in files from subversion package
767. make namcap check for TESTING release numbers in dependency packages.
765. Perl 5.8.3-2 broke spamassassin (maybe just html-parser)
764. mozilla-firefox pkg doesn't like themes
763. mplayer and v4l
762. mplayer and v4l
761. mplayer and v4l
760. mplayer and v4l
759. lame -vbr-new segfault
758. gDesklets fails to build
757. open office doesn't download
756. network stop fail with dhcp
755. Kaffeine crash on exit
751. downloaderx is broken (needs rebuild against new gtk)
749. permissions on gnome-games scores files
748. dcgui-qt needs to be recompiled (still using openssl 0.9.6)
747. Bad Pacman Behavior with provides=() packages
746. mozilla-firefox 0.8 startup script

Closing

That's it for this week, stay tuned for more exciting Arch Linux news.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-04-18 18:06:27

Newsletter 4-18-04

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